Is Windows Server 2008 SP2 end of life?

[pbad]

The School's admin server is running Windows Server 2008 SP2 and I am trying to find out if Windows Server 2008 SP2 is end of life? If Windows Server 2008 SP2 is end of life then does the School need a brand new admin server with the latest Windows Server Operating System?

 

I mean there's nothing wrong with the Server (touch wood!) and the School has extended the warranty on the Server to cover for hardware failure.

 

The admin server is only used for Facility CMIS, Facility ePortal and storing the documents for SLT and the office staff.

[Hokalus]

With service pack one it's in extended support until the start of 2020

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search/?p1=14134&wa=wsignin1.0

 

EDIT: None Release 2 of 2008 is EoL I think

Edited October 2, 2017 by Hokalus

[newpersn]

Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 22/02/2011 13/01/2015 14/01/2020 For up to 6 years of additional support beyond Extended Support, please see the Premium Assurance

Here

Extended support untill 2020. You wont need a new one just a upgrade the OS to 2012/2016

[dry]

Perhaps now's a good time to think about virtualising it or even segregating/migrating roles onto new/existing VMs? What does the rest of your server infrastructure look like?

[3s-gtech]

Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 29/04/2009 13/01/2015 14/01/2020

 

Same dates as for R2. You have plenty of time, and shouldn't need to replace hardware unless you hit compatibility issues. Youd probably want to be doing this Summer 2019 at the latest, so make sure it goes into any development plans sooner rather than later.

[pbad]

Perhaps now's a good time to think about virtualising it or even segregating/migrating roles onto new/existing VMs? What does the rest of your server infrastructure look like?

 

The School is a Primary School and we have 2 physical servers. 1x Admin Server and 1x Curriculum Server (Domain Controller).

 

After doing some digging the Admin Server is nearly 7 years old. Cost was about £3,500 for the Admin Server, Installation and Configuration by LINK2ICT Service Birmingham back in 2011.

Edited October 2, 2017 by pbad

[foofighterjim]

To me it depends on how long your hardware warranty is covered for. If it runs out next summer and given that you are a primary you might want to float the possibility (to SLT) of moving to a cloud MIS such as Progresso. It would come down to if it made good business sense for the school, but it would be one less server to worry about.

[pbad]

The previous Office Manager didn't want to move to Progresso and I think the new Office Manager is happy using Facility CMIS.

 

After more digging... Curriculum server (running Windows Server 2008 R2) will be 5 years old in Nov 2017 and warranty expires May 2019. Admin Server (running Windows Server 2008 SP2) warranty expires May 2018.

 

I suppose the cheapest option is to extend the warranty on both servers and upgrade the Windows Server OS on the admin server.

 

Not sure if upgrading the Windows Server OS on the domain controller is a good idea? Maybe better buying a new domain controller?

Edited October 2, 2017 by pbad

[3s-gtech]

In-place upgrading the OS on a DC is generally considered a bad idea, though it can be done. If the upgrade goes badly, you're in a heap of trouble. Recommended course of action is to build another one (can just be a stand-in), add it as another DC and GC, transfer FSMO roles and allow replication to take place, then rebuild your old server. Then you can shift everything back and remove your stand-in DC if you want. I'd always recommend having more than one DC but depends on budgets and virtualisation capabilities.

[pbad]

What would be the downside of keeping the current Admin (running Windows Server 2008 and is 7 years old) and Curriculum Server (running Windows Server 2008 R2 and is 6 years old) apart from Microsoft not supporting Windows Server 2008 after Jan 2020 and not getting any security updates etc..?

 

The School is desperate to save money and I feel the cost to upgrade both will hit the school hard and redundancies may come sooner rather than later.

[3s-gtech]

The downside? No security updates. Massively increased risk of a zero-day vulnerability affecting your servers, leading to data loss or breach. Any loss or downtime will easily end up costing more in lost productivity or fines. Honestly, you'd probably lose your job as a result, for running old unsupported OSs holding confidential and sensitive information. Enough? It's not worth it in any shape or form. If money is tight, upgrade the OS on the old hardware (limiting the total cost). Your servers will run 2012 R2, probably 2016, without any issues (mine do and they're older). Lack of warranty on the hardware just means you have to be ready to fix them reactively, that your backups need to be sound (as they should be now), and some downtime may result.

[HPlum78]

Ask the NHS about running OS's that are no longer supported!?

[k-strider]

is the 2008 server 32 or 64 bit as there is no inplace migration if its 32 bit.

you mentioned that its running eportal and cmis.. that means that it will have sql server on too... might want to check the version of that as well.

is e-portal available over the internet does this make it more vulnerable as it becomes unsupported.... we had it before we migrated to progresso...