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Life of a Geek Admin - The Daily adventures of a true geek administrator

Tag Archives: server migration

Upgrading Windows 2008 R2 using DISM

Sometimes in the Enterprise environment there is a need to upgrade the version of Windows Server. With Windows 2008 R2 this is an easy task with DISM command and a KMS server. You can also use the command if you have a MAK key as well. Using DISM you can upgrade and every role, feature, app on your server will remain after the upgrade.

A few caveats:

  • You can only do upgrades. You CANNOT downgrade
  • The server you upgrade cannot be a domain controller (demote, upgrade, promote)
  • This works on Standard, Enterprise edition, both full & core installations.
  • You cannot switch form core to full or vice versa. It’s edition upgrade only, not for switching type of install.

First we need to see the possible target editions for your server. Open a command prompt and type. The server I executed the command on is running Windows 2008 R2 Standard Edition.

C:\Windows\system32>DISM /online /Get-TargetEditions

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.1.7600.16385

Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Editions that can be upgraded to:

Target Edition : ServerDataCenter
Target Edition : ServerEnterprise

The operation completed successfully.

From the output of the command I see I can upgrade to DataCenter and Enterprise Editions. In this example I upgraded to Enterprise Edition by executing the following command. After running the command the server will need to be rebooted to complete the upgrade, you will have the option presented after running the command.
The syntax is:

DISM /online /Set-Edition: /ProductKey:
C:\Windows\system32>Dism /online /Set-Edition:ServerEnterprise /ProductKey:489J6-VHDMP-X63PK-3K798-CPX3Y

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.1.7600.16385

Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385

Starting to update components...
Starting to install product key...
Finished installing product key.

Removing package Microsoft-Windows-ServerStandardEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.7601.17514
[==========================100.0%==========================]
Finished updating components.

Starting to apply edition-specific settings...
Restart Windows to complete this operation.
Do you want to restart the computer now (Y/N)?

When you have KMS (Key Management Server) in the activation will be done automatically and transparent for you.
Here are the public keys for use with a KMS server:

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC Edition – FKJQ8-TMCVP-FRMR7-4WR42-3JCD7
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter – 74YFP-3QFB3-KQT8W-PMXWJ-7M648
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise – 489J6-VHDMP-X63PK-3K798-CPX3Y
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium-Based Systems – GT63C-RJFQ3-4GMB6-BRFB9-CB83V
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard – YC6KT-GKW9T-YTKYR-T4X34-R7VHC
  •  Windows Web Server 2008 R2 – 6TPJF-RBVHG-WBW2R-86QPH-6RTM4

Don’t worry this is public information KMS Client Setup Keys, these will only activate if you have a KMS server and the key make that KMS server work.
Using the DISM command makes upgrades and migration a lot simpler!!!

Port Capture on Windows 2003 Using PortReporter

Have you ever wanted to capture ports in use on Windows 2003 server with a simple output? Usually you would want such information for migrations of servers and applications to new hosts from servers that have never been documented or have been long forgotten. One such tool is PortReporter and PortParser. There are other tools available to complete this task but in this post I am only covering PortReporter but future posts will cover other available tools.

Description
The Port Reporter tool logs TCP and UDP port activity. The tool is a small program that runs as a service on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000.

On Windows Server 2003 and on Windows XP-based computers, the service can log the following information:

  • The ports that are used
  • The processes that use the port
  • Whether a process is a service
  • The modules that a process loaded
  • The user accounts that run a process

On Windows 2000-based computers, the service logs the ports that are used and when the ports are used.

You can use the information that is logged by the Port Reporter tool to help you track port usage and troubleshoot certain issues. The information that is logged by the Port Reporter tool may also be helpful for security purposes.

Download the Port Reporter tool
The Port Reporter tool is available from this link on the Microsoft Download Center:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=69ba779b-bae9-4243-b9d6-63e62b4bcd2e&displaylang=en

Important: The Port Reporter Parser tool is a log parser for Port Reporter log files. This tool is now available for download. Port Reporter Parser has many features that can help you analyze Port Reporter log files. You can download the Port Reporter Parser tool from the following Microsoft web site:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/8/8/28810043-0e21-4004-89a3-2f477a74186f/PRParser.exe

Installation
Installation is simple. After extracting the file double-click on pr-setup.exe and a popup box will appear asking if you want to install the tool. Answer “y” and the installation will complete. A service will be created and set the setting to manual.

Newly added service

The logs generated by the tool will be set to c:\windows\system32\Logfiles\PortReporter. Three logs will be created when you start the service and will create a new set of three when one of the logs reaches 5 MB in size.

PR-INITIAL-<datestamp>.log
PR-PIDS-<datestamp>.log
PR-PORTS-<datestamp>.log

Start Collecting
Start the service to start the process of collecting information. Keep an eye on disk space on the system, as this tool can chew up space quickly on very busy servers. Once you have run it long enough to collect data, just stop the service.

Reading the Output
Now that you have the data you can read it using Port Reporter Parser developed just to read the files. Download and install it on the server. Once installed open up the tool and it will immediately go and ask for a log to open.

Select the log to view and click OK.

Port Reporter Parser displays the information in a readable format that allows you to drill down on the process to get more details on the process and the ports it is using.

Port details

As you can see PortReporter and PrParser are just one of many free tools available to get information on the communication on a Windows 2003 server. Explore and use the tools and see the other features available.

 

 

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