PowerBiz Solutions

Key Small Business Server 2011 Essentials log files

BoonTee — Thu, 03 May 2012 09:56:45 +0000

A recent Microsoft blog highlights the location of important log files which can help in diagnosing problems should they occur.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2012/05/02/key-small-business-server-2011-essentials-log-files.aspx

Configure the iPhone for ActiveSync with Office 365

BoonTee — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 02:23:44 +0000

A common question asked for Office 365 users is “How do I configure my iPhone to access my Office 365 emails”. The Office 365 help website has the answer here – http://help.outlook.com/en-au/140/dd125429.aspx

Basically, you will need to configure your iPhone with a Microsoft Exchange email account from the settings page. You will need the following information:

Email – your Office 365 email address
Username – this is the same as your email address above
Password – your password
Description – this is optional
Server – this appears after you click next. See below for how to get the server name

To get the servername, you can follow the steps from my previous blog – http://blog.powerbiz.net.au/office/how-to-manually-configure-outlook-2010-for-office-365/ This involves point 1 and 2.

1. Log in to the Microsft Online Services portal – https://portal.microsoftonline.com and open up the Outlook Web App.

2. Note down the address of the server from the web browser address bar.

That should do the trick. You may have to restart the iPhone, as I have seen that issue before.

This solution should also work for connecting up your Android phones as well.

How to manually configure Outlook 2010 for Office 365

BoonTee — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 06:18:52 +0000

Sometimes, the domain hosting company is not able to properly configure autodiscover CNAME records to enable the domain to work properly with the Office 2010 auto configuration wizard. In this case, it may be necessary to manually configure Outlook 2010 to connect to the Office 365 servers.

1. Login to the Microsoft Online Services portal at https://portal.microsoftonline.com and open up the Outlook Web App.

2. Note down the address of the server – ie. hkprd0402.outlook.com

3. Open up the Add New Account wizard (From the Mail settings in the Control Panel)

4. Select Manually configure server settings or additional server types.

5. Select Microsoft Exchange or compatible service.

6. Enter the following information. The server name is the name of the Outlook Web App server, with an extra “mailbox” added in. ie. hkprd0402.outlook.com -> hkprd0402.mailbox.outlook.com.au

Put in the user’s Office 365 email address in the User Name.

DO NOT CLICK the Check Name button yet. Instead, click on the More Settings button.

7. Navigate to the Connection tab, check the Connect to Microsoft Exchange using HTTP tick box and click on the Exchange Proxy Settings button.

8. Enter the information in as shown. Once again, use the name of the server as noted in the Outlook Web App screen.

9. Select OK twice, and then Click Check Name at the Add New Account screen.

10. A Windows Security window will appear. Type in the Office 365 credentials here.

11. If everything authenticates properly, the Server and Username Fields will be underlined and you can now click Next, and complete the wizard.

Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 and Interaction with Small Business Server 2011 Essentials

BoonTee — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 22:52:28 +0000

Microsoft have released a new KB article on how Multipoint Server 2011 and SBS 2011 essentials interact together. The article lists some of these features, an also provides excellent links to more documentation and recommended practices.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2670858/en-us?sd=rss&spid=15021

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional 2012

BoonTee — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:26:24 +0000

I just received an email congratulating me on being awarded with the 2012 Microsoft MVP Award. This is the third year I have received this award and I am proud to have been able to be involved in helping the IT community,specifically in the Small Business Server area. In the past year, I enjoyed participating as a presented on the Australian leg of the SMB MVP worldwide tour. It was an enjoyable experience meeting other partners around Australia and sharing the great SMB products that were available from Microsoft and HP.

From the website (mvp.support.microsoft.com) – The Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award is an annual award given to outstanding members of Microsoft’s technical communities based on contributions made during the previous 12 months to offline and online Microsoft-related technical communities. Microsoft MVP Award recognizes exceptional technical community leaders worldwide who actively share their knowledge with other technical community members. Of 100 million technical community participants worldwide,about 4,000 are MVPs. Outstanding technical community members are nominated by their peers,Microsoft employees,and MVPs.

I have enjoyed my partnership with Microsoft during the past two years under this role as a Microsoft MVP and I certainly look forward to another year of interaction.

You Must Manually Run PSCONFIG after Installing SharePoint 2010 Patches

BoonTee — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:10:45 +0000

Whenever Sharepoint is updated, psconfig must be run to finish the installation of the update. See the SBS Blog here – http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/05/24/you-must-manually-run-psconfig-after-installing-sharepoint-2010-patches.aspx

To run pscoonfig, perform the following:

Open up a Command Prompt as Administrator
Change directory to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN
Run PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures

Other possible issues after installing Sharepoint Foundation 2010 SP1, or other updates can be found here – http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2011/07/06/potential-issues-after-installing-sharepoint-foundation-2010-sp1.aspx

HP Server OS Support Matrix

BoonTee — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:33:30 +0000

I was alerted to a website recently which features a support matrix for all HP Servers. This matrix cross references the various HP servers against operating systems that are certified for use on the servers. The matrix is here – www.hp.com/go/wincert

iertutil.dll was not found error. Cannot start Windows XP

BoonTee — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:15:39 +0000

This is becoming a more common problem on Windows XP PCs. It appears to have been corrupted by a faulty update.

To fix the issue, press CTRL-ALT-DEL at the blank screen and start the task manager. From the Task Manager, select File, New Task (Run).

In the Task windows, type CMD, then press the OK button.

The error message will appear a few more times, but the Command Prompt will eventually appear.

From the command prompt, type CD C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DLLCACHE

Then type COPY IERTUTIL.DLL ..

This will copy the correct version of iertutil.dll to the C:\Windows\System32 folder.

If the file is not found, you can type in DIR C:\WINDOWS\IERTUTIL.DLL /S/E

A list of files and locations will show up. You can copy the files from any of those folders.

After this, reboot the system and the problem showld be fixed.

Microsoft End User License Tool

BoonTee — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:59:23 +0000

Someone asked a question about a specific detail in a Microsoft product, and about whether something was permitted in the End User License. Unless one had the paper copy of the EULA, you might not be able to find it. However, Microsoft have a EULA Tool to help you find them easily. Just go to this page – http://www.microsoft.com/About/Legal/EN/US/IntellectualProperty/UseTerms/Default.aspx

Filtering and Managing Event Alerts in SBS Reporting

BoonTee — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:48:34 +0000

The SBS Teem have released a Powershell commandlet that will allow you to fine tune and manage the reporting and alerting functions in SBS 2008 and 2011. There are a number of alerts that can be safely ignored and yet persist in the event alert reports, which often cause anxiety and uneccesary concern. This commandlet will allow you to configure and specify which alerts to ignore, thus providing less noise to work through in order to see the important alerts more clearly.

The blog provides more information here – http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2012/01/16/managing-event-alerts-in-your-reports-an-sbs-monitoring-feature-enhancement.aspx