I am faced with moving 120 or so virtual websites on my W2K/IIS5
server to a new box running a fresh W2K3/IIS6 installation.

Can I simply backup the IIS5 metabase and import it into IIS6? Is
there a 3rd party tool that could be used to accomplish this?

Doing this operation manually would be extremely labour intensive, and
I'm convinced there must be a way. I found this URL:

http://www.15seconds.com/issue/020227.htm

However, it deals with IIS5 -> IIS5 transfers. I know that IIS6 uses
an XML metabase format; does that help or hinder this process? Is
there logic to installing W2K, copying the metabase, and then
upgrading to W2K3?

Basically I need tech savvy step by step instructions, or equivalent
URL, to consider this a valid response. I'm not afraid of command line
operations, executing vbscripts, or tweaking the registry.

With the release of Internet Information Services on Windows Server
2003, Microsoft has made available a tool that automates this
migration process for system administrators. This tool is named the
"Internet Information Services 6.0 Migration Tool". This tool can be
used to migrate a site from IIS4, IIS5, or IIS6 over to a fresh
installation of Windows Server 2003/IIS6.

You can view and download the tool from here
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2aefc3e4-ce97-4f25-ace6-127f933a6cd2&displaylang=en

If you are looking to migrate user account also then try www.IdealMigration.com.

If you want full backup and recovery of your IIS based servers then
see http://hostingcontroller.com/english/addon/rebuildxpress.html


Hope this helps.

Aziz Paracha
MS Web Server Evanglist