Olympic Fever - On-Site!

I am setting up a laptop on-site for a client's new user that starts on Monday.

Monitor 2 has the Canadian curling gold medal match along with the four man bobsleigh running two video streams.

Our Canadian media group that includes CTV has had _constant_ Olympic coverage with virtually no in-play commercials. We have four or five HD channels available on the tube as well as online. They have done a phenomenal job with the coverage!

Go Canada Go! :D

Philip

Sent from my SBS Integrated Windows Mobile® phone.
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Live Webinars – When Is Good For You?

Please take a moment to fill out the following poll on our Web site:

• MPECS Inc Site Survey: Online Webinars

In an effort to give as many folks as possible the ability to be a part of our upcoming live Webinars, we would like to know when would be the best time to do so.

Please let us know what time is good and also whereabouts you are in the world so that we can begin planning our upcoming Webinar Schedule.

We have done some live Webinars for South Africa, Ireland, and India. So, if enough folks from any given region respond, we will make the effort to be present at a time convenient to you!

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

Excellent Virus Information Site Along With Links To Free Tools

This link comes by way of Harry Waldron (blog link).

• VirusIntel.com

The resources on this site are absolutely amazing! The links to free tools that can be used to detect and clean almost any type of virus or malware infection are priceless.

This is one site to bookmark and it even has an RSS link for the reader!

Thanks Harry! :)

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

Set Up The AutoDesk Vault On SQL Server 2008

When configuring a server ahead of time to host a full version SQL database, one very important piece of information needs to be followed when configuring that first SQL instance:

The instance name needs to be AUTODESKVAULT. If the instance has a different name, then the AutoDesk management server installation will want to install its own SQL Express instance.

Since this particular client needs a full version of SQL due to the size of their database, we need that full version instance available when we are running the setup routine.

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

Olympic Video Streaming Bandwidth Impact?

Wow …

The above screenshot Snip was in a support session where the bank that their client deals with has tweaked something so that IE7 and IE8 can no longer connect.

So, the download of Firefox is on its way, but look at that speed! Our client’s site has a 3Mb ADSL connection.

We have downloaded drivers from ATI and nVidia as well as from Intel’s site and we are seeing a huge impact on bandwidth here at the shop.

Our pipe is a 6Mb ADSL connection with the CO being less than 300m away so we typically see 675-725KB/Sec download speeds.

This is what one download looks like from Intel’s site:

Perhaps the problem is localized to the Greater Edmonton Area (our client’s site is on the South Side) as the Canadian Women’s Curling team is currently playing and they just happen to be from Alberta!

Here is what the Internet Traffic Report site is reporting:

Hopefully this condition disappears at some point since the Women’s Hockey gold match between Team USA and Team Canada is later this afternoon and there will be no doubt that most of Canada will either be streaming the game or sitting in front of the HD TV!

We are hoping for the latter as we plan to close up shop early today!

Go Canada 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

Installing SQL 2008 on Windows Server 2008 R2

There are a couple of small caveats when installing SQL Server 2008 on top of the Windows Server 2008 R2 OS.

One is that we need to make sure that the .NET Framework 3.5 is installed _before_ we run setup:

• Microsoft KB 955725: List of known issues when you install SQL Server on Windows 7 or on Windows Server 2008 R2

The other caveat came up when we ran the initial SQL setup routine:

The routine wanted a restart before we got to installing the actual SQL bits.

Oh, and one more thing. Make sure to download the appropriate SQL 2008 service pack and have it ready to install once all of the SQL instances are installed.

During the install, SQL will test the firewall setup to make sure the appropriate ports are available:

Specifically:

• MSDN: Configuring the Windows Firewall to Allow SQL Server Access

In our case, our needed instance port will be 1433 TCP and then the required SQL Browser service port of 1434 UDP:

In this case we have an SBS 2003 R2 Premium site that requires a dedicated SQL instance for their AutoCAD Vault setup. But, the management portion of the software is unable to be installed on SBS 2003.

So, we needed another box with SQL. Unfortunately, the client was not willing to go much beyond dropping in a budget Windows Server 2008 R2 box with SQL licenses for the needed number of users at this point.

So, we now have the needed SQL setup in place to get things up and running.

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

Windows Server 2008 R2 With Hyper-V Spontaneous Reboots _After_ Nehalem Update – Binding Order

One of the benefits of spending time with my fellow MVPs at the Microsoft MVP Global Summit was the ability to talk to so many different product group MVPs.

In one conversation, there was talk about the “why” a server would spontaneously combust _after_ the Hyper-V Nehalem patch was applied.

• MS Knowledgebase 975530: Stop error message on an Intel Xeon 5500 series processor-based computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 and that has the Hyper-V role installed: "0x00000101 - CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT"

A clustering MVP, whose name unfortunately cannot be recalled at the moment, made it clear that the binding order on the Hyper-V box, whether in a cluster or not, must be ordered correctly.

Now, for those of us familiar with SBS 2003 Premium RTM/R2 with ISA, one of the critical post OS and ISA steps was to check the NIC binding order to make sure that the LAN NIC came before the ISA NIC.

On one of our servers that we put together has been randomly rebooting so we checked the bindings and this is what we found:

Note that the NIC that has the Hyper-V Virtual Switch bound to it is _before_ the LAN NIC!

So, we rearrange the order so that the NICs look like the following:

Once we have done the above, we rebooted the server. We should now see a stable server 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

Home Theatre and Media PC In An Antec Mini Skeleton-90

We put together a Mini-ITX system for one of our clients to use as a Media Center PC. The system was configured as follows:

• Intel Desktop Board DG45FC Mini-ITX (product site)
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz CPU
• 4GB (2x 2GB) Kinston RAM
• 320GB 2.5” SATA drive
• LG Blu-ray ROM/DVDRW Combination Drive
• Antec Mini Skeleton-90

The system looks really kewl:

Note the hard drive sitting on its side on the right hand side of the chassis above.

And:

We put it together using some components that we had on the shelf so we were able to provide our client with a really neat system pretty quick as their 5 year old clone had died.

Their comment was pretty neat too. They thought it looked like a space ship!

Obviously no drinks allowed anywhere near the system. :)

There are some pretty neat chassis options out there right now and this is one of them. They give us an edge when folks are looking at replacing an existing system.

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

So Just How Long Does it Take To BitLocker To Go a 1.5TB USB Hard Disk?

_A Long Time_ !!

As an experiment, we began a BitLocker To Go encryption process on a 1.5TB USB external hard disk.

The process was initiated last night, ran until this morning, then ran all day while we were in session.

This is where the process is at after resuming it about 15 minutes ago:

The moral of the story? An eSATA version would be _a lot_ faster than this! Though it too would take a long time.

Total time to get to the above percentage? Probably somewhere in the neighbourhood of 18 hours so far!

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

The Power Of A Little Preparation

So, here I am sitting in Edmonton International Airport. I pulled out the MacBook Pro and got ready to plug in the USB Internet stick after the MacBook finished booting.

But, no joy?!?

When I hit the power button on the MacBook, it did not power up . . . at all.

So, out came BoeHueemuth (Monster Truck name in a Quentin Terentino movie), the Tecra S10. It fired up okay and I was able to catch some of the women’s hockey while waiting for my flight to be called.

I got a few very surprised looks when a shorthanded goal was scored due to my overly enthusiastic, but whispered, “YES”! ;)

Then, while on the flight, I pulled out the Zone HD to have a listen to some tunes that fit what I was thinking about. It lasted about three songs before _it_ died!

Yikes!

Okay, so the MacBook was the result of leaving it on after running some updates, getting distracted, and moving on to other things. That killed the battery as it sat in its spot for quite a while before being picked up for this trip.

The Zune HD was used a lot without being plugged in to recharge and there was no thought to check the battery before leaving.

Being prepared, whether it is for a trip like yesterday’s, or for a job that we are about to undertake, or even for a proposal presentation to a prospective client is absolutely critical to our success.

Fortunately getting caught with the dead devices was not the end of the world, but it could have been really bad if I did not have the BoeHueemuth with me and I sat there in the airport feeling absolutely lost without any Olympic coverage! 8-0

Go Canada 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

Exchange 2007 Error – Mail submission failed: Error message: The SMTP host was not specified

We are helping out a consultant that is working with a new client that had a previous IT company drop a $15K box down and configure it with ADDS and Exchange … sorta.

For some reason, e-mail stopped flowing at 05:00Hrs this morning.

We ran the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant and this is what it found:

So, we dug into the Exchange Management Console and this is what we found:

No send connector.

So, we went through and created a new Send Connector:

Gave it a name:

Define the Address space:

This is the result of the above setting:

We left the default for Network settings:

We also left the default for the Source Server:

The overview for the New Connector:

Once the send connector was created, e-mail started to flow as expected.

The box is running Windows Server 2008 with Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, File Services, and Exchange 2007.

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

Error – FormMaster CCH Instant Update Can’t Connect Behind ISA

One of our client’s proprietary applications called FormMaster has a built-in update feature.

Whenever they ran the update, it refused to connect to the CCH server, or go anywhere beyond the initial connection

In the ISA live query, the following would be seen from the XP Pro client in the log:

1. XP –> CCH IP –> Destination Port 80 –> HTTP –> Internal –> External
2. XP –> SBS IP –> Destination Port 1745 –> TCP Unknown –> Internal –> Local Host

Enabling SOCKS proxy settings in the application in any combination would not work.

A call into CCH support ended up getting us the setting we needed to make things work:

Make sure the correct customer number, postal code, and phone number are in place.

Check the Override Default Server Information and set the port number to 8093. Leave the Server Name field blank.

Click OK, then click the Next button to initiate the connection to the server and we will see:

Once the scan for files has finished, we will see:

Once the files are downloaded, the original CCH program will need to be closed before the updates can run or the following error will happen:

After closing the application and clicking OK, the updates ran 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

Windows XP Mode Error – Cannot start virtual application – The application is blocked from running as a virtual application

After a series of automatic updates to the XP Mode VM, the user came in this morning to get the following error after double clicking on the application’s shortcut on their desktop:

Windows XP Mode – Windows Virtual PC

In this case, the IE7 icon had become disassociated with the VM’s IE7. This seems to be a consistent experience where the user creates a shortcut on their desktop to an app hosted in XP Mode.

To “fix” the issue, delete the desktop shortcut and put a new one in place from the XP Mode Applications list on the Start Menu.

On rare occasions, we have needed to log onto the XP Mode VM itself and reseat the updated application’s shortcut icon in the All Users Programs folder with a copy and paste over the original.

Once the XP Mode Applications folder on the Windows 7 machine refreshed itself, we were able to recreate the shortcut on the desktop and the user 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

Our Recent Intel Modular Server Configuration For Clustering – Part Numbers For Ordering

The Intel Modular Server that we used to generate our most recent clustering blog posts had three nodes, dual Xeon E5530 CPUs, and 24GB of RAM per node.

• Blog Category: Intel Modular Server

The following tool can be used to customize the IMS for a particular need:

• Intel Server Configurator

The exact configuration with the necessary product codes can be found in a PDF generated from the Intel Server Configurator on our Web site here:

• MPECS Inc. Blog Downloads Site

It’s a little easier to manage the content of the site using SharePoint versus the SkyDrive setup. So, we will be migrating content from the SkyDrive onto our new SharePoint site.

The PDF page 1:

And page 2:

We use Kingston RAM because we have had a lot of success with their product and a virtually hassle free experience with their RMA process. We use Seagate SAS drives because we have had an overall excellent success rate with them.

We will hopefully have all of the components we need to get a cluster up and running on the demo Intel Modular Server that Intel has sent us in time for my coming back from the Microsoft 2010 MVP Global Summit!

When we do, we will schedule up a series of Webinars that will cover the various aspects of the cluster setup from the hardware configuration through to the software 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

Technology Nostalgia – A working 300 baud Modem Video

History can teach us a lot.

This video, is _really_ neat.

While my own computing days started in the late 1980s, there are many folks that we communicate with that have been around technology for a long time.

One of those, “. . . remember when . . .” moments.

 

Kewl … :)

Feedback request: Since this is our first post of something like this, please let us know if this is something you like, or not.

• Poll: More Nostalgia posts or not?

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

HP LaserJet 1022n on Windows 7 – Spooler Event ID 1000 – Application Error

We just recently delivered a number of Acer laptops that we installed Intel 160GB SSDs and a fresh install of Windows 7 Enterprise x64.

Today, one of the users called and said that she could not print anything. No printers were showing as available in Printers and Devices either.

This is what we found in the laptop’s event logs:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Application Error
Date:          2/10/2010 2:38:53 PM
Event ID:      1000
Task Category: (100)
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      PC.SBSDomain.LAN
Description:
Faulting application name: spoolsv.exe, version: 6.1.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5bd3d1
Faulting module name: ZSR.dll, version: 6.20.1625.0, time stamp: 0x462fe8cf
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000000000002b54c
Faulting process id: 0x9ac
Faulting application start time: 0x01caaa996ad83bde
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\spool\DRIVERS\x64\3\ZSR.dll
Report Id: ae6d4995-168c-11df-b80b-00262d5be3db
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

Anytime the Spooler Service was restarted and a print job or even a right click on a printer happened the service would die.

To fix this, we needed to figure out which printer was causing the problem between the two HPs configured.

One was an HP LaserJet 4345MFP which we have had no real issues with since day 1 and it has been running for 3 years.

The other was an HP LaserJet 1022n printer. Unplug the printer and plug it back in again and nothing changed.

So, we needed to somehow clean it out of the system and reinstall it.

So, we started by cleaning out the driver in Print Management:

Once we removed the driver, unplugging and plugging the printer’s USB cable did nothing to bring it back.

For this particular printer, HP only has the USB based Windows 7 x64 drivers which also installs a bunch of superfluous printer utilities. So, we ran the USB installer, found the temporary folder here.

• C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Temp\HPInstaller???\

We copied the contents out and used the Add Driver wizard in Print Management to install the driver.

Even then, the printer would show up in the Printers and Devices as _Unspecified_. When we went into the Device Manager, we did not see it listed there though which was really strange.

We needed to click on View and Show Hidden Devices before the printer showed up.

Once we saw it, we right clicked on it and clicked on Uninstall to remove the printer without enabling the driver delete option.

Unplug the USB cable and plug it back in again and we were good to go:

One thing to note, once we removed the LJ 1022n driver, and recycled the Spooler service, a print job could be run through to the LJ 4345MFP. So, if the user was in a real pinch for something, they would at least been able to print their content before we went further in our troubleshooting and eventual reinstall of the LJ 1022n.

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

Automating the Windows Home Server Backup for the WHS?

One of the little surprises that we have run across with WHS is the inability to schedule a backup of the WHS unit itself!

We plugged in a large USB hard drive to back things up with, and ended up running into a roadblock when looking through the WHS Console and all of the settings locations for a backup scheduler.

This is a bit of an odd puzzle since the unit is supposed to be a _server_ for home use! :(

So, to get a scheduled backup, we need to go to a third party tool set and configure a key stroke macro to run via the Task Scheduler.

No sense reinventing the wheel, so have a look at the following instruction set on where to get the tool and how to configure it on WHS to get a “scheduled” backup:

• MediaSmartServer.Net: Automating the Windows Home Server Shared Folder Backup

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

Mental Health Day

We have been running at 110% for two and a half months straight with many very _long_ days.

Time to take a bit of a break and spend some time with my family.

Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for reading! :)

Philip

Sent from my SBS Integrated Windows Mobile® phone.
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Intel DQ45EK BIOS Update Available

A while back we posted about a hiccup with the Intel Desktop Board DQ45EK where we could not get an OS installed (previous post) with 4GB of RAM (2x 2GB) installed.

After a _lot_ of troubleshooting, it turned out to be the BIOS. We backed the BIOS off and were greeted with an OS load and the type of system response times we would expect from that configuration.

Intel has released a new version of the BIOS, version 0115. The problematic version was 0111 with the downgraded version we used being 0109.

• Intel DownloadFinder: DQ45EK

We will begin testing the setup to see if the new BIOS indeed resolves the problem.

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

Bitten By The Broken Microsoft Licensing Site :(

We just renewed … well, attempted to renew our Open Value licensing and this is what happens when we click the eAgreement link in the e-mail:

The last agreement we put together for a client was a bit of a nightmare to make happen. We ended up needing to get all of the forms signed manually.

An e-mail has been fired off to our Microsoft licensing contacts at our supplier asking for those forms so we don’t waste any time troubleshooting the process, or waiting on hold for eons, with Microsoft. :(

We already tried Windows 7 IE8, Windows XP Pro and IE 7, and a few other tricks. Even Firefox didn’t come through for us this time!

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

So, Just How Fast? 160GB X25-M Versus 250GB WD SATA – Both In Acer TM6592 Series

For comparison’s sake, we did the following tests on Acer TravelMate TM6592 series laptops with a fresh install of Windows 7 Enterprise x64 OS. Both laptops have the same CPU and RAM configuration as well as BIOS version.

This TM6592 is using the factory installed 250GB Western Digital WD2500BEVS SATA hard disk:

C:\Windows\system32>winsat disk
Windows System Assessment Tool
> Running: Feature Enumeration ''
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: Storage Assessment '-seq -read -n 0'
> Run Time 00:00:15.74
> Running: Storage Assessment '-ran -read -n 0'
> Run Time 00:00:13.56
> Running: Storage Assessment '-scen 2009 -drive C:'
> Run Time 00:01:26.55
> Running: Storage Assessment '-seq -write -drive C:'
> Run Time 00:00:13.29
> Running: Storage Assessment '-flush -drive C: -seq'
> Run Time 00:00:08.55
> Running: Storage Assessment '-flush -drive C: -ran'
> Run Time 00:00:13.01
> Running: Storage Assessment '-hybrid -ran -read -n 0 -ransize 4096'
NV Cache not present.
> Run Time 00:00:00.09
> Running: Storage Assessment '-hybrid -ran -read -n 0 -ransize 16384'
NV Cache not present.
> Run Time 00:00:00.05
> Disk  Sequential 64.0 Read                  44.80 MB/s          5.2
> Disk  Random 16.0 Read                     1.25 MB/s          3.5
> Responsiveness: Average IO Rate         5.79 ms/IO          5.1
> Responsiveness: Grouped IOs               13.61 units          6.3
> Responsiveness: Long IOs                   21.19 units          6.1
> Responsiveness: Overall                     288.42 units          6.0
> Responsiveness: PenaltyFactor                0.0
> Disk  Sequential 64.0 Write                 54.38 MB/s          5.5
> Average Read Time with Sequential Writes  7.824 ms       5.1
> Latency: 95th Percentile                     15.855 ms          4.9
> Latency: Maximum                             40.617 ms          7.9
> Average Read Time with Random Writes   8.321 ms         4.9
> Total Run Time 00:02:32.26

This TM6592 is using a second generation Intel X25-M 160GB SSD:

C:\>winsat disk
Windows System Assessment Tool
> Running: Feature Enumeration ''
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: Storage Assessment '-seq -read -n 0'
> Run Time 00:00:04.41
> Running: Storage Assessment '-ran -read -n 0'
> Run Time 00:00:00.36
> Running: Storage Assessment '-scen 2009 -drive C:'
> Run Time 00:01:20.96
> Running: Storage Assessment '-seq -write -drive C:'
> Run Time 00:00:07.86
> Running: Storage Assessment '-flush -drive C: -seq'
> Run Time 00:00:01.19
> Running: Storage Assessment '-flush -drive C: -ran'
> Run Time 00:00:01.19
> Running: Storage Assessment '-hybrid -ran -read -n 0 -ransize 4096'
NV Cache not present.
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: Storage Assessment '-hybrid -ran -read -n 0 -ransize 16384'
NV Cache not present.
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Disk  Sequential 64.0 Read                263.91 MB/s          7.6
> Disk  Random 16.0 Read                   243.05 MB/s          7.9
> Responsiveness: Average IO Rate       4.29 ms/IO          5.7
> Responsiveness: Grouped IOs            16.37 units          4.6
> Responsiveness: Long IOs                 100.06 units          1.9
> Responsiveness: Overall                   1638.23 units          1.9
> Responsiveness: PenaltyFactor                1.0
> Disk  Sequential 64.0 Write                 99.40 MB/s          6.5
> Average Read Time with Sequential Writes  0.427 ms       7.9
> Latency: 95th Percentile                     1.671 ms          7.9
> Latency: Maximum                             2.033 ms          7.9
> Average Read Time with Random Writes   0.489 ms       7.9
> Total Run Time 00:01:36.63

By the numbers:

• 250GB SATA drive:
• Disk  Sequential 64.0 Read       44.80 MB/s          5.2
• Disk  Random 16.0 Read            1.25 MB/s          3.5
• Disk  Sequential 64.0 Write       54.38 MB/s          5.5
• Total Run Time 00:02:32.26
• 160GB SSD drive:
• Disk  Sequential 64.0 Read       263.91 MB/s          7.6
• Disk  Random 16.0 Read          243.05 MB/s          7.9
• Disk  Sequential 64.0 Write        99.40 MB/s          6.5
• Total Run Time 00:01:36.63

Given the above numbers, it is not difficult to justify the extra cost of the 160GB SSD to our clients. The performance increase is so _huge_, that they see payback in a matter of weeks.

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

Error – Exchange 2007 server on which an address list service is active cannot be found

In the process of configuring a Companyweb SharePoint library (previous blog post) for a client’s copier and scanner PDFs, we ran into this strange error when creating the e-mail contact in Exchange:

Summary: 1 item(s). 0 succeeded, 1 failed.
Elapsed time: 00:00:00

Scan ToEmail
Failed

Error:
An Exchange 2007 server on which an address list service is active cannot be found.

Exchange Management Shell command attempted:
New-MailContact -ExternalEmailAddress 'SMTP:scans@companyweb' -Name 'Scan ToEmail' -Alias 'scans' -OrganizationalUnit sbsdomain.local/MyBusiness/Users/SBSUsers' -FirstName 'Scan' -Initials '' -LastName 'ToEmail'

Elapsed Time: 00:00:00

The only clue to the source of the problem was found here:

• ChicagoTech: Exchange 2007 address list service cannot be found

The writer indicates that the source is the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service not running.

Sure enough:

The service was indeed not running.

Now, why the service was not running in the first place is an unknown other than perhaps it did not start up after the Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 installation. We will monitor the rest of our SP2 installs to see if this behaviour is consistent.

As a just in case, we did the following:

We changed the Take No Action to Restart the Service.

Once the service was started, we were greeted with the following after running the New Mail Contact wizard:

Summary: 1 item(s). 1 succeeded, 0 failed.
Elapsed time: 00:00:00

Scan ToEmail
Completed

Exchange Management Shell command completed:
New-MailContact -ExternalEmailAddress 'SMTP:scans@companyweb' -Name 'Scan ToEmail' -Alias 'scans' -OrganizationalUnit sbsdomain.local/MyBusiness/Users/SBSUsers' -FirstName 'Scan' -Initials '' -LastName 'ToEmail'

Elapsed Time: 00:00:00

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 Migration Successes On The Canadian IT Pro Blog

I have guest posted on the Canadian IT Professionals blog here:

• SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 Migration Successes

I share some thoughts on the various SBS migrations that we have run using the Microsoft migration method.

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