Move Share names and permissions to another server

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Does anyone know a way I can move the share and permissions for my folder
shares from one server to another? We have a server that we are replacing
but this is our main file server and I do not want to go back and recreate
all 500 + shares and permissions that we have set.

I found Tech Article 125996 that looks like it's what I'm looking for but it
doesn't address a concern of mine. That concern is that our old server the
shares are on a G: drive and the new server location will be D:

From what I can tell I can just import the Reg key and then change the reg
key before I restart the server. Just looking for some verification that
this will work.

Thanks

JTT
 
Hello,

I understand you plan to move file server from one machine to another.
According to my test, you can use the KB 125996 to achieve this goal. The
steps will go like this:

1. Backup the share registry key on the old machine, let us called
shares.reg
2. Copy shares.reg to the new machine.
3. Copy all files from the old machine to the new one.
4. Import the shares.reg on the new one.
5. Edit the share registry key to change path from old one to G: drive.
6. Reboot the new machine and you will find the files are shared and all
permissions are retained.

Another very good tool is used to migrate the file is called FSMT , it is a
GUI tool and you don't need manually copy the files, you can also change
the path during the FSMT. For more details, please refer to the following
article:

File Server Migration Toolkit
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/upgrading/nt4/tooldocs/msfsc.mspx
NT
DFS

Frequently Asked Questions About File Server Migration
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/upgrading/nt4/tooldocs/msfst_faqs
mspx

If you have further questions, please feel free to post back.

Best regards,

Rebecca Chen

MCSE2000 MCDBA CCNA


Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

=====================================================

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
Rebecca-

Thanks for the info this will help and answered my question in regards to
the Knowledge base. I do however have a question on the FSMT Tool kit, can
I use this tool to tranfer to another Windows 2000 server?

From what I can see in the FAQ's on the site I can only transfer to Windows
2003 server.

Thanks

JTT
 
Hi JTT,

In general, I'd suggest using tape backup/restore to get all your files
and permissions moved to the new server. It _can_ be done over the
network but there are lots of issues. You may want to do an ACL audit to
make sure no ACLs are server specific before the move (except for
MACHINE\Administrators - you probably can't do much about that one!).

Regarding the shares, I was in the same boat a year ago. I was so
displeased with the solutions offered for this, that I ended up writing
my own JScript program for it. It basically backs up the shares to an
XML file and then can restore them to the new server. Let me know if you
want me to dig it out. Bear in mind you may not want EVERY share from
the old server, but it's easy to just delete them from the XML using a
text editor.
 
Hello,

You are correct that FSMT is not supported on win2k server, you will
receive a error indicated that win2k is not a supported system.

Please forgive me that I always talk about win2k3 recently, however FSMT is
really good tool I would recommned in case you want to migrate files to
win2k3 in the furture. :)

Any update, let us get in touch!

Best regards,

Rebecca Chen

MCSE2000 MCDBA CCNA


Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

=====================================================

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
Gerry-

Thanks for the offer. What I ended up doing was restoring the files with
permissions from tape. Then I used KB Article 125996
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;125996) to export
the Registry Key for the shares from our original server to the new server.

Since the drive letter on the new server was different than the old server,
I opened the exported Registry Key in notepad and did a Find and Replace to
replace the hex code for the path drive letter. I then exported the registry
key into the new server, verified that the paths were correct, removed a
couple of shares that we did not move to the new server (antivirus share) and
the shared printers from the new registry and rebooted the server.

Aside from a handful of shares that I had to re-share the procedure went
very well.

Thanks

JTT
 
Rebecca-

Not a problem, totally understandable, which is why I wanted to verify.

What I ended up doing was restoring the files with permissions from tape.
Then I used KB Article 125996
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;125996) to export
the Registry Key for the shares from our original server to the new server.

Since the drive letter on the new server was different than the old server,
I opened the exported Registry Key in notepad and did a Find and Replace to
replace the hex code for the path drive letter. I then exported the registry
key into the new server, verified that the paths were correct, removed a
couple of shares that we did not move to the new server (antivirus share) and
the shared printers from the new registry and rebooted the server.

Aside from a handful of shares that I had to re-share the procedure went
very well. And since I restored the files with permissions the files that
weren't shared had the correct permissions so I only had to re-share them.

Thanks

JTT
 
That sounds good! :)

Best regards,

Rebecca Chen

MCSE2000 MCDBA CCNA


Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

=====================================================

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
Hi JTT,
Thanks for the offer. What I ended up doing was restoring the files with
permissions from tape. Then I used KB Article 125996
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;125996) to export
the Registry Key for the shares from our original server to the new server.
Click to expand...

I'm glad you got a good solution. The tape restore is nice. Regarding
125996, I don't like it. I guess it's fine if you're only doing it once
but I like being able to backup and restore the shares at the touch of a
button with no direct registry editing.
 
Back
Top