Issues & Questions After Migration

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Steve - 30 Jul 2007 18:48 GMT

I did a sbs2k3 std migration according to sbsmigration and it worked so-so
well.

while preparing my new server box i installed a backup raid solution, the
server recognized the configuration and allowed me to access the data. no
problems.

When it came time to transfer the raid-5 solution from the old server to the
new server, the data on the raid configuration was gone, nothing. the drive
was there but nothing on it. i put it back in the old server and the data was
still gone.

Good thing was that i had a current backup, bad thing was that the backup
was bad. the most current backup that functioned was 3 days old. All my
workstations worked in cache mode, so i would simply synch up after
everything was done, replacing anything in AD with what was on the
workstations. i did it on a couple of workstations and that worked well,
thought i was in good shape. After 16 hours i thought i would get some rest
and do the remainder of the workstations upon my return the next morning.
While the exchange clients worked and all email was retained, on many
workstations the newer and updated files in 'My Documents' folders were no
longer available to synch back to their folders on the server.

at what point and how do those files get simply erased on the workstations?

i know that when reconnecting and resynching it warns one of the differences
and asks what to do, keep both versions, replace with newer version, etc, but
none of this took place on those workstations. While the users can live with
it, I would like to know what may have happened to the data???

i also re-installed the trend micro smb clients for server and exchange, but
they do not want to communicate or connect with the dashboard which runs on a
xpp station. Does anyone know which ports to configure in group policy to
allow it to communicate? The server also reconfigured the firewalls on the
clients to block communications. Trend Micro support request page has been
down. I don't think that they know it and they have not provided any
alternate method of contact.

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Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] - 31 Jul 2007 16:54 GMT

> I did a sbs2k3 std migration according to sbsmigration and it worked
> so-so well.
>
> while preparing my new server box i installed a backup raid solution,

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this - please elaborate.

> the server

The *old* server?

>recognized the configuration and allowed me to access the
> data. no problems.
>
> When it came time to transfer the raid-5 solution from the old server
> to the new server, the data on the raid configuration was gone,

What kind of RAID? Was this an external SCSI/SAS array enclosure?

> nothing. the drive was there but nothing on it. i put it back in the
> old server and the data was still gone.

Where was your data on the old server *before* you installed this backup
RAID thingy?

> Good thing was that i had a current backup, bad thing was that the
> backup was bad.

Ouch. But where was the data on the old server, originally? Isn't the old
server still intact, with all its data on it? If you ever have to do this
again, make sure you aren't doing anything to the old server that would
render it unusable - one of the points of doing a swing, is that you can
pretty easily undo/switch back if you have problems. A USB hard drive is a
useful way to copy data if you don't want to do it across a network
connection....robocopy is one of my favorite resource kit tools.

> the most current backup that functioned was 3 days
> old. All my workstations worked in cache mode,

I think you mean "using offline files" ....note that "cached mode" is an
Outlook 2003/2007 term.

> so i would simply
> synch up after everything was done, replacing anything in AD with
> what was on the workstations.

Ooh, that's dangerous. ....offline files is not meant to act as a
backup/restore like this.

> i did it on a couple of workstations
> and that worked well, thought i was in good shape. After 16 hours i
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> newer and updated files in 'My Documents' folders were no longer
> available to synch back to their folders on the server.

But are the now-unsync'd files still available in the cache on each client?
If so, you can probably get at them...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/884739
(you need to call MS for CSCCMD 1.1, I believe, but they shouldn't charge
you)

> at what point and how do those files get simply erased on the
> workstations?

Not sure, but Offline Files is fraught with danger, as far as I'm concerned!
I don't use it for LAN connected users/computers. I have seen many instances
of data loss with it, and I don't think it's worth it. Plus, if my file
server isn't up, I don't want users working on their files at all. IT should
always (or nearly always) be up.

> i know that when reconnecting and resynching it warns one of the
> differences and asks what to do, keep both versions, replace with
> newer version, etc, but none of this took place on those
> workstations. While the users can live with it, I would like to know
> what may have happened to the data???

The users don't care about the lost data? Hell, I want to work for this
company :)

> i also re-installed the trend micro smb clients for server and
> exchange, but they do not want to communicate or connect with the
> dashboard which runs on a xpp station. Does anyone know which ports
> to configure in group policy to allow it to communicate?

Whatever port you configured when you set up CSM (the client communication
port). I always set it to 12345. You can find this in one of the ini
files....but you're probably going to want to use ipxfer if you're having
communication problems. I'd have uninstalled all the clients first
(centrally, from the old server's Trend console). If you were running the
same version of CSM on the old server as the new one, you needn't have
reinstalled the clients at all - ipxfer is very useful ( but you do need to
remember the communication port you chose during setup)

http://esupport.trendmicro.com/support/viewxml.do?ContentID=en-116122

> The server
> also reconfigured the firewalls on the clients to block
> communications.

What communications? If this were a simple firewall issue, you could stop
the Windows firewall service on the workstations and test.

> Trend Micro support request page has been down. I
> don't think that they know it and they have not provided any
> alternate method of contact.

You can call them on the phone - I always call instead of emailing support
requests. Don't know where you are, but
http://us.trendmicro.com/us/about/contact_us/united_states_canada/index.html
or
http://us.trendmicro.com/us/about/contact_us/index.html
will give you the phone number(s).

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