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

Slow Network Speeds with SBS 2008 and 2011: NIC Binding Order

Most server boxes today come with at least 2 NICs. In some cases they come with four or more! As a result we need to pay particular attention to how the networking structures are set up in the OS.
The following is a Snip of a production SBS 2008 server:

To get the Advanced Settings screen:

1. Start –> NCPA.CPL [Enter]
2. Hit the ALT key if the File menu is not seen.
3. Click Advanced.
4. Click Advanced Settings.

Note the order that the NIC bindings are shown in.
In this case, Local Area Connection 2 is the NIC that was not plugged in during the OS setup phase. Yet, the OS somehow managed to place that NIC at the top of the binding order.
What does that mean?
Network services run slower as the OS will poll the disabled NIC _first_ before the NIC that the services are actually connected to.
So, for any network that is experiencing any kind of slowness the following should be done in the troubleshooting process before touching any of the NIC driver settings or OS internal configuration:

1. Check the Switch!
   • Gigabit on _all_ ports please.
   • Make sure that switches with a higher port density have the internal backbone to handle all or most ports running at full duplex Gigabit.
2. Change the patch cable between the server and the switch.
   • Please.
3. Verify the binding order on the NICs.
   • If a change is needed note that the server would need to be rebooted!
   • In the case above:
     1. Move Local Area Connection 2 to the bottom of the list.
     2. Uncheck File and Printer Sharing on Local Area Connection 2.
     3. Uncheck Client for Microsoft Networks Local Area Connection 2.
4. Check the Provider Order tab
   • 
   • Place the Microsoft Windows Network at the top of the list since it is definitely the most accessed part of the server’s networking.

We helped out a fellow consultant that was working with a client that had a really slow ACCPACC problem. Reports were taking _a long time_ to run. After running through a series of tests we checked the binding order and sure enough the NICs were way out of order.
After a reboot things took a day or so to straighten out. But once they settled down the reports were running in a fraction of the time it took before the change.

• TechNet Library: Modify the protocol bindings and network provider order
• TechNet Library: Network Connections Best Practices
  • Note mention of the Provider Order recommendation near the bottom of this page.

UPDATE: Thanks to Michael’s pointer in the comments. The order change was missing the “2”!
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.

Some Small Business Server 2011 Essentials Resources

We are running through our first full production deployment of SBSe 2011.

It takes some getting used to as the install requires a router on the network that delivers an IP address via DHCP!

The TechNet site has a build wiki that has a lot of good information in it:

• TechNet SBS 2011 Essentials Build Document

We did not use any form of Answer File for this first run through. We used the Q&A to set things up.

Once we had the server’s desktop we were in for a couple of surprises based on the two questions asked by the setup wizard:

1. We chose an admin logon: Franklin Roosevelt
• User came up:
• Username: Admin
• User Logon: Franklin Roosevelt
2. We chose a Standard User: Douglas MacArthur
• User came up:
• Username: User
• User Logon: Douglas MacArthur

That was a bit of a surprise to us. So, going forward we will not put a space in the usernames and rename them after the fact so that the logon and username actually match.

Note that we can change the first and/or last name associated with the user in the SBS Console but we are not able to change the actual logon name.

So, we checked out what was in ADUC and sure enough we could change it there. But, when we brought up the properties in the SBS Dashboard (not Console) we saw:

Error

Cannot retrieve or change the user account information. If this problem persists, restart the server, and then try again.

So, we ran a few updates and let the server go.

And still we received the same error message. This means that anyone that gets married will require a new user ID and thus a recreation of their profile.

Back to the point of order:

We plan on installing DHCP on the SBSe 2011 server.

• Official SBS Blog: Running DHCP Server on SBS 2011 Essentials With a Static IP

As per the above blog post we will also stop and disable the Windows Server LAN Configuration service.

From there we will run through many of the steps found in our SBS 2011 Standard setup guide.

• MPECS Inc. Blog: SBS 2011 Setup Guide

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

Cause for Pause: My SBS Backups Are Gone?!?

We were asked to recover a folder set for a client from the beginning of this year.

When we went to the backup destination media that should have that backup set on it we were greeted with the following shock:

In this particular circumstance the SBS in question was deployed just about a year ago. The backup destination happened to be the first disk in their three drive rotation (we rotate every two weeks and test their backups for this client).

We were fortunate that the folders needed were found on Disk 2 in the rotation. But, anything beyond that would have been useless to us as the files that were changed beyond the Drive 2 date set were still needed.

What does this mean for us?

Well, for starters any client with less than three drives in their rotations will be bumped up to at least 3.

We will be implementing a grandfather clause into the backup structure to allow for one drive to have file and folder access for the last year.

In this particular case we pulled Drive 2 out of the rotation immediately so as to use as an archive just in case.

We will be digging into this server’s logs around the time of the backup drive being blanked to see if there are any indicator log entries that we can use to flag and e-mail us. There may be cases where we would want to pull that drive right out and leave it alone for 6 to 12 months.

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

Microsoft Download: Migrating SBS 2003 to SBS 2011 Essentials Document

The document with Microsoft’s method for migrating SBS 2003 to the new SBS 2011 Essentials product can be found here:

• Microsoft Downloads: Migrating Windows SBS 2003 to Windows SBS 2011 Essentials

Note that the SBS 2011 Essentials Web site’s section on migration is a bit buried.

1. SBS 2011 Essentials Online Help page.
2. Click Manage Your Server.
3. Click Migrate Server Data.

We then end up at this page:

• SBS 2011 Essentials: Migrating Windows Small Business Server 2003 to Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials

The migration process itself looks to be quite a bit different than it is for migrating SBS 2003 to SBS 2008/2011. The requirements for a healthy source server network still stand along with the prerequisite of an up to date source server.

We will be doing a couple of dry runs through the process with a client’s SBS 2003 R2 Premium OS image to make sure that we don’t run into any real problems.

Since the number one hang-up in our own SBS 2003 to SBS 2008/2011 migrations tend to be Public Folder related we are hoping that we will not run into too much difficulty!

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

Pending: Migrating to SBS 2011 (Standard and Essentials) from SBS 2003 Guide

We have the basic steps outlined for the migration process from SBS 2003 through to SBS 2011. We have not had time to get them together in a blog post yet.

But, we are just about to run through a migration virtually prior to running the actual migration for a client so we will validate all of our steps then.

Once we are confident that our steps follow the Microsoft documentation and also include the extras that we see as part of the process we will be releasing our migration guide.

We are also getting ready to migrate an SBS 2003 R2 Premium site to SBS 2011 Essentials as their e-mail resides on a hosted Exchange server setup. So, we will be running through the Microsoft documentation and creating a guide for this process too.

More to come and thanks for reading! :)

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

HP ProLiant MicroServer

While at the MVP Summit those of us in the SBS and WHS specialities received a gift from HP. That gift was an HP ProLiant MicroServer with a 250GB hard disk and 1GB of RAM.

Once we had a bit of time we pulled it apart to see what was up and also to install RAM:

The server board sits on a tray that is held in place by the two blue thumb screws.

Once we slid the tray out we had full access to the RAM slots along with the two PCI-E slots that allow us to install a half height half length add-in card.

We installed the two 4GB ECC DRAM DIMMs to bring the server’s RAM up to 8GB because the 1GB just was not cutting it with Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard.

Note that there is no hot swap backplane in this unit so any hard disk maintenance needs to be accomplished with the server offline.

When installing an optical drive or an addition set of hard disks the mounting screws are located in the front door panel.

• Optical drive screws and hex key tool.

• Hard disk drive mounting screws located in the front door panel.

This unit is _really_ quiet. It is quite suited to sitting on or under a desk somewhere in a small office with no one ever knowing that it even exists.

We are inclined to see the MicroServer as a the platform of choice for the small 5-10 seat office with the Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Essentials 2011 operating system.

Or, the MicroServer makes a great standalone DC for those clients that we are setting up with a simple two node DAS based Hyper-V cluster.

One thing to be mindful of when it comes to the out of the box configuration is that the on board software RAID setup is quite limited for bandwidth. So, a fairly active engineering or architectural firm that is moving a lot of data from a single point may not benefit from this box without an add-in RAID controller.

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