Is it possible to do an in-place upgrade from Windows Server 2000 to Windows Server 2003?

Question

I have a machine (virtual machine) running Windows 2000 For PCI compliance, this machine needs to be ugraded to 2003 or above.

I have mounted a Windows 2003 ISO file as the CD Drive in VMWare, however, when I go to run the Windows Setup, i get this error:

windows setup does not support upgrading from Microsoft Windows 2000 advanced server to Microsoft Windows Server 2003

I need to upgrade this machine - Starting from scratch with a fresh / bare-metal box is going to be very difficult.

Is there any way?

Answer 1

This is a licensing problem; you are using the wrong release of Windows Server 2003.

Windows 2000 Advanced Server can only be upgrade to Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, upgrading to the Standard one is not allowed.