Setting Remote PC Access Permissions for users in SBS 2011 Essentials

There certainly are some differences between the two SBS versions.

To give users permissions for PC access via the Remote Web Access portal we need to check the PCs in the user’s properties:

The only items to be found under the PC’s properties has to do with the client backup feature.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

And now for something completely different: A Geek CPU moment.

Mmmm … Dual Intel Hex Core Goodness:

This is a Dell R510 2U with dual Intel Xeon E5645 hex core CPUs and 96GB of RAM to run a new American client’s virtualized SBS 2011, RDS, SQL, and other server systems.

With this setup we can run a full 4 vCPUs in our VMs with no worries about performance issues. And so far the setup has been humming along.

We had a major choke with the iDRAC 6 Enterprise that locked us out of the IP KVM Console _and_ the local console. We hit the power button and the server eventually gracefully powered down, pulled the plug, and everything came back good. So, we changed the “Don’t show console activity” setting back to BOTH to allow the local console and the iDRAC IP KVM console to show the same thing . . . just in case.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming! ;)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Fonality–Setting up Windows Server/SBS DHCP After the Fact

We ran the SBS 2011 install via Answer File for this new network setup that we are working on.

They already had a peer to peer setup in place with SonicWall devices serving DHCP and acting as edge.

Two Fonality servers were set up in redundant mode.

So, prior to running the SBS OS install we deleted the SonicWall DHCP subnet scope to make sure we had SBS based DHCP this morning.

Well, no go.

We had the SBS is Installed Successfully green check mark but no system had an IP address.

Checking in the SBS Native Tools console we saw that DHCP had no scope.

We ran the Internet Address Wizard and:

The SBS wizard found a DHCP server at the Fonality’s primary server IP. We logged into the admin site with no DHCP Server options anywhere to be found.

In the end we needed to call them to have them log in via their own backend management and turn the DHCP services off for both the primary and secondary servers.

Moral of the story: If there are any third party devices and/or services in place before, or coming in afterwards, verify with the vendors whether anything in them will conflict with a Windows Domain/DNS/DHCP setup and have their “This is how you set things up on a Windows Domain/DNS/DHCP based network” documentation at hand.

The Fonality and other systems on this particular network require DHCP scope options along with custom DNS Forwarders for the phone “domain” among other things.

Got coffee? ;)

UPDATE: Fonality’s Support Site for DHCP and DNS setup on a Windows Network

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Dell Open Manage Download Link and Default Admin Username and Password

We are trying to download the most up to date version of Dell’s Open Manage Server Admin product:

• Best Possible Link: Dell Server Drivers and Downloads page

When we click on the link for the download: OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-WIN-6.5.0-2247_A01.exe (151MB) we get:

We try both HTTP and File Transfer Manager and both fail.

After asking some fellow MVPs and our client contacting their Dell rep we came up with:

• USA: Dell FTP Site
• ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/secure/sysman/
• EXE files here.
• Dell General FTP Site
• ftp://ftp.dell.com/secure/sysman/
• EXE and ISO files

NOTE: The default username and password for the Dell Open Manage product is the username and password used to log onto the server.

Hat Tip: Fellow MVP Merv Porter

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Stuck at Configuring Windows updates – Do not turn off your computer. Try This First Before Anything Else

Lately when setting up a new server or updating a production server that has been up for a few months we have been seeing the following:

Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise

Configuring Windows updates
32% complete
Do not turn off your computer.

What we have discovered is that after waiting five minutes we can CTRL+ALT+DLT and the log on screen will show up. Sometimes it may take 10, 20, or even 30 minutes or more before we see the log on screen but it does eventually come up.

For whatever reason though the server can be left all to itself in the above state and stay there until we hit the keys.

This is our first step now before running into the update recovery steps that may be required if this does not work.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

First Look at Dell’s iDRAC 6 Enterprise – Full KVM Over IP

We are working with a new Dell R510 2U server that will be used as a host for a virtualized SBS 2011, Remote Desktop Services, SQL, and other services.

We first log into the iDRAC console via the server’s POST sequence at the console. We have initially set up the iDRAC to pull an IP from the local DHCP server until we are ready to set it up with a public IP and DNS A record.

We then set up the username and password for the iDRAC.

Once done we rebooted the system and verified that it was pulling an IP from DHCP which it was. In our Web browser we were greeted with:

Once we were logged in we were able to view all of the

When we tried to launch the KVM over IP console we received the following:

As many ways as we tried we could not get the native ActiveX to work so we flipped the setting over to Java:

We were then good to go with the Java version spooling up:

Note that the file is transferring to the local client via HTTPS.

Once the transfer was complete we had console access to the newly powered up server:

We were then good to go with flattening the default RAID 5 arrays that Dell dropped onto the H700 RAID controller to set up our RAID 10 array and run with it.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Some thoughts on a Hyper-V Mini-Cluster

While working on a FreeBSD grid system many years ago we came across the following that we used as a model for our own designs:

• Mini-ITX.com: The “Mini-Cluster”

Mr. Gardner built a beautiful machine from the ground up.

The project we were working on at the time was scrapped due to a number of external factors.

However, the knowledge we gained in trying to create a grid based on FreeBSD helped to gain a grasp on how we were to go about building a Hyper-V cluster a number of years back when documentation was sadly lacking.

And that brings us to the point of this blog post:

Intel’s new Intel Server Board S1200KP in Mini-ITX form factor.

• Intel Support: Intel Server Board S1200KP
• Intel Product Site: Intel Server Board S1200KP

And, while searching for a quality image of the board we hit this gem:

• DV Industrial Computer LTD: DC91 19” Rackmount Cluster/16 Nodes

That is a really neat looking box and fits right in with some of the directions we were looking at. One catch though is that the box is made in the Ukraine! :(

It looks as though they really ran the gamut as far as the setup for a Mini-ITX based solution. Management and redundancy is built right in. Kewl!

In the end we may look at a low power cluster configuration for folks wanting some redundancy at an ultra-low entry price point. How that materializes is yet to be seen.

Born to tinker. ;)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Less for More?

We are going to pick on Tim Hortons a little here.

If it were not for the fact that those two cans were sitting side-by-side on the same shelf and that something was being put on them we would have remained oblivious to the fact that there was a distinct size difference between them.

In fact, we would have gone on happily paying more (increase was ~$2.00 per tin for that coffee) without even paying close attention to the size reduction _during_ that increase.

So, we have a smaller tin that we are paying more for.

Now, given the fact that Tim Hortons coffee is a staple in our day-to-day diet we will not be jumping ship anytime soon.

However, it will give us cause for pause in that we may look at alternatives a little more closely such as some of the so-called Fair Trade coffees. We have a bag of Columbian and a bag of Zambian (iirc the African country’s name and spelling right) coffee that is very rich in flavour.

Technology

When it comes to technology we pay particular attention to all of the various product manufacturers and their products.

We are always particularly mindful of the following:

• Is there a good compatibility list for the manufacturer’s products?
• No one can beat Intel’s Server Configurator for server building.
• Does the manufacturer have good post-sales support?
• Is there an 800 number, or even direct dial, to talk to real people that _know_ the product?
• Some manufacturers obfuscate the whole process with their voice prompts after calling in.
• Is the RMA process simple or a rat’s nest to get through?
• Ever try to RMA an Asus product? We gave up.
• Kingston and Crucial both are fantastic to deal with.
• Intel has an Advanced Warranty Replacement program that is second to none.
• Does the product have good documentation?
• Most manufacturers fall short in this category as hard as some of them try.

In all of the products we work with we also need to keep in mind that the more time we waste on shoddy post-sales support with manufacturers that it costs us big-time. That in turn costs our clients in lost production time if things go down.

Some of you from Canada may remember IPC and Bondwell PCs back when. Their systems were hundreds of dollars less than the competing Tier 1 or our own quality component built systems.

The IT business owner I was working with decided to dive right into them. In the end it cost us a huge amount in lost time replacing cheap flaky components that it became readily apparent that IPC and Bondwell PCs were not the way to go.

Because of this experience we here at MPECS Inc. have not delved into any entry-level or consumer grade components and systems. It is our preference to stick with the higher end Chevy/VW and Cadillac/BMW series of systems, servers, and software products.

Though, the following video aught to make clear where our preference lies for both the solutions we deliver and the automobile product we prefer. :)

Cadillac CTS-V Supercharged

And, just in case there is _any_ ambiguity:

My favourite Cadillac Commercial of all time!

BTW, just like the Linux versus Windows, Hyper-V versus VMWare, AMD versus Intel, and so on one can get quite “religious” about one’s preference in finer automobiles. ;)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Phone 7 Update to 7.10.8107.79 Now Here

After plugging the HD7 in the following window came up:

The keyboard issue has been seen off and on over the last month. The voicemail issue was indicated as being fixed with the last update so we shall see if it happens this time around.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.