Windows Small Business Server 7(2011), Configuring Beta Exam Now Available

The new Beta exam for SBS 2011 is now available to be taken:

• Born to Learn Blog: (MONDAY UPDATE) Beta Exam 71-169 --- Registration open, code is working
• Promo Code: SBSS

We jumped onto Prometric’s site to find out what availability will be for the Edmonton site here:

• Prometric: Register for Tests Portal

We ran through the steps to find that the exam does indeed show as available:

After clicking next we found two locations:

But, neither of the sites had anything showing as available:

So, we called into Prometric at 1-800-853-6769 to find out if they could give us at least a timeline as to when the exam would be available here. They could not.

In their online system we went back into the system and chose the next closest location which is in Red Deer Alberta at about 150KM (100 miles) away.

The registration system did not seem to respond to any of our queries. The person we spoke with at Prometric stayed on the phone to see if the system would start behaving for us while we were logged in. It did not behave so they initiated an internal trouble ticket.

We will try again later and then tomorrow to see if we can indeed get registered for the exam.

Hat Tip: Susan Bradley via the SBS2K Yahoo Group.

UPDATE: The registration system came back online and accepted a date in Red Deer for the first week in January. We will keep a eye on the Edmonton sites to see if they have any seats go live 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

Legacy Taxprep T1, T2, and T3 Apps on Windows XP Mode

Now that many of our accounting firm clients are moving over to Windows 7 as the primary desktop operating system we have run into a roadblock of sorts with the legacy versions of Taxprep’s accounting applications.

That roadblock has to do with running any legacy version of Taxprep on a Windows 7 machine whether we install it locally or try and run it via a network install. The older the version of Taxprep the less likely we can shoehorn it into Windows 7 and it will fail to run.

So, to mitigate this we created a folder that we keep in the network install location:

In that folder is a set of shortcuts to the network versions of the Taxprep applications:

We drop a copy of that folder of shortcuts into the following location in the Windows XP Mode VM:

Once Windows 7 has picked up on the new folder we place a shortcut to it on the user’s Windows 7 desktop.

They can then run whatever Taxprep version they need to via XP Mode.

Another option may be Microsoft’s App-V though some of our accounting firm clients do not have the required licensing in place yet.

In the rare case where a partner wants to have access to those legacy programs while outside of the main office we will install the legacy versions directly into the Windows XP Mode VM and place the shortcuts into a folder on their desktop.

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 2008 R2 Web – .NET Install Error –You must use the Role Management Tool

We are trying to get .NET 3.5 SP1 installed on a Windows Web Server 2008 R2 clustered VM.

When we tried to run the full version of the install file we received the following error:

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Setup

You must use the Role Management Tool to install or configure Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.

However, when we open the Add Role Services wizard on the server .NET 3.5 is nowhere to be seen.

A quick search turned up the answer on an MSDN blog:

• MSDN Blog: The Way I See It: You must use the Role Management Tool to install or configure Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.

Vijay points out that .NET 3.5 will be found under the Features install.

Indeed, there it was:

We selected the root check box and away we went.

Note that once .NET v3.5 is installed some of the updates that will follow will require reboots of the server.

Our Web server VM is now ready for an LoB that required .NET 3.5.

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 – Boot From An ISO Instead Of XP

We set up a user’s Windows XP Mode a while back, ran updates and left it until it was needed.

One thing we neglected to do was to keep a record of the XPMUser local admin account.

Now, the setup process for Windows XP Mode takes a fair amount of time, so we dropped an ISO of ERD Commander onto the machine (our clients have MDOP) and hooked it into the Windows XP Mode VM.

One catch however was this: How do we boot from that ISO?

The answer was found after some searching here:

• Windows Seven Forums: How to Boot from a CD or DVD in a Windows Virtual PC

Essentially, we disable the Integration Features in the VM’s settings, reboot, and hit the DEL key until we get into the VM’s vBIOS. We can then change the boot order for the task at hand, make the password change, and set things back once into the OS.

Total time spent was about 5-10 minutes.

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

Correction – SBS 2011 RTM via TechNet is Microsoft Action Pack TechNet

It seems that the links to the SBS 2011 download does not become active unless the organization has the Microsoft Action Pack Subscription with TechNet add-on or something called TechNet Plus Consumer Service Professional Pilot.

Now, there may be another caveat involved in that we are Microsoft Small Business Specialists as well and we are not sure if a standard MAPS subscriber will have access or if only SBSC based MAPS subscribers would.

Our previous post was not quite in line with the above.

• SBS 2011 RTM Is Now On TechNet

Our apologies for any confusion our post may have caused.

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

AOpen S145A Mini-ITX Chassis – Total Fail

We just replaced the last of the AOpen S145A Mini-ITX chassis that we deployed not too long ago. The call from our client was a little disconcerting since they heard a big popping noise from the computer’s area and a smell of something burning.

Fortunately they pulled the plug right away. We ended up pulling everything out of that chassis and dropping it into an Antec Minuet 350 and the board and hard drive came up unscathed.

• MPECS Inc. Blog: AOpen S145A Mini-ITX Chassis Power Supply Fans Failing

Our only supplier that had carried this product no longer does so we have no recourse for any RMA.

AOpen has not been helpful at all even when we requested them to ship us replacement power supplies at our cost.

This situation is unfortunate, and a reminder of our past bad experiences with AOpen motherboards back when, and leads us to avoid any AOpen branded products if we can help it.

The RMA situation may be a bit different for folks in the US or other geographical regions.

However, the cost of replacing all of those units with an In-Win or Antec product has been quite significant. Even if we had recourse to some sort of RMA procedure the costs associated with this situation would have been quite high for both our clients and us.

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 RTM Is Now On TechNet

UPDATE: This download is only available for MAPS subscribers along with one other TechNet access type.

• MPECS Blog: Correction – SBS 2011 RTM via TechNet is Microsoft Action Pack TechNet

Need the bits for SBS 2011 RTM?

Get them here: Microsoft TechNet.

Of course, a valid subscription is required! :)

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

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

Windows Live Writer

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SBS 2011 Setup – Do We Install The Distributed Scan Server Role?

As we are going along in the set up process of a new SBS 2011 VM we are discovering a number of new features that are enabled either in the base Windows 2008 R2 OS, or other components installed on SBS.

We are at the step in our setup guide, soon to be published for SBS 2011, where we install the Print Services Role on the server.

One of the options for installation with this role is the Distributed Scan Server role.

A bit of digging turned up the following:

• Microsoft TechNet: Print, Scan, and Fax Server Installation Guide

Quoting from the above article:

Scan Management. This snap-in enables you to manage scanners and scan processes. Scan processes allow you to define how to process scanned documents, and then route them to network folders, SharePoint sites, and to e-mail recipients.

Important

The Distributed Scan Server role requires scanners that support Distributed Scan Management (DSM). Windows Server 2008 R2 implements DSM and uses Web Services on Devices (WSD) technologies to integrate scanning devices into the system. As of October, 2010 there are no scanners available on the market that support DSM (emphasis ours). However, scanners that support DSM are expected in the future. For more information about DSM see Distributed Scan Management (DSM) in the MSDN Technical Library at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=204841.

What does that mean?

Well, since there are no devices supporting this service we will not be installing that role until we see our clients purchasing copiers or MFPs that support it.

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 Error – WBCommandletInBuiltTracing failed to start 0xC0000035

On this newly minted SBS 2011 RTM VM we have the following error:

Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-EventTracing/Admin
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-EventTracing
Date:          12/14/2010 8:34:13 AM
Event ID:      2
Task Category: Session
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Session
User:          DOMAIN\DomainAdmin
Computer:      SBS.DOMAIN.local
Description:
Session "WBCommandletInBuiltTracing" failed to start with the following error: 0xC0000035

And, according to the SBS 2011 Release Notes this is a known issue though not a show stopper:

 

Again, it is a good idea to check out the SBS 2011 Release Notes to be aware of any hiccups or other situations with the operating system so that nothing comes as a surprise.

UPDATE: After the image capture blunder, that domain is now toast.

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 – First RTM Bits Install

We just completed our first Answer File based install of the SBS 2011 RTM (Gold) bits:

The base install of the OS took up about 30GB:

The new SBS 2011 Console:

The cosmetic differences are certainly noticeable. But the functionality remains essentially the same.

The out of the box SBS Native Tools Console that we use a lot:

The screenshots are from a server VM that we are putting into production for a new hosted SBS client. We will be running a migration for an existing client from SBS 2003 this coming week and also migrating our own SBS v7 bits to the new SBS 2011 OS as soon as we can.

• SBS Blog: Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard Releases to Manufacturing
• TechNet: Release Documentation for Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard

Make sure to check out the Release Notes as there are some install caveats that need to be known like WSUS taking anywhere up to 24 hours to synchronize when SBS 2011 is installed into a Hyper-V VM.

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 2007 Error – OutOfBoundsIndex And Office64WW.xml

We are trying to get Office 2007 installed on that standalone server that we installed BESx on (BlackBerry label) a little while back.

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 Setup has stopped working.

An error occurred during the installation, and Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 setup was unable to complete.

. . . OutOfBoundsIndex
ProPlus.WW\Office64WW.xml

The Check online button does nothing to bring up any possibilities for a fix.

In the Remote Desktop Services server’s event logs we found:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Microsoft Office 12
Date:          12/13/2010 10:55:32 AM
Event ID:      5000
Task Category: None
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      TS-01.domain.local
Description:
The description for Event ID 5000 from source Microsoft Office 12 cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

Office12Setup
{10120000-0F00-0000-0000--0000000FF1CE}
12.0.4518.1014
X
OutOfBoundsIndex
ProPlus.WW\Office64WW.xml

Searching for OutOfBoundsIndex (Bing search) brings up a lot of links to the _same_ forum support request on other forums which does not include an option.

After sifting through the above search results we came upon this forum post:

• Microsoft Forums: Office – Can’t install Office 2007 on Server 2003 64bit

That post lead us to this one:

• Microsoft Forums: Office – Can't install Office 2007 on Windows Server 2003 SP2 64-bit

In this post we found the answer to our install problem.

Since this particular server had Office 2007 installed and running in Remote Desktop Services (Terminal Services) prior to the BlackBerry Enterprise Express install, we had uninstalled it prior to running the BESx install routine.

Once BESx and the extra Microsoft components had been installed a block was set into the registry to not allow Outlook to be installed on the same machine.

BlockOutlook12: 1

Well, we need Office for Word and Excel without Outlook.

So, we edited the registry as follows:

BlockOutlook12: 0

We reran Office setup and it again failed.

So, we went ahead and renamed the registry keys mentioned:

However, the key did not exist in the second location:

We then ran the Office setup and were greeted with:

So, we entered our key and set the following for Installation Options:

After clicking the Install Now:

And finally:

We then ran Word and Excel to make sure they fired up as expected:

The final step was to verify that they were being properly served by TS RemoteApps:

And:

Good to go!

We now know how to get RDS/TS and Office back onto a standalone server running BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express.

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

eFileCabinet Error – The physical directory for this drawer is missing . . .

We are working with one of our American accounting firms on upgrading a product called eFileCabinet.

It is a document management system that offers content encryption, search, open, and modify from within the client.

We set up the product on their SBS 2008 server about 20 months ago. Upgrading the product was quite cumbersome so we left things alone until now. The product was starting to mess up on keeping track of the various folders it was supposed to be managing.

Server Error

The physical directory for this drawer is missing or is no longer accessible from the server. Please contact support.

Now, we ended up running through a number of steps to update the existing version with the above error message being the end result when a user would try and open something within the eFileCabinet client.

When we contacted support, which has been excellent BTW, we figured out that the v4 install/upgrade had switched the service’s log on credentials from the restricted AD user we created to NETWORK SERVICE. Once we switched the eFileCabinet service back to the AD user, restarted the eFC service we had a functioning eFC client.

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

TechNet: Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011

We now have a new TechNet library site for SBS 2011:

• Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard

Note that the Support and Troubleshooting link has not gone live yet.

SBS 2011 Standard version along with all SBS related products will have Windows Small Business Server 2011 Premium Add-On SKU (near the bottom) for the additional Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard OS and SQL 2008 R2 Standard. Given that there was a separate SKU set for SBS 2008 Premium CALs, we can expect that the same will apply for this new Add-On SKU.

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

Thank You For Choosing Shaw – 15Mbit Extreme

A number of years ago, well before MPECS Inc. was conceived, we had an ISP connection that was cable based and was extremely fast for the day. Then along came Shaw.

Since things went sour back then Shaw has come _a long way_ to bringing both their services and their customer service levels up. Since we have a few clients that are fortunate enough to have cable access in their businesses we have had our fair share of working with Shaw over the years. Thus we were able to see the improvement in their services and customer service firsthand.

So, as of today we switched out our home 3Mbit DSL connection for a Shaw Extreme 15Mbit connection and boy oh boy is there a tangible difference in the way our Internet runs here:

That is 1.29MB/Second with the rate bouncing up and down between 1.56MB/Sec and 1.24MB/Sec. The download is a test download of Windows XP Mode from Microsoft.

This is a Call of Duty: United Offensive demo game download from Activision.com:

This one bounced around between 2.30MB/Sec down through 1.84MB/Sec with it settling in at close to the 2MB/Sec mark.

Now, this is all fine and dandy since the time here is just around when kids will be coming home from school. Since cable Internet is a shared pipe, the real test of the new setup will be to run the above download tests during “peak” usage times to see if we still have those speeds.

With speeds like this, ADSL service seems almost stone age at 6Mbit . . . though one of our local DSL providers has just started offering 15Mbit speeds.

And one more thing, with a Windows Home Server sitting on our network beside our old SBS 2003 R2 box there are no issues with Shaw’s dynamic IP as our homeserver.com DNS has already changed to the new IP address.

Our home network is a prime candidate for Microsoft’s new SBS 2011 Essentials “Aurora” product when it RTMs. This is because our local Outlook clients here connect to our company’s Exchange servers instead of the local SBS 2003 R2 Exchange 2003 to keep things simple. Monique and I share calendars, task lists, contacts, and more via Outlook and Public Folders.

We will probably end up running SBS 2011 Essentials on one of HP’s new MicrosServers or maybe building a small box to run the OS. We have not had any time to test the product in its beta form yet.

UPDATE: I managed to finger fumble publish the post in WLW.

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

Upgrading HP LaserJet’s Firmware via Windows Explorer

Download the newest firmware from HP’s site for the printer in question.

Open the firmware’s folder and extract the firmware.

Open a second Explorer Window and type ftp://192.168.40.5 (printer’s IP) and hit Enter. Double click on the PORT folder to open it.

Copy and past the .RFU file from the network folder to the FTP based folder.

The display on the front of the printer will display “Receiving Upgrade”. Once done the printer will reboot itself and show Ready.

On the printer’s management site we should then see the new firmware version displayed:

HP has come a long way from connecting either a parallel or USB cable and uploading the firmware file by a series of commands.

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