Server Upgrade

[Yoshie]

Hi All,
We are currently upgrading our server, it's all ready to go just have to copy over the data, should I use say drive copy to do it or do a fresh install of everything and copy accross the nessasary files if needed?
We have both here so doing a fresh install would not be a hassle.

[Mr_Miyagi]

i would do a fresh install.

[nfawcett]

I would do a fresh copy but remember that when you copy your data you will lose all your permission settings.

[Kymera]

I'll give a big "Me Too" on the fresh install thingee.

[BurnFEST]

I will have to go with fresh install too, never hurts to start over with a clean hdd every now and then, actually it will clean up any probs that were just around the corner...

[MacGyver]

You didn't tell us what NOS you're planning to upgrade. That will have an affect on your decision. Also, how many users do you have? What is the server used for? File serving, email, backup, etc....

I will have to break the trend and disagree with the rest of the people here. When upgrading a network, you get to keep file permissions, user accounts, server configuration, etc. If you reinstall from scratch you will have to set all of this up again. Not hard if you have 5 users, but if you have thousands of users, imagine re-creating all those user accounts from scratch. Reinstalling a Network OS is a lot more involved than formatting and reinstaling Windows on a single PC.

Also consider that network servers usually are used 24-7 so any downtime should be kept to a minimum. Taking a week to fully reconfigure a server is simply not an option in today's economy.

[Yoshie]

Thanks all sounds like the senses is a fresh install. MacGyver, we are using w2kserver edition and exchange etc, the down time isn't an issue as I have a NEW machine to do the fresh install onto. It is used as a file server, email, web access and as remote access point to our data base. We have 3x HDD for all of the data and to keep everything nice and clean. Once the new one is up and running the old one will be used as a fall back pc (you never know when it is going to happen). Our network isn't huge, 30 work stations, and about 28 users. All have power user status. I do have compleete backups of all the data currently stored on the server machine.
Any other help will be usefull.
Thanks again.