File Server Migration of server from one Vm to another (Vcenter)

Question

HI All,

I recently migrated our file server from Windows Server 2016 to 2022. Here are the steps I followed:

1. Detached the disk from the old server.
2. Renamed the old server's IP address.
3. Exported registry keys and added them to the new server.
4. Attached a new disk to the new server.
5. Assigned the IP address and name of the old server to the new server. (I deleted the old server's account from Active Directory to claim its hostname for the new server.)

Everything seemed to go smoothly, but we're experiencing some NTFS permission issues. Even though all permissions appear to have been migrated, when I, as an admin, try to access certain folders, I receive an error stating that I don't have access. Some users have also reported that they are unable to access certain folders.

Can anyone help me troubleshoot this issue? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Answer 1

Could the old server have some local groups or accounts that inherited specific permissions for those files and folders and got lost during migration? You can check this by investigating current permissions for those affected folders and see if any unknown groups/accounts exist. You can use ICACLS for that purpose.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/icacls.

If that is the case, you will have to rebuild/grant the permissions chain using domain-based accounts and groups.

You may consider using Storage Migration Service in the future to migrate your file servers and avoid those kinds of problems since it performs a complete audit of all the migrated data in terms of consistency and permissions, making sure everything works after migration.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/storage-migration-service/overview

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/migrate-your-file-servers-with-storage-migration-service