To upgrade or not

[truebluesteve]

Hi All

 

I have a number of Server 2003 SP2 32 bit servers that I am considering upgrading to Server 2008. Now my understanding is that I cant upgrade to 2008 R2 as its 64 bit and there isn't a cross architecture upgrade path. Some of these servers have software that I really don't want to have to re-install (or pay others to do) so is there any real benefit in doing an upgrade to 2008 32 bit?

 

Any thoughts or suggestions gratefully received!

 

Thanks

 

Steve

 

PS - They are all VMs

[glennda]

Well yes - 2003 SP2 is EOL AFAIK (or will be shortly), but Windows server 2008 is also going EOL shortly for SP2 (July).

 

TBH its worth going to 2008 R2 at the least but it will require a reinstall on the applications

[truebluesteve]

Well yes - 2003 SP2 is EOL AFAIK (or will be shortly), but Windows server 2008 is also going EOL shortly for SP2 (July).

 

TBH its worth going to 2008 R2 at the least but it will require a reinstall on the applications

 

I had a feeling that would be the case - much of the software will need to be re-installed by the suppliers, so I will have to allow some money for that I guess. Then it begs the question whether to skip 2008 altogether and go straight to 2012?

 

Edit

 

Support has already ended - its just extended support to 2015 which is basically security updates

 

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?alpha=Windows+Server+2003+R2

Edited May 8, 2013 by truebluesteve

[Norphy]

Windows 2008 is EOL but it's not out of support just yet. Mainstream support ends in January 2015 and extended ends in 2020.

 

Microsoft Support Lifecycle

 

It's probably worth upgrading just so you continue to receive security fixes. You can move onto the 64 bit servers later on, maybe when you get new hardware.

[DarrenM]

2003 server R2 has support till July 2015 you could upgrade to that for now, that will buy you time to get some new 64bit hardware sorted.

Microsoft Product Lifecycle Search

[truebluesteve]

2003 server R2 has support till July 2015 you could upgrade to that for now, that will buy you time to get some new 64bit hardware sorted.

Microsoft Product Lifecycle Search

 

My reading of the MS website is that only extended support is available for ALL of the Server 2003 product range. Fortunately hardware isn't an issue as all the servers running 2003 are VMs

[lazkopat]

You might aswel do a straight upgrade to Server 2012 rather than having go through server 2008 and then eventually (whether its sooner or later) to 2012..