SAS versus SATA and Hardware RAID versus Software RAID

In the last few years we have made some changes to the server configurations that we either build and deploy or Tier 1 provides:

• We install SAS 10K or SAS 15K drives over SATA.
• Performance for one is vastly superior on the SAS drives.
• SAS drives are a lot more sensitive to bad sector behaviour and are better able to recover from bad data being tossed up.
• SAS drives use many forms of ECC which protects the integrity of the data.
• We install a hardware RAID controller with battery backup or SSD Cache over using the on board software RAID.
• The on board “RAID” is software driven. All RAID calculations are completed by the server’s CPU and in many cases require the software driver to rebuild or function properly – meaning we need to boot into the OS.
• We have had difficulties with on board software RAID recoveries and ShadowProtect due to driver issues.
• Hardware RAID on Chip with the battery backup or SSD Cache virtually eliminates the parity write cost of RAID 5 and greatly reduces that cost for RAID 6. SSD Cache almost renders the whole discussion moot as the most frequently requested data sits on the SSD.
• Hardware RAID controllers have the ability to mitigate the failure of a drive by keeping the server up. In our experience software RAID tends to freeze the box if a drive fails.
• Hardware RAID controllers tied to SAS drives have a much better chance of mitigating or eliminating the possibility of data corruption if sectors on an array member are dying.

Intel has a couple of resources for the above discussion as do many other RAID related vendors.

One Intel resource is the following Intel support page: Intel Server Products: Choosing between SAS vs. SATA Hard Disk for your Server RAID System.

There we find this grid that gives us a pretty good idea of some of the significant differences between SAS and SATA drives:

We are given an extensive explanation in the following document which is linked to below the above table: Intel – Enterprise-class versus Desktop-class Hard Drives (Link to PDF document download).

We put our server configurations through a lot of testing before we deploy them to client sites or within our own organization. We do this because we want to make absolutely sure that the server configuration we are going to deploy will meet the needs of our client over the life of the box which is about 36 months.

The extra cost for the hardware RAID controller, battery backup, and 15K SAS drives (not much of a cost difference between 300GB 15K SAS and Seagate Enterprise SATA these days) when taken over the life of the box (divide that cost by 36) is actually quite small relative to the performance, data protection, and overall storage stability benefits.

Tier 1 Caveat

Keep in mind that cost inferences mentioned here are for our in-house Intel server solution components. When it comes to Tier 1 the costs of some server components and server storage can be extremely high relative to components supplied in our solutions.

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 TST & Microsoft TS2 Registration Now Open

We have been attending Intel’s Technical Solutions Training (TST) events for quite a few years now.

This year, the desktop and server events are being held on the same day instead of being on separate dates/quarters. This makes it a lot easier for us to attend as we tended to miss the desktop TST sessions due to timing.

The Web site for registration can be found here: Intel TST & Microsoft TS2 Building Solutions Together.

We will be attending both desktop and server TST events being held in Calgary on June 21st.

Note that only US cities get the evening networking event.

The take home desktop configuration from the registration site:

As an added bonus, you will also get to keep this amazing desktop system featuring the Intel® Core™ i7 2600K, Antec* Skeleton Chassis and Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (NFR) at a value of $1,460!

• Intel® Core™ i7 2600K
• Intel® DH67CLB3 Desktop Board
• Antec*  Skeleton Chassis
• Blu-ray Optical Drive
• Crucial* 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit
• Intel® Solid State Drive 320, 80GB
• Microsoft Window 7 Professional (NFR)

The take home server configuration from the registration site:

As an added bonus, you will also get to keep this incredibly powerful uni-processor server featuring the brand new Intel® Xeon® E3-1240 Processor, 2 - 1TB Western Digital Enterprise Drives (w/ 64MB cache!), and Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard (NFR), a total value of $1,940!

• Intel® S1200BTL Server Board
• Intel® P4304 Server Chassis (pedestal)
• Intel® Xeon® E3-1240 Processor
• 16GB Memory Kit (4 X 4GB) ECC UDIMMS
• 2@1TB SATA HDDs
• DVD-RW Optical Drive
• Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 Standard (NFR)

Registration costs are as follows:

• Intel Desktop TST AM: $600.
• Intel Server TST PM: $650.

Hopefully there will be an opportunity to help facilitate the afternoon session that is based on Small Business Server 2011!

For the desktop build we will bring a flash drive with Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and the most current drivers and BIOS for the board.

For the server build we would probably bring along the following hardware to augment the server’s configuration:

• Intel RS2BL040 RAID Controller + Battery Backup
• 4x (four) 300GB Seagate 15K SAS drives (or 450GB depending on what is available).
• Intel Remote Management 4 for out-of-band KVM over IP management.
• RMM4 User Guide page.

Remote Server Management

We are now installing Intel RMMs into our client’s servers because of the following feature set:

Essentially we can manage the server as though sitting at the server’s console from anywhere as long as an Internet connection is alive at the client site. Note that a static IP is preferred for the RMM NIC.

We would also be bringing along a flash drive with the SBS 2011 OS, latest drivers, and the latest BIOS/Firmware updates on it too.

In the end, we benefit from the training plus we get to network with our fellow IT Solution Providers and IT Consultants. Walking away with a couple of systems and Microsoft software is indeed a bonus.

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 2011 Setup Guide Version 1.6.0

Our SBS 2011 Setup Guide has been updated.

We added a few Microsoft Knowledgebase articles in the troubleshooting section that are specific to installs or migrations.

• SBS 2011 Setup Guide v1.6.0

Note that the guide post has been bumped to today’s date.

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

SBS 2011 Standard Setup Crashes Unexpectedly: Error: Cannot commit configuration changes because the file has changed on disk

Microsoft has the following KB about a relatively infrequent crash that can happen during the SBS OS setup:

• Microsoft KB: 2535810: SBS 2011 Standard Edition Setup Crashes Unexpectedly

From the KB:

[4624] 110318.160407.0793: TaskManagement: In TaskScheduler.RunTasks(): The "ConfigureSharePointTask" Task threw an Exception during the Run() call:Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.IWorker.IISConfig.IISConfigException: IIS Server Administration threw an exception. See inner exception for details. ---> System.IO.FileLoadException: Filename: \\?\C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config
Error: Cannot commit configuration changes because the file has changed on disk (emphasis ours)

We _have_ seen this error on systems we were installing while working with the OS prior to RTM. So far, we have not seen the problem on any of the servers we have installed using the RTM bits.

The only resolution at this point is to contact Microsoft Support via the provided link in the KB. Note that the current system is call-back based. Keep this in mind when quoting on migrating SBS between versions.

MIGRATION NOTE: It is _always_ important to take a full backup plus a System State backup _before_ making any changes to a source SBS when migrating to a new version of SBS. Without a good backup it is very difficult to step back if something goes wrong during the migration.

Please look into Jeff Middleton’s Swing Migration method if there is an absolute need for a fall back just in case something fails. Jeff’s method provides fall back while the Microsoft Method is committed once the mailbox move has been initiated.

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 2011 – Exchange Services Do Not Start

We see this often in our SBS 2003 to SBS 2011 migrations where certain Exchange 2011 services fail to restart after a reboot.

• Official SBS Blog: Exchange Services May Not Start Automatically After a Reboot

Quote from the above on which services may fail to start:

• Microsoft Exchange Information Store
• Microsoft Exchange RPC Client Access (SBS 2011 Server Only)
• Microsoft Exchange Forms Based Authentication (SBS 2011 Server Only)

We have definitely seen the second and third services fail to start. So much so that we would make sure they were running after a reboot on all servers we were worked with.

We are pointed to the following KB:

• Microsoft KB 940845: Services for Exchange Server 2007 or Exchange Server 2010 cannot start automatically after you install Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2010 on a global catalog server

The article has a number of different methods for addressing the problems from starting the services manually, through to a number of Microsoft Fix its:

Note that the various Fix its are all for different registry settings applicable to the affected Exchange services.

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

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

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft Download: Migrating SBS 2003 to SBS 2011 Essentials Document

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

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

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

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

We then end up at this page:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Windows Live Writer

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 0xC00000034 Error – Torn State Update

We now have an official pronouncement from Microsoft on the problem with Windows 7 Service Pack 1 that caused all sorts of issues when delivered via WSUS:

• The Windows Servicing Guy: Update on torn state systems

Essentially the official position is to rebuild the system from scratch.

There was mention in the Forum thread here of a number of different ways we could possibly address the problem:

• Microsoft Forums- Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 installation fails with error code c0000034

Ultimately though, we are on the hook to rebuild those machines if we are to follow Microsoft’s official position.

One mention for a workaround is as follows:

• Kelvin Aston: Possible fix for torn SP1 machines

We have seen others mention that this workaround is “successful” at getting Service Pack 1 installed but there would be no guarantees that at some point the system becomes unstable and thus require a rebuild anyway.

Ultimately we will discuss with our clients what the options are, the possible consequences, and move on from there.

Previous blog posts:

• MPECS Inc. Blog: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Error c0000034 Workaround
• MPECS Inc. Blog: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Error 0xC0000034 Fix Via Windows Servicing Guy

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

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

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft KB: How to send malware to Microsoft for analysis

We run across a lot of different bugs, that is malware or viruses, in our business.

Fortunately we can submit any bugs that we encounter to a number of different vendors.

One is Microsoft:

• Microsoft KB: 939288: How to send malware to Microsoft for analysis

The above KB describes the many ways that we can submit the bug.

One is the following:

• Microsoft Malware Protection Center: Threat Research and Response

Note the How to prepare files for submission section later on in the article states:

How to prepare files for submission

Use care when you handle files that may be classified as malware. Add suspected malware files to a compressed archive file that uses a password. By doing this, you avoid infecting other computers when the files are in transit or when you send the files. To add the files to an archive file that uses a password, follow these steps.
Note If WinZip or a similar compression utility is installed, you can use it to create the archive. However, you must use the same file name and the same password that are included in these steps.

1. In Windows Explorer, open the folder that contains the suspected malware files.
2. Right-click a blank area in the window, point to New, and then click Compressed (zipped) Folder.
3. Type malware.zip to name the new archive file, and then press ENTER.
4. Drop the suspected malicious software files into the archive file as you would drop them into a typical Windows folder.
5. Double-click the archive file.
6. On the File menu, click Add a Password.
7. In the Password box, type infected.
8. In the Confirm Password box, retype infected, and then click OK.

If, during our searches we do not turn up any information on a bug that we have encountered we would follow through on submitting it just in case.

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

Office 365 Beta Sign Up

Okay, so we clicked the link:

• Join the Office 365 Beta (Link to actual site without all the e-mail tracking stuff)

After clicking the JOIN THE BETA button we filled out the form and we were presented with two options:

We chose the Enterprise level Beta so we could look at what was happening there.

Now, probably the number one stopping point for us and Microsoft’s hosted services is the fact that we are not the ones to bill the client _they_ are.

We resell a fair amount of Microsoft licensing as our primary way of licensing Microsoft products at client sites. So, Microsoft gets our client’s names. Thus, this is not the sticking point.

The sticking point is that we have _no control_ over billing, pricing, services, support, and other aspects of the online services. We also have no control over the very _small_ residual that comes to our company as a result of our signing up say a 250 seat customer.

Much of the feedback that we have heard from fellow SMB IT focused providers on Microsoft’s hosted services follows along the same lines. We have no real relationship with the customer/client.

Own Web Now

We stand by our decision to resell OWN’s hosted Exchange and SharePoint services. The service is excellent, the support folks are pretty good about getting things going when there is a need, and we get to be the face behind the product.

On another note, we have signed up for OWN’s SBS 2011 Essentials integration beta with an HP ProLiant MicroServer on its way to be a part of this beta in a small client setting. So, we will see OWN’s hosted Exchange services integrate into Microsoft’s new SBS product!

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 PROSet v16.2 Released

Most of our servers and workstations have Intel network adapters in them. When supplying tier 1 servers that use Broadcom or other manufacturer’s NICs we tend to have a dual port Intel server NIC installed to use by default.

Version 16.0 of the Intel Network Connections Software (PROSet) has been out for a while now. As is our customary practice we waited for the version to be bumped up a couple of bins before doing any broad scale driver updates.

• Intel Download Center.
• Intel PROSet v16.2 Driver Download for x86 and x64.
• Intel(R) Network Connections Software Version 16.2 Release Notes (direct link to TXT file).
• Intel® Network Connections Software and Drivers – Installation Readme.htm

It is important to take note that there are a number of caveats listed in the Known Issues section of the Release Notes that may impact performance or system stability on various Microsoft operating systems.

We will begin to test the driver on our in-house Hyper-V Core and Full GUI based servers with teaming enabled. From there we will install them on our physical servers running various roles.

Once we are sure that the drivers are stable we will deploy them to our client’s servers.

Note that an out-of-band management solution such as Intel’s RMM, Dell’s DRAC Adv., HP’s iLO Adv., or other such product would be required for this 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

Microsoft Exam: 070-169 SBS 2011 Standard, Configuring Scheduled

We were so busy during the beta time period for the new SBS 2011 exam that there was no time left over to write it.

Given that we are gearing up for quite a few SBS 03 to SBS 11 migrations among other tasks we scheduled in the 070-169 SBS 2011 exam for the earliest possible date here in Edmonton which was May 12.

There are some seats available in Calgary for this month, but it is a three hour trip one way so that kind of time sacrifice is out of the question.

It looks as though the availability of the exam, at least for the next few months, looks to be quite limited in this geographical region.

So, if there are any plans to write the exam, now may be the time to check out its availability and schedule one accordingly.

• One exam site: www.prometric.com

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 How-To: Creating a SAN Using the Free Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3

The Canadian IT Pro Connection blog has a series on how to get things going with the new iSCSI Target software from Microsoft.

• Canadian IT Pro Blog: Creating a SAN using Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3

The How-To includes lots of good information on _why_ things are being set up the way they were. The article was written by fellow MVP Mitch Garvis who has an awesome ability to teach.

• Canadian IT Pro Blog: All for SAN and SAN for All!

The above article also written by Mitch gives a good explanation for the various types of shared storage and how they operate.

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 Wonderful Way To Start The Weekend

We had around three to four inches of snow!

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

Philip

Sent from my SBS 2011 integrated Windows Phone 7

ExchangeDefender Message Security: Check Authenticity

HP ProLiant MicroServer – Rebuilding An Array

Okay, so while installing the RAC one of the primary OS drive cradles must have been nudged enough to either disconnect the drive or the tray was not fully seated in the first place.

Either way we ended up with a Critical error on the OS’s RAID 1 array.

The BIOS for the “RAID” at the motherboard level holds no clues to how to rebuild the array once we re-seated the drive.

We booted the server since our experience with software based on board RAID chipset failures require the driver to be loaded and available before a rebuild could be initiated (some Intel on board RAID chipsets are an exception to this rule).

Once into the OS we found the AMD RAIDXpert “console” link:

What came up was a Web based console that asked for a username and password. Fortunately the default username and password was right there on the logon page.

Once in we were able to initiate a rebuild of the RAID 1 array:

The rebuild time for a pair of 750GB Seagate ES series drives took quite a few hours on this particular box even though there was not a lot of disk action going on via the network.

The Performance tab in the Task Manager during the rebuild process looked like this:

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

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

Windows Live Writer

HP ProLiant MicroServer Remote Access Card

We just installed the HP ProLiant MicroServer Remote Access Card (RAC).

The piece of paper that comes with the RAC makes the process of installing the card a fairly straightforward one.

However, the document does not contain the default username and password that the RAC uses out of the box.

Thanks to SBS MVP Merv Porter (Bing Search) for ferreting out the following link:

• HP Support: HP ProLiant MicroServer - How to Reset Password for ProLiant MicroServer Remote Access Card.

Out of the box the default username and password is:

• Username: admin
• Password: password

Once we had logged in we saw the following Web based console:

As noted in the screenshot above the firmware level is version 1.2.

• HP ProLiant MicroServer RAC Firmware Update Page

The update is also available on the ProLiant MicroServer’s product support page.

• HP ProLiant MicroServer Drivers and Software

Since our firmware was up to date we went right to the Security section to generate an SSL certificate CSR for the URL that will be used to connect to the RAC via the Internet.

Once we have completed all of the needed configuration on the RAC we will then have remote based out-of-band management for the MicroServer meaning full BIOS and RAID controller management along with the ability to power cycle the machine:

Once the system had finished booting we had our console session:

We install out-of-band management in all of our client’s servers whether that client is up the block or half way around the world. Having direct access to the server’s console, BIOS, firmware, and more enables us to manage the box right down to doing a full bare metal restore if ever there was a need.

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

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

Windows Live Writer

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

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

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

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

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

More to come and thanks for reading! :)

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

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

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 Available for Download

The download is here:

• Microsoft Downloads; Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1

Note the caveat for remote administration of the SP1 integrated product:

Remote Administration:
In order to configure the new Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 feature settings (RemoteFX, Dynamic Memory), make sure to use the the latest Windows 7 SP1 Remote Server Administration Tool(RSAT) for the client or use Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. The Windows 7 SP1 RSAT tool can be downloaded from here.

Note that the download is quite large so it may take a while:

We will blog about our experiences with setting up the revised version of Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 in the coming weeks. One of the first steps will be to stand up a cluster based on it.

Hat Tip: Susan Bradley

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

Adobe Offers Subscription Model For Software

We currently hold a license for the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Premium software. We use InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator primarily for designing various publications from books through to pamphlets. We also use the Adobe Acrobat Pro features quite a lot.

We were looking to upgrade to Creative Suite 5.5 when it releases sometime next month.

Our price to upgrade from CS 3 Premium to CS 5.5 Premium (CS 5 today with up to CS 5.5 for free) when it comes out is:

When we click on the Upgrade Eligibility link we see:

So, our price is $799.00 for the download version of the product. Given the strength of our Canadian dollar against the US dollar we are wise to purchase today. There were times in the past when we were purchasing at $.60 Canadian to the US dollar!

Now, if we were looking into getting things set up for the first time or if we were beyond the Upgrade from 1 Suite position we would probably look at Adobe’s new subscription model.

For $1,140.00 per year we would have the required license plus access to the newest version when released without too much fuss. In the end it may be a bit less expensive to run with the subscription model, however one would need to keep in mind that when the subscription lapses so do the licenses.

• Adobe Buying Guide: Suite Editions
• Adobe Buying Guide: Subscriptions

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 S1200BT Server Board and R1304BT Server Systems Memory Setup

With the introduction of the new S1200BT series Intel Server Board and the associated 1U Intel Server Systems we have a bit of a memory configuration change with the new platform.

• Intel S1200BT Technical Product Specification v1.0 (TPS - PDF).
• Intel S1200BT Product Support Page (All support related content).

So far we have not yet seen a tested memory list from Intel on the new product’s support site.

In the S1200BT TPS we see the following on pages 17 and 18:

So, the first thing off the top is that the boards now only support Unbuffered DIMMs with a single or dual rank with only two slots per channel.

Okay then, off to Kingston’s site to see if there are any new part numbers for these boards:

• Note that the part number shown in Kingston’s list should be: R1304BTL Server System.

What we see here is what appears to be compatible memory though not in the same way that previous Kingston Intel tested memory would indicate via the “i” suffix in the part number: KVRxxxxDxExSx/4Gi.

We called into the Intel Channel Support line to find out whether there was a list that had not been posted yet. They indicated that the list is a work in progress. The support technician did send us a copy of some of the memory parts on one version of the upcoming list:

• 8GB Samsung M391B1G73AH0-CH9
• 4GB Samsung M391B5273CH0-CH9

With the partial list we received from Intel we are not able to outfit any of the new server configurations with 32GB without paying a very high price for the 8GB Samsung RAM. Any Samsung or Hynix part number is very difficult to come by for us here in Canada as of this writing.

We went on to check out Crucial’s product site to see what would come up:

Nothing seemed to come up in our site searches so we clicked on the Live Chat button. In the chat session we were pointed to the following page:

• Crucial.com: Guaranteed-compatible memory upgrades for your Intel S1200BTS Server.

Like the Kingston site we see the “Guaranteed-Compatible” statement.

The problem for us is that while both Kingston and Crucial say their products are guaranteed to work with the Intel products in question we hit a roadblock with Intel’s support team if the memory installed in the server is _not_ on the Tested Memory List. The very first thing we would be told when trying to troubleshoot a problem would be to purchase memory on the approved list.

For now we will be sitting back and waiting for a while for the new product line to mature some.

Previously, we did not wait until the Xeon 3400 Series CPUs and Intel Server Systems based on the new Intel Server Board S3420GP and subsequently the Intel Server Board S3420GPRX product lines matured. That generation of hardware had virtualization capabilities that were key to us jumping on the new products as soon as we could get them.

Also, there are no indications as of yet whether we will be seeing a new SKU for the Intel Server System SR1695GPRX which is one of the best virtualization platforms available to us from Intel at this time. So, we will be sticking with this server system for the time being.

UPDATE 2011-04-12: The list as it stands that Intel sent us is as follows:

Hopefully we will be seeing both Crucial and Kingston enter the running with 4GB and 8GB parts so that it is not so painful for us to get more than 16GB of RAM in these boxes.

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

Facebook – Open Compute Project

It seems that Facebook has released their entire data centre design and called it the Open Compute Project.

All we can say is, “Wow”!

Their data centre is significantly more efficient in its power usage over traditional data centre structures. Not only that, they _custom_ built their servers using commodity Intel and AMD boards, generic chassis, and more.

There is a lot of good reading on the site that covers the entire setup from start to finish including CAD drawings no less.

• Facebook: Building Efficient Data Centers with the Open Compute Project
• ZDNet: Facebook open sources its server, data center designs: Hardware fallout to follow

Very kewl stuff! :)

Hat Tip: Amy of Third Tier

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 Phone 7 – March Update _Really_ Improved My WP7 Experience

We get to work with all sorts of devices from a large variety of vendors.

There was something about the HTC HD7 experience that did not quite sit right with me though it was not quite possible to figure out just what that was. . . at least until now.

When using an Apple iDevice the touch interface is probably one of the best out there.

The ability to touch, hold, and move the cursor about on the iDevice while working with text in the various Apps and the GUI is excellent.

The HD7 Windows Phone 7 (WP7) on the other hand was Neolithic in its implementation. Trying to get the cursor to move about precisely in IE, Word, e-mail, texting, and other places in the HD7 was nothing short of painful.

The WP7 March update that included the ability to Copy and Paste changed all that.

Not only do we now have the ability to copy and paste, which works really well, but now have the ability to move the cursor about with an almost absolute precision.

The cursor movement improvement will make, and already has made, the HD7 usage experience that much better.

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

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

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft Releases iSCSI Software Target Version 3.3 For Windows Server 2008 R2 . . . For Free!

This is a pretty kewl bit of news since messing around with third party free iSCSI Target software is not always easy.

What do we use iSCSI Targets for?

Primarily for shared storage located on a device that is used by a Hyper-V Cluster and available across a LAN.

So, with a couple of no-name desktops and a small NAS that is iSCSI Target enabled we can build a lab based Hyper-V Cluster.

Since we already have a TechNet Plus subscription we have Windows Server 2008 R2 licensed for a lab based environment.

So, downloading the Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 and tying it into Windows Server 2008 R2 in a lab setting is pretty much straight forward as far as the licensing side of things go. Getting it installed, configured, and then a Hyper-V cluster up and running and Live Migration functioning as expected is a whole different ball game! ;)

A great candidate for Win2K8 R2 + iSCSI Software Target would the the HP MicroServer. We can drop an Intel PRO series dual or quad port server NIC to allow for some teaming if required, or even drop in a hardware RAID controller to bump up the performance on the disk subsystem.

• Microsoft Downloads: Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3

After downloading the software have a look at the following:

• Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 Known Issues and Updates.

Jose’s blog post is an excellent resource:

• Jose Barreto’s Blog: Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 for Windows Server 2008 R2 available for public download

Hat Tip: Mikael Nystrom – The Deployment Bunny Blog - Microsoft iSCSI Software Target 3.3 for Windows Server 2008 R2 available for public 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

Windows Phone 7 March Update Available on Bell

The HTC HD7 just made us aware that there is an update available for the Windows Phone 7 OS:

It is refreshing to see that the Windows Mobile experience where carriers would essentially release a phone and then avoid any updates for the WM OS to “encourage” us to move to a new phone has essentially ceased.

Copy and Paste eh? Hmmmm … a Windows feature that is a part of an update. :| Ooops.

So far, the phone has more than met our expectations though there are a few little things that may or may not be OS related that can be annoying.

• The camera button on the HD7 is really tough to work. It sometimes responds while at other times it seems to be a bit of a fight to depress it.
• The Marketplace choked on more than one occasion (looks to be addressed with this update).
• Occasionally the Enter button on the touch pad while horizontal will stop responding. Instead another key above or beside the Enter key seemingly gets depressed. This happens in the phone dialler too. The 7 key gets pressed no matter where on the screen the finger is.
• There is a third party screen protector on the phone so these issues may be related to that.
• The arrow, Windows, and Find touch sensitive buttons are easy to hit with my chubby hands and fingers while working in something else.
• I really need to learn to stretch that finger to the “i” on the keyboard while horizontal. I keep hitting the “o” which can be quite awkward when the word is supposed to be something like “things”! ;)
• Where is the HotSpot capability that other phone OSs are capable of?!?

Still, the SharePoint integration is totally kewl, e-mail management is really smooth, and I like the ability to link people’s various accounts under one contact.

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