What a mess. SBS 2011 Essentials will not support Exchange. That's why he has it installed on another box. It looks like Essentials was installed to replace an old DC and try to update the network. But that's in the past now.
I would plan to install a new version of SBS 2011 Premium based on the number of servers. You get the rights for 2 physical boxes (and SQL) and can virtualize some of the other servers on the second box. What are the specs for the latest box you plan on installing SBS 2011 Standard on? What are the other 7 servers doing and can they be combined and virtualized? You will need SBS 2011 Standard and the appropriate number of CALs. None of the CALs they have now are valid for SBS 2011. David is right in that you can do a "swing migration". You will need another server for this. Will one of the others work temporarily? Is the rest of the network, AD, users, etc. OK or do they look iffy also? If so I would be inclined to start from scratch and build it so you know exactly what you have. I know it's a pain but you could export the PST files. That should cover most of their Exchange data. Unless they are using Public Folders. If the client is growing, this might be a good time to start over with a good base and review existing policies and build it to match the client's needs and expectations. Art -----Original Message----- From: James R. Costa, MCP [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, November 5, 2012 6:26 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Strange SBS2011 migration path, looking for some input Hi everyone, I recently started doing some work for a new referral client. Their old IT guy of many years has done some crazy things in his time and it is now my job to resolve it! I'm sure most of us have been there. This network currently consists of 8 servers - 7 of them are Win2K Svr. or Win2K3 Ent. - and the newest hardware is running SBS2011 Essentials. The functional domain roles (PDC, Schema, GC, etc.) are all running on the SBS2011 box, as is DNS, however Exchange is not. It is running in a VMware Workstation VM, on Win2K3. Also, it's not the Exchange 2010 that comes with SBS2011, it's Exchange 2003. Yeah... My original goal was to migrate all the services to the one SBS2011 box and retire the rest of the unnecessary servers. However, I am now realizing that the SBS2011 installation seems to be corrupted. I can't add DHCP without it crashing, it thinks it's not Genuine (it is), and it frequently pops up an error about activation not being possible and to re-install. And if those weren't decent reasons to re-install, here's another one. They are bursting at the seams with users and anticipate exceeding the 25 concurrent user maximum of SBS2011 Essentials within the next 3 months. So they'll need to step up to SBS2011 Standard. There is no upgrade path between these products AFAIK. So I'm looking for a little input on what might be the best procedure to do this. How can I funnel the domain/AD from SBS2011 Essentials and the Exchange 2003 data into a single install of SBS2011 Standard? And of course, this is their only dependable server, and as always, they need as little downtime as possible. This seems a bit tricky, since they ultimately will need to be back on the same box. Any thoughts on migration strategies for this one? Thanks in advance for your input. I have an idea that might work but I'm just not 100% sure. And it would probably be hell to get there. Thanks so much!! -James ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
