THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA

McAfee: Not all partners are cut out to be SaaS providers • The Channel:
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2013/06/14/mcafee_channel_update_summit/

Sister:  "Why does the dlink wireless camera have cloud in it's name?  Does the word cloud make it magically sell more?"

Me:  "Yes, it's like sex.  Slap the name on there and it sells."

Seriously there are a lot of things slapping the word cloud on them these days.

One more thing

http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2013/06/15/so-what-does-end-of-support-for-xp-mean.aspx

The end of support means that if you call into CSS/Microsoft support, you get no support unless you purchased an Extended support agreement.

Gen8 Microservers on Home Server Show 227 - YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI5SFY39LKE&feature=youtu.be

It only means that no more security updates will be released for XP/Office 2003.  It does not mean that KB articles will be removed (you can still find Windows 2000 era ones for example).  The WGA servers will not be shut down.

But it does mean that if a zero day comes out, you won't know if you are protected or not.

Wireless Emergency Alerts Coming to iPhone 5, 4S:
http://blogs.att.net/consumerblog/story/a7790136

Oh that's what that was on my iphone this morning. I don't remember a notification ahead of time.

Important! Discontinuation of Support for Windows XP and Office 2003

Dear CCH Customer:

CCH will begin phasing out support of Windows XP and Office 2003 in our software products beginning in tax year 2014. While the discontinuation of support is still over a year away, we are notifying you now so your firm will have adequate time to replace or upgrade any operating systems. In general, CCH software products will continue to support XP and Office 2003 through the 2013 and early 2014 product releases and any tax year 2013 updates for ProSystem fx Tax and CCH Axcess. Details on the final versions scheduled to support XP and Office 2003, as well as estimated release dates for the first versions that will not support these products, can be found at http://support.cch.com/answerdoc.aspx?id=sw42032 or in the table below.

Sunset Dates for Windows XP and Office 2003 Product Support

 
To best meet customer requirements, it is CCH's policy to extend and align our support of operating systems and other key products with the software vendors.  As such, we are aligning this decision with the expiration of Microsoft's extended support of these products scheduled to occur in April 2014. After this date, Microsoft will stop providing security patches or other updates to Windows XP and Office 2003, and Microsoft will no longer investigate any issues with these versions of the products.
 
Please feel free to contact Support at Contact Us or call 1-800-PFX-9998 (1-800-739-9998), option 3, if you have any questions.

Find answers to your CCH questions in our Knowledge Base at http://support.cch.com/answers/.

Sincerely,

CCH, a part of Wolters Kluwer

"Donatelli also called the HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 "awesome" for younger people, especially with a starting price of about $450."

http://www.crn.com/news/data-center/240156605/hp-partners-excited-about-moonshot-servers-not-so-much-microserver-gen8-servers.htm?pgno=1

"It could be a tough SMB sale, said Fred Moore, managing partner at Moore Computing, a St. Louis-based HP SMB partner who's typical customer has about 40 users on a network"

A microserver is a fantastic lab box as well as a great micro client box.  It should be considered a "tough sale" for a 40 user firm.   Bottom line folks, choose the right platform for the right solution. 

If you are a former Home Server, now Windows 2012 Essentials using storage spaces, make sure you install the June update rollup.

In it, it includes a hotfix that sounds like a lot of fact patterns I've seen discussed.

Storage space cannot be repaired or disks are marked as retired incorrectly when you use Storage Spaces in Windows 8 or in Windows Server 2012:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2842575

It's included in this update:

Windows RT, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012 update rollup: June 2013:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2845533

Cloud Security, Privacy and Reliability Trends Study: A Silver Lining in Services Adoption - Cloud Computing | Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/trustworthycomputing/archive/2013/06/11/cloud-security-privacy-and-reliability-trends-study-a-silver-lining-in-services-adoption.aspx


On privacy:
 62% of respondents said that their levels of privacy protection increased as a result of moving to the cloud

For example:
 61% of SMBs said both the frequency and length of downtime has decreased since moving to the cloud

As an aside my office folks think that Snowden is a bit of a Patriot and a traitor.  He betrayed the oath he took but we're glad he leaked what he did.  We need to know this in order to make decisions accordingly and not stick our heads in the sand about how our Country operates.

And Adrienne, I'd respect you more if you approved that comment I made to your blog the other day when you first started this series.  If you have an open comment section, post comments that people make to it.  It was about the impact of PRISM which broke news on that same day you posted about these surveys.

Right now in order to properly protect cloud deployments we need to do encryption.  Which at this time, is not that cheap for SMBs.  So how about you guys in the Office 365 camps hurry up that encryption of data at rest for hosted Exchange and make it affordable for all?  We need to encrypt date BEFORE it gets up to that cloud deployment.

HP ProLiant MicroServer - Servers & Blades | Official HP® Business Store:
http://shopping1.hp.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/WW-USSMBPublicStore-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewStandardCatalog-Browse;sid=bC3bPQ1mDDTaPVzAC4_EtNVpviPjTCL1j6Y=?CatalogCategoryID=H20Q7EN5z88AAAEuEQIsTi_9&jumpid=em_pnllite_us-us_smb_essn-iss_2070650_hprbp_us_MO3999_offer1_HP-ProLiant-MicroServer-Gen8_061013&dimid=EMID_1170844702&oid=10097308

and there's a new Gen8 version of the HP microserver

HP iLO Mobile App - Download. Connect. Manage:
http://h18013.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/ilo/mobile/index.html

Windows 8 and .Net Framework 3.5 - Ask the Core Team - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2012/05/14/windows-8-and-net-framework-3-5.aspx

On your 2012 systems that are behind a WSUS machine, do yourself a favor and launch gpedit.msc on the 2012 server and look for

To allow administrators to manage these scenarios, a new Group Policy setting was introduced in Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012: "Specify settings for optional component installation and component repair”, located under Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System


Ensure "contact windows update directly" is selected otherwise your .net 3.5 ain't gonna get installed too easily on a server 2012 box and it says you need to supply an alternative source.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2012/05/14/windows-8-and-net-framework-3-5.aspx

Yes I could download the iso but this is on the parent hyperV where the OS was installed from a thumb drive.
(.net 3.5  needed for HP management software)

More info here - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh975396.aspx

PR release:   Microsoft unveils what's next for SMB IT:

New Orleans - June 3, 2013

At TechEd North America 2013, Microsoft announced that Windows 2012 R2 Essentials is no longer the Red Headed Step child of Server land but is an actual role on Windows 2012 R2 Standard and DataCenter editions.

In a statement by Server & Tools Corporate Vice President Brad Anderson, he stated "I can't WAIT until I can run Remote Web Access on our DataCenter edition of Windows 2012 R2.  I've been asking for this ability for YEARS!  Essentials and RWA rock and will be a key building block to bring easy password synchronization between an on premises server and Office 365 and hosted email for small to medium firms.  If you still want to deploy it as the red headed step child that you know and love as it's own separate SKU, you can still do that, but now, you can do like I do and deploy Datacenter edition and enable the Essentials role so that I can have RWA available to larger deployments as well.   Iain MacDonald is stoked that he'll be able to demo remote printing through the RWA portal on stage without the demo failing!  Look for more details as well as being able to kick the tires on the bits at the end of June when we release the public preview at the BUILD conference."

For more information, sign up to be informed about a public preview at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/dn205292.aspx?CR_CC=200142594

For more on this topic, check out the third tier blog post as well http://www.thirdtier.net/2013/06/teched-server-essentials-2012-r2-announcement/

From the comments on the ehlo blog....

"A warning to anyone running Exclaimer Mail Disclaimers:  the RU1 patch will stop your disclaimers from working.  I've spoken to Exclaimer and have confirmed this is an issue but they don't have a fix yet.  The workaround is to uninstall RU1...."

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/05/29/released-update-rollup-1-for-exchange-server-2010-sp3.aspx

And in other breaking news, my first tomatoes are starting to be ready (yes some of those are yellow, not red)

The big one is "mortgage lifter" so named because the guy selling the seeds/plants paid off his mortgage.

Apparently "crowd sourcing" is the new name for "have your family give you cash for your birthday so you can buy what you really need"?

Chip In: New way to help students get great tech for college - The Fire Hose - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/firehose/archive/2013/06/04/chip-in-new-way-to-help-students-get-great-tech-for-college.aspx

I just thought that was funny.

http://windowsitpro.com/windows-server-2012/new-features-windows-server-2012-r2

If you have a chance, watch some of the teched live streaming.  I'm a fan of the security themed sessions. 

But this won't be a service pack coming out for sure.  I don't expect it to be a free release like 8.1 is. 

There's a lot of changes in HyperV

If you are running Exchange 2010 sp2....

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/05/29/released-update-rollup-1-for-exchange-server-2010-sp3.aspx

It's always interesting to dig through the comments on the EHLO blog

"Still waiting for the soft-delete issue to be fixed for SP2. Is an update rollup for SP2 coming? We can't schedule a schema update for other reasons"

"@Paul I logged a call with MS to obtain a hotfix for the soft delete issue under SP2 v6. I asked if they would fix this in UR7 but was advised they are leaving SP2 buggy and not releasing anymore fixes for it. You need to move to SP3 to obtain further fixes :S"

Want to know how to install the WSUS role on Essentials?

Robert Pearman has the details:

http://titlerequired.com/2013/05/31/enabling-wsus-on-windows-server-2012-essentials/

FAQ] Require Windows 2012 Server to install updates and - Microsoft Partners Forum:
http://partnersupport.microsoft.com/en-us/mpndataplat/forum/mpncatwinsvr-mpnws2012/faq-require-windows-2012-server-to-install-updates/1c383728-6d77-4efa-9034-e0e1880dd899
Forum Moderator
[FAQ] Require Windows 2012 Server to install updates and reboot at certain time

Issue:

Require Windows 2012 Server to install updates and reboot at certain time


Solution

You can set the following registry key to force the Windows server 2012 to reboot.


Registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

Value: AlwaysAutoRebootAtScheduledTime

Type: REG_DWORD


Value data: 1 (force a restart)

 
For more information, please go to the following KB:

How to force automatic restarts after important updates in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2835627