File Server Migration Story

Scenario:

On of my clients have recently bought a new server box and an external storage system, and my task was to migrate all files and folders to the new system while interrupting users at least as possible (damn users…;).

Requirements:

1) The old file server (SERVER1) had 4 physical disks partitioned as D,E,F and G with lots of shared folders and defined NTFS permissions, and new storage system was visible as a single drive S from the new server (SERVER2).

2) The old server (SERVER1) must not be removed from production because it had hardware and software which was controlling external tape backup device system.

Steps:

1)  First step was to migrate files, folders, shares and NTFS permissions from multiple drives on SERVER1 to a single drive on SERVER2. Tasks included:

·         Stopped Server service on SERVER1 so it was not anymore accessible for file sharing to clients.

·         Using software from the tape manufacturer backed up all folders onto tapes.

·         Joined the new server (SERVER2) to domain and restored backup on a drive S (RAID-5 on storage system), while preserving NTFS permissions.

·         Exported HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Current Control Set\Services\LanmanServer\Shares from SERVER1 and imported it into the same place on SERVER2.

·         Corrected manually all references for D,E, F and G drives to point to letter S (actually I delegated this task to one of my junior squad member...;).

·         Restarted Server service on SERVER2 and checked that all shares are correctly recreated.

2) Second step was to redirect clients to SERVER2 without modifying paths in client's mapped folders and shortcuts. Tasks included:

·         Modified SERVER1 "Local Area Connection" properties and cleared "Register this connection's address in DNS" and removed IP address of WINS server in TCP/IP properties.

·         Created DNS alias for SERVER1 name to point to the IP address of SERVER2.

·         Deleted WINS record for SERVER1 and created a new static unique mapping with the IP address of  SERVER2.

Problems:

System error 52 has occurred.
A duplicate name exists on the network.

Lucky me, I was already familiar with this one from one of my previous projects, and remembered that it has to do with something called "strict name checking" in Windows 2003 server. And so Google pointed me to Microsoft KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/281308

After adding DisableStrictNameChecking  value under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Current Control Set\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters, setting it to 1 and restarting the server .... new error appeared:

System error 5
Access is denied.

This was new, even to me....;))

Reason:

I guess that KB 281308 assumes that there is no other server in production called like given alias or that the old file server is permanently offline. In this scenario SERVER1 was still online and had account in Active Directory.

Solution:

After I renamed SERVER1 into something different, like SERVER1OLD and restarted it everything worked fine....:)