SBS 2011 Standard Migrations – Keys to Success – Part 2: The Setup Phase

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Chris Puckett, John Bay and Damian Leibaschoff from Commercial Technical Support]

First Part: SBS 2011 Standard Migrations – Keys to Success

This is the second post of the series. During the actual setup of the SBS 2011 Standard server you may encounter a number of situations that can be prevented or addressed on the fly. This post tries to cover them and provide viable options to allow the setup to continue.

If you are already experiencing a setup failure, please check the post-setup with failures section in our third post of this series for further troubleshooting information first.

A. If using an OEM pre-installation solution, make sure it supports Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard and not just Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard.

B. Disable extra NICS on the destination server where you intend to install SBS 2011 Standard

The SBS setup will try to disable them automatically but it might not work on all cases, so ideally disable them from the BIOS before starting the process.

C. Do not make any changes on the network.

From now until the SBS 2011 Standard migration setup is complete, do not make any changes on the network. This is not a good time to be doing any of the following:

· Changing passwords
· Installing Software
· Removing Domain Controllers
· Changing out the network hardware
· Restoring servers
· Rebooting domain controllers
· Re-wiring the network

D. If you encounter this message during setup: “Verify that the Source Server Name Is Correct”, do this:

You may get an error "Verify that the Source Server Name is Correct" while trying to install SBS into an existing domain
https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2506841

E. If you encounter this message during setup: “Verify that the domain name and log on credentials are correct, and then try again”, do this:

· Check for Time Mismatch (Date, Time and Time Zone) on both source and new server.
· Verify that there are no firewalls or other endpoint protection solutions on the source server, remove them if present.
· Check the Credentials being used.

F. If you encounter this message during setup: Source Server does not meet the minimum requirements for migration

Most Common Cause:
The new server makes a WMI connection back to the source server to verify that the source tool has been successfully run. 

Resolution Summary:  
You can use the steps in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article to troubleshoot the issue:  https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2612862

G. If you encounter this message during setup: “Active Directory replication is taking longer than expected” , do this:

Active Directory replication is taking longer than expected. You can choose whether to continue waiting.

If you choose not to wait, the migration may fail. Unless you are sure that replication is working correctly, it is recommended that you continue waiting.

Do you want to wait for the replication to finish? (Yes/No)

Most Common Cause:
You will only get this dialog after the SBS setup has waited for 25 minutes and the new server has not been able to properly contact the source DC to initialize the file replication service (FRS), this is preventing the new server from becoming a domain controller. Clicking No on this dialog will almost certainly mean a failed setup. The source server is most likely in journal wrap or having FRS issues.

Resolution Summary:
You can use the steps in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article to troubleshoot the issue: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2612832

Third Part: SBS 2011 Standard Migration – Keys to Success – Part 3: Post Setup and Common Failures