Overhaul Update

The overhaul plan is coming together. HP did not get back to me on extending warranties on old servers, which pisses me off since I was hoping to go HP with this overhaul, but I was able to work with Dell on two new rack servers (post). Additionally I chose a Quantum LTO-2 (shop) drive, which should handle all the data we have amassed on to one tape a night.

I used Virtual Server 2005 (link) for a few days but it just didn't give me the ease of use I need so I downloaded VMWare (link) today. All of it is free, btw. Hopefully I can get my backup software experimenting underway. I may wind up sticking with Backup Exec anyway because our consultants don't support anything else (except for ArcServe and I'm not a masochist). I appreciate everyone's input on Retrospect (post).

Before I purchase anything I need to get a quote from our consultants on migration assistance. While I know the Windows 2000 to 2003 migration is far, far easier than NT4 to 2000 (which was a nightmare), I would not feel comfortable taking the chance doing this alone. Domain controller, Active Directory, and Exchange. Seems like a lot can go wrong and I keep hearing that Microsoft's documentation is never enough.