Learning to Fly - Mika's Blog

You can get it on http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/servicepack/default.mspx. I used the beta & RC versions in the past and due to the great experiences with them, installed SP1 to my WS03 Std Edition straight away. So far, everything is good...

http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsServer2003/downloads/servicepacks/sp1/sp1datasheet.mspx has a nice overview what's new.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/64bit/x64/default.mspx states that x64 versions of Windows Server 2003 for AMD64 and Intel EM64T systems will be available in another 24 days.

I've had a 16 (virtual) machine WSUS RC test lab up and running now for almost a week and it is running sweet :) This time I decided to use a workgroup scenario and WSUS's own computer group targeting. A bit more work than using AD & Group Policy but nice to see how well it works. Few comments:

• If you use virtual machines (and are running on a "memory-limited" host machine), make sure to reserve at least 384 MB of RAM for the WSUS server
• In order to speed things up initially in the clients i.e. to make the AU client to check up a specific SUS/WSUS server once, I used Software Update Services Utility instead of hacking the registry and restarting the Automatic Update service manually. The utility is a small command line tool with which you can force the AU client to call up a specific SUS/WSUS server within the next ten minutes instead of waiting for hours
• Computers will show up in the Computers section after they've made the first contact with the WSUS server. There is no "magic button" to add them there
• As stated in the WSUS Deployment Guide, "Microsoft Windows SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (WMSDE) ships with WSUS. It is available only if you install WSUS on a computer running Windows Server 2003. It is similar to the next option, SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE), but without limitations for database size or connections."
• Information on updates is first downloaded into the database. When a WSUS client reports that it needs an update, WSUS decides that on the next synchronization cycle, it'll download the update
• http://www.susserver.com/ has tons of info on SUS but especially the forum starts to heat up on WSUS as well

Overall, the system has been running really well. WSUS will certainly be a very welcome (and recommended) upgrade over SUS.

The successor to Software Update Services (SUS) is nearing its completion :) You can register for eval and download it on http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/updateservices/evaluation/trial/default.mspx

Highlights to follow...

What a hectic month February was! It started with some Windows Server 2003 & Active Directory training. In between I had an opportunity to fly over to UK to "cure" one Active Directory. And then towards the end of month I dug deep into Group Policy. Simultaneously, I was trying my best to be active in R2 beta programme which has been the best beta I've ever participated. Lots of action although some of it took place during day time - PST. We're ten hours ahead of it here in Finland ...

Last Thursday we had the first annual Technet Pro seminar with some 1300 people! The MVP status was lifted into the spotlight when with another MVP, I had an opportunity to speak in the keynote! I started by presenting the Windows Server roadmap and continued by demonstrating Windows Server 2003 SP1 Security Configuration Wizard and "R2" Branch Office technologies such as improved DFS (Distributed File System) and printer management. Interesting stuff!

Later I had a 45 minute talk on securing intranet and its services.The biggest challenge was trying to squeeze all services into as few virtual machines as possible in order to be able to demo them. Some challenges propped out during the demo as well...

Some of the gems I've come across during these busy weeks are:

http://www.microsoft.com/ISAServer/ has links to downloading eval for the Enterprise Edition which was launched last week. This is the first Microsoft product to store its configuration in ADAM (Active Directory Application Mode) directory. Enterprise Edition is available for download in MSDN for subscribers. Few days earlier, Service Pack 1 for Standard Edition became also available.

Darren Mar-Elia has a lot of great technical info on Group Policy on his site http://www.gpoguy.com/. The discovery of the months was his info on modifying the registry so that the Properties tab on Active Directory object (site, domain, OU) in ADUC (Active Directory Users and Computers) would show the "legacy" interface after installing GPMC (Group Policy Management Console). In quite a few GP demos before, I have had two DCs so that I can demo both tabs. After all, there is not much to show after GPMC is installed since there is only the Open button for accessing GPMC.

At the end of January (and I tell about it only now...) AutoProf changed its name to become DesktopStandard Corporation. Their PolicyMaker was awarded as SearchWin2000.com product of the year for 2004. I strongly recommend anybody wishing to learn extensibility of Group Policy to get familiar with DesktopStandard's products. Best of all, they've made one of the extensions available in a FREE tool PolicyMaker Registry Extension.

In order to learn how Group Policy processing really works (or doesn't work), you should enable the user environment debug logging. Technet kb article 221833 has the necessary info on modifying the registry. SysPro Software's Policy Reporter makes it much easier to interpret the output of the log file, userenv.log.

TechEd 2005 sessions have also become available. That's all for now, folks!