Manage Intel vPro Enabled Desktops and Laptops From the SBS 2011 Essentials Console: Intel Small Business Manageability Add-In

We saw some screenshots of the Intel Small Business Manageability Add-In at yesterday’s Intel Channel Conference here in Edmonton.

The product will give full vPro feature access as per the page linked below.

• Intel® Small Business Manageability Add-in: What is the Intel® Small Business Manageability Add-in?
• Intel Support Page: Intel Small Business Manageability Add-in

We use Intel’s vPro/AMT based desktops and laptops throughout our client’s locations. Once vPro has been set up we can power up the unit, troubleshoot it, and have out-of-band access to the system’s firmware and logs.

The remote VNC feature is not so important for those of us in the SBS world since Remote Assistance access is built right into the SBS Console and setup or RDP access once the machine is up and running.

However, in the end, the extra cost for the out-of-band management that vPro enables for us and our clients is saved when we can work on something remotely just once. vPro is worth it.

• Intel vPro Technology Page

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.

Hyper-V Hanging at Shutting Down Cluster Service … Troubleshooting Steps

We are in the process of troubleshooting a problematic shutdown of a Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 cluster node.

For now, we have discovered how to kill the cluster service via command line from another node to at least get the node to boot:

• taskkill /S HyperV-Node01 /IM clussvc.exe

Prior to doing that we ran the following command on the good node:

• cluster.exe log /g

The log that is created can be found in C:\Windows\Cluster\Reports and is named Cluster.log.

So far, nothing in the logs made any clear indication as far as the cause.

However, after using the Taskkill command which allowed the server to shut down and reboot we initiated another restart on the node after logging in.

This time the cluster service shut down cleanly with the node doing a normal reboot cycle.

We then moved all of the VMs, CSVs, and Cluster ownership over to that node and ran a shutdown cycle on the other.

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

SBS 2008 and SharePoint Errors 3760 and 27745

We have spent the better part of the day troubleshooting an SBS 2008 Companyweb that went offline this morning without any real indication of _why_ that happened.

The server has been up for about 30 days with no SharePoint updates applied for at least a couple of update cycles.

• Error 1: 3760 (A few of these just before things went offline)
  • SQL Database ‘ShareWebDb’ on SQL server instance ‘…’ not found.
• Error 2: 27745 (happens every second or more)

  Log Name:      Application
  Source:        Windows SharePoint Services 3
  Date:          09/06/2011 12:02:30
  Event ID:      27745
  Task Category: General
  Level:         Error
  Keywords:      Classic
  User:          N/A
  Computer:      xxxxxxxx.local
  Description:
  The description for Event ID 27745 from source Windows SharePoint Services 3 cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

  #50071: Unable to connect to the database SharePoint_Config_xxx-xxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx on xxxxxx\Microsoft##SSEE.  Check the database connection information and make sure that the database server is running.

We went through a very long process of trying to figure out the source of the problem.

Both Companyweb and the SharePoint Administration sites were offline.

Ultimately, the steps we took are to be found in this Experts Exchange Question:

• Experts Exchange: Sharepoint Sites Down /  Event ID 27745  Windows SharePoint Services 3 cannot be found error / SBS 2008

About two thirds of the way down is a transcript of the process Microsoft Product Support Services took to figure out what the problem was. The lines below are the ones relevant to our own situation with the lines starting with an asterisk (*) being steps we did on our own.

• Tried to browse companyweb, came up with error:  HTTP 404   The webpage cannot be found
• Tried to browse Sharepoint central Administration, get the error: HTTP 404   The webpage cannot be found
• Ran the PSconfig and gave the error: Unhandled exception has occurred in your application
• Checked if the database were attached in SQL and found them there.
• Ran PSconfig and failed again.
• We checked CLICONFG and found that TCP/IP was listed on enabled protocols.
• On a working machine, it was (sic) a disabled protocol.
• 
• Left = Bad | Right = Good
• We moved it to disabled protocol.
• * We restarted the Microsoft##SSEE service and SP Timer service.
• Ran psconfig and this time it was successful.
• Browsed to Sharepoint central admin and it was working.
• * Ran the Credential Management step in SP Operations.
• 
• * Restarted IIS: IISReset /Noforce
• NOTE: We had to manually shut IIS down and restart as it hung at “Stopping”.
• * Refreshed SP Admin site and all was good.
• Browsed companyweb and that was successful.

It is very important to note that an out-of-band management module such as the iDRAC Enterprise, HP iLO Advanced, Intel RMM, or other KVM over IP should be used.

The RD Gateway service consistently stopped and stayed down during our troubleshooting processes. An IP restricted direct to SBS RDP rule in the firewall would be a good second option though not perfect if the OS stops in its tracks!

While we tried to outline every step we took troubleshooting this process, there may be a few steps that we missed documenting in the process.

As always, have a backup of that server before making any changes!

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.

Monday Morning Science Lesson: Quantum Levitation

We had a speechless moment in our family when we saw this:

A really _neat_ science experiment

The video is nothing short of amazing!

Happy Monday 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.

We Remember

Thank you to all that serve in the various armed forces.

Thank you to all that have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Thank you for the gift of freedom.

We remember.

MPECS Inc

Sent from my SBS 2011 integrated Windows Phone Mango

ExchangeDefender Message Security: Check Authenticity

Practice CS (Creative Solutions) 2011.2.3 Update Available

Just in case: Thomson Reuters product Practice CS (Creative Solutions) has an update to 2011.2.3 available.

• Practice CS Download Link

Note that a valid Thomson Reuters Web Account will be required prior to gaining access to the download.

A full explanation of what the update contains can be found in the following PDF:

• Practice CS, v. 2011.2.0: User Bulletin 6801: Software Update (PDF)

The following PDF document is the Practice CS Getting Started Guide:

• Practice CS Getting Started Guide

Instructions on installing the update start on page 5.

The _very first thing we do_ is take a backup!

From there we begin the extract and install process.

Once we begin the Install process we choose the database hosted on the server option:

After accepting the license agreement we see the following:

For Step 1:

1. \\SBS\Company\ProgramData\WinCSi
2. We allow remote entry to be enabled on other computers.

After clicking Next the process goes through and updates the necessary files.

Since we are upgrading an existing installation we choose to use the CREATIVESOLUTION instance already on the server:

We answer NO to the following question:

• The Sample database already exists. (NO)

Once the database structures have been changed we see:

Now for Step 3 we are only working with the database server that is running on SBS 2008. So, we choose _not_ to install the Practice CS client on the server in the next window:

Once complete the Install process gives us instructions on what to do on each of the workstations:

And now concludes the server portion of the setup process:

Practice CS Client Update Process

NOTE: Make sure to log onto the first client where the client based database update processes will run using the domain admin or admin account that was used to set up the server and new database structures.

Despite the instructions in the previous window all one needs to do is to start the Practice CS client on the workstation and the following happens:

The client update automatically runs. Once it starts, it consistently warns about a required reboot but we choose to ignore it:

The client update process will take a while depending on the speed of the system it is being installed on. We see anywhere from a few minutes or more.

After the install completes the first run will require a database integrity check which is why we recommend being logged into the machine that will run the Practice CS client as the domain admin:

Once the integrity checks are complete Practice CS will throw up a number of errors indicating that it is not properly licensed for the various modules that are getting loaded.

Ignore those errors and wait for the client to open up. Click on Help and then About. From there click on the Download Licenses button.

Click the Close button and:

Once the licenses have been properly seated close the Practice CS client and then re-open it again.

If using the Outlook synchronization feature for the firm’s contacts the make sure to run the Contact Synchronization process:

Once these processes have been completed the Practice CS server and client software were good to go.

The time to run the entire process on an SBS server and ten Windows Vista Business clients was about two and a half hours.

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

A Live Wiki Based Microsoft Update List for Hyper-V

Microsoft has a TechNet Wiki that lists all of the relevant updates and hotfixes for the Hyper-V Role or Hyper-V Server 2008 RTM/R2.

• TechNet Wiki: Hyper-V: Update List for Windows Server 2008 R2

The last update to the Wiki was October 26, 2011.

Also, the Wiki has an RSS feed:

• TechNet Wiki: Hyper-V: Update List for Windows Server 2008 R2 RSS Feed

A snip of the Wiki page:

//

The second from the bottom update dated October 20th looks to be one of the latest on this list as of this writing.

For those of us running virtualization solutions on Hyper-V and failover clusters on Hyper-V this list is very important to monitor.

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

A Virtualized SBS 2011 and RDS Setup Completed With Some Pics

One of the projects we are just in the process of closing up was the following:

• Intel Server System SR1695GPRX2AC
• Intel Xeon X3470 CPU, 32GB Kingston 1066MHz ECC, Intel RS2BL040 RAID + BBU, 300GB 15K SAS in RAID 10
• Intel Remote Management Module 3 (RMM3LITE) for KVM/out-of-band access to host.
• Cisco SA520-K9
• Cisco 48 Port Small Business Series Gigabit Switch
• APC SMT1500RM2U UPS
• Provides clean power to the networking components.
• APC SMT2200RM2U UPS + AP9630 Remote Management
• Provides clean power to the Intel Server System
• APC NetShelter VX 24U Enclosure (AR3104)

The software for this solution (Open Value Agreement with the 3 year spread payment option) that covers all users:

• Small Business Server 2011 Standard
• Small Business Server 2011 Premium Add-On
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard 1+1 for the host OS.
• Windows Remote Desktop Services CALs
• Office Standard
• Windows Desktop OS Software Assurance + MDOP

Here are some shots of the finished server deploy:

• APC AR3104 from the front.

• APC AR3104 from the rear.

The finished product:

We are using SBS 2011 native backup and Windows Server Backup on the RDS server to back up the VMs to Microsoft iSCSI Software Target based VHDs located on the hard drive in the drive dock.

The RDS server hosts an LoB (Line of Business) application being delivered by RD RemoteApp along with Microsoft Office.

This particular client has two satellite offices that will be connecting to the LoB and Office via RemoteApp with a standard DSL Internet connection (3Mbit down and 1Mbit up).

Remote printing via RD RemoteApp is via HP LaserJet Professional P1606dn printers using the most recent HP driver (5.0.1 as of this writing).

We brought in our shop vacuum to clean out the entire area that the server equipment is sitting in. The dust settles over time, so we made sure to start with a clean slate plus we will pop in with the vacuum once every six months or so to keep that area as clean as possible.

A point to consider when it comes to deploying any IT solution into an SMB/SME business is that much of what we do is “virtual”. Meaning that we set up some physical boxes with a bunch of software products and then manage it.

What that means is that “Presentation is Critical”!

Make sure that the solution is tidy with cables tucked neatly away, all surfaces clean (Windex works great), and no papers/paperwork is left lying around the workspace if any.

Another important point when it comes to setting up or visiting a client’s site for any work is to “Leave the scene cleaner than the way we found it”!

That means cleaning up the mess left by the phone line technician or alarm technician that was in that space before us. We may not realize it, but the client notices the state of their space and who makes the messes.

In this case, our client, the business owner is very happy with what they have seen and used on their new IT Solution.

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

Another Stock Crunch: Intel Second Generation Core CPUs

For some system builders this fall is looking to be a tough one leading up to one of the busier parts of the PC building seasons.

We were informed by our Canadian distribution points this morning that Intel’s second generation Core CPUs are under “severe allocation” in our channel.

What this means for us is that if we are expecting any system builds over the coming weeks we may run into CPU access issues.

System builders, especially Canadian based ones, should check stock levels for needed Intel CPUs to make sure that there is availability and also to watch prices as they will rise as stock diminishes.

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

Spindled Based Hard Drives Are Getting Scarce – An Opportunity For SSDs

Hard drives through pretty much all channels at this point are either in limited supply, require us to purchase a motherboard and CPU with each, or a server that can hold the number of drives we require.

We are also seeing prices going up as a 2TB Seagate XT drive we paid $150 for a few months back is now $210 and rising sometimes daily!

What this means is that we are looking to SSD to fill in the gaps.

At the smaller capacities the overall system cost to include an 80GB or 160GB Intel 320 series SSD is not too much higher with the performance benefits far outweighing that cost.

Thus we have an opportunity to possibly sell SSDs into client situations where we may not have had that option before.

And, once the client’s users have worked on an SSD based system for a while they will probably notice the performance differences when working on systems with spindle based storage. From thereon in we will probably be deploying SSDs in almost all workstations going into those clients.

On the server side, where we once had a $150 difference between the 300GB 15K 2.5” Seagate SAS drives and the Intel 300GB 320 Series SSD that gap has pretty much been eliminated. Now, selling 300GB Intel 320 Series SSDs into a server setting has become quite easy.

Not only that, we can demonstrate quite clearly to our server clients that the SSDs have a clear advantage over spindled drives in performance but also in lower power consumption and less heat (means less cooling required).

In the end, if SSD demand does indeed rise significantly we win in that the higher volumes means the costs for those drives will come down. With lower costs, we will see even greater SSD adoption.

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

Troubleshooting Out Of Office (OOF) with ExchangeDefender

We were in the process of trying to figure out just what was going on with the OOF feature in Exchange/Outlook as no automatic replies were being sent out at all.

We ran through a number of different steps in the process and eventually came to the conclusion that something was catching them in ExchangeDefender (XD).

Well, since we have been so busy one of the To Do list items on our own end did not get addressed. That is fixing the RSS setup between IE and Outlook on our own systems. Thus we missed the following XD posts:

• ExchangeDefender Blog: Outbound JR
• ExchangeDefender Blog: Rolling out Outbound-JR

If we had been paying attention to the XD blog we would have seen the following as noted in the above posts:

Almost all of our clients do not use OOF, nor do we, so to date we had not encountered a “problem” with them not being sent out.

Long story short, use outbound-jr.exchangedefender.com for the Smart Host setting in SBS/Exchange if there is a need to utilize these types of features.

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 Selling Points for Cloud Based E-mail Security and Continuity Services: ExchangeDefender

We see a variety of attack vectors at work when it comes to inbound e-mail.

One cannot discount the social engineering aspect that the bad guys utilize to get someone to click on a link. This type of vector can only be exercised out of users by extensive training: “Don’t click on any unknown links!”

Here are some thoughts on why having an external Cloud based service sanitize e-mail _before_ it gets to the edge device:

• Attack vector via SMTP authorization attacks. To eliminate this vector we employ SMTP filters on all Cisco SA520 security appliances to only allow ExchangeDefender’s subnets inbound.
• No SMTP service access means no more authorization attempts.
• E-mail is archived on the Cloud services for one year (or more if needed).
• Access to archived e-mail can be had from virtually anywhere.
• E-mail can be read and/or replied to via LiveArchive Outlook Web App access.
• If the in-house server is down for whatever reason folks can keep working with their e-mail.
• Outbound e-mail can be encrypted end-to-end.
• From in-house Exchange via TLS to ExchangeDefender.
• [Encrypt] tag in the Subject means that the recipient will need to click on a link that takes them to the ExchangeDefender Encryption site to log on (password and PIN would be set up if the first time).
• ExchangeDefender sends daily reports.
• Can be mid-day and first thing too for folks with more e-mail volume.
• Online portal provides the ability to whitelist addresses and e-mail domains.
• Manage all spam types via both the report and online management portal.

The small monthly cost for the ExchangeDefender service is minor relative to what our clients gain in the way of e-mail security, sanitation, and continuity.

We have had great success with ExchangeDefender and OWN so we do not plan on switching to other vendor’s Cloud security products at this time.

• ExchangeDefender Network Operations Blog
• Ongoing status updates and reports on the service.
• 
• ExchangeDefender NOC Twitter Account
• 

Yes, we have seen some issues with the service in the years since we signed up and started reselling their services. But, on the grand scale of things their service and support team have been second to none on communicating with us whenever we have had a question or there was indeed a problem.

After the last NOC based outage in Dallas the OWN team committed to restructuring their redundancy between LA and Dallas to allow for a failover to happen if one of the NOCs experienced some form of outage. So far they have been following through on their commitment to implement these changes.

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

Just Another Day – Carpe Diem

Today is just another day, and yet it is one that has great significance for my family.

Dominic Jacob Elder was born and died one year ago today. Rest in peace my son.

Life is both precious and fragile.

Carpe Diem! :)

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

Quick Link: HP Universal Print Drivers for Windows

We are in the process of troubleshooting why the HP LaserJet Pro P1606dn once worked through Remote Desktop Services connections for remote connections to a Windows 7 machine but now does not. It works for remote to RDS sessions, but not for desktop RDP connections to this one machine.

• HP Universal Print Driver Series for Windows

The above link is good as of this writing. It has links to all versions that we may need to work with:

We already ran through the process of disabling the setting in Group Policy for the Remote Desktop Easy Print driver to be chosen first. Doing this has not changed anything so far. :(

• Microsoft Forums: How to Disable Easy Print service

From what we can tell, the print driver fails to install on this particular machine where on machines the driver seems to work as expected. So, we now know that the situation is isolated to this one machine.

Hopefully after we ground zero (wipe) the spool service setup including all drivers that we can get things to work as expected.

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

System Builders: May Need to Stock up on Hard Drives. Flooding in Thailand is Hurting Production

It looks as though flooding in Thailand is causing problems with various hard drive manufacturer’s hard drive production.

• Flooding Thailand Hard Drive Facilities (Bing Search)
• Flooding Thailand Hard Drive Production (Bing News Search)

So far, pretty much every hard drive manufacturer has indicated that their spindled products are impacted by the flooding.

We were made aware of the situation by one of our local suppliers that has indicated that prices are on their way up.

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