Question : EBS 2008 install problem, migrating from SBS 2003

Hi

I recently started to migrate my SBS 2003 domain to EBS 2008, having checked and double checked, made sure everything was ready, no errors in event veiwer, passed all tests on SBS 2003 best practices analyzer.  I still at almost every step hit some kind of error.

anyway i have battled my way to the actual install of the ebs management server, and it gets to Network configuration, it errors and says it is unable to update the dns record for the server.  ipconfig /flushdns, ipconfig /registerdns fails, saying it is unable to contact the dns server.  now i know why this has happened its because the dns server ip details are set to the management server, which it says during the instsallation wizard is required(i thought it was strange at this stage but sahrugged it off)  and obviously as it has not even setup the dns server on the management server yet, it is unable to locate the DNS server for the domain, which is the SBS 2003 box.

So i cancel installation and it rolls back the setting, then errors saying the connection is intermittent(DNS issue) eventually it finishes and looks to have rolled back settings correctly.

I restart, reinstall, delete partitions and re-create.  I get to the domain join and i get an error,  Failed to find management server.  Having trawled the internet i found a blog which said this can happen if active directory has not been cleaned up properly,  solution run the program adrestore to restore the deleted AD object.

I ran it, and it found no trace of a deleted object called management, it says run it on the management server but of course the management server is not even part of the domain at this point so it finds nothing, i even ran it on the sbs box and it finds nothing.

I can go no further with this until the installation wizard will let me join the management serveer to the domain,  also i never got to the point where i would name my servers but thats by the by.

Basically i need to clear out AD or some other work around thats not as involved, i could restore the system state and start again, but im worried that as i have been brought into this company to sort this out, i cannot confirm the integrity of the backups.  so a restore could very well mess AD up for good.

Answer : EBS 2008 install problem, migrating from SBS 2003

It is true the restore could be very messy, but I have to admit it logically looks like your best course of action.Therefore you should backup the current system state if the restored one doesn't work at least you go back to where you are now.Let say this is almost starting from scratch if you proceed with restore. But this time you should make sure that you follow the EBS preparation wizard and NOT SKIPPING ANY ERRORS. that is usually where the problem is.
The EBS Preparation wizard is your first step to a succesful migration.
The following link is a good Step-by-Step Migration.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?familyid=191B141E-3A1F-4C1B-BD2D-15623751E518&displaylang=en
Good luck!