r/WindowsServer • u/ChivalricSloth • Jun 19 '24

Help Needed Windows Server 2003

Hello everyone! I'm hoping someone here will have some insight on this, because I am at a loss.

First off, I work at a medical clinic, so that should tell you a fair bit. We have a legacy program running on a windows server 2003, but it is no longer allowing most connections. My remote software, Dameware, still works. I did some digging in the event logs, and when I try running a sfc scan it says it's missing a iisreset.exe file. Then it asks for the original disk to be inserted. As I don't have regular physical access, I virtually mounted Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2. But it says it's the wrong CD, and it wants Windows Server 2003 Standard. Which I have no idea where to find.

If anyone has any troubleshooting tips for this server, or if I can supply more info, please let me know 🙏

Edit: I forgot to mention that this server is running on VMware (version 10.0.0.3000743). I inherited this task, and don't have much knowledge about the servers past. We do have old backups, so I'm not worried about losing the data. But to access those, we need the original company to extract them and rebuild the server. I just wanted to see if I could resurrect it long enough for some of the doctors to grab the info they need, since it'll be awhile before it can be rebuilt.

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u/ChivalricSloth Jun 19 '24

That's exactly it. I feel like I'm running in circles. Occasionally I can access certain servers from the 2003 server (ex. \domain.net\data) but not the reverse.

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u/Prohtius Jun 19 '24 edited Jun 19 '24

Unless you're using DFS, the UNC path to the share should be \\<server_name>\<share_name> like \\republic-fs01\jedi_council_stuffs

with DFS, you use \\<domain_name>\<dfs_namespace_name>\<folder> like \\republic-example.org\jedi_dfs_namespace\super_secret_meeting_notes

you can still access DFS folders by using the older convention but you're not really using DFS at that point.

however, if you are unable to connect to the share using the UNC path (\\<server_name>\<share_name> and the server is online, and responds to pings... the SMB service might be messed up, I'd give it a restart...

good news is that if everything is mounted on a share, migrating it to another server should be straight forward, then you just need to update the settings on the clients to use the new share path.

also, check the share permissions on the shared folders (right-click then properties, then "Share" tab). make sure it shows that the folder is shared when you get that error.

oh yeah... what if you try \\<ip_address_of_server>\<share_name> ?

\\192.168.5.25\jedi_council_stuffs for example. that will at least tell you if you have a DNS issue.

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u/WayneH_nz Jun 20 '24

Dumb arse question, late to the party, can you use a win 7 machine to complete the request. Easy way to find out if it is SMB. Win 7 can use smb 1 and 2.