SBS 2003 R2 – WSUS SP Blue Shield Fix

We had one of our SBS 2003 R2 Premium boxes go blue shield on us after WSUS v3 was service packed.

As we combed through the various settings to make sure they were set to the SBS 2003 R2 specific ones, we ended up needing to recreate the groups in the WSUS console, set the Products updated to all, and reset the sync schedule to automatic.

After combing through all of those settings though, we still had a blue shield.

The fix ended up being the SQL script that we needed to run in the following Knowledgebase article under the second method:

• Microsoft KB 945985: Software updates are not managed by Windows Small Business Server 2003 Update Services after you upgrade to Windows Server Update Services 3.0 Service Pack 1

After running the script we received the following output:

Changed database context to 'SUSDB'.
Using SUSDB
No work to do.  Record already exists.
Automatic Approval For Detection is already enabled
Target group of approval for detection is not "AllComputers"
Inserting "AllComputers" group
"AllComputers" Group added
Critical update is not in approval for detection classification
Critical update is inserted to approval for detection classification
Security update is not in approval for detection classification
Security update is inserted to approval for detection classification
Service pack is not in approval for detection classification
Service pack is inserted to approval for detection classification

We then went into the SBS Console and clicked on the Update Services node and after a few minutes were greeted with:

We now have our WSUS integration back.

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

CCH Taxprep Windows 7 Patch for Prior Non-Compatible Versions

CCH has released a patch that must be run on any version of Taxprep that is not supported on Windows 7 to enable that prior version to run on Windows 7.

• Taxprep Compatibility with the New Windows 7 Operating System - Update Available for Prior Versions of Taxprep

Up to now, we have been running all non-compatible versions in Windows XP Mode.

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

It Pays To Pay Attention To All Accounts Online

We had a mysterious branch to branch transfer of funds out of our business account on January 20th.

Now, if we were not into our accounts on a daily basis, we may not have caught the transaction until the bookkeeper updated our books.

But, we do check our accounts regularly just because.

Well, we saw the transaction, called the bookkeeper, and ran through all of the transactions we did that day and could not find any reference to the several thousand dollar transaction.

Yes, _several thousand dollars_!

In order to get the situation resolved, the only resort we had was to call the bank and ask them What the Chicken (previous blog post) was going on?!?

They in turn put a “trace” on the transaction. Well, here we are a little over a week later and the money has been credited back into our account.

The bank representative that we spoke to today said that the funds were “accidentally” pulled from our account.

So, if we did not do our own due diligence, the banking representative indicated that the bank’s internal auditing system would have picked up on the mistake . . . at some point.

In the mean time, we were unable to utilize those funds if and when they were needed.

No matter how digital we go with everything, we still need to pay close attention to what we do with our personal identity online and pay very close attention to our bank accounts and credit cards online.

No system is foolproof, and no system is exempt from “Garbage in ---> Garbage Out” (Wikipedia).

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 Rocking SBS 2008 Books!

For one, there is mine: :)

• Microsoft SBS 2008 Blueprint (SMB Nation)

A lot of the background to the “why” we do things the way we do in our SBS 2008 set up process can be found in the book. Note that if you want to have the book also signed by me, please pull the contact details from our site and we can arrange something to have me sign it too!

Between the book and this blog, you will have a pretty solid foundation to work from.

Besides my book, there are a few others that are very important for any SBSer to have:

• Eriq Neale’s SBS 2008 Unleashed (Amazon with Author’s reward tag)
• 
• David Overton’s SBS 2008 – Installation, Migration, and Configuration (Packt Publishing)
• 
• Craig Zacker: SBS 2008 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant (MS Press site)
• 
•  Charlie Russel and Sharon Crawford: SBS 2008 Administrator’s Companion (Amazon)
• 

With these books in hand, anyone new to SBS or even those of us that have been working with SBS for a while will be able to tap into an awesome knowledge pool right at our fingertips!

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

An Intel Modular Server Has Arrived Here

Recently, a lot of our posts have focused on the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 cluster that we prepared here in the shop. We went on to deliver and set up that cluster on site a little over a week a go.

Things have been going quite will there and they have noticed a _huge_ increase in their overall network and line of business application performance.

Since we were in close contact with a few key Intel folks during the whole configuration process we dropped the question about having an Intel Modular Server sent to us for demonstration purposes.

We have received a base demo unit that requires some tweaking as far as the setup is concerned before we can move forward with it.

Thanks to Colt Flitton at Intel that put us in touch with David Perez who is on the Intel Modular Server team. Between the two of them we received awesome guidance on working with the IMS product.

And now, we will have a demo IMS here in the shop for the next month courtesy of Intel!

We are hoping that time allows for the following things to happen with the IMS here in the shop:

• A series of cluster configuration LiveMeetings.
• The SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 live migration LiveMeeting.
• Got any ideas? :)

We are pretty excited to have the unit here and are looking forward to developing some good Hyper-V clustering resources while it is here!

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 Server Board S3420GP Board Mount Hole And CPU Cooling Fan Conflict

One of the mounting holes for the server board is located quite close to the CPU:

A quick look at the two holes for the CPU heatsink assembly leads one to observe that the hole where the screw goes may be hidden . . . or, at least it does after the fact:

This particular board has the various sockets and slots arranged quite differently than previous uniprocessor server boards.

Now, it is our preference to install the heatsink before the board is installed into the chassis. We have one half of a large Styrofoam 30 hard drive carrier tray that we use for the board to sit on while installing the heatsink.

We do this because there is a significant amount of down force required to seat the heatsink mounts which caused most boards to flex _a lot_ while sitting in the chassis.

It looks like we will not be able to do that for any of the servers we build on the Intel server board S3420GP series.

On the plus side, the new heatsink configuration that comes with the Intel Xeon Processor 3400 Series does not require that much force to install on the board.

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 Physical And Hyper-V – Set Up the Domain Time Structure

One of the things we discovered in our SBS Hyper-V based cluster deployment was the VM’s ability to time themselves all over the place.

In fact, the way we discovered the problem was through a total collapse of the just built production cluster.

SBS 2008 was installed and configured, the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 OSs were installed and configured, and all of our validation tests were run successfully.

We had the cluster online and were working on setting up the additional servers when things just stopped.

It turns out that time.windows.com is _not_ a reliable time source for one and the other is we needed to run a series of w32tm commands on each member of the domain in order for things to run properly.

On SBS 2008 or the PDCe:

• w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:pool.ntp.org /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes
• w32tm /config /update
• net stop w32time && net start w32time
• w32tm /resync /rediscover

Once the above commands have been run on SBS or the PDC, it may take a bit before the settings settle into place.

The following command will tell us what the time service is up to as far as where the machine is getting its time from:

• w32tm /query /source

On any other DCs the following needs to be run:

• w32tm /config /syncfromflags:domhier /reliable:no
• w32tm /config /update
• net stop w32time && net start w32time
• w32tm /resync /rediscover

On any member servers:

• w32tm /config /syncfromflags:domhier
• w32tm /config /update
• net stop w32time && net start w32time
• w32tm /resync /rediscover

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

Blog Question E-mail Link

A while back we did a bit of a shuffle of our e-mail accounts when we jumped on the Office 2010 Beta bandwagon.

Well, in that process, it seems that I missed reconfiguring the BlogQuestion@mpecsinc.ca account.

Going through that account I see some questions in there that I have not addressed.

I do apologize for that and will correct the e-mail setup here so that I do not miss another one.

And to those that have posted a question via the e-mail address, I will be responding to them!

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

Exchange 2007 Platforms, Editions, and Versions

This handy little set of tables gives us a quick at-a-glance view of the version/build numbers for Exchange 2007.

• TechNet: Exchange Server 2007: Platforms, Editions, and Versions

The document has not been updated yet for Exchange 2007 SP2 and SP2 with RU1 installed yet, but those numbers are to be found in the comments section.

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_4 Upgrade – Addendum – Uninstall and Reinstall Required

It looks like the last post on Practice CS was a bit too premature.

We needed to uninstall Practice CS 2009.2.3 from the server, reboot, and reinstall.

We ran into a problem with the mapped drive letter during the install of 2009.2.4. It refused to accept the mapped drive so we needed to use the UNC path \\SBS\Programs\WinCSi before we could get the product installed.

Once we did, we sent out an e-mail to the client update Setup.exe file and all was good to go:

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

Intel Modular Server – File Copy Performance From/To The Same Virtual Disk

As we are working our way through the implementation of the Intel Modular Server based Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 cluster, there are little things we have caught our eye here and there.

This is one of them:

The above is the tail end of of a content copy of various sized database files from a source folder into a subfolder to preserve the originals and keep them handy as a just-in-case.

The average copy speed was 130MB/Second as the copy process peaked at about 160MB/Second sustained for a good chunk of the copy process for a 3.2GB database file.

The Virtual Disk being used is sitting on four 146GB Seagate Savvio 15K.6 SAS drives. The RAID configuration for the Virtual Disk is RAID 10 across the four.

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 Really Good Windows 7 God Mode Hacks

Fellow MVP Tim Barrett has come up with a pretty good list of God Mode hacks here:

• NoGeekLeftBehind: Permanent Link to More Windows 7 God Mode Hacks

There are a lot of little things in the blog post that can be put together to improve a technician’s efficiency big time.

Check it out! :)

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

ExchangeDefender – Adding New Domains In ED5

As with any new setup, there will be hiccups.

For ExchangeDefender Service Providers, we would normally add a new client’s domain or domains via the SP console on OWN’s site.

With ED 5, we actually need to log on to the ED Admin panel, click the _Find_ button, then click the Add User/Domain wizard.

While the Add Wizard is still available in the SP Admin panel, it is the old wizard and not to be used.

Also, the script to run on the server must be downloaded via the new wizard as the content produced by the script has changed to an XML output as opposed to the old TXT file. The produced XML file can be uploaded directly into the Add wizard and parsed from there.

The link on the set up guide for the VBS is actually the old script and is not compatible with the wizard found in ED’s Admin page.

Once we had all of that straightened out, the new process is actually quite well done.

ExchangeDefender is our product of choice for e-mail hygiene and continuity.

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 Modular Server – Resolving Java Struggles – Install Firefox

Sometimes, we are so used to doing things a certain way, we get caught in a box.

This is one time where the struggles with the Java setup in the IMS console falls into that category.

Use another browser?!? ;)

Okay, so, Windows 7 with IE 8 was virtually impossible to get things working 100% without really working through the various security settings.

So, since we started using Firefox specifically for remotely managing Dell servers via the DRAC, it dawned that perhaps the issues we were having getting a KVM session up and running in IE would be resolved the same way.

They were resolved.

While this has improved our KVM connection experience, we are still running into the Session Ticket error (previous blog post). :(

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 Modular Server – Error – KVM Sensor – Invalid Session Ticket

While working on setting up the Nodes for this second test run, we ran into this:

Remote KVM Session

Establishing session. Please wait…

This would go on and on and on no matter which machine we were trying to connect from.

Looking in the logs we found:

KVM Session sensor – Invalid session ticket

Note the distinct lack of an exclamation mark to indicate what is essentially a serious problem. We lost the ability to create a KVM session with any of the Nodes.

Looking in the Events tab we found: 

A call into Intel brought about the following process:

1. Power down all Nodes in the IMS.
2. Reset the CMM module.
1. Click on the Chassis Back tab.
2. Click on the CMM module.
• 
3. Click on the Reset button under the Actions menu.
• 
4. Confirm the reset request.
5. Post reset, Power Off all of the Nodes.
6. Pull the A/C plugs on all of the power supplies.
7. Wait a couple of minutes for everything to power down.
8. Plug the A/C plugs back in.

We have the Nodes set to power up automatically in the BIOS after a power failure. So, the Nodes all came back up and we were relieved to see that we could make a KVM connection to each Node without the error happening.

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 Modular Server Hyper-V Cluster LiveMeeting In 10

We will run through some of the configuration processes that we went through to get the Intel Modular Server configured for a highly available Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 cluster.

We will have a highly available SBS 2008 VM as well as a Windows 7 Enterprise x64 VM running on the cluster to use for the Live Migration.

Where:

• LiveMeeting: IMS Config and Live Migration

There is also a link on our Web site.

We will try and record the LiveMeeting.

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 Modular Server Configuration and Live Migration LiveMeeting Tomorrow AM

Here is an invitation that has a little bit more lead time to it! ;)

We will run through some of the configuration processes that we went through to get the Intel Modular Server configured for a highly available Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 cluster.

We will have a highly available SBS 2008 VM as well as a Windows 7 Enterprise x64 VM running on the cluster to use for the Live Migration.

Where:

• LiveMeeting: IMS Config and Live Migration

When:

• January 15, 2010 at 0700Hrs Mountain Standard Time (GMT-7).

There is also a link on our Web site.

We will try and record the LiveMeeting.

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 – Speed Up That Reboot Script

A default out-of-the-box vanilla install of SBS 2008 RTM can take anywhere from 8-20 minutes to reboot depending on the hardware and disk I/O subsystem underneath the OS.

The following script will greatly improve those reboot times:

net stop msexchangeadtopology /y
net stop msftesql-exchange /y
net stop msexchangeis /y
net stop msexchangesa /y
net stop iisadmin /y

Please make sure to copy the above and paste it into Notepad to reveal any hidden errant characters inserted by the blogging service when this was posted.

Save the above into a batch file. When it comes time to reboot the server during updates, leave the Restart button and right click on the batch file and Run as Administrator.

Once the batch completes, which should only take a couple of minutes, click on the reboot button.

If the server needs to be rebooted and no Restart button is present, run the following after clicking Start:

• shutdown –r –t 0 –f [Enter]

That will initiate a restart of the server.

Here are the reboot times not using the script and using the script for reference:

• SBS 2008 RTM no SP2 fresh install VM:
• 1057Hrs – Initiate shutdown.
• 1107Hrs – System Off.
• 1110Hrs – CTRL + ALT + DLT
• Total Reboot Time: 13 minutes.
• Same VM using the service shutdown script:
• 1124Hrs – Initiate script.
• 1125Hrs – Initiate shutdown.
• 1127Hrs – System Off.
• 1128Hrs – CTRL + ALT + DLT
• Total Reboot Time: 4 minutes.

Indeed, there is a significant time difference!

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 fresh SBS 2008 Soon To Be Clustered VM Install And The AnswerFile

We just finished installing SBS 2008 into Hyper-V on the 1U management server that is a part of the Hyper-V clustering setup that will be installed at our client site starting tomorrow.

Once we have the cluster Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 nodes configured on the SBS 2008 domain, we will shut SBS 2008 down, export it, and import it to the cluster and make it highly available.

This is what the base OS install looks like after a successful install:

The above close to 14GB is before WSUS has had a chance to synchronize and start pulling down any updates too.

The SBS_AnswerFile.vhd is a 128MB VHD file created in Windows 7 (previous blog post) and attached to the secondary IDE controller on the newly created SBS VM setup in Hyper-V.

We mount the SBS 2008 OS ISO using Virtual CloneDrive (freebie – download site) on the Windows 7 machine and create the needed Answer File. From there, we save that Answer File to the SBS_AnswerFile.vhd.

We have tried mounting the VHD containing the Answer File via IDE and SCSI bus and have had no issue with either. The SBS 2008 set up routine sees the Answer File on either bus.

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 Public Folders – Changing A Root And Subfolder Permissions

One of our clients hired on a new person to work the front desk. This position involves managing the firm’s time data in Caseware Time.

Caseware Time, a proprietary time/billing management application, stores all of its shared data in an Exchange Public Folder.

So, we needed to add the new username and publish Owner permissions to the Today root folder and all subfolders under it.

To do this, we open the base folder’s properties in the Exchange System Management console. We add the username and set Owner permissions for it.

From there, we open PFDavAdmin (download page) and connect to the Public Folder store.

We then right click on the root Today folder and click Propagate Folder ACEs.

Tick the new username and make sure the Add/Replace radio button is chosen. Then, click OK and watch the changes being made:

Once done, the user will now have the necessary permissions to the folder.

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 Modular Server – Hyper-V Live Migration Success!

Apologies for the short notice for the Hyper-V Live Migration test LiveMeeting that we just ran!

However, it was a success! :)

We had a Windows 7 highly available VM on the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 cluster migrate live between nodes 2 and 1 on the Intel Modular Server cluster!

Some time was spent on the IMS configuration and a few of the hiccups we ran into getting to the point where we could run a successful test.

Thank you to all those that took out about 45 minutes of your day to check it out.

Unfortunately, it looks as though the recording cannot be posted due to a technical glitch! Chalk it up to a LiveMeeting n00b at the wheel. ;)

We will try and schedule another test run through with some background configuration pointers hopefully tomorrow.

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 Modular Server – Hyper-V Cluster Live Migration Test at 15:00Hrs

Well, we are going to give the Hyper-V cluster Live Migration feature a test run:

• LiveMeeting: Live Migration Test Run

We will start the process in 30 minutes. The meeting run is 30 minutes in length and will be recorded for later viewing.

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

SharePoint Designer 2010 Beta Error – Cannot Work On Sites Prior to SharePoint Server 2010.

After downloading the beta to check it out, we received the following when opening our SharePoint based Web site:

Microsoft SharePoint Designer

Microsoft SharePoint Designer cannot be used to edit web sites on servers prior to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. To edit these sites, you need to use SharePoint Designer 2007.

Well, we can get it here: SharePoint Designer 2007 Download.

SharePoint Designer 2007 is now a free download.

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 Modular Server – Hyper-V Cluster – Want to See A Live Migration?

As we get ready to flatten the current first test run setups on the 1U management server and the Intel Modular Server itself, we will be doing a second test run at getting things set up starting tomorrow.

Once we have everything up and running as we expect, we will be running a couple of Live Migration attempts with an SBS OS based VM and a Windows 7 based VM.

Tentative time will be this coming Wednesday morning.

Please comment if that works.

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 Modular Server – CMM Firmware Update To v5.5 Just Released

It seems that v5.0, which was released in mid October, is being updated as of yesterday January 8, 2010.

Version 5.5 of the Intel Modular Server firmware has been released.

• Intel Modular Server Firmware Update Package for CMM v5.5

Now, if the above link does not work as it does of this writing, then go to the Intel Download Finder site and punch in MFSYS25 to gain access to the latest updates for the IMS.

One of the changes contained within v5.5 is MFS5520VI compute module compatibility for the Intel Westmere 32nm CPU (PDF link).

From the PDF:

The CMM version must be v5.5 before inserting an MFS5520VI compute module into the chassis.

Since we already have two Storage Control Modules (SCM) installed, we need not be concerned with the caveats to installing this update.

We will run this update after everything has been flattened in anticipation of our second test run.

For those running, or planning to run, RedHat Enterprise Linux, note the following from the Release Notes (TXT file link):

RedHat* Enterprise Linux 5 Update 4 Dual SCM Support – This release provides support for dual SCM configurations running the RedHat* Enterprise Linux 5 Update 4 operating system. A clean installation of the RedHat* Enterprise Linux 5 Update 4 operating system is required to support dual SCM configurations.

Note the need for an OS reinstall in order to pick up the ability to utilize both Storage Control Modules in RedHat Enterprise Linux.

Intel Download site Tip:

When the search results come up, change the sorting order from Relevance to Date:

Sorting everything via date makes it easy to see what has changed since the last time we visited the site.

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 Modular Server – A Hyper-V Failover Cluster Is Born

Well, we now have a failover cluster running on our Intel Modular Server as of late last night:

This morning will be spent running through creating a high availability VM and running some failover tests.

Not too much time will be spent on that as the entire setup, both the Intel Modular Server and the 1U SR1630HGP management server will be flattened in order to start a second test run.

The second run will give us the ability to lay out our steps in a much more logical order along with evaluating how we are going to set things up differently this time.

We are going to try and get three test runs in before needing to put the actual production setup together.

So far, so good! :)

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

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 – Error Applying New Virtual Network Changes – Binding failed . . . because it is already bound to another virtual network

UPDATE 2011-07-09: The Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 (Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1) fix is here:

• MPECS Inc. Blog: Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 – Error Applying New Virtual Network Changes – SP1 Specific Fix

This one was a bit weird. We went to bind a virtual switch to one of the Node’s NICs with the binding process getting hung up.

Eventually, we had an empty Virtual Network Manager as that was the first External virtual network we were creating.

So, we went to try again, but ended up with this:

Virtual Network Manager

Binding to the external ethernet (sic) ‘Intel® 82575EB Gigabit Network Connection #2’ failed.

Cannot bind to ‘Intel® 82575EB Gigabit Network Connection #2’ because it is already bound to another virtual network.

Ouch. In our initial searches for the solution, we came up with reinstall the OS.

But, we turned up this gem:

• Nathan Lasnoski: Hyper-V Server R2 - Virtual Switch- Error applying new virtual network changes

The commands to run at the command prompt to fix the problem are as follows:

1. netcfg -u vms_pp [Enter]
2. netcfg -l c:\windows\winsxs\amd64_wvms_pp.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_beda85050b13680c\wvms_pp.inf -c p -i vms_pp
   • After this command, flip over to the console and check the network settings. They should look like:
   • 
3. In Hyper-V Manager, remove any External Virtual Networks in Hyper-V Management for the affected Node or Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 server.
4. From the Hyper-V Management system, run a ping from the command line to verify what IP address is being used to connect to the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Node or box.
5. If the IP being used is incorrect:
   1. Change the DNS setting on the DC to the correct one. In this case it is 192.168.150.248.
   2. IPConfig /FlushDNS [Enter]
   3. ping hyper-v [Enter}
      • This result should be the correct IP.
6. If correct, create the External Virtual Networks needed in Hyper-V Manager.

Please make sure to copy and paste step 2 into notepad just in case the blogging service inserted any errant hidden characters.

Once we had a successful External Virtual Network configuration, our console looked like:

We then had the extra two NICs on all three nodes bound to an External Virtual Network with the Allow management operating system to share this network adapter not checked. With that, we had the configuration we needed to move forward.

We are now ready to run our what is hopefully our last Validate a Configuration test in the Failover Clustering Manager!

Thank you to fellow MVP  Mikael Nystrom (his blog) for his input on the NIC setup!

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

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Some Hyper-V Live Migration Thoughts and Resources

The new Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 allows for Live Migrations out of the box since it is based on the Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise operating system.

In the case of our Intel Modular Server based Hyper-V cluster, the Live Migration feature allows us to run routine maintenance tasks on each node in the cluster without disturbing the production network environment the VMs are servicing.

For instance, if the SBS 2008 VM is currently running on Node 1, we can live migrate the VM over to Node 2 and then run updates against the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 OS on Node 1 with the requisite reboot.

Once the updates have completed and our last reboot was behind us we could live migrate that SBS 2008 VM and any other VMs running on Node 2 over to Node 1 and run the update routine on Node 2 and eventually on any other nodes in the cluster.

Now, it is important to note that the Live Migration feature is only available to nodes within a Failover Cluster that are connected to shared storage. We cannot take a VM running on the 1U SR1630HGP management server Hyper-V Role and live migrate it over to the cluster.

This is a pretty neat feature for a _free_ product like Hyper-V Server 2008 R2!

• Microsoft Downloads: Download details- Hyper-V Live Migration Overview & Architecture
• TechNet: Demo - Hyper-V Server and Live Migration Media TechNet Edge
• Windows Virtualization Team Blog - HYPER-V QUICK MIGRATION & VMWARE
• Virtualization Team: Videos on the new version of Hyper V and Hyper V Server
• TechNet: Hyper-V- Using Live Migration with Cluster Shared Volumes in Windows
• Hyper-V Live Migration vs. Quick Migration Virtualization Team
• Bing Search: Hyper-V Live Migration

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

IMS KVM Java Pain

Okay, so Java is a bit of a pain when working with the Intel Modular Server’s console.

When the Windows 7 VM was not joined to a domain, we could not get the KVM function to work in IE8 even after adding the MSC site to the Trusted Sites list and lowering the security setting as low as it could go.

Once the Windows 7 VM was joined to the SBS 2008 domain running on top of Hyper-V on the 1U SR1630HGP management server, we could gain access to the Java based KVM feature without messing with any IE8 settings.

But, it sure can be a frustrating odyssey to get things going on a freshly built Windows 7 VM!

We installed Java from a relatively recent download. It turned out to be 1.5.0_18.

When we went to start a new KVM session in the MSC, we were greeted with:

Message from webpage

Sorry, this browser is using Java(tm) version 1.5.0_18. Remote KVM requires version 1.6.0 or higher. Please download the latest version from http://www.java.com

Okay, so we do so.

We install the newer version then go to open a new KVM session in the MSC and we are greeted with:

Um, but . . . we installed the correct version?!?

Head into Programs and Features and here is what we see:

Apparently, it would have been a good idea to uninstall the earlier version of Java first!

So, thinking that we can quickly get into what we needed to do, we uninstalled the earlier version without reinstalling the newer version first. We then tried to initiate a KVM session and:

Long story short, uninstall the old version _before_ installing the new one. And, make sure all browser sessions are closed before installing the updated version too.

We ended up needing to uninstall _all_ versions of Java, rebooting, and deleting all IE browsing history with no joy. We kept getting the above Java requirement error. In this case we were using the offline installer file.

So, we tried going to the Java site and running the bootstrap installer instead. That seemed to work as far as getting Java recognized as installed in the browser via the Java test available on the site.

One thing to make note of when a fresh Windows 7 management system is set up is to make sure that the IMS’s Modular Server Control (MSC) is added to the Trusted Sites list before the KVM functionality will work.

And from there:

Make sure that the Trusted Sites setting is Medium-low. Then we get:

We now have our KVM session open and available.

Previous post: Intel Modular Server – Enable KVM Access Via MSC For IE8 On Windows 7

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

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 OS Storage Usage And Our IMS Storage Group Structure

We are looking at just how much storage space to allocate to the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 operating system.

This is the chkdsk on one of the Hyper-V nodes:

Note that the above was taken after completing all needed updates to the operating system.

In our Windows 7 management VM with all three nodes set up in an MMC console:

Now, the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 system requirements (product page) mention something about a minimum of 8GB of storage for the OS. 20GB or more is the recommended amount of storage.

Well, after updates we already have 17GB of storage allocated to the OS. So, our initial estimate of 45GB for the Hyper-V OS may be a bit too large, but anything smaller than 25GB may end up pinching us in the long run too.

So, we will look to configuring our second Hyper-V cluster set up test run with the following Storage Group layout:

1. SG 1: OSs
2. SG 2: SQL Dbs, NetworkData
3. SG 3: SQL logs, SwapFiles

Now, how we divvy the Storage Groups up across the 8 146GB 15K SAS drives we have available to us now becomes the next question.

This is our original, that is first cluster test run, Storage Group layout:

One thing we hit the wall on was the need for desktop OS virtual disks.

We are fortunate to have some good contacts at Intel that have been helping us out with information and answers to some of the tougher questions that we need answers to.

One of the answers back from Intel was an outline of how storage on the IMS should be treated. Essentially, just like any SAN should be. So, we are in the process of learning how various software vendors recommend their products be set up on a SAN.

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 Modular Server – Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Cluster Disks Now Live

Figuring out the shared virtual disk structure was a bit of a task.

But, the Failover Cluster Management verification wizard is now showing a sea of green:

Now that we have the shared storage structure worked out, the next step will be to verify how to configure the extra NICs for the VMs as the Verification wizard is complaining about too many NICs on the same subnet.

But, we will leave that for another day. :)

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 Modular Server – Hyper-V Cluster NIC Setup

We need at least three NICs to get our cluster up and running. As we understand things, the cluster can be configured on a 2 NIC setup, but this is not optimal.

1. NIC 1: Internal IP address for management.
2. NIC 2: Cluster communication.
3. NIC 3+: Dedicated to VMs.

Here are some screenshots of our configuration.

Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module 1:

Note that VLAN designated 99 will be for cluster communication and remain internal only (TBD). We still are not 100% clear on whether we need a physical switch for this part yet.

Ethernet Ports 1 through 10, which are the external ports, are mapped to VLAN 1. The management and VM NICs 2 through 4 are mapped to them.

Gigabit Ethernet Switch 2:

All available internal ports for NICs 3 and 4 are mapped to the external ports.

Now, the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 OS has not necessarily picked up the NIC mapping as we would expect:

Note that Node 3 has not had the cluster subnet assigned to it yet as the IP is still 169.254.96.93.

Once we have all of the IPs in place, we will domain join the three Nodes.

From there, we have the Failover Cluster Management (TechNet article on Server 2008 clustering A+) feature installed on the separate 1U that we will use to run the Validate a Configuration Wizard.

Then we will hopefully discover where in our configuration we are lacking the proper configuration structures.

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 2003 to SBS 2008 Swing Migration

Up to now we have been using the Microsoft method for migrating existing SBS 2003 to SBS 2008. For all intents and purposes, this method has worked quite well for us.

We are now in a position with one of our clients, yesterday’s recovery (previous blog post), where we need to expedite their migration, but need to do so with minimal interruption to their operations and our own.

So, we are looking to run a Swing Migration for this particular case. We are doing so because the Swing method allows us to run most of the migration here in the shop while our client remains totally productive.

This in turn allows us to work on the processes as time permits and then insert the newly migrated SBS 2008 into their production network with minimal impact on their productivity and minimal need for on-site time.

Click on the Swing Migration category (blog category link) to read about some of our experiences with the method.

From migrating SBS 2003 onto new hardware or off existing hardware and back on again, the Swing method is an awesome way to bring about change on a production network with minimal impact on our clients.

The Swing method has also been instrumental in providing the resources and abilities to bring back SBS catastrophic failures seemingly from the dead and most importantly providing us with the _confidence_ to bring those networks back.

We strongly recommend that any IT technician working with SBS have an SBSMigration.com subscription to augment the needed skills to migrate and recover SBS networks.

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

Tired Hardware Costs ... Big Time

I am sitting in front of a ShadowProtect Recovery Environment screen in the process of recovering an SBS 2003 box.

The box is about four years old and has seen better days.

Fortunately, our client has a new box scheduled to be migrated in with SBS 2008 now sooner than later. This is important because this is the second major recovery in seven months!

Unfortunately, our client is a non-profit that has seen a decline in their revenues via donations as well as from our governments. Thus they really needed to dig to come up with the funds to replace their ailing server.

It is understandable, at least in this type of situation, that there is a need to stretch the IT dollar as far as it will go.

But, for corporations to small IT providers this should not be the case.

Why?

Because, the hidden cost of older hardware is to be found in hardware downtime as well as in employees losing productivity waiting for their day to day tasks to be accomplished.

Having a two to three year refresh cycle for hardware should be an important part of any company's budgeting.

For the IT provider, like attracts like. That is, there is a tangible difference to a business prospect between someone trying to sell them something they never use and someone that brings the product or solution to the prospect and runs through some of the key points. The prospect can identify with and get excited about what it will do for their business.

And finally, we are fortunate that our client saw the value in the ShadowProtect license. The OS partition is nearly done with the swap file and data partitions left to go. There is a lot of data here, so I will be sitting here, or kibitzing with the folks for another couple of hours.

Thanks for reading!

Philip

Sent from my SBS Integrated Windows Mobile® phone ... And no, there was no 2016!
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Exchange 2007 SP2 On SBS Time

We completed a SP2 install using the SBS wrapper.

The time it took was about 50 minutes.

The SBS 2008 was running as a VM on Hyper-V with two vCPUs assigned. It was a fresh install with no real users or production based configuration yet.

The hardware was a single Xeon Processor 3400 series with a hardware RAID 5 disk setup.

It looks as though this service pack will take _a long_ time to install depending on the hardware configuration, number of mailboxes, and other factors.

Keep this in mind when scheduling for the update.

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 Modular Server – Installing the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 OS On Multiple Compute Modules

Once we had our storage configured for our OS installation, the next task is to get the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 operating system installed onto their Virtual Disk partitions.

In the Modular Server Control’s Servers node click on the first Compute Module then click on the Remote KVM & CD (previous blog post) button under the Actions menu:

Once the KVM session comes up, click on the Device menu then on the Redirect ISO menu item:

An Open dialogue box will come up. We placed the necessary ISOs on the 1U management server to start with to give maximum bandwidth to the installation routines.

Do this for each subsequent Compute Module. Do not close the KVM sessions, just minimize them for now.

In the Modular Server Control we can then power up all of the Compute Modules simultaneously using the Power On/Off Multiple Servers under the Global Actions menu.

Note that the simultaneous access of the same ISO was a bit of a struggle. Here’s why:

Java keeps choking and causing the ISO redirect to fail or the outright loss of the KVM session. :(

Initial Cluster Management

The desktop that we are using to connect to the clustered network and 1U management server a desktop OS installed on one of our own Hyper-V servers. We plugged one of the VM dedicated NICs into the same switch as the Intel Modular Server and the 1U management server.

Any PC or laptop will do, but for us it has been a bit simpler to work at one of our workbench systems and use our Hyper-V VM as a way to keep things isolated.

A bonus to the process is the ability to delete the VM and its VHD when finished to wipe any references to our client’s configuration.

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