Upgrade a Cluster from Windows NT 4.0

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Upgrade a cluster from Windows NT 4.0

You cannot perform a rolling upgrade directly from Windows NT Server 4.0, Enterprise Edition to Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition. You instead have two options:

  • You can maintain cluster availability by performing an upgrade to Windows 2000 first, then to Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition.

  • For some installations, you can perform a nonrolling upgrade directly from Windows NT Server 4.0, Enterprise Edition to Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition, which will not allow you to maintain cluster availability. You can do this if, on each node, the folder that contains the clustering software is called Cluster (capitalization is unimportant) and is located in the system root folder, which is the folder where the operating system is installed. If the folder is not called Cluster or is not located in the system root folder, you cannot upgrade, but must perform a clean installation.

If you upgrade using Windows 2000, perform an upgrade from Windows NT Server 4.0 to Windows 2000 as documented in the Windows 2000 documentation. Then follow the Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition upgrade procedures documented in Upgrade a Cluster from Windows 2000. If you have an IIS resource on your Windows NT Server 4.0 cluster, after you complete both upgrades, you must delete the unsupported IIS resource type by opening the Command Prompt and typing the following command: Cluster restype "IIS Virtual Root" /delete /type.

To upgrade without any use of the Windows 2000 product, you must interrupt cluster availability. The steps you perform depend on what resources are included in your cluster. For many installations, the following procedure is appropriate:

However, if your cluster contains an IIS resource, you must use the following procedure:

If your cluster contains an MSMQ or DTC resource, you must perform the procedure documented in article Q315993, "HOW TO: Upgrade a Windows NT 4.0 Cluster with MSDTC and MSMQ Resources" in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.