SBS 2003 Setup errors

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HowardA Posted: Thu, Dec 13 2007 1:40 PM

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I am installing SBS 2003 SP2 on an HP Proliant ML110 RAID1 server.  The initial test installation went well, but subsequent re-installations have resulted in two main errors during setup:

1. "An error occurred while creating distribution groups. Open Active Directory Users and Computers, and manually create a test distribution group to verify that Active Directory is running. Rerun Setup." 

I rerun the Admin/Monitoring reinstallation, but creation of the test distribution group does nothing to fix the error.

2. Clicking on the Server Management application (LaunchConsole.exe) does not open a window.  The Event Viewer logs each click on Server Management with an information event coded '8199', category (7).  No warning or error messages are logged at the same time. 

Server Management DOES run in Safe Mode.  On rebooting from Safe Mode the To-Do list runs automatically and I can invoke Manage Server from the To-Do list.  But only once.  After that clicking on the Server Management icon again has no effect.

Server Management appears in Startup list within the msconfig System
Configuration Utility.

I delete the disk partition and format the disks between each installation - although the 'format' does seem to be much faster than usual.

Does anyone recognise either of these issues? 

Thanks in advance for any help available

Howard A

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David Overton replied on Tue, Dec 18 2007 9:27 PM

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Howard,

when you say each install does not work, is this a bare bones re-install, or simply re-running setup?  How much work has been done with this - are PCs connected and joined to the domain, for example?  I would be tempted with a clean install (bare bones).  If you need to keep the AD or data I would be tempted to create a domain controller inside a VHD (virtual PC) of Windows Server - these can be downloaded from Microsoft, migrate the FSMOs, backup everything important (or just everything), flatten the server, rebuild, join the domain that now exists inside the virtual machine, add the data back and off you go.

thanks

David

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Maxibo replied on Wed, Dec 19 2007 11:04 PM

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Your original post indicates this is just initial install... no real configuration / oc connectivity yet?

How far do you get on installation ? You Say SBS SP2, is this disks with SP2 slipstreamed into disks already ?

Are you doing all windows updates ?