First I'd like to say that it's a great site!
Here I go with my question forward. I work for a small company (12 people) which develops software. I'm in charge of the IT section, and I'm about to "upgrade" the server room.
We have for now 4 servers (way too much!): 2 work on Windows Server 2003: one is the data server, the other one the communications server; 1 print server running Windows 2000 (I'd love to eliminate this one!) and a Linux server for some applications.
We don't use a domain yet, nor Active Directory. What I'd like to do is install a new machine working with a Windows Server 2008 as a data server with a domain and AD, but first I'd like to copy everything from our S1 to the new 2008 server: configuration and content.
What is the best way to do it, without turning off the actual server? I'll write another question for the problems that will soon arise.
Thanks for your help.
If you don't have a domain, and it sounds like your not running a mail server either, then the only thing you need to move across is data. This makes the task easier. You can get your new server setup and add it to the network, then copy the data from the old machine over the network. If this is too slow you could also look at attaching an external drive to the old machine, copying the files, then moving it to the new one.
Once you have the data across, you can then look at migrating users to the new server. My suggestion would be to move the data, before you look at setting up AD, or setup AD and connect the users to the domain, whilst leaving the data accessible on the old server. Once you setup a domain controller, your going to need to add clients to the domain, change user accounts, setup new profiles etc, which will mean users are without access to their data longer if your doing the move, and the AD install at the same time.