Four years ago, we committed to building an infrastructure solution for the mid-market. Windows Essential Business Server (EBS) which was the first of its kind to meet the unique needs of mid-market IT pros. Since that time the market landscape has naturally...

Microsoft Essential Business Server team is excited to announce the release of Microsoft IT Environment Health Scanner, the new diagnostic tool designed for administrators of small or medium-sized networks who want to assess the overall health of their...

For those of you who are new to these tools, we’ve talked about the Preparation and Planning Wizards before on our blog . We also have a dedicated page for it here . As well, the team over at TechNet Edge did an article on the tools . These...

I’d like to do two things right off the bat in this, my first, blog post here… 1) Announce that Windows Essential Business Server 2008 has reached RTM! (English now, more languages to come soon) 2) Extend my sincere gratitude to the many customers...

[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Mark Stanfill] We get a fair number of queries about CAL enforcement in Essential Business Server (EBS) support, so I’d like to try to clear up some of the common questions that our partners have. Because EBS enforces...

[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Mark Stanfill] Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server with Service Pack 2 (FSE SP2) is now available. This is an optional but recommended update for FSE customers, including EBS customers. The download...

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Shawn Sullivan] If EBS setup encounters a fatal error and cannot continue, you will be presented with the following window once you cancel: Figure 1: Installation not finished Note the warning: Do not manually delete...

Welcome to the Windows Essential Business Server Team Blog. That name is a mouthful for being Essential. But maybe that’s fitting. The product actually packs a lot of software and new features for an ‘essential’ product as well. In this...

Possibly one of the most exciting topics in the market today – well perhaps not as exciting as EBS, but close! Earlier this week we ran a special session for our partners covering the intended support details for running Windows Essential Business...

We have just released two new components of the EBS server setup and installation process. We added a first step to setup – a downloadable tool that scans the existing environment looking for the top (91) configuration issues and server health issues...

[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Mark Stanfill and Chris Puckett] Updated 12/11/2009 – Added msiexec /fp instructions. You may see installation failures of Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 ( KB951847 ) on the 3 EBS 2008 Standard Edition...

[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Mark Stanfill] The EBS Administration Console may crash if the IIS application pool default is configured to allow 32-bit applications. The SCE console will also crash with a distinct error: System.InvalidOperationException...

[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Mark Stanfill] Updated 10/14/2009 with additional steps for Security Server. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services Service Pack 3 (KB955706) fails to install on the EBS Management Server...

[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Mark Stanfill] System Center Essentials 2007 SP1 (SCE 2007) included with Essential Business Server 2008 now fully supports Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 clients, but there are a few manual steps that must...

I mentioned people running Essential Business Server live in my last post and want to answer a question I get often: How can I get the bits and play around with it? EBS is in a testing phase of the product right now. Our near feature complete Beta...

Sun is marketing a one-server, virtualized solution for EBS along with a 60-day trial and discount promotion.  Read a summary, get Sun's links, and see their video here .

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Bj ö rn Levidow] SMB Summit 2008 is the first time EBS has been part of SMB Summit and my first time attending. The first thing that impressed me was the technical depth of our partners here. They had great...

Think you have what it takes to get certified early on EBS?  Announcing free beta coupons for the EBS exam by Prometric!  Beta exams help you to understand what’s involved with running the product and help you get ahead of the pack supporting...

Hot off the presses (and a keynote demo), the EBS team announced the Release Candidate 1 version of EBS at Worldwide Partner Conference here in Houston.  As the Group Program Manager, I had the privilege of being the first to publicly show RC1 bits...

While Windows Essential Business Server 2008 ( Windows EBS) Security Server can be installed as the single perimeter security solution it is common to have it coexist with existing security solutions like hardware firewall on the perimeter. In this configuration...

[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Wayne McIntyre] During the data collection phase of the IT Health Scanner, you may receive an error as shown below. “ A list of servers could not be collected from Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). Ensure...

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Kunal Ghotge and Mark Stanfill] EBS setup disables all network cards except for the LAN NIC during installation (the Security Server will enable its external NIC during setup). Hence, a data volume on an iSCSI drive...

The EBS product is unique in that it is intended to provide a complete Windows based IT infrastructure for medium sized companies that is deployed all at once as a single product. During the course of the EBS deployment Windows 2008, Exchange 2007 , System...

[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Stephen Li] Recently Microsoft Exchange 2007 released Service Pack 2 . This SP2 enables customers to increase their operational efficiency and it sets the foundation for the transition to Exchange Server 2010....

Hi, my name is Scott Thompson – I'm a Program Manager on the Windows Essential Business Server team working on the messaging features of EBS. One of the most popular features of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 (included in Essential Business Server 2008...