Must reinstall Server2003... is there any way to port all settings?

[latrosicarius]

I would normally ask this in the OS board, but since its a server OS, probably most ppl in here would know better.

My free 180-day trial expired and I bought the real thing. Is there any site that can walk me through porting all settings?

I want to keep my DNS settings, DHCP settings, and Active Directory users.

I did try to port them once before (when I switched from the 32-bit trial to the 64-bit trial), but it didn't work and I had to set everything up manually again.

Any tips or tutorials would be greatly appreciated... thanks

[Moby-Dick]

system state backup might do it

[arthurleung]

May be just do a "repair install" with the new key?

(Make a ghost backup beforehand though)

[nichomach]

IIRC, the eval is 2003 Enterprise, so if you've bought 2003 Standard you're in a bit of a pickle - you can't do a direct "upgrade" as it were. How I'd do it is get a crappy PC, install the eval on that AS WELL, joining it to your existing domain and making it a domain controller. Transfer all the roles, like Global Catalog, Operations Master etc to the crappy machine, then install your retail copy fresh on to the machine you actually want to keep - you should be able to overwrite the existing eval install without doing a complete format. Make IT a DC and then transfer all the roles back. Trash crap PC. You will still have to set up DNS and DHCP again, but at least you'll keep your AD users and groups.

[badass]

May be just do a "repair install" with the new key?

(Make a ghost backup beforehand though)

Bingo! (baring in mind nichomach's comments above )

[fat jez]

Or you could use the files and settings transfer wizard, unless that doesn't exist in Win 2003 Server? I know it's in Win XP x64, which is the same code base.

Cheers,
Stephen

[latrosicarius]

well I tried that, but it didn't work It said I had to re-boot and do something special b/c it couldn't make the change when AD was running.... but, besides, I don't want to copy the whole old registry to my fresh install anyway--- and it won't let me de-select that option

Here's my current problem... I can't just re-create the accounts because the account name is just what you see, but really there's this huge account id that I can't change...

For instance, I try to re-create personX or whatever, but even so, it is not recognized when I try to log onto Windows without creating a NEW account named "personX.domainname"

And also, even though personX is re-created, none of the security permissions work for him (it just says "AccountUnknown{S-1-5-21-really long ID blah blah blah}"

Is there any way that I can re-create new accounts with the same name as last time, and assign this SAME id to them so it doesn't think it's "unknown"?

[nichomach]

That's why you install a second domain controller in the same domain; that way it takes a replica of AD, so when you reinstall the machine that you want to keep and join it back to the domain, it retains the SIDs.

[badass]

That's why you install a second domain controller in the same domain; that way it takes a replica of AD, so when you reinstall the machine that you want to keep and join it back to the domain, it retains the SIDs.

If you do that, dont forget to Xfer your FSMO roles.
Also, you can just install it on a workstation to do this. This is known as the Swing server method and is an excellent way of performing an upgrade.

[nichomach]

Or as I said...

Transfer all the roles, like Global Catalog, Operations Master etc to the crappy machine, then install your retail copy fresh on to the machine you actually want to keep - you should be able to overwrite the existing eval install without doing a complete format. Make IT a DC and then transfer all the roles back. Trash crap PC. You will still have to set up DNS and DHCP again, but at least you'll keep your AD users and groups.

[latrosicarius]

^ crap... is it too late to do that technique with a crappy comp? I saved the DC system state before I reinstalled.

And yes, I got standard edition (eval is enterprise)

-- OR -- can't I just manually edit the registry or the DC file or something and change the SIDs to what they were before? There's only 2 users that I have to worry about...

Thanks !