thepotplants (8/16/2011)
Hi, thanks for your answer 🙂Nadrek (8/16/2011)
The cleanest install is always starting with a fresh OS and working up from there. I like Windows Server 2008 R2, even as a host of SQL Server 2005.Agreed, I would love to build a completely new server for this, but sadly the Application is only certified to run WinSvr2003 and SQL 2005. It would also mean re-installing the core application that also exists on that machine which is a painful process we want to avoid. I'm sorry I should have explained the project constraints a bit better in the original post. I have edited the OP to reflect that.
Are there any other options I haven't considered? Am I being overly paranoid/pedantic?
Yes; use a drive image (Acronis Trueimage, Norton Ghost, Linux tools from the free Partedmagic ISO including simply copying partitions from drive to drive) of the server you have to create an identical machine* ON A SEPARATE NETWORK, then play with the options yourself! The clone starts with the same machine name, SQL Server instance name, IP address, etc.; that's why keep it off the main network (at first). Bonus - you can try over and over, and when you're ready, copy your data, unplug the old, plug in the new, and you're up.
*Or buy the "restore onto different hardware" version of Acronis Trueimage or whatever and install onto different hardware.