In place upgrade 2003 > 2008 R2

[dcwhitworth]

I've got a Windows 2003 Standard (32 bit) server that I want up upgrade to Windows 2008 R2. I need to do an upgrade rather than a full reinstall as I need to keep the software that's on it.

 

When I boot from my 2008 installation media and try to upgrade it says I have to run the installation from within Windows. When I try to run it from within Windows it says "The installation disc isn't compatible with your version of Windows. To upgrade, you need the correct installation disc."

 

Is there a different version of the 2008 R2 media for upgrades ? If not does anyone know what I'm doing wrong ?

[K.C.Leblanc]

2008r2 is 64 bit only (I think there might be a 32 version but it's only for testing), I don't think any windows in place upgrade lets you jump from 32 to 64bit (I'm guessing you're using 2003 32 bit since it's the most common).

 

EDIT: Found this http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd979563(WS.10).aspx

 

"Cross-architecture in-place upgrades (for example, x86 to x64) are not supported."

 

What's the package that you're not able to reinstall. If you're going to decommision the server in the next few years you could go from 2008 32bit.

Edited February 1, 2012 by K.C.Leblanc

[fiza]

Cant be done afaik

[plexer]

Definate no no I'm afraid.

 

Ben

[plexer]

Virtualise your current 2003 server and then re-install as 2008 R2?

 

Ben

[dcwhitworth]

Thanks for your reply. How odd, I read that article but missed that line. I'm trying to update a VMWare vCenter server. I wanted to upgrade our installation of VMWare from 4.1 to 5.0 and the vCenter server needs to be running 2008 R2 as a prerequisite.

 

Looks like suddenly it's a non-trivial task . . .

[fiza]

Virtualise your current 2003 server and then re-install as 2008 R2?

 

Ben

 

I did this for several servers that had programs we couldnt do without.

[mavhc]

So what you need is a way to deploy servers with settings/migrate settings

 

What do people use? I've seen Microsoft File Server Migration Toolkit, what about Printers, DFS, DHCP, DNS, WDS, WSUS?

 

AD and thus GPO is easy as that's distributed anyway.

 

Should you keep the same server name? What breaks if you do/don't?

[the_quick]

Yeah moving vCenter is a pain, I need to do it as well. Need to move databases and than attach them etc and hope it will work.

 

Will leave it probably to some longer break, when I have spare time on my hands

[dcwhitworth]

Yeah moving vCenter is a pain, I need to do it as well. Need to move databases and than attach them etc and hope it will work.

 

Will leave it probably to some longer break, when I have spare time on my hands

 

I'm getting a quote for a contractor to do it, hopefully the price will not compare too badly with a VMWare installation training course ;-)