mickeyh080

We have acquired a new 64 bit server with 2008 R2 which originally was purchased for a specific role but as usual things change and is now spare. The school at present is a server 2003 with Win XP professinal setup. Now ideally we want to move to 2008 and Win 7 in the near future but my dilemma at present is how to best use the new hardware to prepare the school for the future. My first though was to replace the current 2003 DC with this new 2008 R2 server so that we can use new GP's to set up and control both the existing XP and the new Win 7 machines. My concern is if this is the best use of the hardware as its fairly well spec'ed. One other option was to migrate the current 2003 servers to 2008 as most of them are 32 bit servers and then use the 2008 R2 machine to venture into the VM world. My question is would it be easier to 1)just upgrade the current DC to 2008 and run the other servers in a mixed 2003/08 environment or 2)upgrade all servers to 2008 or 3) Replace the DC with a new 2008 R2 box and upgrade the old 2003 servers to 2008 As you might gather I'm in a bit of an unsure state as to the best way forward so any advice would be welcome, especially concerning what additional benefits would there be to replacing the DC with a new server running 2008 R2.

Nothing major just upgraded 15 computers via the script overnight and out of these 2 computers attempted the install and then failed. Have logged on locally and installed manually with no issues. Currently investigating the error logs as to possible reasons for the failure.

Ricki We have just recently started a whole school upgrade and yep have the same result. Still investigating the error logs but if we get an answer will let you know.

Hi Started from a fresh imaged test machine today with Office 2003 and the Office 2007 compatability pack installed. Moved this computer into a container which has the Office 2010 deploy GPO applied. I then GP updated and rebooted. Strangley the computer started as normal with a minimal delay on the starting "start up scripts" part of the load going to the Ctrl/Alt/ Del login screen fairly quickly. My first thoughts were that the GPO had failed as before but noticed that from another machine monitoring the c:\program files\Microsoft office folder of the test machine that the Office14 folder appeared. After then logging into the test machine discovered that the office 2003 install had been replaced by Office 2010. The only parts not functioning seem to be the removal of the Office 2007 compatability program as specified in the OCT set up file. All the office applications seem to run correctly. Just surprised that the install seems to happen so quick and that it does not complete before displaying the login screen. Thanks again Sukh for your help on this one.

Sukh I think you might have nailed it. Tried again and the install has succeeded, my guess is the change to the GPO for asynchronous startup scripts was what cured the problem. Not quite sure why but looks promising. I will reimage my test machine and try again tomorrow to confirm all is well. Thanks for your repeated help on this one, very much appreciated.

Impressed with your options still cant believe its still not working, why did I suggest an upgrade to office 2010 !!!!!!

Already set.

Currently logging set to standard, have changed it to verbose. I was wondering can the logging level of the actual startup script be changed as I believe this would give more of an idea as to whats not happening. Does the config.xml file only affect the actual office install and currently it looks like this is not even starting.

ect If I can get it to work via the script I would hope to roll it out overnight or at the weekend remotely as have full remote access to most computers. Hopefully this would not raise any issues of time. Did you have any other issues with your start up script apart from time.

Office 2003 Professional together with the Office compatability pack

Hi The office 2010 source files have been copied to a network share (srv-001\deploy$\Office14) folder. The share permissions are Domain Computers Full Access. Security settings are Domain Computers have Read & Excecute, List Folder Contents, Read permissions. The computer when restarted starts fairly quickly i.e within a couple of minutes the login screen is available and the new entry appears in the logfiles. The script appears to be running as it generates the log entry which is at the end of the script but it seems to error for some reason hence not installing Office 2010. It would help if I could see more info on what the error 0 in the log actually refers to as having the same code for both succesful install and an error seems strange to me.

Hi Have re-imaged the test computer and removed the previous version of office 2003. Tested this machine and again on a reboot the script still fails to install office 2010. Same error again in the log file.

Hi Thanks for the help. Have run the script from a workstation and it runs correctly installing with customisations as per OCT file. The GPO is set to run with Domain/Computers in the filtering. The log file folder displays an entry for the test machine but just gives the following per attempt: 11/04/2011 15:12:32.37 Setup ended with error code 0. Not sure where to go from here. But will try another computer tomorrow when back in work just as you say to make sure its not an individual pc problem.

Sukh Slightly confused as I thought this script is run before a login is available hence its installed under a computer account not a user. Therefore running as a user would only proove that the install files are working correctly, already proven by local admin account. If the startup script is running but not installing whilst the machine starts up could this be a permission problem. My question therefore is what permissions should be set on both the GPO and the individual startup script.

Hi Yes Sukh, had tried this and yes the policy is being applied. Microsoft ® Windows ® XP Operating System Group Policy Result tool v2.0 Copyright © Microsoft Corp. 1981-2001 Created On 11/04/2011 at 13:06:30 RSOP results for ADMIN-017\Administrator on ADMIN-017 : Logging Mode --------------------------------------------------------------------- OS Type: Microsoft Windows XP Professional OS Configuration: Member Workstation OS Version: 5.1.2600 Domain Name: School Domain Type: Windows 2000 Site Name: School Roaming Profile: Local Profile: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator Connected over a slow link?: No COMPUTER SETTINGS ------------------ Last time Group Policy was applied: 11/04/2011 at 12:48:40 Group Policy was applied from: SRV-001.domainname Group Policy slow link threshold: 500 kbps Applied Group Policy Objects ----------------------------- Office 2010 Deployment Script Policy Default Computer Policy Default Domain Policy The following GPOs were not applied because they were filtered out ------------------------------------------------------------------- Local Group Policy Filtering: Not Applied (Empty) The computer is a part of the following security groups: -------------------------------------------------------- BUILTIN\Administrators Everyone BUILTIN\Users NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users ADMIN-017$ Domain Computers CERTSVC_DCOM_ACCESS Resultant Set Of Policies for Computer: ---------------------------------------- Software Installations ---------------------- N/A Startup Scripts --------------- GPO: Office 2010 Deployment Script Policy Name: Office2010startupscript.bat Parameters: LastExecuted: 11:48:47

Thanks Sukh for the reply. Yes I have used the info from this link and altered the desired settings in the script for the network share location and have tweaked the GPO time out settings to 2700 (plenty of time for the install). Have tested the install maunually on a test desktop and the install works fine logged on as local admin the OCT file even cutomises the install as required. Its just I don't really want to manually install on a few hundred computers so need to get the start up script to work. On observing the test machine on start up it goes through the normal screens setting up network connections, apply computer policy and then as normal goes to the login screen with minimal delay. The error in the log files folder just states "11/04/2011 8:42:26.64 Setup ended with error code 0." This doesnt really help me much so any ideas would be much appreciated.

Hi, I am planning to role out Office 2010 site wide this summer and have started testing. Unfortunately the startup script available from the Microsoft site seems to fail in our current set up with error code 0. A manual install from the network share works fine. Would you mind sharing your method for the install as have to attempt this role out on a tight budget so install via script or Batch file would reduce the cost of buying in System Center Essentials.

Useful info, like the map idea. Still unsure of routing GUEST traffic to our second proxy even though they are all now on the same VLAN.

Have manually set IP addresses for all the switches on the VLAN2 to the new private address range and subnet. Still can't see how the VLAN2 (Guest SSID ) traffic will route from the AP's to the new proxy. Still have some way to go yet me thinks but any sugestions welcome.

Thanks robk. I have tagged all the switch ports that connect directly to the AP's to use VLAN 2. If I read you right do I also need to tagg the trunk uplink ports between switches to VLAN2 also. At present looking at the switches the VLAN2 does not have any settings for IP address, does this option need configuring. If the VLAN2 is a separate network it will use its own subnet and gateway, would the new proxy be the gateway ?

Having recently had a new wireless system installed at the school which I have to admit works a treat for the existing domain equipment, I am looking to branch out and set up guest wireless access for staff/students/visitors. The AP's have been configured with 2 SSID's one for Domain and one for Guests which are set on the AP's for the default VLAN and a GUEST VLAN. We have also had a new proxy installed for the internet access which can be set for open authentication so not requiring any link to AD accounts. Now that was the easy bit, now comes my problem of configuring the switches. The network uses all HP Procurve managed switches with 2 x 5412zl switches forming a backbone between the main building (Cab B) and a new building with the servers and some classrooms (Cab A). The AP's are connected to the core switches and edge switches which are 2510G-24 models. The edge switches are linked back to Cab B by fibre which is currently trunked to give 2 Gig links. Now I've started the ball rolling by creating a GUEST VLAN (VLAN 2) on all of the edge switches and the two main switches. My next step is to get my head around tagging and trunking. My understanding is that I need to tag all the ports connected to the AP's to VLAN 2 so that the traffic can be routed depending on SSID to one of the two VLAN's. My question is how to route the VLAN 2 traffic to a new proxy which we have had installed by the LEA which will act as DHCP for a private network and also give internet access, separate from the domain network. I'm still in the research phase but as the holidays are slipping away any assistance would be much appreciated. Unfortunately with no prior knowledge of VLAN's this is a major learning curve but an ideal opportunity to learn a new skill.

Thanks ChrisMac timing is everthing. Our school is currently looking for a site wide wireless solution which can cope with capacity in addition to coverage, to date after looking at various solutions Xirrus has come out top of the list. We are therefore testing one of their arrays and have to admit once the teething problems were sorted that today we connected 30 laptops in one classroom with 15 of them 'n' standard connecting at between 150 and 270mbs using channel bonding. The staff and students were suitably impressed, although in fairness this is just a test with one array so cannot test the ability of users to roam but we are confident the solution will more than meet our requirements. I would like to agree with Chris that the Xirrus support has been very helpful even to say that it has been excellent with Ben and his team remoting in on occasions to tweak the array and test laptop network settings. This is an exciting time for the school in which a reliable site wide wireless system could very well transform our use of IT.

Loaded a laptop with Windows & professional and installed the 2008 Admin pak. Then joinded this to the domain and edited the wireless GPO and hey presto the WPA2 setting is applied. Tried this without altering the schema on the Dc and it worked fine. Laptops are now connecting using WPA2, only downside is the GPO is now greyed out in 2003 so cannot edit it without using the Win 7 machine. Thanks very much for the info, this fix will do nicely until we upgrade the servers.

By updating the schema on the DC to 2008 will this enable the WPA2 setting in the GPO or would we still need to access the setting using a Win7/ Vista workstation. Seen various references stating that you would never see the WPA2 setting on a 2003 server unless your accessing via a 2008/Win7 console. If this is the case then as you suggested I will just run the GPO from a workstation for now until we upgrade the DC to 2008 this year.

Would this have to be done on the DC ?