Migration from SBS 2003 to 2008 Standard

[guest]

I work for a company that has SBS 2003 running Exchange and SQL Server on the one box. I am planning to upgrade to 2008 Standard, SQL Server 2008 and Exchange 2003 all on seperate boxes. I have the transition packs so that I can re-use the CALS.Having read up on experiences with this, I am nervous about upgrading the single server with these as if it goes pear shaped, i may be stuck big time with no backout plan apart from a restore, not a place I want to be.... So my plan is to add a new 2008 server to the domain and promote to DC, then add the other new servers. Questions I have are: Are there issues transferring FSMO and sight licensing server from SBS ?Once the 2008 server is promoted does that mean that the Licensing is taken over by the new DC and the 75 user limit no longer exists even if the SBS server is still running? Can I add the DC only initially and still run exchange and SQL on the original box so that the migration is stepped or do I have to do it all in one go? Thanks

[guest]

SBS domain only supports no more than 75 user or device licenses that access the server that is running SBS. Even if you add a new Windows Server 2008 domain controller, it will not enable you connect more than 75 users.



You can install Windows Server 2008 as a new domain and use ADMT 3.1 to migrate data from SBS 2003 to Windows Server 2008. The process is similar to that described in the following KB:



Migrating from Small Business Server 2000 or Windows 2000 Server to Windows Small Business Server 2003

http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... gSBS2k.doc



Alternatively, you can join Windows server 2008 to the existing SBS 2003 domain. I just write simplified steps below:



1. Backup the SBS2003 including the system state , Exchange and SQL server.

2. Join a new Windows Server 2008 server to the SBS domain and promote it to a DC:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsSe ... x?mfr=true

3. Configure the machine to be a GC and to host DNS. Transfer the FSMO roles to the new DC.

4. Migrate Exchange server to new server.

5. Migrate SharePoint server to new server.

6. After you verify that the new Windows Server 2008 DC and Exchange server are working, you can then demote the SBS 2003 server.



For the rest of your questions, to gain more accurate assistance, please post SBS related questions to the SBS queues to ensure this issue will receive more effective attention:



Windows Small Business Server 2003:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/commun ... server.sbs



The engineers and members there are more experienced on SBS-related issues, and should be able to provide you with suggestions on these kinds of issues.