Tutorials

SBS 2003 R2 - Installing R2 on an existing SBS 2003 SP1 Premium

Before we start with the installation of SBS 2003 R2 we need to verify that your existing server has the correct service packs installed. Please, check if your server has the following service packs installed:

• SBS 2003 SP1 (if you have not yet installed this service pack please see here for details https://server-essentials.com/support/articleid/72/how-to-install-service-pack-1-for-sbs-2003
• Exchange SP2 (if you have not yet installed this service pack please see here for details https://server-essentials.com/support/articleid/73/how-to-install-sp-2-for-exchange-server-2003
• Windows Sharepoint Services 2.0 SP2

You will need at least 8 GB free space for WSUS updates and 1 GB on your system drive. For further information about SBS 2003 R2 and the latest release notes please check: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=66573.

If one of the above is not installed the installation of the SBS 2003 R2 Technology Upgrade will fail. Insert SBS R2 Technologies disc CD1 (not the Premium CD's, those are needed later when we upgrade your SQL 2000 Sharepoint instance to SQL 2005).

Install the SBS 2003 R2 Technology upgrade on SBS 2003 Premium

1. The installer has been started and we go straight to 'Install Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2' because all other service packs are already installed on our server.
   
2. The installer shows us the Welcome window with a summary of what it will install, click next.
   
3. Accept the License Agreement and click next.
   
4. This is important. WSUS downloads lots and lost of updates if it syncs the first time. You should really choose another partition for the location of WSUS. Click on browse and set the location for WSUS on a partition or drive that has a lot of free space. Click next.
   
5. Click next to continue the installation of the R2 Technology Upgrade.
   
6. Setup has finished and shows you a list with installed components. As you can see it also installed .Net Framework 2.0 but you don't really need that. The File Server Resource Manager needs to be installed manually. We will do that later. Our next step is to have a look at the new interface for WSUS that is fully integrated into the SBS Server Manager.
   
7. And as always we have to reboot the server. On a 'normal' server that will take some time but this Virtual server runs on 4 drives in Raid 0 (striped) and that is really quick. So, my virtual server that runs this SBS 2003 R2 will be up and running in less then a few minutes.
   

Using the new WSUS interface in the SBS Server Manager

Previously, installing and configuring WSUS on a SBS was a lot more work (http://www.smallbizserver.net/Default.aspx?tabid=266&PageID=102&&ArticleID=91&articleType=ArticleView). This has changed with SBS 2003 R2 and we now have a nice and easy to understand 'limited' WSUS console inside the SBS Server Manager.

1. Start the SBS Server Manager and browse to the Windows Update hive.
   
2. On the left side of the window click 'Synchronize Now'. That will force synchronization and download the updates.
   
3. The first synchronization is started. That can take many, many hours before it completes. We leave this for now and have a look at what Update Services more has to offer. Click on 'Change Update Services Settings'.
   
4. We just leave the default settings for Server Updates as they are. Click on the tab Client Updates.
   
5. The Client Updates are set to 'High' and that means that service packs are also pushed. We accept the defaults and have a look at the tab Included Computers.
   
6. The 'Included Computers' tab shows you which computers are included. In this screenshot you see that only the server has been included. That is because I do not have any workstations setup in this Virtual Machine. Click OK to close this window.
   
7. In order to understand how this works I suggest you open the Group Policy Manager from the administrative tools. As you can see there are 3 policies defined that take care of all WSUS settings and those are updated if you change something in the Update Services hive in the SBS Server Manager. You can still use the full blown configuration tool for WSUS from the Administrative Tools but that is really only needed if you need to create more Computer Groups that should be handled different for updating patches, updates and service packs.