THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA : sbs blog

Empty ‘CN=Servers’ Container Causing Issues with Public Folders on Small Business Server 2011

bradley — Thu, 24 May 2012 06:27:00 GMT

We'll get back to my blog posts on HyperV... in the meantime I wanted to call this post out

Empty ‘CN=Servers’ Container Causing Issues with Public Folders on Small Business Server 2011 - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2012/05/17/empty-cn-servers-container-causing-issues-with-public-folders-on-small-business-server-2011.aspx

If you migrate from SBS 2003 to SBS 2011 and never mail enable your public folders, you'd probably never know that you needed to do one more step. As of about two BPA updates ago, this is now included as a BPA flagged item. Many who migrated and then got the bpa installed wondered what they did wrong.

Nothing actually.

Me, I'd personally like it if there was some better gui way of doing this because as a card carrying SBSer, I can count the number of times I've been into ADSIedit on one hand.

Bottom line if you run the bpa on your sbs 2011 and it freaks out over an empty server container, don't freak out, you didn't do anything wrong and your migration is still just fine.

Give yourself a SBS valentine

bradley — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 04:13:00 GMT

If you are tired of all of the "ignore this error" in your SBS 2008 or SBS 2011 reports, head on over to this blog post:

Managing Event Alerts in Your Reports - An SBS Monitoring Feature Enhancement - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2012/01/16/managing-event-alerts-in-your-reports-an-sbs-monitoring-feature-enhancement.aspx

If you are regular readers of the blog you will say ...uh...didn't she post this already? Yes I know but I'm not convinced that everyone has really read that post, so please, do yourself a favor and clean up your SBS 2008 and SBS 2011 reports as a valentine to yourself.

If you have any questions or issues, holler back.

How to recreate the SBSmonitoring database

bradley — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:10:00 GMT

http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/08/22/how-to-recreate-the-sbsmonitoring-database.aspx

SBS 2008 comes with a SQL database that has a 4 gig max for that Monitoring database. On some networks with noisy activity or lots of workstations, you'll ultimately hit that 4 gig database. You'll know this in two ways - the bpa will alert you and your event errors will indicate you've hit the 4 gig max.

So one way to fix this is to merely recreate the database from scratch. So how do you do that if you are not a SQL guru?

You thankfully have the SBS support folks that are. Grab that script from the skydrive, and voila, your database issue is fixed.

Troubleshooting SharePoint

bradley — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 06:53:00 GMT

Put these two PowerShell commands in your noggin. When you have SharePoint issues, your first knee jerk should be to NOT rip out SharePoint but to try one of these commands instead.

(edit - I forgot the NOT in there)

Remember after SharePoint updates, you need to run psconfig to complete the updates.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/08/19/two-commands-you-should-always-run-first-when-troubleshooting-companyweb.aspx

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Justin Crosby from Commercial Technical Support]

Today’s post is going to cover two commands you should always run when troubleshooting CompanyWeb (SharePoint) on SBS 2011 Standard. These two commands take less than a minute to run and will catch two of our most common CompanyWeb issues.

The commands must be ran as an administrator from the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell. You can launch the shell from All Programs > Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products > SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

From the shell you should first run:

Repair-SPManagedAccountDeployment

This command will return nothing if the SharePoint service accounts are synced with Active Directory. If you receive an error here please use the following blog post to fix it: http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/08/17/http-error-503-accessing-company-web-on-sbs-2011-standard.aspx

The second command you should run is:

(get-spserver $env:computername).NeedsUpgrade

If this command returns True you must run PSCONFIG as described in the following blog post: http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/05/24/you-must-manually-run-psconfig-after-installing-sharepoint-2010-patches.aspx. If the command returns false you will need to troubleshoot your SharePoint issue as normal.

HTTP Error 503 Accessing Company Web on SBS 2011 Standard

bradley — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 06:41:00 GMT

HTTP Error 503 Accessing Company Web on SBS 2011 Standard - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/08/17/http-error-503-accessing-company-web-on-sbs-2011-standard.aspx

Step 4 IISreset /noforce

Just a word of advice from the school of hard knocks... or runas admin.

If you've come from SBS 2003, one thing you learn to pound in your head on SBS 2011 is run as admin. iisreset won't work unless it's from an elevated command prompt.

If you've been paying attention

bradley — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 06:34:00 GMT

If you've been paying attention there's been three recent blog posts about the Microsoft migration method and things to keep in mind while performing it.

One thing I'll still like to recommend STRONGLY is that you practice. Preferably not on a paying customer on their deployed SBS 2003 box. You want to physical to virtual a SBS 2003 (the crustier the better) and then practice the migration on THAT.

First Part: SBS 2011 Standard Migrations – Keys to Success <http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/07/01/sbs-2011-standard-migrations-keys-to-success.aspx>

Second Part: SBS 2011 Standard Migrations – Keys to Success – Part 2: The Setup Phase <http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/07/08/sbs-2011-standard-migrations-keys-to-success-part-2-the-setup-phase.aspx>

SBS 2011 Standard Migration – Keys to Success – Part 3: Post Setup and Common Failures - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/07/11/sbs-2011-standard-migration-keys-to-success-part-3-post-setup-and-common-failures.aspx

How to Add the SBS 2011 Standard Trusted Root Certificate to Windows Phone 7

bradley — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 07:59:00 GMT

How to Add the SBS 2011 Standard Trusted Root Certificate to Windows Phone 7 - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/03/08/how-to-add-the-sbs-2011-standard-trusted-root-certificate-to-windows-phone-7.aspx

Okay yeah you can do it that way... or you can buy a third party cert and use the trusted SSL wizard.

And yes you can find some pretty cheap ones.. http://www.godaddy.com/Compare/gdcompare_ssl.aspx?isc=bisl810f

How to Migrate Companyweb to a SQL 2008 R2 Standard Instance on SBS 2011 - Part 3

admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 07:40:00 GMT

How to Migrate Companyweb to a SQL 2008 R2 Standard Instance on SBS 2011 - Part 3: Migrating the Content Database - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/03/07/how-to-migrate-companyweb-to-a-sql-2008-r2-standard-instance-on-sbs-2011-part-3-migrating-the-content-database.aspx

If you have some spare time between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. (yeah yeah I know) learning more about SQL is a good thing. Line of business stuff tends to use databases and getting comfy with backing them up and using the native management console goes a long way.

How to Migrate Companyweb to a SQL 2008 R2 Standard Instance on SBS 2011 part 2

bradley — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 08:18:00 GMT

How to Migrate Companyweb to a SQL 2008 R2 Standard Instance on SBS 2011 - Part 2: Premium Second Server - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/03/02/how-to-migrate-companyweb-to-a-sql-2008-r2-standard-instance-on-sbs-2011-part-2-premium-second-server.aspx

While this is a post about moving the SharePoint, it's also a view of how you should install SQL in general. Choose what you want, don't necessarily take all the defaults.

How to Migrate Companyweb to a SQL 2008 R2 Standard Instance on SBS 2011

bradley — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 05:43:00 GMT

How to Migrate Companyweb to a SQL 2008 R2 Standard Instance on SBS 2011: Part 1 - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs: http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/02/28/how-to-migrate-companyweb-to-a-sql-2008-r2-standard-instance-on-sbs-2011-part-1.aspx

When you move your Companyweb off the DC and onto the secondary server it also opens it up to support Office Web Apps. Remember you can't run Office Web Apps on a domain controller (and SBS is a DC) so we're kinda stuck on support of Office Web Apps on the SBS 2011 standard. BUT, you can put it on a SharePoint that's on the second server.

That's part one, grab the popcorn and wait for the next parts.

Why is there an Upgrade option when running the SBS 2011 Standard Setup?

bradley — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 05:50:00 GMT

Why is there an Upgrade option when running the SBS 2011 Standard Setup? - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/02/17/why-is-there-an-upgrade-option-when-running-the-sbs-2011-standard-setup.aspx

Why is there an upgrade option in a server that does not support an inplace upgrade due to the fact that Exchange doesn't support an inplace upgrade?

Personally I think it's there to mess with your mind. Especially since SBS Essentials and Windows Home Server 2011 built off the very same code base does have a custom setup that doesn't expose the normal Windows server 2008 r2 boot interface.

Go ahead, click upgrade, I dare ya. And you'll find you are right back at that screen and have to choose custom.

And yes, bugged during the beta but sometimes you pick your battles. Not worth the coding cycles on SBS 2011 to waste prettying up the front boot screen. We're big boys and girls. We get the raw boot. We're tough. None of that mamby pamby stuff for our boot sequence thank you very much.

Introducing the Small Business Server 2011 Backup Wizard

bradley — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 05:41:00 GMT

Introducing the Small Business Server 2011 Backup Wizard - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/02/15/introducing-the-small-business-server-2011-backup-wizard.aspx

See on the www.thirdtier.net webcast this morning was this question....

Question: Does the SBS2011 built-in backup support Exchange-aware backup? SBS2008 did not if I'm not mistaken...
Answer: Yes, both SBS 2008 and SBS 2011 do include Exchange as part of the backup process.

Huh?

SBS 2008 did have an Exchange aware backup. Always did from day one. In fact it was SBS that kicked Exchange into gear to releasing it. SBS needed it. Had it under the hood and it pushed normal Exchange to release it/include it in a service pack. But from day one, SBS 2008 always did have an Exchange aware backup.

...but you probably want to know about brick level backups? Seriously in this day and age where BY DEFAULT SBS 2008 and 2011 have a 30 day email retention policy, so even if you delete an email you have 30 days to pull it back out of the deleted bin. Take Outlook off of cached mode and undelete what you just deleted. VERY EASY. And really means that brick level mailbox backup is harder to justify.

Now what about archiving? That can be added with an Exchange Enterprise cal (just a cal, not the server license needed) to turn on archiving.

You May Get an Error "Verify that the Source Server Name is Correct" While Trying to Install SBS into an Existing Domain

bradley — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 20:29:00 GMT

You May Get an Error "Verify that the Source Server Name is Correct" While Trying to Install SBS into an Existing Domain - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/02/08/you-may-get-an-error-quot-verify-that-the-source-server-name-is-correct-quot-while-trying-to-install-sbs-into-an-existing-domain.aspx

Look for this when you are installing possibly with HyperV or iSCSI.

Bottom line... if at first you don't succeed, hit the button to try again..

Have Small Business Server 2011 Standard with Volume Licensing, and want to download the media?

bradley — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:20:00 GMT

Have Small Business Server 2011 Standard with Volume Licensing, and want to download the media? - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/01/31/have-small-business-server-2011-standard-with-volume-licensing-and-want-to-download-the-media.aspx#comments

So if you have OEM you want to purchase can you download the CARE version or the Technet version and then use the OEM Key? I'd advise not. There are two official SBS media kits.

VL, Technet, MSDN, Retail are all one media style/kit.

OEM is another build. Because I can't confirm if this key can be used on technet/msdn media I'd opt for being safe than sorry. I'm not a fan of OEM media for servers anyway as the OEM media is tied to the server should the motherboard die while not under warranty and you can't move the virtualization license.

Bottom line think carefully about OEM purchases.

Introducing the SBS 2011 Answer File Generator

bradley — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 08:54:00 GMT

Introducing the SBS 2011 Answer File Generator - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/01/21/introducing-the-sbs-2011-answer-file-generator.aspx

The nice change between SBS 2008 and SBS 2011 is how it now waits and boots up to a place that asks if you are doing a clean install or a migration join. If you are doing a migration join you MUST have this answer file prepared.

Introducing the SBS 2011 Migration Preparation Tool

bradley — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 07:54:00 GMT

Introducing the SBS 2011 Migration Preparation Tool - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/01/20/introducing-the-sbs-2011-migration-preparation-tool.aspx

Hopefully by now, if you have clients thinking about SBS 2011 you are looking at the documentation and looking at the blog and all the resources.

You can tell the SBS blog is just warming up on their SBS 2011 content.

The SBS 2008 Migration Preparation Tool (Source Tool) keeps reporting that the server is in Journal Wrap error

bradley — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:39:00 GMT

The SBS 2008 Migration Preparation Tool (Source Tool) keeps reporting that the server is in Journal Wrap error - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2010/11/30/the-sbs-2008-migration-preparation-tool-source-tool-keeps-reporting-that-the-server-is-in-journal-wrap-error.aspx

Ever had a SBS box run out of room on the C drive? It's probably in journal wrap.

What is journal wrap? When the Active directory of the box won't be able to replicate to another machine. Why is this VERY important? Because you need it to migrate.

Announcing Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials

bradley — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 20:31:00 GMT

Announcing Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2010/11/08/announcing-windows-storage-server-2008-r2-essentials.aspx

Beta Name	New Name	What it does
Vail	Windows Home Server	10 users No domain Client backup Media streaming Remote Web Access Can support Macs Win2k8 r2 base 64 bit only
Aurora	SBS Essentials	25 users Must be a domain controller Client backup No Media streaming Remote Web Access Can support Macs Meant to have hosted Exchange/SharePoint, not on premise Win2k8 r2 base 64 bit only
Breckinridge	Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials	25 users Can be workgroup, can be member of a domain, cannot be a RODC Client backup Media streaming (think training videos at the firm and what not) Remote Web Access Can support Macs Can be a remote office file server
SBSv7	SBS Standard	75 users Must be a domain controller No Client backup Remote Web Access Must have Office 2010 via VL to have Office Web Apps Exchange 2010 SharePoint Foundation 2010 Win2k8 r2 base 64bit only
SBS Premium add on	Windows 2008 R2 SQL 2008 R2 for small businesses	Add on of Windows and SQL to EITHER SBS Essentials or SBS Standard
Downgrade rights	SBS 2011	SBS 2011 can be downgraded to SBS 2008
Downgrade rights	Premium add on	Can be downgraded to Windows 2008, SQL 2008

Yup we'll have a pop quiz in the morning.

Case in the corner series: The crashing Add User Wizard

bradley — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 03:33:00 GMT

Case in the corner series: The crashing Add User Wizard - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2010/11/04/case-in-the-corner-series-the-crashing-add-user-wizard.aspx

"This was a very strange situation, the most likely cause was that the original Default Policy had been manually renamed to the Windows SBS Email Address Policy and a subsequent service pack for Exchange tried to recreate the missing Default Policy or it could have been as simple as some incorrect manipulation of AD objects.."

The lesson to that blog post, besides calling in support when you need it, is to not muck around with the default policies and settings. They are there for a reason.

Announcing Windows Small Business Server 2011

bradley — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 01:16:00 GMT

Announcing Windows Small Business Server 2011 - The Official SBS Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2010/11/02/announcing-windows-small-business-server-2011.aspx

We've started a placeholder for the SBS 2011 Build document and the SBS Essentials 2011 build document (hereinafter on this blog referred to as SBSE)

Small Business Server Essentials 2011 Build document - TechNet Articles - Home - TechNet Wiki:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/small-business-server-essentials-2011-build-document.aspx

Small Business Server 2011 Build document (standard) - TechNet Articles - Home - TechNet Wiki:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/small-business-server-2011-build-document-standard.aspx

Stay tuned for more content.

P.S. Kudos to Amy Babinchak for the idea to call "Aurora" SBSE as a nickname.