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?

[SYNACK]

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/48318-lockdown-windows-7-a.html

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/48043-really-need-urgent-help-please.html#post441182

 

Yes you can filter by almost anything, in this case OS but you could also filter by CPU type, speed or HD size if you wanted to.

[Aaron]

I have different OU's set up for each department in the school but i set the GPO's for students under the pupil / students folder same for staff the only GPO i have for the stations would be installing software per department.

 

How can i run different policies for pupils and staff depending on which machine they are logged into. I have planned to come in and create two different OU's (XP and 7) and then create the departments in each of those depending on the OS on the computers. But if i have policies already set up for when a pupil logs in not depending on what computer they log in this wont work.

[SYNACK]

What you want to do is filter the user group policies with the WMI querys, the machines can be organised by OUs so that only 7 or xp machines are in them and so policies are easy there.

 

You will want two seporate user policies one for XP and one for 7 that configure the users appropriatly for whatever OS they log on to. The first step would be to use a filter to make your existing policies for staff/students apply only to XP then make new ones for 7 and filter those for only 7. You can then add each of these to your user container and it will only apply the one that applies to the right OS at logon.

[Psymon]

These are the 2 we use

 

Pre-Vista -

SELECT Version FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version < "6"

 

Vista and Newer

SELECT Version FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version > "6"

[Aaron]

so i create a filter and link it to all of my xp ones the filter is something like this is it?

 

Select * from Win32_OperatingSystem where Caption = " Microsoft Windows XP Professional"

 

is that right for the windows xp filters

[SYNACK]

so i create a filter and link it to all of my xp ones the filter is something like this is it?

 

Select * from Win32_OperatingSystem where Caption = " Microsoft Windows XP Professional"

 

is that right for the windows xp filters

 

That one should work fine, I used the same as Psymon's examples above in my setup as they cater for more possibilities such as 64/32 bit versions and Vista stations.

[Aaron]

we are only running all 32bit at the moment havent really taken a look at running 64 bit although we do have a couple of vista laptops but i am sure if i manage to get this working could i not create another filter for vista?

[Aaron]

I have linked all my polices at the moment now to Windows XP filter just going to test to make sure that nothing has changed regards pupils accounts and staff accounts.

 

From here then do i start making new GPO's and apply a windows 7 professional filter to these?

[SYNACK]

we are only running all 32bit at the moment havent really taken a look at running 64 bit although we do have a couple of vista laptops but i am sure if i manage to get this working could i not create another filter for vista?

 

No need, Vista and 7 will happily share the same policy as they are quite simmilar managment wise.

[Aaron]

great thank you just noticed now that some things have changed when i have applied the filters, i had it set up that pupils could not change the name of my computer or my documents or if it did it just reset back to normal when they logged off but now it hasnt also my network places has appeared on their desktops