GFIMAX can tell you when the server reboots

Remember that notification that SBS 2003 sent you whenever the server rebooted
Do you miss it on your SBS 2008 and Windows HomeServers?

GFIMAX can give it back to you and I will show you how easy it is to add.

First open up your GFI MAX Dashboard and select the server you wish to know about

GFIMAX Dashboard

Click the Checks button
Next click Add 247 Check
Now click Event Log Check (note all the other options for future reference)

Select Type of Check

An empty form will appear to let us set our criteria
Note all of the options available just for this one type of check, this is a very powerful tool

Blank Event Log Form

Lets name it ” – Server Rebooted” without the quotes.
That is a blank space a hyphen and another blank space before the Server Rebooted
It will make sense later when you see it in the console, it just makes it a bit clearer to read 

Set the event log to query to System
Set Alert when to Log Contains
Set Event ID to 6005
Select Information for the Event Type
Set event source to EventLog
Check the message contains string and set it to started
Click OK

Filled in Event Log Form

Now we have to give it a little time to sync the changes to the server
Note currently it says Awaiting Synchronization in the status view

Finished Awaiting Synchronization

Once the server syncs to MAX the next time the server should reboot
you will get a message in you inbox like this 

E-Mail Notification Message

And if you go back to the GFIMAX Dashboard you will also see it shows up there as well

Reboot Message Status showing last occurance

Well that is all there is to it .
I hope you realize this is just one of the hundreds of things MAX can tell you about on you servers and workstations

If you would like more info about MAX simply click on him below!

Need to Pass 70-653

So you have been looking at the new requirements from MS and realize you need to take and pass 70-653. Don’t panic my friend Bea the queen of IT Training, a.k.a. Beatrice Mulzer has just finished her MCTS EXAM 70-653 Primer, Configuring Windows Small Business Server 2008. This is not only the definitive guide to passing 70-653 but it also includes over 200 practice tests on the included CD as well as a 15% discount voucher to take your test. This self-paced training kit won Remond Magazines Best of the Best Award for Best Exam Preparation Product. Do yourself a favor and hop on over to your favorite bookstore and grab a copy, or get it from Amazon HERE.

Because you can, does not mean you should

Eric Ligman does a very good job of explaining upgrade rights once again. Please remember because you can do something does not mean you should do it, or even that you are allowed to do it. Think about what you are proposing to do and don;t put your clients at risk by installing illeagal software just becasue you know how!

Win7 XP Mode with Domain Credentials

My friend Grey Lancaster one of the original SBS-MVP’s who has since moved on to WHS as their first MVP, sent me a link to this video on XP Mode and said everything he had seen used a local user account and he wanted to be able to use domain credentials, so I installed it on my Win7 RC box on my SBS 2008 network and dug into it.

It turns out you can use domain credentials. Here are the steps I used.
Open the settings for the XP VM and delete the cashed credentials.
Start the XP Virtual Machine
Right Click on My Computer and select Properties
On the computer name tab, click the change button
Join the computer to the domain and reboot it
Now when it starts logon with DomainName\UserName

You will find that even the folder redirection works if you had that enabled for your domain.
And yes the integration features work also, although it took one more reboot before they showed up.

I highly recommend you install and become familiar with XP Mode in Win7 it is a really cool feature!

Connection Through Remote Web Workplace or RDP Fails

Seems more and more folks are bumping into the problem of not being able to connect to their computers at work through Remote Web Workplace (a feature of SBS) or through the regular RDP client. Well struggle no longer. Susan has gather up all the tips you should need to fix these  issues and posted them in one handy place called FixMyRWW.

Thankx Susan!

A Real Old Fashioned LoadFest for Win7

Remember in the old days when they had a loadfest and you got to bring a machine in and actually load the software on it instead of watching a presenter do it all. Well thanks to Keith Combs’ and his team, they are doing exactly that for Windows7. If you lead a group get in touch with him and see about getting on his road map. I just put in a request for the Triad SBS Group. If you are not a group leader, make sure to let your group leader know about this. I am sure it will fill up fast.

Thankx Keith!

The Secret to Success your father never told you

The Go-Giver a Great Read

The other day my friend Mark Crall gave me a little red book, he said it was a gift with only two stipulations.

1.       I had to promise to read it

2.       I had to give it away when I was done reading it

Well I never read anything but technical manuals and how to books, but I respect Mark’s opinions so I took it and agreed to the stipulations.

This was a wonderful little book about business and life theory and I found myself thinking as I read it, this is how I live my life, until I got to the fifth law. Did I mention the book promised the five laws to the secret of success? That was where I completely broke the model. So I will go about adjusting my business/life model. But in the mean time I cannot recommend in strong enough terms that you go out and read this little book. I promise it will change your life, for the better.

My hats off to Bob Burg and John David Mann, for taking the time to put these simple truths down in this little red book “The Go-Giver”.

You can find it at http://www.amazon.com/Go-Giver-Little-Story-Powerful-Business/dp/159184200X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244487476&sr=8-1

And you can follow the movement on Bob & John’s Blog

Learn How To Protect Yourself at the Next Triad SBS Group Meeting

Coming up on the July 7, 2009 Triad SBS Group meeting, Detective Daniel Horne from the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Dept., Cyber Crime/Computer Forensics Division 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. Detective Horne is also a member of the USSS Electronic Crimes Task Force.

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.

Best of Both Worlds ShadowProtect and SBS backup

Well I am a belt and suspenders kind of guy deep down inside. So I have been a bit annyoed that I had to choose between ShadowProtect and SBS Backup. If you read KB838183 it will explain the problem. Well today is the day I said enough (ok so it was really last year, I am recreating this from scraps). So I put together a few scripts and files to ge the job done.

All 4 of these files should live in C:\DHC\Exch or you can modify them to go where ever you wish.

The first one will be saved as DisableExchVSS.cmd
Open notepad and paste the text between the dotted lines into the file
If you use MS CRM remove the “REM”  comment from the 2 CRM lines

———————————————

Rem Batch File to turn Exchnage VSS Writer off
C:
cd C:\DHC\Exch

reg import ExchIS-Disable.reg

REM net stop “Microsoft CRM-Exchange E-Mail Router Service”

net stop “Microsoft Exchange Information Store”

net start “Microsoft Exchange Information Store”

REM net start “Microsoft CRM-Exchange E-Mail Router Service”

———————————————

The second one will be saved as EnableExchVSS.cmd
Open notepad and paste the text between the dotted lines into the file
If you use MS CRM remove the “REM”  comment from the 2 CRM lines

———————————————

Rem Batch File to turn Exchnage VSS Writer on
C:
cd C:\DHC\Exch

reg import ExchIS-enable.reg

REM net stop “Microsoft CRM-Exchange E-Mail Router Service”

net stop “Microsoft Exchange Information Store”

net start “Microsoft Exchange Information Store”

REM net start “Microsoft CRM-Exchange E-Mail Router Service”

———————————————

The third one will be saved as ExchIS-disable.reg
Open notepad and paste the text between the dotted lines into the file
Note the line that starts [HKEY_ may wrap but should be all one line in your file,
all the way to dword:00000001

---------------------------------------------

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem]
“Disable Exchange Writer”=dword:00000001

———————————————

The fourth will be saved as ExchIS-enable.reg
Open notepad and paste the text between the dotted lines into the file
Note the line that starts [HKEY_ may wrap but should be all one line in your file,
all the way to dword:00000000

---------------------------------------------

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem]
“Disable Exchange Writer”=dword:00000000

———————————————

Now all you need to do is schedule these files to run before and after the ShadowProtect backup.

Before the SP backup runs you need to run our  EnableExchVSS.cmd

After the SP backup runs you need to run our DisableExchVSS.cmd

When I originally wrote this, you needed to do it with task scheduler found in the accessory menu of Windows, but StorageCraft now offers the ability to run commands before and after their process. So use their scheduler to do this.

Start the Backup Wizard in SP and when you get to the Options Screen
Click the Advanced button 

Click Advanced Button

And on the next page
Click on the Commands tab
Then fill in the fields to tell it to run our scripts
Give it a few minutes to make sure the store has time to dismount and mount

Fill in the fields to run our scripts

 That’s all there is to it and you too can have the best of both worlds.

Remember HA’s Motto, You can never have too many backups :>)

Win 7 Beta Reminder, update to RC now