THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA" - All Comments

re: Migration Step Thirty-three: Setting a time sync

Steve W. — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:18:55 GMT

Looks like in your configuration you entered, "pool.ntp.org,Ox8" (letter O instead of number 0).

re: The sensible deployment

Bill V — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:01:45 GMT

How does one do a "dry run" when all you have is one 'production' server. No test lab, no extra servers laying around for testing. I would think for most of us admins this is the norm.

re: Migration Step Thirty Two: We see the finish line in view

Jake — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:57:57 GMT

When finding printer drivers I've found dumping out the built-in Microsoft drivers from a x86 2008 Server saves a lot of hassle.

On a x86 2008 server goto %systemroot%\system32\DriverStore\FileRepository and copy out all the folders that start with prn* and also copy out the ntprint directory. Then you can just use the 2 letters after prn to locate the manufacturer.

ie.

prnhp001.inf_ba023fd3 = HP

prnlx001.inf_54ff49cf = Lexmark

prnky001.inf_9592bf8d = Kyocera Mita

If your not sure just open the INF file and look under the [Manufacturer] section and it will tell you.

re: Migration Step Thirty Two: We see the finish line in view

Bill V — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:29:28 GMT

Looking forward to it. Perhaps a post with a PDF of all the steps. That would be GREAT!

re: QuickBooks 2009 Release 9 (R9) Won’t Be Backwards Compatible with Earlier Releases of the 2009 Software

Bill — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:55:42 GMT

I suggest this be delayed until AFTER tax season. This release strategy can only result in mass confusion and endless technical issues at exactly the wrong time on the tax calendar. Unless this release solves a major security problem or a major technical problem with QuickBooks, there is no business reason to make this change. Unfortunately, auto updates will become a got-cha if the release goes live in Dec. Not everyone keeps auto updates turned on. In fact, even Intuit says to turn it off and run manual updates to improve system performance. Let's boycott this release!

re: Migration Step Thirty Two: We see the finish line in view

bradley — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:00:37 GMT

Neither.

Microsoft migration method.

I'll discuss all three in the end.

re: Migration Step Thirty Two: We see the finish line in view

Bill V — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:24:58 GMT

Hi Susan,

Just wondering... What documentation are you following for the migration? Might have missed this at the beginning of your journey. Swing Kit or Karl Palachuk's migration book.

Thanks,

Bill V

re: Migration Step Twenty Nine and a half: Uninstalling the Exchange 2003

Jake — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:54:12 GMT

Not sure I understand why you MUST do this whilst its still a domain controller. I've removed exchange while its a member server and haven't had any troubles. Exchange 2003 is not normally a supported configuration on a domain controller, so I don't see the danger in doing this after the demotion. The plus side of doing it beforehand is that you can take your time if you need to move other services across afterward as the server will turn itself off once its no longer a domain controller. So if you have already demoted the server before reading this 'bible' not all is lost, just follow the instructions and you will be fine and remember for next time. :)

Often requested Windows feature

Joe Raby — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:07:53 GMT

I think it's about time that Microsoft allows that ISO's be mounted on the FS. It sure would save a lot of time. I'd like to be able to just take a prepared ISO, copy it to a flash drive without needing to extract it first, mount it in the FS with a simple command or from the Disk Management console, and install from it. Likewise, during post-install, I'd like to just be able to mount some of my MAPS ISO's and install software from there. You can already do this with VHD's. Why not ISO's?

The extra bonus that I'm looking for is a way to link an existing folder to a mounted ISO FS. That way, you could customize the contents of the mounted FS without affecting a read-only ISO. Say for instance, you want to install Office with an unattend script, but you don't want to go through the trouble of extracting numerous ISO's. Why should you? You want to store the ISO because that's how you got it, and using it as-is comes in handy (and again, this should be built into the operating system so WinPE users have this option), but you don't want to extract it and take double the space for all your software media just to add a simple XML file. So what if there was a way that you could make a "muti-session" ISO-mounted FS where additional files could be added without changing the original ISO, nor requiring extraction? When you make a multi-session CD-R, the original session is left intact, but the subsequent sessions make "virtual" changes to the original without actually writing to it. It's like an FS overlay. Now, imagine if you could add files to that Office media Updates folder virtually.

We need to have more support for symbolic links right in the FS. THAT'S what I'd like to see built into Windows.

re: Migration Step Twenty Nine and a half: Uninstalling the Exchange 2003

IT Support Nottingham — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:42:08 GMT

Typical pain in the b*m migration. Can you manually remove it as per standard removal instructions?

Watch out for any third part integration.. AV Scanners etc. Make sure you uninstall these first.

re: Migration Step Twenty Nine and a half: Uninstalling the Exchange 2003

Keith Templin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:38:59 GMT

I got burned on this one! While uninstalling exchange 2003 one error poped up about a dormant public folder. Stupidly I chose to ignore it. Well 3 months later I canot run Exchange BPA, new outlook useres auto point to the old server.

I spent 6 hours on the phone with MS support going thru ADSI edit line by line.

re: Migration Step Twenty Nine and a half: Uninstalling the Exchange 2003

Paul Crosbie — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:32:26 GMT

I did this step via RDP into the clients server and realised that I didn't have the media so I just mapped it to a redirected drive on my local machine via the RDP connection. It obviously doesn't need much from the disk as there was no lag and it worked a treat!

re: Migration Step Twenty Eight: Getting ready to remove the SBS 2003 box -- revisited

Hendrik — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:17:09 GMT

Thank you, Susan for this elaborate migration description.

Due to unforeseeable hardware failure we couldn't complete our migration right before uninstalling exchange.

Mailbox migration worked, mail is functional but we have some issues with the Exchange Server 2003 showing up in some configuration and Exchange BPA (which fails).

Do You know of a way to straighten this out?

Best Regards

Hendrik

SBS 2008 SP2 Media

Justin Heiner — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:12:30 GMT

I just got my discs for SBS 2008 Premium in the mail that I ordered about a month ago via Open Value from one of our Vendors. I went to the eOpen website, entered in the licensing agreement, and went to request the physical media. No charge for the media, shipped with SBS 2008 w/SP2 (to my surprise).

I'm definitely not complaining, because it'll save me several hours of patching, but wasn't expecting it at all. Good to know the companyweb thing... I'm assuming all of the rest of the install caveats (aside from the ones addressed by the new Source Tool) still apply.

However, I'm still confused as to why, in 2009 (almost 2010 now) they would still insist on mailing out physical media and not have EVERYTHING electronic delivery unless otherwise requested. I'm glad they started doing that a little more with Windows 7, but even with retail products there is no excuse anymore for not having an ISO available and a key to you within minutes of verifying the order... as opposed to waiting 7-14 days for delivery of media :)

And I won't even go into the $15+ shipping charges for the "FREE" Windows 7 upgrades (I'm talkin' to you, Lenovo!). Love 'em, but this was a bad marketing call on their part to advertise as free and charge $15 to ship the media. Why not just verify the details, give you a download link and a key. Is that so difficult?

But, back on topic, as the previous comment stated, you should be able to use your regular VLK key on the new media... provided you can get your hands on a copy

re: Migration Step Twenty Eight: Getting ready to remove the SBS 2003 box

Peter Perry — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:24:01 GMT

Found the link below and EX BPA no longer reports the "Recipient Update Service not found" message.

www.facebook.com/note.php

Pete

re: Migration Step Twenty Eight: Getting ready to remove the SBS 2003 box

Peter Perry — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:58:18 GMT

I'm getting the message below from EX BPA on a migrated SBS2008 box. I used the TechNet method for removing the Recipient Update Services. The old SBS2003 is long gone now. Everything appears to be working ok though.

"Recipient Update Service not found or there is no server designated for the service. To have recipients and address lists updated properly, assign an Exchange server with RUS"

Pete

Can you use MAPS media?

Joe Raby — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:54:18 GMT

If MAPS has SP2, have you tried using it with your VLK product key?

@Robert

Joe Raby — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:46:57 GMT

That is not an issue. Hyperthreading SHOULD be enabled, because it will help aid in offloading threads to each "virtual" core. This was an issue in early builds of Virtual Server 2005, but is no longer the case.

Acer monitors

Joe Raby — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:37:41 GMT

I've had a number of those Acer monitors come through my doors. And then the same ones would come back again, and again.

I sold probably 10 of those series (I can tell by the layout of the buttons along the bottom), and Acer had some kind of major overheating problem with them where the electronics would overheat and burn out. A customer even said that theirs "blew up", meaning there was a loud pop and a good spark that lit up the inside back of it.

I had read before about somebody else (another reseller) that bought theirs at about the same time, had ordered 25 or so for a hospital, and they sent the whole lot of them back because of the same issue.

I won't carry Acer monitors anymore.

I've pretty much just switched to ASUS, but I also still carry Viewsonic for those that are willing to pay for the brand.

re: Whoda thunk it's in security settings

Robert — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:00:47 GMT

On the flipside, if you bios has Hyper threading available, you should disable it you are going to be doing Hyper-V as Hyper threading actually makes Virtual Machines less efficient.