Barnaby's Canadian IT Pro WebLog : Small Business Server

Great x64 Resource (and he's in Canada)

Barnaby_Jeans — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 07:34:01 GMT

After I published this blog post, I was pointed to a great resource from one of our MS MVP's The "Unofficial x64 FAQ" is maintained by Charlie Russel who is one of our MVP's living out in B.C.

If you are trying to figure out how to get Windows working with the latest devices, check out the site.

Great work Charlie.

TechNet Tour - Edmonton and Winnipeg

Barnaby_Jeans — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 17:58:00 GMT

Last week I had the opportunity to visit both Edmonton and Winnipeg as part of the TechNet Innovations tour and User Group Tour. I had the opportunity to meet lots of great IT Pro's and answer lots of questions. For both the Edmonton Microsoft User Group and Winnipeg IT Pro User Group we had a great discussion about Microsoft Small Business Server. If you are an IT Pro in either Edmonton or Winnipeg, and are not already a member of the user group, you may want to check them out.

There were a couple of things that we talked about during the TechNet session; one of them was the TechNet Innovation Award. To quote the website:

The TechNet Canada Innovation Award is awarded to a Canadian IT Professional who is a bright star in the IT community. The Innovation Award is given in recognition of Canadian IT professionals who make a positive impact using Microsoft-based technology.

Well, now you can go ahead and nominate yourself or a fellow IT Pro for the award. Check out http://www.microsoft.com/canada/technet/innovationaward/ for more information. We also talked about the Discover TechNet quiz with the chance to win an XBox (and to see how well you know the team). Take a look at http://www.microsoft.com/canada/technet/discover/ before October 31st, 2005.

One of the recurring questions that I got asked was about the ClearPC demo boxes that we use. Well here is some more information on the configuration of the hardware:

ClearPC Secret Agent Briefcase - http://www.clearpc.ca/secretagent/
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard - http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=375&modelmenu=1
- Dual Gig-E Lan
- Onboard Hardware SATA Raid Controller
AMD Athlon64 4000+ CPU
4 GB Ram
3 x Western Digital WD740 (10,000 RPM, SATA)
Various fans and lights

Depending on the demos that we are doing, these machines are either configured with Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 x64. For the upcoming SQL Launch, you might see these machines running SQL Server 64-bit on Windows Server 2003 x64.

Tags: [Microsoft] [SQLServer] [Launch2005] [Small Business Server] [TechNet] [Edmonton] [Winnipeg]

SBS Usergroup Tour - hosted by SBS MVP’s

Barnaby_Jeans — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 20:43:00 GMT

Small Business Server MVPs invite resellers and consultants who want to understand solutions for small business customers to join together for an evening of presentations and discussion. Each of the SBS MVPs appearing on this tour is an experienced resellers and a community leader.

Agenda:

- Using SBS to empower Line of Business Application - presented by Jeff Loucks

- Swing Migration: Upgrade SBS servers on weekdays, take the weekends off! - presented by Jeff Middleton

- Open Forum Discussion on SBS Business and Technology Issues - mediated by Calvin McLennan and Les Connor

Schedule:

- Vancouver – April 19 http://www.microsoft.com/canada/events/event_details_ww.aspx?event_id=1032271345&go.x=16&go.y=6

- Calgary – April 21 http://www.microsoft.com/canada/events/event_details_ww.aspx?event_id=1032271346&go.x=15&go.y=10

- Toronto – April 25 http://www.microsoft.com/canada/events/event_details_ww.aspx?event_id=1032271347&go.x=8&go.y=6

- Montreal – April 28 http://www.microsoft.com/canada/events/event_details_ww.aspx?event_id=1032271429&go.x=14&go.y=14

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.0 Beta now available

Barnaby_Jeans — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 21:14:00 GMT

Ever wonder if the machines that you manage have the most up-to-date security updates and aren't mis-configured.

MBSA is the free (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/mbsahome.mspx) , best practices vulnerability assessment tool for the Microsoft platform. It is a tool designed for the IT Professional that helps with the assessment phase of an overall security management strategy. MBSA can perform local or remote scans of Windows systems.

MBSA runs on:

•	Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems

MBSA will scan for common system misconfigurations in the following products:

•	Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003
•	Internet Information Server (IIS), SQL Server, Internet Explorer, Office

MBSA will also scan for missing security updates for the following products:

•	Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003
•	IIS, SQL Server, Internet Explorer, Office, Exchange Server, Windows Media Player, Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC), MSXML, Microsoft Virtual Machine, Commerce Server, Content Management Server, BizTalk Server, Host Integration Server

MBSA 2.0 is the next version of the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer, which utilizes the Windows Update Services infrastructure for security update scanning. Please help us improve the quality of this release. We are currently accepting nominations into the MBSA 2.0 beta program. To nominate yourself for the beta, visit http://beta.microsoft.com, sign in to the system using your Passport ID and a guest ID of "MBSA20" and complete the survey.