SBS 2008 Restore to alternate Hardware

SBS 2008 Restore to ML 110 G5

Following on from an earlier blog post where I had tested the restore of my SBS 2008 to alternate hardware, on Saturday I restored my SBS 2008 server to an ML 110 G5. Here’s the process I’ve used to transfer SBS 2008 from an ML110 G4 to an ML110 G5.

1. Ensure that backups have been running fine for the past few days.  I did this by going into the SBS 2008 console and selecting the Backup & Shared Folders tab and then select “Restore a backup”.  Here you will see the list of all the backups for this server.  I reviewed the last few backups and decided all was good.
2. I disconnected the SBS 2008/ML110 G4 server from the network and then used the SBS 2008 console to perform a “Backup Now” operation. This ensures that I have everything I need before I start.
3. Once the backup was complete, I left the old server running so I could easily see anything I needed to in event of emergency.  
4. I setup the ML 110 G5 on the bench with no network connection.
5. I inserted the SBS 2008 DVD into the DVD drive and booted up without the USB backup drive connected.
6. Select the correct Language and Country options and Next
7. Select “Repair Your Computer”
8. Connected my USB backup drive to the server
9. Select “Complete PC Restore” and it scanned the USB Hard Drive for the backup images.  It found the most recent backup and displayed it as 2:29pm on 20th November when in fact I had backed it up at 9:29AM on 21st November.  Thats ok – it also displayed the timezone information which allowed me to see that this was the right backup.  I selected that backup and Next.
10. SBS 2008 doesn’t have the RAID controller drivers for the ML 110 G5 inbuilt so I had to use the Add Drivers button to add the drivers.  I had to however plug in the USB stick with the RAID drivers on them first which I did.  I selected the right drivers and hit Next.
11. I ticked the box to confirm that I wanted to erase the drives and proceed with the restore. It’s 9:50am now and the restore is proceeding… time to wait.
12. 12:20pm – just on 2.5 hours since the restore started, it’s finished and rebooting.  Remove the USB devices while it’s rebooting and take out the SBS 2008 DVD or it might try to boot from that again.
13. I connected a loopback adapter to the servers NIC so that it had a network interface to bind too.
14. Logged in to the server and it starts to ask for drivers… I’ve elected to say “Ask me later” as I want to install all the drivers myself first up and then go from there.
15. I copied the folder I prepared earlier with all the drivers downloaded from the HP website to the desktop of the ML110 G5.  I then set about installing them all beginning with the ML110 G5 Chipset drivers first, RAID Drivers second, and then the Network Card and Video drivers.
16. I connected the network cable to the server and then opened the SBS 2008 Console and ran the “Connect to the Internet” wizard and used it to confirm and fix my servers IP address as it was before.
17. Reboot and check the servers event logs – all looks great. Test everything and connect a new backup drive and we’re done.
18. Total time around 3 hours or so.  Not bad using the inbuilt tools that come with SBS 2008.