SBS 2003 R2 – WSUS SP Blue Shield Fix

We had one of our SBS 2003 R2 Premium boxes go blue shield on us after WSUS v3 was service packed.

As we combed through the various settings to make sure they were set to the SBS 2003 R2 specific ones, we ended up needing to recreate the groups in the WSUS console, set the Products updated to all, and reset the sync schedule to automatic.

After combing through all of those settings though, we still had a blue shield.

The fix ended up being the SQL script that we needed to run in the following Knowledgebase article under the second method:

• Microsoft KB 945985: Software updates are not managed by Windows Small Business Server 2003 Update Services after you upgrade to Windows Server Update Services 3.0 Service Pack 1

After running the script we received the following output:

Changed database context to 'SUSDB'.
Using SUSDB
No work to do.  Record already exists.
Automatic Approval For Detection is already enabled
Target group of approval for detection is not "AllComputers"
Inserting "AllComputers" group
"AllComputers" Group added
Critical update is not in approval for detection classification
Critical update is inserted to approval for detection classification
Security update is not in approval for detection classification
Security update is inserted to approval for detection classification
Service pack is not in approval for detection classification
Service pack is inserted to approval for detection classification

We then went into the SBS Console and clicked on the Update Services node and after a few minutes were greeted with:

We now have our WSUS integration back.

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

CCH Taxprep Windows 7 Patch for Prior Non-Compatible Versions

CCH has released a patch that must be run on any version of Taxprep that is not supported on Windows 7 to enable that prior version to run on Windows 7.

• Taxprep Compatibility with the New Windows 7 Operating System - Update Available for Prior Versions of Taxprep

Up to now, we have been running all non-compatible versions in Windows XP Mode.

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

It Pays To Pay Attention To All Accounts Online

We had a mysterious branch to branch transfer of funds out of our business account on January 20th.

Now, if we were not into our accounts on a daily basis, we may not have caught the transaction until the bookkeeper updated our books.

But, we do check our accounts regularly just because.

Well, we saw the transaction, called the bookkeeper, and ran through all of the transactions we did that day and could not find any reference to the several thousand dollar transaction.

Yes, _several thousand dollars_!

In order to get the situation resolved, the only resort we had was to call the bank and ask them What the Chicken (previous blog post) was going on?!?

They in turn put a “trace” on the transaction. Well, here we are a little over a week later and the money has been credited back into our account.

The bank representative that we spoke to today said that the funds were “accidentally” pulled from our account.

So, if we did not do our own due diligence, the banking representative indicated that the bank’s internal auditing system would have picked up on the mistake . . . at some point.

In the mean time, we were unable to utilize those funds if and when they were needed.

No matter how digital we go with everything, we still need to pay close attention to what we do with our personal identity online and pay very close attention to our bank accounts and credit cards online.

No system is foolproof, and no system is exempt from “Garbage in ---> Garbage Out” (Wikipedia).

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

Some Rocking SBS 2008 Books!

For one, there is mine: :)

• Microsoft SBS 2008 Blueprint (SMB Nation)

A lot of the background to the “why” we do things the way we do in our SBS 2008 set up process can be found in the book. Note that if you want to have the book also signed by me, please pull the contact details from our site and we can arrange something to have me sign it too!

Between the book and this blog, you will have a pretty solid foundation to work from.

Besides my book, there are a few others that are very important for any SBSer to have:

• Eriq Neale’s SBS 2008 Unleashed (Amazon with Author’s reward tag)
• 
• David Overton’s SBS 2008 – Installation, Migration, and Configuration (Packt Publishing)
• 
• Craig Zacker: SBS 2008 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant (MS Press site)
• 
•  Charlie Russel and Sharon Crawford: SBS 2008 Administrator’s Companion (Amazon)
• 

With these books in hand, anyone new to SBS or even those of us that have been working with SBS for a while will be able to tap into an awesome knowledge pool right at our fingertips!

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

An Intel Modular Server Has Arrived Here

Recently, a lot of our posts have focused on the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 cluster that we prepared here in the shop. We went on to deliver and set up that cluster on site a little over a week a go.

Things have been going quite will there and they have noticed a _huge_ increase in their overall network and line of business application performance.

Since we were in close contact with a few key Intel folks during the whole configuration process we dropped the question about having an Intel Modular Server sent to us for demonstration purposes.

We have received a base demo unit that requires some tweaking as far as the setup is concerned before we can move forward with it.

Thanks to Colt Flitton at Intel that put us in touch with David Perez who is on the Intel Modular Server team. Between the two of them we received awesome guidance on working with the IMS product.

And now, we will have a demo IMS here in the shop for the next month courtesy of Intel!

We are hoping that time allows for the following things to happen with the IMS here in the shop:

• A series of cluster configuration LiveMeetings.
• The SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 live migration LiveMeeting.
• Got any ideas? :)

We are pretty excited to have the unit here and are looking forward to developing some good Hyper-V clustering resources while it is here!

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 Server Board S3420GP Board Mount Hole And CPU Cooling Fan Conflict

One of the mounting holes for the server board is located quite close to the CPU:

A quick look at the two holes for the CPU heatsink assembly leads one to observe that the hole where the screw goes may be hidden . . . or, at least it does after the fact:

This particular board has the various sockets and slots arranged quite differently than previous uniprocessor server boards.

Now, it is our preference to install the heatsink before the board is installed into the chassis. We have one half of a large Styrofoam 30 hard drive carrier tray that we use for the board to sit on while installing the heatsink.

We do this because there is a significant amount of down force required to seat the heatsink mounts which caused most boards to flex _a lot_ while sitting in the chassis.

It looks like we will not be able to do that for any of the servers we build on the Intel server board S3420GP series.

On the plus side, the new heatsink configuration that comes with the Intel Xeon Processor 3400 Series does not require that much force to install on the board.

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 2008 Physical And Hyper-V – Set Up the Domain Time Structure

One of the things we discovered in our SBS Hyper-V based cluster deployment was the VM’s ability to time themselves all over the place.

In fact, the way we discovered the problem was through a total collapse of the just built production cluster.

SBS 2008 was installed and configured, the Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 OSs were installed and configured, and all of our validation tests were run successfully.

We had the cluster online and were working on setting up the additional servers when things just stopped.

It turns out that time.windows.com is _not_ a reliable time source for one and the other is we needed to run a series of w32tm commands on each member of the domain in order for things to run properly.

On SBS 2008 or the PDCe:

• w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:pool.ntp.org /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes
• w32tm /config /update
• net stop w32time && net start w32time
• w32tm /resync /rediscover

Once the above commands have been run on SBS or the PDC, it may take a bit before the settings settle into place.

The following command will tell us what the time service is up to as far as where the machine is getting its time from:

• w32tm /query /source

On any other DCs the following needs to be run:

• w32tm /config /syncfromflags:domhier /reliable:no
• w32tm /config /update
• net stop w32time && net start w32time
• w32tm /resync /rediscover

On any member servers:

• w32tm /config /syncfromflags:domhier
• w32tm /config /update
• net stop w32time && net start w32time
• w32tm /resync /rediscover

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

Blog Question E-mail Link

A while back we did a bit of a shuffle of our e-mail accounts when we jumped on the Office 2010 Beta bandwagon.

Well, in that process, it seems that I missed reconfiguring the BlogQuestion@mpecsinc.ca account.

Going through that account I see some questions in there that I have not addressed.

I do apologize for that and will correct the e-mail setup here so that I do not miss another one.

And to those that have posted a question via the e-mail address, I will be responding to them!

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

Exchange 2007 Platforms, Editions, and Versions

This handy little set of tables gives us a quick at-a-glance view of the version/build numbers for Exchange 2007.

• TechNet: Exchange Server 2007: Platforms, Editions, and Versions

The document has not been updated yet for Exchange 2007 SP2 and SP2 with RU1 installed yet, but those numbers are to be found in the comments section.

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

Practice CS 2009_2_4 Upgrade – Addendum – Uninstall and Reinstall Required

It looks like the last post on Practice CS was a bit too premature.

We needed to uninstall Practice CS 2009.2.3 from the server, reboot, and reinstall.

We ran into a problem with the mapped drive letter during the install of 2009.2.4. It refused to accept the mapped drive so we needed to use the UNC path \\SBS\Programs\WinCSi before we could get the product installed.

Once we did, we sent out an e-mail to the client update Setup.exe file and all was good to go:

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

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

Windows Live Writer

Practice CS – 2009.2.3 Upgrade – Check The Site For Newer!

One of our clients received a CD from Thomson Reuters with the new Practice Creative Solutions upgrade. The version received on disk was 2009.2.3.

The version up required an update to the SQL database that is running on SBS 2008.

The initial run at updating was done from a workstation by one of the owners with the product having an error consistently in the upgrade process.

We ended up running the upgrade on the server with success, but it required a couple of reboots to get it there.

We then needed to log onto one of the workstations with the domain admin account to run the upgrade. But, once the upgrade finished, there was a prompt to install an update that consistently failed.

From there, Practice CS would try and update itself to the newest version, but that too required changes to the SQL database that needed to be run from the server.

Long story short, go to the Creative Solutions Professional Suite site, log on with the firm’s account, and download the newest version from their site.

As of this writing, version 2009.2.4 was on the site.

Download and extract the newest version. Install it on the server and make sure everything runs correctly. Reboots _will_ be required to get things moving along smoothly. From there update the workstations.

UPDATE: It turned out that we needed to do a lot more than expected to get the newer version to work: Practice CS Addendum.

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 Modular Server – File Copy Performance From/To The Same Virtual Disk

As we are working our way through the implementation of the Intel Modular Server based Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 cluster, there are little things we have caught our eye here and there.

This is one of them:

The above is the tail end of of a content copy of various sized database files from a source folder into a subfolder to preserve the originals and keep them handy as a just-in-case.

The average copy speed was 130MB/Second as the copy process peaked at about 160MB/Second sustained for a good chunk of the copy process for a 3.2GB database file.

The Virtual Disk being used is sitting on four 146GB Seagate Savvio 15K.6 SAS drives. The RAID configuration for the Virtual Disk is RAID 10 across the four.

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

Some Really Good Windows 7 God Mode Hacks

Fellow MVP Tim Barrett has come up with a pretty good list of God Mode hacks here:

• NoGeekLeftBehind: Permanent Link to More Windows 7 God Mode Hacks

There are a lot of little things in the blog post that can be put together to improve a technician’s efficiency big time.

Check it out! :)

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

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

Windows Live Writer

ExchangeDefender – Adding New Domains In ED5

As with any new setup, there will be hiccups.

For ExchangeDefender Service Providers, we would normally add a new client’s domain or domains via the SP console on OWN’s site.

With ED 5, we actually need to log on to the ED Admin panel, click the _Find_ button, then click the Add User/Domain wizard.

While the Add Wizard is still available in the SP Admin panel, it is the old wizard and not to be used.

Also, the script to run on the server must be downloaded via the new wizard as the content produced by the script has changed to an XML output as opposed to the old TXT file. The produced XML file can be uploaded directly into the Add wizard and parsed from there.

The link on the set up guide for the VBS is actually the old script and is not compatible with the wizard found in ED’s Admin page.

Once we had all of that straightened out, the new process is actually quite well done.

ExchangeDefender is our product of choice for e-mail hygiene and continuity.

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 Modular Server – Resolving Java Struggles – Install Firefox

Sometimes, we are so used to doing things a certain way, we get caught in a box.

This is one time where the struggles with the Java setup in the IMS console falls into that category.

Use another browser?!? ;)

Okay, so, Windows 7 with IE 8 was virtually impossible to get things working 100% without really working through the various security settings.

So, since we started using Firefox specifically for remotely managing Dell servers via the DRAC, it dawned that perhaps the issues we were having getting a KVM session up and running in IE would be resolved the same way.

They were resolved.

While this has improved our KVM connection experience, we are still running into the Session Ticket error (previous blog post). :(

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