2003 R2 SBS install from hell !!

Due to a mis-ordering of software, I had to try and install a 2003 SBS box into an existing AD infrastructure. This is a Microsoft supported install, but it ain't straightforward by any means.

In order to make my life as easy as possible I ordered a swing migration kit from SBSMigration.com, and I can't recommend their stuff enough; really clear instructions and very straight forward to follow. Unfortunately, this particular install was further complicated by a rampant worm infestation which caused unprotected boxes to shut down as soon as you tried to remove the infection - cue 2 onsite rebuilds before I got wise to what was going on...

Machine was eventually built using the SBS Media (remember to stop the SBS install by removing CD1 before the logging on for the first time), also DO NOT activate the 2003 install at this point - leave it until later on.

The next issue I had was after DCPromo'ing the box and transferring the roles (because this box was going into an existing domain and the old DC's were going to be gracefully demoted, I didn't have to do the full swing process and seize roles). As per the SBSMigration instructions, I then restarted the SBS setup, unfortunately it bombed out about 2/3rds of the way through and when I tried to restart it I got an error:

"This computer cannot be upgraded to the OEM version of Windows Small Business Server"

This error stopped me from doing anything else with setup - my only choice was to exit. After a LOT of looking around and head-scratching I posted an item on the Microsoft Managed Newsgroups with all my eventlogs up to that point. The following day I got a response, and although it didn't seem to do anything at the time, it subsequently proved to be the key to unlock the problem (after yet another rebuild and dcpromo etc)

hklm\software\microsoft\smallbusinessserver\

In this key there should have been a DWORD value (IsRunFromWeb) with a hex value of 1 - there wasn't. I manually added it, and at the same time checked my Inetpub folder NTFS settings - according to microsoft they should have been

Administrators: Full Control

Creator Owner: Special Permissions (Full Control Subfolders and files)

Interactive: Read

Network: Read

System: Full Control

Users: Read & Execute, List Folder Contents and Read

After setting these, I no longer got the OEM issue. Unfortunately it wasn't long before another setup issue raised it's head:

Server Configuration

An error occurred while accessing domain information. Open Active Directory Users and Computers, and verify that objects appear. Rerun Setup.



Server Tools

An error occurred while copying files for the Server Tools component. See C:\Program Files\Microsoft Integration\Windows Small Business Server 2003\Logs\SBSMSI-remote.LOG for the list of files that were not copied. You may want to run Setup again and reinstall the component.

Fortunately this was a lot easier to sort out - a quick google revealed this MS article, the meat of which involves running the following command:

csvde -i -f %windir%\system32\mui\dispspec\dcpromo.csv -c DOMAINPLACEHOLDER domain distinguished name (DN) -j %windir%\debug -k

Once I'd run this and the AD was fully updated, setup progressed as per usual - result !!!

I can only assume that I hit so many problems because the domain was an old NT4 domain that had been upgraded to a 2000 AD, so probably didn't have all the appropriate objects in place. I'm sure that a 2000 AD as a base would would straight off...