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Do I HAVE to go R2?

 
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Do I HAVE to go R2? - Dec. 9, '05, 2:43:41 PM   
heinz

 

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We're just in the tail-end of migrating some Linux/SCO customers to Win2003/SFU 3.5. Two done, two close and hopefully a few more to follow.

I'm wondering whether it's feasible to stick with 2003/SFU for a year or so or if there are "must have's" in R2 that would make early adoption an advantage?

My only issue with what we have running is serial ports (none > 2) and that the servers need to be rebooted every 2 weeks it seems. (Don't know the reason yet, as staff just finds them locked up in AM).

Too much marketing hype at MS website and Unix is hardly mentioned. Reading some of the comments here re R2 only add to my confusion. MS also doesn't seem to be offering any upgrade pricing scheme making it a rather tough sell to the users we just recommended Win2003 to.

So... is R2 a lot of hype or really a next generation that I should be recommending. Should I be postponing my 2 close ones until R2 is released?

Are there any other websites/forums/newsgroups/blogs that might be helpful to a guy in the trenches?

BTW, a BIG thank you to this UNIX Tools Community as without it I would've given up long ago.

Heinz
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RE: Do I HAVE to go R2? - Dec. 10, '05, 4:44:37 PM   
DrPizza

 

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Well. Any new 2003 installations should be R2 (R2 completely replaces "regular" 2003; the new software has the same SKUs as the old software and you won't be able to buy 2003 any more). SUA supports x86-64 and DEP, which 3.5 doesn't (and never will). Whether these are "must haves" I can't say, but they are quite compelling to me (because any new servers will support at the very least DEP, and probably x86-64 too).

(in reply to heinz)
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RE: Do I HAVE to go R2? - Dec. 10, '05, 5:12:37 PM   
heinz

 

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Joined: Oct. 21, '04,
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Not too concerned about new servers, but rather the ones in progress, for which we have already licensed Win2003 Standard.

Trying to decide whether I have to make the push for R2 now, before they go 'live' or in a couple of years during a normal upgrade.

Interix binaries created on R2, will they be able to run on SFU 3.5?

< Message edited by heinz -- Dec. 10, '05, 5:29:41 PM >

(in reply to DrPizza)
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RE: Do I HAVE to go R2? - Dec. 11, '05, 6:47:57 AM   
Rodney

 

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There is a new functionality in the R2 release that is not in 3.5.
If your port was done with 3.5 and there were no "missing api" issues
that could not be dealt with then you likely don't have a compelling reason
to use R2 immediately.The 3.5 release is going to continue to be supported
for the functionality it WRT bugs with hotfixes, etc. for several years.
(That's the MS support model and they did announce this in a press release).

As for the reboot needed every 2 weeks... I'd try and keep the machines as
up-to-date with the most current hotfixes. There were several over the summer
that did have updates to the serial port section. But I don't know the actual
reason for your reboots. It might be worth going through MS PSS (support) to
get the problem fixed.

(in reply to heinz)
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RE: Do I HAVE to go R2? - Dec. 12, '05, 1:21:36 AM   
heinz

 

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Sounds like I'll be able to stay with 3.5 for a while. Great.

For the moment I've been ignoring the serial port issue, I.e. trying to convince my customers to go all PC's.

Re the DEP issue, the machines that lock up regularily are pre-SP1 and have no entry in boot.ini re /NOEXCUTE. Should I add one?

A fresh test install I'm doing with SP1 has /NOEXECUTE=optout. Should that be AlwaysOff ? Do I need a hotfix before doing that, if it should be done?

For the next little while I'm going to reboot every weekend. One of the sites is getting a new Dual Processor Acer in January and I'll go with 3.5 and SP1 then. I'm leaving TaskManger visible in the meantime at the console so that it might give a hint when it freezes. The frustrating part is that when the machines lock up the only thing running is Win/SFU itself as it seems to happen early AM, like between 3-6.

Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself but we've had one Dual Processor Acer running for over a year now, with pre-SP1 and the only lingering.re-occuring instability problem is that it won't run past 3 weeks without rebooting.

(in reply to Rodney)
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RE: Do I HAVE to go R2? - Dec. 12, '05, 1:38:06 AM   
Rodney

 

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The whole DEP thing only got turned on with XP SP2, but no harm earlier.
When setting the option for DEP it must be "AlwaysOff". The optout is only good with Win32.
I wrote a response in another thread where I gave my theory about why this must be so.

You can get the latest hot fix and install it on pre-SP2 machines.
Over this summer (2005) there were several hot fixes related to serial port usage.
As for pre-SP1 XP machines... SFU lists XP at SP1 as a minium:
(http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/sfu/productinfo/sysreqs/default.mspx)
So that may help clear things up by at least moving to XP SP1.

(in reply to heinz)
Post #: 6
RE: Do I HAVE to go R2? - staying with SFU for now - Jan. 7, '06, 12:46:19 PM   
heinz

 

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Joined: Oct. 21, '04,
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Thought I'd do a little update.

Apologies re the subject change. Was attemting to keep it together yet be closer to the real subject :-)

Perhaps I can save someone some grief.

I'm at customer site and installed fresh 2003 Standard, applied SP1. Installed current SFU download.
This worked at home on a P4 but when I got the app moved over here it immediately came up with Memory Fault.

Of course I blamed myself for forgetting something in our app setup but we finally pinned it doun that "hello world" didn't even run.

After many hours of frustration I applied the hotfix, still no go. (The not applying it right away was due to my thinking it wasn't needed on a fresh SFU download. After all it worked at home without the hotfix :-)

Then changed boot.ini /NOEXECUTE=optout to /NOEXECUTE=AlwaysOff and rebooted and lo and behold, back in business.

We're now happily? running on a Dual Xeon Acer as we get ready for Monday :-)

Moral of the story, apply the hotfix and keep your cool. And remember that you might need the boot.ini changed too.

Heinz

(in reply to Rodney)
Post #: 7
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