Re: SBS Transition Pack Advice

Ken - I ran this about a dozen times while I was writing our SBS 2003 R2 book (Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 Administrator's Companion from Microsoft Press) so that we could add an appendix covering it to the book. The whole thing is really quite straight-forward, assuming you do your homework. My "standard TP answer", below, covers pretty much all of that.

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Before you run the Transition Pack there are a few steps you should take to ensure a smooth transition:

1.) Do a thorough, complete, VERIFIED backup. If it isn't verified and tested, it isn't a backup, IMHO.
2.) Clean up your HD. Remove temporary files, old logs, and so forth. Run Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe)
3.) Defragment the HD. Use the built in, or use a good third party such as PerfectDisk from Raxco.
4.) Disconnect the server from the internet completely. (Easiest way is just unplug the network from the back of the server.)
5.) Stop any third party services that are running as a system account and set them to disabled or uninstall them. This includes AV, disk utilities, and any real-time monitoring programs.
6.) Remove Veritas BackupExec (see KB: 914990)
7.) Run regedit and check for the presence of the key: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Small Business. If it exists, remove it.

That's it. Just make sure you have the matching TP version to your SBS version. (ie, SP1 for SP1 SBS, etc.)

Also, make sure you have media kits available for your individual server software packages. You shouldn't need them, but it's good to have, just in case.

Finally, just run the transition. Expect it to take 2+ hours, and 7 or more reboots. Even if you give it the logon password, you may get prompted the first reboot - I did in 4 of 7 transitions I did last spring. No discernable pattern to it. Once that first one completes, though, you can go grab some lunch/dinner/whatever and it should run by itself.
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If you have any specific questions that aren't covered, I'll try to answer them - just ask away.

--
Charlie.
http://msmvps.com/blogs/xperts64
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel


"Ken Sheppard" <ksheppard31@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:68397335-AAB6-4129-9B4F-63CDDF9E028D@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'm running SBS 2003 Premium w/SP1 (not R2) and have reached the 75 limit magic number. I have purchased the correct Transition Pack for my install and I'm going to attempt the process. I have read the notes about removing Backup Exec and other 3rd-party apps as well as the SBS registry key. I've also waited to deploy Windows 2003 SP2 until I completed the transition.

Does anyone know of any decent blogs to perform this process? If any of you have run this process and would care to shed some light on your experience, I'd love to hear any input.

Thanks.

Ken

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