January 2009 - Posts
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21981
I still have no absolute confirmation from anyone…. but the silence is deafening.
Apart from Hal…. who leaves us this:
http://halbryan.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!C24F386005A2CCEF!1892.entry
Steve Lacey writes this:
http://www.steve-lacey.com/blogarchives/2009/01/the_end_of_an_e.shtml
A great product, killed.? I simply cannot understand how it is not a profitable product. Or maybe the greed at the top of the Microsoft chain want MORE profit…? grrrr.
Following on from this post
The remaining issue with the SBS2008 machine was that somehow the Folder redirection policy got screwed up and even though the Group Policies on the network were now functioning, this policy was still missing and giving me this error in the SBS console:
So, to fix that I had to call in Damian (the man) once again to fix this as I did not know how. Easier than typing out the whole process, there is a link to a screencast / jing video below of what was done.
The bit missed just before the start of this video is that we got a backup from a “virgin” SBS2008 box and put it on the desktop of this server. We also created a blank Policy called “Small Business Server Folder Redirection Policy”.
The most important thing is to ensure the security filtering is correct otherwise you will push the GPO to the whole OU!
Take a look at the video here
Interesting error today on a migrated SBS2008 Machine in Group policy Management:
“The data present in the reparse point buffer is invalid”
Also, the SBS 2008 redirection utility would not function and was giving this error:
On top of that, this client had previously been running a folder redirection policy of their own which had been deleted in the group policies. So what we ended up with was a scenario where not only were client machines not syncing the offline files to the correct location, but also there was no way for me to create a manual policy to stop that because of the above error. Not good!
Because of the urgency of the scenario, the course of action I took to resolve this was to first have the engineer on site to remove all of the offline cached files that the clients were trying to sync with. The best way to do this if you are sure you have a backup of the files on the server is to go into the control panel in windows, folder options, offline file tab…. then click CTRL + SHIFT + Click the Delete Files button. Wait for the message to restart, click yes. Now that the client machines were no longer giving an offline error and were happy working away on the online versions of the files, I moved onto the bigger issue with Microsoft technical support.
The bigger issue…..
Now… I had originally written down here a load of notes about various processes and procedures that I took with Microsoft support, but by the end of it all, it turned out to be a bug that is known but the fix is not available – yet. So here it is….
There is a problem in the Windows 2008 operating system (not SBS) that means that if you add a File Screen in FSRM on the same drive as SYSVOL you will end up with the errors above, and maybe more GPO / AD issues. So for the moment, don’t do that! Microsoft are working on a hotfix to correct this.
If you have already done this, you should remove the file screen from FRSM (use the SBS wizard if you want) and then from the command prompt type:
fltmc detach Datascrn c:
Doing this will remove the file screen completely.
Hopefully this information will save someone from a day like I have just had! As soon as a hotfix comes out, and a KB article (should not take too long) I will post it here (or maybe the SBS team / Windows Core team will link back to my blog) 
Update Rollup 1 addresses the following issues in Windows Small Business Server 2008
Issue 1
The Security tab in the Windows Small Business Server 2008 Console incorrectly reports the spyware and malware status of Windows Vista Service Pack 1-based clients that are joined to a domain. Specifically, some security applications are reported as incompatible in the antivirus and malware status that is reported.
Issue 2
The Internet Address Management Wizard exits unexpectedly when you register a domain name. This issue occurs when you select GoDaddy.com as the provider, and then you click Register Now.
For more Information, Please see: http://support.microsoft.com/KB/958715
How to obtain this update: This update is available from the Microsoft Update Web site: http://update.microsoft.com
Blog Post: http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2009/01/19/sbs-2008-update-rollup-1-releases-today.aspx
Hey, good interview here on RunAs Radio with Mark Minasi. If only for the reason that he gives Susan and I a mention 
“While still at Windows Connections in Las Vegas, Richard and Greg talked more with Mark Minasi. This time the conversation was a bit more serious, digging into Microsoft's Cloud Computing technology called Azure. Happy New Year!”
Good to see that Mark has also updated his profile picture (Sorry dude, couldn’t resist)
You may have already seen this. But we are finally getting some repair documentation for SBS2008. Long overdue (depending on whom you talk to), but great to see it making it out the door of Microsoft.
Via Seandaniel.com:
The User Assistance folk are continuing to crank out some great documentation. Live today are some additional repair documentation available on the Technet Website here.
Much more documentation is planned to go live as soon as it’s ready, so keep your eye on this location.
OK OK…. this is on my list of things to be at this year, but economy, budget and work are all getting in the way. Joe and Aidan are representing Ireland anyway
Now, that said, if any economy busting technical conferences or travel are going to be approved, this will be the conference I will be at first and foremost!
Susan has posted the details already here, so I will not repeat again….