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Hello,

I started to plan migrate a File Server from 6TB with 3 NTFS volume. 2012 → 2022

Most of the permissions are Security based not Group Nasting ( as by groups )

My plan is attach 7 TB new disk to the old File Server and robocopy all data gradually with permissions.

Then deattach the disk and for the new server. + i will configure DFS not for replica but namespace sync with DC01 and DC02. Unfortunate that the new server ip address and hostnames wont be the same.

So old file server have about 50-60 Shared folders. As we know robocopy do not copy SMB Sharing permission but only NTFS. I want then to give a permission then not with security but groups.

What is yours recommendations, how to specify all groups permissions with tool like ntfs permission reporter. Manually one by one is impossible because of thousands of documents and folders.

every recommendation is crucial for me to migrate smoothly.

Thank you all

7 Spice ups
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it can if you are copying via shares, why not just put the drives on the new server to start with and map a temporary share to copy files across?
It will be slower, but you are only doing this once…

robocopy /E /COPY:SOU <source_smb_path> <destination_smb_path>

4 Spice ups
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The way I approached something similar, was to set up DFSR between the two file servers and wait for it to complete. The replica can then be broken and the old server removed, once everything is pointing at the new server.

3 Spice ups
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You can also do this over the network using UNC paths. robocopy has a lot of capabilities…too many to list here…but you can limit bandwidth (pause between packets, etc.) and choose varying levels of file attributes to transfer (I often use DATSOU for instance.)

I’m presuming the old server is not virtualized. If it were, I’d just move the VHD’s and mount them to the new server VM.

1 Spice up
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I did a file server migration a couple years ago, from a Windows Server 2012 to a 2019. I explored the idea of a robocopy, or backup-restore, but ultimately landed on the MS Storage Migration Service. Install it as a service to one of your servers (I stood up a short term VM to hold the service, I didn’t even bother to license it because it only ran for a couple of weeks)
Seriously, dead simple to install, almost brainless to execute. It pre-stages (pre-copies) the data, the shares, the NTFS permissions, etc. At cutover time you tell it to make the final bits and it replicates any changes. It also lets you rename/re-IP both the source and target servers as part of the process.
The only issue I had was I was not paying quite close enough attention to that final IP change screen and ended up with two servers having the same IP. What could have been a simple task turned into a simple task with the added bonus of me cruising in to the office to connect via console and update IP addresses.

Seriously, dead simple and painless. I can’t recommend it enough.

1 Spice up
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The best way I recommend for the file server migration is to use a straghtforward data migration tool like Gs Richcopy or Good Sync , both will save your time and are easy and fast

1 Spice up
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What do you mean by that ??

The file server is on DCs ? Then using DFS ?

The sharing permissions are stored on the OS (either export via computer management or registry)