Command line error exporting CompanyWeb SBS 2008 or SBS2011

Some of us are great at command line syntax and some of us are not. Cut and Paste to the rescue for those of us aren't. What a shame that sometimes cutting and pasting to avoid problems sometimes causes them instead. During a recent SBS 2003 to SBS2008 migration the client was a heavy user of CompanyWeb. Most migrations that I have done the client did not even have a clue as to what CompanyWeb was, so frequently I did not have to go through the tedious steps of Migrating CompanyWeb. This particular customer needed it Migrated and Imported into the new CompanyWeb site. I went through all the steps to migrate the content database and create the OldCompanyWeb site as a secondary site succesfully. When I tried to backup the newly created site using cut and pasted command line from the Microsoft Migration White Paper I got "Command line error" and stsadm usage intructions.

 After doing web searches for my particular error all that I found were work-arounds using backup and restore vs. Import and export or removing the -includeusersecurity switch. I did not want to risk trashing the new site by using a work-around, so I tried using the export funtion without the –includeusersecurity switch. It worked, so I decided to manually type the switch, much to my suprise that worked as well. I have no idea what was being copied over when cut and pasting but it was something it didn’t like in the last line of the command. Hope this helps other command line challenged users.

SBS 2011 to Migrate or Start Fresh

     The time has come again for all of us lucky SBS fans to think about how to tread in the minefield known as the SBS migrations. The advent of virtual machines has given us an excellent test bed for various different scenarios and also a means to protect ourselves and our clients from " migrations gone wrong" and all the joy that comes with them. If my first try from SBS 2008 to SBS 2011 would have been on a client network, they probably would not be a client anymore. They certainly would not have been happy with me.

   Since my wife plays the role of irate customer very well, my home network is a great place to hone my skills. Minimal impact and disruption to the end user is always the goal. With that being said, what kind of options do we have to achieve this.

1. Microsoft White Paper on a live network ( a path fraught with hidden disasters lurking around every bend)
2. A Jeff Middelton swing migration (excellent stuff, protects the client network from the hidden disasters since most work is done offline from the production network. I don't think he has his SBS 2011 scenarios available yet.) There is a cost for the Swing Kits.
3. A Microsoft or Swing Migration done virtually.( a path with no impact on the live network, should something blow up.)
4. Fresh install. (depending on how many users )

  My first attempt will be a Microsoft White Paper done virtually to keep me out of trouble. The adventures continue here http://bnwinc.blogspot.com/p/various-migration-adventures.html

Restoring from WHS to Hyper-V

So, after backing up a server over the internet with WHS and Hamachi, why not try and restore it to a Hyper-V virtual machine. I always thought it would work, but had never verified the process first hand.
With this in mind I created a new Hyper-V machine with the proper amount of disk space for the image of the server that I had backed up.
I connect to the machine and boot off the WHS restore disk, I get to the point where it tells me what devices have been detected and it shows several disks but no network devices. Without a network connection there will be no way to restore to the VHD. You can't put drivers on a thumbdrive because the Virtual machine won't be able to find it. Although here is a link on how extract the drivers out of vmguest.iso http://www.windeploy.co.uk/blog/index.php/2009/10/extracting-hyper-v-r2-drivers/ . I tried to add another drive to the machine with the extracted drivers, but it still didn't find them. I searched some posts and found a few where they suggested that you add a legacy network adapter. I tried that, making sure to link it to the adapter connected to the network. I continued with the restore and this time it showed an emulated network adapter. It still would not find the WHS box. I cleared the server name and re-entered it. This time it asked for a password and found the server. I then chose what backup to restore and started restoring the backup of the remote physical machine to my Hyper-V server. I am not sure what kind of throughput I got with the emulated legacy adapter, it wasn't blazing and the connection said 100 meg.
So a couple of hours later, my 30 gig remote server had found a new home as a virtual machine on my Hyper-V box. It booted first try and installed integration components without a hitch.