Friday 30 March 2012

In-Win BP655 System Integration Tips

We happen to have an In-Win BP655 series Mini-ITX case here in the shop to see if it would work with some of our system designs. The main benefit of this particular case is the 200 Watt power supply that would give us a little more juice for higher end setups.

image

It is important to note that the hard drive needs to be mounted in the cage shown above. This is done with the cage out of the case.

The cage then needs to be mounted back in the case _without_ the optical drive installed.

The desktop board is then mounted in the case and cabled up.

The final step is to slide the optical drive into its resting place from the front of the case.

Change the order of any of the above steps and things just don’t work!

image

Once the system is complete it is actually a good looking little case with the built-in fan along with the CPU fan being relatively muffled.

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

Thursday 29 March 2012

Some Thoughts on the Changing Times in SMB/SME Information Technology

Need a reality check?

It is pretty obvious that things are changing big-time in the SMB/SME space. More so in SMB than anything.

Indeed, the writing has been on the wall since Microsoft introduced the Microsoft Small Business Specialist to encourage small IT shops, single contact business types, to get certified.

We upped our rates the day after my exam was passed and we were welcomed into the SBSC program. The program was an excellent incentive to change my perspective on the way we did business, the services we provide, and the level of excellence we wanted to pursue in our business.

Microsoft has since pushed the bar one step up with the introduction of a Competency. The only way an IT firm can capture one of these competencies is to have at least two Microsoft Certified Professionals on staff along with the requisite exams within that program and the Microsoft Partner Program.

Microsoft’s Cloud endeavours are pushing the SMB IT service provider further up against the wall. The SBSC program is looking to be finished while the Elephant squeezes as many SMBs into Office 365 (or in our case we set up OWN hosted Exchange with a huge Value Add by us) and thus virtually eliminate the small IT shop.

It is in Microsoft’s best interest to operate this way on so many fronts.

We have come across so many Microsoft server product deployments that were so botched up, unprofessional, no Standard Order of Procedure between all systems, backups not functioning or failing, and so much more that it stands to reason that Microsoft push the SMB envelope into their own house.

This is not to say that _everyone_ that provides IT services in the SMB space falls into the above category.

But, dollars to donuts the folks that are providing excellent IT Solutions to their SMB/SME clients are _not_ the ones currently crying about Microsoft’s push to the Cloud and front-line billing of the client.

The push to the Cloud is one of the reasons we have been pushing so hard into Hyper-V Failover Clustering.

Somewhere along the line our business model will shift from the SMB focus we now have into an SMB/SME focus on On-Premises IT Solutions that are built more on the Microsoft Stack than the SBS/Premium Add-On stack.

As I commented in Vlad’s blog post linked above:

Reality is such a harsh mistress (twist on Heinlein’s Moon is a Harsh Mistress).

TANSTAAFL!

A keen eye and hard work will always be rewarded. :)

Philip

Note the last sentence.

The ones that we don’t hear complaining about all of the changes are the ones with raw knuckles working themselves into a new Value Added Relationship with their clients. Or, they are working themselves into an entirely new market segment and product line.

The economic downturn over the last few years took care of a lot of small time IT Solution providers. The push to the Cloud will take of a lot more out of the picture too.

In the end it is up to us to work our way through all of the mush to discover the diamond in the rough. From there we can work it into something that folks will want to purchase to make their business better.

And that is the goal, the vision statement, the ultimate way: We develop IT solutions for our clients that make their businesses and business processes run in a vastly superior manner.

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

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Deployed 2 Node 2U Intel Server System Hyper-V Failover Cluster With Pics

Here are some shots of one of the mid-level 2 node cluster configurations we are currently deploying.

image

image

The above configuration is as follows:

  • UPS Structure
    • 3x APC SMT1500RM2U
  • Servers
    • 2x Intel Server System SR2625URLX
      • Dual Intel Xeon E5645 Hex Core, 96GB ECC, Intel RAID, RAID 1 OS, Dual LSI External SAS, Intel RMM3
    • 1x Promise VTrak E610sD RAID Subsystem
      • Dual SAS Controller
      • 12x 300GB 15K Seagate SAS
    • 1x HP MicroServer
      • 8GB with RAC installed.
      • Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard acting as DC and Hyper-V for management VM.
  • Switching
    • Cisco SA520 Security Appliance
    • Cisco 48-Port Gigabit Web managed switch.

There are a few other items involved here including the APC 24U enclosure.

The closet this setup is installed into is climate controlled via Haier 12K BTU twin hose A/C unit. It keeps the space well cooled all year round.

VMs running on this cluster are:

  • SBS 2011 Standard
    • 4 vCPUs, 24GB RAM
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard with RDS
    • 2 vCPUs, 8GB RAM
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard with SQL
    • 4 vCPUs, 16GB RAM
  • Windows 7 and XP VMs
    • Windows 7: 2 vCPUs, 2-4GB RAM
    • XP Pro: 2 vCPUs, 2GB RAM

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

Monday 26 March 2012

The Microsoft Big Easy Offer Ends Soon

The last time Microsoft had the Big Easy Offer we had a nice little boom in business when those cheques started to roll in!

We license all of our clients on Microsoft’s Open Value Agreement with the 3 year spread payment option. It gives our clients 3 years of Software Assurance, all of the benefits to licensing Microsoft Office, freebie support option if ever required, and a lot more.

image

Note the minimum purchase requirements. A _single_ order with the qualifying products needs to be placed. One cannot aggregate the 10 Office licenses across three different orders even if they were in the same month!

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

Friday 23 March 2012

Some thoughts on hiring a new technician

As we have been growing we have started to look at the possibility of hiring a part time technician or two to take up some of the tasks that we require on an ongoing basis.

As a potential employer we are considering to request a sealed envelope be mailed direct to us from the local credit checking agency. This would be a mandatory part of being considered for hire.

Don’t get us wrong, it’s not the be all end all for our hiring process as everyone has the right to defend their record to us, but one’s credit history and score can really indicate a problem.

Some additional criteria that we consider:

  • How many physical and virtual systems at home/apt?
  • Server/Client or peer-to-peer?
  • Windows, Linux, *BSD, other?
  • Active Directory, Group Policy, network security, user security, etc.
  • Have you actually _worked_ with the products in your CV or just run through Q&A scripts in a PSA?

You’d be surprised how many support folks fall under the final bullet point with very few falling under the previous ones.

A PSA will guide the phone jockey through a flow chart of questions and “Try This” steps until there is either a resolution or a need to escalate.

However, the folks we are looking for that may fall under the last one are the ones that have taken the products home so to speak and built them up and broke them over and over to get to know them.

It’s all about initiative!

It is also about taking ownership of one’s contribution to the company and the principle on which they represent us.

This last point may take some time for a new tech to learn, but it is one of the key signs that an employee is a step above the rest.

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: Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 Previous Versions List Shows Same Date for all Versions?

This was a bit of a puzzler:

image

The puzzle was in exactly what search terms to use to find the right answer as our searches were turning up fluff.

Folks that went to recover content via Previous Versions (Volume Shadow Copy) saw the above list of snapshots where all were stamped at the time the Previous Versions tab was clicked.

One could then double click on any of the versions and the contents themselves would be what should be in the snapshot but the titles in Windows Explorer would be missing as well.

This is what they _should_ look like:

image

All that would be in the Address Bar was the folder name that the content was sitting in.

The Fix

Thanks to Susan Bradley we were pointed in the right direction:

Before:

image

After:

image

Note that no reboot of the SBS 2003 server is required.

We then browsed the file share from a Windows 2008 R2 Standard server and saw:

image

Folks will now be able to recover their content!

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

Thursday 22 March 2012

Merry Christmas!?!?

Wow, it is -2C and gorgeous!

10cm or more due and we are well on the way to that if not passed it!

Enjoy your evening!

Thanks for reading.

Philip

Sent from my SBS 2011 integrated Windows Phone Mango

ExchangeDefender Message Security: Check Authenticity

SBS 2011 Setup Guide v1.11.0 Update Released

We bumped up our Setup Guide for SBS 2011 after making two significant additions:

image

We added the post MFP step to configure the Receive Connector for the MFPs to 100MB.

We also added the step to use PowerShell in the Exchange Management Shell to quickly change the default message sizes for inbound and outbound e-mail.

Thanks to fellow MVP Rob of LAN-Tech for the pointer.

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

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Toshiba Finger Print Utility Error: Duplicate Records Already Exist

During a reload of the Windows 7 OS on the Toshiba Portege Z830 the Finger Print Utility kept throwing an error when we tried to set up the finger print log on.

Finger Print Utility: Error: Operation Failed. Duplicate templates already exist.

Well, that’s almost impossible unless there was something written to the BIOS/TPM set up.

Suggestions to use the Toshiba Security Assist utility failed.

The process to reset things turned out to be quite easy:

  1. Start the enrollment process.
  2. Cancel it.
  3. In the Utility Export to file.
    1. Set a password and file path.
  4. Import from that file.
  5. Run the Enrollment process again.

If there is a hiccup saving the new fingerprints make sure to elevate by clicking the Run As Administrator button on the bottom of the utility window.

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

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Windows 8: Excellent video on working in Windows 8 with a Mouse & Keyboard!

We don’t know about you but we learn a lot faster by seeing things get done than by reading step-by-step instructions.

This has to be one of the best videos seen to date that gives an excellent, slow moving, Keyboard & Mouse How-To:

Windows 8 Mouse and Keyboard How-To

Very well done! :D

As far as Windows 8 goes, we are beginning to _really_ like the changes in the OS. It is very intuitive on the Tega v2 tablet while there is a learning curve on the desktop/laptop.

Now, besides the Tega, let’s hope that there are some awesomely kewl tablets coming down the pipe to wrap around this very promising OS!

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

Thursday 15 March 2012

Windows 8 on the Tega v2

Windows 8 with the Metro style Start Menu is right at home on the Tega v2 tablet.

We replaced the insufficient WiFi/Bluetooth card in the Tega with an Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 combo card and wireless in Windows 8 just worked.

The DiNovo Mini Bluetooth keyboard is a must for those longer typing tasks like this blog post.

Swipes, Gestures, Charms, and keyboard shortcuts are need to know items.

General Consensus: Need to read the manual! :)

But, 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

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Windows 8: IE10 CP Available for Win8 CP and other links

Here are a number of links to good reading and resources for Windows 8.

The amount of information that has been flowing since Microsoft dropped the new version(s) of Windows 8 has been quite overwhelming! 8O

MPECS and Windows 8

So, initially we are focused in on the specific product areas that we are working with or will be working with in the field.

  • Hyper-V and Clustering
  • Storage
    • To Do: Storage Spaces
    • To Do: iSCSI Target
    • To Do: MPIO via SAS based SAS
  • Server Operating System
    • To Do: NIC Teaming and failover resiliency
    • To Do: NIC Teaming with VLANs
    • To Do: Group Policy structures and changes
    • To Do: ADDS changes and updates

Obviously the above list is just the tip of the iceberg, but it’s not hard to see one of the directions we will be heading in with our business over this next year or two!

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

Monday 12 March 2012

Lexmark X736de: Colour option greyed out after firmware update–How to Set Up Monochrome Print Only Driver

We ran a firmware update on a Lexmark X736de that has been in production for a few months.

Today folks are complaining that they cannot print in colour.

image

Both the SBSe 2011 server and the client workstations show the above Black & White option ticked with no way to uncheck it.

After walking through the various settings with the Lexmark chat support folks we found the following:

image

Lexmark X736de Properties:

Print Black Only

So, we have inadvertently discovered how to set up a Black and White (Monochrome) print driver for this MFP at this particular client.

Having a black only setup was not requested in this office but we do have clients that are running monochrome only with the exception of a few key folks in the firm.

But, when we do need a monochrome only print setup we can add that option on the server and the clients will pick it up.

Lexmark MFP for SMB is a Win

For mid-sized offices we are now running almost 100% with the Lexmark X700 series MFPs. They have the best feature set for the price over HP by and far.

For virtualized SBS 2011 deployments the incoming fax to e-mail feature kills as we can deliver all faxes to a SharePoint library with minimal configuration (Set up an MFP with SBS 2011 in our Setup Guide).

We can then eliminate dealing with the built-in SBS Fax setup that can be a bit of a bear to manage between the fax services themselves and finding hardware that will work with the OS.

The X73x series MFP also supports print to fax across the network so anyone needing to send something outbound can do so without the need to print and then fax from a dedicated machine. This saves time and paper.

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

Thursday 8 March 2012

Installing .NET 3.5 on Windows 8

We needed .NET 3.5 in order to install Windows Live components (though Mesh refuses to install).

12-03-07 Win8 - 3 DotNET fails to download

We went in to add a new Windows Feature and hit the above error.

Windows Features

Windows couldn't complete the requested changes.

Windows couldn’t connect to the Internet to download necessary files. Make sure you are connected to the Internet, and press “Retry” to try again.

Error code: 0x800F0906

A search for “Windows 8 0x800F0906” turned up:

So, we did the following:

  1. Open Windows Explorer
  2. Mount the Windows 8 client ISO by right clicking on it.
  3. type CMD and CTRL+SHFT+ENTER to get to an elevated command prompt from Metro.
  4. dism /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFX3 /All /Source:H:\Sources\SxS /LimitAccess

image

Once complete we ejected the Windows 8 client ISO and were able to move on to installing Windows Live components.

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

Wednesday 7 March 2012

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Tuesday 6 March 2012

Windows 8 Metro is a Paradigm Shift: Some Good Reads

There is a lot of buzz out there about the new Metro GUI on Windows 8.

We like it due to previous experience with Windows Phone 7 and ZuneHD 32GB.

One of the pearls of wisdom at MVP Summit came from Mikael Nyström during a conversation with other MVPs one of whom had a Samsung Slate and was complaining about Metro.

He stated that Metro requires a paradigm shift in the way we work with Windows. The shift is in realizing that Metro is the old Start Menu _covering the whole screen_ instead of staying close to the left side of the screen.

Keyboard shortcuts and “gestures” are to become the norm for working in Windows 8.

By the way, the little Windows button on the keyboard is worth it’s weight in gold. There are a lot of keyboard shortcuts associated with that one key.

The above two articles are excellent in their discussion of Windows 8 and Metro.

We see Metro as a natural progression from the functionality that Windows 7 brought to the Start Menu table.

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

Thursday 1 March 2012

Windows 8 Documentation Download Links

All of these links come via Susan Bradley:

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot BitLocker in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29032&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot Servicing in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29030&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Test Lab Guide: Demonstrate Remote Desktop Services Desktop Virtualization in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29028&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29018&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot AD DS Simplified Administration in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29019&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Test Lab Guide: Demonstrate IP Address Management (IPAM) in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29020&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot Dynamic Access Control in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29023&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29016&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot Cluster-Aware Updating_(CAU) in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29015&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot IP Address Management (IPAM) in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29012&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot Activation Technologies in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29014&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot High Availability Printing in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29013&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Test Lab Guide: Demonstrate Windows Server "8" Beta Print and Document Services - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29021&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Test Lab Guide: Demonstrate Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29011&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot Remote Desktop Services Desktop Virtualization in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29022&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot Microsoft Online Backup Service in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29005&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Test Lab Guide: Base Test Lab Guide for Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29010&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Test Lab Guide: Demonstrate DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29007&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot Virtualized Domain Controller (VDC) in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center – Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29001&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot Storage Spaces in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29002&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot DHCP Failover in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29008&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29006&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot Remote Access in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29004&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot Printing in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29003&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Understand and Troubleshoot Scale-out File Servers in Windows Server "8" Beta - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29009&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Task-based Asynchronous Pattern - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=19957&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Windows ADK for Windows 8 Consumer Preview - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28997&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Windows and Windows Server Compatibility Cookbook - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27416&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3a+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+(Microsoft+Download+Center)

Download: Background Networking - Microsoft Download Center – Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28999&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Download: Background Tasks - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27411&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm

Thanks Susan! :)

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