Migration from sbs2003 to Windows 2008 R2 Standard

[guest]

First of all let me say 'Hello' to all experts and engineers around the globe - it's great to finaly participate in these forums!

I'm currently looking at a migration that needs to take place for a network consisting of a SBS2003 Standard server with 3 Windows 2003 servers, and around 50 users.

Basically, we need to remove the SBS2003 server and install a new server (including hardware) running Windows 2008 R2 Standard (non sbs).

The 2008 server will become the new DC and undertake all FSMO roles.

In this network, one of the three windows 2003 servers is also listed as a Domain controller, however, it is not acting as a Global Catalogue server.

So, I'm basically looking for information so I can write down step-by-step instructions and try it on my test environment.

I've ready quite a bit on what needs to be done, and to save anyone from writing it again, my understanding is as follows:

1) Extend the AD schemaon all DC's, which include the SBS2003 & Windows 2003 server, using the 'adprep' utility in the the Windows 2008 DVD.
2) Join the Windows 2008 server to the domain as a member server
3) Upgrade the Windows 2008 server to a Domain Controller using the 'dcpromo' command
4) Install DNS & DHCP. Configure DNS so that it pulls a copy of the existing DNS from the SBS2003 server
5) Transfer the FSMO roles from the SBS2003 to the Windows 2008 server
6) Make the Windows 2008 a Global Catalogue so that users can log in
7) Install the additional licenses purchased for the Windows 2008 server. This will allow all users to log in appropriately to all servers (File server is one of the three 2003 servers)

If someone could kindly confirm if I've got the above steps correct or terribly wrong, it would be most appreciated.

Any additional information / links/ resources are mostly welcome.

[guest]

You are on the right track, but here comes a few comments:

1. You only have to extend the schema on one domain controller in your current environment.

Also, note that when you transfer the FSMO roles from the SBS 2003 you have only seven days to migrate all information from the SBS machine. You can extend this to 21 days by installing the patch http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en