RE: [ActiveDir] Clean install VS Upgrade of Windows 2003

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 07:23:07 -0700

Certainly the biggest problem I have come across upgrading from 2k to 2003 was because of one of these legacy settings.  I don’t know who at MS decided to go from “WINNT”  to “Windows”, but it can cause some pretty serious recovery issues if you are not using some sort of bare metal restore.  Here’s the scenario:

 

You’ve got a server with some critical piece of software.  Because you don’t know anything about the software and it was the last admin that installed it you decide to upgrade instead of clean install.  This leaves Win2k3 running out of the WINNT folder instead of the Windows folder.  After a few months, the server loses a RAID card, corrupting the disk set, and it needs to be back up immediately.  You begin a fresh load of 2003 on the server, and then notice that it is installing to Windows, not WINNT.  After the fresh load finishes, you try to restore the last backup.  BSOD.  Hmm, how do you make Win2k3 install to WINNT, oh yeah that’s right, you don’t.  Now instead of restoring the last backup and system state and moving on with life you are installing the apps from scratch and hoping they work right.  Perhaps after a long weekend it is back up again, but it shouldn’t have been that hard.   Too bad the last admin who worked here didn’t leave any sort of documentation on how this thing works. 

 

Sure, you’re running all of your servers virtual so this doesn’t apply to you.  Bare-metal restore, no big deal.  Restore from tape or file, good luck. 

From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of joe
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2006 6:28 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Clean install VS Upgrade of Windows 2003

 

I agree with Jorge on this. Every new OS MSFT comes out with they tell you that it is much better at handling upgrades than the last and how bad the last one actually did it. So if someone tells me K3 does it great I tell them to say that when say LongHorn comes out. :)

 

Anyway, you will have legacy settings that stay around when you do an upgrade say like the replication holdback reg settings, etc when you do an upgrade and it could be confusing later when troubleshooting something.

 

Unless there is absolutely no way possible to do a fresh install then I would recommend going that way.

 

 

Going slightly OT, I even reinstall my personal home clients on a regular basis (normally every 6 months but occasionally that slides depending on how busy I am) to get away from Windows rot and clean off crap that I don't currently use. I am also getting big into using virtual machines for most desktop functions now so that makes things even easier as I can roll back to a predetermined point or just pull the backup image off of a DVD that I made when I first made the image. Of course make sure you update the image with new patches first thing. :)  In fact right now, I am writing this email on a virtual XP instance running with about 15 other virtuals on a machine that is on the other side of my house.  Also all web surfing to untrusted sites is done through a virtual I have with undo disks, after I finish surfing I tell it to undo and it is ready for the next time.

 

--

O'Reilly Active Directory Third Edition - http://www.joeware.net/win/ad3e.htm 

 

 

 

From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Almeida Pinto, Jorge de
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2006 3:25 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Clean install VS Upgrade of Windows 2003

Personally I hate OS upgrades and try hard to avoid them and prefer to choose a fresh clean install...

Although supported when upgrading an OS old stuff from the previous OS is kept and besides that you might run into issues because of incompatibilities with software, drivers, etc. A clean install in combination the migration of the stuff hosted on the old server to the new server gives you a phased approach. Upgrading directly impacts the server and if the upgrade fails you might end up with a trouble server.

 

IMHO:

* avoid OS upgrades when possible and only use it when really necessary (like for example NT4 PDC -> W2K3 DC, which is mandatory)

 

 

Met vriendelijke groeten / Kind regards,

Ing. Jorge de Almeida Pinto

Senior Infrastructure Consultant

MVP Windows Server - Directory Services

 

LogicaCMG Nederland B.V. (BU RTINC Eindhoven)

(         Tel     : +31-(0)40-29.57.777

(    Mobile     : +31-(0)6-26.26.62.80

*   E-mail      : <see sender address>

 

From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Bahta, Nathaniel V CTR USAF NASIC/SCNA
Sent: Sun 2006-07-16 20:53
To: [email protected]
Subject: [ActiveDir] Clean install VS Upgrade of Windows 2003

Hey all,

 

Does anyone have any comments/articles, etc on the benefits or concerns of a clean install of Windows 2003 Server VS an Upgrade?  My opinion is that doing a clean install keeps system root clean.  It also pristinely adopts the security best practices of 2003 Server.  Disk performance will improve as well.  Does anyone have anything they can add to this?  I have migrated a great portion of my network in a clean install path, and now it is coming into question why did I not choose the upgrade path.

 

Any comments would be greatly appreciated,

 

Thanks,

Nate

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