Upgrade Rule of Thumb

One of the most important things we can do for our clients is get to know their industry.

This is especially important for those clients who experience an ebb and flow in their business. It is even more important for those who experience a Bay of Fundy like tidal shift in their business.

A good example of an industry that experiences extremes in their business flow would be our accounting firm clients.

If we walked into one of our accounting firm clients today and suggested a major server upgrade, what kind of reaction would our client contact have? Especially since this is their high season.

Or, another possible suggestion that would fall flat is a version upgrade for a software product.

It is ultimately our responsibility to make sure that our client's systems and infrastructure are running at their best during their high season.

Thus, it is during these high season times that we tend to keep things as static as possible, holding off any significant changes until the early summer in the case of accounting firms.

If something does happen at a client site that is in the midst of their high season, then they will get priority response and problem resolution as well.

By knowing and understanding our client's industry and their particular business nuances, we can build a very solid long term business relationship. This is because ultimately our client will grow to trust that we have their best interests at heart.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SMTP Server Remote Queue Length Alert on SBS

We just received one of these emails from an SBS box with the following error:

Alert on SBS at 2/1/2008 6:24:43 PM

A large number of messages are pending in the e-mail server send queue.
Verify that you have Internet connectivity. If you can view Web sites normally, contact your Internet service provider (ISP) to determine if there is a problem with their e-mail server.

You can disable this alert or change its threshold by using the Change Alert Notifications task in the Server Management Monitoring and Reporting taskpad.

Sitting in the Exchange queue were a rather large number of postmaster@mydomain.com emails waiting to be sent. In some cases, there were multiples upon multiples of the same emails.

A search brought up the following Knowledgebase article: KB 886208: Exchange queues fill with many non-delivery reports from the postmaster account in Small Business Server 2003.

Within the article we find:

CAUSE
This issue occurs if your computer is the target of a reverse non-delivery report (NDR) attack.

Oh really?

Further down the article we have:

MORE INFORMATION
People who send UCE to e-mail recipients have discovered a method to work around the e-mail filters that are built into many e-mail messaging systems. In this scenario, the people who send UCE try to take advantage of the delivery status notification functionality in the e-mail server. In a typical e-mail messaging system, an NDR delivery status notification message is generated when an e-mail message cannot be delivered. Additionally, this NDR message typically contains the content of the undeliverable message. This behavior follows the RFC standards. Therefore, most messaging systems behave this way.

The person who sends UCE uses this NDR message to deliver UCE. This kind of UCE delivery is known as a reverse NDR attack. This kind of UCE delivery works in the following way:

1. Unsolicited commercial e-mail is created with the destination recipient's e-mail address in the Sender field of that e-mail message.
2. A fictitious user name together with your domain name is added as the recipient of this e-mail message.
3. This unsolicited commercial e-mail message is sent to your domain.
4. Your e-mail server accepts this message because it is sent to your domain.
5. Your e-mail server cannot deliver this message because the recipient does not exist.
6. Your e-mail server sends an NDR to the person who appears as the sender of this message. In this scenario, the person who appears as the message sender is the external recipient that receives the NDR from the postmaster account. The person who sends the UCE puts the intended recipient of the UCE in the Sender field of the message. Therefore, the intended recipient receives the NDR from the postmaster account in your e-mail domain.
7. The NDR is sent to the external e-mail address from the postmaster address of your domain. This NDR may contain the original UCE message.
8. The unsuspecting user might read this NDR together with the UCE message. Therefore, the UCE message has been delivered successfully to the external recipient who is listed in the Sender field of the original e-mail message.

It never seizes to amaze how the spammer's creativity never ceases.

We need to configure recipient filtering:

1. To configure recipient filtering, follow these steps:1. Start the Exchange System Manager tool.
2. Expand Global Settings, right-click Message Delivery, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Recipient Filtering tab, click to select the Filter recipients who are not in the Directory check box, and then click OK.
   
• 
4. When you receive the following message, click OK:
   Connection, Recipient, and Sender Filtering must manually be enabled on specific SMTP virtual server IP address assignments as they are not enabled by default. For more information on how to enable any of the above filtering types, read their associated help.
5. Expand Servers, expand your computer, expand Protocols, expand SMTP, right-click Default SMTP Virtual Server, and then click Properties.
6. On the General tab, click Advanced.
7. Click Edit, click to select the Apply Recipient Filter check box, and then click OK three times.


• 

  Note that the SBS Internal IP Is Normally Shown - Changed for display purposes to (All Unassigned)

Now, once we have done this, there is a caveat:

After you enable recipient filtering, a certain technique may be used against your Exchange server to gather information about the valid e-mail addresses in your organization. This technique is known as a Directory Harvest Attack.

We are directed to a further MS KB article: KB 842851: SMTP tar pit feature for Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

We are directed to make the following registry setting:

TarpitTime

Strangely, this setting was already in place on this particular SBS box.

Further directed reading and tools:

• MS KB 324958: How to block open SMTP relaying and clean up Exchange Server SMTP queues in Windows Small Business Server
• MS KB 823866: How to configure connection filtering to use Realtime Block Lists (RBLs) and how to configure recipient filtering in Exchange 2003
• MXToolbox.com
• Enter your domain.com name and MX Lookup
• Click the Diagnostics button for the server to test for open relay.
• From the Down under with Microsoft Technology and Consulting Services blog: How does a "Reverse NDR" attack work?

This looks like something to keep an eye on and possibly yet another configuration step for us to add to our SBS setup list.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

QuickBooks 2008 Warning

We have a client that has reached critical mass with their QuickBooks (QB) 2008 installation.

They have been running on QB 08 for about a month now.

There were some static issues at one workstation that caused some hiccups in the company file. They were rectified by running the built-in utilities to clean up the data files.

Today, they were running some cheques and noticed that the numbers were wrong.

Upon further investigation, and a long support call with Intuit, there are a large number of dropped deposits, invoices, bill payments, and more in the time period since the upgrade to QB 08.

Apparently there are some known issues in this new version according to the Intuit support technician our client was working with.

These issues are also a part of the built in QB 08 backup system. So, they cannot go back any number of degrees.

We call it the First Version Blues with the customer being the "beta code" tester on the front line. Only in this case, issues with the product could end up costing a business its livelihood and possibly its life.

In this case, our client has a good backup in place of their QB 07 files. We will be backing them off to QB 07 on the advice of Intuit!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Mental Health Day

Lately, we have been putting in some extremely long hours.

In our company, we have a policy that we do not work Sundays unless there is an absolute need such as a weekend install or emergency.

We have not been able to maintain that rule as a result of the many client deadlines that required huge preparation beforehand over the last three weeks.

Yesterday was the first day we had no critical client needs in that time period.

So, we rescheduled anything that needed to be for that day and shut the shop down for the full day.

For those of us who are reward oriented, having a full day off with pay is definitely a neat surprise.

Perhaps, for us smaller shops this type of reward is easier to do. But, one can also reward one's hard working technicians in larger organizations with the same.

When we run our own small business, it is very important to recognize poor performance as a result of fatigue. It is not too difficult for smaller shops to get caught up in client needs while forgetting the health and well being of our employees and ourselves.

This is especially true in a small shop where everyone really enjoys what they are doing and are passionate about the services and products they provide. For some, our wife/husband or girlfriend/boyfriend can provide the AWA (Audible Warning Alarm) when the limits are close or breached! ;)

Even then, the best of us can reach the edge of burn-out without realizing it until it is too late.

So, even though we have more client deadlines to deal with, we take the opportunity to rejuvenate, regenerate, and refresh our selves by doing other things. And that is very important: No reading tech or researching tech! The time should be for other things: Like spending time with our family, significant others, or some sort of leisure activities.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SBS and Intel SE7520JR2 Warranty Replacement Experience

One of the worst warranty replacement experiences for us ever was when we needed to replace a defective Intel SE7505VB2 on a production SBS 2000 server.

Needless to say, things did not go very well. We made sure to have the replacement board's BIOS level and settings identical to the outgoing board.

Once we had things back together and the OS was booting, we hit a BSOD ... and hit a BSOD ... and hit a BSOD.

Nothing we did brought the server back. We even put the defective board back into the system (on board RAID controller was flaky) and tried to get the server back up.

We ended up spending a huge chunk of time in recovery mode to bring back that SBS 2K server.

This time around, there was a little of that "once bitten" fear for this particular project.

We are working on a 2U, SR2400 series chassis with the SE7520JR2 board in it. The board's USB ports are done for. Nothing USB would be recognized in the OS.

Once we swapped the board out, we booted the system up and were greeted with a BIOS beep code of 3. This error indicates a problem with memory.

We reseated the 4 x 1GB Kingston sticks of RAM and tried again. Still, we received the 3 beep code.

We ended up pulling 2GB out of the server to see if that worked and it did.

For whatever reason, Intel shipped this board to us with the factory original BIOS installed once we were into it.

So, we booted to a USB flash drive with the current BIOS on it and flashed away.

After booting back into the new BIOS, we changed the settings as appropriate and rebooted again. We shut the server down as soon as we saw the POST screen.

In went the extra sticks of RAM. After firing up the server and the diagnostic LEDs started dancing we knew we were in.

This time around, we now have a happy SBS 2K3 Premium SP1 server back online. *phew*

And, our USB ports are now working.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Outlook 2003 - Error - MAPI32.DLL is corrupt or the wrong version.

We were working with a client system that had a copy of Office 2007 Trial on it.

We removed the trial version of Office. After Office 2007 was uninstalled and we went to start Outlook 2003 we ended up with:

Microsoft Office Outlook

Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. MAPI32.DLL is corrupt or the wrong version. This could have been caused by installing other messaging software. Please reinstall Outlook.

Note that the error message indicates that we are supposed to reinstall Outlook. So, we ran a repair and then a reinstall of Office 2003 Professional both of which did not work.

After searching around for a fix, we came up with the following Microsoft Knowledgebase article: KB926196: Error message when you try to start Outlook 2003: "MAPI32.DLL is corrupt or the wrong version".

Here is the proper fix:

1. Start Windows Explorer.
2. Locate and then open the following folder on your computer: C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Msmapi\1033
3. Right-click the MSMapi32.dll file, and then click Rename.
• Note The file (Msmapi32.dll) that you are renaming differs from the file (Mapi32.dll) that is mentioned in the error message.
4. Type Msmapi32.old, and then press ENTER to rename the file.
5. Start Outlook 2003.

The above method worked.

And, we have learned a little lesson here: A little time invested in searching out the error would have saved us the repair/reinstall time and had our client up and running a lot quicker.

It also reminds us that product error messages can be quite situational and time limited in their orientation. When the above message was written into Outlook 2003, the possible conflicts caused by Office 2007 were unknown to the product teams.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SBS - CEICW Fails - ISA will not start Event 14109

You know it has been a very long day when the CEICW wizard fails on the Firewall Configuration and Web Certificate portions and there is no clue as to why.

The icwlog.txt found in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Windows Small Business Server\Support\ only shows somewhat generic errors about the Firewall Rules and an inability to bind to port 443.

It just so happens that this SBS box is a dual Xeon 5345 series box. That means eight (8) cores.

Looking into the logs, we find the reason:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Microsoft ISA Server Control
Event Category: None
Event ID: 14109
Date: date
Time: time
User: N/A
Computer: computer name
Description: The ISA Server Standard Edition cannot run. Either the server is using more than 4 processors, or it is configured to use the Active Directory service. Use the source location 100.281.4.0.2161.50 to report the failure. Contact Microsoft (R) Corporation for more information.

And the fix?

Obtain the latest ISA 2004 Standard Edition service pack.

Microsoft Knowledgebase: KB884569: The ISACTRL and WSPSRV services do not start when you install ISA Server 2004 on a multiprocessor computer.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Bringing the Barn Identity with You

Most of us operate on the same level: It is the little things that can make or break any kind of relationship.

The business relationship is not any different.

The little things are really what can set us apart from the other guy:

• Microsoft Small Business Specialist (MSBS) designation.
• MSBS Logo on our proposals, quotes, correspondence.
• Calling "quiet" clients to check up on things and see if they need anything.
• Picking up that box for warranty work at no charge.
• Passing along some of the NFR software and Swag that we receive from vendors to our clients.
• Removing all of the boxes and garbage associated with a delivery of product or products.
• Taking the time to make sure we haven't missed anything before leaving by checking in with our client contact and their users.
• Being there Monday morning after a weekend fresh SBS install or major upgrade to train on the new system or facilitate the transition to an upgraded system.

When a technician or technicians are on-site, it is very important that they leave the locations they visit at least in the same condition as they found it. Even better, they make sure the client locations are better organized and cleaner than when they first arrived.

This principle really comes home when we need to walk into a new client location where the previous I.T. shop's technicians left a total mess in the server closet and in and around the network.

These principles apply in virtually any industry professionals:

• Journeyman Mechanics
• Journeyman Plumbers
• Journeyman Electricians
• Rough, Framing, Finishing Carpenters
• Foundation Formers
• Etc...

One can tell a lot about the professional by the condition of their tools, their vehicle, and the condition of their client's products and projects after they finish working for that client.

The school of "Good Enough" just does not cut it here.

The Barn Identity is a previous blog post that delves deeper into personal professional presentation and self, employer, and client respect.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Latop will not power up when the power button is pressed

Ever get one of these calls: "Hi, my laptop won't power up. I can't seem to do anything to get it to start".

While it does not happen too frequently, it does happen, and there does not seem to be a limitation to one manufacturer.

The only fix for this problem is to pull the battery and the A/C and leave the laptop sit for about 5 minutes.

After the time period, plug the A/C in only, and press the power button. The laptop fires up with no issues.

Once the machine is up, have the user power it down, then plug the battery back in.

They should be good to go from there.

We have seen Toshiba, Acer, Lenovo (today's call), and others do this.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Setting the Num Lock Key for Logon

There is a registry setting that one can change to enable or disable the Num Lock key for the user at the logon screen.

InitialKeyboardIndicators

For users on desktop PCs, setting this value to 2 in order for the Num Lock key to be lit before logon is generally a good idea.

For laptop users however, the opposite is true since in most cases the "number pad" is embedded on the actual user's keyboard. Thus, when the user goes to logon to the network, they get an unexpected character from that section of the keyboard. It also gets a little annoying to have to use the Fn key on the laptop every time they logon to turn Num Lock off.

For laptop users, we set this key to "0".

One of our Acer laptops came back from a visit to the warranty depot with this setting enabled for some reason.

From the Microsoft Knowledgebase: How to enable the NUM LOCK key for the logon screen.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Intel SS4000-E NAS Firmware Update 1.4

We are in the process of updating the firmware on a client's SS4400-E NAS device.

The newest firmware gives us a number of enhanced features, with the essential one being the ability to plug in 1TB drives.

The firmware update cannot be run from within the standard Web interface on the NAS though. One must go through a particular procedure to follow through on it:

1. Download the 1.4 firmware file from the SS4000-E Download Page .
2. Extract the files from the downloaded file and save them to your hard drive on your laptop, desktop, server, etc.
3. Backup the data on the SS4000-E to another system. (Important to note that data on the array(s) will be destroyed during this process!)
4. Shutdown the Intel® Entry Storage System SS4000-E system
5. Unplug all hard disks installed in the Intel® Entry Storage System SS4000-E system.
6. Boot up the Intel® Entry Storage System SS4000-E system
7. Login to the system by browsing the main web page:
1. http://Intel Entry Storage System SS4000-E system’s IP Address/ (Ours defaulted back to 192.168.0.101 - so we set the workstation's IP to static .102)
2. NOTE: this will display the system initialization screen, not the login screen. DO NOT insert the hard drives.
8. Enter the following url to display the firmware upgrade page:
1. https://Intel Entry Storage System SS4000-E system’s IP Address/system_init_vendorF.cgi
9. Select the v1.4 software package file (fs-bc-v1.4-b709.pkg) to update the flash firmware. (We put it on the desktop of the system we were on for simplicity)
10. After the previous step completes, the system should be rebooted but without the disks inserted. After the system completes the boot sequence, the disks can be inserted (one at a time while the system is running and wait for the disk LED to illuminate) and scanned for (scan for each disk after the LED illuminates) and the firmware reinstalled. If the firmware package is installed and the disks are reinserted prior to rebooting the system, the system will boot off the drives and not properly complete a clean install. The drives must be inserted while the system is running for this process to complete properly.

Note that the firmware update process takes a quite a while.

Also, once one logs in at the Management Web page, the NAS will have picked up a set of IP addresses from the internal DHCP server again. So, make sure to reset the workstation's IP back to DHCP after step 7.

All in all, the process went very smooth.

We will also now be utilizing the Active Directory integration on this particular NAS unit to manage user access. This feature simplifies data and folder permissions leaps and bounds over the built in Samba share structure.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SBS Install - Workstation Laundry and Professionalism

Part of what distinguishes us as professionals is in the way we do things and how things end up when we are done.

Some aspects of our professionalism are:

• We are meticulous
• Our results are consistent
• We keep extensive check lists (a blogged SBS example) for all aspects of the work we do.
• We utilize the Wiki feature in WSS v3 in a side-by-side install on our own SBS boxes for:
• Procedural Manuals
• Client Relations Manuals
• Professionalism Manuals
• Technical Manuals
• We have that Wiki accessible via RWW
• We keep WSS based document libraries of all needed base scripts accessible to us via RWW
• Group Policy Software install scripts for Office 2007
• Custom logon batch files
• We keep WSS based image libraries of all screenshots needed for reference
• We keep WSS based folders available for our technicians to upload screenshots to along with some notes on them for later addition to the Wiki.
• Our policies and procedures (P&Ps) are well documented and available to our technicians all the time.
• Our technicians can comment on those P&Ps, updating the P&P Wikis on the go.

No matter what SBS fresh install we do or SBS install we walk into after the fact, our workstations, servers, shares, and other infrastructure aspects are as similar in their structure and appearance as we can get them within reason.

Maintaining consistency makes it much easier for any of our technicians to walk into a situation blind and know with relative confidence what is going on at any given client.

This is what distinguishes a professional from the one who flies by the seat of their pants.

We pay attention to the details.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Office 2007 Suite Grid - What is in what again?

It is a perennial question that all I.T. professionals get: "What is in what version of Office please?"

Here is a screenshot of the Office 2007 Suite product comparison grid:

Office 2007 Suites Comparison Grid

The original grid can be found here: 2007 Microsoft Office System suites.

Note that the step from Small Business Edition to Professional Edition is Microsoft Access. Since those are the most popular non-licensing versions we deal with, that is a good thing to remember.

Also, when selling OEM versions, we make a point of informing our clients that there is no accompanying media with OEM licenses and that it comes installed on a new system before the system leaves our shop. They can then order a copy of the media via a Web link in the license case for a small shipping fee.

Here is a link to our previous blog post on Windows Vista's editions: Windows Vista - Now ... Just Exactly What is in What Edition Again?!?

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Series Heads-Up - Dropping Like Flies

We are seeing a rash of failures on the Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 series drives.

Essentially they drop off causing the system to die, then an attempt to reboot brings up nothing for the user.

The drive spins up then sits there with the "tick of death". It sounds like the drive heads are jumping back and forth inside the drive. They are all doing the same thing with regards to the failures.

In some cases we can get data off of them, but in most we cannot. Swapping the electronics from a known good drive produces nothing. Even freezing them seems to get no where. It looks like there is an internal component of some sort failing in the drives.

The sizes we have been seeing are the following:

• 120GB ST3120021A, ST3120023A (PATA)
• 160GB ST3160023A (PATA)
• 120GB ST3120026AS (SATA)
• 160GB ST3160023AS (SATA)

There are a lot of those drives out there, so we will be paying particular attention to our client's system configurations.

This situation demonstrates why it is so important to have good backups in place.

• Seagate Technology: Barracuda 7200.7 Product Launch Brochure (link to a PDF).

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SBS - Speed up a reboot - command line services shutdown script

One of the ways to speed up an SBS reboot is to shutdown certain key services before clicking the Restart button on updates or when needing to manually reboot the server.

By downing the Exchange services, SMTP, and IIS beforehand, one will see a marked decrease in the amount of time the SBS box will take to reboot.

There are two versions of the batch file:

1. Local Console - shuts down IIS
2. Remote Console - leaves IIS alone so as to not break the RWW connection

Console Batch File

Copy and paste the following into a batch file called something like "ConsoleShutdown.bat" "ConsoleServicesOff.bat":

net stop mspop3connector
net stop msexchangeis
net stop msexchangemgmt
net stop resvc
net stop msexchangesa
net stop smtpsvc
net stop w3svc

Note that the first service for the POP3Connector does not need to be there if the feature is not being used. This applies for both versions of the batch file.

The order for shutting down the services is particularly important. Shut down a service that has a dependency first, and an error will be generated for each of the service's dependents.

Remote Batch File

Copy and paste the following into a batch file called something like "RemoteShutdown.bat" "RemoteServicesOff.bat":

net stop mspop3connector
net stop msexchangeis
net stop msexchangemgmt
net stop resvc
net stop msexchangesa
net stop smtpsvc

Note the absence of the last command to shutdown the IIS (W3SVC ) service!

It may not be a good idea to combine the scheduled reboot batch file (previous blog post) and these batch file commands just in case one of the services hangs while stopping.

Best schedule this batch file about 5 minutes before the reboot batch file depending on the speed of the SBS box. Give more time between the two batch files the older the SBS box is.

If something hangs in the first batch file, the -f Force option in the subsequent shutdown command will take care of it.

• XADM: Start and Stop Exchange Services from a Command Line

If you can suggest any further services to shutdown that will not adversely affect things before actually rebooting the server, please do feel free to add a comment with the net stop command! :)

We find the name of the service to be used in the net stop command by looking at the service's properties:

MSExchangeIS = Exchange Information Store Service

In the above example, our command would be: net stop msexchangeis [Enter]

Note that the commands in the batch file are not case sensitive. To start the services from the command line is just as simple: net start msexchangeis [Enter].

UPDATE 2008-02-15: Changed the name of the suggested batch files to better reflect what the batch will do. P.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.