It seems that everyone already knows about this: July 14 of this year, support for Windows Server 2003 / R2 was officially discontinued. But the discussion about what needs to be done and whether it is worth doing something at all continues. I suggest looking at the current situation from a strategic point of view. First, to understand how this can affect the company's business processes, and look at the situation from a legal (as well as technical and economic) point of view. Secondly, to understand why consultants on migration from the old OS to the latest versions are needed, what is the use of them. And, finally, to make life easier for many companies by talking about the practical experience of migrating websites based on IIS technology using the Web Deployment Tool.

End of support for Windows Server 2003 / R2. Lyrics

What does the end of WS2003 / R2 support mean for a business? At first glance, it may probably seem that this will lead to:

1. Additional costs for licenses and, possibly, new equipment (we already bought them 12 years ago. Again?!?!).
2. Problems with regulatory authorities (especially for companies that store personal data (and which companies do not store them?), Since WS2003 / R2 no longer receives security updates, which means failure to fulfill the requirements for ensuring the safety of personal data.
3. Inconsistency with various standards: both local and industry, and this may limit the ability of the company to participate in a number of tenders, lead to penalties, etc.

Based on the foregoing, it may seem that the end of support for WS2003 / R2 is a negative event that leads to costs, problems, and “again, IT instead of helping in a crisis, asks for money.” After all, no one needs additional problems, risks and costs in a difficult economic period. In addition, many companies are only cutting IT budgets and demanding IT departments not only cut costs, but increase efficiency. How, then, under such conditions to carry out migration and whether to conduct it at all? Maybe it’s better to leave everything as it is “until better times”?

Let's figure it out in order. We decompose the standard situation in a typical IT department into goals, requirements and limitations.

Objectives:

1. IT cost reduction
2. Increase efficiency

Requirements:

1. Meeting Business Expectations
2. Solution and support of business tasks by IT

Limitations:

1. Reduced IT Budget
2. End of support for WS2003 / R2

As we can see, the last point is only one part of the overall picture. And it gives an excellent opportunity to review the entire IT strategy. Reconsider the company's IT infrastructure. Look at it from different angles and understand how to optimize it and adapt it to a new reality. And do you have modernization projects that were constantly delayed due to various technical, financial and other restrictions? It's time to review them and re-evaluate them!

Decide what is in your infrastructure. To do this, first of all we will get answers to questions such as:

• How many servers are there? What OS are installed on them?
• What kind of load do they experience and what characteristics / capacities do they have?
• Do you have Windows Server 2003 / R2? What roles, services and applications are assigned to it?
• Which of these applications are used? Who uses them?
• Is it possible to move roles, services and applications to other servers with the latest OS?

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit Infrastructure Planning Application can help with this information . The result of his work will be a report with an analysis of the existing infrastructure and technical recommendations for its optimization or transfer to the MS Azure cloud.



After the answers to the questions are found and the analysis of the existing infrastructure is carried out, it may turn out that:

1. You do not have servers running WS2003 / R2.
2. You have enough resources to simply transfer the roles / services / applications from Windows Server 2003 / R2 to other available servers with the latest version of the OS and remove them from support.
3. You do not use the available resources as efficiently as possible, and it is possible to free up some of the licenses / equipment.
4. That very unique accounting application is mercilessly outdated and has a modern analogue, and it is no longer necessary to support a 2003 server for it (usually, modern applications allow you to work more efficiently, include new functions, etc.)

After you understand what you have now and how it is used, it is time to compare your vision of the further development of IT with the business, to understand what the business needs from IT:

• What are the strategic goals of the business?
• What are his plans for the foreseeable future and what are his expectations from IT? Perhaps this is an increase in employee mobility? Or the opening of new branches around the world?

After evaluating the goals of the business, you can choose the most effective way to achieve them. After all, updating the infrastructure with a vision of the future, you are making a big reserve for the flexibility, scalability and effectiveness of its further use. Perhaps it’s time to remember about migration consultants . Why would a company, and the IT department in particular, need an external migration consultant? After all, in the IT department there are cool specialists who can do everything themselves.

The list below shows the migration steps. Their duration depends on the specific infrastructure and qualifications of the personnel who will carry them out:

1. Analysis of existing infrastructure
2. Migration Plan Development
3. Choosing the best solution
4. Implementation of the solution (in fact, migration)
5. Analysis and testing of the migration result

Now try to evaluate:

• Are there any specialists in the IT department who are able to allocate the required time to this project and do they have sufficient qualifications and experience?
• How will this affect the ongoing support of services?
• If you carry out a migration project on the job, what are the deadlines in the end and with what efficiency?
• how well and thoughtfully migration will be carried out and how will this affect the stability of services?

If you have:

• small amounts of work (less than 15 servers);
• there are free and sufficiently qualified resources or migrated services / applications are not critical,

then the best solution would be to do the migration project on your own.

However, if you have:

• sufficiently large infrastructure (more than 15 servers);
• there are business critical services / applications;
• due to the “Reduced IT Budget” restriction, IT department employees are busy and cannot allocate the necessary time for the project to be implemented without harming the services provided,

it is recommended that you select a migration consultant company that can either complete all the migration work or implement part of it. For example, it will assess the existing infrastructure and give recommendations for its modernization, and you will implement the implementation of the proposals yourself.

The advantages of an IT outsourcer are that it is a company with a highly qualified professional who has more than one completed project and is well aware of the possible “pitfalls” and possible difficulties in the process. He will help you in the formation and implementation of your IT strategy, synchronized with the business strategy.



For example, it recommends a closer look at cloud solutions:

1. if the strategic goal of the business is a clause on increasing employee mobility, and you have a 2003 server on which MS Exchange is deployed, then the Office 365 cloud solution may be useful instead of migrating to another server.
2. if the business plans to open branches around the world, then we will pay attention to MS Azure.
3. perhaps it’s also time to take a closer look at hybrid clouds and consider transferring a number of non-critical services to the public cloud, and deploy business-critical ones in a private cloud inside the organization?

In the picture below you can see various options for providing cloud services. Reasons for migrating to the public cloud:

• No need to maintain and maintain a server
• It is possible to choose the appropriate option for obtaining resources and their volumes (IaaS, PaaS or SaaS)
• High fault tolerance.

If any applications or services cannot be transferred to the hosting in the public cloud, then you can build a hybrid cloud based on Windows Server 2012 R2 & System Center 2012 R2 & Windows Azure. Pros Hybrid Cloud:

• You define and host applications and services in your private cloud that should not be public.
• You have the opportunity to use both the resources of your cloud and MS Azure, which allows you to flexibly control the availability of applications or services and the amount of required capacity.

Our site migration experience with IIS 6.0

Having considerable practical experience of migrating sites from IIS 6.0 to the latest versions, I want to share a guide on such migration using the Web Deployment Tool.

Before starting the migration, make sure that:

1. You have a backup.
2. If the site uses the SQL database, make sure that it was previously migrated to the new server.
3. You have all the necessary logins and passwords.
4. All ports necessary for the operation of sites are open on the new server.

What can I migrate with the Web Deployment Tool?

• 1 or 1000 web sites, including their configurations, content and certificates.
• Application.
• The entire server (all websites, application pools, registry keys, content, etc.).
• A custom manifest consisting of sites, an application pool, registry keys, content, etc.

For migration, you must have installed .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 or higher and Web Deployment Tool. (How to install the web deployment tool can be seen here (eng) or here (rus)).

Step 1. Check the site’s dependencies and find the scripts or installed components that it uses.

1. Check the web site dependencies using the following command
   

   msdeploy -verb:getDependencies -source:metakey=lm/w3svc/1

   1 is the site ID
2. Look at the output of the dependencies and determine which components the site uses. For example, if the site uses windows authorization, the output of the command will be as follows:
   

   /.

3. If the site inherits any scripts, then they will not be in the list of dependencies, inherited scripts will need to be checked manually.

A detailed description of the analysis of the getDependencies command output can be found here .

Step 2. Configure the target server.

According to the list of dependencies obtained in the 1st step, install the necessary components. For example, if your dependency list contains components:

• ASP.NET
• Windows Authentication
• Anonymous Authentication

Therefore, based on this list of dependencies, you will need to install the appropriate components and modules.

Step 3. Migrating the site using the archive

1. Always backup the server you plan to migrate to. Even in case of testing. This will allow you to quickly return the server to its original state.
   

   %windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd add backup “PreWebDeploy”

2. To create a file with a site archive, on the source server, run the command:
   

   msdeploy -verb:sync  -source:metakey=lm/w3svc/1 -dest:package=c:\Site1.zip > WebDeployPackage.log

   1 is the site ID
3. Copy the resulting archive to the target server.
4. To check what happens when synchronization starts, run the command on the target server
   

   msdeploy -verb:sync -source:package=c:\Site1.zip -dest:metakey=lm/w3svc/1 -whatif > WebDeploySync.log

   1 is the site ID
5. After checking the results of the command, execute it without the –whatif key (of course, if the output of the previous command was error-free)
   

   msdeploy -verb:sync -source:package=c:\Site1.zip -dest:metakey=lm/w3svc/1 > WebDeploySync.log

   1 is the site ID

Migrating a site using web deployment agent service

If you want to use real-time site synchronization, you can use the Web Deployment Agent Service.

1. Install the Web Deployment Agent Service on the source or target server, or both for maximum flexibility in possible synchronization scenarios (the agent can either receive synchronized data from the source or send it)
2. Start the service
   

   net start msdepsvc

3. Run the following command to start synchronization (sending data) from a local source to a remote server (replace Server1 with the name of your server). First, it is recommended to run the command with the –whatif flag, and after checking the results of its execution, without it.
   

   msdeploy -verb:sync -source:metakey=lm/w3svc/1 -dest:metakey=lm/w3svc/1,computername=Server1 -whatif > msdeploysync.log

   1 is the site ID
4. The following command starts synchronization in the “receive” mode of data from a remote server
   

   msdeploy -verb:sync -source:metakey=lm/w3svc/1,computername=Server1 -dest:metakey=lm/w3svc/1 -whatif > msdeploysync.log

   1 is the site ID

This completes the migration process, it remains to verify the operation of the site on the target server. In case of problems, you can use Troubleshooting Web Deploy to find a solution .

It is important to remember that progress is a constant movement. The use of obsolete technologies very often means limitations in opportunities or lagging behind progress, which sooner or later will have to be made up, and the larger the lag, the more efforts will have to be made to reduce it, not to mention catching up with the leaders.

Author aleksjoke