How Long Does It Take To Install SBS 2008

A number of folks have asked me how long it takes to install SBS 2008, well the short answer is an hour and a half. If you are installing from DVD’s it is 90 minutes give or take a couple of minutes. I have done quite a few of them.

But I don’t think that is what they are really asking me. I think they really want to know how long before you have a working system. Well it just happens that I needed to know this as well for an upcoming project I am doing out of town next month. I have not done any real installs of SBS 2008 since the media refresh, so I though some practice was in order. The last couple of weekends I have done 2 dry runs following along the SBS 2008  Community Build Doc to get an idea of the timings of the different components. I thought I would share my rough notes with you from the last run to help in your planning.

By the way all through this post you will see that I use a script to reboot the SBS Server, mine is a quick and dirty little script with no logging. If you would like to use mine at your own risk it is at the end of this article, if you would like something more professional, take a look at Charlie’s Script, you may need to modify it a bit for SBS 2008.

Ready to start 2nd Dry Run SBS 2008 Clean Install, bios flashed, drives cleaned, dvd’s burned

Will use rtm MSDN Key with current media to make sure it fly’s

Start 6:00pm
* 2 physical drives
                Drive 0 500 Gb create partition C: 250 Gb balance unallocated
                Drive 1 700 Gb create partition D: 350 Gb balance unallocated
                Finishes 6:02pm

Expanding Files Finishes @ 6:15pm

Installing features and updates, less than a minute

First reboot starts @ 6:16

Completing installation starts @ 6:18pm

Second reboot starts @ 6:22pm

First Phase finishes @ 6:27pm

 *Clocks and Time Zone 4:36

*Do Not Get Updates

*Configure Networking

*Company Info, Computer Name, Domain Name, Admin Info

*No Forefront for Exchange

Expanding & Installing Files Starts 6:32pm

Finishes and Starts 3rd reboot @ 6:45pm

Reboot @ 7:19pm

Delivers Success Message and Desktop @ 7:24pm

*Requires Admin Input to continue

Grab SP image of C & D

Start To-Do List 8:00pm

Turn off DHCP on Router

Connect to Internet

OK IP Addresses Server 192.168.4.2, Router 192.168.4.1  finish 8:03pm

Ok to feedback

Setup Internet Address 8:04pm

Router Warning manually open ports 25, 80, 443 & 987  finish 8:09

Import DigiCert Trusted Certificate (exported from older build, allow 30 minutes to purchase new one)  finish  8:23

Add 8 Users and configure e-mail finish 9:34pm

Quit for the evening 9:35pm

Start next morning 8:20am

40 updates ready, let them install

Reboot 9:04am w/ha script

Desktop back @ 9:11am

Snap SP image start 9:45am finish 9:54am

Start BPA 10:02am finishes at 10:08am

WSUS finds 3 more updates, install and reboot @ 10:10am w/ha script

Desktop back at 10:18am

Run Fix My Network Wizard @ 10:20am

                Reports missing mappings (not missing)
                Reports DHCP error on IP6, fix, finish 10:30am

Configure Backup start 12:02pm   finish 12:07pm

Install SBS Rollup 4 12:20pm-12:23pm

Add local printer (deskjet 1220c)  and share 12:25pm-12:27pm

Do first batch of BPA fixes, finish 12:40pm reboot

DNS Cache TTL fix

Fix Event ID 10016 & 10017  KB920783

                Note instructions say change location to local server, but actually you have to change to domain
                Finish in 5 minutes

Exchange 2007 SP3  KB 982423 (try doing this after wss next time)

Start decompression 2:10pm

Run Setup from Elevated Prompt @ 2:15pm

Finishes @ 2:57pm

Configure DNS Forwarders

Configure logging, errors and warnings only

5 minutes

Move Data Locations (while folders empty)  Start 1:55pm

                Exchange Server to D: Finish 1:57pm
                SharePoint 3 to D: Finish 1:58pm
                Users Shared Data to D: Finish 1:59pm
                Users Redirected Data to D: Finish 2:00pm
                WSUS to D: Finish 2:0pm

Disable IIS Logging  Finish 2:05pm

Disable License Logging finish 2:08 and reboot w/ ha script

Logon and Desktop Returns @ 2:17pm

Install PDF Icon fix took longer to find than install, actual install is a couple of minutes

Install Office iFilter Pack 2 minutes

Install Adobe iFilter Pack start 2:29pm  finish 2:42

Fix Gather 2436 errors (found it already done) 2:47pm

IIS Reset

Stsadm commands to reindex finish 2:58pm

Install KB 977022 to allow wss sp2, failed twice

Reboot and try once more

Still no joy

Approve optional updates for deployment
                Win internal db x64 kb955706
                Sql 2005 ex SP3 kb955706
                Ws kb981793
                Malicious software x64 kb890830
                Win7 kb981793
                Malicious software kb890830

Did not install yet these optional updates
               WSS SP2
               IE8
               WSUS SP2
               DotNet 3.5 sp1 kb 951847
               Will do these later

Decline optional update

Browser Choice EEA

Break for today 3:54pm

Start again @ 11:45am

Backup from last night is good

BPA to see what is broken, no errors reported just info messages, it will be a good day

4 Updates ready for install, start them going @ noon

                kb981793
                kb955706
                kb955706
                kb890830
                Successfully installed all 4 reboot at 12:17

Logon and desktop returns @ 12:25

Download and install SnagIt finishes @ 12:32

Snag pics of installed updates

Try kb977022 again, fails yet again

Extract the installer to c:\dhc\here and install sts-x-none.msp from there, install succeeds quietly, check app log and it was successful @12:49pm

Install Windows Search, start 12:55  finishes 1:04pm

Install SQL fix for monitoring finishes 1:18

Install Fax HotFix kb973640 finishes 1:24

Reboot before wss 3 sp2

Start WSS3 SP2 @ 2:30pm
2:41 configuration wizard starts, needs input to continue

2:47pm completes and companyweb is functioning

2:49pm au popup  kb970892  want to install let it start, finishes 2:53pm

Reboot before wsus sp2

Start WSUS SP2 @ 3:12pm , remember to not run the configuration wizard at the end

Needs input until it connects to ##SSEE

Cancel wizard and it finishes 3:25pm

Install Report Viewer 2008 SP1, takes a couple of minutes tops.

Reboot @ 3:30 before dotnet kb951847

Cannot find standalone update, go to windows update, get just this one for now at 3:48pm

Finishes @ 3:53 and I rebooted because it was a dotnet

Sync WSUS Catalog, finishes @ 4:06pm

Install IE8 it wants a restart at 4:12pm, say later and use ha script now

Configure IE8 finish @ 4:26

Console working

CompanyWeb working

WU for other updates

Get 11 (84.7Mb) of the 12 updates, dotnet update can wait and go by itself

Finishes @ 4:40 and reboot with ha script

Logon and desktop back @ 4:52

Console working

CompanyWeb working

Snag image of update screen

Good time to break, backup will run @ 5:00pm

2 updates waiting for me this morning, let them start @ 9:59am
                Kb971119 report viewer
                Kb963707 dotnet assistant
               Finished @ 10:01am  no reboot required

Add Firewall policy mods for win7 management, finish 10:15am               

Download Vipre 4.0.4031

Reboot before installing @ 10:37

Logon and desktop back @ 10:47

Add firewall exceptions for Vipre to vista firewall policy 18082 & 18086 both directions, finish 10:51

Install & Configure Sunbelt Vipre
               use add 2005 express instance option
               use internal fqdn for smtp server
               use authentication
               finish @ 11:16am

1 update waiting to be installed, start it @ 11:17am
                Kb970892
                Finished @ 11:19am

Check WU (online) again, 2 available, do them separate 1 is dotnet
                Install PowerShell 2.0 & WinRM 2.0
                Finished @ 11:26 needs reboot,

Logon and desktop back @11:37am

Install dotnet 4.0 kb982671

Finish @ 11:54am

Final Reboot with ha script @ 11:58am

Console working, CompanyWeb Working, Vipre Console Working

Now at this point I have a server ready to support my network, all that remains is to join the workstation and add the data, but that is a story for another day.

I hope you found this helpful and now you won’t get lulled into thinking you can show up Monday morning and be done by lunch time.

Here is the scrip I promised you, use it at your own risk, all I can tell you is it works for me.

Copy the lines below to a text file and save it with a handy name like HAscript.cmd, when you want to use it, right click on it and run as administrator. If you want to schedule it, remember to comment out the pause line.

@Echo Off
Echo Use at your own risk!
Echo .
Echo This Will Restart the Server
Echo .
Echo “<Ctrl> + C to Cancel or”
Pause

net stop msExchangeTransportLogSearch /y

net stop msExchangeTransport /y

net stop msExchangeServiceHost /y

net stop msExchangeSearch /y

net stop msExchangeRepl /y

net stop msExchangeMailSubmission /y

net stop msExchangeMailboxAssistants /y

net stop msExchangeFDS /y

net stop msExchangeAntiSpamUpdate /y

net stop msexchangeadtopology /y

net stop msftesql-exchange /y

net stop msexchangeis /y

net stop msexchangesa /y

net stop iisadmin /y

shutdown /r /t 05

 :End

Trouble installing KB977022

If you are installing SBS 2008 and following along the  SBS 2008 Community Build Document and get down to Prevent the failure of SharePoint 3 SP2 by installing Hotfix KB977022 and find that it fails no matter what you try, here is what I found that worked for me, hopefully it will work for you as well.

Create a temporary directory like C:\977022 and put the file you downloaded and extracted in it.

Expand the file by opening an elevated command prompt
 (right click the Command Prompt Icon and select Run as administrator)

Change directory to your temp folder
CD  \
CD 977022

Run the following command to extract the patch
“wss-kb077022-fullfile-x64-glb.exe /extract:.\here” you don’t need the quotes.
When it finishes, close the command prompt window

Click the check box to accept the EULA

Click next and then OK

Open windows explorer and navigate to C:\977022\here
Right Click the sts-x-none.msp file and select install

When it finishes check the Event Viewer in the Windows Application log for a message ID 1035 with an error code of 0 which means you were successful.

You should now be able to install KB953338 WSS SP3

Problems with KB974417 on SBS 2003 ?

This is a modifcation of a tip I found HERE

First Download the patch KB974417

At a command prompt enter NDP20SP2-KB974417-x86.exe -x c:\KB974417
Open windows explorer and goto C:\KB974417
Double Click on NDP20SP2-KB974417.msp and let it install
Reboot the server
run wuauclt.exe /detectnow

This worked like a champ for me, hope it helps you,
HA

Thankx Susan for the SBS 2008 Recap

Thankx to the SBS Diva for putting together this valuable list for us!

When working with SBS you’ll find that you’ll tend to see some issues in the forums and newsgroups again and again.  So to help with the ability for those searching for answers to find solutions, here is a recap of some of the top issues we see in the newsgroups and forums.  As you’ll soon see, most of these issues were long ago discussed on the official SBS blog located at http://blogs.technet.com/sbs  With any issue impacting SBS your first thought should be “Hey, I remember reading something about that on the SBS blog”.  You then should go to http://blogs.technet.com/sbs and search back. 

But here is a recap of some of the issues all of us would like to see a lot less of and I’m sure you would as well.

1. 1.      Symptoms:  SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 migration fails due to “dirty” active directory that was not cleaned up before attempting the migration.
   1. Reason:  SBS 2003 being a single domain controller can work for YEARS being in an active directory journal wrap condition caused by a dirty shut down of AD and never have issues.  However when you go to attempt a migration it will fail.
   2. Solution:  Always follow the SBS migration keys to success blog post SBS 2008 Migrations from SBS 2003 – Keys to Success and run the SBS 2003 best practices analyzer and the Microsoft IT Environment Health Scanner to test for journal wrap issues.  If you do have the Journal wrap error, all you need to do is set a registry entry just as the event error tells you to do with a value of “1” and it will fix itself.

   3. 2.      Symptoms:  Other Migration failures
      1. Reason:  Migrations can have some potential reasons for failure but these days they follow into a couple of categories.
      2. Solution:  Read the http://blogs.technet.com/sbs as it documents the typical causes for issues.  As was listed earlier you should always review the “Keys to success” post and start there with any migration and go through each.  The other issue I see as a sticking point in migrations is public folder replications which may be caused by using a smart host which blocks the replication. Another sticking point may be not running the migration preparation tool or having a mismatch and using SP1 media for the migration preparation tool, and using SP2 media to install the server.  Ensure you use the SAME media to match up the prep tool with the built server.  You can review a demo here to see what should occur during a migration – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=31d3f757-9118-4f12-9db2-296c4729cd5e  .  One thing to keep in mind to ensure that you have a way back is to have a good backup.  In a perfect world you would restore the SBS 2003 back to it’s original condition before you started the migration.  The reality is for most of us is that your best bet you can do is to ensure you have a System State backup and you restore that.  Then you go back into your Active Directory ensuring that any traces of the new server are not found in your active directory and start the migration over.  From this point of clean up you have 21 days again to do the migration.
      3. 3.      Symptoms:  Migrations tasks are bypassed or not completed.
         1. Reason:  The process to migrate from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 is do-able but it’s quite honestly a long process.  Thus there is a natural tendency to skip over reading the documentation and the process and try to circumvent some of the steps.
         2. Solution:  Don’t cut corners.  Download the documents and especially the migration checklist, and review other community guidance.  The process of migration is totally do-able as long as you read, understand the process, and set up a practice with a demo domain first.  There are third party migration sites as well that can help you through the process as well.  Whether you decide to do a clean migration and totally reset up the entire network a Microsoft migration or a third party migration is up to you.  Generally speaking most feel that a small client (approximately 5 or so workstations) may benefit from a clean setup especially if you’ve never touched their server before and you want to start fresh.  Anything in the 25 or above range should not be done during a clean install as you impact the desktops too much.  I blogged a dry run of my entire migration process, stuck the content here, and the tagged blog entries are here – http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/tags/Migration/default.aspx   and here – http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/tags/Migration+Extras/default.aspx

1. 4.      Symptoms:  Reinstalling SBS 2008 after a bad install, a bad migration attempt, etc.
   1. Reason:  You install SBS 2008 and believe you’ve had a bad installation.  Therefore you decide to reinstall all over again.
   2. Solution:  There are bad installs and then there are innocuous error messages that make you think you’ve had a bad install when you really haven’t.  Let’s discuss some that are benign and can be ignored and some that need to be addressed.

                                                              i.      You choose to install updates during the install of SBS 2008 and the error message indicates a failure of the updates during the install.  This is a benign error that you should not reinstall your server for.  I honestly do not choose to install updates during the install process because I have installed before with a known media and the last thing I want to do is to install with a changed media set.  At this time there are absolutely no updates that directly impact the install process.  All of them are security updates that you can install after you have built the box.  You can safely install SBS 2008 with the media you have and patch it afterwards.  No security issues will occur with the shipped media you install with.

                                                            ii.      You choose to install updates after the install of SBS 2008 is complete and you find you cannot browse companyweb from the server or add Windows 7 clients to the domain using the connect wizard. There are fixes for things like this in SBS 2008 Update Rollups available from MU and WSUS so make sure you flip to MU (Microsoft update) or approve these updates in WSUS.  A priority update on the SBS 2008 (KB961048) will change the update rollups of the SBS platform to automatically get approved.  Remember the default patching condition of the server is that Security patches will automatically get approved, but NOT automatically installed.  It’s up to you to go to the server and install via the update icon showing in the corner any patches offered up there.  Exchange rollups are not automatically approved so don’t forget to either manually visit Microsoft Update (not just Windows update), or go to the update tab in the console and approve updates you see there.

                                                          iii.      You choose to install WSUS 3 Service pack 2 and it “breaks” the WSUS integration with the SBS 2008 console.  I use “breaks” in quotes because I honestly don’t feel this is a real “breakage” since it’s very easy to put it back into a working condition.  For the WSUS integration you just need to ensure that you choose “All products” as the category of patches.  This will not download more patches than you have in your network and will merely ensure that the detection of new patches, new machines will work properly.  WSUS is a component that I have uninstalled and reinstalled several times without issue following the instructions here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd443475(WS.10).aspx

                                                           iv.      There are times that a reinstall all over again may be correct, but then there are many times that it’s not needed.  You may just need to install it several times in advance to practice before you install it for a client.  Your first install should never be for a client.  Review these demos ahead of time – http://www.microsoft.com/sbs/en/us/demos.aspx and practice on real hardware or hyperV virtual platform.

1. 5.      Symptoms:  Network card drivers may need updating or tweaking to ensure proper functionality.
   1. Reason:  Since the advent of the advanced networking included in Windows 2003 Service Pack 2 you either love Offloading or hate it.  When it works, it speeds up your server and works beautifully.  When it doesn’t, the network can act a bit strangely and possibly have speed issues, you may also see issues with BITS, VSS issues, RRAS and WMI all documented here – BITS, IAS VSS and RRAS may stop responding on SBS 2008 with a particular NIC driver . 
   2. Solution:  Always start out first by examining to see if you have the latest network card driver.  Once you have that in place as well as Windows 2008 SP2 installed, determine if you want to disable Large Send Offload and Task Offloading in the properties of the nic or RSS, Tcpa and DisableTaskOffload as documented in the blog post.

1. 6.      Symptoms:  Outlook prompts over and over again for credentials
   1. Reason:  In December of 2009 the MSRC announced a widespread release of KB973917 .  This update impacts the kernel mode authentication used on SBS 2008 and the symptom is that Outlook prompts for credentials.
   2. Solution:  Review the SBS blog post that specifically covers this issue:  Outlook 2007 Credential Prompts in Small Business Server 2008    If you had kept your SBS 2008 server reasonably up to date in patching, you’d honestly never see this issue as the fix was included in update rollup 8 for Exchange 2007 Service pack 1.  At this point in time, I’d recommend following the blog or installing Exchange 2007 Service pack 2 using KB974271.
   3. 7.      Symptoms:  Microsoft Exchange services fail to start.  Server hangs at applying computer settings.  Network icons show as offline.  Event 2114. 2601, 2102, 2114, 8197, 7005, 7044 and/or 7024.
      1. Reason:  You unchecked the IPv6 protocol from the network interface card in your SBS 2008 server after reading some Windows 2008 guidance that said you didn’t need IPv6.
      2. Solution:  Review the SBS blog post that specifically covers this issue: Issues After disabling IPv6 on your NIC on SBS 2008.   Don’t uncheck the IPv6 protocol as you really do need it.  Exchange 2007 in particular is very sensitive to having this protocol disabled and will complain very loudly and with very painful symptoms.  If you truly have to disable IPv6 for reasons unknown to me, then follow that blog post to disable it the RIGHT way for a SBS 2008 server.  Merely unchecking the box is not the right way.  I’ll add another blog post to review even though it’s not IPv6 related in this section only because the symptom for this event is Exchange emails not being sent.  If you have a default SBS 2008, the WSUS administration site pumps out huge amount of unnecessary log files.  If the server has been in production for a year or more, you might see an issue where these log files have grown so large that they are now interfering with Email being sent.  To fix this, go into the IIS console and disable the IIS logging for the WSUS administration site and delete the log files as documented on the SBS blog:  Recovering disk space on the drive C: in Small Business Server 2008.  And don’t forget to “Run as admin” when performing tasks as it will show you the true use of drive C:
      3. 8.      Symptoms:  Multiple nics enabled on SBS 2008 cause the SBS 2008 networking wizards not to work.
         1. Reason:  The SBS 2008 wizards were built with the assumption that you would only use one nic.  Thus if you attempt to do network teaming wizards will not run and the Support personnel will ask you to de-team the box before they work with you.  NIC teaming is not a supported scenario for SBS 2008  (see – Returning Small Business Server 2008 to a Supported Network Topology ) and you’ll need to remove it to get the server into a supported topology.
         2. Solution:  This is one of those tricky situations where you’ll need to set the box up and always return it to a supported single nic solution when installing and dealing with support.

1. 9.      Symptoms:  Accessing the SBS websites, like OWA and RWW doesn’t work as it should due to the fact that the Internet Address management wizard was never run. 
   1. Reason:  Some people manually set up the server and don’t realize there is a wizard on the box to configure web publishing.  Thus accessing the SBS websites isn’t quite right and may impact the server’s working condition.
   2. Solution:  The SBS blog has several posts regarding the Internet Address management Wizard: Introducing the Internet Address Management Wizard part 1 and Part two of the series and Part three .  Also review how the run the “Fix my network wizard”  can help in your situation. If you wish to use a trusted certificate, review the Add A Trusted Certificate Wizard blog post for installing the certificate instead of the step from the provider.  In SBS 2008, the trusted certificate should be installed on the SBS Web Applications website and not the Default Web Site. If for some reason, you get stuck, here’s the blog post on how to install the certificate manually.

10.  Symptoms:  In troubleshooting issues with Remote Web Workplace or Outlook prompting for credentials you adjust the IIS authentication method incorrectly.

1. Reason:  Chances are the reason you hit this issue is that you didn’t run the “Fix my network wizard” that is in the console and instead decided to poke and tweak. 
2. Solution:  Again your best bet is run the “Fix my network wizard” – Introduction to the Fix My Network Wizard .  If that doesn’t fix things up and you need to take more of a look under the hood there are several suggestions I would make.  The first one would be is to install a virtual SBS 2008 somewhere as a baseline and compare your existing SBS with the baseline version.  Secondly review these two blog posts  — one that talks about manually adjusting the Windows authentication tab to Negotiate(Kerberos) Known Issues after Installing IE8 on Small Business Server 2008 and the Vista clients that are joined to the SBS domain -  and the other that discusses some of the common issues for the Remote Web Workplace – Common Remote Web Workplace (RWW) Connect to a Computer Issues in SBS 2008 -    Item number 4 in particular should be reviewed.  Also check in item number 8, that client certificates should be set to ignore the SSL settings on the RPC virtual directory.

Did you get the idea from this post that the best thing you can do if you support SBS 2008 boxes is to sign up for the SBS blog updates?  To receive the updates in your RSS reader subscribe here – http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/rss.xml  I personally use IntraVnews to pull it into my Outlook rather than the native Outlook rss reader, but you can use Google reader as well.  If you are into twitter you can follow the SBS team here:  http://twitter.com/WindowsSBS Last but not least, check out the SBS 2008 newsgroup .

So there you have it.  There’s a comprehensive listing of the top issues that I’m hoping we see less of now that you know about them!

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!