Critical Steps to be Considered to Migrate to Windows Server 2012
As noticed in Windows Server 2012, Microsoft is no longer releasing Service packs as with previous releases. Instead Microsoft calls monthly"Update Rollups". These contains partial set of hot fixes to address performance and reliability issues. This Roll Ups are not cumulative. So we may end up installing multiple rollups to get the latest Kernels, Drivers and dynamic link libraries.
Also noticed how quickly Microsoft released Windows Server 2012 R2 - The R2 release provides some great new features such as Cluster shareable Virtual Disks, but it also represents first cumulative set of hotfixes since windows Server 2012 release.
The Windows Server OS continues to make great strides in terms of Functionality, Performance and Reliability. Significant enhancements in Windows Server 2012 to make it worth.
The Goal of migrating is to recreate your environment on new OS version with same Roles, Features and settings. By doing a fresh, Clean installation on new hardware ensures no baggage transfer to new version. This provided best stability and performance. If we starts with complete set of backup with our existing servers then we can always restore system if problem arise.
The first step to begin to migrate is to ensure hardware meets minimum requirement. Microsoft maintains Server catalogue that allows to quickly determine that current server is on list of Windows Server 2012 or not.
Another Critical step is to upgrade Server's Bios. To support the new power management Features and other hardware specific enhancements most vendors will release new Bios version. System crashes may be result of Out of Bios date.
Another best practice before migrate to Windows Server is to review list of software products install in case need to install latest version.
As noticed in Windows Server 2012, Microsoft is no longer releasing Service packs as with previous releases. Instead Microsoft calls monthly"Update Rollups". These contains partial set of hot fixes to address performance and reliability issues. This Roll Ups are not cumulative. So we may end up installing multiple rollups to get the latest Kernels, Drivers and dynamic link libraries.
Also noticed how quickly Microsoft released Windows Server 2012 R2 - The R2 release provides some great new features such as Cluster shareable Virtual Disks, but it also represents first cumulative set of hotfixes since windows Server 2012 release.
The Windows Server OS continues to make great strides in terms of Functionality, Performance and Reliability. Significant enhancements in Windows Server 2012 to make it worth.
The Goal of migrating is to recreate your environment on new OS version with same Roles, Features and settings. By doing a fresh, Clean installation on new hardware ensures no baggage transfer to new version. This provided best stability and performance. If we starts with complete set of backup with our existing servers then we can always restore system if problem arise.
The first step to begin to migrate is to ensure hardware meets minimum requirement. Microsoft maintains Server catalogue that allows to quickly determine that current server is on list of Windows Server 2012 or not.
Another Critical step is to upgrade Server's Bios. To support the new power management Features and other hardware specific enhancements most vendors will release new Bios version. System crashes may be result of Out of Bios date.
Another best practice before migrate to Windows Server is to review list of software products install in case need to install latest version.
