Back in March, Microsoft sorta surprised everyone with the “silent” release of Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2003. Without rehashing all the drama, there were problems with the SP on SBS 2003 boxes. Many people in the community posted to their blogs and the newsgroups to hold off on installing SP2 on SBS 2003 servers, but it’s time to change that stance. The service pack has been out for more than six months, and the general consensus is that the scope of problems related to SP2 have now been identified, so it’s safe to install SP2.

There are still issues, however, and those must be worked around when SP2 is installed on SBS 2003. This document serves as the road map I am using to install SP2 on SBS servers. Note that I do not guarantee that following this step-by-step process will result in a trouble-free installation. But this is the process I have been following and have not had any issues on client systems.

Install SP2:

1. Check for available disk space. If you don’t have at least 2GB free on C:, you could run into space issues. One option is to have the uninstall folder on a different drive/partition (discussed below).
2. Grab a System State Backup. Easiest way to do this is run ntbackup, select System State as the item to back up, and save it to a file on disk. Don’t put it on C: if you can avoid it.
3. Restart the SBS 2003 server. This is not required, but it falls in with my general recommendation to restart a server prior to installing any updates, so if there is an issue that would keep the server from coming up cleanly, it will be identified prior to the installation of any updates or service packs.
4. Disable on-access anti-virus scanning of the server. This can be restored once the service pack installation is complete.
5. Install SP2. When prompted for an uninstall folder, consider putting on a separate partition or volume. This can help with space on C: and make future cleanup of the Windows folder a bit easier if you still want to be able to do an uninstall of SP2 later.
6. Reboot the server when finished.

ISA 2004:

If you have ISA 2004 installed on the server, download and install ISA 2004 SP3.

Clean up Help and Support:

1. Open a Command Prompt.
2. Enter the following command exactly as shown and press Enter:
   %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\HelpSvc.exe /regserver /svchost netsvcs /RAInstall
3. Enter the following command exactly as shown and press Enter:
   %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\HSCUpd.exe -i %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\hscmui.cab
4. Enter the following command exactly as shown and press Enter:
   %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\HSCUpd.exe -i %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\hscsp_l3.cab
5. Enter the following command exactly as shown and press Enter:
   services.msc
6. In the Services Control Panel, look for the Help and Support service. Start the service if it is not started.
7. From the Start menu, open the Help and Support item. Confirm that the Help and Support tool launches correctly.

Clean up Scalable Networking Settings:
Note – this section provides instructions for modifying the registry. MIcrosoft gives all kinds of warnings about bad things that can happen when you edit the registry incorrectly. They’re not kidding. If you do this incorrectly, you could put your server into a non-bootable configuration. Do this at your own risk.

1. Open the Registry Editor (Start -> Run -> regedit).
2. Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Services -> Tcpip -> Parameters.
3. Look for the EnableRSS value.
1. If the EnableRSS value exists, change its data to 0.
2. If the EnableRSS value does not exist:
1. Right-click on Parameters under Tcpip and select New -> DWORD Value.
2. Name the value EnableRSS.
3. Change the Data in ENableRSS to 0.
4. Look for the EnableTCPA value.
1. If the EnableTCPA value exists, change its data to 0.
2. If the EnableTCPA value does not exist:
1. Right-click on Parameters under Tcpip and select New -> DWORD Value.
2. Name the value EnableTCPA.
3. Change the Data in ENableTCPA to 0.
5. Look for the EnableTCPChimney value.
1. If the EnableTCPChimney value exists, change its data to 0.
2. If the EnableTCPChimney value does not exist:
1. Right-click on Parameters under Tcpip and select New -> DWORD Value.
2. Name the value EnableTCPChimney.
3. Change the Data in ENableTCPChimney to 0.
6. Look for the DisableTaskOffload value.
1. If the DisableTaskOffload value exists, change its data to 1. (It very likely will not exist.)
2. If the DisableTaskOffload value does not exist:
1. Right-click on Parameters under Tcpip and select New -> DWORD Value.
2. Name the value DisableTaskOffload .
3. Change the Data in DisableTaskOffload to 1.
7. Close the Registry Editor.
8. Restart the Server.

Confirm Normal Operation:

After restarting the server, check to make sure clients can access the server, Outlook can interact with Exchange, clients can access the Internet, etc. Also go through the event logs and look for any unexpected or unusual errors or warnings. After following the steps in this document, the interaction between the workstations and the server should continue as it had prior to the installation of SP2.

Notes:

Information in this post came from a number of sources at Microsoft. Where possible, KB articles referencing the specific changes have been noted below. In one case, the best reference for the change came from the SBS Best Practice Analyzer and is noted as such. Several of the referenced KB articles make reference to a hotfix. In my experience, the workaround listed in the KB article provides a sufficient resolution without the need to call in and request the hotfix or worry about adding to the installed hotfix table on the server.

Help and Support fix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937231/
EnableRSS fix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936594 (Step 3, Method 2)
EnableTCPA fix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936594 (Step 4)
EnableTCPChimney fix: Referenced in the SBS BPA with a command-line process, and discussed in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912222
DisableTaskOffload fix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/904946/