Aug 26, 2016 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 64-Bit features new virtualization tools, Web resources, management enhancements, and exciting Windows 7.
-->Extended support for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is ending on January 14, 2020. There are two modernization paths available: On-premises upgrade, or migration by rehosting in Azure. If you rehost in Azure, you can migrate your existing Server images free of charge.
On-premises upgrade
If you need to keep your servers on-premises, and you are running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2, you will need to upgrade to Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 before you can upgrade to Windows Server 2016. As you upgrade, you still have the option to migrate to Azure by rehosting.
See Upgrading from Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2008, for more information about your on-premises upgrade options.
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 provides ongoing improvements to the Windows Operating System (OS), by including previous updates delivered over Windows Update as well as continuing. Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are approaching the end of their support lifecycle.This means that as of the dates in the table below there will be no additional.
If you are running Windows Server 2003, you will need to upgrade to Windows Server 2008. See upgrade paths for Windows Server 2008 for more information about your on-premises upgrade options.
Download Server 2008 R2 Standard Iso
Migrate to Azure
You can migrate your on-premises Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 servers to Azure, where you can continue to run them on virtual machines. In Azure you'll stay compliant, become more secure, and add cloud innovation to your work. The benefits of migrating to Azure include:
- Security updates in Azure.
- Get three more years of Windows Server 2008 R2 or 2008 critical and important security updates, included at no additional charge.
- No-charge upgrades in Azure.
- Adopt more cloud services as you are ready.
- By migrating SQL Server to Azure Managed Instances or VMs, you get three more years of Windows Server 2008 R2 or 2008 critical security updates, included at no additional charge.
- Leverage existing SQL Server and Windows Server licenses for cloud savings unique to Azure.
To get started migrating, see Upload a Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 specialized image to Azure.
To help you understand how to analyze existing IT resources, assess what you have, and identify the benefits of moving specific services and applications to the cloud or keeping workloads on-premises and upgrading to the latest version of Windows Server, see Migration Guide for Windows Server.
Upgrade SQL Server 2008/2008 R2 in parallel with your Windows Servers
If you are running SQL Server 2008/2008 R2, you can upgrade to SQL Server 2016 or 2017.
Additional resources
The Windows Update screen comes up and I click on Download Updates. I then get the bar scrolling across the screen and it says Downloading Updates but the counts never increase (0 KB total, 0% complete). I've tried several things found via Google to resolve this but so far nothing has worked.
Quoted from https://serverfault.com/questions/166318/windows-update-not-working-on-windows-2008-r2-standard-x64, except I don't have an unlicensed SQL Server 2008 running. I have also tried several things from Google, including WUInstall and setting up a separate WSUS server and nothing has worked so far.
I've re-registered and sfc'd about every DLL I can think of that might be at all related (a little over 150), I'm not using any proxy servers.
I've downloaded the updates manually, but Windows stalls with a 'Searching for updates' that never finishes searching.
Only errors I can find in my log are as follows:
Upon googling the first error, I came across some resolution steps:
Click on Start and type services.msc into the search box, then click on services as it appears above. Scroll down the list to Windows Update, right click on it and select stop.
Type this into the search box %windir%SoftwareDistribution click on 'Software Distribution' in the box above and delete the entire contents of the 'Download' folder.
Go back and turn the Windows Update service back on.
Which, I've already tried, and no luck.
Later on, it says to download Microsoft's MicrosoftFixit.wu.Run.exe and try that, which I have and no luck. I've also tried Microsoft patch Windows6.1-KB947821-v14-x64.msu which stalls with the ever so annoying 'Searching for updates on this computer' forever.
I've tried downloading the third-party FixWU and nothing.
I've tried forcing a reinstall of the Windows Update agent using WindowsUpdateAgent30-x64.exe /wuforce
I've checked the PC for anti-viruses, rootkits, mal-ware, nothing of that sort. I reset all the VPN connections, and turned off the firewall temporarily, still nothing.
I've checked access permissions on C: and it's sub-folders, both built-in Users and Administrators have read/write privileges.
Also tried everything in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949358, and manually rebuilding/reinstalling the Windows Update agent.
I'm at my wit's end here, not sure what else to do/try, any suggestions???
6 Answers
Follow the instructions at the bottom of this KB article to enable extended logging.
Also verify if Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is running correctly at the machine in question.
Check if BITS download jobs are being created by Windows Update Service running, as administrator:
Could you post your windowsupdate.log to a place like http://pastebin.com/?
You may also try to stop Windows Update Service (wuauserv) using
and delete the following folder and registry keys (and sub folders / sub keys):
Delete all BITS jobs related to Windows Update like in the example below
Having done that, start wuauserv again:
Since I anyhow do not have permissions to edit @motobói s answer here all I did to get Windows Updates back up working. I did have to do a little bit more/different though.
Stop the following services:
- Windows Update Service
- Windows Installer
- Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)
Delete the following folders contents
- %windir%SoftwareDistributionDatastore
- %windir%SoftwareDistributionDownload
Delete registry keys (and sub folders / sub keys):
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionWindowsUpdate
- HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionWindowsUpdate
Ensure services are set to start automatically (delayed)
- Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)
- Windows Installer
- Windows Update Service
Restart all services or reboot server
Start windows update and schedule it
Dell Servers
Deleting registry results in loss of windows update settings.Start windows update once manually to ensure its working. Set update strategy as you want. (automatically)
Further more maybe try
As for me the steps mentioned above made windows update work again, but collected from the others answers you may'd like to try the following things:
Could you please to follow instructions at the bottom of this KB article and enable extended logging?
Check, too, if BITS download jobs are being created by Windows Update Service running, as administrator and delete all BITS jobs related to Windows Update like in the example below
Try reinstalling Windows Update Agent
thx @motobói and @Brian Deragon for bringing me on the right track
ManuelManuel(Probably, would not help the original poster, but may help someone who is directed here by Google). I just ran into a similar issue with Win 7: updates would not arrive, and KB947821 would be 'Searching for updates on this computer' forever. Turned out that BITS service for some reason was not running and was set to Manual start. After starting it (and returning it to delayed auto-start), updates seem to work (KB947821 also starts fine, but there was no more reason to run it anyway).
For about the 'Searching for updates on this computer' part when installing with locally downloaded update file,I had the similar issue when installing Cumulative update for IE11
I tried to login with the Administrator account and then I can successfully install the downloaded update. Hope this will help someone.
I had this same issue, and none of the suggestions worked for me except I noticed that Windows Update service had a hardware profile called 'Unblocked Profile' enabled on the Log On tab, and I disabled it and now Windows Update works.
Load the Windows Desktop Experience for 2008R2, taking all the defaults, load all the various options. Then when completed, reboot the server. After you log in and the Server is done and idle, go to Windows Update and download some updates. You should see the progress bar making progress. I found this is also true on Server 2012R2.
kasperd