Now that the demise of Windows 2000 is imminent---Microsoft is dropping support for this platform as of June this year--it’s time to evaluate upgrade options. Dropping support means that the company will offer no more service packs or telephone support unless you sign an extended support contract. I expect many small and mid-sized businesses are still happily coexisting with Win2K servers and workstations, but all good things do come to an end so it’s time to budget for new servers and workstations and start planning an upgrade.

Many reasons exist for choosing Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 as your upgrade platform, especially if you already have a mail server and a company Web site, and your employees need remote access to email and the company Web site. Equally important, SBS by design is more secure than Win2K, and if you opt for SBS Premium Edition, you can fine tune internal and external security with Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server. It’s a good bet that Microsoft will release SBS Service Pack 1 (SP1) well ahead of the June drop-dead date, so you’ll be able to take advantage of the improvements in reliability and security with the initial deployment. This upgrade path might also help you consolidate servers because SBS 2003 Standard runs the Web-based collaboration product Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and Exchange Server 2003 on the same machine. Fewer servers means fewer updates, fewer backups, less maintenance, with the risk that when SBS 2003 is unavailable, you lose much of the network’s functionality.

Here are some issues that you need to consider when planning an upgrade. Do you need SBS Standard or SBS Premium? The standard version contains Windows 2003 with Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0, Exchange 2003, WSS, Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, and Microsoft’s Shared Fax Service. The premium edition has three additional features, ISA Server 2000 (firewall, VPN, and Web caching); Microsoft SQL Server 2000; and Microsoft FrontPage 2003. ISA Server has a steep learning curve and is more appropriate for securing connections in large distributed networks with tiered firewall protection. You can see a feature comparison between the standard and premium versions at www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/evaluation/features/default.mspx. I would guess that SBS 2003 Standard has enough functionality to support 80 percent of small business needs.

You can do an inplace upgrade to SBS 2003 on Win2K Server, but not Win2K Advanced Server. The retail price of an SBS 2003 version upgrade for Win2K is $599. Microsoft recommends that you upgrade Win2K AS to Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition. If you don’t have a sophisticated corporate structure, it might be more cost effective to purchase a new SBS 2003 system (new license is also $599) and use the Active Directory Migration Tool (ADMT) to move domain data to the new server. Although Microsoft claims you need only a 500MHz processor for SBS 2003, this recommendation seems ludicrous given processor speeds these days. And backing up hundreds of gigabytes of data on such a slow machine would probably take all night.

Next, you need to address client licensing. How many client licenses do you need? If you do an inplace upgrade to SBS 2003, you’ll pay $194 for the first five client licenses and $776 for each additional 20-pack of upgrade licenses. A new SBS 2003 license comes with five CALs and a 20-pack of new CALs (not upgrades) takes a hefty $1929 out of your budget. Because most small businesses have purchased licenses for clients, even if you migrate your current Win2K network to SBS 2003, you should be able upgrade 20 current client licenses for $776. For more information, see the SBS price list at www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/howtobuy/pricing.mspx.

If you run an older version of Exchange Server, be aware that Microsoft is phasing out support for Exchange Server 5.x in December 2005. If you choose SBS 2003 as your upgrade solution, the Exchange Migration Wizard can help you move mailboxes to Exchange 2003.

Here are a few resources to help you plan a migration to SBS 2003.

• Microsoft Small Business Server 2003
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/default.mspx

• "Migrating from Small Business Server 2000 or Windows 2000 Server to Windows Small Business Server 2003." A guide for migrating from Windows 2000 to SBS 2003, including important dos and don’ts, plus the steps to follow to move data from an old Exchange server to SBS.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/d/c/6dccf9b4-d915-4c95-b5af-100b89e02add/SBS_MigratingSBS2k.doc

• Windows Small Business Server 2003 Getting Started Guide – Chapter 3 in a technet article with step-by-step instructions for an inplace upgrade.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sbs/2003/plan/gsg/chptr3c.mspx

• "How to Use Active Directory Migration Tool Version 2 to Migrate from Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003"
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326480

• How to use the Exchange Migration Wizard to migrate mailboxes from an Exchange organization
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;328871

As of today, there are several updates you need to apply to SBS 2003 before you deploy servers. First, install Exchange 2003 SP1, the bug fix for Exchange SP1 documented in the Microsoft article "You cannot use Outlook Web Access with forms-based authentication and you receive a Store.exe e-mail alert message" (http://www.support.Microsoft.com/?kbid=843539), plus SP1 for WSS. Second, you need two updates that deal with the XP SP2 Windows Firewall: one modifies Group Policy to enable the firewall and the other addresses a bug in the modified policy. You can find links to both patches in the Microsoft article "You cannot configure Windows Firewall settings or Security Center settings on a Windows XP Service Pack 2-based client computer that is in a Windows Small Business Server 2003-based network" (http://www.support.Microsoft.com/?kbid=872769). Third, WSS has several known problems, one of which is addressed in the Microsoft article "You cannot successfully install the intranet component or connect to http://companyweb in Windows Small Business Server 2003" http://www.support.Microsoft.com/?kbid=832880. Microsoft published the patch as a critical update back in December 2003. The Knowledge Base also has good references about how to remove and reinstall WSS and IIS 6.0 when something goes wrong. If you wait a few months, you can replace the non-service pack updates for SBS with SP1 when it becomes available. Better start planning today.

Reader Comments

Security Updates will be available until June, 2010 for Windows 2000. See the following links. http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];LifeWin

Always nice to get a notification that your OS is about to drop off maintenance. Thanks!

Unless you're a really small business running only 1 win2k server to take care of all of your needs, SBS 2003 might be the option for you but I would steer clear of this product. You must setup SBS 2003 as a domain controller, if you don't, it's a violation of the eula and the server will power itself down after 7 days and every day afterwards. If you have other servers at your site and possibly other sites with other domain controllers, SBS 2003 won't play nicely with them. It's a domain controller of a different flavor, no other DC's are allowed in this domain, it's a like a single tree in a single forest (why do you call it a forest if there's only 1 tree?). Also, aside from it's packaging indicating that this is an easy product to install & maintain for the non-IT person, real world experience indicates that this is most definitely not the case. If you can stick with Win2K server if that's what you're currently running for as long as you can. It's a rock solid server product without all of the headaches & XP'ish eye candy that SBS2003 brings to the table. If you plan on going with SBS2003, plan on increasing the amount of time you spend at your workplace by the amount of time you'll be reducing your sleeptime by. IMHO, 2 thumbs down for SBS2003! 'nuff said.

I have setup 2 SBS2003 servers from scratch for companies that have abbout 15-20 employees and its great I have my MCSE so I am not one who knows nothing about IT and though I know some people who have got to a place where they needed to learn SBS2003 on the job with very minimal IT experiance it was very easy for them. I would suggest this to anyone who has a small business.

The poster that stated "no other DC's are allowed in this domain" is sadly misinformed. SBS must hold all the FSMO roles but works very well with additional DC's in the same domain. There can be no other SBS servers in the same domain and you cannot establish a trust with another domain. If you have other sites with their own DC's that trust each other you are probably no longer a small business (what did you think SMALL Business Server meant, anyway?)

Re:Upgrading Windows 2000 to SBS 2003 Why presume all W2K users are not just home users? I am and I prefer W2K for use in a 2 PC peer to peer network. You and Microsoft are nuts if you think users like me will pay over $1000 to be lab rats for a new generation OS for networked home use PCs. How much did MS pay you to advertise this promotion?

Some sadly misinformed comments apparent here. The first anonymous poster obviously has NO idea about how SBS fits into the market. It's a killer product and the sales figures alone show that. Don't forget the global community of SBS fans that exists to provide support to one another. The author of the article itself appears to lose sight of the target market for this product too - how many small businesses have hundreds of gigabytes of data to backup?? Another upgrade/migration strategy is available from www.sbsmigration.com. I've used this process multiple times and it works very well. The best recommendation I can give anyone looking to implement this product though is to get a suitably experienced consultant in to install it - it will work much better, will cost you less and you'll sleep much better. Can't find a consultant? Check the Microsoft site for SBS user groups around the world or look for an SBS-MVP near you who can point you in the right direction. There is a wealth of information around the place about SBS and how to make it do what your business needs. It's not for home users with Windows 2000 - so the commenter with a problem with this can relax. This is SMALL BUSINESS SERVER, not HOME server!! I'm not a Microsoft employee - just a user of SBS2003 and now a fan.

The Sharepoint "bug" is only if you have old disks. Anything bought now woudln't have the issue. Gawd I'm getting tired of people not thinking that SBS can't have other DCs in the domain.... and gawd I'm getting tired of people thinking DCs are truly important these days when XP's use cached credentials. Can people get out of the WinNT era and get on with life? Wait a few months? The SP1 is in beta right now.

and another thing... I see businesses buying standard and then asking for the features of premium [controlling the Internet] you can add on Premium later.

I'll have to agree sounds like it came from the Microsoft sales office along with some misinformation.

IF SBS2003 is not ment for the home user, what ugrade will then be available for us as single system users, so we can also enjoy the benifit of support and new updates?

SBS is a SMALL BUSINESS SERVER product, emphasis on Small Business. If you are running a server at home, it will work there too, this includes server and exchnage. As a consultant, I have multiple SBS2003 installs under my belt, and it is the absolute best product for the SBS enviornment. If you can install Windows you can install and configure this product. It's nothing but wizards.

Also remote web workplace is not mentioned..which is a shame as it's a killer app.

I understand the concept of the Small Business Server, how will this upgrade influance a desktop running on W2K?

I came from the NT world but am total convinced that this is the product for Small Business. Can we please stop the disinformation like no other DCs? It would be helpful to use it before speaking out. But beware, you might become hooked on this product.

I came from the NT world but am total convinced that this is the product for Small Business. Can we please stop the disinformation like no other DCs? It would be helpful to use it before speaking out. But beware, you might become hooked on this product.

The article would have made a bit more sense if the author had indicated this was about upgrading Win2k SERVER to 2k3SBS. SBS is a good product, but it's not the magic bullet a lot of people seem to think it is. The worst thing you can do is ignore the SMALL in its name... Exchange is a real resource hog and for anything more than the smallest businesses, it really needs to be installed all by itself or on a server that does very little else. SBS also doesn't play nice with software that uses any 16-bit components. We'd all like to think the entire business software industry is well past that phase, but it isn't yet reality. Best advice: if you truly fit the SMALL description, and you don't intend to do anything more than use what's provided with SBS and maybe an AV package, then SBS might be for you. If you're pushing the limits of the definition of small business, or if you're going to be running some sort of customized software, make sure you research this product well before you buy it, including contacting your software vendors for compatibility information. Low day one costs mean nothing if you're constantly getting headaches from the implementation.

I'm currently in the office over the weekend trying to do a test migration from an old NT PDC to a new server running SBS 2003. Have just done all the Windows 2000 / 2003 MCSA training but still finding myself getting confused by what SBS can and cannot do as it doesn't seem to support mixed mode (running NT4 DCs) at all, although Windows 2003 does. Found this article and everyone's comments very useful in helping me go to "Plan B" - thanks !