[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Shawn Sullivan, Wayne McIntyre, Mark Stanfill, and Chris Puckett] When installing Microsoft Windows Essential Business Server in Hyper-V setup may fail due to issues caused by time zone settings. EBS setup does...

With our announcement of Release Candidate 1 yesterday, the EBS team is getting close to shipping and getting the product out to market.  There are a number of things that happen in these final stages, so let me give you an inside look at some of...

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...

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 Shawn Sullivan] There is a common misunderstanding as to what a proper backup and restore procedure should be for an EBS 2008 Management or Messaging server running as a virtual machine. We see many customers...

[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Stephen Li] Sometimes, you will see that Windows EBS installation wizard appears to hang and some updates are not showing any progress. For example, the Windows EBS installation wizard will show “Installing…” while...

In the Redmond Reader’s Choice Awards newly expanded 2009 survey, Windows Essential Business Server 2008 won Best Group Policy Manager honors in a field of 22 products. Although new to the category, Windows Essential Business Server 2008 came out on top...

[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Mark Stanfill] EBS controls access to RWW through membership in the Remote Web Workplace Users group.  For most installations this should be a unique object.  For domains that have been migrated from...

As you may have picked up earlier this month we announced a tool that can help you support your IT network by discovering network issues and reporting how to resolve them.  Before you download it from here check out the video below.  Thanks...

[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Alireza Farhangi] During the development of EBS v2, we tackled quite a few challenges in integrating Microsoft server technologies. We developed solutions and workarounds, proved them through exhaustive testing, and...

Special thanks to Susan Bradley for creating a new feed on Twitter for the blog.  You can now follow http://twitter.com/EBSblog and receive tweets any time the blog is updated.  

[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of Vikramjit Singh and Mark Stanfill] You may receive the following error after you add the 25-character alpha-numeric product key using the “Add Cal Pack Keys Wizard” on the EBS console Licensing tab. Error Adding CAL...

Security is of paramount importance in organization any size; it is no surprise that strong security solutions are deployed to protect various assets that provide the competitive advantage in the ever so challenging medium-sized business (up to 300 users...

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Manish Kapoor] Today we are going to throw some light on the way FSMO roles are placed/transferred from one server to another for each of the deployment scenarios. You could be either migrating to or doing a...

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...

The Messaging Server is the third server installed as part of a core Windows Essential Business Server 2008 deployment. Its duties include messaging and collaboration for the Windows Essential Business Server 2008 solution. For network infrastructure...

Don’t have three servers spare to trial EBS?  Why not check out our Click Through Demo of Windows Essential Business Server.  These demos require .net framework 2.0 and either Windows XP or Vista. These cover scenarios like Managing system health...

Earlier this week we blogged about the mmsutils.exe /changeip feature for changing IP addresses on your servers.  We gave an example of what was actually happening when you updated the IP address and we mentioned some changes to the Configuration...

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Damian Leibaschoff] When the Management server is configured in Windows Essential Business Server 2008, 2 group policies are configured as part of the System Center Essentials (SCE) deployment. These policies allow...

The Security Server is the second server installed in a Windows Essential Business Server 2008 deployment. It integrates with the existing Management Server and it is automatically configured for the typical needs of a <300 seat business. The Security...

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Mark Stanfill] EBS Hotfix KB 957755 is now available and being offered to all EBS Management Servers through Microsoft Update. This hotfix resolves an issue where the SCE Administration Console shows an error when...

A new TechEd tech talk interview, a 10 minute product overview on Windows Essential Business Server 2008, is now live -- New Windows Infrastructure Solution for Midsized Companies . Interviewed is Eric Watson, Principal Group Program Manager for EBS....

The EBS team is conducting a survey to learn how to better provide information to our partners and customers. We’d like to learn a little more about you and about the EBS resources you find helpful. Please take our short survey! We’ll use the information...

[Today’s post comes to us courtesy of David Fabritius] Midsize businesses interested in upgrading to Exchange Server 2007 should consider Windows Essential Business Server (EBS) 2008. EBS 2008 is an integrated software suite that is designed and...

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...