Coming Soon: SBS 2008 with Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 included

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[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Damian Leibaschoff]

In the coming weeks you will notice that the SBS 2008 media will now include Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2. This change will help improve the reliability of the newly deployed SBS servers, while at the same time, providing savings in terms of deployment time.

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Other updates included with this release:

  • OneCare for Small Business trial version is no longer included. Setup options and integration have been removed.
    • Since the original launch of SBS 2008, the OneCare line of products has been replaced by Microsoft Security Essentials. This is a free download that is not designed for business environments, we will keep you posted on any future options for your SBS environment.
  • New Migration Preparation Tool  (SourceTool).
    • In Join Domain (Migration) setup scenarios, the SBS 2008 setup will pause if it has detected that the Source Tool has not been completed successfully on the domain being joined.

The new Migration Preparation Tool (SourceTool)

This new tool is designed to be run on ANY type of source domain controller, not only SBS 2003. You should run this tool on the source domain controller that will be used in the migration. It is also mandatory to complete the installation and execution of the tool on the source domain for the SBS 2008 setup to continue past the pre-requirement checks. The tool itself still performs the same tasks as before, mainly these 4 tasks on the source domain (as needed based on the presence of SBS or not):

Installs update 943494 on the SBS 2003 server to extend the migration grace period from 7 to 21 days.

Runs ADPREP to update the forest, domain, and group policy object access control entries.

Changes Exchange 2003 from Mixed mode to Native mode.

Adds the Authenticated Users group to the Pre-Windows 2000 security group.

New to the Migration Preparation Tool is the ability to get updates from Microsoft during execution. We plan to add additional functionality to the tool so that it can perform health checks on the source server and domain. The additional functionality will be pushed down to the tool once it is installed by selecting the option to allow updates when launching it. We will notify the blog once new features are added.

Once all the tasks are completed, the source domain controller will be marked as ready for the migration.

The new Migration Preparation Tool can be found in the same place as before, on your SBS 2008 Standard DVD (DVD 1), under the \tools folder. An important change that needs to be noted is that the new tool has an installation package (SourceTool.MSI) while the existing one is a standalone executable. This MSI package needs to be installed on the source domain controller. The new tool must be used with the new media. The new tool will work with older media, but not the other way around. Furthermore, the new Migration Preparation Tool will be made available for download for easier access and use when only older media is present.

The main goal is to make sure that that the source domain is healthy for a successful migration. For more information regarding migrations, please read the following post <SBS 2008 Migrations from SBS 2003 – Keys to Success>

Installing the tool on the source domain controller:

<DVD #1>:\Tools

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Running the tool:

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Remember to always Select to “Download and install updates (recommended)”, these updates are ONLY for the Migration Preparation Tool and will include newer health checks in future updates.

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Remember, this tool will now be mandatory when using the updated SBS media, so make a point of making that backup of the source server also a mandatory step.

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This is the new text when running on a NON-SBS server.

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