Windows Server 2008 R2… going x64 (only :p)

Well… you might have noticed the 2 – 3 day downtime of my server 🙁 … Here is my side of the story on shifting to x64… the OS was Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Beta which comes in x64 flavor only !!

I had 95% of the drivers for x64 windows !! so no problems there… The only device I could not find a 64-bit driver for was my reaaaaally old Intel Easy PC Cam CS110… so no hard feelings there.

So why the downtime… well… it wsa teh damn UNIVERSITY work and not the Windows Server 2008 R2 (for most of the part)… :p

For making a ‘perfect’ install… I formatted my drive about thrice after encountering some stupid annoying problem with Windows Server 2008 R2 + Windows 7 Beta…

The major problem was that I had one hell of a difficult time trying to share on my home network (which has about 2 desktops and 3 laptops) my HP LaserJet P1005 connected to my server. The desktops running Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 had no problem finding and installing the printer shared on Windows Server 2008 R2, but the laptops running on Windows 7 Beta (Build 7000) were not able to connect to it…

My solution to this problem (after about 5-6 hours of screwing around with ‘fixes’ mentioned on google that didnt work) was that I connected the printer on one of my Windows XP desktops, and now all the other machines were able to connect to the shared printer !! (the problem has something to do with drivers *and* “UAC” implemented in Vista/Win7/Win2k8R2 not allocating the correct sharing rights… hope THIS is fixed in the Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2 final release)

This was the main issue that would have affected a normal user… NOW for the problems with the “Server” confiugration.

A small bug did not let me install MS SMTP service directly from the “Server Manager”… It said “installed” but in the Feature List its status was ‘uninstalled’. But this wasn’t an issue either because I don’t use MS SMTP. I use a free 3rd party SMTP server.

The main problem… due to which I had to DOWNGRADE back to Windows Server 2008… The Hosting Panel I offer my clients (DotNetPanel) started giving out errors even after I configured its AppPool to run in 32bit mode… :'(

This was the main reason that I had to downgrade… APART from that… the performance of Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Beta was REALLY good… and considering that its still in Beta… I have to say its a two thumbs up for M$ !! and a hell lot of boos for my uni for piling me up with assignments, hence, causing delay and frustration which forced me to downgrade !!

Anyways… I’ll try to figure out what was going wrong with the DotNetPanel using a Virtual Machine… and as soon as its working perfectly… I’ll make the upgrade… Wish me luck !! 🙂

UPDATE: The printer problem has been solved !! 🙂 I am sharing my printer among Windows XP 32-bit, Windows 7 32-bit and Windows 7 64-bit !! All hail Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2… Microsoft’s best till now 🙂