June Triad SBS Group Meeting

Our Next Meeting is
 June 2, 2009 Regular Time 6:00pm
Last meeting was May 5, 2009

We will have Terry Van Winkle of StorageCraft and Calyptix fame coming in to tell us about a brand new offering. Here is a small description in his words.

Doyenz Automated Virtual IT™ is sold exclusively through partners. The Doyenz service gives you the ability to provide no-touch off-site disaster recovery, failover and runs in the cloud.

With Doyenz Automated Virtual IT, partners can perform major migrations and upgrades safely, in the cloud, using our Virtual Test Lab, or ‘virtual sandbox’ that allows you to test key changes like a SBS2003 to SBS2008 migration, or a line of business application Upgrade. It is a flexible service that requires no expensive hardware or software licenses, Doyenz can be a monthly or annual subscription that provides your client’s true business continuity at price they can easily afford.

I stopped by the Doyenz booth at SMB Nation Spring and it is some really interesting technology, I can’t wait to see Terry’s demo.

Doyenz has offered to buy your Din Din so you are going to need to send me an e-mail no later than noon on Tuesday the 2nd letting me know you are going to be attending and what you would like to eat & drink (no alcohol) from THIS MENU. I will contact Milano’s and place the order to be delivered at 6:00pm

And then coming up on July 7, 2009 (tentatively) Daniel Horne from the Charlotte-Meck Police Dept. will be coming to speak with us on tech crime issues that we may run into as IT Professionals and how to handle them to protect ourselves.  Are you aware that if we know about crimes being performed on a PC and don’t report them correctly we can be charged with a crime as well…  Knowing how to handle a “questionable” situation becomes most important according to the crime. He will speak to us and take a Q&A to help us be better prepared for items we are subjected to.

ATTENTION WE HAVE MOVED OUR MEETINGS TO NEW HORIZONS
7019 Albert Pick Road Suite B Greensboro, NC 27409

Urgent News from GFI reguarding Mail Security 10

Win 7 Beta Reminder, update to RC now

Free personal backup software from GFI

Many people do not realize how important it is to keep an updated backup of all their important files on their computer and neither do they use appropriate tools to do so. As part of GFI’s We Care initiative, and to give home users a helping hand as well as encourage them to start backing up their files, GFI is giving away GFI Backup 2009 – Home Edition, a FREE backup and recovery software product for the home user. A version for SMBs will be available later this year.

More information and a link to download the FREE backup software can be found here.

MS Exchange and Archiving Compliance – Strategies Webinar

Free is Good, Thx Eric

Found on Eric Ligman’s Blog

Yes, this offer is true and available to Microsoft Small Business Specialists right now. Microsoft is offering a total of 1,000 free exam vouchers to our Microsoft Small Business Specialists and these vouchers are good for the following eligible exams:

• 70-653 TS: Windows Small Business Server 2008, Configuring
• 70-654 TS: Windows Essential Business Server 2008, Configuring
• 70-236: TS: Exchange Server 2007, Configuring
• 70-432: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Installation and Maintenance
• 70-630: TS: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Configuring
• 70-403 TS: System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Configuring

Requests for free vouchers must be received by May 30^th, 2009, assuming the 1,000 quantity lasts that long, so be sure to request yours right away if you are planning to or want to take one of the exams listed above.

How do you request your free exam voucher? As a Microsoft Small Business Specialist, you recently received your Microsoft Small Business Specialist Action Pack Add-on kit. Inside that kit is all of the details, so take a look inside there and you will see the full details on how you can get your free exam voucher.

First Bug Found in Win7 RC

First Bug Found

If you read my earlier article about Installing Windows 7 RC and got motivated and installed it, read Ed’d Article on the first bug found in the RC and the need to patch it quickly before you install anything else.

Direct link to KB http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/970789

Aaron catches up with HA at SMB Nation Spring 2009

Aaron from VARvid had a good time gathering video clips of folks at the SMB Nation Spring 2009 conference. He even managed to grab a quick interview with yours truly :>)

You can see his ORIGINAL POST on his site

Ok before y’all jump on me, yes I know it was not called SBS back then. It was called “Microsoft Back Office Small Business Server” but I have to tell you, when that 120mm camera lens is starring ya in the face, your mind goes blank. This explains why guys standing infront of a firing squad, when asked if they have any last request always ask for something stupid like a cigarette or a blindfold. If they were thinking straight, they would ask for a 1/2 inch thick steel plate :>)

tSBSg Win7 Demo

OK Gang,

We are sitting here in the Triad SBS Group Meeting doing the Windows 7 RC install from a USB Flash Stick and you guys want the steps to prepare the USB Drive.
So here they are so you can find them
The steps for preparing the USB Flash Stick.

Open a Command Prompt (as administrator)

Run the following commands one at a time

1. Diskpart
2. List Disk
3. Select Disk 1 (Replace 1 with number reflecting your USB Drive)
4. clean
5. create partition primary
6. active
7. format fs=fat32 quick
8. assign
9. exit

Now, a drive letter reflecting the drive should appear.
Copy the bits from the DVD to the USB Stick.
If you get errors along the way,
simply remove the drive and repeat the process.

If you don’t have a DVD Drive or don’t want to go to the trouble of burning one from the Windows 7 RC ISO you downloaded you can always grab a copy of MagicISO or ISO Buster

Update, these steps will also work with the RTM code

The Elevator Speech Perfected

At SMB Nation’s Spring conference this year, Aaron Booker from VARvid was trying to capture folks off guard to get some spontaneous comments. Watch as he tries to catch Patti of SMB Nation in the elevator and how she hits one over the wall with 3 short sentenances. Way to go Patti, a perfect close.  Harry this gal deserves a raise!  The rest of you go pratice your elevator speech, you never know when or where Aaron may pop up next :>)

Original Post