THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA

Just my 2 cents but at the beginning I would add something like this to the section on hardware to be done BEFORE the installation is started:

Install BIOS upgrade if necessary

Install RAID firmware upgrade if necessary

Install hard drive firmware upgrade if necessary

Install any other firmware upgrades if necessary

Go into the BIOS Setup

While in the BIOS set the boot order

Turn on or off hardware assisted virtualization

Make any other necessary changes in the BIOS setup

Back up the raid configuration if the option is available

Then I would make a list of all the relevent service packs and hotfixes and rollups that are needed to be installed after the installation is finished. Things like this also

The latest MS DTC Hotfix Rollup Package

The latest COM+ Hotfix Rollup Package

The latest VSS updates and hotfixes

Etc.

Lastly I would explain how to set up any relevent hardware like NIC cards ( ie  Turn off all offloading functions on the NIC card )

I've been using Philip Elder's checklist.

blog.mpecsinc.ca/.../sbs-2008-setup-checklist-v111.html

Pete

Your first step brings up an important question:

Has anyone ever been able to get a stable EFI (that natively supports their drive controller) to install SBS with UEFI mode?

....I would also add the non-default options that BPA suggests, like TCP Chimney, etc.  (Why aren't those set as defaults in SBS if they're recommended?!  They should really implement best practices as setup defaults in the first place.  Running the default options shouldn't be considered "less than best" practice.)

Joe,

    Sorry, I have never had the chance to work with EFI. I gather from your comment that it is not very good yet.

Doc looks good, the more real world info on SBS the better.

The various tweaks are a nice addition as SBS needs them to "be all it can be".

Here's one for RWW and Outlook anywhere that cost me some time.

Issue:

Users attempting to use RDP or Outlook via RWW could not connect or could not maintain a connection. Similar symptoms are displayed whilst attempting to use Outlook Anywhere.

Cause:

The reason this happens is due to the default setting of ASP.net 2.0’s default maximum concurrent requests of 12 per CPU. When using RPCProxy, which is used by both Outlook Anywhere and TS Gateway, the connections are asynchronous which can cause you to hit the limit of 12 pretty fast. For more detail on thread usage and this limit please read.

blogs.msdn.com/.../asp-net-thread-usage-on-iis-7-0-and-6-0.aspx

Resolution:

1. Open regedit with administrative permissions.

2. Create the below DWORD and set its value to 5000 decimal. This will increase the limit of concurrent requests.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ASP.NET\2.0.50727.0\ MaxConcurrentRequestsPerCPU