Someone posted this question on a discussion group at work and it got me thinking.  If you bought a nice new system over the last 2 or so years in preparation for SBS 2008 (Cougar as was or even SBS v.Next) and had it installed with SBS 2003 you've probably heard that SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 is a 2 box migration and needs the Swing technique to do an on box migration. 

I've come up with a much simpler solution, but your hardware might need some additions to make it work.  So here is what you need:

1. Box with 6GB of RAM minimum (4GB for SBS 2008, 1GB for SBS 2003 and 1GB for Hyper-V server).
2. 1 new disk for SBS 2008 system disk and 1 disk to hold Hyper-V (which could be small if desired or temporary)
3. System that meets the minimum system requirements of Hyper-V (http://www.microsoft.com/servers/hyper-v-server/system-requirements.mspx)
4. You need to ensure your hardware is really up to spec and is fit enough that you want your new SBS 2008 system to run on it for the next 2+ years, otherwise this may well be a false economy.

The process in outline is below.  If you need more detailed information, let me know and I'll knock something up (as well as this may possibly end up in the book)

• Take a full system backup before starting
• Take existing system and add RAM and 2 disks
• Install Hyper-V Server onto 1 disk
• Install Hyper-V manager onto a client PC (see here for details)
• Configure the network to all nodes can connect to a real physical network that has your internet router and firewall on it
• Configure a virtual machine with pass-through disks that point to each of your SBS 2003 disks.  To make a disk visible in Hyper-V console as a pass-through see here.  Only configure approx 1GB of memory as you only need it to run well enough to perform a migration.
• Start and boot the SBS 2003 VM.  Check that all services start (or can be started if there is a timing issue) and that all data is available.
• Install the integration Services Setup disk, run the setup and reboot when asked
• Create another virtual machine with 4GB of RAM that points to the other new disk, again as a pass-through volume.  This will be the SBS 2008 boot disk and can be booted with or without Hyper-V later
• Perform the Migration as per my book (not yet published) or Whitepaper
• Start migration process, including creating the answer file.
• Create a VFD with the answer file on it and boot SBS 2008 to start the migration
• Finish the migration to the point where the SBS 2003 box is downgraded
• Turn off SBS 2003 VM and store, recycle or dispose of disks
• Choose to either make the machine book natively boot to the SBS 2008 partition (in the bios) or continue to use Hyper-V

That is it. Much simpler than a swing if your box is good enough to run Hyper-V server.  If you intend on keeping SBS 2008 running under Hyper-V, have a look at this Technet article.

ttfn

David