We are planning a reinstallation on our SBS box.  Our box is SBS 2003 std.  Is there a way we can download Sp2 to a thumbdrive so we don't have to download it after we reinstall the box?

 

Thanks!

Hi Mike,

 

Yes, you can download W2k3 SP2. But may I ask why you want to reinstall the server? How many users do you have?

Hi Marina,

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

We decided to reinstall the server because we have bought a new server.

 

We bought a new Dell PowerEdge 2900 with Dual quad core chips and 16 gigs of ram, VM Ware ESX, and Windows Server 2003 Enterpirse with cals for all of our users.

 

Our plan, as of today is to use our existing SBS 2003 Standard box as our exchange server seeing as we already own 35 cals.  We are creating 4 new virtual servers with Server 2003 Enterprise on them.  We are going to use these for multiple roles.  We plan on joining these to the domain on our SBS.

 

The reason we want to reinstall is to get a fresh start.  We were early adopters of SBS 2003.  We used the server over the last 5 years for just about everything.  In the process, installed tons of software that we no longer use on it.  In addition, we have been using a third party email server instead of exchange.  We have had exchange disabled all of this time.  We now plan on using Exchange for our messaging.

 

About the downloadable service pack.  I was reading online and saw stuff on downloading SP1 for SBS, and it seemed very cumbersome.  Downloading 5 different pieces and having to install them all in order and such.  So I can now download SP2 for Windows Server 2003, even though it doesn't specify Small Business Server?

 

Thanks Marina

Hi Mike,

 

With that many users you really should consider Swing It from Jeff Middleton. That way you will get a clean install, but you will preserve the current AD, which will mean you don't have to change anything on the desktops.

If you have SBS 2003 RTM, you will still need to install SBS 2003 SP1 after all. At which servicepack level are you now on SBS?