DCPROMO seems to be stuck - Windows Server 2008 R2

My plans are to hook up with MaryAnne. After that, give the Skipper a box
of nails made of plastique and watch the fun.

Seriously though, I'm just going to accept (for now) that there is a
hardware compatibility issue with my system and 2008 R2. I would imagine
any client I set this up for will have a poweredge made in the last 3 years
and I'm sure they'll make whatever bios updates necessary to resolve the
issue or MS will have a patch. I can't imagine too many people are using
desktops as servers so the fault lies with myself, not in my stars.

I appreciate the tips and I think we've exhausted all possible solutions.
Since it was a test platform for me to review R2 and Exchange 2010 I've seen
what I need to. I am seeing some glitches between the two so I don't think
they are quite ready for prime time but I think it will be ready in a couple
of months. Unfortunately glitches aside, I'll admit out of all the
features I was hoping for in Exchange 2010 - mailbox sizes in the EMC gui
was at the top of the list - very saddened they didn't put it back in. And
I doubt it will be back even when SP2 comes out for 2010. There are a few
new features in 2010 I like but for some reason so many things weren't
thought out it really boggles the brain. Like calendar and contacts
sharing in the EMC- they only put in half the equation - whose calendars are
shared - but they forgot to set viewable by whom as modifiable - it is all
or nothing - tragic. My needs for the OS are fewer - speed, security and
speed - did I mention speed? (sure I want DHCP, ADS, DNS, GP, etc - I'm
pretty happy with R2 so not much to say). Exchange 2010 however they
create archives - great idea! But they keep the archives in the same
database as the user database - WTF!?! They add in message threading in
the OWA- GREAT! However they take away the option to view messages at the
bottom which I would say more that 80% of the clients I support prefer.

Why must MS always take away a feature for every couple of features they
add? They only alienate their own clients. It's like the ribbon in
Office 2007 - I have no problem with using the ribbon but nearly half my
clients don't want Office 2007 because they don't want to learn how to find
what they've been using for 15 years all over again. MS could have just
offered an option on install - classic or ribbon. MS sales are down not
because of the economy but because MS won't listen. The adds for Windows 7
make it sound like MS listens - I'd love to see MS execs post here/technet
saying we'd like the MVPs to send us their top 15 issues with the product
you field questions for. No confinement whatsoever - free form your answer
and we'll actually have our engineers read the responses. I beta tested
Vista for MS - not one of the survey's I filled out ever let me freeform an
answer so I couldn't just say - it is SLOW, it eats up video memory, network
performance is wretched... Instead I filled out useful questions like from
1 to 5 - 1 being very good to 5 being perfect - how would you rate the start
menu. It was like they were asking survey questions that could only tell
them they were doing a great job.

"Ace Fekay [MCT]" <> wrote in message
news:OJLZk$...
> "boe" <> wrote in message
> news:B1C9DAEB-B476-4B5E-9A5A-...
>> Nothing wrong with referencing Giligan's Island - my friends and I still
>> quote Thurston - "heavens, he must be a Yale man!"
>>
>
>
> I remember that! LOL. Good ole' Thurston the Harvard man. :-) I used to
> watch the reruns when I was a kid. I liked the one with the radioactive
> fruit and vegetable crate showed up. Gilligan ate the spinach and was able
> to pick up tree trunks! :-)
>
> Anyway, back to the issue. So what are your plans? To install it into a
> virtual machine?
>
> Ace
>
>
>
>
>

Once I actually run DCPROMO, I can never get my system to boot, even with
save/recovery/disable sigs.

"Paul Bergson [MVP-DS]" <pbbergs@no_spammsn.com> wrote in message
news:...
> What does debug/dcpromo.log and debug/Netlogon.log have in it?
>
> When you disabled IPv6 did you disable toreno?
> http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/paulb...dows-2008.aspx
>
>
> --
> Paul Bergson
> MVP - Directory Services
> MCTS, MCT, MCSE, MCSA, Security+, BS CSci
> 2008, 2003, 2000 (Early Achiever), NT4
> Microsoft's Thrive IT Pro of the Month - June 2009
>
> http://www.pbbergs.com
>
> Please no e-mails, any questions should be posted in the NewsGroup This
> posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
>
> "boe" <> wrote in message
> news:0E2DB04A-67D1-4D22-B5C0-...
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm not an expert on the subject but I have set up about 15 2008 servers
>> and run DCPROMO without seeing this issue. I have a 2008 R2 server -
>> just formatted from scratch, applied the 8 or so patches from Windows
>> update. I'm attempting to set up a brand new domain - new everything and
>> it has started the DC Promo process. I've set it for 2003 functional
>> level. It says currently Configuring the local computer to host Active
>> Directory Services. I realize it said set up can take from a few
>> minutes to several hours but I've never ever seen it take more than 10
>> minutes to do dcpromo before. This is a standalone server running 2008
>> R2 x64 RTM on a system with a 3 GHz core 2 processor and 4GB of RAM on a
>> freshly formatted 500GB hard drive with probably 95% free.
>
>

Are you able to go back and look at the logs I pointed to earlier or the
Event logs? This should give you some type of clue.

--
Paul Bergson
MVP - Directory Services
MCTS, MCT, MCSE, MCSA, Security+, BS CSci
2008, 2003, 2000 (Early Achiever), NT4
Microsoft's Thrive IT Pro of the Month - June 2009

http://www.pbbergs.com

Please no e-mails, any questions should be posted in the NewsGroup This
posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"boe" <> wrote in message
news:BAF2E5E8-6D5C-4D21-A1B7-...
> Once I actually run DCPROMO, I can never get my system to boot, even with
> save/recovery/disable sigs.
>
> "Paul Bergson [MVP-DS]" <pbbergs@no_spammsn.com> wrote in message
> news:...
>> What does debug/dcpromo.log and debug/Netlogon.log have in it?
>>
>> When you disabled IPv6 did you disable toreno?
>> http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/paulb...dows-2008.aspx
>>
>>
>> --
>> Paul Bergson
>> MVP - Directory Services
>> MCTS, MCT, MCSE, MCSA, Security+, BS CSci
>> 2008, 2003, 2000 (Early Achiever), NT4
>> Microsoft's Thrive IT Pro of the Month - June 2009
>>
>> http://www.pbbergs.com
>>
>> Please no e-mails, any questions should be posted in the NewsGroup This
>> posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
>>
>> "boe" <> wrote in message
>> news:0E2DB04A-67D1-4D22-B5C0-...
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I'm not an expert on the subject but I have set up about 15 2008 servers
>>> and run DCPROMO without seeing this issue. I have a 2008 R2 server -
>>> just formatted from scratch, applied the 8 or so patches from Windows
>>> update. I'm attempting to set up a brand new domain - new everything and
>>> it has started the DC Promo process. I've set it for 2003 functional
>>> level. It says currently Configuring the local computer to host Active
>>> Directory Services. I realize it said set up can take from a few
>>> minutes to several hours but I've never ever seen it take more than 10
>>> minutes to do dcpromo before. This is a standalone server running 2008
>>> R2 x64 RTM on a system with a 3 GHz core 2 processor and 4GB of RAM on a
>>> freshly formatted 500GB hard drive with probably 95% free.
>>
>>

"boe" <> wrote in message
news:19F504AF-E361-47BC-B444-...
> My plans are to hook up with MaryAnne. After that, give the Skipper a
> box of nails made of plastique and watch the fun.

That was a good episode@ LOL!

> Seriously though, I'm just going to accept (for now) that there is a
> hardware compatibility issue with my system and 2008 R2. I would imagine
> any client I set this up for will have a poweredge made in the last 3
> years and I'm sure they'll make whatever bios updates necessary to resolve
> the issue or MS will have a patch. I can't imagine too many people are
> using desktops as servers so the fault lies with myself, not in my stars.

All of my customers are using Dell PEs, of course with my recommendations,
except for one, which already had two HPs in place. However, I don't have an
additional one at this time to test a 2008 R2 installation on one of them.

>
> I appreciate the tips and I think we've exhausted all possible solutions.
> Since it was a test platform for me to review R2 and Exchange 2010 I've
> seen what I need to. I am seeing some glitches between the two so I
> don't think they are quite ready for prime time but I think it will be
> ready in a couple of months.

I think Exchange 2010 is ready, however I have not tested 2008 R2 yet.

> Unfortunately glitches aside, I'll admit out of all the features I was
> hoping for in Exchange 2010 - mailbox sizes in the EMC gui was at the top
> of the list - very saddened they didn't put it back in. And I doubt it
> will be back even when SP2 comes out for 2010.

Power Shell!! :-)

> There are a few new features in 2010 I like but for some reason so many
> things weren't thought out it really boggles the brain. Like calendar
> and contacts sharing in the EMC- they only put in half the equation -
> whose calendars are shared - but they forgot to set viewable by whom as
> modifiable - it is all or nothing - tragic.

Power Shell, again! You can creat scripts to pull that data, but I know you
already know that. :-)

> My needs for the OS are fewer - speed, security and speed - did I mention
> speed? (sure I want DHCP, ADS, DNS, GP, etc - I'm pretty happy with R2 so
> not much to say). Exchange 2010 however they create archives - great
> idea! But they keep the archives in the same database as the user
> database - WTF!?! They add in message threading in the OWA- GREAT!
> However they take away the option to view messages at the bottom which I
> would say more that 80% of the clients I support prefer.

I can understand some of the give and take (compromises) that we will all be
going through.

Have you thought about posting some of these gripes/observations to the
Exchange newsgroups?

>
> Why must MS always take away a feature for every couple of features they
> add? They only alienate their own clients. It's like the ribbon in
> Office 2007 - I have no problem with using the ribbon but nearly half my
> clients don't want Office 2007 because they don't want to learn how to
> find what they've been using for 15 years all over again. MS could have
> just offered an option on install - classic or ribbon. MS sales are down
> not because of the economy but because MS won't listen. The adds for
> Windows 7 make it sound like MS listens - I'd love to see MS execs post
> here/technet saying we'd like the MVPs to send us their top 15 issues with
> the product you field questions for. No confinement whatsoever - free
> form your answer and we'll actually have our engineers read the responses.
> I beta tested Vista for MS - not one of the survey's I filled out ever let
> me freeform an answer so I couldn't just say - it is SLOW, it eats up
> video memory, network performance is wretched... Instead I filled out
> useful questions like from 1 to 5 - 1 being very good to 5 being perfect -
> how would you rate the start menu. It was like they were asking survey
> questions that could only tell them they were doing a great job.

I like Office 2007, however I'm not thrilled about Vista. I mean I teach the
Vista courses, etc, but that's my own personal opinion. I do however, like
Windows 7. I just setup a 7 box for a customer and using XP Mode. Pretty
cool.

Ace

Yep - posted these request when I beta tested Exchange 2007. And put the
new requests such as who gets access to whose calendars for 2010 in the
technet forums.

I have to be honest - I HATE powershell. I have a very bad memory so
clicking through a gui to see mailbox sizes in 2003 was wonderful. Now I
have to put the command for it in my knowledgebase and look it up every time
I want to look - which I don't do as often since I have to look up the
command just to do it I see no reason not to leave that function in the
GUI. I've seen a ton of posts on the same thing - unfortunately getting
MS's attention is difficult. I often can't figure out the object of the
command I'm supposed to enter - one of the reasons I like GUI so much - I
don't have to figure out what the identity or whatever the command needs is.
I suppose if all I did was administer servers I'd probably get more
comfortable with it but I have a few thousand workstations, several hundred
phones, billing, meetings etc. to deal with. If I had a better memory that
would help me a lot too I guess MS doesn't really think about it from
the point of view of multiple hat administrators but it seems like we are
the ones who post the most about how much we hate powershell. I realize
the new DOS commands are all powerful new features according to MS but I
consider them just MS's way of saying - hey it was too much work and we
didn't get a chance to finish the GUI so you can just learn how to do what
you used to be able to do with a mouse click by typing tons of code - enjoy!

I do appreciate the time you took trying to help me with this issue.

Likewise on the PE - they are pretty much the only server I recommend. A
university I sometimes work for often buys the servers before I recommend
them so I have to deal with HPs as well but I prefer Dell's. Probably
partially because I hated Compaq servers and associate the two

"Ace Fekay [MCT]" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "boe" <> wrote in message
> news:19F504AF-E361-47BC-B444-...
>> My plans are to hook up with MaryAnne. After that, give the Skipper a
>> box of nails made of plastique and watch the fun.
>
> That was a good episode@ LOL!
>
>> Seriously though, I'm just going to accept (for now) that there is a
>> hardware compatibility issue with my system and 2008 R2. I would
>> imagine any client I set this up for will have a poweredge made in the
>> last 3 years and I'm sure they'll make whatever bios updates necessary to
>> resolve the issue or MS will have a patch. I can't imagine too many
>> people are using desktops as servers so the fault lies with myself, not
>> in my stars.
>
> All of my customers are using Dell PEs, of course with my recommendations,
> except for one, which already had two HPs in place. However, I don't have
> an additional one at this time to test a 2008 R2 installation on one of
> them.
>
>>
>> I appreciate the tips and I think we've exhausted all possible solutions.
>> Since it was a test platform for me to review R2 and Exchange 2010 I've
>> seen what I need to. I am seeing some glitches between the two so I
>> don't think they are quite ready for prime time but I think it will be
>> ready in a couple of months.
>
> I think Exchange 2010 is ready, however I have not tested 2008 R2 yet.
>
>> Unfortunately glitches aside, I'll admit out of all the features I was
>> hoping for in Exchange 2010 - mailbox sizes in the EMC gui was at the top
>> of the list - very saddened they didn't put it back in. And I doubt it
>> will be back even when SP2 comes out for 2010.
>
> Power Shell!! :-)
>
>> There are a few new features in 2010 I like but for some reason so many
>> things weren't thought out it really boggles the brain. Like calendar
>> and contacts sharing in the EMC- they only put in half the equation -
>> whose calendars are shared - but they forgot to set viewable by whom as
>> modifiable - it is all or nothing - tragic.
>
> Power Shell, again! You can creat scripts to pull that data, but I know
> you already know that. :-)
>
>> My needs for the OS are fewer - speed, security and speed - did I mention
>> speed? (sure I want DHCP, ADS, DNS, GP, etc - I'm pretty happy with R2 so
>> not much to say). Exchange 2010 however they create archives - great
>> idea! But they keep the archives in the same database as the user
>> database - WTF!?! They add in message threading in the OWA- GREAT!
>> However they take away the option to view messages at the bottom which I
>> would say more that 80% of the clients I support prefer.
>
> I can understand some of the give and take (compromises) that we will all
> be going through.
>
> Have you thought about posting some of these gripes/observations to the
> Exchange newsgroups?
>
>>
>> Why must MS always take away a feature for every couple of features they
>> add? They only alienate their own clients. It's like the ribbon in
>> Office 2007 - I have no problem with using the ribbon but nearly half my
>> clients don't want Office 2007 because they don't want to learn how to
>> find what they've been using for 15 years all over again. MS could
>> have just offered an option on install - classic or ribbon. MS sales
>> are down not because of the economy but because MS won't listen. The
>> adds for Windows 7 make it sound like MS listens - I'd love to see MS
>> execs post here/technet saying we'd like the MVPs to send us their top 15
>> issues with the product you field questions for. No confinement
>> whatsoever - free form your answer and we'll actually have our engineers
>> read the responses. I beta tested Vista for MS - not one of the survey's
>> I filled out ever let me freeform an answer so I couldn't just say - it
>> is SLOW, it eats up video memory, network performance is wretched...
>> Instead I filled out useful questions like from 1 to 5 - 1 being very
>> good to 5 being perfect - how would you rate the start menu. It was
>> like they were asking survey questions that could only tell them they
>> were doing a great job.
>
> I like Office 2007, however I'm not thrilled about Vista. I mean I teach
> the Vista courses, etc, but that's my own personal opinion. I do however,
> like Windows 7. I just setup a 7 box for a customer and using XP Mode.
> Pretty cool.
>
> Ace
>
>

"boe" <> wrote in message
news:761BA3E3-D53A-4C0B-9AF4-...
> Yep - posted these request when I beta tested Exchange 2007. And put
> the new requests such as who gets access to whose calendars for 2010 in
> the technet forums.
>
> I have to be honest - I HATE powershell. I have a very bad memory so
> clicking through a gui to see mailbox sizes in 2003 was wonderful. Now I
> have to put the command for it in my knowledgebase and look it up every
> time I want to look - which I don't do as often since I have to look up
> the command just to do it I see no reason not to leave that function
> in the GUI. I've seen a ton of posts on the same thing - unfortunately
> getting MS's attention is difficult. I often can't figure out the object
> of the command I'm supposed to enter - one of the reasons I like GUI so
> much - I don't have to figure out what the identity or whatever the
> command needs is. I suppose if all I did was administer servers I'd
> probably get more comfortable with it but I have a few thousand
> workstations, several hundred phones, billing, meetings etc. to deal with.
> If I had a better memory that would help me a lot too I guess MS
> doesn't really think about it from the point of view of multiple hat
> administrators but it seems like we are the ones who post the most about
> how much we hate powershell. I realize the new DOS commands are all
> powerful new features according to MS but I consider them just MS's way of
> saying - hey it was too much work and we didn't get a chance to finish the
> GUI so you can just learn how to do what you used to be able to do with a
> mouse click by typing tons of code - enjoy!
>
> I do appreciate the time you took trying to help me with this issue.
>
> Likewise on the PE - they are pretty much the only server I recommend. A
> university I sometimes work for often buys the servers before I recommend
> them so I have to deal with HPs as well but I prefer Dell's. Probably
> partially because I hated Compaq servers and associate the two
>

I have a script/command archive going that has been building up in the
almost past two years, that I have to look back everytime I need a command
with it's syntax. I also have a 'diagnostic logging' PS script, that allows
to set diag logging on a server. When run, a popup shows up that looks like
Exchange 2003's diagnotic logging tab in server properties. It's 257k. If
you like a copy, email me. Too large to post here.

Hang in there with the scripting. Unfortunately you will have to get used to
it! :-)

And I agree, I did not like Compaq either, and I seem to picture an
association with HP and Compaq now. Dells are easy to work on, and reliable.
:-)

Ace

No, I'm afraid I can't.

"Paul Bergson [MVP-DS]" <pbbergs@no_spammsn.com> wrote in message
news:#...
> Are you able to go back and look at the logs I pointed to earlier or the
> Event logs? This should give you some type of clue.
>
> --
> Paul Bergson
> MVP - Directory Services
> MCTS, MCT, MCSE, MCSA, Security+, BS CSci
> 2008, 2003, 2000 (Early Achiever), NT4
> Microsoft's Thrive IT Pro of the Month - June 2009
>
> http://www.pbbergs.com
>
> Please no e-mails, any questions should be posted in the NewsGroup This
> posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
>
> "boe" <> wrote in message
> news:BAF2E5E8-6D5C-4D21-A1B7-...
>> Once I actually run DCPROMO, I can never get my system to boot, even with
>> save/recovery/disable sigs.
>>
>> "Paul Bergson [MVP-DS]" <pbbergs@no_spammsn.com> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> What does debug/dcpromo.log and debug/Netlogon.log have in it?
>>>
>>> When you disabled IPv6 did you disable toreno?
>>> http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/paulb...dows-2008.aspx
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Paul Bergson
>>> MVP - Directory Services
>>> MCTS, MCT, MCSE, MCSA, Security+, BS CSci
>>> 2008, 2003, 2000 (Early Achiever), NT4
>>> Microsoft's Thrive IT Pro of the Month - June 2009
>>>
>>> http://www.pbbergs.com
>>>
>>> Please no e-mails, any questions should be posted in the NewsGroup This
>>> posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
>>>
>>> "boe" <> wrote in message
>>> news:0E2DB04A-67D1-4D22-B5C0-...
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> I'm not an expert on the subject but I have set up about 15 2008
>>>> servers and run DCPROMO without seeing this issue. I have a 2008 R2
>>>> server - just formatted from scratch, applied the 8 or so patches from
>>>> Windows update. I'm attempting to set up a brand new domain - new
>>>> everything and it has started the DC Promo process. I've set it for
>>>> 2003 functional level. It says currently Configuring the local
>>>> computer to host Active Directory Services. I realize it said set up
>>>> can take from a few minutes to several hours but I've never ever seen
>>>> it take more than 10 minutes to do dcpromo before. This is a
>>>> standalone server running 2008 R2 x64 RTM on a system with a 3 GHz core
>>>> 2 processor and 4GB of RAM on a freshly formatted 500GB hard drive with
>>>> probably 95% free.
>>>
>>>
>
>

"r_deckard" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Hi
> It seems I have the same issue as boe.
>
> I'm running a Windows Server 2003 R2 x86 (as DC) at home for testing,
> learning and using it as a fileserver for my media library.
>
> I bought und built a new server with desktop components for replacing
> the old server. After successfully migrating to the new server, I've
> planned to use the old server as a offline backup server (only member
> server, maybe with OpenSolaris and ZFS).
>
> Hardware of the new server is the following:
> - Biostar TA790GX A3+ Motherboard (AMD 790GX with integrated graphics)
> - AMD Athlon II X4 620 Processor
> - 2x2 GB DDR3 RAM
> - 3ware 9650SE SATA-II RAID controller
> - older Maxtor 160 GB IDE harddisk for system
> - 7 WD 2 TB green SATA drives for RAID6 set
>
> I've done the following steps:
> - installing Windows Server 2008 R2 as a member server (joining to the
> existing domain). All drivers were default (from the box), except for
> the RAID-controller. Everything was fine and worked as expected.
> - prepared the AD from my old server to 2008 (with adprep32)
> - started dcpromo on the new server (DNS option included) yesterday
> evening
>
> Last part of dcpromo wizard stayed very long (more than 20 Min.), so I
> went to bed. This morning, before going to work, I checked the progress.
> It had finnished and looked good.
> Restarted the server, but after a long time in boot phase, the recovery
> mode appeared automatically.
> Just shutdowned and powered of the server and tried it again. But the
> same result. Server is not starting to the logon window.
>
> So, it looks like the same issue as you guys are discussing here.
>
> Unfortunately, it seems theres no solution yet. I will trying some
> different setups in the next days, but don't have much hope.
>
>
> --
> r_deckard

I second Meinolf's suggestion. This thread is old with numerous posts. It is
to your benefit to start a new thread with what you posted above, as well as
offering ipconfig /all information, posting any Event log errors, and
running a "net start" to help us evaluate the issue.


--
Ace

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
confers no rights.

Please reply back to the newsgroup or forum for collaboration benefit among
responding engineers, and to help others benefit from your resolution.

Ace Fekay, MCT, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007, MCSE & MCSA
2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
Microsoft Certified Trainer

For urgent issues, please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check
http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.