SBS 2003 Question

[Apostle 83]

Hello all.

I recently did a server rollout at my business. We had some problems with the first server we got. The company we hired to roll this out was great, but their hardware company apparently didn't do the burnin they said they did, because the server (With RAID 50) had major RAID issues and failed. My vendor went to work for me and spent a significant amount going between intel and Microsoft before he convinced the hardware supplier that there were major issues with not just the intel backplane, but the intel motherboard.

Now, here is my question. I bought SBS 2003 R2. On the first server, I could almost swear that it said "R2." I asked my vendor if he installed it from the disks that he gave us. He said that he used the license from our disks, but not our disks. That makes sense to me (I will verify it).

I've heard that SBS Server R2 is different than Server 2003 R2 in feature set... is it possible that I have R2 SBS and it doesn't say "R2" under properties on my computer? Sorry that this is such a silly question.

[EzyStvy]

I think its just a "play" on words...

Small Business Server is often referred to Server.


Windows Server 2003 R2, an update of Windows Server 2003, was released to manufacturing on 6 December 2005. It is distributed on two CDs, with one CD being the Windows Server 2003 SP1 CD. The other CD adds many optionally installable features for Windows Server 2003. The R2 update was released for all x86 and x64 versions, but not for Itanium versions.[11]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_2003_Server

[faulkner132]

Apostle, "SBS Server R2" is not the same as "Server 2003 R2".

In fact, Small Business Server is significantly different than Windows Server Standard.
Small Business Server is often referred to as "SBS" and Windows Server Standard is often referred to as "Server 2003" and they are not the same thing.

Major differences between SBS (Small Business Server) and Server 2003 (Windows Server Standard) include:
- SBS comes with an Exchange Server store, Windows Server Standard does not.
- SBS cannot be a Terminal Server, Windows Server Standard can.
- SBS must be either a domain controller or part of a domain, Windows Server Standard has no restrictions.

This is just a short list, so make sure you have the version you need.

[Apostle 83]

Right.
My server is my domain controller, dhcp, provides dns to all computers, is running exchange, vpn... etc.

The license that came with it ("Proof of License Certificate of Authenticity") says Windows SBS Std 2003 R2 1-2CPU 5CAL OEM Software.

It looks like it does everything I need. Well, I mean, I can't defrag computers or check to make sure they have all the security updates installed.

[faulkner132]

There are 2 versions of SBS, Standard and Premium.
The biggest difference is Premium comes with a full version of SQL Server whereas Standard does not.

[Apostle 83]

Originally Posted by faulkner132 There are 2 versions of SBS, Standard and Premium. The biggest difference is Premium comes with a full version of SQL Server whereas Standard does not.

Right.

My question is this: I have 4 disks. The 2nd set of disks says "R2." My install does not say "R2."

Am I worrying about nothing here?

[faulkner132]

R2 just means there are a lot of updates included in the initial install. You can use your disk and then run Windows Update to download the appropriate patches to install what R2 already has included.

There is no difference other than that, so you are ok.

[Apostle 83]

Cool. I found the "R2" disk. I had all the latest updates installed prior to running it... and it had a lot of stuff it let me add on.

After I installed it, there were lots of new updates available. That said, there was no change from the system properties display.

This is so confusing. Hopefully someone wondering about this in the future will see this!