SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 but keep old server online

Question

I have a client running SBS 2003 and they are ready to upgrade to SBS 2008. They have a couple of programs that will not run on SBS 2008 and thus cannot be migrated. Is there a way to keep the old SBS 2003 server online as a "member" server or does it have to be turned off. I know with SBS 2008 they added a new feature where you can purchase an "add on" license and run a 2008 Server Std edition along side of the SBS 2008 box, will this work in my scenario?

Thanks in advance. msindle

This can be done with a registry hack and disabling a service, but Im on my phone right now and can't find the similar question that's on this site about it. — Mark Henderson, Jan 18 '13 at 22:29
Sweet that would work for me, let me know if you can find it. Thanks Mark! — msindle, Jan 21 '13 at 03:56

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 21 '13 at 04:00

I can't find the duplicate on Server Fault (maybe it wasn't on here after all), but I used the following instructions when I went on holiday halfway through a migration:

http://byronwright.blogspot.com.au/2009/07/stop-sbs-from-shutting-down.html

Tools you'll need – Process Explorer from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx

As you probably know, you have a service called SBCore or "SBS Core Services", which executes the following process: C:\WINDOWS\system32\sbscrexe.exe. If you kill it, it just restarts – and if you try and stop it you are told Access Denied.

If you fire up Process Explorer, you can select the process and Suspend it, now we can start to disable the thing. Run regedit and expand the nodes until you reach the following hive /key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SBCore Right click this, hit permissions and give the "Administrators" group on the local machine full access ( don't forget to replace permissions on child nodes ). F5 in regedit and you'll see all of the values and data under this key.

Select the "Start" DWORD and change it from 2 to 4 – this basically sets the service to the "Disabled" state as far as the MMC services snap-in (and windows for that matter) is concerned.

Next, adjust the permissions on the file C:\WINDOWS\system32\sbscrexe.exe so that EVERYONE account is denied any sort of access to this file. Then go back to process explorer, and kill the sbscrexe.exe process, if it doesn't restart – congratulations!

Load up the services MMC snap-in and you should find that "SBS Core Services" is stopped and marked as Disabled.

Fantastic, that looks like it'll work! Thanks again Mark! – msindle Jan 21 '13 at 05:41 — msindle, Jan 21 '13 at 05:41

SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 but keep old server online

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