How to properly remove primary web front-end and move to secondary

Question

Info: For a SharePoint 2007 farm all service packed up. 2 Web Front-end servers (NO NLB), 1 Database Server

I wanted to see what the proper way would be to rid myself of my primary Web Front-end that hosts all default port labeled sites, Central Admin, and Shared Services Provider to our secondary Web Front-end that currently hosts a couple primary SSL sites.

I was a hire via consulting a while back and the company I worked had had created a 2 Web Front-end server enviroment that was not using NLB. They simply wanted traffic to use the secondary server for specific SSL sites. Any ways, I have been tasked with removing the primary Web Front-end and moving everything over. I have heard that one should first move Central Admin over to the secondary box and then disconnect the primary box from the farm for the least chance for potential issues; then fix DNS.

If I do this, will the Shared Services Provider appear on the secondary box in IIS? This seems to be the only thing not showing up in the current listing of IIS on the secondary box.

Answer 1

Adding Central Admin to the second box using the config wizard would get you that far, however, moving the SSP is a little trickier. You will need to basically back it up and restore it on the second server. The content web applications should already be on the second server unless they removed them. If this is the case, you may want to consider removing the second server from the farm and then adding it back to let it copy all of the content web apps over, then proceed with the SSP. You can set up Central Admin when you add it back to the farm with the config wizard in this case.