Upgrading Windows 2000 Server to Windows 2003 Serv

[dbrewer]

Hello,

Has anyone ever upgraded a server before? If so, I think that I may need help upgrading Windows 2000 Server to Windows 2003 Server.

I have basic questions like, "Is it hard to do? Does it take a long time? Am I suppose to upgrade the forest in Windows 2000 Server, before upgrading the OS? If so, how do I do that?"

I think that I'm just pretty nervous, as I am doing this for the first time and would hate to mess everything up. Could you help me or send me to a step-by-step website, explaining how to get job completed successfully?

Thanks!

[Kernel_Killer]

There are so many things to take into consideration for this.What services are you running, and what ones are you providing to remote users? Aside from that, there are so many things that weill have to be prepared before you upgrade, or you are going to break your server. I guess you can start there, and we can try to work are way from there. What you are going to want to watch more most of all, is the Active Directory, and the DNS servers. Other things might apply as well, but I really can't give you a heads up without knowing what exact the server's role is. As for a online how-to, I don't know of one. Sorry.

[trickster]

As a rule, I never upgrade servers unless strictly necessary. If you ever run into any funny issues, you don't know if the upgrade caused it or something else.
I don't believe the upgrade will take a lot of time. 1.5-2hrs perhaps.
I don't *THINK* you need to upgrade the forest (notice I said THINK). You would just not get the extra 2003 functionality.
If you do decide to upgrade, look at this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325379

You might alwso want to check the Microsoft Knowledge Base. They do tend to have good articles on the subject.

[trickster]

This is a nice article on upgrading servers:

http://www.samspublishing.com/articl...&seqNum=5&rl=1