Good stuff ! Thanks for sharing :) Warm regards, Stu
From: David Lum [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 1:58 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: "Sort of a big day" - could have been slam dunk... ....but it wasn't. * I was loaded for bear - I even brought my own personal PowerEdge 840 Xeon that already has 2008 R2 Hyper-V in case I needed to temporarily host their VM. (It's my lab system, but would work in a pinch!) * I had good backups of all VHD's in THREE places (eSATA attached to their main VM host , NAS, and their other Hyper-V server) * I had all the Dell firmware updates to make sure I was up-to-date for R2 compatibility (and yes I actually read the notes on what did what. Amazing I know...) * Existing host was fully patched 2008 64-bit non-R2 (relevant for later). * Step 1:Add RAM to go from 8GB to 16GB. I have two 4GB sticks, documentation I see (on 'net, prior to today) says add RAM in pairs. Open case...there's two physical CPU's and inside the case says "add pairs of RAM *PER CPU*". Oops. Fail. * Step 2: Go from 3-disk RAID5 to 4 disk RAID1 (x2. No, not RAID10). Add disk =OK. Boot into PERC 6/I BIOS and configured dual RAID1 volumes. Success. * Step 3: Install 2008 R2 from media. Says "hey I need CD-ROM driver". Freak out a tiny bit, look for dell Server install media form Dell for the PE T605 Get driver from Dell. No luck. Grab bare drivers from dell, throw on USB thumb drive. Success, except "Hey I need other drivers too". Add Chipset and some other driver. Install. Success. OS is alive! <note: Going into this project my biggest fear was not being able to get past this point> * Step 5: Install eSATA array drivers (this is the fast location from which to copy the VHD's from). Success. * Step 6: Get network connectivity so I can finish config via RDP and not in their tiny-ass server room (barebly big enough for their racked server and me). Success. * Step 5: Kick off Windows Updates. 93 updates needed. Tell it to download and install 'em. 90 minutes I get tired of waiting for them all to install (it's going, but at about 66 or so at this point. I click "cancel" because I want to confirm VM operation * Step 5a: kick of VHD copy from eSATA to local drives.(it finished 20 mins or so before the updates barfed). Fail. * Step 6: Install Hyper-V role. Oops server config says "error". Google-Fu (it's3:30AM at this point): "Unable to add Server 2008 roles" returned all sorts of useful hints (seriously, it does). At this point I opted for an "upgrade install". An hour later I am where I was at step 5 - I omit the run updates at this time. Success. * Step 7: Install Hyper-V role. Success. Connect COPY of system drive of main VM, it powers up and operates OK. Re-create their SBS server and attach the original VHD's, power it up. Success. * Step 8 (now 5:40AM): Run Windows Update, swear to let it install. Updates complete except server hangs at "Preparing to configure Windows, Do not power off" for 35 minutes. Google-Fu again has some useful info (some mention Trusted installer gets into hung state, other suggestions point to another repair install). I manually power the machine off and when it comes back up dumb luck (or exhaustion, I've been awake for 26 hours at this pint) tells me to try safe mode to see if I can get at the trusted installer. I hit F8 and I get a login prompt. I enter credentials and then I get...."Windows Updates failed, rolling back changes". Success. Sort of. * Step 9: Screw the updates, I know without them Hyper-V and the SBS VM work fine if I ignore them! It's now 7:05AM and I install 4 patches, pray during the reboot (it goes uneventfully), and bring up their SBS VM. Success. Takeaways: 2. There's apparently an issue with 2008 R2 with SP1 bundled (the ISO - downloaded from MS is supped to have SP1) and applying all the updates at once. After installing the R2 OS, download and install SP1 BEFORE running Windows Update. - I was able to duplicate this same update error on a VM using this same media. I have built probably 15-20 2008 R2 machines at %dayjob% and have always followed this procedure, but looking back, none of them were with media that included SP1. This 2nd VM I was able to fully patch AFTER choosing to reinstall SP1 and then check Windows Update 3. Choosing to boot in SAFE MODE after getting stuck at "Preparing to configure Windows, Do not power off" will roll back your changes and be a faster way to recover than a repair install. 4. Thank God experience told me to expect anything and that I told my client I needed a 12hr window to do this upgrade, so even after all this the total downtime was just over 10 hours. Well...there is the RAM thing to fix yet... 5. Confirm your actual existing hardware config before buying RAM, add-in cards, etc. Would be a bummer not to only run into the RAM issue did, but to buy a controller card only to find there's no slots available (side note, I plan on adding a 2nd NIC to this box, so I noted which slots are available!) The additional RAM arrives Tuesday but I don't expect any issues (it's from Crucial.com and is matched to the server). I just hope the swing migration next month goes better. And yes, I have the sbsmigration swing kit and a copy of their production SBS server on my own Hyper-V environment. I do have less stress about the swing than I had going into Friday night's adventure. Of all the issues I was expecting, the one I ran in to wasn't even on the horizon! I mean, I was at fully patched non-R2 so that last thing I expected was an update process hosing me. Still....could have been far worse... Thanks for reading, I had to share with folks that would "get it". Dave On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 8:58 AM, Ben Scott <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 9:25 AM, David Lum <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > For my biggest %nightjob% client (55 employees for a city of just over 11K), > tonight I get to flatten their Hyper-V host, add a drive and move them from > RAID5 to dual RAID1, add RAM, install 2008 R2, and stand their SBS VM back > up on it. May the Force be with you. -- Ben ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
