Migrating Windows 2003 to 2012 (VM)
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DNS is cake, when you install Win2012 R2 server, make sure you install the DNS role. Then when you install the AD DS role and DCPromo it, it will use DNS automatically, nothing for you to configure.
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@coliver said in Learning VMware vSphere:
Updating the Domain controller is simple. Stand up a new Server 2012R2 VM, install the AD DS services on it and force replication. Transfer the FSMO roles to the 2012R2 Domain Controller and then demote the 2003 server. If the 2003 server was doing DHCP and DNS as well then that is also fairly easy to transfer over.
I've actually (surprisingly) done a domain migration before but it wasn't virtualized. Here and there I get good experience.
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The file server is also pretty simple. Stand up a new 2012R2 server, Robocopy, (with the permissions switch) all the data to it and recreate the shares. If you really want to future proof your build setup a DFS domain and share everything out as \\domain\share. This way you can easily migrate servers in the future without users having to re-map drives and re-learn directories.
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@wirestyle22 said in Learning VMware vSphere:
@coliver said in Learning VMware vSphere:
Updating the Domain controller is simple. Stand up a new Server 2012R2 VM, install the AD DS services on it and force replication. Transfer the FSMO roles to the 2012R2 Domain Controller and then demote the 2003 server. If the 2003 server was doing DHCP and DNS as well then that is also fairly easy to transfer over.
I've actually (surprisingly) done a domain migration before but it wasn't virtualized. Here and there I get good experience.
virtualization in this (and most) case doesn't change the process one bit. Just think of the two VMs as bare metal, and do what you did last time (more or less).
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@wirestyle22 said in Learning VMware vSphere:
@coliver said in Learning VMware vSphere:
Updating the Domain controller is simple. Stand up a new Server 2012R2 VM, install the AD DS services on it and force replication. Transfer the FSMO roles to the 2012R2 Domain Controller and then demote the 2003 server. If the 2003 server was doing DHCP and DNS as well then that is also fairly easy to transfer over.
I've actually (surprisingly) done a domain migration before but it wasn't virtualized. Here and there I get good experience.
Again, virtualization has nothing to do with this. You're up in the stack another level. To you, and the Windows Servers, you are installing them on hardware.
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@Dashrender said in Learning VMware vSphere:
@wirestyle22 said in Learning VMware vSphere:
@coliver said in Learning VMware vSphere:
Updating the Domain controller is simple. Stand up a new Server 2012R2 VM, install the AD DS services on it and force replication. Transfer the FSMO roles to the 2012R2 Domain Controller and then demote the 2003 server. If the 2003 server was doing DHCP and DNS as well then that is also fairly easy to transfer over.
I've actually (surprisingly) done a domain migration before but it wasn't virtualized. Here and there I get good experience.
virtualization in this (and most) case doesn't change the process one bit. Just think of the two VMs as bare metal, and do what you did last time (more or less).
Duly noted kind sir. Thanks for the info guys. Do you have any education recommendations? I try to dig in as much as possible from different angles.
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The only education I recommend is a home lab and time.
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The best education I can suggest is get a PC, install VMWare (in this case to replication your future project) and install two windows server on it. The free version will do you fine. You should be able to download, install VMWare in under 1 hour, then about 1 hour each for the two windows machines. So in less than half a day you'd have a test box.
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@coliver Luckily I'll have both soon
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I'll get started soon on the project. I'm sure I'll have a ton of questions when I start the learning process. Thanks for everything guys.
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@Dashrender said in Learning VMware vSphere:
The best education I can suggest is get a PC, install VMWare (in this case to replication your future project) and install two windows server on it. The free version will do you fine. You should be able to download, install VMWare in under 1 hour, then about 1 hour each for the two windows machines. So in less than half a day you'd have a test box.
The download may take ~an hour for all three. You should be able to stand VMWare and both Windows Servers up in ~1 hour not including the downloading.
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You might consider changing the title of this thread to
Migrating Windows 2003 to 2012. This thread is more about that VMWare.
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@Dashrender said in Learning VMware vSphere:
You might consider changing the title of this thread to
Migrating Windows 2003 to 2012. This thread is more about that VMWare.
Done.
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I would also not recommend working with VMWare for a home lab. You'll get the same/similar experience from Hyper-V (which is where you want to go) or XenServer.
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@coliver said in Migrating Windows 2003 to 2012 (VM):
I would also not recommend working with VMWare for a home lab. You'll get the same/similar experience from Hyper-V (which is where you want to go) or XenServer.
Assuming you're not migrating this client to something, then I'll disagree with coliver here. You should walk through the same thing you'll see during the install so you know what to expect.
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@Dashrender said in Migrating Windows 2003 to 2012 (VM):
@coliver said in Migrating Windows 2003 to 2012 (VM):
I would also not recommend working with VMWare for a home lab. You'll get the same/similar experience from Hyper-V (which is where you want to go) or XenServer.
Assuming you're not migrating this client to something, then I'll disagree with coliver here. You should walk through the same thing you'll see during the install so you know what to expect.
I have 2 PC's and soon I will have a server (xbyte) for a test environment. I could always do both.
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@Dashrender said in Migrating Windows 2003 to 2012 (VM):
@coliver said in Migrating Windows 2003 to 2012 (VM):
I would also not recommend working with VMWare for a home lab. You'll get the same/similar experience from Hyper-V (which is where you want to go) or XenServer.
Assuming you're not migrating this client to something, then I'll disagree with coliver here. You should walk through the same thing you'll see during the install so you know what to expect.
He mentioned earlier that he would refresh with Hyper-V. Either way though VMWare is GUI based and the functions and UI metaphors are mirrored in all of the major virtualization platforms. The only one you may have issues with is KVM but with LibVirt I think you can overcome that.
The point of a home lab, to me, is to develop skills that you won't get on the job. Learning a different virtualization platform would be one of those things, and it could make you competitive when/if the next job comes up.
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@coliver said in Migrating Windows 2003 to 2012 (VM):
@Dashrender said in Migrating Windows 2003 to 2012 (VM):
@coliver said in Migrating Windows 2003 to 2012 (VM):
I would also not recommend working with VMWare for a home lab. You'll get the same/similar experience from Hyper-V (which is where you want to go) or XenServer.
Assuming you're not migrating this client to something, then I'll disagree with coliver here. You should walk through the same thing you'll see during the install so you know what to expect.
He mentioned earlier that he would refresh with Hyper-V. Either way though VMWare is GUI based and the functions and UI metaphors are mirrored in all of the major virtualization platforms. The only one you may have issues with is KVM but with LibVirt I think you can overcome that.
The point of a home lab, to me, is to develop skills that you won't get on the job. Learning a different virtualization platform would be one of those things, and it could make you competitive when/if the next job comes up.
I will end up doing both. I'll start with VMware to help my upcoming job and then when I feel comfortable I'll move over to Hyper-V. The only thing I regret is not being able to do an actual migration at home from one to the other (I'm assuming I can't do that). My server is going to have 32 TB of space. My home PC's only have 256 GB OCZ SSD's.
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He said when they have a hardware refresh, which I assumed to not be now. But if it is now, then definitely go Hyper-V or XS.
As for the GUI's all being the same - seriously? Have you used Hyper-V? Damn that things a cluster to manage as a hypervisor compared to ESXi or XS (with XenCenter or XenOrchestra). You have to manage it like you mange Windows - Hyper-V stuff in this MMC, Disk management in that MMC, etc, etc. That killed my desire to use Hyper-V right there. I used ESXi for 5 years before looking at Hyper-V, the single pain of glass for EVERY function in ESXi was fantastic.
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Of course now JB is going to come in here and blast me for saying shit about Hyper-V, but I don't care, that fact that you have to jump around to multiple tools to get the job done compared to a single application for the other two (never tried KVM) just makes it a non starter for me.
The only thing that makes it usable for me at all if familiarity of Windows, so while I dislike the multiple MMCs, I do fully understand it and can support it, where I'm still learning a LOT for XS.
