Installing SBS 2003 SP1, or how I spent my weekend!
By Andy Goodman

So I though I would share with you that not every upgrade is a smooth process. How to work through it when it gets ugly, and even with a upgrade as well tested as SBS2003 SP1 things can come from no where and ruin your best laid plans.

I got into town late in the afternoon Friday to prepare for the upgrade on Saturday morning. This client has people who work all hours so we had warned everyone the network would be unavailable on and off the better part of the weekend. As you read the following horror story keep in mind when I left Sunday night I knew the client was going to be back in business Monday morning, although I will admit, Sunday afternoon I was going over the steps in my head to restore my tested backup to a vpc and use my buddy Jeff's Swing Migration (http://www.sbsmigration.com/) to get onto another server.  I knew there would be 30 engineers needing access to the network resources Monday morning; and the server is down was not an option.

It was going to be a very hot weekend so I was really glad to see the client had mounted a  good sized fan into the wall of the server closet to get some air circulation. It gets really hot in there with 2 servers and the telephone equipment. I would have been even happier had the project been completed and the electrician had shown up. While I work I tend to keep a running log so if I loose my place I can use it to jog my memory as to what I was doing. It has also proved useful on more than one occasion when a client has asked, so what did you do all day? I though I would share my log for this project with you. If you have not done an SP1 upgrade yet don't let this scare you, I have done a number of them and this has been the first really bad one, and now that it is over, the actual upgrade itself went really well, it was just the side effects that ruined my weekend :>)

Friday 2:30-5:30 Start Cleanup of Server
Remove old notes and patch logs.
Clear desktop, clear temps ect.
Make sure backups are set to run.
Remove last few ISA clients (Client did most of them b4 I got here)
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Sat 9:00am
Verify Last Nights Remotes BU Job
Verify Last Night Main BU
Clear Logs
Reboot
Uninstall SUS
Disable all BE services
Uninstall Crown Print Manager
Disconnect UPS Signal Cable (ser, usb was loose)
Turn Off USB BU Drive
Clean Up Desktop
Empty Recycle Bin
Uninstall Shavlic
Reboot for Shavlic uninstall
Disable APC Agent
Disable APC Server
PARPEPPY error ??
Remove Link to Harriet Printer to clear Parpeppy error
Uninstall Snagit Demo
Disable SAV Realtime File
10:24 w2k sp1
reboot started 11:00am/11:10
Enable SAV Realtime File
Try to Delete Minolta Printer to clear parpeppy error, pending deletion
Update SAV for new os version
Run SHAREPOINT SP1, reports already installed
Disable SAV Realtime File again
Run Exchange SP1
Reboot started 11:40/11:53
Enable SAV Realtime File again
Verify Client Apps Reg Settings
Run XP SP2 Deployment
Clear Logs
Reboot started 12:20 went to lunch
12:45 repair dcom error, boy I hate these!
Start Reboot 1:08/1:19
1:26 SBS SP1
1:32 Update Failed Member domain, schema, enterprise admin error, rebooting itself again
Verify group memberships, all ok, no changes were made
Restart sp1 install 1:50
Start reboot 2:07 successful this time 2:19
Clear logs post sp1 2:28
Start SQL Sp4 to Default Instance 2:34
SQL SP4 to Default Instance finishes and starts reboot at 2:41
Start SQL Sp4 to SHAREPOINT Instance 2:52
SQL SP4 to SHAREPOINT Instance finishes and starts reboot at 3:05
Register SHAREPOINT Instance in Enterprise Manager
Start SQL Sp4 to BKUPEXEC Instance 3:28
BKUPEXEC not a SQL Server, get MSDE update later
Start ISA 2004 3:35
ISA 2004 starts reboot 3:51/4:02
DC2 Start W2k3 SP1 3:52/4:20
Share ISA Client Files, already done
Logon first workstation, Outlook SP1 auto install + ISA Client Manual Install
2nd workstation Bookkeeper station needs more room, ol update loops, expand C: partition
DC2 ISA Client
SBS WU all
DC2 WU all 5:00 done
Still need clients and WSUS
7:45 left, 3 machines still cooking, 2 machines not here
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Sun from hotel room 6:30-7:30 install WSUS start sync
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Sun 9:10am configure products & update types in wsus
9:30 swap bu drive, save complete from yesterday b4 updates
Server reboots for no reason, loops rebooting don't have time for this today
Pull BU Drive, looping stops
Hookup BU to a workstation to see whasssup
Drive looks fine, try again stop error 07f
call M$ 1-888-455-7422 server down for unlisted hot fix 891722
case #srx-050724600229
bad link call back
ftp://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa/, not required
use native w2k3 driver 2002 version
11:50 start upload to pss workspace
12:20 enabled WSUS gpo, needs 20 minutes to propagate
Fixed to include 8530, now computers showing up
Add ISA client to 28 more workstations (once again client does most of the leg work)
2 more workstations need C: drive expanded
WSUS reports 2 with 836528 worm so far 1:45pm, (changed to 890830,)
Ran cleanup on both, tool reports clean
17 computers checking in with WSUS so far 2:15pm
Have not heard back from pss about reboot issue
pss has not rec'd the dump at 3:40 will resend soon
Configure ISA to Allow ftp
download 1.08 bios for server
create dos floppy
Server bios does not like xp dos boot disk
run vpc dos, make boot disk
Flash Bios, 4:40pm
boot clean turn on USB drive, blue screen again
boot clean, shutdown, remove
Install ADS Tech card, boot same problem
Try Intel onboard usb, same problem
set server to capture full dump
hook up third USB drive different manufacturer turn on, server stays up
Hook up Nexstar USB case server blue screens, a clue?
Send to online crash analysis
pack up 6:30pm
still need to send dump to pss later tonight

Finally home 10:00pm, remote into server,
Enable BE Services
Enable APC Services
Configure backup to run to only non-Nexstar  external drive onsite.
Check in with WSUS console, see 30 clients reporting so far, smile for the first time today.
Send note to pss and upload the memory dump they requested.
Get to bed around 11:00
3:30am wake suffering from heat exhaustion, loose entire day Monday will spare you the gory details.
-------------------------------------
Tuesday
Test Nexstar case on my sever, same blue screen.
Talk to pss deliver my test results NST-350U2 will blue screen NST250U2 will not, they are looking into it. They both  worked fine before sp1. Talked to High-Rely (www.High-Rely.com)about SP1 compatibility, saw their 7 drive bay unit at SMBTN and it looked real good. Need something for this client to replace the Nexstar drive enclosures.
Also send dump from my server during test.

So how was your weekend?