Hello Art,
Here are the answers to your questions.
The server is 2016 Standard and I want to install the Essentials Role -- where do I find this to install as it is not part off the Server Standard.
The devil is in the name, it is a role and therefore added through Server Manager, Add Roles and Features.
After the DHCP transfer, the guide says to install the new Essentials Connector to all domain computers...this is a lengthy task as I will have to go to every client computer. Does this need to be done at this point or can it wait until later? All computers have the Server 2012 Essentials Connector installed.
You should be able to do this even at the end of the guide but I prefer to do that shortly before I start moving files and folders.
For the creation of shares on the new server, am I right that I need to create shares with the same security settings as the old server and that these security settings need to be set manually...there is no migration of these share settings?
Shares are handled differently on an Essentials Server, they are created with the Dashboard and security is set also through the dashboard. We can migrate shares but it does make any sense on an Essentials Server because you want them to show up on the Dashboard and the only way doing that is by creating them through the dashboard. All Security Groups are migrated automatically as part of the AD migration and those will show in the Dashboard on the new server but settings, as shown on tabs inside such a Security Group, must be verified manually because they apply to the new server and are NOT migrated. There is no support for this.
Does your sample Robocopy command, copy all the folders and files and respect all the security settings, timestamps, etc., from the old server?
Yes, everything is copied. In addition to this, I would like to mention that if you run the command again it will do a delta and only sync changes. That is really handy for making sure everything has been migrated.
The Access Anywhere certificates are going to expire this week, before the migration is done. Should I renew the certificates on the old server or just install new ones on the new server?
I assume you are getting the certificates from some CA? If that is the case I would install new ones on the new server.
After the migration is done and the cleanup is done on the old server, can I keep the old server in service as a second AD server? It is technically running Server 2012 (not R2) with the Essentials Role...if I remove the Essentials Role, can it be a backup AD server?
If the old server was a Windows Server Essentials 2012 SKU, meaning the limited version to 25 users and/or 50 devices the answer is NO. If the old server was Windows Server Standard 2012 you can use this one as another DC in your network, no need to demote it then.
Finally, a lot of these steps will affect users...should I plan to do the final migration over a weekend to give time for all the steps?
Not really! The only thing that can cause issues is the switchover from old to the new server with the Redirected Folders. If you have long files names in those folders the implementation of the new Group Policy with the new Redirection settings will fail because it cannot move files and/or folders that are longer then 255 characters. This is a limitation of the operating system. If you have those issues we need to fix those case by case. Remember that the actual migration of the redirected folders happens when the old policy is removed and the new ones are implemented. As soon as a user logs in and reboots a minimum of two times the move will be made and that will move files from Redirected Folders on the old server to new server. If a user has 50 GB of pictures this can take some time to complete and during that time the Desktop or Laptop will show a Windows 'Login in...." with an hourglass. You cannot use the client during that move. If you have users with massive Redirected Folders (use Treesize from Jamsoft to verify) I would do the implemetation of the new Folder Redirection over the weekend and start with the largest profiles.
answered 07/30/2018 07:42