I had a really tough time figuring this out and couldnt find any instructions on it so i thought i would share.  I consider myself pretty good with the ghost console but if you have any ideas on improving this please dont hesitate to contribute.

Migrate from Server 2k3 to Server 2k8 using Ghost Enterprise Console 2.5

Goal:
Use one unified server 2008 image that works on multiple hardware platforms and deploy this image to multiple 2k3 servers with as little administrative effort as possible.

Planned limitations:
This guide does not include migrating data or user profiles. In my scenario our servers were already backed up and user profiles utilized folder redirection so saving the data wasn’t necessary. It also assumes you already know how to make an image and are mildly familiar with the ghost console.

Develop Server 2008 image
1. Prepare your server 2008 image as you would any other
2. Include the ghost console client in your image
3. Optional: I like to pull a non-sysprepped version of my image for backup. In the future somebody might figure out how to utilize deploy anywhere instead of relying on a sysprepped image. Also some non-enterprise operating systems from Microsoft can only be sysprepped 3 times, having a non-sysprepped image make it easier to update the image later.

Sysprep your 2008 image
Even with Symantec tech support I was unable to get the deploy anywhere feature to work on server 2008 so I relied on a sysprepped image to handle this feature. This adds an extra few steps to the process but its not too bad.
1. Sysprep needs to be able to run unattended and log in once automatically. Its not necessary for it to join a domain or assign a specific name to a computer, that can be handled using a configuration task later. I used this guide for sysprep: http://msmvps.com/blogs/ad/archive/2008/03/18/wind...
2. Sysprep needs to run with the /generalize option. Assuming your image already has the drivers available for your hardware platforms this makes the image hardware independent and is the alternative for the Symantec “deploy anywhere” feature.
3. Make the image available in the ghost console under configuration resources.

Prep your 2k3 machine
1. Install the ghost console client
2. Backup anything important, you’re about to lose everything.
3. If at all possible use a spare server to verify that your new 2k8 image will work on the target hardware. If that can’t happen pull a complete 2k3 image for backup.

Console tasks
1. The first thing you want to do is collect information from your 2k3 machine before you wipe it. I run a task on the target machine that includes “refresh configuration” but the important part is to take note of the name, IP and domain membership settings.
2. Create a configuration for your target machine that includes the above mentioned settings
3. Create a separate configuration task that applies the proper configuration to your target machine.

Execute
1. Execute the clone task. If everything goes as planned the machine should reboot into windows PE, Image the computer and restart. It should boot into sysprep, assign a bogus name, reboot and log into windows. At this point the machine should be online using DHCP but be registered in the console still using the old name.
2. Delete the old domain account if you have one, the machine is about to rejoin the domain.
3. Execute the configuration task. The server should reboot into Windows PE, apply your configuration and reboot. Since this is the second reboot it should not auto-login and leave your server properly configured and secured.

Notes
This procedure SHOULD work using one task but due to the complications and major differences between the two operating systems breaking up the tasks was the only way I could get it to work. Combining any task involving “clone”, “configuration” or “deploy anywhere” resulted in complete failure mostly blue screen stop errors. Also other than scheduling the tasks to run at set times there is no way to chain the tasks to run consecutively.