Migrating Dell PowerEdge Servers to Microsoft Windows Server 2008

feature section:MICROSOFT WINDOWS SERVER 2008
Migrating Dell
PowerEdge Servers
to Microsoft
Windows Server 2008
By Aarthi M. Upgrading to the Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 OS Jemilson Pierrelouis, Ph.D. can offer myriad advantages, including enhanced perfor-Narayanan D. mance, security, and stability. By following best practices Perumal Raja P. for in-place upgrades and taking advantage of tools such Tas the Dell Windows Server 2008 Readiness Advisor, administrators can help ensure a smooth migration on Ttheir Dell PowerEdge servers.
1icrosoft Windows Server 2008-the first Edition. By following the best practices described in major server OS release from Microsoft in this article when planning, preparing for, and executing five years-is designed to provide a produc- a migration to Windows Server 2008, administrators tMive platform for applications, networks, and Web ser- can help ensure a smooth upgrade process.vices from the workgroup to data center, and incorporates valuable enhancements to key features Identifying supported upgrade pathsand to the base OS itself. Some of the primary areas of Microsoft server operating systems typically can be improvement include networking, advanced security upgraded only to an equivalent or higher-level OS. features, remote application access, centralized server The first step in choosing a suitable version of role management, performance and reliability monitor- Windows Server 2008 is to determine the nearest ing tools, failover clustering, deployment, and the file equivalent to the OS that the system is currently run-Related Categories: system. These enhancements and many others can help ning (see Figure 1). As a minimum requirement, serv-Dell OpenManage organizations maximize server flexibility, availability, ers that administrators plan to upgrade to Windows Dell PowerEdge servers and control-for example, Windows Server 2008 intro- Server 2008 should be running Windows Server 2003 Dell Windows Server 2008 duces Server Core installation, a minimal server with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or SP2 or Windows Server Readiness Advisor tool installation option that provides a low-maintenance 2003 Release 2 (R2). Servers running the released-Microsoft environment capable of acting as a file server, Dynamic to-manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows Server Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server, Domain 2003 or servers running earlier Microsoft operating Operating system deployment Name System (DNS) server, media server, Web server, systems (such as Windows NT® Server or Windows® Operating system migration and Microsoft Active Directory® server. 2000 Server) should first be upgraded to one of these Visit DELL.COM/PowerSolutions Dell supports Windows Server 2008 on an array of three Windows Server 2003 versions before being for the complete category index. PowerEdge server platforms across five server genera- upgraded to Windows Server 2008.tions. Depending on the system, Dell servers can sup- Administrators should note that because the 64-bit port both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows Server version of Windows Server 2008 Web Edition does 2008-including Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, not have a direct equivalent in Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, and Web Edition-except for the they cannot perform an in-place upgrade to that ver-32-bit version of Windows Server 2008 Datacenter sion of Windows Server 2008.1 For a list of Dell PowerEdge servers that support Windows Server 2008 and the specific versions each can run, visit www.delltechcenter.com/page/Migrating+Dell+PowerEdge+Servers+to+ Microsoft+Windows+Server+2008.20 DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | May 2008 Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, May 2008. Copyright © 2008 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.Windows Server 2008 upgrade path recommend backing up data using the Current Windows Server 2003 Windows Server Backup utility, upgrading version Standard Enterprise Datacenter Web TEdition Edition Edition Edition to version 5.4 of the Dell OpenManage systems management suite, using the Dell Standard Edition with SP1 or later 4 4 filter driver removal tool to avoid issues Enterprise Edition with SP1 or later 4 with Adaptec filter drivers, and removing non-Windows-delivered software before Datacenter Edition with SP1 or later 4 performing the upgrade.Web Edition with SP1 or l... [download for more]