[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Damian Leibaschoff]

If you haven't seen this post from Sean Daniel, go ahead and read it, this was a pretty recurring issue during the beta that just finished, and although proactive action was taken to try to explain how to use this field, it cannot hurt to learn a little more... Bottom line, very few people will ever need to use anything but the defaults here.

http://sbs.seandaniel.com/2008/08/gotcha-using-sbs-2008-answer-file.html

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Lora McCambridge and Damian Leibaschoff]

SBS 2008 has been released to manufacturing (RTM), and if you haven't installed yet, you most likely will soon. As with previous versions of SBS, the complex interactions with partner products and configurations in use can lead to some noise in the event logs. We know of a few issues that you will see and we want to share information on how to resolve them or take action to prevent them. We are focusing on errors that will appear in a frequent enough ratio that they will be noticed right away, we are not going to be discussing one time events that can happen on shutdown, startup or right after the setup has been completed that will not affect any functionality and should not repeat themselves during normal operations.

• DCOM Event 10016

Problem: You install Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. When you view the System log after Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is successfully installed, you see the event ID 10016 error message logged one or more times.

Type: Error
Source: DCOM
Category: None
Event ID: 10016
Description:
The application-specific permissions settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID {CLSID} to the user DomainName\UserName SID {SID}. This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administration tool

Resolution: The solution in this article will work for Windows Small Business Server 2008: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920783

• MSExchange Search Event 4625

Problem: Failed Security audits in the Security log- there is a problem in Microsoft.Exchange.Search.ExSearch.exe where an event id 4625 will be reported every few minutes.
Resolution: This should be fixed in the Exchange RU4 release which is currently targeted to be released in September of 2008. It can be ignored otherwise.

• DCOM Event 10009

Problem: The DCOM event id 10009 will occur when a client workstation has a miss-configured firewall or other issues affecting its network communications within the domain, for example if the workstation is not managed by an SBS GPO. In this scenario, the DCOM event 10009 will happen repeatedly, potentially hundreds per day.
Resolution: To attempt to resolve configuration issues with the firewall try the following:

· Make sure to allow remote management exception. Depending on your firewall solution this might be implemented or might require opening several ports. Unfortunately, this means opening common ports like TCP/135, TCP/139 but also a range of dynamic ports that cannot easily be defined and start at 1025, check with your firewall manufacturer for proper ways of allowing dynamic RPC traffic.
· If using OneCare on the SBS client machines, make sure you are using the Small Business version of Windows Live OneCare. The Small Business version has a default set of firewall port exceptions as required by SBS to monitor the client workstations.
· If the workstation is on a different subnet than the SBS server and it is running Windows XP SP2 or higher, the firewall exceptions provided by the SBS group policies will not properly allow the required connectivity. You should edit the Client XP GPO and change the scope of the rules to allow subnet + the internal IP of the server. Follow the extra steps below to properly monitor XP SP2 (or higher) machines running in the SBS domain on different subnets than the SBS server, and prevent the DCOM 10009 errors if that is the case.

1. Open GPMC.MSC from Start-Run
2. Accept the UAC prompt
3. Expand Forest: Domain.local, Domains, Domain.local and select Group Policy Objects. (Replace Domain.local with your domain)
4. Select the Windows SBS Client – Windows XP Policy and then use right click on your mouse and select edit
5. Expand Computer Configuration, Policies, Administrative Templates, Network, Network Connections, Windows Firewall, Domain Profile
6. Find the IP Address of the server: Open a command prompt window (cmd.exe) from the Start menu. In the command prompt window type IPConfig and press return. Make note of the IPv4 address listed.
7. Double click on: Windows Firewall: “Allow inbound file and printer sharing exception”
a. in the text box labeled “Allow unsolicited incoming messages from these IP addresses”, add the IP (IPv4) of the server, so if the IP of the server is 192.168.1.2, it would end up reading: localsubnet,192.168.1.2
b. Click Ok
8. Repeat Steps 6.a and 6.b for the following rules:
Windows Firewall: Allow inbound remote administration exception
Windows Firewall: Allow inbound remote desktop exceptions

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of John Bay]

Beta 2 for IE version 8 will be released soon. You can read about the IE8 Beta release at http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/06/03/ie8-beta-2-coming-in-august.aspx

If you decide to test IE8, please keep in mind that IE8 is still a Beta product and it may have compatibility issues with SBS 2003 and SBS 2008. We are working closely with the IE8 product development team to make sure that IE8 works with the SBS 2003 and 2008 Remote Web Workplace and Companyweb applications.

Don't panic if something doesn't work.

There is no support for Beta products. If you have feedback on IE8, we encourage you to use the following site to determine the best avenue for reporting the feedback - http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/03/05/ie8-beta-feedback.aspx

Please do not install the Beta of IE 8 in a production environment.

On behalf of the SBS team, I am extremely pleased to announce that Windows Small Business Server 2008 software has been finalized!  Today both SBS Standard and Premium are being released to manufacturing, which means we begin the process of finalizing international versions, creating media, building packaging, delivering the product to distribution channels and handing it off to our OEM partners, so it will be widely available by our November 12 launch.  (More information about launch will come in the future.) 

As you can imagine, this is an exciting day for me and the rest of the team.  Development of SBS 2008 has been a big effort here at Microsoft and the software has undergone extensive testing within Microsoft, by our partners, private tech beta participants and our Technology Adoption Program members.  We are proud to say we have truly heard and incorporated input from our partners and customers throughout product planning and development.  As a result, we feel very confident that this new release builds on the success of SBS 2003 R2 and makes the power of enterprise IT accessible and affordable for small business, helping them increase productivity and grow.  And, just as important, SBS 2008 provides solution providers with a great platform to meet the needs of their small business clients.

We invested in a number of different areas for this release; here’s the big picture of the themes and features in SBS 2008:

For IT managers and technology consultants: 

·         Microsoft’s newest server technologies: Powerful and more secure infrastructure that was rebuilt from the ground up.

·         IT made easy:  Deployment, setup and administration is dramatically simplified and improved.  New tools to manage domain names and data folders.  New single CALs make SBS 2008 licensing more flexible and cost-effective.

·         Improved Manageability: Monitoring across both servers and client PCs.  Customizable, remotely-accessible reports via e-mail and mobile devices

·         Application Platform:  SBS 2008 Premium Edition is an ideal platform for critical business applications, via SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 on a second hardware server

For small business owners and employees: 

·         Greater security: Trial subscriptions to Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Windows Live OneCare for Server.  Extensibility model for easy reporting of 3^rd party protection applications.

·         Better data protection:  New block-based server protection technologies that can complete backing up your server in minutes rather than hours.

·         Simple, easy online marketing and commerce: Integration with Microsoft Office Live Small Business

·         Better productivity:  Improved Remote Web Workplace, integration of the new SharePoint and support for the newest Windows Mobile devices

I want to congratulate the entire team and thank our partners and beta participants for their tremendous efforts and help.

Regards,
Dean Paron
Group Program Manager
Windows Small Business Server

This is a great opportunity for registered Partners:

Get Ready for the Windows Essential Server Solutions Launch with Technical Training Series <https://partner.microsoft.com/40075344>

The November 12, 2008 launch for Windows Essential Server Solutions is fast approaching!

Prepare by attending Partner Academy Live technical training sessions for Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008 starting on August 15, 9am PDT with “The Small and Midsize Business Server Platform: Which Is Right for Your Customer?” . Topics include planning and installation, migration, security, management, virtualization, and more for both Windows SBS 2008 and Windows EBS 2008.

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Damian Leibaschoff]

On August 12^th, Microsoft will release several security updates <http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-aug.mspx>. Some of them will require a reboot of your SBS server, if that is the case, you need to be aware of the potential issues you might see if you haven’t taken any actions after last month’s security update MS08-037.

Please re-read (or read it for the first time) the following post, be familiar with the potential errors and make sure you implement the recommended solution before your next server reboot (even if you don't install anything).

Some Services May Fail to Start or May Not Work Properly After Installing MS08-037 (951746 and 951748)<http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2008/07/17/some-services-may-fail-to-start-or-may-not-work-properly-after-installing-ms08-037-951746-and-951748.aspx>