As with any type of application server, your Quickbooks server has to be upgraded to newer hardware (and to newer OS version) every couple of years. Be it transferring to a new server, or going from Server 2008 to Server 2019, the process is certainly not undoable, but also not exactly quick and easy. Luckily, this can be much simpler than what you’d expect: in this article, we’ll describe how to perform a Quickbooks server migration, including migration of the Quickbooks deployment itself, its databases, other applications on the server, user profiles, shares and of course all data.

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How to migrate a Quickbooks server to new hardware or to new OS

The process below outlines the migration steps for moving Quickbooks to a new server.

Option 1: Direct migration from old Quickbooks server to new server over the network

Before you begin, consider disabling the firewall on the old server, or at least adding Zinstall to its whitelist, so that the firewall does not interfere with the migration.
Run Zinstall WinServ on both servers.
Note: You can get Zinstall WinServ here, and its user guide here.
Select the first option, “Moving between two machines”, on both servers.
If you do NOT want to transfer server applications, and are only interested in a profile, data and shares transfer, switch the radio button on the main screen to “profile and settings only” mode.
On the source server, choose the “Source computer” option, and leave it running. It will be waiting for connection from the new one.
On the new Server 2019 / 2016, choose the “Target computer” option.
WinServ will automatically detect the source server. Alternatively, if the servers are on different networks, you can manually specify the source server’s IP address.
If you’d like to select exactly what you want to transfer, press the Advanced menu. If you just want to transfer everything, you don’t need to go to the Advanced menu.
Click Next and then Go to start the migration.
The transfer will take a while (depending on how much data you have to transfer), and report to you when done.
That’s it!

Option 2: Indirect migration to a new Quickbooks server, via intermediate storage

Run Zinstall WinServ on both servers.
Note: You can get Zinstall WinServ here, and its user guide here.
On the source server, select the 3rd option, “Moving from Machine to Container”
Choose the container location (such as a network share, a NAS, a USB hard drive – any type of storage), and press Go to perform a full capture of the source server to that location.
On the new 2019 / 2016 server, select the 4th option, “Moving from Container to Machine”
If you do NOT want to transfer programs, and are only interested in a profile, data and shares transfer, switch the radio button on the main screen to “profile and settings only” mode.
Specify the location of the container created in step 3.
If you’d like to select exactly what you want to transfer, press the Advanced menu. If you just want to transfer everything, you don’t need to go to the Advanced menu.
Click Next and then Go to start the migration.
The transfer will take a while (depending on how much data you have to transfer), and report to you when done.
That’s it!

After the migration:

Once the migration process is complete, it is time to verify the results.

You may need to adjust your domain’s DNS to point to the new server where needed. For example, changing the CRM-SERVER DNS entry to the new server’s address.
Same goes for login scripts and GPO policy.
Launch every application and console you use, and verify they load correctly.
Using a client workstation, verify that clients can access the migrated server correctly and their applications run without issues.

Congratulations! Your server migration is now complete.

Ready to migrate your Quickbooks servers?

Get Zinstall WinServ here

You can also contact us for assistance, volume licensing, and help in setting up a POC.