The WINS service itself is one of the more
straightforward services to migrate to a separate set of servers as
part of an upgrade to Windows Server 2012. A simple upgrade of the
existing WINS server will do the trick for many environments; however,
migrating to a separate server or set of servers might be beneficial if
changing topology or hardware.
Migration of an existing WINS environment is
most easily accomplished through the procedure described in this
section. This procedure allows for the migration of an entire WINS
database to a new set of servers, but without affecting any clients or
changing WINS server settings. Figure 1 illustrates a WINS migration using this procedure.
Figure 1. The first step in the WINS migration procedure.
In Figure 1,
the existing servers, OldServer1 and OldServer2, handle WINS traffic
for the entire network of fictional CompanyABC. They are configured
with IP addresses 10.1.1.11 and 10.1.1.12, which are configured in all
client IP settings as Primary and Secondary WINS, respectively.
OldServer1 and OldServer2 are configured as push/pull partners.
The new servers, NewServer1 and NewServer2,
are added to the network with the WINS service installed and configured
as push/pull partners for each other. Their initial IP addresses are
10.1.1.21 and 10.1.1.22. OldServer1 and NewServer1 are then connected
as push/pull partners for the network. Because the servers are
connected this way, all database information from the old WINS database
is replicated to the new servers, as illustrated in step 1, shown in Figure 1.
After the entire WINS database is replicated
to the new servers, the old servers are shut down (on a weekend or
evening to minimize impact), and NewServer1 and NewServer2 are
immediately reconfigured to take the IP addresses of the old servers,
as illustrated in step 2, shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. The second step in the WINS migration procedure.
The push/pull partner relationship between
NewServer1 and NewServer2 is then reestablished because the IP
addresses of the servers changed. The entire downtime of the WINS
environment can be measured in mere minutes, and the old database is
migrated intact. In addition, because the new servers assume the old IP
addresses, no client settings need to be reconfigured.
There are a few caveats with this
approach, however. If the IP addresses cannot be changed, WINS servers
must be changed on the client side. If you’re using DHCP, you can do
this by leaving all old and new servers up in an environment until the
WINS change can be automatically updated through DHCP. Effectively,
however, WINS migrations can be made very straightforward through this
technique, and they can be modified to fit any WINS topology.
