The other steveb - Steve Banks' Blog on SBS, EBS, and other Small Business Technology Topics : EBS

Exchange Hanging on your SBS or EBS 2008?

steveb — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:38:00 GMT

If you are running VSS snapshot backups of Exchange 2007, thank the folks over at StorageCraft and Microsoft for working together to come up with a fix. I'd recommend you get it installed sooner than later if you have had your Exchange Server hanging on you and you backup with StorageCraft ShadowProtect, Microsoft DPM, or other VSS based backups.

EBS Prep and Planning Tools REALLY need a bypass switch for Greenfield deployments.

steveb — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:36:00 GMT

With all due respect to the Essential Business Server team and the awesome job they have done with EBS, I would really like a bypass switch on the Planning and Preparation Wizard for fresh installs. Thank you Nicholas for your Blog post on how to get "around" it by running it on your laptop/Tablet PC, but at least the information we key in there could be used to populate the fields in the MGT configuration after it requests it. :-)

EBS Console freezing or needing to restart SBS 2008 once a week or so? Look here for your answer.

steveb — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:58:00 GMT

Thanks to Chris Puckett and his team for working on this to get a resolution. We have seen this primarily with Trend Micro (our primary anti-virus product) but it is happening with any product using TDI, so if you are getting similar behavior from your server(s), get this hotfix! See the SBS blog post.

A newly created recipient may not receive e-mail messages for up to 4 hours

steveb — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:42:00 GMT

Thanks to Susan Bradley for bringing my attention to this Microsoft KB. It looks like in Essential Business Server 2008 if you create a new recipient and attempt to send them mail, it can take up to four hours for the Exchange Edge Server to synch up to the Messaging Server unless you manually run the Start-EdgeSynchronization cmdlet and force a synch, resulting in a 550 5.1.1 User unknown NDR being generated.

See Microsoft KB 961303 for the details. Looks like they are still updating the KB as of this time.

Steve

TechNet's EBS 2008 Technical FAQ Page

steveb — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:07:00 GMT

Check out the Essential Business Server 2008 FAQ page at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ebs/dd183189.aspx for your questions about TMG (like do you need to install it in EBS) and the like.

How to get IMAPS configured on your EBS network (as in BlackBerry Storm)

steveb — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:54:00 GMT

Okay, I got a phone call that the owner's son at a customer site has picked up a BlackBerry Storm and is traveling across the country tomorrow and needs it configured. How do you do it? Like this:

All you need to do to get IMAPS (TCP Port 993) to work for external clients is create a TMG rule. You'll want to use IMAPS only, not IMAP, so you'll keep your email and credentials secure. Once you create the following rule in TMG, you can go to your cellular provider's BIS site (http://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=vzw for example) and drop your email address and password in. You'll be setup in no time. By the way, the reason we're not using the OWA interface for this is that RIM has not figured out how to get around the way TMG handles the OWA page. RIM's support doc ID: KB04804 states that they can't get through because of the CookieAuth.dll it puts in the Web address.

Example steps to create a new TMG Publishing Rule:
1. Create new "Non-Web Server Protocol Publishing Rule."
2. Name it something similar to : Allow incoming email by publishing IMAPS Mail Server - "Your name here."
As a side note, it is always good to sign your rules in TMG so you can track what is default and who created what.
3. Input your MSG Server IP address (or browse to it in the interface and it will put the IP in for you).
4. Under Selected Protocol choose IMAPS Server from the drop down menu.
5. Listen from External.
6. Select Finish.
For placement in the ISA, I mean Forefront Threat Management Gateway, Firewall Policy list, I placed right below the default "Allow incoming email
by publishing SMTP Mail Server" rule.
7. Select Apply and you'll be ready to go with your IMAPS external clients.

Hope this helps save someone else the hours I spent figuring it out (don't publish to the SEC server for example). ;-)
Steve

SCE issue with upgrades from SBS to EBS

steveb — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:51:00 GMT

SBS Group Policy is set to have clients check WSUS once an hour. SCE/WSUS on EBS defaults to once a day, so you'll need to remove the SBS WSUS Group Policy from your migration in order to keep the database size more manageable.

EBS 2008 - Company Profile; Type your company information

steveb — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:14:00 GMT

EBS setup alert:

Under the Company Profile section of setup, when you get to the "Type your company information" screen, watch what you place in your entries for Company name, Name of certificate issuer, and Administrator's name (optional).

YOU ARE NAMING YOUR INTERNAL CERTIFICATE AUTHORITY HERE. This is not for use with your third party purchased public cert, so remember that when entering your information (as in do not put in Dotster, GoDaddy, or your favorite cert authority information, use the the company information for the EBS' location). There is no redo on this one to my knowledge once it is set.

Migration from SBS 2003 to EBS 2008

steveb — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:26:00 GMT

When migrating over to EBS from SBS 2003 there are couple pre-migration steps that will save you a lot of trouble.

First:

Change the IP address of your SBS LAN IP. This will allow you to point mail to it during the installation process. If you do not change it, then you will not be able to have mail hit it if one of your EBS servers (in our deployments, we've standardized on .1 for SEC, .2 for MGT, and .3 for MSG) are going to use x.x.x.2 (default SBS 2003 IP address fourth octet).

Second:

If running SBS 2003 Premium and using ISA or dual-NIC'd with RRAS firewall? Do yourself a big, big favor and separate out the firewall role (ISA or RRAS) from the SBS box. Using an inexpensive hardware device make it the default gateway BEFORE you start the EBS setup. The key here is to separate out your default gateway from the rest of the server roles on SBS that EBS is looking to so they are not all on the same IP address.

EBS Edge Server Message Routing

steveb — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:45:00 GMT

EBS 2008 Edge Server Message Routing
Two send connectors are created – one to send mail to the Messaging Server and on to send mail to Internet. We are being told that mail will queue during setup so don't leave a production network hanging after this step for too long as it will be queuing up on you.

The connectors are created with these settings:

Connector to send mail to the existing mail server (Exchange or non-Exchange)

Name; SendToMessaging
Address Space: --
Port: 25
Source IP: <Internal IP Address of Security Server>
SmartHost : <IP Address of the existing mail server>
TLS Required: False
Usage: Intranet
Enabled: True

Note: The “—“ address space is used to send e-mail to all accepted internal domains.

Send connector to the Internet
Name; SendToInternet
Address Space: *
Port: 25
Source IP: <External IP Address of Security Server>
TLS Required: False
Usage: Intranet
Enabled: True

Thinking of EBS? Here's a rough cost estimate and some caution for you to consider.

steveb — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:10:00 GMT

If you are thinking of going with Essential Business Server 2008, here are some numbers to think of while considering it. These are quick "guesstimates" a few of us came up with while discussing it.

$5,000 for the base EBS license

150 x $81 for CALs = $12,510

$15,000 for fixed cost project deployment

$20,000 for server hardware

$52,000 average cost for an EBS deployment

This is why planning and preparation are so important.

EBS is not SBS, both in cost and complexity. If you are an SBS focused admin/consultant and are thinking of going with EBS, that's great. Just make sure you do your homework, both technically by working with the product in a test environment and getting training, and from a business perspective by considering the deployment costs versus business requirements of the company it is being considered for installation into.

Curious how to disable IPv6?

steveb — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:03:00 GMT

This will work on Vista & Windows 2008 boxes and disable IPv6 if you need to (as in System Center Essentials!). Change the registry entry and restart the machine to apply to the local machine.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\DisabledComponents = 255

EBS Virtualized Installs - ALWAYS use PST Time Zone

steveb — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:26:00 GMT

Hot off the press from training here with in Issaquah with Mark Stanfill and the SBS MVPs. If you are installing Essential Business Server (EBS) 2008 you are going to need to set the BIOS time zone on the Host.

"The EBS setup, like all Windows Server 2008 installations, does not expose time zone settings until after OOBE setup. This means that the local time on all three servers will be PST during setup. Internally, all setup-dependent operations use UTC, so, even if there is a discrepancy between two machines’ time zone settings, internally their clocks will be in synch. This is critical for operations such as obtaining Kerberos tickets, replication, logging, etc.

Because of the complexity of the setup timings, local time on the EBS servers should never be adjusted until all three servers complete their installation. Doing so may lead to an unhandled exception, whose only recourse is to start that server’s installation over again.

Virtualized servers must set their local time to PST for the duration of the install. Not doing so will skew the guest machine’s clock during reboots, because the guest OS’s BIOS setting is not aware of time zone changes. This will result in all Kerberos tickets expiring or being flagged as not yet valid, depending on the time zone of the host."

Thanks Mark for allowing us to get this out to the community!

Steve

EBS and HP Blade Server Session by Greg Starks in Seattle on October 3rd, 2008

steveb — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:20:00 GMT

Interrupting this blog for a non-paid non-political announcement. ;-) For those of you in the Northwest, you should get yourself over to Greg's presentation. I'm already booked for that Friday across town so if you go you will need to fill me in on how it goes. The HP "Shorty" is a cool system and Essential Business Server is definitely worth your attention for the sites on the upper edge and over the edge of SBS' 75 user limit. EBS is much more complex than SBS. Our company has been working with Microsoft on two customer EBS TAP sites over the past year, and believe me, EBS is great, but if you are expecting the follow the wizard life of SBS, you'll be in for a surprise. There is too much going on in this system to just deploy and run without preparing yourself by training up on the components, so get yourself familiar with it if BEFORE you go out and deploy it. Greg's presentation (and SMB Nation's conference) are a great place to start! - Steve

From: Harry Brelsford

Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 12:22 PM

To: Steven Banks; Ken Shafer; Bob Romney; Jasminder Rai

Subject: Update: HP Blade University open to public => Essential Business Server deep dive with Greg Starks from HP Houston (Next Friday in Seattle)

Hey guys – this is now complimentary and open to the public…and it’s GREG STARKS who is one of us and amazing!

This your invitation to the HP c3000 and Windows EBS event in Seattle on October 3, 2008. We have a few seats still available and are extending this invitation to you once more. Visit www.EBSandC3000.com now to register. Remember, our limited seating goes to the first 50 people who register!

In this interactive and entertaining day, you’ll discover a perfect fit: HP BladeSystem c3000 and Windows EBS. You’ll learn how to prospect for business, how to make quick and compelling executive presentations, and why this is the solution your customers have been waiting for.

Who should attend?

Qualified attendees are sales professionals, senior management, and presales engineers interested in learning more about HP BladeSystem c3000 and Microsoft EBS and the strategies required for effective solution selling.

Register Now!

Enroll right away because there are only a few seats left! Visit www.EBSandC3000.com now! (Note: Walk-in registration will not be permitted at this event because of limited seating).

Event Details:

Held on Friday, October 3, 2008 the day before SMB Nation begins, this program runs from 9:00 am until 4:00 pm. Registration opens at 8:30 am with breakfast. Lunch will be provided. The event is at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront hotel, adjacent to the SMB Nation venue.

Cancellations

We will allow you to substitute another colleague from your company. If you cannot make the session, please let us know so that we can invite someone from the waiting list.

Register now at www.EBSandC3000.com before you forget!

Thanks and see you soon,

Your EBS and C3000 Team

Harry Brelsford | CEO | SMB Nation, Inc. | www.smbnation.com

Please attend our SMB Nation 2008 fall conference, October 4-6, 2008

Read Harry's SMB Dude Blog here

Download your copy of SMB PC magazine here

The Essential Business Server (EBS) Team sharing the love with their new prep wizard!

steveb — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:14:00 GMT

Looking for a cool way to check the health of your current network(s)? Well here's a free, yes that's right, free, download compliments of Eric Watson and the Essential Business Server team over at Microsoft. A few of us ran into Eric at lunch last Friday and were ecstatic to hear he was carrying through on his earlier idea of giving the tool out to the community as a gift from the EBS team. The prep and planning tool is a great way to check your AD, network, Exchange, SCE, and overall Server configs. We've been using it in our EBS TAP sites and have been impressed.

Check out the EBS Blog for Eric's announcement and the download link.

Thanks to all involved in the production of this, especially a particular MS employee down in Las Colinas Texas. You rock!

Steve

Essential Business Server (EBS) RC1 announced today at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference!

steveb — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:46:00 GMT

Eric Watson demo'd EBS RC1 today live at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, Texas. Check out his blog post for screen shots and more details!

Steve

Where did my old friend the SBS Console go in SBS 2008 (and EBS 2008)?

steveb — Sat, 31 May 2008 01:26:00 GMT

I requested of both the SBS and EBS development teams for them to add back into their respective Start Menus their Server Administrative Consoles. They are on the desktop of SBS 2008 (and EBS 2008 Management Server) but not in the menu. Instead there is the standard Windows Server 2008 Server Management link. Below was the response from the EBS team and it makes sense for both products after reading the associated blog post.

We'll take a closer look at this in V2. Note, however, that this is not quite as trivial as it seems. There is no programmatic access to the start menu list. See http://blogs.gotdotnet.com/oldnewthing/archive/2003/09/03/54760.aspx for a great explanation (basically that apps were abusing the option to pin themselves there without you asking at install). Looks like for now we'll have to pin the SBS and EBS Consoles there ourselves.

How to turn off screen savers during EBS installations

steveb — Fri, 30 May 2008 08:54:00 GMT

At the time of this writing, Essential Business Server 2008 has a default screen saver time out of 10 minutes and locks the server. This can be highly annoying during setup when you are watching the progress from across the room as each server runs its respective installation routine. To get around this bring up a command prompt by using SHIFT-F10 and type in "explorer" to bring up Windows Explorer. From Windows Explorer, expand (click on the + sign next to each name) the folders on the lower left of the left pane of the window, expand the Control Panel, select Appearance and Personalization, Personalization, and then Screen Saver. I highly recommend you turn this back on after you are done with the installation and configuration though so the server will lock when unattended!

If you prefer to stay in the command console, for a great list of command line syntax to open control panel items in both Vista and Server 2008, check out the HowToGeek site page too for a great list.

If your monitor decides to shut down on you as our Messaging Server just did after you set your screen saver, check your power settings (same as above, except expand Control Panel, Harware and Sound, and then select Power to be taken to the Power Options window), click on "Change plan settings" and set the "Turn off display" to a time you are comfortable with.

Hey Dave and Yuri, it's EBS, not WEBS. ;-)

steveb — Wed, 28 May 2008 04:57:00 GMT

Looks like the Essential Business Server folks need to let the Forefront Team Blog crew know the correct acronym for the product they are bundling TMG in.

For a look at the Blog post Yuri Diogenes put together on it along with screen shots and another reference to "WEBS" check out Yuri's Blog.

Setup logs location in Microsoft's Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS)

steveb — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:05:00 GMT

If you are working with EBS, a good location to know about is where the setup logs are stored. They are on each server under C:\Program Files\Windows Mid-Market Server\Logs if you are looking for them.