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Thursday 23 September 2010

SBS 2008 Migration fails with "Source Server does not meet requirements"

We were performing a migration from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 and when the answer file was being checked during the upgrade we saw this error displayed and the list showed that the source server did not meet the requirements for Active Directory Schema and Exchange Server Service Pack level.

We knew that the source server was correct and the BPA had passed all tests so I thought it must be a communication issue from the SBS 2008 Server to the source server, I opened Wireshark and could see traffic from the SBS 2008 Server to the source server so the next step was to see if the SBS 2008 Server could ping the source server by Netbios and FQDN as these are part of the answer file.

During SBS 2008 Server setup you can press SHIFT + F10 and have a command line load, this is invaluable for trouble shooting and a quick ping showed we could not ping the Netbios or FQDN of the source server. I edited the HOSTS file on the SBS Server and updated it to resolve the source server correctly and ran the answer file check again....

Bingo! The tests passed and the installation continued. Lesson learnt, always test your DNS and WINS before you start. In this case my engineer explained he had had to change the IP range on the source server from a class B address to a class C address and this then told me DNS had not updated correctly and this is why DHCP on the SBS Server 2008 did not resolve the names correctly.

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