Free SharePoint?

Shuey

@NerdyDad The problem with this option (which has prevented me from doing that all along) is the fact that this server was promoted to a DC and then had SharePoint installed. If we demote the DC, SharePoint will stop working :(.

NerdyDad

@Shuey said in Free SharePoint?:

@NerdyDad The problem with this option (which has prevented me from doing that all along) is the fact that this server was promoted to a DC and then had SharePoint installed. If we demote the DC, SharePoint will stop working :(.

Might need to ask the SharePoint admin what DC it is looking at, but I don't think it is going to matter. As long as the SP server is in the same domain as a DC, it should pull the information that it needs. I'd check DNS records to see if it can access another DC.

Disclaimer: I haven't touched SharePoint 2013 since probably 2013. So I do not recall how that works with user objects, files objects, and permissions.

JaredBusch

@NerdyDad said in Free SharePoint?:

@Shuey said in Free SharePoint?:

@NerdyDad The problem with this option (which has prevented me from doing that all along) is the fact that this server was promoted to a DC and then had SharePoint installed. If we demote the DC, SharePoint will stop working :(.

Might need to ask the SharePoint admin what DC it is looking at, but I don't think it is going to matter. As long as the SP server is in the same domain as a DC, it should pull the information that it needs. I'd check DNS records to see if it can access another DC.

Disclaimer: I haven't touched SharePoint 2013 since probably 2013. So I do not recall how that works with user objects, files objects, and permissions.

If you promote an Exchange server to a DC, you cannot demote it. This is likely something similar.

Shuey

@JaredBusch @NerdyDad Jared is absolutely right. This is the scenario I read about in multiple posts online (including a separate thread on Mangolassi). Because SharePoint (WSS 3.0) was installed on a DC, demoting the DC would break the SharePoint functionality :(.

NerdyDad

Well that sucks.

PSX_Defector

@NerdyDad said in Free SharePoint?:

I missed the point of the DC. I would just decom the DC, then P2V the rest of the host. If you need a secondary DC then just spun up another VM and dcpromo it.

Which is why it is verboten to use SQL Server in an Active Directory Domain Controller. You demote it, you break everything.

Shuey

@PSX_Defector Right, and I've already stated that this was all built and deployed by the jackasses that ran IT way before I started working here! I hate it more than anyone :D.

PSX_Defector

@Shuey said in Free SharePoint?:

The two major road-blocks to getting this accomplished are:

Upper management doesn't want to spend what it would cost to either get us out to the cloud (via O365)

We don't have anyone on our team with the necessary skills to do the migration, so we'd have to pay someone to do it for us (and it would have to be migrated to the same version to keep the cost as low as possible).

IOW, they see no value in the Sharepoint instance and are fucking morons who think everyone should work for free.

This isn't a debate, they WILL pay someone somewhere to do this. No one, outside of maybe me, has any experience with WSS 3.0 nowadays. Real Sharepoint developers never used it, admins would just not bother with it. And no one worth their salt is gonna install a 10 year old depreciated service anyways. Your only option is to migrate the data to 365 on the cheap end. Full Sharepoint 2016 instances get pricey fast, not to mention the need for a SQL install. And if you want it to have better reliability, two in the farm plus a redundant SQL instance.

If you don't know what's on it, find out. Because it can be just as easy as copy/paste files over from the old site to 365. If it's got templates that no longer work in 2013, then you will need to know that before hand and fix them up post migration.

NerdyDad

Every aspect here sounds more like management not valuing IT. Nothing else you can really do here except to break out the resume before something does happen. Otherwise, you're going to be the scapegoat.

Carnival Boy

@Shuey said in Free SharePoint?:

Perform a P2V of the server and host it in our existing VMware environment.

Build a new virtual member server in our existing VMware environment and migrate the data from the existing WSS 3.0 server to the new VM (using the same versions of everything; Server 2008 R2, WSS 3.0 and SQL Server 2008).

Option 2 might be easier than you think. Use the "Backup and Restore" feature in the Sharepoint Central Administration. As others have said, you don't want Sharepoint running on a DC, so this would be a good opportunity to fix that issue. It's probably the easiest and cheapest solution.

Shuey

@Carnival-Boy Cool, I'll look into that.

If I was going to try a P2V of this server, what would be the best way to go about it?

I could consider a cold clone (the only disc I have available to try this is the VMware cold clone 3.0.3 disc; not sure if that will work or not)
Another option I was considering is installing VMware Standalone Converter, then booting into DSRM mode and performing the P2V. Once the server was successfully converted, I'd shutdown the existing server, fire up the virtual, and make sure the IP was the same.

Thoughts on these options, or other possibilities?

scottalanmiller

@NerdyDad said in Free SharePoint?:

Every aspect here sounds more like management not valuing IT the business.

IT isn't a thing, really, it's just another word for business in a situation like this. If it appears that owners don't value IT, that's just a proxy for them not seeing the business as important or viable.

scottalanmiller

@Shuey said in Free SharePoint?:

@Carnival-Boy Cool, I'll look into that.

If I was going to try a P2V of this server, what would be the best way to go about it?

I could consider a cold clone (the only disc I have available to try this is the VMware cold clone 3.0.3 disc; not sure if that will work or not)

Another option I was considering is installing VMware Standalone Converter, then booting into DSRM mode and performing the P2V. Once the server was successfully converted, I'd shutdown the existing server, fire up the virtual, and make sure the IP was the same.

Thoughts on these options, or other possibilities?

The best case scenario is that the P2V jacks AD totally and forces a total rebuild of the environment that allows you to demonstrate to the owners that bad-IT is just another term for "wasting money" and that would give you a chance to start fresh.