Migrate File Shares

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a_user

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Hi All,

Not sure if I would consider this a unique situation but its not as straight
forward as I would like.

Currently we have two file file servers servering over 9tb. Storage1 and
storage2. Storage1 is on older hardware with windows 2000(about 3.5tb of
shares). I am trying to migrate this data to storage2 on windows 2003. We do
not currently use dfs but I am intending on implementing it slowly once I
have completed this migration.

My concern/issue is we have hundreds of shares on storage1 that obviously
reference 'storage1' and unfortunately there are even some internal
applications that are mapped to the unc path of storage1. This raises the
issue where simply changing the path in a logon script will accomodate the
users but it will break a lot of other things. I have taken over this
environment and would never base application based storage locations on a
particular server name which is why I want to go with DFS. But that is
neither here nor there right now.

My big question here is this, if I used FSMT to transfer all my shares from
storage1 to storage2 could I then power down/disconnect storage1 from the
network, remove its hostname from DNS and then create an alias of 'storage1'
and point that to storage2? I would then expected any clients looking to
storage1 would pull that same share off of storage2 instead. This is not the
ideal solution but the only one I can think of without introducing lots of
additional time and complexity. I need to ensure this change happens soon and
as seamlessly as possible.

I will then start educating and communicating on the use of DFS and add an
additional file server to the DFS environment for redundancy.

Anyone see anything wrong with this approach? I am just looking for some
reassurance that I am not overlooking something. I dont want to decommission
storage1 for a couple weeks after the transfer to ensure that everything has
been pulled successfully.

Thanks all
 
Re: Migrate File Shares

> My big question here is this, if I used FSMT to transfer all my shares
> from
> storage1 to storage2 could I then power down/disconnect storage1 from the
> network, remove its hostname from DNS and then create an alias of
> 'storage1'
> and point that to storage2? I would then expected any clients looking to
> storage1 would pull that same share off of storage2 instead.

What about the clients' cached IP address of the hostname (storage1)? it
will try to point to the old IP address, until the client flushes their DNS?
 
Re: Migrate File Shares

I was planning on lowering the dhcp renew time to a couple/few hours and
lowering the dns cache timeout to a couple hours as well and then performing
the migration over the weekend.

I was contemplating using the DFS consolidation wizard but I am a little
confused about having to rename the hosts to be migrated. If they are renamed
how are the clients going to continue to pick up the old address? I
understand dfs creates redirectors in DNS but what about the time the servr
is in a transistion period. If I went with the dfs consolidation route I
would want to take my time migrating the shares.

Thoughts on this?

"Jabez Gan [MVP]" wrote:

> > My big question here is this, if I used FSMT to transfer all my shares
> > from
> > storage1 to storage2 could I then power down/disconnect storage1 from the
> > network, remove its hostname from DNS and then create an alias of
> > 'storage1'
> > and point that to storage2? I would then expected any clients looking to
> > storage1 would pull that same share off of storage2 instead.
>
> What about the clients' cached IP address of the hostname (storage1)? it
> will try to point to the old IP address, until the client flushes their DNS?
>
>
>
 
Re: Migrate File Shares

Lowering the DHCP renew time and DNS cache sounds good.

If you are planning to DFS, I suggest that you test everything in a test
environment before you do the migration. This will gives you a full hands on
before you jump into the migration.

--
Jabez Gan
Microsoft MVP: File Storage
"a_user" <auser@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4538C313-A25D-469C-A38F-72D6BA5F24ED@microsoft.com...
>I was planning on lowering the dhcp renew time to a couple/few hours and
> lowering the dns cache timeout to a couple hours as well and then
> performing
> the migration over the weekend.
>
> I was contemplating using the DFS consolidation wizard but I am a little
> confused about having to rename the hosts to be migrated. If they are
> renamed
> how are the clients going to continue to pick up the old address? I
> understand dfs creates redirectors in DNS but what about the time the
> servr
> is in a transistion period. If I went with the dfs consolidation route I
> would want to take my time migrating the shares.
>
> Thoughts on this?
>
> "Jabez Gan [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> > My big question here is this, if I used FSMT to transfer all my shares
>> > from
>> > storage1 to storage2 could I then power down/disconnect storage1 from
>> > the
>> > network, remove its hostname from DNS and then create an alias of
>> > 'storage1'
>> > and point that to storage2? I would then expected any clients looking
>> > to
>> > storage1 would pull that same share off of storage2 instead.
>>
>> What about the clients' cached IP address of the hostname (storage1)? it
>> will try to point to the old IP address, until the client flushes their
>> DNS?
>>
>>
>>
 
Re: Migrate File Shares

It looks like we are going to have to do a host name alias as opposed to
using dfs consolidation wizard. I will look at introducing DFS afterwards so
I can approach it slowly.

Thanks for the info and confirming my path.



"Jabez Gan [MVP]" wrote:

> Lowering the DHCP renew time and DNS cache sounds good.
>
> If you are planning to DFS, I suggest that you test everything in a test
> environment before you do the migration. This will gives you a full hands on
> before you jump into the migration.
>
> --
> Jabez Gan
> Microsoft MVP: File Storage
> "a_user" <auser@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:4538C313-A25D-469C-A38F-72D6BA5F24ED@microsoft.com...
> >I was planning on lowering the dhcp renew time to a couple/few hours and
> > lowering the dns cache timeout to a couple hours as well and then
> > performing
> > the migration over the weekend.
> >
> > I was contemplating using the DFS consolidation wizard but I am a little
> > confused about having to rename the hosts to be migrated. If they are
> > renamed
> > how are the clients going to continue to pick up the old address? I
> > understand dfs creates redirectors in DNS but what about the time the
> > servr
> > is in a transistion period. If I went with the dfs consolidation route I
> > would want to take my time migrating the shares.
> >
> > Thoughts on this?
> >
> > "Jabez Gan [MVP]" wrote:
> >
> >> > My big question here is this, if I used FSMT to transfer all my shares
> >> > from
> >> > storage1 to storage2 could I then power down/disconnect storage1 from
> >> > the
> >> > network, remove its hostname from DNS and then create an alias of
> >> > 'storage1'
> >> > and point that to storage2? I would then expected any clients looking
> >> > to
> >> > storage1 would pull that same share off of storage2 instead.
> >>
> >> What about the clients' cached IP address of the hostname (storage1)? it
> >> will try to point to the old IP address, until the client flushes their
> >> DNS?
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
>
 
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