Server 2008 upgrade

[Aaron]

Just a quick question i am hoping someone can answer for me.

Is there a cost for upgrading from server 2008 standard to server 2008 r2 standard? i know that the CALS carry over from 2008 to 2008 r2 but what i didnt know was is there a cost for the upgrade and if so what would it be?

[FN-GM]

There could be a cost.

They are regarded as a separate OS. If you have software assurance you can upgrade for free. If you don't have that then you will have to pay for the OS. For a price speak to your licensing company.

[Aaron]

thank you for the reply so quick i will give them a ring in the morning see what it is going to cost. Is there a way of getting the windows 7 GPO's from R2 and running them in server 2008 standard?

[FN-GM]

Erm, install the remote administration tools on the Windows 7 client. Then open group policy editor and create them on the Windows 7 client. You wont be able to edit them on the server direct but you can on the windows 7 client.

It works i tried it

[Aaron]

so ill be using the client machine to change GPO's how does this work when i roll out all the machines ?

[FN-GM]

It will work the same as it would asif you did it on the server.

You will be changing the policies in the domain so them policies would apply to any computers into the OU you linked it to.

[Aaron]

ah right ok so the remote administration client allows me to change GPO's only on the windows 7 machine but this is linked to the server 2008 GPO is that right? sorry i am just trying to get my head around it

[SYNACK]

so ill be using the client machine to change GPO's how does this work when i roll out all the machines ?

The policies are just stored as a big blob of registry settings on the server so this blob created with the Windows 7 RSAT will be pushed in its entireity to the clients. This will mean that all of the settings are served up even if the server was a 2003 one and it could not interperate the policy fully itself.

[Aaron]

ok thank you i will try this in the morning, i was working on it today and couldnt understand that while i was remote in the server there was very little windows 7 GPO's everything was more vista and xp.

I did get a couple of things working folders, themes, some restricted access but there is still more i would need to get sorted out before rolling it out to the new machines and also have to make sure that it doesnt affect the windows xp machines at all.

[FN-GM]

Put your XP machines and 7 machines in different OU's with different policies.

[Aaron]

ok thats a good idea just create a windows xp OU with the rooms which have the xp machines in it and then a windows 7 OU again with the rooms which have the 7 machines. is it recommended it start from scratch with the gpo for 7 and not copy the xp gpo's

[FN-GM]

Personally i would start a fresh

[Aaron]

ok ill try the RSAT on my windows 7 machine and see if i can start making a new ICT OU with new GPO's in there for only windows 7 see how i get on with that. Thank you very much for your help with this

[pritchardavid]

dont forgot to use wmi filters so you can have different student polices (One for XP, and one for W7)

[Aaron]

can you explain just a bit more WMI filters? is this just a way of filtering out the windows xp GPO's and the windows 7 GPO's?