Daylight Savings Time for 2008 will end this weekend on Sunday, November 2^nd.  This is a reminder to those who have not applied their DST patches to the SBS 2003 network to do so as soon as possible.  Common issues that are fixed by these patches include:

1.      Calendar items and appointments in Outlook are off by an hour

2.      Timestamps in OWA are off by an hour

3.      Time skews between patched and un-patched machines

4.      Date and Time fields are off by an hour in Sharepoint

5.      SQL Server notifications are delayed

For the full list of updates that are applicable to the SBS 2003 environment please visit:

http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2007/02/13/extended-daylight-saving-time-sbs-2003-and-you.aspx

There are several methods to check for these updates, including:

1.      Use the official Microsoft Daylight Savings Time Help Center at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst

2.      Run the SBS 2003 Best Practices Analyzer from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3874527A-DE19-49BB-800F-352F3B6F2922&displaylang=en

3.      To check the OS only (client or server) run the "w32tm /tz" command.

If you have any further questions on DST and the DST changes please see: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst

How to check the timezone setting using "w32tm /tz":

The output will look like this for the Central timezone on a patched machine:
Time zone: Current:TIME_ZONE_ID_DAYLIGHT Bias: 360min (UTC=LocalTime+Bias)
[Standard Name:"Central Standard Time" Bias:0min Date:(M:11 D:1 DoW:0)]
[Daylight Name:"Central Daylight Time" Bias:-60min Date:(M:3 D:2 DoW:0)]

What you want to look for is M:11, this translates to “Month 11: November” for
start of Standard Time. (M:3 which is “Month 3: March” for start of Daylight
Standard Time.)

An unpatched machine will show the following:
Time zone: Current:TIME_ZONE_ID_STANDARD Bias: 360min (UTC=LocalTime+Bias)
[Standard Name:"Central Standard Time" Bias:0min Date:(M:10 D:5 DoW:0)]
[Daylight Name:"Central Daylight Time" Bias:-60min Date:(M:4 D:1 DoW:0)]

A patched machine that does not have "Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving
changes" set will show:
Time zone: Current:TIME_ZONE_ID_DAYLIGHT Bias: 360min (UTC=LocalTime+Bias)
[Standard Name:"Central Standard Time" Bias:0min Date:(M:11 D:1 DoW:0)]
[Daylight Name:"Central Standard Time" Bias:0min Date:(M:11 D:1 DoW:0)]

The SBS UA team is pleased to announce that the following document is now available in the Windows Small Business Server Technical Library.

Title: Using Hyper-V with Windows Small Business Server 2008

URL:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd239207.aspx

This document provides an overview of the use of virtualization in a Windows® Small Business Server 2008 (Windows SBS 2008) environment, and discusses scenarios in which Windows SBS 2008 supports the Hyper-V technology.

Be sure to review the known issues list at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd239204.aspx.

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Ed Walters]

SBS Reports can be found under the “Reports” tab in the Windows SBS console. The information is broken into 3 areas: Reports, Preview and Tasks.

The reports window shows the names of the available reports, if the report is to be sent through e-mail, the current delivery schedule that’s set for that report and a brief description of the report.

The preview window returns a preview of the report that is currently highlighted in the reports window.

The Tasks view allows you to view report properties, generate a report, generate and e-mail a report or view a report’s history. You can also add a new report and refresh the console view if needed. Tasks can also be accessed by right-clicking on a report listed in the reports window.

By default SBS 2008 comes with two core reports that cannot be deleted but can be modified.

Summary Network Report – Shows a summary of the activity on the SBS network over the past 24 hours. This includes both server and computers.

Detailed Network Report – Outlines detailed information concerning the performance of your network.

How do I create a new report?

1. Highlight one of the core reports listed in the window. It doesn’t matter which one you select they both offer the same report options.

2. Select add a new report from the Tasks Pane.

3. Enter a name for the new report. You can also add a meaningful description to the report.

4. Select the content you would like included in the report.

• Summary- Returns a current health status of the subjects listed in the above screenshot in one report. The information returned is brief and does not offer any details on errors found. This can type of view be experienced by selecting the “Summary Network Report”.
• Security – Returns a list of computers with Antivirus, Antispyware and Firewall information. Returns information on Content Filters, Spam Signatures, IP Reputation version numbers and the Firewall state.
• Updates – Returns information on missing, failed or pending updates. Also shows synchronization information and the current Update Policy summary.
• Backup- Shows when the last Backup job completed and when the next job is scheduled.
• Other Alerts – Returns a list of current alerts on the network, the Alert Title, Computer Name that generated the alert, Last Occurrence and the Total Number of Occurrences for the event.
• E-mail Usage – Returns a list of current mailboxes, total e-mail sent, total e-mail received current mailbox size and any mailbox quotas that are in place.
• Server Event logs – Returns a list of critical errors in the server’s event logs. Lists the Event Source, Event ID, Last Occurrence, and the total number of occurrences for that particular event.

5. Select the e-mail recipients for the report.

1. If you do not want to e-mail the report, leave the ”E-mail this report at its scheduled time” check box blank.
2. If you need to forward the report to someone outside of your network, enter their e-mail address in the “Other e-mail addresses” box.

6. Schedule how often you would like the report to be generated and e-mailed.

1. Recurrence can be set to either Daily or Weekly.
2. Time can be set in 15 minute increments.
1. If you need to generate and e-mail a report immediately use the “Generate and E-mail report” option under tasks in the Windows SBS Console

7. Archives return a list of previous generations of this report along with their run dates. You can simply highlight one of the reports returned in the “Available Reports” list and select “View Report” to see the old report. You can also reach this section on existing reports by opening the report’s properties or using the “view archives” task for an existing report.

Once the report is created it will appear in the list with other reports in the Windows SBS Console. You will not be able to preview this report until it has been run for the first time. You can either wait until the next scheduled run or generate is immediately by:

1. Highlight the new report in the list.
2. Select “Generate Report”.

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of David Copeland]

The configuration file for the SBS 2003 BPA has been updated with new rules and a couple of fixes. Some of the new checks include:

• Checks to see if the  Microsoft Active Directory connector is installed. If so, warns that it will need to be removed prior to attempting to migrate to Windows SBS 2008.
• Checks for single labeled domain names.
• Checks to see if the Exchange Site Replication service is running.
• Warns if the Companyweb DNS record is an A record instead of a CNAME.
• Checks to ensure that autoapprove.exe has been updated.
• Verifies that applnch.exe is not set to read only.
• Checks for the Allocated Memory alert condition.
• Checks for a web.config file at the root of the default website
• Verifies the userAccountControl attribute is the default value.
• Checks to see if the upgrade from WMSDE to full SQL 2000 was completed for the SharePoint instance.
• Checks for the existence of the Windows SBS default OU’s.
• Checks for expiring/expired certificates on the default and Companyweb web sites.

You can ensure that you have the latest version of the configuration file by clicking on the "About the Best Practices Analyzer" link on the left, the current (as of 10/22/2008) Configuration File Version is 2.1.22.0.

[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Shawn Sullivan]

Content Updated on 9/26/2011

Size limits for email messages are controlled in a variety of places in Exchange. Settings are placed globally at the transport level, on each individual send or receive connector, at each individual mailbox, and controlled at individual web applications such as EWS and OWA . Your business needs should determine if you need to change these settings and at which location(s). In order to accomplish this successfully, you must know that more restrictive settings override less restrictive settings as you flow up the chain from individual mailbox settings to SMTP connectors and finally to global transport settings.

Global Transport Settings

Get-TransportConfig displays global transport settings for all Hub and Edge Transport servers in the Exchange Organization. By default, there is a 10MB size limit on send and receive. This will override all other less restrictive message size limit settings set elsewhere.

NOTE: Exchange considers message submission to the store driver as a “send” operation. Therefore, if you are attempting to receive an email message on an SBS server from the internet that is greater than the MaxSendSize of the global transport configuration, delivery will fail.

Get-TransportConfig | ft MaxSendSize, MaxReceiveSize

Example:

Set-TransportConfig –MaxSendSize 20MB –MaxReceiveSize 20MB

Receive Connector Settings

Each receive connector is created with a default 10MB message size limit. A default install of SBS will contain a default receive connector (created during Exchange setup, do not remove this), an internet facing receive connector, and a receive connector for fax receipts and Sharepoint email notifications. The Windows SBS Internet Receive connector is the only one that you should ever need to adjust settings for. NOTE: If the global receive size is more restrictive, it will override this setting

Get-ReceiveConnector | ft name, MaxMessageSize

Example:

Set-ReceiveConnector “Windows SBS Internet Receive Servername” –MaxMessageSize 20MB

Send Connector Settings

Each send connector is created with a default 10MB message size limit. In SBS , a single send connector is created for email destined for mail hosts outside of the site. If you need to adjust the size of messages flowing out of the SBS server, then you would change it here. **If the global send size is more restrictive, it will override this setting**

Get-SendConnector | ft name, MaxMessageSize

Example:

Set-SendConnector “Windows SBS Internet Send Servername” –MaxMessageSize 20MB

Mailbox Settings

Exchange does not govern message size limits at the mailbox level by default, as it relies on elements in the transport service for this. However, you can set size limits here if you want granular control without potentially affecting all senders and recipients. **More restrictive settings at the SMTP connector level will override here; more restrictive settings at the global level will override both**

Get-mailbox | ft Name, MaxSendSize, MaxReceiveSize

Example:

Set-Mailbox “test” –MaxSendSize 10MB –MaxReceiveSize 10MB

OWA

Message size is controlled in OWA by the maxRequestLength value in it’s web.config file.  The default value is 30000 KB (30 MB).  You can change this value to whatever size you need.  For more information, please read:

How to Manage Maximum Message Size in Outlook Web Access
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996835(EXCHG.80).aspx

Exchange Web Services (EWS)

Just like OWA, EWS is bound to the maxRequestLength value in it’s web.config.  The default value for this is 13280 KB (13 MB) and can be changed to the value you require.  Clients such as Entourage for Mac would be affected by this value.  For more information, please read:

How to allow Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition to send large e-mail message to an Exchange 2007 server running on Small Business Server 2008
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;2500318

Errors and Causes

Trying to find exactly where a message size is being blocked can be somewhat tricky. Knowing where the settings are is important. However, identifying the different errors and NDRs that you are receiving and understanding where you should check first is just as important.

Scenario 1:

This NDR is generated by the sending server:

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

test@contoso.com on 10/15/2008 3:54 PM

This message is larger than the current system limit or the recipient’s mailbox is full. Create a shorter message body or remove attachments and try sending it again.

<fourthcoffee.com #5.2.3 smtp;450 5.2.3 Msg Size greater than allowed by Remote Host>

1. Check MaxReceiveSize on Global Transport settings
2. Check MaxMessageSize on the Internet facing receive connector

Scenario 2:

This NDR is generated by the receiving server:

The following recipient(s) could not be reached

test@contoso.com on 10/15/2008 4:51 PM

This message is larger than the current system limit or the recipient’s mailbox is full. Create a shorter message body or remove attachments and try sending it again.

<contoso.com #5.2.3 smtp;550 5.2.3 RESOLVER.RST.SendSizeLimit; message too large for this sender>

1. Check MaxSendSize on Global Transport settings
2. Check MaxMessageSize of the send connector on Edge server (if you have deployed one).
3. Check MaxReceiveSize on the user’s mailbox

Scenario 3:

A user in the organization has attached a file to an email and receives an error like this:

Or the user receives this NDR from the SBS server after a failed delivery:

Delivery has failed to these recipients or distribution lists:

administrator@fourthcoffee.com
This message exceeds the maximum message size allowed. Microsoft Exchange will not try to redeliver this message for you. Please make the message smaller -- by removing attachments, for example -- and try sending it again, or provide the following diagnostic text to your system administrator.

Diagnostic information for administrators:
Generating server: COUGAR.contoso.local
administrator@fourthcoffee.com
#550 5.2.3 RESOLVER.RST.SendSizeLimit; message too large for this sender ##

1. Check MaxSendSize on Global Transport settings
2. Check MaxMessageSize on the send connector
3. Check MaxSendSize of the user’s mailbox

Scenario 4:

After attaching a large file in OWA, you the following error pops up:



”The request filter module is configured to deny a request that exceeds the request content length”

In this case, simply change the maxRequestLength in the OWA web.config.

Scenario 5:

There are several clients that use EWS for mailbox access and each one may show slightly different errors if they are hitting the maxrequestlength when it comes to sending larger messages.  But in general, if the email is going into drafts or never leaves the outbox and the client receives an “exceeded the size limit” or similar error, increase the size limit in the EWS web.config.

Sean Daniel (member of the SBS product team) has written an excellent blog post on why you should run DHCP on SBS 2008.  You can read all about it here: http://sbs.seandaniel.com/2008/10/do-i-absolutely-have-to-run-dhcp-on-sbs.html.