Small Accounting Firm: Microsoft Stack Licensing and Solution Costs Example

Up here in Canada the incumbent cell providers have it pretty good. When travelling to the US we can obtain a RoamMobility plan for pennies on the dollar versus our Canadian provider’s rates.

The average small firm pays between $80 and $110 per month for each cell phone they provide to their users. This includes talk, text messaging (text, picture, and video), and the requisite 1GB to 3GB per month of bandwidth.

If we take the mid-range for this example we can say the average firm spends $90/Month so for a ten seat firm the cost is $10,800 user per year.

Now, let’s look at what the cost of a stack based solution is for the software licensing (New Open Value Agreement with the 3 Year Spread Payment option).

• Base Server: OS for DC and WSUS+LoBs (2 VMs)
• R18-01855 Server CAL $27 ($1270/Year)
• 6VC-00701 RDS CAL $77 ($770/Year)
• P73-05599 Server STD $750
• DC + RDS/WSUS/LoBs base solution with 2 VMs stop here.
• Solution cost: $2,790/Year
• $23.25/User/Month
• Add Exchange into the mix: Exchange + RDS Role moved here (2 VMs)
• 312-03037 Exchange Standard: $439
• 381-02257 Exchange CAL $49 ($245/Year)
• P73-05599 Server STD $750
• Solution cost: $1,434/Year
• $11.95/User/Month
• Total cost: $4,224 (Works out to $35.20/Month/User – More than half a cell contract cost)

A small single socket E5-2400 series server with 64GB ECC, Hardware RAID + flash cache, 8x 600GB 10K SAS in RAID 6 would be about $4,500.

We amortize the cost of the server over 36 months as that is our expectation for its service life.

• Server Cost: $4,500
• 10 Users = $12.50/Month/User amortized over 36 months.

So, our IT Solution total cost per user is now $47.70/Month.

That’s about half our cell contract cost per month per user.

The labour costs and ongoing maintenance costs would be the next thing to discuss with our prospective client. Suffice it to say that the labour and support portion would place the monthly cost per user into the $30 to $70 per month range depending on the services we provide.

Costs, benefits, and drawbacks would certainly be a part of this conversation.

• Are there any concerns about data ownership?
• Are there compliance regulations that need to be followed?
• Would there be a need to grandfather communications data for legal access at a later date?
• Note that for an accounting or law firm this situation could arise years down the road.
• What are the risks versus benefits for an on-premises solution versus a Cloud solution?

In the end the firm gets the best solution for their IT budget and it will work with their proprietary accounting applications and/or other Line of Business applications that can be quite finicky to work with.

Plus, they can be assured that the IT Solution will more than meet their expectations for up-time and performance for its entire service life.

Remember, when it comes to the conversation we need to have with our clients or prospective clients we need to focus on the cost per month per user. Yes, there will be some sticker shock involved, there always is, but once the numbers have been put into perspective relative to the per month cost folks can begin to see the value in what they are receiving.

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V: NIC Teaming Setup and Caveat

When it comes to NIC teaming there are times that we need to pay attention to how the NICs get attached to the various services that will be run on the server.

If we are working with a server that will be solely a Hyper-V server using the native teaming in Server 2012 then we should be okay with the way the teaming process transpires and the resulting team(s).

However, when we are working with an OS that will have NICs teamed and it will also be delivering roles and/or services to the production network we have encountered some funky behaviours in that server _after_ the NIC team was created.

If we have a physical box with 4 NICs we have 4 MAC addresses.

When we set up the roles/services on that box before teaming and bind them to the IP address we will be setting to the team we run into a small problem.

The MAC address that is currently bound to the NIC with that IP address may _not_ be the MAC address that the team inherits going forward.

So, as a rule we recommend setting up the NIC teaming as one of the first steps before anything else is accomplished on the box.

We tend to set up two teams across at least two separate adapters. We prefer to run Intel NICs in our server configurations as a rule.

1. Team 0: Management
1. NIC 0 & 1 port 0 (2 ports)
2. Team 1: vSwitch
1. NIC 0 & 1 ports 1-7 (6 ports)
• On Server 2012: Static Team with Hyper-V Port chosen

From there, make sure the binding order is set correctly _after_ a reboot. If changes are made to the binding order then a reboot will be required.

1. Start –> ncpa.cpl [Enter]
1. 
2. Hit the ALT key on the keyboard
3. Advanced
4. Advanced Settings...
1. 
5. Verify binding
1. 
6. Production network is run by the guests so vSwitch gets priority.

Once we have our binding order verified we can look at setting up the respective VLANs.

As a side note, there does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to the way the NICs get named in the OS.

In the above snip, based on an Intel Server System R2208GZ4GC with dual Intel Quad Port i350 NICs, we have done a lot of testing with various storage setups. Thus, we have had a number of fresh operating system installs and to date _none_ of them have had the NICs named the same.

Since we always use the same two ports, port 0 on both NICs, we usually just pull the cables on those two ports for a quick “which one is which” check. Another way we could do that is via the Cisco SG500 series management console by turning off the ports.

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

A little Saturday Evening Fun

Open a command prompt and type the following:

tracert /h 99 216.81.59.173

After a few hops a story will unfold.

May the Force be with you! :)

If the results go offline please ping us and we will post a pic of the results.

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Author and Mentor Role Link

Oops ... not sure how I managed to mangle the link but it is fixed in the previous post.

• SMBKitchen

Thanks for reading and for catching the mistake. :)

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Undertaking a New Authorship and Mentoring Role

I will be taking part in a new effort by Third Tier called the SMBKitchen.

I am fortunate to be working alongside some of the smartest and greatest folks in SMB IT for this project.

My role will be to develop Hyper-V clustering related content along with business principles and prospect opportunity development and sales closing.

If you haven't seen the video of my presentation at SMB Nation fall please check it out on our YouTube Channel. It provides a pretty good overview of the direction our own company is taking and is quite in line with our thoughts and directions with the SMBKitchen project.

Yes, the SMBKitchen subscription based.

So, what does that mean for this blog? No changes.

We will still develop and publish all of our great guides on new products and processes along with our frank reviews of products and services that we work with on a regular basis.

Guides we are working on:

• SBS 2003 Migration to Windows Server 2012 Essentials (WS2012E) with Exchange 2013
• SBS 2007/2011 Migration to WS2102E with Exchange 2013
• SBS Migration to the Stack
  • Windows Server 2012 Standard with Exchange 2013

What the SMBKitchen project does afford me though is an opportunity to put some serious time into developing video tutorials, in-depth knowledgebase structures based on our guides and more that I just could not justify time wise for the blog.

We have a mortgage to pay, mouths to feed, and all of the other aspects of living expenses that many of us deal with on a day to day basis from _one_ income. Tied into that is our responsibility to our clients to provide them the best possible IT solution for their needs.

I believe that the SMBKitchen project will provide awesome returns for IT Professionals looking to take your IT Practice to the next level with all of the changes happening in our industry. If I didn't believe that this post would never have happened.

As I state in my SMB Nation presentation, our goal here at MPECS Inc. is to be the best On-Premises IT Solution Provider. Period. SMBKitchen just happens to fit right into that vision!

We have a bright future ahead of us but it is going to take some serious slogging to get through the Cloud fluff to the good stuff! :)

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

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

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Server 2012/Windows 8: A Couple of Quick Logoff and Reboot Tips

We have a quick way to log off a Windows 2012 server or Windows 8 machine:

1. Hit Start –> type: Logoff
2. Right click on Logoff and Pin To Start
• 
• Above snip is _after_ pinning.
3. ESC
4. Start
5. Move the Logoff tile to the Top Left of the Start menu.
• 

Once the above process is complete to log off a server or desktop set up as above we hit Start then [Enter] and we are logged off.

To reboot or shut down the system we do the following:

1. WIN+R
1. shutdown –r –t 0 –f
1. Reboot, time is 0 seconds, and force the reboot.
2. shutdown –s –t 0 –f
1. Shut down, time is 0 seconds, and force the reboot.

The Run command can otherwise be pinned to the Start menu using the above methodology.

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

Windows Live Writer

Important: Open Value Agreement Grace Period For Renewals Is Being Removed

We do a lot of Open Value Agreement using the Spread Payment option (first payment plus 2 anniversary payments).

It seems that Microsoft is removing the grace period for any existing Agreements after March 1, 2013.

That means that it is _very_ important to be on top of which agreements are coming for renewal.

Given that in our experience Agreements that were on SBS Standard plus Premium Add-on came through with great make-good SKUs (thanks to everyone for pulling for the extra Server STD SKU) we have been very happy with the cost versus the benefit as has our clients.

Microsoft is constantly augmenting the various SA benefits especially with the desktop SA + MDOP SKUs.

Take note, make sure those POs are dated at least the Thursday before the end of the month to the supplier and follow-up with the supplier to verify that they have the Agreement renewal processed!

Don’t wait until the last day of the month. That will lead to pain for everyone.

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

Windows Live Writer

How-To: Hyper-V: Kill VM Process hung at Stopping/Starting/Snapshotting

Our search turned up the following:

• Dave’s Blog: How to identify Hyper-V VM by worker process if VM is hung on Starting/Stopping/Snapshotting

Our process is as follows:

1. Open Task Manager
2. Processes tab
3. Click View and Select Columns
4. Select and click OK:
1. Image Path Name
2. Command Line
3. 
5. Click the Image Name column header to sort.
1. 
6. Open Windows Explorer and browse to the Hyper-V folder where the VMs are stored.
• 
7. For smaller deploys we open the XML file with NotePad to discover the correct GUID associated with the VM.
8. In our case it was VMWP.exe with GUID 52806B15-
9. Terminate the process.

Once the VM’s process has been terminated we can address what was causing the stoppage, which in this case was an errant pass-through USB drive.

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

Windows Live Writer

Server Uptime at 16 Months

So, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Yeah, this particular box has been up for 16 months.

In August of 2011 switch one of two failed. That switch just happened to be the one this particular box was plugged in to. Prior to that the box had been up and running since Server 2008 R2 was installed (just prior to R2’s RTM).

Its sole purpose in life is to serve Terabytes of data via a teamed Gigabit NIC pair.

Note the CPU setup. It has a pair of Intel Xeon 5130 CPUs and 16GB of RAM. Yeah, it’s a bit long in the tooth. ;)

Given the server’s role serving files we tend to leave it alone. No Web browsing, no desktop access, or any other access is needed unless something happens with it.

Well, today the backplane decided to hiccup along with the 500GB Seagate ES series drive that died in it (we’ve had a _huge_ fail rate on these drives over the last two or more years).

It is time for this old box to be retired.

Its replacement will be a Hyper-V Failover Cluster based on two or three Intel Server Systems SR1695GPRX2AC 1U servers with an Intel Xeon X3470 and 32GB of ECC RAM.

Is it a good thing for one to leave a box up and running for months or even years at a time?

Is the risk worth it?

In some cases we have no choice where three shifts run 24/7/365. Coordinated downtime is about the only way in to these boxes. Though SBS tends to start choking around the 90 day mark for both SBS 2008 Standard and SBS 2011 Standard so these reboots with patch cycles tend to happen every quarter.

To mitigate this situation we need to make sure we have good monitoring in place for edge access, AD authentication attempts (especially failures), proper edge configuration blocking both inbound and outbound packets by default, and other strategies like no touching the box/VM.

In the end, the risks need to be evaluated beside the benefits of no reboot cycles and/or no patch cycles for a lengthy amount of time.

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

Windows Live Writer

Learning Group Policy the Jeremy Moskowitz Way

Look what arrived in the mail:

Jeremy’s new _signed_ Group Policy book. :)

Jeremy is the best source for anything Group Policy. We’d surely love to attend one of his full week brain busting GP courses but timing for us has been difficult.

We highly recommend picking up a copy of this book. It is a handy reference and one of the best ways to learn Group Policy outside of one of his courses.

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

Windows Live Writer

Desktop Board BIOS Flash Initiated Within Windows – Caveat

When flashing a desktop board with TXT (Trusted Execution Technology) enabled in the BIOS an update to the BIOS initiated within Windows will fail.

Prior to initiating the BIOS update reboot and disable TXT then run the update.

Once the update has completed and the system has finished its post update boot shut the system down. Pull the power and let it sit for a minute.

Power the system up and F2 or DEL into the BIOS. Verify that the update did not change any of the settings and enable TXT.

We enable TXT before installing the operating system by default. We also make sure the drive mode is set to AHCI.

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

Windows Live Writer

Intel Desktop Board 7 Series BIOS Update Caveats – Important

We’ve been building a lot of our corporate desktop systems based on the Intel DQ77KB and the Core i5-3470S with either an 80GB or 120GB Intel 320 Series SSD installed.

We normally finish of a system install with the most recent BIOS update and then a run through the settings post update boot.

This last board stopped dead during the reboot to BIOS update process.

A call into Intel and we discovered why (from their support technician’s e-mail we requested):

In this particular case, for the 7 Series Chipset based motherboards like the Intel® Desktop Board DQ77KB it is extremely necessary to have the BIOS 0044 before applying the latest version. This is because BIOS 0044 contains the update version 8.1.2.1318 for the Intel® Management Engine which corrects possible problems with USB3.0 front panel headers.

All of the Intel® 7 Series Chipset Based motherboards require this Intel® Management Engine firmware update so here is a list of the required BIOS version to accomplish this fix based on the motherboard number:

Motherboard model BIOS with the Management Engine firmware update

DP75EN 0039

DH77DF / DH77KC 0102

DH77EB 0096

DQ77KB 0044

DQ77CP / DQ77MK 0052

DZ75ML-45K 0010

DZ77BH-55K 0093

DZ77GA-70K / DZ77RE-75K 0057

DZ77SL-50K 0089

You can continue updating the BIOS version once you have reached the one having the Management Engine firmware update

As we can see, we need to step our BIOS updates.

UPDATE: Put “77” in the original title. Corrected to “7 Series”.

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

Windows Live Writer

Windows 8: Share Desktop Backgrounds Across PCs/Laptops

We have a number of systems with one sign-on that is tied into our Microsoft ID (Live ID).

Besides the ability to keep our Metro UI experience relatively seamless across those systems we can also share the desktop backgrounds across them.

The path for the pictures is:

• C:\Users\%Username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\RoamedThemeFiles\DesktopBackground\

1. First, right click on the desktop and click Personalize.
2. Make sure Synced Theme is chosen.
• 
3. Click on Desktop Background.
• 
4. Open Windows Explorer
5. Open the picture’s location.
6. One can either copy and paste from here or open a second Windows Explorer window.
7. Copy and paste the above path into the Address Bar and hit [Enter].
8. Copy picture content into the DesktopBackground folder.

Our preference is to set the images to Fit instead of stretch.

Once this process has been completed the desktop backgrounds on all Windows 8 machines tied in with that Microsoft ID will show the same.

NOTE: Once this process has completed Windows 8 under Personalization may show “Unsaved Theme” as being selected. Change the setting back to Synced Theme.

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

Windows Live Writer

How To: Set up the Intel Remote Management Module (RMM)

We install the Intel Remote Management Module (RMM) into all of our Intel server based deploys. If deploying a Tier 1 box we install theirs and make sure the KVM over IP option is enabled (license purchased).

Having out-of-band management access to a server can save critical time in the event of a server problem. We no longer need to jump in a vehicle and run down to our client’s site or have someone on-site for our remote clients.

Out of the box the RMM needs to be properly configured.

Once the server has been assembled and all of its components have had their firmware updated (Intel Download Site) we configure our RMM via the server board’s BIOS.

1. Turn the server on and F2 into the BIOS.
2. Server Management Tab.
3. BMC LAN Configuration
4. Set the IP for the RMM
1. In the shop we leave it DHCP so that we can remote into the server while here.
2. Client’s site we tend to plug directly into the Internet and give it a static IP.
5. Set the BMC DHCP Host Name
1. Convention is a bit goofy (no special characters).
2. 
6. Choose User ID and hit [Enter]
1. Choose User3
• 
2. Privilege: Administrator
3. User Status: Enabled
4. Set the user name: JungleJim
5. Set the user password: Icanacc3ssthis (x2)
7. We end up with this.
• 
8. F10 to save settings and reboot the server.

If using DHCP then check the network’s DHCP Server console for the IP that the RMM has picked up.

Open a browser and navigate to the RMM IP.

Log on with the credentials set. Barring two left thumbs we should be able to log in.

Once in we are able to launch the KVM over IP, reset the server’s power, power it up or down, and check the server’s current status.

The cost on the Intel units and Tier 1 equivalents will cover one on-site visit.

We believe that an RMM/iLO Advanced/iDRAC Enterprise and other remote management module should be a part of _every_ server configuration.

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

Windows Live Writer

The last few weeks . . .

. . . have been very stressful.

We have had a lot of new business as well as ongoing client needs creating a real crunch on our time.

So, with the need to stick around and wait for the Xplornet installer at home I've managed to get some long awaited To Do tasks taken care of and now take a bit of a mental health break. :)

That picture was taken from a parking lot yesterday afternoon in downtown Edmonton.

Keep in mind we had a very cold December with –20C temperatures being very common (and our just landed heating bill showing for it).

So, it was really neat to see a rainbow in January. :)

Oh, and the other day it was +6C here in the Greater Edmonton Area while it was –5C in Las Vegas Nevada! W00t!

All of this hard work has lead to some very intense play sessions with the kids! A local hobby store had boxes of UberARC 3200 kits on sale so we picked up a few. The four of us jumped right into putting some projects together. The first was via the building plans that came with the boxes. The second was a free-flight construction project.

Using the first box we built the UberARC 3200 tower:

We had to trim the top a bit to fit under our 8' ceiling. :)

We then moved on to the following tower project:

The above is the base for the tower incorporating four pillars with the internal walls supported by the cathedral style columns shown.

This is the finished product:

And:

The tower stands pretty close to 7.5' tall and is roughly 22" long by 18" wide. It took two and a half UberARC 3200 boxes to build.

And, some Father/Son time:

My eldest son is right into anything mechanical with LEGO Technic being his real draw right now. He has three kits he built on his own with the above being my first kit. Together we have done some neat things for setups. We are starting to build a Technic collection of spare parts via eBay for some self-built projects we are talking about.

We have a newly purchased Technic 8070 Super Car waiting to be built too.

As tough as it is to make time, it is ultra important to keep in my mind that they come first and that sometimes, especially when things are as nuts as they are now, I need to hammer down and allocate time to spend with my family.

That work/family/life balance can be so hard to keep at times!

Thanks for reading and your support over the years. It is muchly appreciated.

Speaking of life . . . Monique and the kids are in town ... so maybe it's time for some Jet Li window rattling! :D

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

Windows Live Writer