Brandon Darling

Before you launch on your next server migration product, take one hour and visit these websites:

http://www.sbsmigration.com

and this one about Exchange migrations.

Read the sample docs a few times.  This is a radical departure from standard migration methodologies, and it took me about two days to understand what these sites are talking about.

The documentation on “swing migrations” is clear enough, although the concept is new to me, and took several readings to fully grok what’s going on.  Essentially, when migrating via the “swing” method, you will end up with your new hardware and all your software (Active Directory, User & Computer Accounts, File/Print Shares, permissions, Exchange and SQL) and the server and resource names will be the same.  This is in stark contrast to other migrations, where the DC name changes, and ultimately the UNC paths for file/printer shares break, Exchange mailboxes must be exported and imported (Exmerged) and SQL connection strings and ODBC drivers will all need to be updated.

The method leverages the well-known method of force-removing a domain controller from Active Directory.  If you’ve never the opportunity to enjoy that fun, please call me and I’ll be happy to do it for you.  Trust me, your time plus the lost years on your life plus the $245 call to Microsoft are far more expensive than my fee.

In any case, if you are going to do a migration, GET THIS DOCUMENTATION kit.  Then practice, Practice, PRACTICE these methods on your own test servers!  Use VMWare (it’s free now) or Virtual PC if you have to, but make sure you PRACTICE these techniques before you touch a production environment.

Along the lines of migrations, I have yet to test a new product from www.platespin.com which allegedly claims to be the solution for server migrations.  Beyond just P2V (physical to virtual) migration capability, which is now free from VMWare and Microsoft, it advertises V2P (virtual to physical) and P2P - that’s NOT peer-to-peer but rather physical-to-physical.

That’s right.  Old hardware to new hardware - no reinstalls, no reconfigurations, no long restores of data from backup.  They even claim you can do the move while the old server is still online.

$200 per migration - and at first glance, probably the best money you’ll ever spend.

So many MCSE “pros” I meet have never heard of this site - http://www.eventid.net. I find it immensely helpful when troubleshooting strange errors in the event logs. In fact, it is usually my first stop (even before Google) as it whittles down the scope of potential problems very quickly.

While the paid subscription automates a lot of searching when troubleshooting, the free service will point to you to many solutions on Microsoft’s Knowledge Base or on other resources. I’ve never subscribed, but the $2 per month is probably more than worth it - considering I have a $4/day designer coffee habit.

If you’re looking for a free disk imaging utility, I suggest http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm DriveImage XML.

DIXML is a free utility that uses an open platform for imaging disks.  In addition, in can leverage Volume Shadow Copy infrastructure in XP and Server 2003 systems to take an image of a system while that system is booted and running.

This is NOT a holy grail for online backup of critical systems like SQL or Exchange - I doubt I would trust it with my own laptop system.  However, the price is right, the platform is open (no proprietary image file formats) and, for the brave, it will indeed run on schedule and image your system for instant recovery - without having to reboot or shut your system down.

www.Petri.co.il - Petri.co.il by Daniel Petri is one of the most comprehensive IT and certification related web sites. With hundreds of Windows NT/2000/2003/XP and Exchange 2000/2003 related tips, tricks and how-to articles, Petri.co.il has become one of the world’s leading MCSE and IT related knowledge bases.

RSS is nice for streaming information. Other tools are good for knowing when your website is available or not.

So far, I only know of http://beta.changedetection.com to fill the gap - notifying you when website content changes. It doesn’t require a reader - it simply emails you when the service detects that content has changed on the website (or websites) that you specify. You have some control over the granularity of “change” detected - that prevents websites which have small dynamic changes (countdown clocks or hit counters) from filling your inbox with chaff.

If you work in technology, make sure you get to
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder and read, Read, READ!

Bart’s website is extremely well-documented and you can find all your answers to major questions there.

In short, BartPE creates a bootable CD ROM disc that is actually Windows XP! It supports networking, RAID adapters, and hundreds of plug-ins that will help you with disk imaging, virus scanning, backup, deployment, and hundreds of other tasks.

External Firewire and USB drives are not a good solution for small business backup.  No matter how “automatic” USB drives can be, getting them to work with backup software - especially BackupExec - can be depressing.

Do yourself a favor and look at solutions based on Tandberg Data’s RDX QUIKstor http://www.rdxquikstor.com

Other OEMs (Dell) have these solutions.  Not only does it eliminate the high cost of a backup drive (the RDX-based “drive” which receives the cartridges is a few hundred dollars - compare to a $3500 LTO drive), but the cartridges are much more robust and reliable (they’re hard disks inside those cases - don’t worry - the disks are shock mounted).  That, and you’ll get blazing fast backups to boot.  Please, please, PLEASE get the drive with the SATA interface and not the error-prone USB.

Cartridges are available up to 300GB.

As always, if your backup needs exceed 300GB, you are not a small business and you need to *call me* prior to taking any of my advice online.  If you implement ANY solution I talk about on this blog PRIOR to having personally contacted me, I will not only disclaim all responsibility for your failure, but you will likely pay me extra having to undo what you’ve already attempted to do.

Linux has its place - don’t get me wrong.  However, when you need something setup quickly, you look for the point-and-click teet that is Windows and pre-built installers.

Check out www.3cx.com for a feature-rich VoIP SIP server and digital PBX for Windows.  It’s compatible with many different cards including analog and digital lines.  3CX also supports many mainstream VoIP handsets, as well as SIP-standards-based VoIP softphones.

The free version isn’t terribly crippled, either.  It works beautifully for small offices or even home offices.  It includes voicemail and up to 8 phone lines and an unlimited number of extensions.  Go here for a comparison of the free and pay-to-play versions.

If you are thinking of deploying iSCSI - or you want to learn more about the technology - get immersed cheaply with a left over system running Windows. Go here to Nimbus Data Systems’ website and download their MySAN iSCSI target for FREE.

http://www.nimbusdata.com/products/mysan/mysan.htm

You’ll have to register for a free account, but it’s worth it. A note: you can only use an unallocated partition for the storage served up by the MySAN software. In other words, if you have an old server with 100GB of disk, make sure that you install Windows on a 20GB partition and leave the other 80GB unallocated.

MySAN is relatively low-overhead, although be forewarned that MySAN and old hardware is no replacement for a dedicated appliance. If you have testing, backup, development, or other non-production needs (or you need hands-on education) then MySAN is for you.

Make sure you read up on the free Microsoft iSCSI initiator. You can download it from Microsoft or search Google for “Microsoft iSCSI initiator”. As always, you can contact me for help.

If you’ve ever been confused about RAID, have a look here, and use the “Start Tutorial” button or the RAID levels on the right hand, middle of the page.

I’ve deployed AC&NC’s JetStor line of iSCSI appliances, too.  I do recommend them.  For smaller or brand-new SAN and iSCSI-based storage installs, however, I recommend www.nimbusdata.com. Nimbus provides a FREE iSCSI target for Windows-based server systems.  They also have outstanding support and pricing.  For the list cost of any of their appliances, you get onsite installation, unlimited phone and remote support for three years, and the requisite gigabit ethernet switch!  If you’re thinking of going with alternative storage systems, first call me, then ring Nimbus and get a price quote based on the specs we’ve discussed.