Topic: Domain migration from old e-smith server v5.1.2

[Matthias]

Hi all,

we're going to replace an old (5.1.2) e-smith server which is a domain controller for about 40 win xp clients.

My question is: how can I migrate the domain from the old e-smith server to a new machine with SME server 7.1 without having to migrate all profiles on the windows xp workstations?

Is there a possibility to do this?

Thanks in advance!
Matthias

[pfloor]

5.1.2??? Wow that's old!  I assume the hardware is also very old. Do you intend to use new hardware for this upgrade?

If so, the best way would be to build the new server and try and back-up and restore but this may be difficult if there is a lot of data.

I don't think you can do an in-place upgrade directly from 5.1.2 -> 7.X.  You may need to do that in steps.  You can get older CD's from here:

http://public.www.planetmirror.com/pub/e-smith/releases/

WARNING!!!: MAKE SURE YOU BACK UP (AND VERIFY) ALL YOUR DATA BEFORE ATTEMPTING THE FOLLOWING!!!

WARNING!!!: MAKE SURE AND REMOVE ANY EXTRA CONTRIBS BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANY IN-PLACE UPGRADES.

IIRC you have to do it this way because you can't go from 5.1.2 -> 5.6 OR 6.0.1 but I may be wrong.  One of the Devs can chime in and correct me.

5.1.2 -> 5.5 -> 5.6 -> 6.0.1 -> 7.1
OR possibly you can skip 5.5:
5.1.2 -> 5.6 -> 6.0.1 -> 7.1

If the server is customized, then you are going to have some challenges.  There are many threads covering heavily modified 6.x -> 7.X upgrades.  Some successful and other not so successful.

I WILL SAY IT ONE MORE TIME...BACK UP YOUR DATA BEFORE DOING ANYTHING!!!

[Matthias]

Thanks for the answer!

Let me explain it a bit further:

There is an old server with e-smith 5.1.2 which is acting as a domain controller.
This machine is going to be replaced with a new one with SME server 7.1.

The question is: How can I transfer the domain to the new machine, so that I don't have to migrate every profile on the 40 XP clients?

TIA, Matthias.

[MSmith]

Older versions of SME could be copied to new drives by Norton Ghost, so you might try Ghosting your 5.1.2 onto a drive in the new server, then following the upgrade path.  Of course you might very well run into issues, particularly if 5.1.2 won't boot in your new hardware, but you might be able to run the new drive in the old server and then transfer it once you're up to 7.  Or you might run into PATA/SATA/SCSI issues but what the heck, give it a try.