An excellent and constantly evolving resource for the top issues seen in the community for SBS2008.
Bookmark this in your favourites!
Monthly Archives: April 2010
Installing Blackberry Enterprise Server Express on SBS2008
I don’t use the Blackberry, but there are people out there who do. For those users, there is now free server software from Blackberry. Mariette Knap has written an precise and clear guide on how to install this server software on SBS2008. There is quite a bit of work involved, and a far cry from what iPhone and Windows Mobile users need to do to get set up on SBS2008.
The guide is free and can be viewed here – http://www.smallbizserver.net/Articles/tabid/266/Id/343/How-to-install-BlackBerry-Enterprise-Server-Express-on-a-SBS-2008.aspx
Exchange 2007 stops receiving external emails
On many of my early installations of SBS2008, I had the unfortunate situation of not allocating enough hard drive space on the C: drive. My opinion has always been to move data and other system information out of the C: drive to other drives, and keeping the C: drive to a reasonably small size. I though that size was 60GB. I was wrong. I would recommend setting the C: drive to at least 80GB or more.
However, if you do have a 60GB partition on the C: drive, one of the first signs of trouble is when the free space on C: drops below 2GB. Exchange 2007 stops receiving external emails. This is caused by a condition known as Back Pressure. This is described in more detail here – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb201658(EXCHG.80).aspx
The easiest way to remedy this situation is to immediately free up disk space. Fortunately, there are some great articles on how to do this.
- Reclaiming Disk Space Lost to IIS Logs on SBS 2003 and SBS 2008 – http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2008/02/28/reclaiming-disk-space-lost-to-iis-logs-on-sbs-2003.aspx
- How to Move WSUS Content and Database Files to a Different Volume – http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2009/09/23/how-to-move-wsus-content-and-database-files-to-a-different-partition.aspx
Other things, which should have already been done via the SBS Console is moving the Exchange database, Windows Update Repository and Sharepoint database out of the C: drive. They can be found here.
Adding network locations to Windows7 Libraries on a SBS Domain
With the plethora of Windows 7 laptops and PCs connecting to the SBS networks, one of the new features – Libraries – is causing some problems. The issue is the inability to add a network location to the libraries unless the network location is cached using offline files. This caused some problems for me and for some of my clients. Perfectly normal 80GB-160GB hard drives were running out of space, due to the large amount of network information being cached. This also caused some slow network connection issues as the offline files were cached and maintained.
For SBS2003, the solution is solved by installing Windows Search 4.0 on the server. It is an automatic update, or can be manually downloaded here – http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/5/0/250db18d-30b9-4129-b2ce-282bc2f65c1f/WindowsSearch-KB940157-Srv2K3-x86-enu.exe
The Microsoft Search 4.0 product page can be found here – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/default.mspx
For SBS2008, there was no option to install this, as it was not supported. There is another similar product from Microsoft called Microsoft Search Server Express, which works for Windows 2008 servers. DO NOT USE THIS on SBS2008, as it will cause issues, particularly with Sharepoint.
The solution for SBS2008 was provided in a recent blog by the SBS team – http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2010/04/05/find-items-faster-with-windows-search-and-libraries.aspx
Turns out that it was right under our noses all the time, but not switched on.
Server Core Tools and Utilities
Being a public holiday today, I got my hands dirty with some Windows HyperV Server fiddling.
This blog post is just the beginning of some basic tools/commands/help information for managing and maintaining a Windows Server Core installation for those who are not used to command line work.
It is not meant to be the comprehensive list, nor is it limited to Microsoft information. As some of these tools are third party freeware, there are security concerns to consider when installing and using them.
USEFUL COMMAND LINE REFERENCE
SCONFIG – brings up the Server Configuration Menu, in case you closed it accidentally. Location: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SCONFIG.CMD
HELP – Gives you a list of what you can do in the command prompt 
DISKPART – Disk Partition Properties, used in place of Disk Manager.
USEFUL THIRD PARTY UTILITIES
CORECONFIGURATOR – Graphical Interface providing quick GUI access to features. http://www.smart-x.com/?CategoryID=198&ArticleID=170&sng=1
ULTRAEXPLORER – Explorer replacement. http://www.mustangpeak.net/download/ultraexplorer/UltraExplorerSetup_Portable.zip
HVREMOTE – HyperV Remote Management Configuration Utility. http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/HVRemote
DISK2VHD – Converts physical disks to VHDs. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx
VHDTOOL – This free tool helps create, extend, convert and repair VHDs. http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/vhdtool
Microsoft Most Valued Professional Award 2010
I received an email from Microsoft yesterday, presenting me with the 2010 Microsoft MVP Award for contributions in the Small Business Server technical communities.
From the website (mvp.support.microsoft.com) – The award recognises exceptional technical community leaders from around the world who foster the free and objective exchange of knowledge by actively sharing their real world expertise with users and Microsoft. Microsoft MVPs are a highly select group of experts representing technology’s best and brightest who share a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others. Worldwide, there are over 100 million participants in technical communities; of these participants, there are fewer than 4,000 active Microsoft MVPs.
I am looking forward to this new level of partnership with Microsoft this year.
