[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Becky Lymberis]
Small business owners understand how challenging it can be to run a productive business where customers are satisfied and employees are enabled to deliver high quality service. Today’s business environment is competitive and staying ahead requires a renewed commitment to satisfying existing customers while delighting new ones. Many small business owners tell us they are working harder and longer than ever before, often sacrificing time with their family to keep their business healthy. They are always relieved to hear that there are affordable solutions that help them to increase the productivity of their business while enabling them to stay connected to everyone within their network (customers, employees and family). Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS) can be thought of as the central hub for the small business that helps them get connected to their information, calendars, and important business applications whether in the office, at a customer site, or on the soccer field. SBS gives people the flexibility to work from anywhere.
SBS 2008 was designed for the needs of small businesses. Many larger organizations have the skills and resources ($$$) to set up and integrate all the right things to enable their workers to have secure access to their email, files, company intranet or necessary applications. Small businesses have similar needs for remote access don’t but have the same level of resources as larger companies. Therefore we did all of the hard integration work in the SBS 2008 solution, so remote access is available immediately once your server is set up. We enable this through a really simple to use feature called Remote Web Workplace. Remote Web Workplace (RWW) is essentially a web site page that provides a simple, single, secure entry point into your Small Business Server 2008 network. Authorized employees can connect to Remote Web Workplace using any device connected to the Internet. If you know how to surf the internet, you can use Remote Web Workplace.
What does that mean for your business? With SBS 2008 Remote Web Workplace enabled you and your employees can be connected and productive even while out of the office. SBS 2008 works great with Windows phones, so you can share, update, change and manage your calendar and email, view and update proposals or documents from your mobile device. Remote workers can use the internet from any device to access business information and applications, including e-mail, shared folders and files. They can even remotely connect to their desktop computer at the office. With Remote Web Workplace, anyone who needs to be offsite can enjoy a productive experience similar to their office counterparts.
Setting your business up with the infrastructure to support remote working may become a necessary fact of life for many small businesses. Between storms, illness, telecommuting and travel there are plenty of times that your employees may be unable to get into the office. Looking toward the future consider this statistic – according to a recent WorldatWork study, the number of full-time employees performing their jobs remotely at least part of the time rose 39 percent from 2006 through 2008, that equals approximately 17.2 million employees! If you have Small Business Server 2008 with Remote Web Workplace, your employees can be away from the office and keep the business running by staying connected and productive.
Many small businesses are benefiting from a server, even those with as few as 2 to 3 PCs and SBS 2008 was designed specifically for businesses with 75 or fewer PCs or users. If you’re interested you can try SBS 2008 today for free by visiting our product site.
SBS 2008 software can be purchased through a variety of channels such as Microsoft Small Business Specialists, retailers, or preinstalled on a server. Full solutions with server hardware can be purchased through a local system builder or major OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) such as Dell or HP for as little as $1,299. You can visit our product site for more information on “How to Buy SBS 2008” or visit one of our partners directly.
Boost your productivity and responsiveness with Windows Small Business Server 2008, whether you are out of the office, at home or on the road. Windows Small Business Server 2008 helps you stay plugged in and connected to your business.
We’d love to hear from you! Please join our community on Facebook.
[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Mark Stanfill, Justin Crosby, Damian Leibaschoff, and Charanjeet Singh]
While upgrading to Windows Server Update Services 3.0 Service Pack 2 (WSUS 3.0 SP2) on Windows Small Business Server 2008, you will be present with the WSUS Configuration Wizard. You should not need to make changes to any section of this wizard except for the Choose Languages section. Making a change to any other section of the wizard may break the SBS console to WSUS integration.
By default only the default operating system language is selected. You must manually select any other language you wish to support. If you are running a non- English version of SBS you MUST ALWAYS select English in addition to your native language. You must include English due to the fact that some updates are only released in English.
After WSUS 3.0 SP2 installation, WSUS Server Configuration Wizard appears. The ‘Choose Languages’ (‘Sprachen auswählen’) page of the wizard only has the Server OS language (Deutsch/German) selected. You must also select English before clicking next.
Warning: Selecting a previously unused client language will download a significant amount of data and increase the size of the updates stored on disk. Do not select additional languages unless you have WSUS clients that require them.
If you made any addition changes in the WSUS configuration wizard and the SBS console gives an error please run the BPA to fix.
You must be a member of the WSUS Administrators group on the WSUS server to perform this procedure. The SBS administration account is a member of this group by default. For more information about this see the WSUS 3.0 SP2 Release Notes.
This information in this article is also documented in the following Knowledge Base document: After upgrading to WSUS 3.0 SP2 on Small Business Server 2008 only the local operating system language is enabled.
[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Rod White]
When trying to free up space, customers frequently have questions about moving WSUS Content and Databases to different partitions. Our objective is to explain three things:
Start by checking the size of the Volumes by looking at the Server Storage. Open SBS Console and select the Backup and Server Storage Tab. Next, select Server Storage to determine the space available on each partition. When highlighting the C: drive you'll see the size of the different components that you may wish to move with the Storage Wizards. Today we will focus on moving the WSUS Components. Under the Storage Task the Move Windows Update Repository Data Wizard only moves the downloaded content. This will not move the WSUS Metadata or SUS database (SUSDB.mdf and SUSDB.ldf).
During the move the wizard will create a WSUS directory on the new location and will begin copying the contents into the <Drive>:\WSUS\WsusContent directory.
Note: We recommend you perform these steps after hours due to significant resource requirements.
We’re often talking with small business owners about their business - to understand not only their needs and usage of technology, but also what’s important to them as business owners. Not surprisingly saving time and money, all the while providing better and differentiated service to their customers is of key importance. Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008) is really a best kept secret that is a catalyst for small businesses to reduce costs, increase productivity and delight their customers because it really enables them to organize their business and communicate more effectively internally and with their customers.
SBS 2008 is an all in one server suite designed specifically for small businesses. It provides businesses with the technology to do the following:
· Organize and centralize information and data so everyone can find what they need.
· Share hardware such as printers and faxes.
· Back-up important data and restore files.
· Work remotely with easy and secure access to desktops, files, email and calendars from an internet connected PC or mobile phone.
· Share files more easily across PCs and mobile devices with a company intranet
· Run accounting or other business software on more than one PC (SBS 2008 Premium Edition)
· Easily set up new users, computers, and network access (or discontinue existing users and devices) as staffing levels fluctuate
· Look professional by consolidating email accounts with your own company hosted email
· Get better performance out of existing PC investments with centralized storage to free up memory on individual PCs.
SBS 2008 was designed specifically for businesses with 75 or fewer PCs or users – and many small businesses are benefiting from a server, even those with as few as 2 to 3 PCs. If you’re interested you can try SBS 2008 today for free by visiting our product site.
Later this month, we will provide a business value deep dive on “Remote Working enabled by Windows Small Business Server 2008”. We’d love to hear from you! Please join our community on Facebook.
[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Chris Puckett] When you attempt to install SBS 2008 UR 3 (969121) it may fail with error code 6BA "Windows Update encountered an unknown error".
The C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log file for this update reports error 0x80070643 / 0x000006BA.
Troubleshooting: One of the actions SBS2008 Update Rollup 3 (UR3) performs is to change the Integrated Windows authentication in the companyweb site from NTLM to Negotiate (Kerberos) while maintaining client integration to allow you to browse http://companyweb from the server after installing IE rollup 963027 or later, IE8 or Windows 2008 SP 2.
Check the C:\Windows\temp\EnableKerberosLog_2009_<date_time>.log file for more clues.
1. If you see text similar to the log below, it’s most likely that the zone has changed:
2009/09/04 13:35:45| Reading registry keys to get URL for SBS SharePoint 2009/09/04 13:35:45| Url found: https://remote.contoso.com:987 2009/09/04 13:35:45| Trying to enable Kerberos, as well as set other authentication configurations 2009/09/04 13:35:45| Backup original settings of site https://remote.contoso.com:987 2009/09/04 13:35:46| Webapplication found 2009/09/04 13:35:46| Webapplication is running in app pool with identity NetworkService 2009/09/04 13:35:46| Checking authenticaiton mode for Default zone 2009/09/04 13:35:46| Authentication provider is Kerberos 2009/09/04 13:35:46| Originally not allow anonymous 2009/09/04 13:35:46| Originally client integration enabled 2009/09/04 13:35:46| Originally not use basic authentication 2009/09/04 13:35:46| Original settings backup-ed. The machine is ready for authentication settings configuration 2009/09/04 13:35:46| Calling stsadm.exe to enable Kerberos with parameter "-o authentication -url https://remote.contoso.com:987 -type windows -enableclientintegration -usewindowsintegrated" 2009/09/04 13:35:47| Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.IWorker.EnableKerberos.InstallException: Fail to enable Kerberos with exit code -1 at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.IWorker.EnableKerberos.EnableKerberosHelper.TryEnableKerberos() at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.IWorker.EnableKerberos.Program.Main(String[] args) Check the zones in SharePoint Central Administration.
a. Open SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration, click the Operations tab, and then click Alternate access mappings (under Global Configuration).
b. If https://remote.contoso.com:987 and http://companyweb are not in the zones mentioned above, adjust them accordingly and try installing SBS 2008 Update Rollup 3 again.
Note: https://Remote.contoso.com:987 should be in the Default zone. If it is in the Internet zone, this can prevent SBS 2008 UR3 from changing the authentication mode on companyweb and resulting in the SBS 2008 UR3 installation failure.
2. If you see text similar to the log below, you may need to specify a domain prefix like remote or www along with the external domain name in the IAMW.
2009/09/03 15:55:34| Reading registry keys to get URL for SBS SharePoint 2009/09/03 15:55:34| Url found: https://.contoso.com:987 2009/09/03 15:55:34| Trying to enable Kerberos, as well as set other authentication configurations 2009/09/03 15:55:34| Backup original settings of site https://.contoso.com:987 2009/09/03 15:55:34| Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.IWorker.EnableKerberos.InstallException: https://.contoso.com:987 is not in correct URI format ---> Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.IWorker.EnableKerberos.KerberosConfigurationException: https://.contoso.com:987 is not in correct URI format ---> System.UriFormatException: Invalid URI: The hostname could not be parsed. at System.Uri.CreateThis(String uri, Boolean dontEscape, UriKind uriKind) at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.IWorker.EnableKerberos.EnableKerberosHelper.BackupOriginalSettings(String url) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- You have two options here.
Option 2 involves running the IAMW two times but may temporarily affect external Outlook and OWA clients from accessing email and RWW and SharePoint will temporarily not work with the contoso.com URL that users will be used to using because the certificate and URL will change from contoso.com to remote.contoso.com for example. Option 1 avoids this, but requires manual steps to perform. Choose one method.
Choose Option 1 or 2. It is not necessary to do both. Option 1: Manually edit the registry and SharePoint.
a. Open regedit and navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SmallBusinessServer\Networking.
b. Double-click PublicFQDNPrefix. Type remote and click OK.
c. Try installing SBS 2008 Update Rollup 3 again.
d. Open an elevated command prompt and change directories to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Bin.
e. Run this command: stsadm.exe -o authentication -url https://contoso.com:987 -type windows –enableclientintegration -usewindowsintegrated
f. The URL will be the value of PublicFQDNProvider in the registry key mentioned in step a. You can also get this command and URL from the EnableKerberos log file mentioned above. It will return Operation completed successfully if it completes successfully. If it fails with a syntax error try retyping the dashes. If it still fails with a syntax error try manually typing in the entire command.
g. Open regedit and navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SmallBusinessServer\Networking.
h. Double-click PublicFQDNPrefix. Delete the remote value and click OK.
Option 2: Re-run the IAMW to set the proper URL.
a. Open the Windows SBS Console. On the Home tab, click Set up your Internet address.
b. Specify your external domain name in the wizard like contoso.com (not contoso.local).
c. On that same page, click the Advanced settings link.
d. Uncheck the box ‘Do not use a domain prefix’. Set the domain prefix set to remote or whatever (this is temporary) and do not check the box ‘Do not use a domain prefix’.
e. Click OK and finish the wizard.
f. Try installing SBS 2008 Update Rollup 3 again.
g. Re-run IAMW. Click the Advanced settings link on the page where you type the domain name (contoso.com).
h. Check the box ‘Do not use a domain prefix’.
i. Click Yes, OK, Yes and finish the wizard.
3. If the only text you see in the log is like the example below, your companyweb site may be inaccessible for some reason.
2009/09/04 14:33:46| Reading registry keys to get URL for SBS SharePoint 2009/09/04 14:33:46| Url found: https://remote.contoso.com:987 2009/09/04 14:33:46| Trying to enable Kerberos, as well as set other authentication configurations 2009/09/04 14:33:46| Backup original settings of site https://remote.contoso.com:987 OR
2009/09/04 14:34:42| Rolling back to NTLM 2009/09/04 14:34:42| The install was not started. Nothing to rollback OR
2009/09/04 14:34:42| Kerberos Enabling fix is not installed. Do nothing this time SharePoint is inaccessible.
See this post for the details: http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2009/05/06/companyweb-inaccessible-after-sharepoint-3-0-service-pack-2.aspx
4. If you’ve made it to this point and it’s still not fixed, consider engaging Microsoft Support for assistance.
[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Ed Walters] Certain Group Policy Objects (GPOs) are created and configured by default during the installation of SBS 2008. This blog post will cover how to create these GPOs manually in the event that they are missing or have been accidentally deleted without a backup. Note: If one or more of these GPOs are missing as the result of a failed install, you should not follow this procedure. We recommend that you call Microsoft Product Support as other components are likely to be broken. The steps have been broken down into two types of Group Policies:
Update Services Policies:
Windows SBS Policies:
We do not cover the steps to create the Default Domain Controllers Policy or the Default Domain Policy in this post. Either restore these policies from backup or contact Microsoft Product Support Services for assistance.
Important: The Set the intranet update service for detecting updates and Set the intranet statistics server policies are specific to your server and must be configured with http://<YourServerName>:8530
Note: The above report for this GPO shows the “enabled” and “disabled” policy settings only. Any policy that does not appear in the above report should be set to “Not configured” on your server.
The configuration on the Scope tab for each new Update Services GPO needs to be as follows:
Once the WSUS policies have been updated and applied, Security Filtering on the Client Computers and Server Computers GPOs will begin populating with the machine accounts of your domain joined clients and servers. This is done automatically by SBS every 5 minutes.
This is an optional GPO. Follow these steps only if you wish to use folder redirection
These steps will create the following GPOs: