Wesley Levels's Blog

Installing SBS 2003 (premium) from scratch

Some days ago I got a call about a broken SBS 2003 server (server wasn’t in production yet). Because it would take me more time to check what somebody else did wrong, I just reinstalled the server. During this install I came by some weird problems, so I wanted to put it on my blog as a reference.

Note: I had a worst case scenario. I had the first version of the installation CD’s. They didn’t had any Service Pack’s and had a bug; some problems with a DLL verification algorithm that prevents you from installing Sharepoint successfully after 24 November 2003. To check if you have an old installation medium, do the following:

- Insert CD3 of your SBS 2003 installation CD’s.
- Open Drive:\SBS\CLIENTAPPS\SHAREPT.
- In the SHAREPT folder, open Sts.cab, and extract the Sqmcfg.dll file to your hard disk. The Sts.cab file is hidden, so it could be that you need to enable your OS showing you hidden files.
- Right-click the extracted Sqmcfg.dll file, and click properties.
- Click the Digital Signatures tab.
- Click to select the digital signature, click “Details”, and click “View Certificate”.
- On the general tab, find the “Valid to” date.

If the “Valid To” date is 11/24/2003, you have an original copy of Disk 3. If the “Valid To” date is 11/24/2009 or a later date, you have an updated copy of Disk 3.

If you have an original copy of CD3, you can still do the SBS 2003 setup, however you have to make sure you change the time in the server’s BIOS to a valid time that the digital signature is valid.

(I installed SBS 2003 on an HP ML110 G5 with integrated RAID controller) .

First I enabled RAID and created a RAID1 group out of two drives. I downloaded the RAID driver from HP and created a new boot-CD out of the SBS 2003 CD1 with slipstreamed RAID drivers (used NLite). After creating two partitions (I used one partition for the OS itswelf, and one partition for user files, exchange store, SQL databases, etc.) I installed Windows Server 2003.

What needs to happen exactly after installing Windows Server 2003 (SBS 2003 CD1) is something everybody has his own opinion about. Some people tell you to first update the Windows Server 2003 install, others tell you to start by walking through the SBS wizard.

This is the right way to do it:

- Boot from the first CD (SBS CD1), and install Windows Server 2003.
- After installing Windows, the server reboots and starts the SBS wizard for configuring your server as a Small Business Server. Cancel this wizard.
- Make sure you have the right drivers installed for all your hardware. Don’t update!
- After all drivers are installed, execute the desktop shortcut that was created when cancelling the SBS wizard. The SBS wizard will then resume.
- Complete the SBS wizard. This will take some time, and some CD swapping, SBS uses 4 CD’s for a default installation.
- During the installation, there comes a point where you can change the path your SQL databases and Exchange store and other user files will be placed. I choose to place all of these on the D partition, this way all user files and databases have their own partition.
- When done with the installation, you will have to do the following in the correct order:

• Download and install Windows 2003 Service Pack 1
• Download and install Sharepoint Services 2.0 Service Pack 1
• Download and install Windows Small Business Server 2003 Update KB8891193 for Windows XP Service Pack 2
• Download and install Exchange Service Pack 2
• Download and install Windows Small Business Server 2003 Service Pack 1

The updates after the above ones can be executed with Microsoft Update.

It’s also possible to run WSS 3.0 together with WSS 2.0. Watch out: It’s not possible to replace your WSS 2.0 install with WSS 3.0, because this may break the integration between Windows SBS and Windows Sharepoint Services. The only supported method for installing Windows Sharepoint Version 3 is in side-by-side mode.

For a complete tutorial about installing WSS 3.0 on your SBS 2003 machine, follow this document:

http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2006/11/30/wss-v3-0-installation-on-sbs-2003.aspx