More Migration Options

I woke up again this morning to find that I still am an engineer-intern tasked with a job that normally takes $1500 cash to complete. Talk about a steal!

Anyways, I started my additional research after our little network crisis. I was determined to make sure any move I made next was either completely neutral or guaranteed to be successful.

I ran a few searches on Google and found several resources which are very helpful for this sort of thing. One in particular stood out as being very useful. Unfortunately they want your money, but there are ways around the system.

Experts Exchange

This site is great. I fully recommend them, but if you don't feel like forking over the money for solutions you can become an expert for free. Then you can work as an expert to eventually earn your subscription. Being an expert allows you to look at solutions as well, so you can tell if the question has been answered properly.

Searching around on the experts exchange yielded several methods for completing the migration:

1. Follow the whitepaper
2. Perform manual "fresh" install
3. Swing Migration by Jeff Middleton
4. Hardware Independent System Restore
5. Hire an IT contractor

I will briefly review a few of these options here and the rest I will leave for other posts.

1. Follow the whitepaper.

This option is only for those with strong constitutions. You should be a seasoned veteran of administration before attempting this process. There are too many variables subject to change and too many places where a lack of clarity in explanations will ultimately lead to a complete failure, and/or possible disaster.

Even with the additional help afforded by some posts on the experts exchange or elsewhere, you will still find that you are better off avoiding that method. I remember reading suggestions like this and thinking that it was all a bunch of hype. After reading some more, I realized that others had felt that way too but now were faced with reality. They had found that it is indeed best to avoid the hassle of the whitepaper.

2. A fresh manual install is a good solution for a small business with <10 computers. I'll have more details on this later, if I decide its the way to go.

3. Swing Migration

This I have been reading a lot about. Nearly every search result I get I find that someone has recommended Jeff Middleton's documentation on the swing migration technique. I am not exaggerating. I have searched all the way to page ten of Google for any negative feedback regarding this method and have found none. Any issues are resolved by his email support which is said to be highly responsive.

After going through what I went through I am naturally skeptical. So I have waited on this idea for a while.

What it boils down to:

$200 for a large piece of documentation detailing the swing migration procedure. 90 days of email support, and unlimited use of the documentation by one person.

Its not a bad deal, easily one of the most hailed methods I have found. Of course I am not completely convinced that half of the positive feedback I have found hasn't been planted. The whole thing sounds too good to be true... But so far this is the only solution that seems viable.

It is my plan to submit this method tomorrow and hopefully get some funding approved for the kit. I will have a blog entry that details what happens along this course of action in the future.

4. Hardware Independent System Restore

This method is mentioned in a few expert-exchange posts. To some this is the ideal migration method because it provides a quick and painless way to upgrade your server hardware.

It works by essentially creating a system restore file containing a ghosted image of your current server hard drive. Normally when a previous windows installation is loaded onto a new piece of hardware, the installation will fail to function. The reason has something to do with hardware profiles, and licensing protection. This type of restore is typically accomplished with some kind of restore suite specifically designed to work around hardware changes. Apart from being powerful backup solutions, the software is intended to function as a migration tool.

The only issue with this is the large cost. Since most companies who produce this migration software now understand IT professionals use it to perform profitable server migrations, most have disabled the HIR (hardware independent restore) function in their trial ware. Before this happened you could download a thirty day trial version of the software and get the job done before anyone was the wiser, not anymore...

There are a few software suite's which have the HIR technology:

-StorageCraft
-Acronis
-LiveState aka Backup Exec System Recovery Server Edition

None of these options are cheap... It used to be that you could download trial versions of these software suites and use them to perform your system migration before the trial expired. Now, StorageCraft does not provide the trial software with HIR. Symantec's software is not known for being successful. Acronis seems to be the only promising option. But it is noted by most the HIR method is not as guaranteed as a swing migration. The prices for the full suites are as follows (note! these prices were retrieved from their respective websites on the date of publish of this blog, I am not responsible for any changes made to the software or prices that are unaccounted for in this or any other post):

1,279.51 for Symantec
589.00 for Acronis
3,500 for StorageCraft IT Edition

note: the price listed for StorageCraft is for an unlimited license. A single license for an IT professional would cost $495


Obviously these are pretty expensive. Compared to the price of a swing kit. Compared to the price of going it alone, perhaps they would be worth it...


5. Hire an IT Contractor

This option is really more of a bargaining chip for me. I work in the California Bay Area. I Googled several IT contractors to request quotes from them. After a few replies I had heard all I needed.

Most IT companies will put the estimated work time at 10 hours to perform the migration. Their standard rate for service is usually somewhere in the range of 150-200 dollars per hour. One contractor quoted me for 1500 flat.

Most of the companies offer support, and most are not purely interested in your single job. They want to find a way to become a part of your company, whether it be by supporting your company's IT department for a monthly fee, or by revamping your entire technical structure. This is a sort of up-selling and you should keep an eye out for it when you request quotes. I am not implying this type of business is negative, just that it exists.

One last thing about IT contractors. With them you are pretty much guaranteed the job will be completed to your satisfaction. It is by far the easiest method yet it is also one of the most expensive.



So there you have it, the most popular migration methods laid out in one page... I can affirm right now I will probably be going with the swing migration method having tried the whitepaper and knowing that the manual migration will be a huge pain in the ass. I wish there was some special key word that I could say to convince anyone reading this that I am not paid by Jeff Middleton... honestly maybe I should be paid for this hahah. Anyways, I hope this helps people!