Intuit QuickBooks 2012 is on the way!

Apparently our new version of QuickBooks is on the way:

But it won’t get to us since the town is missing in the above e-mail.

We chose to receive all future versions of QuickBooks, we are on a subscription, via electronic means at least a couple of versions ago. So, we are not 100% sure why we are being told that a CD will be shipped to us.

A quick call into the 800 number overseas support folks has hopefully updated our address correctly.

Either way the most important element in all of this is our key codes which we can call in for if we do not see an e-mail or letter in the mail at some point.

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

Practice CS – 2009.2.3 Upgrade – Check The Site For Newer!

One of our clients received a CD from Thomson Reuters with the new Practice Creative Solutions upgrade. The version received on disk was 2009.2.3.

The version up required an update to the SQL database that is running on SBS 2008.

The initial run at updating was done from a workstation by one of the owners with the product having an error consistently in the upgrade process.

We ended up running the upgrade on the server with success, but it required a couple of reboots to get it there.

We then needed to log onto one of the workstations with the domain admin account to run the upgrade. But, once the upgrade finished, there was a prompt to install an update that consistently failed.

From there, Practice CS would try and update itself to the newest version, but that too required changes to the SQL database that needed to be run from the server.

Long story short, go to the Creative Solutions Professional Suite site, log on with the firm’s account, and download the newest version from their site.

As of this writing, version 2009.2.4 was on the site.

Download and extract the newest version. Install it on the server and make sure everything runs correctly. Reboots _will_ be required to get things moving along smoothly. From there update the workstations.

UPDATE: It turned out that we needed to do a lot more than expected to get the newer version to work: Practice CS Addendum.

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

Exchange At A Glance Supportability Matrix – Meaning What Version Can Go Where

This TechNet site on Exchange versions and compatibility is really good.

• TechNet: Exchange Server Supportability Matrix

Check out some of these grids.

Release Model:

Supported Operating System Platforms

Beneath the above grid are Active Directory version compatibility grids and more.

Clients:

And there are a lot more.

The grids have not been updated with Exchange 2010 information yet, but that should be coming down the pipe pretty soon.

This is one site that we should have bookmarked for sure!

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

Intel Virtualization Tech (Intel VT-c) Capable Server NICs

With solutions built upon virtualization becoming all the more common, it is important to understand how the underlying hardware may or may not work with the chosen hypervisor platform.

Whether putting together a server solution based on Tier 1 or Intel’s server products, it is up to us to be “in the know” when it comes to how the hardware will work or not work for virtualization.

For instance, Intel’s add-in server class NICs have older versions that do not support advanced virtualization capabilities such as Intel Virtualization Technology for Connectivity (Intel VT-c).

The new VT-c enabled NICs enable some task offloading from the CPUs as well as direct hypervisor access to the NIC hardware.

The following screenshot of Intel’s NIC site show clearly which NICs are VT-c enabled and which ones are not:

From Intel’s VT-c site linked above:

To optimize these opportunities, Intel® VT-c provides I/O technologies that optimize virtualized performance:

• Enhanced data acceleration across the Intel® multi-core processors platforms
• Improved data processing performance across multiple queues on the network controller
• Direct VM connectivity and data protection between the VMs

Server hardware is evolving at an extremely fast rate. We are fortunate that Intel has structured their product releases in a Tick-Tock Model thus giving us adoption room around each Tick-Tock cycle.

Otherwise we would be completely inundated and that would be a real problem.

For us, being at the Associate Level in the Intel Reseller Partner Program is also very helpful in providing us with the directions Intel is taking with their products. There are a lot more benefits to becoming a part of the program for us small I.T. shops too.

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

The Intel ARK Information Site Is Excellent

This is a site that came up while searching for relevant information on the new Atom processor revisions:

The site:

• Intel ARK.

This is a pretty neat grid of all of Intel’s product code names:

Click through from the home page to the Atom processor family page which is what we were searching for in the first place:

A grid of all of the available Atom processors showing product features at a glance and a link to the actual product micro-site.

The specific Atom Processor 330 product micro-site:

This is one site that definitely needs to be bookmarked as it contains a wealth of product information that is generally two or three clicks away from the home page!

Also, make sure to check out the Product Tools links near the top right of the Home Page. The Platform Browser and the System Design Tool are phenomenal multiple choice decision making tools.

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

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

CCH Practice 8.x - Advantage Dbs on Server 2008 no go for now

A heads up for those running CCH products that are driven by an Advantage database back end: Advantage will not install and run on either x86 or x64 versions of Server 2008.

This is especially critical to note for accounting clients running SBS 2003 back ends that are looking to upgrade to SBS 2008 Standard or Premium this fall.

A new set of products structured around .NET and MS SQL are in the works with a hopeful release time in the fall of 2009.

CCH plans to release all information around the new products and the technologies to run them at their CCH User Conference in California October 2008. The conference brochure can be found here: CCH User Conference 2008 (PDF). More information should follow from there.

A list of the currently supported network configuration for CCH Practice:

• File Server - 100% IBM-compatible Pentium PC (PIII or higher recommended); Memory per network operating system; 512Mb+ of RAM required. 32 bit compatible for servers.
• Network Software - NetWare version 5.1 or higher, Linux (kernal [sic] 2.4 or higher), Windows 2000 Server - *Service Pack 4, Windows 2003 Server - *Service Pack 1, Windows 2000 Professional - *Service Pack 4**, Windows XP Professional - *Service Pack 2**. (* always upgrade to latest Service Packs)
• **Note: When running in Peer-to-Peer environments, a dedicated server is required.
• Network Clients - Latest versions of Microsoft Client for NetWare or Novell NetWare recommended; Clients for Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional.
• Network Topology - 10 Mbps or greater (Ethernet); 16 Mbps or greater (Token Ring); For optimum performance 100Mbps, full duplex recommended throughput network including workstation and server network interface cards, switches and hubs.

Note the absence of Server 2008 at this time.

It is also important to note that only version 8.11 of CCH Practice will run properly on Windows Vista. While we do have clients that we have managed to coerce Practice 7.x to run on Vista, only the most advanced users would understand the implications and what needs to be done to keep things stable.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.