Windows 2003 Standard to Enterprise? Possible?

[Zaker]

I think I know the answer, but I have to ask as this decision duplicates the amount of work I have to do to create another build.

Customer has decided that they need both Windows 2003 x86 Standard and Enterprise for a project.

I use unattended builds to build servers via network share.

Do these have to be 2 totally separate builds, or is there a way to upgrade/migrate a Standard edition server to Enterprise edition?

If there was I would just have 1 build then a process to follow to change the required servers only to Enterprise.

Wishful thinking? Or is it possible?

Thanks in advance.

[RyanVM]

I'm pretty sure you're going to get nowhere in a hurry asking that here. Doing such a conversation would almost certainly be breaking the license terms of the software, meaning your customer could be in a world of trouble should they ever get audited. Just bite the bullet and do the two builds. I'm betting most of the stuff for one build will overlap with the other one too, so you can just copy a bunch of files and change the few things that need changing (like the product key, computer ID, etc).

[Zaker]

Sorry, how does it violate and license agreements? The customer is licensed for everything under the sun.

And each finished build would be either Standard or Enterprise.

So if you have a Standard edition server and want to go Enterprise later on, a rebuild is the only way to achieve

this today?

Thanks.

[weEvil]

Sorry, how does it violate and license agreements? The customer is licensed for everything under the sun.

And each finished build would be either Standard or Enterprise.

So if you have a Standard edition server and want to go Enterprise later on, a rebuild is the only way to achieve

this today?

Thanks.

If you want to do it the messy way, you can just install over it. Enterprise over Standard.

However, you cannot change standard to Enterprise. Enterprise has a different system of licensing and activation than Standard. Trying to mess with it WILL result in it breaking and you getting locked out of the system. I know, I've done it.

With the amount of time you spend trying to convert (useless to try unless you know the ins and outs of the system), you can make backups and do a fresh install of Enterprise. But I don't see why you want Enterprise, just mess around with the settings in standard. Its got almost all the features anyway.

Also, don't forget to use nLite. You can integrate Server SP2 in the install CD so you don't have to fiddle with it later.

Edited April 28, 2007 by brucevangeorge

[Zaker]

Good post thanks.

Enterprise is needed as some servers will be clustered and some will not.

Some servers will be DCs as well if I remember correctly.

[nmX.Memnoch]

DC's don't reqeuire Enterprise Edition although most tend to use Enterprise in a larger environment (where more RAM can be helpful). Here are the features that 32-bit Enterprise will give you over Standard:

- Support for 4 CPUs (this might be 8 now) vs 2 CPUs

- Support for 32GB RAM (using PAE) vs. 4GB RAM

- Support for Clustering

That's the main feature upgrades anyway...

[Zaker]

The customer definitely needs both Standard and Enterprise editions for this project.

I will head down the 2 build path. <CRAP>

Thanks for your info.

[nmX.Memnoch]

I'd recommend going 64-bit everywhere that you can...particularly if you're going to be using more than 4GB RAM. Obviously there may be some applications that may not run correctly or at all on the 64-bit version so you'll need to look into this.

Of course, this also depends on whether or not the hardware will support a 64-bit OS as well.

[Zaker]

I appreciate the advice...but I have no say over this as the applications that they are using on this project dictate the flavours of OS we are using.

Some are only supported on x86.

Some must be x86 SP1, other must be SP2.

Its a complete mess...

I have no say in the many versions of Windows that we will have to use.

Just trying to minimize the pain.