Release Notes for this Beta Release of Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2

These release notes address late-breaking issues and information related to Windows Server® 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2). Unless otherwise specified, these notes apply to all editions of Windows Server 2008 with SP2.

Installation

This issue affects the 64-bit editions of Windows Server 2008.

If your computer has not been restarted recently (in the last 24 days), the installer for this service pack may stop responding. This issue does not occur in slipstream installations.

To avoid this issue, restart the computer before you install this service pack. If this has already occurred, it is safe to restart the computer and rerun the service pack installer.

Disk Management

If you install this service pack by booting the computer from the installation media, disks may not appear for approximately two minutes when you choose a custom installation.

If you use Rescan disks in the Disk Management snap-in in Microsoft Management Console (MMC) or use the Rescan command in DiskPart, there is a delay of at least 45 seconds before the response.

To avoid this, you can use Regedit.exe to change the value of DisableReenumDelay to 1 in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vds.

Failover Clustering

This issue affects Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, Windows Server 2008 Datacenter, and Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-Based Systems.

This issue occurs if you try to manage cluster nodes for Windows Server 2008 with SP2 in the following situations:

  • From a computer that is running Windows Vista® with SP1 and Microsoft® Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT)

  • From a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 with SP1

The Failover Clustering snap-in opens and Cluster.exe functions normally, but the Manage a Cluster, Create a Cluster, and Validate a Configuration operations are blocked, and you receive the error message "This feature is only supported with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Datacenter servers."

To avoid this issue:

  • Manage the cluster from a computer that is running Windows Vista SP2 with RSAT or Windows Server 2008 SP2.

  • Use the cluster.exe command to manage the cluster from a client computer or server with Windows Vista SP1.

To fix this issue, upgrade the computer that you use to manage the cluster to Windows Vista SP2 or Windows Server 2008 SP2.

Input method editors

The input method editors (IMEs) for Traditional Chinese (Array and DaYi) and Simplified Chinese (QuanPin, ShaugnPin, and ZhengMa) now support reverse conversion and the ability to turn off associate phrases.

Server Manager

You cannot install Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) through the Add Roles Wizard in Server Manager. The WSUS installation fails.

To avoid this, download and install WSUS 3.0 Service Pack 1 from https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=131939.

In addition, none of the Help links for WSUS work in the Add Roles Wizard if you installed the update package for SP2. (However, if you installed the slipstream build of Windows Server 2008 SP2, the Help links for WSUS work normally.)

There is no workaround for the Help link issue at this time.

Updates

Installation of the following updates fails if you have already installed SP2:

  • Group Policy Preferences Client-Side Extensions

  • Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT)

  • JIS90 Fonts for Japanese Localization

To avoid this issue, install the update prior to installing SP2. If you have encountered this issue, and the update is required, uninstall SP2, install the update, and then reinstall the service pack.

Virtual CD

If you attempt to uninstall Virtual CD v9 after installing SP2, the process stops responding and fails.

To successfully uninstall Virtual CD v9 after you install or uninstall SP2, use Regedit.exe to delete the following key if it is present: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Wow6432Node. Then uninstall Virtual CD v9.