Worth upgrading to Server 2008??

[farquea]

We currently have a Server 2003 network. We have licenses for Server 2008 but not for 2008R2.

 

Ultimately i see in the future the whole school moving from XP to 7, and all servers running Server 2008 R2 with most servers virtualiased.

 

Is there any point in us upgrading the servers from 2003 x86 to 2008 x86 in the meantime or are there no real advantages to doing this? I'm told there are quite significant differences between 2008 and 2008 R2.

[3s-gtech]

There are a few advantages to doing this - and you can do an in-place upgrade where 2008 R2 will need a fresh install. You'll be able to manage .admx templates in Group Policy through 2008, so you can manage Windows 7/Vista clients easily from the servers without needing RSAT on a workstation. You'll also get FSRM for your file servers (if you don't have 2003 R2 already). I'd say it's worthwhile.

[jamesfed]

I'd go with it as well - go with 2008 64bit as best as you can and it will make your R2 upgrade a lot smoother (compared to going from 2003 to 2008).

 

If you are looking at VMing your network then 2008 is certinly the thing to use as well with Hyper-V being built right into the OS and the intergration compontents coming pre installed - it makes for one easy life.

[zippo]

From purely a practical position - be careful upgrading to 2008 x64. the 64bit version of 2008 (inc R2) does not include x32 printer drivers as standard ... you will have to source and install them manually. And beleive me - this can be a pain ...

 

Also - if you have cheap / old print servers (netgear / dlink etc) double check that these will work properly with 2008 ... some don't!

[crc-ict]

Also be aware that you can't get 2008 Remote Server Admin Tools for Windows XP which can be a pain - especially if you are managing XP clients and want to use any of the settings where you need to import from a workstation e.g. setting Trusted Sites via Group Policy.