Good Migrations: How To Move To Windows Server 2008

Good Migrations: How To Move To Windows Server 2008
From the March 24, 2008 issue of TechBuilder

All right, let’s get this out of the way: server migration of any kind is fraught with the potential for headaches, trial and error, incompatibilities and worse. Expect the same when migrating environments to Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT)’s just-launched Windows Server 2008. Questions have emerged, such as how to upgrade existing servers to Server 2008 without breaking Exchange. Breaking Exchange? Yes, even Microsoft’s own flagship enterprise e-mail technology could be a nightmare to migrate to the new platform if best practices aren’t observed. Nevertheless, it is possible to migrate environments from Server 2003 to Server 2008. It’s not easy, but it can be done successfully.

The CRN Test Center examined Server 2008 in the lab to develop a better understanding of migration issues specific to the platform. The Test Center also called on Carl Mazzanti, CEO of eMazzanti Technologies, a Hoboken, N.J.-based VAR who has already begun successfully migrating customers to the Server 2008 platform, to find out how he’s done it.

First, though, a note about Server 2008: Microsoft plans to closely integrate the platform with Hyper-V, which is still in beta testing for the next few months. In the Test Center, though, it’s been a surprisingly useful, stable piece of technology. It has an insatiable thirst for memory, though, so even though it’s not yet officially supported by Microsoft, VARs will need to keep hardware requirements top-of-mind as they enter this process. For now, here are five steps toward making life easier during Windows Server 2008 migration:

Assessment and Hardware Planning
Although there is a 32-bit version of Windows Server 2008, it won’t support Hyper-V virtualization. Also, there’s no migration path from 32-bit Server 2008 to 64-bit Server 2008—if VARs install the 32-bit version, they can’t upgrade that server to the 64-bit version later on. Clearly, Microsoft is bent on kicking the market into 64-bit waters in one shot with Server 2008. That puts a clear wrinkle into migration planning for some enterprises and that means almost all enterprise assessments will need to take this into consideration. To help with that assessment, Microsoft has re-launched its Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator, originally deployed to the market for Windows Vista.

MAP needs to be run on at least the .NET 2.0 Framework, and the software tool supports Server 2008, Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista and Windows XP. MAP is, at its core, an inventory collection tool and database; installation calls for deployment of SQL Server 2005 Express (it installs the light database on command if it’s not already on the system).

The network assessment function in MAP is wizard-based and uses SNMP and Windows server protocols to evaluate hardware on the network that is capable of supporting Server 2008. The Test Center installed and ran MAP on virtual Server 2003 SP2 and Vista environments on the same network. It worked quicker on a Vista PC on the network. The conundrum of running MAP on Server 2008 is that it won’t run on the 64-bit version of Server 2008, only a 32-bit version—not the most efficient way to deploy MAP. But the tool does its job on Vista and Server 2003 SP2 and can speed up the inventory and assessment process to give VARs additional time for other tasks.

Like with the Vista roll-out, Microsoft makes the entire migration process a lot easier for those deploying systems with Server 2008 factory-installed over those upgrading the software on the same box. For some VARs, system builders and their customers, it might provide the “here we go again” feeling of aggravation much of the market has felt with Vista migration.

Mazzanti said almost all of the deployment of Server 2008 he has done in its early stage has been with brand-new hardware. That may be more practical in many cases than trying to get one more year out of that old box in the back room. In any event, though, he said, memory can’t be ignored.

“We maxed it out,” Mazzanti said. “Exchange 2007 will use as much memory as you give it.” In most cases, maxing out means 32 Gbytes of memory.

Staging
Solution providers that work the kinks out first during a virtual migration, before they start an actual migration, will avoid much aggravation. “We staged each migration before doing it live,” Mazzanti said. Each migration, Mazzanti said, was performed in a virtual environment first using either Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) Virtual Server 2005 R2 or VMware, depending on the customer’s resources and environment.

A critical task during the staged migrations, he found, was also a simple one: reading. “For Windows Server 2008, you have to read the manual,” Mazzanti said.

Hardware, security, compatibility—all can be played with during a virtual, staged migration with details specific to a customer’s infrastructure and needs. Checklists can be written, procedures verified.

Exchange
Not every enterprise runs Exchange as its e-mail and messaging solution. But Exchange as an element of Server 2008 migration warrants its own special step here because of the potential for disaster. Microsoft has said that if you upgrade a box that runs Exchange 2007 SP1, from Server 2003 to Server 2008, you risk breaking Exchange. Here’s what Microsoft says you should do, in its own words:

“When upgrading stand-alone servers, it is not supported to upgrade your operating system to Windows Server 2008 and then upgrade Exchange 2007 to SP1. It is also not supported to upgrade Exchange 2007 to SP1 and then upgrade your operating system to Windows Server 2008. To deploy Exchange 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008, you must install Windows Server 2008 on a computer that does not have Exchange installed, and then install Exchange 2007 SP1.

“For clustered mailbox servers, Exchange SP1 introduces support for clustered mailbox servers running on Windows Server 2008. However, as a result of the significant changes introduced in Windows Server 2008 failover clusters (called server clusters in previous versions of Microsoft Windows), rolling upgrades of a failover cluster from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 are not possible. Therefore, to upgrade a clustered mailbox server from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008, you must build a new failover cluster using Windows Server 2008 as the operating system for all nodes, and then migrate the data from the old cluster to the new cluster.” Got all that?

Installation
Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) has changed the installation procedure for Server 2003. Windows services are now kept on a hidden partition. Unlike with Server 2008 and previous server operating systems, not all services are installed at once—with the administrator left to disable the services that aren’t required. It’s just the opposite: No services are installed by default; the administrator is then left to enable each service, one at a time, as needed.

That’s good, in that installations can be done in a fraction of the time it took to install previous operating systems. But it also means that administrators will need to more closely manage each server’s services after installation. Mazzanti told CRNtech that it made his migration much easier to write PowerShell scripts for a number of different functions required for server deployment and then were able to re-use them—so that re-inventing the wheel for each server function wasn’t necessitated.

Hyper-V
If Server 2008 was a Broadway production, Hyper-V would get the biggest dressing room. It’s the star of the show, even though it won’t officially launch until later this year.

But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t factor into migration planning and actual migration, since the beta is available now and, as mentioned earlier, testing has shown it to be somewhat stable. Using Hyper-V along with System Center Virtual Machine Manager, subsequent migrations (or consolidations or disaster recovery deployments or new test beds) can be performed using Hyper-V itself. To do this, Microsoft has created a “quick migration” capability—allowing an administrator to create a server with client services in a virtual machine on a physical host, and then move that server to another physical host by re-writing the memory. In that case, the migration could be done in seconds—or the time it takes to write memory to disk.

In this case, once the migration from Server 2003 or earlier environments is done to Server 2008, the next generation of server migrations should be a snap.

As long as everyone reads the manual.