Welcome to the ITFreeTraining video on migration roles between servers. The Migration tools
in Windows Server 2012 and R2 have been improved to make the process easier than before. This
video will look at what you can achieve using migration tools, and perform a demonstration
of how to move the DHCP server role from one server to another.
Migration gives you a bit more control than performing an upgrade; however, it requires
more effort and planning from the administrator. Migration can be used to migrate roles, features,
shares and OS settings. Unlike an upgrade, the administrator can choose what to migrate
and what to leave behind.
Let’s consider the following server: it has DHCP and DNS roles installed on it. In
this case the server has been in use for a long time. When this occurs, often it will
accumulate a history on it - making it work slower than it should. When you perform an
upgrade this history will be carried over to the new server.
Migration allows you to target what you want to migrate over - hopefully leaving items
behind that may reduce the effectiveness of the server.
Migration also allows you to do the following. If you had two servers on the network you
could split the roles between the two servers. Migration allows you to do this, whereas an
upgrade only allows you to upgrade an existing server - It does not allow you to move roles
between different servers.
Migration also allows roles to be migrated from one server to another where an upgrade
is not available; such as when different architecture is being used. For example: upgrades between
32-bit to 64bit, or Itanium to Intel, are not possible but a migration is. Also you
can perform migrations between editions. For example, if you want to migrate a role from
a server running Standard to a server running Essentials. No upgrade path is available for
this. However, a migration is possible. Although this is unusual, imagine you had a case where
you wanted to move the standard license to a different server and downgrade that server
to run Essentials. If this was the case, you could export the settings, reinstall the operating
system and then import the settings on the Essentials server freeing up the standard
license.
To get a better understanding of migration, I will now change to my Windows Server 2012
R2 computer and look at how to perform a migration of the DHCP role.
On this server, I will migrate the DHCP role from a server running Windows Server 2003.
To do this, I first need to install the role Windows Server Migration Tools. To install
Windows Server Migration Tools, I will first open Server Manager and then select the option
Add Roles and Features. Since I am installing Migration Tools on the local server, I will
accept all the defaults until I get to the feature selection screen.
On the feature selection screen, I will tick the option “Windows Server Migration Tools”.
Once selected it is just a matter of finishing the wizard to install the feature. The install
only takes a minute or so to complete, but I have sped up the process so that we do not
have to wait.
Once the install has completed, I will open the tools menu and go down to Windows Server
Migration Tools and there is a second option for Windows Server Migration Tools. It is
possible to install additional items under Windows Server Migration Tools and that is
why it appears twice.
The shortcut itself opens PowerShell. The only difference between this PowerShell prompt
and a normal PowerShell prompt is that the Windows Server Migration Tools snap-ins have
been pre-loaded. If you want to load them manually, you can run the following command.
Essentially the shortcut runs this command for you.
In order to transfer the roles from one server to the other, I first need to create an install
package that can be used on the source server – which, in this case, is Windows Server
2003. To do this, run the command SMIGDeploy with the parameters /Package /Architecture
followed by the architecture which in this case is x86. You could also use amd64 if the
source system is 64 bit.
Following this is the /OS followed by the OS. In this case the source operating system
is Windows Server 2003 so this will be WS03. For a full list of operating systems see the
description or PDF of this video.
The last parameter is /Path followed by the folder that you want the package to be created
in. Once entered, I will run the command which does not take too long to complete.
Once complete I will exit out of PowerShell and open Windows Explorer. From Windows Explorer,
it is just a matter of navigating to the output folder and then copying this to a USB key
that I have plugged into this computer.
The USB Key will contain the package that I need to install on Windows Server 2003 since
Windows Server 2003 does not come with the Migration tools built in. Once complete, I
will change to my Windows Server 2003 install to perform the migration.
Before I export the configuration data for the roles on this server, I will first open
DHCP from Administrative tools under the start menu. You will notice that in DHCP there is
a scope already defined on this server, and also some reservations have been defined.
Rather than having to recreate this information again on another server, I will export these
settings to be imported on Windows Server 2012 R2.
First of all, I need to install Server Migration Tools. To do this, I will open Windows Explorer
and open the folder for the package that I created on Windows Server 2012 R2. In this
folder I will run the command SMIGDeploy.
If all goes well, Windows Server Migration Tools will be registered with the local operating
system. Once this has completed PowerShell will open with Windows Server Migration Tools
ready to go.
If I close this window, I can also achieve the same result by running Windows Server
Migration Tools found under Administrative Tools under the start menu.
Just to prove a point, I will instead open PowerShell from under All programs and run
the following command from PowerShell. This command will register the Windows Server Migrations
Tools SnapIns in PowerShell. Effectively this will achieve the same result as if I used
the shortcut in the start menu.
In order to see which roles are installed and can be exported, run the command Get-SMIGServerFeature.
You can see Routing and Remote Access Services and DHCP are installed on the server.
To start with, I will export the Settings for DHCP. This is done with the command Export-SMIGServerSetting
with the parameter FeatureID DHCP. If you do not know what the ID is, notice that you
can obtain it from the output of the previous command.
The next parameter is Path which is the location to store the exported settings to. Later on
I will use the USB drive to transfer this to the other server.
The last parameter that I will add is the Verbose parameter. This will increase the
amount of output from the command and is optional.
Once the command has run, it will prompt you for a password to protect the data. Since
it will contain the settings from the server, it could potentially contain sensitive information.
In this case, it contains DHCP information and thus contains the IP addresses of computers
on the network and, thus, could be potentially misused if it were to get into the wrong hands.
Now that the data has been exported, I will close PowerShell and open Windows Explorer.
I will then copy that data that I just exported to the USB drive. Once complete, I will change
to my Windows Server 2012 R2 install to start the import.
First of all, I need to install the DHCP role. To do this, I will first open Server Manager
and, from the “Manage” option, select “Add Roles and Features”. Since I will
install the role on the local server, I can accept all the default options in the wizard.
Once I get to the server roles selection screen, I will select the role ‘DHCP Server’ and
also add the feature ‘DHCP Server Tools’, when prompted.
No other options are required so I will accept all the defaults and ‘next’ my way to
the install screen and then start the install. The install took a minute or two to complete
on this computer but I have sped up the process.
Once the role has been added to the server, it next needs to be configured. To do this,
I will select the option “Complete DHCP configuration” to start the post configuration
wizard. Once past the welcome screen, the wizard will ask for a user account that has
enough access to authorize the DHCP server in Active Directory. If a DHCP server is started
that has not been authorized in Active Directory, it will automatically be shut down.
In this case I have logged into the server using the domain administrator account. This
has enough access to authorize the DHCP server so I will press the ‘commit’ button to
complete the authorization of the DHCP server in Active Directory.
Now that this done, I can close this wizard and the previous wizard and then, from the
Tools menu, select “DHCP’. If I expand DHCP notice that none of the options have
been configured. To configure them I will import the DHCP settings from the other DHCP
server. To do this, I will go to Server Manager and select the tools menu and then select
the folder “Windows Server Migration Tools” and then select the option “Windows Server
Migration Tools”.
Before I can import the DHCP server settings, I first need to stop the DHCP service. To
do this, I will run the command ‘Net Stop “DHCP Server”’. Once the DHCP service
is stopped I will be able to import the settings.
To do this, I will run the command “Import-SmigServerSettings”. The command needs to know which settings to
import so this is done with the switch “-FeatureID DHCP”. Following this, I need to use the
‘path’ switch followed by the location where I stored the exported DCHP settings.
Once I run the command, I will need to enter in the password that I used when I exported
the DHCP settings. Once entered, the import will begin. It does take a minute or so to
complete but I have sped up the process.
It appears that the command has run, however notice under “Success” the result is false.
It is important when running the command to check this to make sure it was successful.
Unlike a lot of other commands in Windows, the fact it has failed is not that noticeable.
In the case of the DHCP role, I need to add the switch ‘force’ to the end of the command
line. Once I press up to get the last command back, I can add the ‘force’ switch and
run the command again.
The command once again will ask me for the password and takes a minute or so to run but
I have sped up this process.
Once complete, notice that under success, it is now true, so the import process has
been successful and I can start the DHCP service using the command ‘Net Start “DHCP Server”’.
The DHCP server does not take too long to start up, but once complete I can go back
to the DHCP admin tool, press F5 to refresh the screen and notice now that the settings
have been imported.
That’s it for importing DHCP settings. If you plan on transferring roles by using the
import and export options, do some research, first. Some roles are quite simple to transfer
and others require a little more planning to transfer over.
Thanks for watching this video from ITFreeTraining. Just one of the free videos from us. For more
free videos please see our YouTube channel or Web site. Thanks for watching and see you
next time.