strafeonline

Mid January we upgraded our SBS2003 box to SBS2008. As there is no in-place upgrade (due to differing architectures), the choices are:

• install SBS2008 on a new server
• convert the SBS2003 to a virtual machine, wipe the existing server, install SBS2008 on existing server.

We went down the road of the second option, and overall the install process was satisfactory. We did run into some snags, as during the first attempt of installing SBS2008 the process crashed. The following attempt the server seemed to get ’stuck’, waiting for response from the SBS2003 VM.

The problem in the second attempt was that the 2008 install had transferred the domain operations master, infrastructure master, schema master, and other roles away from 2003 in the first install attempt. When the second install tried to do this, it could not complete this step and was stuck. The 2008 installer did not give any reason for the problem, so we had to manually figure it out.

The roles were seized back to the 2003 server using NTDSUTIL, and the next install attempt was much more successful!

I am very impressed with the SBS2008 system. We manage our client’s SBS boxes, rather than letting them do it, so even from an experienced point of view, SBS2008 is really quite good. I don’t like how WSUS is automatically enabled; I think this should be one of the ‘Getting Started Tasks’. I do like how easy it is to relocate an Exchange store, WSUS data, shared folders, etc, to another drive via the SBS Console.

Once running, configured, and stable, VMWare Server v2 was installed, and a Ubuntu linux virtual machine installed as the first VM on the system. With the Ubuntu VM we run an in house lab for PHP web development. I’m undecided about Ubuntu, after spending five years with FreeBSD. Our first project on this lab VM is a redevelopment of our client management system, something which has been on hold for about a year. More on the project to come in later posts.