Server 2008 R2 Considerations:
As Aaron posted over at BinaryWar.com, Windows Server 2008 R2 is the first release of Windows to be 64bit only. We knew it was coming, with SQL and Exchange having already made the jump. With the majority of us still supporting mostly 32bit clients, there are some special considerations to keep in mind when you are planning a deployment of a 64 bit server for general small office use (as opposed to a higer performance or higher demand machine, traditionally the targets of 64 bit architecture).:
- Applications compatibility - Will your companies applications run ( in a supported fashion) on a 64 bit server? Any modern application should at least have a forthcoming update to support 64bit, but there are plenty of non-modern applications out there that are lagging behind. In the event that it is not supported, your best option may be to either host a VM on your new 64 bit server, or run both of them on a hypervisor. Call your vendor and get their support statement in writing. You do not want to get halfway through a migration and find out that you will have to run beta code to make it work, sort of, in the meantime.
- Backups - Most newer versions of BackupExec support 64 bit, so you should be fine there, if that is what you are running. Obviously if you are using the built in backup, it would be supported as well. Make sure that whatever device (especially tape drives) you are using to back up to is supported.
- Printers - Ah yes, the lowly print server. Plenty of printers have either crap 64bit drivers or nothing at all. Either plan on replacing those printers or using plan b from item 1 above.
- Antivirus - Don't forget this. You need it and the chances that your existing install package will work on 64bit are basically zero
Weird Problem of the Day: Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 2003 DC’s Not Replicating
OK, one of our techs was onsite upgrading a basic single server DC/File Server/App Server. He joined the server to the domain, promoted it and ensured that the files in the sysvol share were replicating. Everything looked fine. He transferred the FSMO roles, again without error. When he ran the dcpromo on the old server to demote it, he got an errors saying that
"The directory service was unable to transfer ownership of one or more floating single-master operation roles to other servers"
Weird. So I had him do all the normal steps, moving FSMO back and forth, waiting 15 minutes, restarting netlogon and FRS services. Nothing helped. FRS was running, stuff was replicating, but apparently something was still missing.
Running "repadmin /showreps" yielded a few errors:
"Last attempt @ 2009-11-12 18:45:37 failed, result 1256 (0x4e8): The remote system is not available. For information about network troubleshooting, see Windows Help."
Bottom line, R2 and 2003 servers sometimes have security problems replicating between them. There is a hotfix, probably the worst-titled one in history, to fix it.
Crap huh? No way you would find that if you were searching for a problem with AD replication. There is a tiny note in there that one of the problems you might experience is replication-related. So we requested and ran the hotfix, rebooted and magically dcpromo worked as the maker intended it to. I hope that this makes it into a service pack or critical update at some point soon, because we have a lot of Windows 2003 servers that are eventually going to need to be replaced.