Just wanted to report back to the group on this one, for anyone interested.
Did an in-place upgrade of a WS03 x64 R2 (Standard SP2) domain controller (AD, DNS, and KMS) server to WS08x64. As per testing, with each step along the way I stopped and read the documentation links that were presented to me-if anyone ventures down this path, I would recommend doing the same. I of course also had backups and the blessing from my boss to rebuild this particular system in case of problems, and had ALREADY ran forestprep and domainprep several months ago. As with previous upgrades, I had to remove several applications before the upgrade, and reconfigure them afterwards. The built-in compatibility checker (after you put the DVD in to start) did a good job of finding things I missed or wasn't sure about, and wouldn't let me upgrade until I'd fixed those issues (uninstalling Intel Proset and Windows Powershell, for example)-saved a nice little report to the desktop in case I'd forgotten what they were. I did run into one specific issue during the upgrade, which I am REALLY glad I read all the notes along the way, or I would not have been prepared for. After the first reboot, the system came up with: Windows Failed to Start \Windows\System32\drivers\spldrx.sys Status 0xC0000428 Cannot verify digital signature for this file Luckily, because I'd done the reading, I saw that driver signatures are enforced with 2008 server, but there is an advanced boot option, by pressing F8 at boot time, to disable driver signature enforcement. It works for that one boot, and then enforcement is re-enabled, so I had to do this twice to get setup to complete without rolling back, to the point where I could log on and investigate the file. But, it would still fail on every boot thereafter unless I hit F8 and chose that option. When looking at spldrx.sys, I kept seeing Microsoft all over it, so I was scratching my head. Luckily I had both a clean-install WS08x64 machine and a WS03x64 machine to compare to, and it turns out this file is a WS03x64 system file that was left behind both as a file and in the registry. I'll be interested to see if I run into this again (I'll be doing another upgrade next week, almost identical). After googling and not finding much, the fix that I invented was to rename the spldrx.sys file (eventually deleted) and to backup and delete the HKLM\System\Currentcontrolset\services\spldrx registry key. Afterwards, the system would boot without problems. So basically, the MS upgrade failed to remove their own file and WS08 was choking on it saying it didn't have a valid signature-ugh. After that, things were pretty smooth though. I discovered that I should have uninstalled my A/V software-I had disabled all of the services beforehand, but not uninstalled. We have Trend OSC 8.x and there were issues with the firewall service after the upgrade, which I'm guessing is because of the changes to the TCP/IP stack. So, I've added uninstall/reinstall of AV to my list. It upgraded with multiple hard drives just fine-I'm sure they could word that better in their documentation and I think they just mean your system drive had better be on C:\. I had moved the AD Logs to the C drive before the upgrade just in case, and it was cool to be able to stop the Active directory services and move them back to D:\ after the upgrade, without having to boot into an AD Restore mode-big time saver! I also had created some dummy print queues before the upgrade and ran through their backup/restore setup to test it out. I found their "known issues" article was missing some steps (and left feedback), but there was a KB that referenced it all. Seemed to work okay-not sure how useful it would be on a production print server though, as I'd be worried about driver issues just going from '03 to '08. Not sure if it was really worth it for a DC, but for the more difficult servers, it will be. YMMV http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755199.aspx#BKMK_Limitations http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731003.aspx http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938923 -B From: Miller Bonnie L. [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 1:08 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: WS03 to WS08 Upgrade installation Has anyone actually attempted this yet? If so, can you please share experiences good/bad? I realize clean installs are always the best, but we are looking at this for some of our servers that are already running WS03 x64 and could be a pain to do a clean installation, if it's really not needed. We've done a lot of upgrades with past server versions going back to NT, and of course will have alternate plans in case things does not go well. What I'm finding out there so far on upgrades from '03 to '08 is kind of "icky", for lack of a better word. For example, this Technet article: Known Issues When Upgrading to Windows Server 2008 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731003.aspx Makes it sound like you can't upgrade a server that has more than just a C drive installed. Or do they really just mean that your C drive must be on drive 0? For example, if I'm upgrading a DC with AD logs sitting on the D drive, removing hard drives half way through the installation will not be an option-I would need to take the time to move the logs ahead of time to the C drive for the upgrade. How about the whole printer backup/restore thing? Does that mean the printers will migrate (if you run the procedure) or they won't? If they migrate, I'm assuming I still need to have all third-party drivers downloaded and ready when '08 asks for them? And, would I need to then also reinstall XP-style drivers for the XP and 2003 server machines to download? I'm trying to figure out if it wouldn't be best to leave our print servers on '03 while the majority of the clients are still XP. We are licensed under MS Schools for '08, so it's not a cost issue at this point. Also, for anyone using KMS licensing for WS08 server-can it live on the same server as a Vista KMS, or does it need to be separate? Just trying to do as much reading and get all the ducks in a row before I run a test on one. Obviously I'll be updating server firmware and have new WS08 drivers handy. Thanks, Bonnie ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
