In-Depth
Souping Up Windows 2003 Migrations
Five tools that promise to speed and ease Windows 2003 file and print migrations. Which one is the very best?
Migrating to Windows Server 2003 from either Windows NT or Windows 2000
Server must be done carefully — and in the right order. That's why most
migration projects involve a minimum of four migration steps:
- Security Principal Migration.Migrating users and computers
from the NT Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database to Active Directory
or upgrade of the domain controllers and directory restructuring (if
required) if migrating from Windows 2000 Server.
- Member Server Migrations. Migrating all services found
on member servers including file, print, management and other services.
This includes special products such as Exchange, Site Server, and other
BackOffice services.
- PC Migrations.Migrating PCs from obsolete operating
systems such as Windows 98 and NT to Windows XP. This will also involve
capturing and restoring user data and preferences or profiles as well
as repackaging all software products to take advantage of Windows Installer
technology.
- Application Migrations. This involves mostly conversions
or redevelopment of both rich client and Web-based in-house applications.
Many migrations don't necessarily follow this order. That's the beauty
of the Windows environment: There's always more than one way to do something.
So far, MCP Magazine has covered a series of different migration
steps, including security principal migrations and Exchange Server 2003
migrations. Since application migrations tend to be rather particular
to each organization because of the very nature of the internal applications
they run, it is difficult to discuss this process fully, though there
are special products that ease the application migration process. But
one aspect of migration that is critical and that depends on the proper
migration of security principals is the migration of both file and print
services.
By their very nature, Windows NT networks tend to be highly distributed.
Somewhere, the industry got the feeling that if you needed more services
from Windows NT, it was easier to simply add a new box to the network
than to try to get multiple services to cohabitate on the same server.
Well, Microsoft has gone a long way to help dispel this myth, not only
by providing valuable information on how servers should scale up, but
also by making Windows code faster and more robust. Today, Windows Server
2003 can easily run several thousand printers on one machine or store
terabytes of information in a single cluster. That's why many organizations
seriously consider server consolidation when it comes to the migration
of both file and print services. Not to mention that the more boxes you
have, the more complex they are to manage and patch.
In addition, Windows Server 2003 includes an entire series of new features
in support of both file and print sharing. The Volume Shadow Copy Service
(VSS) service for example, is an excellent addition to any network. That's
because one of the features of this service is to create snapshots of
the files on your servers at regular intervals, taking two snapshots per
day by default. By deploying the Previous Versions client to your client
systems, you can vastly relieve the help desk from having to perform file
restores since users can then perform their own restores 90 percent of
the time. This service alone may justify a migration from NT or even Windows
2000 to Windows 2003. In terms of printing, Windows 2003 now supports
many more print queues per server than ever before and because it blocks
the installation of kernel mode print drivers by default, it ensures that
jammed print queues will not affect the overall print server itself. Another
good reason to move to Windows 2003.
| Transferring
Networked User Data |
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Migrating networked user data involves the copying
of data found on server shares within the legacy network
to new shares on the target network. The most complex
operation will involve the migration of home directories
to folder redirection. That's because there is a catch:
redirected user folders are not created until the user
has logged on at least once-in fact, three times before
the redirection process is complete because of Windows
XP's Fast Logon Optimization. You cannot simply move
the user's home folder files from one server to another
because the user's destination folder won't be created
until later. Thus, you must devise a special personal
user data migration strategy.
You might, however, consider turning off Fast Logon
Optimization for the duration of the migration in order
to simplify the creation of redirected folders. To turn
off FLO, assign the following setting to a Group Policy
that affects all migrated users: Computer Configuration
| Administrative Templates | System | Logon | Always
wait for the network at computer startup and logon,
and enable it. Remember to disable it once the migration
is complete.
Once this is done, you'll find that you have three
possibilities for the transfer of home directories to
redirected folders:
- First, you can ask all users to move
all of their home directory files into their My Documents
folders on their desktop. Then, when they migrate
to the new network and log on for the first time,
the contents of their My Documents folders will automatically
be moved to the new shared folder thanks to the Folder
Redirection Group Policy. This process will require
two additional logons before completion if you are
using Fast Logon Optimization.
- Second, if you need to stage PCs because
they are not running either Windows XP or Windows
2000, you can add an operation to the User State Migration
process since it will be required on all systems.
The operation you need to add is similar to the first
approach: script a process that takes all of a user's
home directory data and copies it to the My Documents
folder before performing the backup portion of the
User State Migration Tool (USMT). The data will automatically
be redirected when the recovery portion of the USMT
runs at a user's first logon to the new network and
the Folder Redirection GPO is applied.
- Third, you can migrate data to a holding
folder and using a special one-time logon script,
move the files to the user's newly created redirected
folder once the user is logged on and the Group Policy
has been applied.
Of these three strategies, the third is the best though
it requires operations that occur during a user's first
logon. The first would also work, but it has a major
flaw: you must rely on operations that are out of your
control for the process to complete. It will only work
if you have a well-trained user base and you provide
them with excellent instructions. The second only works
if users' PCs must be staged. Thus, if your network
does not meet these two conditions, you must use the
third option.
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But before you can perform file server migration or consolidation, you
must begin with disk and shared folder structure standardization. Begin
with the logical structure of your disk drives. You may, for example,
use the following structure:
- C: drive as the system disk.
- D: drive as the data storage disk.
- E: drive as an optional disk for servers hosting database applications.
In the Microsoft world, this includes servers hosting Active Directory
(domain controllers), SQL Server, Exchange and SharePoint Portal Server.
This disk is used to store transaction journals for these database applications.
For file servers, it can be used to store the shadow copies generated
by the server since they should be on a separate disk.
- F: drive The DVD/CDRW server drive.
You may or may not agree with this structure, but one caveat remains
in any information technology (IT) infrastructure: Keep it simple. It's
always easier to manage in that case. Whatever your logical drive structure,
it is obvious that the disk that will require the most complex folder
structure will be your data storage disk or drive D:. This disk should
include a master folder for each of the different data types it will store.
In addition, it is a good idea to structure the disk folders according
to content. Thus, the D: drive could contain a folder structure in support
of eventual file shares (see Figure 1).
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| Figure 1. A Standard Folder and Share Structure:
The data drive or drive D: of file servers often requires a more complex
structure than any other drive. In this example, a parent folder on
the disk regroups the type of file shares it will publish. While the
file and folder structure is more complex (on the left), the shared
folder view users see is much less complex (on the right). (Click
image to view larger version.) |
This folder structure must support several different types of shares
(see "The Testing Environment").
The migration of distributed storage in legacy networks to this new disk
and shared folder structure must support several activities (see Table
1 later in this article). For example, it must automatically reassign
proper security rights within the target network so that users can continue
to access their data. Ideally, the file migration tool would either support
parallel access to both the source and target servers until the migration
is complete or provide a cut off method to warn users their files have
been migrated. It should also support the verification and modification
of access control lists (ACL) in the target network to remove legacy permissions
to the files. In the case of a migration, this means the tool will support
security identifier or SID history since user accounts acquire new SIDs
when moved from an NT domain to an Active Directory. Once files are moved
and permissions are updated, the migration tool must support the modification
of user settings on local PCs. If at all possible, it will perform this
task automatically or with little administrative effort. This migration
tool must also support special file formats such as files that include
password protection, or if migrating from a Windows 2000 network, files
that have been protected with the Encrypting File System (EFS).
| The
Testing Environment |
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Source domain:........................TandT
Target domain:........................Intranet.TandT.net
Number of file servers in source domain:......55
Number of file servers in target domain:......10
Number of user accounts:...................1,255
Number of user home folders:...............1,100
Average size of the home folder:..............75 MB
Number of departmental folders:..............250
Average size of departmental folder:.........200 MB
Number of project folders:....................25
Average size of project folder:..............200 MB
Number of public folders:.....................10
Average size of public folder:...............100 MB
Number of software installation shares:.......15
Size of software installation share:..........15 GB
Number of print servers in source domain:.....55
Number of print servers in target domain:.....10
Number of printers to migrate:...............200
Number of PCs:.............................1,045
Security Principal Testing Pre-requisites
The production environment was reproduced in a laboratory
in order to perform evaluation testing. The laboratory
represented approximately five percent of the production
systems. The target environment consists of an empty
forest root domain named TandT.net with a single global
child domain for the production environment called Intranet.TandT.net.
Since the target environment is based on Windows Server
2003, a file and print server consolidation is to occur
during migration. This consolidation will include the
following:
- A two-way trust must be set between the source
and target domains. In addition, administrative groups
from the target domain must be integrated to the administrative
groups from the source domain, otherwise migrations
may fail.
- File servers will be centralized and clustered.
This should give T&T the opportunity to reduce
the number of file servers to 10 clustered servers
supporting a central data storage area network.
- Reports will be generated on file usage in order
to identify unused network data. This will further
support the consolidation by letting T&T archive
any unused data and simply delete data that is identified
as not required.
- Home directories will be replaced by folder redirection.
This means that users must log into the Active Directory
at least once to have the folder redirection Group
Policy automatically create their new redirected My
Documents folder. Once this is done, files can be
moved into the new folder (see Transferring Networked
User Data).
- Mapped drives will be replaced by a domain-based
distributed file system (DFS) strategy. This will
mean the migration must include a user information
program since they will need instructions on how to
use the new DFS structure.
- Reports will be generated on print server usage
to identify any obsolete or unused printers. This
should help the printer consolidation process.
- Print servers will also be centralized and clustered.
All printers are to use user mode drivers so a conversion
of drivers from the NT kernel mode is required.
- Printers will use printer location tracking to
facilitate printer searches by users. This means that
sites, printers and computers will need location information
in the directory.
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In the very best scenarios, this tool should support advanced Windows
Server 2003 features such as single instance storage or the ability to
store only one instance of the same file on a single server, and the network
attached storage version of Windows, Windows Storage Server 2003. In the
best migration scenarios, the tool you select should also support the
migration of content from a standard file share system to a consolidated
distributed file share (DFS) system since DFS has been designed to eliminate
the need for mapped drives. Finally, it should help you move from outdated
home directories to the more advanced folder redirection supported by
Windows Server.
For printer migration, the tool must be able to support both the migration
of a print queue including printer drivers from one server to another,
as well as the redirection of print queues on client computers. Since
Windows Server prefers the use of user mode drivers over kernel mode drivers
for increased server stability, the migration tool should be able to convert
the driver or at the very least warn administrators if kernel mode drivers
have been migrated. Administrators should endeavor to remove any legacy
printers requiring kernel mode drivers from their network since these
can block and hang a print server, even a clustered print server. Finally,
the tool should support printer publishing in Active Directory and the
implementation of printer location tracking to facilitate printer searches
in the directory.
These are the parameters used to evaluate the five tools reviewed here:
Quest Consolidator, Aelita Server Consolidation Wizard, ScriptLogic Secure
Copy, PointDev Ideal Migration, and Consera AgileOne. Each has its strength
and weaknesses. Results are tallied (see Table 1)
and recommendations are outlined based on the requirements you may have
for file and print server migration.
| Reviewed
Here: |
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Quest Consolidator 4.1.2
Starts at $995 per server
Quest Software
949-754-8000
http://www.quest.com
Aelita Consolidation Manager 6.0
Starts at $1,099 per server
Enterprise Directory Reporter 5.1
Starts at $8 per user account
Aelita Software Corporation
614-336-9223
http://www.aelita.com
Secure Copy 3.60
Starts at $598.80 for a single server license with
1 year maintenance
ScriptLogic Inc.
561-886-2400
http://www.scriptlogic.com/
Ideal Migration 3.0
Starts at $169 for 1 to 50 users to $3643 for 1
to 3 000 users
PointDev
33-4-32-62-71-34 (France)
http://www.pointdev.com/IM_descr_us.htm
Consera AgileOne 2.1
Starts at $659 per managed server; includes first year
support and maintenance
Solution Builder starts at $6,000 per developer;
includes first year support and maintenance
Hewlett Packard (recently acquired Consera)
425-867-5300
http://www.consera.com
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Quest Consolidator
Quest Consolidator includes two basic components: a client and a server.
The client is designed to install on source servers to perform migration
operations as dictated by the server component. At least one server must
be installed before any clients can be deployed. The server includes a
central migration database along with migration schedules. Supported databases
include the Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Edition or SQL Server. Both version
7 and 2000 are supported. Migrations can all be run from the server so
clients are completely optional.
Consolidator is composed of two elements: the actual consolidation tool
and a storage analysis reporter. This fully supports the consolidation
process because the Storage Analysis Wizard will report on file usage,
file duplication and file ownership. In fact, three scans can be performed.
The first scans servers only. It is fast and can be used to report on
server usage growth over time. The second scans servers and performs a
summary volume scan. This identifies which users have the most files and
which file types are the most popular in your network. The third is a
low-level detailed scan that identifies duplicate files, unused files
and obsolete files. It can be used in support of comprehensive storage
cleanups. In addition, scans can be performed on a schedule to help track
changes over time.
One caveat: To perform scans, you need an account that has local
administrative rights on the target servers. Also, since scanning can
take time and consume resources, you can set up a scanning agent on the
scanned server. This offloads scanning from the database server and can
help speed it up.
The Consolidator interface is clean and very easy to use (see Figure
2).
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| Figure 2. Quest Consolidator sports a very clean
interface outlining the three steps to a migration or consolidation:
analyze your data, migrate or consolidate data and migrate or consolidate
printers. (Click image to view larger version.) |
The startup screen displays all the tools you need to support migrations
and consolidations. The first tool is the Storage Analysis Wizard. Once
your data patterns have been analyzed, you can proceed to a migration/consolidation.
Migrations are simple. Start the Data Migration Wizard, identify source
and target servers, identify the RunAs account to be used for the migration,
automatically deploy required agents (scanner agent on the source and
replicator agent on the target), identify the source and target folders,
identify file exclusions such as MP3 for example, identify how local group
collisions should be managed, identify how shares should be migrated,
identify how folder collisions should be managed, identify how folder
synchronization should occur, set permission migrations, schedule the
migration and save the migration. From then on, it will run either at
scheduled intervals or it can be started manually. All migrations are
saved in the My Migrations folder in Consolidator. Existing migrations
can be copied or cloned to create other migrations.
Print migrations are run in much the same way. Just run the Printer Migration
Wizard. In addition to data and print migration, the Consolidator startup
screen gives you immediate access to three utilities: Home Path Updater,
Profile Updater and Printer Migration. The latter is the same as the Migrate
Printers item in the center of the startup screen, odd. But the first
two utilities are really useful. They support the update of user profiles
to point to new home directories, remote profile paths, drive mappings,
desktop shortcuts and even object linking and embedding (OLE) in Microsoft
Office documents. Printer migrations are supported by a RegTool utility
that allows you to change printer mappings on client computers through
a logon script.
One of the great aspects of this tool is that it allows you to test each
migration before you perform it. This saves a lot of time and effort in
debugging migration problems because it gives you details of what is wrong
if you get an error. In addition, when you run scheduled migrations, Consolidator
can send you email notifications of the results. In short, Consolidator
worked very well and provided an easy path to migration and consolidation
of both file and print servers. Some drawbacks are that it works only
with home directories and does not seem to offer any direct support for
folder redirection. The same goes for the Distributed File System; Consolidator
supports the migration of drive mappings, but though it may support the
modification of a user mapped drive to a DFS map, it is not immediately
self-evident on how this should be done. Finally, printer migration is
direct; that is, it migrates printers with existing drivers and does not
change kernel mode printers to user mode. Nevertheless, these are new
features of Windows Server 2003 and though Consolidator supports this
edition of Windows, it does so in "legacy" mode, not in what
we would call advanced mode.
Aelita Consolidation Manager
Consolidation Manager (CM) also works with two basic components:
a central server that stores the migration database and hub servers that
actually run the migration jobs. This distributed architecture gives you
control over both the bandwidth used in your migration and the amount
of processing power assigned to the migration process. You can also install
only the migration console on multiple systems all targeting the same
database server. This lets you control the delegation of migration tasks.
Migrations are run as jobs (see Figure 3).
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| Figure 3. Aelita Consolidation Manager operations
are based on the concept of a job. You define a migration job and
run it. Then once the file synchronization job is run, you can run
link update jobs.(Click image to view larger version.) |
You begin by defining a file synchronization migration job and run it.
Then once the file synchronization job is run, you can run link update
jobs. Jobs can be run in test mode so that you can see if it will actually
work before you actually run it. Job creation is simple and works through
a series of wizards. To create a file synchronization job, you begin by
naming it. You can also determine if it is to run in test mode or not
at this stage. One nice aspect of this interface is that you can always
edit the job properties later to change it from test job to an actual
job. That's simple enough. File synchronization jobs also include source
and target servers, source and target shares, the schedule to use for
synchronization, any scripts you need to add to the job, how to handle
collisions, how to handle permissions, and how to work with local groups.
Jobs can be set to run continuously or one a schedule; the latter can
even include special times when jobs cannot run at all. This gives you
a fine control over the synchronization.
File synchronization jobs are transparent to users since you can run
both the source and target server in parallel and update client components
only when you're ready to decommission the source server. Consolidation
Manager updates home directories and profile paths through the Domain
Directory wizard. This wizard also updates shared folder and printer information
in Active Directory domains. The Link Update wizard updates components
that are located on member servers or client workstations such as OLE
links in Microsoft Office files, shortcuts and mapped drives as well as
printer references. Link Update jobs can be run either from the server
or through the logon script.
Printer migrations are run through the Printer Migration wizard, though
this tool is hidden inside a menu rather than being directly available
through the Consolidation Manager interface. Odd. Print migration jobs
are comprehensive though. They include printer properties, drivers, ports,
page separators, print forms, color profiles, and even jobs, though the
latter do not work from NT boxes. In the current version, print migration
does not update drivers from kernel mode to user mode as required by Windows
Server 2003. This means that if you want the appropriate driver on your
target server, you need to pre-install it before the migration and then
make sure you do not migrate the driver from the source server. This will
apparently be fixed in the next version which will update drivers properly
and even support HP JetDirect printer port migration.
Before you run a migration, you need to identify the status of both files
and printers. To do so, you need to use the Enterprise Directory Reporter
(EDR) since Consolidation Manager has no reporting capabilities of its
own. This means another installation linked to a SQL database server,
though you can use the same server as the Consolidation Manager. EDR provides
very powerful reports on anything and everything in your network, even
inventory data, but it may be overkill for a server consolidation job
since you only need access to reports on file and print usage. Though
this tool is really powerful, the file reports do not seem as complete
as they could be, especially in terms of identifying what can or should
be archived.
Though the Consolidation Manager (CM) does most everything that is required
for a migration or consolidation, it does not directly support Windows
Server 2003's most advanced features such as folder redirection instead
of home directories and DFS shares instead of mapped drives. Consolidation
Manager can be used to target these features, but this means that you
will need to write special scripts that you add to your file synchronization
jobs. But, the advantage is that CM provides very powerful scripting support
in either VB or Java script. Overall, CM is very easy to use and provides
a very powerful file and printer migration toolkit.
ScriptLogic Secure Copy
Secure Copy is different from both former tools. It is designed
specifically for the migration of files and folders from source servers
to target servers, and only that. Its installation is simple, using an
MSI that provides two installation choices: complete or custom, yet in
the custom option, there is only one component to choose. Odd. But once
installed, Secure Copy is really easy to use. It offers a no-nonsense
interface that gives you easy access to all the features (see Figure 4).
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| Figure 4. ScriptLogic's Secure Copy interface is
really easy to use. Just follow the three steps — identify the source,
the target and set your options — and that's it, you're ready to
copy. (Click image to view larger version.) |
Secure Copy also works with jobs. Job creation is a simple 1-2-3 step
process: identify the source, identify the target, set your options and
away you go. Options include what kind of files to copy, for example,
only changed files; permission copying options such as resetting user
passwords when accounts are migrated; file compression options; file share
migration options; local group copying options; and file filters to use
for copying. Secure Copy will automatically copy local groups and user
accounts and even target specific organizational units in Active Directory
during the copy. Copy jobs can be tested prior to the actual copy to ensure
they will work properly. In addition, they can be scheduled. For this,
Secure Copy seems to call upon the Windows Task Scheduler so this provides
a familiar interface for scheduling to system administrators. One nice
aspect of using jobs is that they are not enabled by default so you can
create as many as you need and enable them as required.
Secure Copy can also run from the command line, letting you set all of
the copy options for a job in a batch file for future use, though this
may not be really necessary since the graphical interface includes all
the options found in the command line. One caveat: when migrating user
accounts, Secure Copy will create them with null passwords unless you
have set the password option for the job. Secure Copy cannot copy passwords
from one location to another so it is important to make sure you set this
option.
Otherwise, secure copy does most everything that is required to transfer
files with security settings from one server to another. It does not however
provide any tool for the modification of user settings or file references
on local computers. For this, you'll have to make your own scripts or
batch files. It also doesn't migrate printers at all since it is a file
copy tool. Finally, it doesn't include a reporting tool to help in the
archiving of obsolete or unused data. But for file copying, Secure Copy
performs as expected, making a server consolidation easy. If file copying
is all you need, then Secure Copy may be the solution for you.
PointDev Ideal Migration
Ideal Migration is really designed to manage all migration tasks
from domain migration to user settings and passwords. It is a Microsoft
Management Console that is installable on all versions of Windows NT from
3.51 on to Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 (see Figure 5).
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| Figure 5. PointDev Ideal Migration uses an MMC
to let you migrate objects. It supports domain, account, file server
and printer migrations through the use of very simple dialog boxes.
Migrations can be stored in projects and run as scheduled tasks.
(Click image to view larger version.) |
As such, it fully supports the concept of migration delegation. It is
simple to install, but does not use an MSI installation. Its migration
strategy is simple, export data and objects from one location and import
into another location.
Migrations can be performed by selecting the objects to migrate in the
left pane, right-clicking on the object and selecting the object type
migration from the context menu. In the migration properties dialog box,
identify the source or export server, then identify the target or import
server. Objects are migrated with complete security settings. Migrations
are performed by exporting data to a comma separated value (CSV) file
then imported from there. To perform file server migrations, you must
first perform a shared folder migration, and then perform a file and folder
migration, though these can be grouped together in one step. Migration
properties can be stored into project files that can be run at a later
time through either scheduled tasks or through the command line. This
gives Ideal Migration a lot of flexibility.
Printer migrations are performed in the same way as file and shared folder
migrations. Simply point and click. But there are caveats: printer driver
migrations must be from the same operating system to the same operating
system — for example, NT to NT or 2000 to 2000 — otherwise, they must be installed
manually beforehand. If you want to perform more than one migration step
at once, use the Ideal Migration Wizard to select the objects to migrate,
configure each component and store it into a migration project file. Ideal
Migration supports undoable migrations by simply running the migration
in reverse, restoring the objects the way they were before migration.
Client agents modify all client settings to point to the new environment.
The main failing of Ideal Migration is that it does not include reporting
tools. So in the event of any type of migration, you can't see what to
eliminate from your migration, for example, sending unused files to archived
storage. Otherwise, it is really easy to use for all the object type migrations
it supports. It may, however, be overkill if all you need is to perform
a file and print migration. But if you need to migrate more than just
file and print, it may be the right solution for you.
Consera AgileOne
AgileOne is a unique product in this selection of tools. That's
because it is really an extension of Microsoft's Automated Deployment
Services (ADS) — an enterprise server deployment system. This limits AgileOne's
accessibility since ADS is only available to organizations that have volume
license agreements with Microsoft, so small shops will not be able to
profit from the ADS/AgileOne combination. But, if you have enterprise
licenses of Microsoft operating systems, AgileOne may well be the right
solution. That's because ADS provides a complete set of tools that facilitates
the server provisioning process in any datacenter. It lets you capture
base server installations and redeploy them from a central location. It
will even let you provision servers that have nothing installed on them,
all from a remote location! ADS is very powerful, but it relies heavily
on command lines and XML scripts.
That's where AgileOne fits in. AgileOne is an ADS add-on that provides
a simple-to-use Web-based graphical interface to most ADS commands (see
Figure 6).
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| Figure 6. Consera AgileOne provides a graphical
Web interface to Microsoft's Automated Deployment Services. In terms
of file servers, AgileOne provides both migration and consolidation
services through a simple series of steps, all from a remote console.
(Click image to view larger version.) |
But it doesn't only do that. In terms of file servers, AgileOne will
let you capture a file server's "profile" and restore it to
any other server in your enterprise. This means that AgileOne supports
both file server migration and consolidation, all through a point and
click Web interface. Very nifty. AgileOne also provides three additional
functions: graphical interface to ADS, ADS process automation, and graphical
server provisioning extensions.
In terms of Automated Deployment Services, AgileOne provides graphical
functionality for most ADS commands, including server discovery, image
capture, and image deployment. Second, it automates most tasks you would
need to perform manually with ADS (for example, the installation of the
System Preparation tools on remote servers). In addition, AgileOne automatically
deploys the ADS agents during its server discovery process. AgileOne also
will let you schedule ADS jobs for later processing and pause jobs such
as image captures. This gives you better control over bandwidth management
because you can now schedule jobs to run in offload times and stop them
if they run over into high-production time slots.
For file server migration, AgileOne supports server personality transfers.
That's because AgileOne is designed to work with server roles that are
assigned after the operating system has been installed. AgileOne lets
you capture and transfer file server settings, even settings based on
Distributed File Services. This means that it supports both server transfers
and server consolidation because it will even emulate the legacy server's
NetBIOS name on the target server to ensure that users do not lose file
access during the transfer. Very powerful indeed.
In addition, AgileOne's Solution Builder can let you add your own personality
transfers to the AgileOne console. For example, you could use Solution
Builder to create a transfer process for printers. This requires some
.NET programming ability and the use of Microsoft Visio. That's because
Solution Builder adds extensions to Visio to help you add server-provisioning
workflows. This is not for the light-hearted though as it requires considerable
programming skill. In terms of printer migrations, it may be best to wait
for Consera — which was recently purchased by HP by the way — to create
and distribute a new workflow.
One of the neat features of AgileOne is the automatic reversal of all
operations in the case of an error. This ensures the constant availability
of the services being migrated. This tool does not currently cover all
aspects of a file and print server migration, but if you have elected
to use Microsoft's Automated Deployment Services, then AgileOne should
be part of your arsenal because it vastly simplifies the management of
hundreds of servers in any datacenter.
| Table 1.
You can use the information here to identify which tool best suits
your needs. Each manufacturer has had an opportunity to review and
comment on their rating in the table. |
| Activity |
Quest
Consol-
idator |
Aelita
Consol-idation Manager and Enterprise Reporter |
ScriptLogic
SecureCopy |
PointDev
Ideal Migration |
Consera
AgileOne |
| File
Migration |
 |
|
|
|
|
| Print
Migration |
|
|
|
|
|
| Consolidation
Support |
|
|
|
|
|
| Source
Operating Systems |
NT,
2000, 2003, EMC Celerra, NetApp Filers |
NT,
2000, 2003, Novell, NAS |
NT,
2000, 2003 |
NT,
2000, 2003 |
NT,
2000, 2003 |
| Target
Operating Systems |
NT,
2000, 2003, EMC Celerra, NetApp Filers |
NT,
2000, 2003, NAS |
NT,
2000, 2003 |
NT,
2000, 2003 |
2000,
2003 |
| File
Usage Analysis before migration |
|
With Enterprise
Reporter |
|
|
|
| File
Re-ACLing |
|
|
|
|
|
| Password
Protected File Support |
|
|
|
|
|
| Parallel
File Server Support |
|
|
|
|
|
| Support
for Single Instance Store |
|
|
|
|
|
| Support
for Windows Storage Server 2003 |
|
|
|
|
|
| User/PC
Setting Migration |
|
|
|
|
|
| Undo
Capability |
|
|
|
|
|
| Delegation
of Migration Task |
|
|
|
|
|
| Migration
Reporting |
|
|
|
|
|
| Migration
Testing |
|
|
|
|
|
| MMC
TaskPad |
|
|
|
|
Web interface |
| MSI
Installation |
|
|
|
|
|
| Database
Support |
SQL
or MSDE, versions 7 or 2000 |
SQL
or MSDE, versions 7 or 2000 |
|
|
SQL
or MSDE, version 2000 |
| Scripting
or Command-line support |
|
|
|
|
|
| Doc
Format |
PDF,
Compiled Help |
PDF,
Compiled Help |
Compiled
Help |
Word,
Compiled Help |
Compiled
Help |
| Tutorials
or Quick Start Guides |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Overall Evaluation
File and print server migrations are an essential component of
any server operating system upgrade. As you can see, several tools are
available to help you perform these migrations. At worse, you can use
NT Backup to backup the file services from your legacy servers and restore
them to your new server, then use Microsoft's Security Migration Editor,
which is free with Windows Server 2003, to perform SID regeneration on
your files. You can also use Microsoft's Print Migrator 3.1 (see "Additional
Information") to capture printer information from legacy servers
and restore it to new Windows 2003 machines. What's nice about this tool
is that it will automatically change LPR printer ports to the new TCP/IP
standard port supported by Windows Server. In addition, it will automatically
change printer drivers from kernel mode (version 2) to user mode (version
3) during the transfer, something none of the commercial tools perform
yet. At the very least, you should use this tool to backup all your printer
configurations. This way you can restore them in the case of an emergency.
As far as commercial tools are concerned, none fully support the new
file management concepts that are included in Windows 2003. Quest Consolidator
seems to offer the most features for the price. It provides very comprehensive
file usage analysis and is the only one that seems to do so. So if you
want to migrate both file servers and printers, this may well be the best
tool to choose. Aelita Consolidation Manager performs all of the operations
supported by Quest Consolidator, but requires the Enterprise Directory
Reporter to generate pre-migration reports. This makes it a very expensive
migration solution, though in the end, if you choose this combination,
you will have a very powerful reporting solution. On the other hand, if
you have Novell servers, this may be the solution to use since it supports
Novell as a source OS. ScriptLogic Secure Copy also provides an easy solution
for file migration, but would have to be combined with scripts to modify
user settings as well as Microsoft's Print Migrator to support the migration
of printers. PointDev's Ideal Migration is really easy to use and works
with most any Windows platform, but may be overkill if file and print
server migration is all you need. It is also lacking in reporting capabilities.
Consera AgileOne is a great tool, but its reliance on Microsoft's Automated
Deployment Services makes it out of reach for many smaller shops.
So if you want to take the simplest route to migrate your file and print
servers, you should choose Quest Migrator. It has some failings right
now, but these will probably be addressed in later editions. In short,
it provides the best all around migration solution of all the tools reviewed
here.