Pinpoint your legacy customized or internally developed applications that may complicate migration. Analyze existing applications, workloads, and users and the resources required for migration.For small organizations it may be possible in a matter of days, while more complex environments could require months.Ī few basic universal steps must always be taken to ensure migration success: You may need to consider moving one role, feature or application at a time over to the new Operating System. The amount of time that migration may require should not be underestimated. If software and hardware upgrades become part your migration, then you are looking at significant enrichment of your IT environment. An opportunity to take a critical look at aging hardware, data storage, and your virtual environment has now presented itself. While some fear this as time consuming, it also offers extra advantages. The other option is a fresh install and migrate approach.

Then we must hope that no manual modifications have been made that could throw a monkey wrench into the upgrade process. When installing the OS upgrade, we are also depending on software creators having correctly taken your unique configuration into account and that all upgrade paths having been thoroughly tested. Additionally, the current hardware must be supported by the new OS. But ask most SysAdmins, and they will describe in-place upgrades as a perilous and problematic endeavor.įirst of all, for an in-place upgrade to work properly the original OS needs to have been installed and maintained properly over time. Let’s look at the steps required for an in-place upgrade from Windows Server 2008R2 to Windows Server 2019:Īs we can see in the graphic, getting current with in-place upgrades from 2008R2 is possible via three upgrade steps: 2008 R2 -> 2012 -> 2016 -> 2019. But trying to run a modern OS on a 10+ year old hardware is really only half of the problem. Cash strapped businesses may find it poor timing for even small IT investments. This is not to say that using your existing hardware is impossible.

But change is inevitable and the best approach is to bring an attitude of positive change to the table.

Perhaps the reason some businesses procrastinate is because of the imposed schedule, the possibilities for data loss or disruption of business. ( Windows 7 support is also ending - read the 5 steps to prepare.) But Microsoft Windows Server 20 R2 is rapidly approaching its end of life and now is the time to bring servers current to ensure regular security updates, support and future bug fixes. Nobody enjoys being forced to make major changes to their servers within a short timeframe.

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