Sam.McGeown.co.uk

If you read the Microsoft blurb for R2, the first thing you notice is that Server 2008 R2 is 64-bit only(!). It seems Microsoft are forcibly removing 32-bit server hardware from the data centre. I’ve not seen a decent upgrade guide online so far, so here’s my process.

I’m going to be upgrading a Server 2008 R2 x64 SP2 Standard Edition virtual server to R2. To see what editions can and can’t be upgraded, check out this Technet Article, but it’s safe to say that you can’t upgrade across architectures (32-bit to 64-bit) and you can’t downgrade SKUs (Enterprise to Standard).

The first step, as ever, is always to back up your server, if the upgrade goes wrong, you can always restore and try again. You have been warned!

So, without further ado, slip in your R2 DVD and begin…

Install

Update

Select your target SKU

Select “upgrade” (obviously :)

Check your upgrade report (which is saved as HTML on your desktop. The first time I ran this it said that I didn’t have enough free space – it required a whopping 15GB, which makes me think that this is no Server 2003 –> R2 upgrade, it’s the full blown OS install. Assuming everything checks out, go ahead.

Sit back and grab a cup of coffee. After a while, you’ll reboot

  and the upgrade begins in earnest. Once the process is completed, and another reboot has happened, you’ll be upgraded to R2. You’ll need to activate it with your R2 key.

Once you’re activated, update your server using Microsoft update or your patching method.

Et voila!

Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008, R2, Windows Server, Server, 2008, upgrade

Configuring the Virtual Environment and Virtual Machines

Note – this configuration will work for ESXi 4 upwards due to the server 2008 MSCS requirement for persistent SCSI-3 reservations.

The first step is to create a new vSwitch for the host-only cluster heartbeat network, don’t assign any network adaptors to the switch as it’s going to be local only.

Create a new virtual machine with a single hard disk. For the purposes of this test, I’ve assigned 2 vProcessors, 1GB RAM, 30GB drive for the OS, 1 vNIC in the default vSwitch0.

Add a second vNIC and assign it to the cluster network vSwitch created in step 1.

Install Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and all the Windows Updates, for the example I’ve named it SQLCluster01.

Clone the server and rename the new one to SQLCluster02. In ESXi you can’t clone, so shut down the first server, copy the files to a new folder and right click the VMX file to add it to the inventory. When you boot it the first time VMware will ask if it’s been moved or copied – select copied.

Create a disk for use as the Quorom, this needs to be shared and since I’m using ESXi with local storage only it must be “eagerzeroedthick”. To do this I have to use the unsupported mode in ESXi (Alt+F1, type unsupported and then your root password) and use the vmkfstools command to create it (vmkfstools –c <size> –d eagerzeroedthick –a lsilogic /vmfs/volumes/<datastore>/<folder>/<disk>.vmdk)

Add the new disk to SQLCluster01 using a new SCSI virtual controller (different from the current controller, e.g. my first HD is on SCSI 0:1, the Quorum is on SCSI 1:0)

Check that the new SCSI controller is set to LSILogic (it is for Server 2008 by default) and set the SCSI Bus Sharing to Virtual.

Add the Quorum disk to the second virtual machine, using the same settings.

Edit the .vmx file for both servers, adding in the following lines (edit for your SCSI controller):

scsi1:0.mode = "independent-persistent"
scsi1:0.shared = "TRUE"

Create a disk for some shared storage for the cluster too, it will be needed for the DTC application as well as the SQL server – in a production environment you may want to separate logs and data, but for my test, I’m just adding another two 10GB disks. Use the same process as for creating the Quorum disk.

More...

Windows Server 2008, Microsoft, SQL Server 2008, Microsoft Cluster Services sql, sql server 2008, windows server 2008, cluster, mscs, microsoft cluster services, active/passive, vmware, esxi 4.0

I recently had an issue where a hosting environment was registering a lot of Netlogon Event 1030/1058 issues, being unable to find the Group Policy objects or download them. In this example, the server DC is the domain controller for DOMAIN.LCL.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Userenv
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1030
Date:  10/09/2009
Time:  06:24:29
User:  NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: DC
Description:
Windows cannot query for the list of Group Policy objects. Check the event log for possible messages previously logged by the policy engine that describes the reason for this. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Userenv
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1058
Date:  10/09/2009
Time:  06:24:29
User:  NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: DC
Description:
Windows cannot access the file gpt.ini for GPO CN={31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9},CN=Policies,CN=System,DC=DOMAIN,DC=LCL. The file must be present at the location <\\DOMAIN.LCL\sysvol\DOMAIN.LCL\Policies\{31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}\gpt.ini>. (Windows cannot find the network path. Verify that the network path is correct and the destination computer is not busy or turned off. If Windows still cannot find the network path, contact your network administrator. ). Group Policy processing aborted. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

On the affected machines, when navigating to \\DOMAIN.LCL there were no shares available, however navigating to \\DC shows the NETLOGON and SYSVOL shares. Pinging DOMAIN.LCL and then the DC showed that the IP addresses were not the same as expected, DOMAIN.LCL was resolving to the backup network, whereas DC was resolving to the servers LAN IP.

I checked the DNS records for the server, which were correct. Investigating the adaptor binding settings under Control Panel > Network Connections > Advanced > Advanced Settings showed that the backup network's adaptor was first in the list. I moved the adaptor for the LAN to the top of the list and OK'd my way out. I restarted the NETLOGON service and the issue was solved.

Windows servers have never been particularly good at being multi-homed, especially domain controllers. My advice comes from some bitter experience...

• If you have multiple network adaptors for extra bandwidth/redundancy/resiliance, then I would strongly recommend using Teamed adaptors, most of the major manufacturers' drivers and management software support it. This will eliminate any issues with multi-homing because as far as the server is concerned, it has one adaptor.
• If you have multiple network adaptors for different network segments and you're using RRAS to route between them, I would strongly suggest not using a Domain Controller at all for this purpose. Better yet, buy a hardware router.
• If you have multiple network adaptors for different purpose networks (e.g. a LAN, a backup network and an iSCSI network) then make sure you do the following:
  • Disable "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" and "Client for Microsoft Networks" on all but the LAN adaptor.
  • Ensure that your LAN adaptor is the FIRST adaptor in the bindings in the advanced network settings.

 Hope that helps!

Active Directory, Networking, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 multi-homed, domain controller, 2003, server 2003, server, network

If you’re getting a error on your LAN connection it’s possible that your network connection is attempting 802.11 authentication on your wired network. Unfortunately, it seems that Vista/Server 2008 both attempt it before reverting. As far as I can see, it’s not causing any issues, other than irritating me with a “failed” and a red question mark.

Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to fix! The authentication is handled by the Wired AutoConfig service, so it’s just a case of disabling it. Navigate “Start”, then click “Run” (or just hit Win + r) and type “services.msc”. Click “OK” and the Services console will fire up.

Now if you scroll down to Wired Autoconfig and configure it as below (Stop the service, then select “Disabled” as the startup type).

Alternatively, you can enable 802.11 on your Windows Domain…but that’s another story!

Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Networking windows vista, network, windows server 2008