We have very quickly out-grown our Small Business Server 2008 current hardware and have decided to purchase a complete new server.
What is the best and easiest way to move the server to new hardware?
It is one complete box, we do not have any SAN's or any complicated setup. We do have a couple of SQL databases running on the server and we also use Exchange.
I'm sure there must be some easy way to move everything :-)
Would creating a backup (Using Windows Server backup) and then restoring it on the new server work?
Microsoft publishes a guide called "Migrating to Windows Small Business Server 2008 from Windows Small Business Server 2008" which describes the process of setting up an answer file and performing a migrate-install on the new hardware. You can find it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=31CBC5DD-21B1-4A6E-9A9D-740CE7605448&displaylang=en
My first plan of action would be to read the documentation Nic has provided a link to. If volume based backups are a non starter, this document might explain why, if it doesn't, it's got to be worth a try.
If you have the hardware, perform the install/restore to the new server offline. If you haven't yet purchased the hardware, why not grab yourself a copy of the free version of VMWare server and perform an offline test?
Make sure you document the install procedure, because you might find going off track ever so slightly could cause you a problem when you perform the process for real.
If it fails, nothing lost, delete/format your test system and fall back to the Microsoft recommended method as per Nic's answer.
If it works, make sure you give it a damn good test, (add workstations to the domain, perform logons, check exchange access etc). Once happy, destroy the offline system, and perform the job for real, using the steps you have documented earlier.
One caveat with a volume based backup: there used to be (or possibly still is) issues with backing up Exchange on server 2008, our Exchange server is still going strong on our Server 2003 box, so I'm out of touch in this respect, however I trust this isn't an issue for you (i.e. you are backing up your exchange server aren't you?)
Have you considered moving to virtualization? This would be a great time, because you're changing hardware, but you want to keep the actual installation. Any of the p2v (physical to virtual) converters should be able to handle that.
I've found a few other guides and they suggest to do a Complete restore, similar to this guide?
http://www.wbadmin.info/articles/howto-bare-metal-restores-windows-server-2008-backup.html
I know there's a way to move a physical box to a virtual...If there's a way to move a virtual to a physical, problem solved (there must be tools available, even if they cost money, it would save you enough time to warrant the spend).
Move the old server to a virtual, bring it up on the new hardware and sort out any device driver issues you may encounter, and then take it from the virtual to the physical on the new box.
This is a suggestion for something to look into, I've never done anything like it, but it would be the first thing I look at.
My second thing would be to look at moving the original disks to the new server. Once booted on the old disks, resolve driver issues, and expand your volumes using some new drives.