I want to do a server migration/upgrade in the most simple way possible. Windows to Linux (more than likely ubuntu 14.04).

Currently have a server running Windows Server 2008 R2. I've bought some parts to upgrade - CPU, Mobo, RAM, Case, PSU, 1TB HDD - pretty much a full new system.

My initial plan was to just replace the CPU/Mobo/RAM and carry on with Server 2008 until I could be bothered moving it all over to Linux. But surely now is the ideal time whilst I've got all the parts waiting and I could do some sort of "live" move across.

The windows server is running WAMP and I'm hoping this will be a relatively simple move but I can just see it being a lot of hassle. Has anyone done a Windows to Linux Apache migration?

Is running NTFS drives under Linux safe these days? And you can't covert to ext3/4 without formatting can you?

I will probably think of a number of other hurdles.

You could install Linux on a separate physical disk (ssd?) and mount the unmodified NTFS volume(s) in fstab. Generally speaking I find ntfs-3g is pretty bulletproof in terms of intermittent sharing volumes from windows to Linux (though not at the same time), no idea what might go wrong if you ran a Linux production server with NTFS volumes. I think you'll find the admin of a 'real' lamp stack easier than wamp, at least I do.

It seems to have gone a lot smoother than I was expecting.

Mounted the NTFS drives using fstab by UUID and so far so good.

I think I just need to setup the Crashplan backup software and some nightly backup scripts to replicate what I had setup on the Windows server.

My biggest worry was the WAMP to LAMP move. Mainly the MySQL database. That was really easy. Did a mysqldump on the Windows server and imported that on the ubuntu machine and it worked straight away. Changed IP address on the devices using the database and back up and running.