We plan to retire two existing 2-node Prod clusters running Windows
2000 Ad and Windows 2003 respectively and hosting 4 SQL Server 2000
instances each, with one new 2-node cluster with latest hardware
running Windows 2003 SP2. We want to keep the same name and IPs for
Virtual SQL servers and migrate all the settings like security,
replication, maintenance plans, jobs, alerts, DTS packages, port
numbers etc to new setup..

We plan to build new cluster ahead of time. As migration strategy,
we shut down the source instance and create a new instance on target
cluster with same name and IP during off-business hours.

What approach can we follow to achieve this? If we retain the drive
letters and file paths, will overwriting master, model, and msdb files
from source to target accomplish the objective? I doubt as cluster and
nodes names are different.

I am looking for guidance to approach this.
Thanks
SunnyS

It should work as long as your instance names, drive paths, and installation
paths are the same on the new cluster as they were on the old. I havent
tried this in a Windows 2003 cluster, but i have moved SQL 2000 standalone
database servers from 1 Windows 2003 server to another by copying the MSSQL
folder over to the new box. I have also decommissioned and migrated SQL
servers multiple times and used DNS to make the experience to the end user
seemless. Node names and virtual server names should not cause you an issue,
as you can change the associated virtual server name in the master database
for each instance (if needed. Most apps dont really care. Microsoft Solomon
does).

There are many approaches to this and it all depends on how clean you want
to make the cutover.

1. Your approach. This will work fine, except that you will be building
out pieces of the cluster at cutover. Its good that the virtual server names
will be the same, but you cant test this until the time of cutover.

2. Create new cluster (different node names, different IPs, different
cluster name, different virtual server names, Exact Same Instance Names,
Exact Same Drive and installation paths). Install SQL 2000 and service pack
up to where old clusters are. Stop SQL. Reassign old SQL cluster data luns
to new cluster or copy over data folders to new luns. Start SQL. Create DNS
CNAMEs to point to new cluster virtual server names.

This approach can be tested before cutover. Only issue is that you will
have a few cnames out in dns that you will eventually have to decommission
and remove. Failback is reassigning luns back to old server or just changing
DNS to point back to old server.


Hope this helps and good luck with your cutover.
-Brian


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