Adventures in upgrading from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008
Yesterday, I started upgrading my WS03 machine to WS08. This machine had TFS on it as well so I was a bit apprehensive. The experience was "interesting".
Based on some internal tips, I first upgraded WSS v3 and MOSS to SP1. This was easy.
I then removed Powershell - also based on the internal tip. This was not that easy because it has some fancy KB name. Check my previous post. Once I figured it out, this was easy as well.
I then ran setup for what I assumed was WS08 Std. When I tried to upgrade it moaned about not being able to move from WS03 Enterprise to WS08 Std. Turns out that I entered a Product Key for WS08 Std. After using a WS08 Enterprise key, the same setup kicked off fine. At this stage setup started doing its work. It then moaned to me about removing a Bluetooth driver. Did this and was told to reboot - which I did NOT do!!.
Ran setup again and no blocking issues. I went for some meetings etc. At one point, it looked like it needed to reboot. But it did not look like much was happening. I tried to invoke the restart myself but no action - only waited for a few seconds though. In my impatience I hit the power button down for a few seconds and then restarted - BAD BOY.
Now the installation continued but at some point I got the BLACK SCREEN OF NOTHING.You just saw the mousepointer. Tried a few reboots and tried safe mode. No luck. Not a happy camper at this point.
Thankfully, when you bootup at this stage you see a nice option to rollback. Cool!. Tried this and in under 5 minutes it rolled back the install and I was back to WS03. It was getting a bit late so I just copied all the files onto my hard drive.
In the evening, while watching the soccer (or not watching it due the storms in Vienna), I decided to try again. First thing I did was to install all the WS03 (yes 2003) Windows updates and make sure I reboot. This time around, I ran setup and no problems. It was busy with the last bit when I decided to go and sleep. I got up this morning and it looks like everything is working.
Some tips and possible reasons why the install failed the first time.
- Reboot when it tells you to!
- Be a bit patient for the restart. I reckon me doing a hard shutdown caused some issues.
- Probably a good idea to install the pending Windows Update before doing the install.
Subsequently, I have been setting up the WS08 box with the Vista themes etc. Maybe a different post on that. Overall, the process was good. I was very impressed with the rollback option!