Upgrade SBS 2008 to SBS 2011

Double check if you are installing SQL Server on a server in the same domain of the SBS. Even if you think it was, it may have lost trust - so try rejoining the computer to the same domain.

We did this successfully by using these instructions:

I've found a slightly more elegant solution to this problem rather than just aggressively killing the process until Windows gives up trying to start it again, and I'd like to share it in the hope that Google will re-index and pick it up for others to use. You may have noticed this service cannot be disabled via the MMC snap-in.

My search term on google was: how to stop the SBCore service. Anyway, down to business…

• Tools you'll need – Process Explorer from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx

As you probably know, you have a service called SBCore or "SBS Core Services", which executes the following process: C:\WINDOWS\system32\sbscrexe.exe. If you kill it, it just restarts – and if you try and stop it you are told Access Denied.

If you fire up Process Explorer, you can select the process and Suspend it, now we can start to disable the thing. Run regedit and expand the nodes until you reach the following hive /key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SBCore Right click this, hit permissions and give the "Administrators" group on the local machine full access ( don't forget to replace permissions on child nodes ). F5 in regedit and you'll see all of the values and data under this key.

Select the "Start" DWORD and change it from 2 to 4 – this basically sets the service to the "Disabled" state as far as the MMC services snap-in (and windows for that matter) is concerned.

Next, adjust the permissions on the file C:\WINDOWS\system32\sbscrexe.exe so that EVERYONE account is denied any sort of access to this file. Then go back to process explorer, and kill the sbscrexe.exe process, if it doesn't restart – congratulations!

Load up the services MMC snap-in and you should find that "SBS Core Services" is stopped and marked as Disabled.

Note that doing this may put you in violation of the EULA. We did it because the migration did not get a chance to finish before I went on holidays; this tied the company over until after I got back and could finish the job.