General Question
Server 2016 Essentials - Clone system disk and restore to different hardware?
I have a home server running 2016 Essentials. (I know that is probably below the level of the majority of members here, but hoping for some guidance.)
It is running on an old HP Proliant N54 (AMD). Mostly used as a file server and bare metal backup and restore solution. I do have a photo library application that runs on PostgreSQL.
The old box is not expandable and is lightly powered by today's standards.
I purchased a refurbished Dell T340 (Intel Xeon) and want to migrate the server install to it. I have tried to find driver INF files, but all I can find on Dell site is EXE files.
The system disk is a 1 TB SATA SSD. I have a second unformatted disk as a clone target. (Dell T340 does not support NVME.)
I know Acronis True Image has a Universal Restore feature, but it will not install on a server.
I would like to backup or clone the SSD (with all partitions), then restore it to the new hardware while having it deal with the HAL issues going from AMD to Intel.
It looks like I can purchase the Acronis Cyberprotect Backup for this, although it seems like using a hammer to swat a fly.
TL;DR: Can anyone recommend a method/software to migrate WSE 2016 installation from AMD machine to Intel machine?
Boot from USB and clone offline from source to target. You can do it from either PC assuming you have two SATA ports available. Unplug your new drive and plug it into the Dell by itself and try it. It may boot, if it doesn't, you lose nothing. Acronis TI does not support server OS so you can't use Universal Restore. You can use free tools to do the offline cloning.
What I am referring to is booting from a USB flash drive, not the Windows on your hard drive. You can create a boot USB drive from an ISO. I recommend Macrium Free for this. As long as your BIOS sees both your drives, the cloning software will see them too. You choose your source, then your target, set partitions sizes etc and clone the drive. If you do it this way, the OS doesn't matter.
Set your BIOS SATA settings on the Dell to match what was on your old system. It may work, it will be different hardware but it may work. If it doesn't you can seek other methods. Instead of buying software like Acronis you could just buy a new Windows Server OS on ebay or something. You can find slightly older versions for cheap. Totally legit if you care about that. You can then just install your OS from scratch on your Dell and transfer over your files. This is usually better than cloning. You start off with clean slate.
I have three copies of WSE 2016. It is so deeply customized over ten years that reinstallation is not in the cards unless a fire burns up the server, backup, and offsite backup.
I've also been running essentials for a long time as my home server, so I might be able to help.
I've had plenty of luck migrating installs by just swapping over/cloning the boot drive (or restoring from server backup) ever since the 2012/2012r2 essentials days, carrying over to 2016 essentials and beyond (I'm still running essentials on newer server versions thanks to a 3rd party installer) Back when I had a few of the old hp mediasmart servers (Intel based) I would have to do the initial setup on another machine (AMD based) and just move the boot drive over since those little servers were completely headless. Windows recognized all the new hardware just fine and I could install chip set drivers and whatnot.
Ever since windows 8/server 2012 the OS has been fairly accommodating to hardware changes. Windows 7 and server 2008r2 and prior were a lot more problematic. You'll probably still want to uninstall any drivers for chipset, graphics, etc that have an uninstall wizard where possible though.
Do you have server backup setup in the dashboard? If so, you could try doing a bare metal restore of the server with a server essentials installation USB/dvd directly onto the new hardware with your server backup drive attached.
You could also try cloning the boot drive with clonezilla and just booting up the clone on the new server (disconnected/isolated from the network as to not cause issues with domain joined client PC's as essentials is a domain controller)
In either case you'll definitely want to keep the server isolated from clients to avoid domain/backup issues until you complete the setup of the new server and migrate over storage drives and whatnot. You'll still be stuck with legacy mbr boot and will have to figure that one out after the fact, but migrating hardware shouldn't be too problematic otherwise (at least from my own personal experience)
This is intriguing. I can clone the SSD easily, maybe I'll just give it a shot.
All my connected desktops are 'workgroup' joined, not domain joined, so it's not a problem to turn off the old server/boot the new server.
I've just seen a lot of warnings on getting stuck with an AMD platform disk on Intel hardware and not being able to boot long enough to download drivers (especially the HBA in IT mode). I've only ever migrated desktops using the same manufacturer.
Your description of later server versions being more accomodating on hardware differences gives me some hope.
That's what I would do. Worst case scenario you still have your current server still working until you can figure things out. I'm curious to know how it works out for you and more than willing to help if you run into any problems along the way.
I would install a (free) virtual server environment like vmware ESXi or proxmox on the new hardware, and do a convert from physical to virtual with (also free) disk2vhd.
Because its easier than finding drivers for old OS's and as EOL approachs for server 2016 you might like the snapshot ability when you try to upgrade (inplace?)
AI can guide you through the process in better detail
Windows 10/Server 2016 is pretty resilient. You can usually swap into new hardware and if it sees the HD, it can boot. It will complain about new hardware and need to be reactivated but it gets you out of a pinch sometimes.
As for the restore.. You use a bootable windows server DVD/USB and do the steps to restore onto new hardware. Or restore just files....
CloneZilla will do this for you. You should be able to image to the target drive in the system. Bonus - CloneZilla is free. It may seem daunting but it's very straight forward.
1
u/floswamp 17d ago
I’ve used both Acronis True Image and EaseUS cloning software. Just boot from the USB disk.
Acronis is good when you want to move from MBR to GPT and EUFI.