I am trying to figure out the best approach to migrating a SCCM hierarchy into a completely new forest with as little disruption to patching as possible. There is 1 Central Site (No Clients), 2 Primaries, and about 12-13 Secondaries split between the 2 primaries. Since everything is moving to a new forest/domain I know we will have to do a complete reinstall of the current sites. My first thought was to stand up a new primary in the new forest with the same hardware configuration as the 2 primary site servers. Give it a new site code and begin migrating clients over. Now my question is should I attach this primary to the current Central? My first thought is no as this Central is going to be uninstalled and reinstalled in the new domain. Should I stand up 2 servers in the new environment and mimic the current environment which I believe will give me a better side by side migration and provide me with the ability to patch both sides. The biggest constraint here is a lot of the hardware in teh old forest is going to be reutilized so down time needs to be at a minimum. I think it is doable with 2 new servers in a Central - Child configuration. Once the first primary and clients are migrated the server can be brought into the new domain, stood up and configured to act as the new 2nd primary. Thoughts? Am I missing anything?

Hi, Start at the top of your hierarchy. Install a new SCCM server in the new forest/domain. Make the new server a child of the existing SCCM server. You can now sync data between them just like you do with a primary child site. Keep in mind that a trust between the domains must be created. In a later phase you can disconnect the new server from his older parent so it becomes the central site for the new domain. You can now install the primary child sites and the secondary sites. When a site is ready you can configure the boundaries so it will manage your clients. My advise is not to do it all at once, just step by step and site by site. Hope this helps.

Hi,There will be a 2 way trust between the 2 forests until the migration has completed. I had thought about making the new server in the new forest a child to get all of the packages and collections to flow down. I'm curious though once I break the connection with the old Central what will become of the packages and collections since they will be referencing a site which will not exist in the new Forest (This is something which has not been decided on yet, if the old Central Name is going to remain the same once moved to the new forest.)?

Hi, I want to know, will it sync site database also? Or client will again send their inventory to new Site server. -- Vinayak Sharma

Where should we answer your question? Here or in http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgradminconsole/thread/d90b77c0-c6bf-440a-be3f-7a720440a8b9? So please avoid double postings in the future. Yes, all objects (packages, advertisements, collections etc) from the current primary site will be replicated to the new child site and the client will send inventory to the new site after the site assignment was changed.

Okie... Thanks. -- Vinayak

Lcpc78, how did you go with this migration. Were you able to succesfully migrate SCCM to the new forest using this method?Nilanga