The SBS, Windows Essential Business Server and Windows Home Server Community Lead Blog

You have to check out some pretty cool stuff our Marketing team put out recently.

So how many times has someone asked you "Can I add multiple servers to an SBS domain?". The SBS team decided it was time to do something about it so now, they are working on dispelling some of the most common and not so common SBS myths, one crazy video at a time. So the next time you encounter this or any other SBS myth, just respond with: "Yes, you can. Check this dude out: http://sbsguru.spaces.live.com/default.aspx"

If you have other ideas for some videos, let me know and I will pass it on to the team.

Thanks,

Kevin

Hey everyone,

Just thought I would share with you some BIG News!  The Windows Essential Business Server Team has a new blog. 

http://blogs.technet.com/EssentialBusinessServer/

This will be the official EBS team blog.  We have several goals for the team blog:

• Provide information to press, partners, and customers to learn about the product
• Provide insights into the why's behind the product
• Be an open and transparent place to discuss aspects of the product (technical issues, shortcomings, etc...)

 I am really looking forward to reading this blog. We have learned so many valuable things from our TAP and Techbeta programs thus far and the team has a lot to share about thier learnings and what we they are thinking about.

Thanks,

Kevin

Hey everyone, 

The User Research team is looking for and inviting select customers to participate in a user research study.  They are looking to learn from companies who perform IT services for their own customers, such as backing up data, managing/installing patches, and keeping AV software up-to-date.  They would like to come to your office to talk with one or more people who perform IT services for clients and learn from them.

It is important for you to know that you do not need to do anything to prepare for this. They want to learn from you, the experts, so that they can determine what needs to be improved in our software. This also gives you the chance to tell them what your needs and wants are, and meet with some members of their product development team.

As you know Microsoft highly values feedback from the community. They will be offering you free Microsoft software in appreciation of your time and participation in this research.

If this is something that you or others at your company would be interested in, please let them know by mailing itvisits@microsoft.com.  They are currently scheduling site visits in North America for February.

Thanks to Susan for her post on this research as well. http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2008/01/22/microsoft-wants-to-learn-from-us.aspx

Thanks again,

Kevin

Hey Everyone,

We have a new name! Please pass the word out if you can. I really appreciate all of your support over the last year getting the word out via your blogs. We have had a huge level of interest in the Techbeta and we are currently evaluating expanding the level of participants in the program in the near future. So, if you are interested, see the instructions below for applying to participate in the TechBeta.

Windows® Essential Business Server is the new Microsoft server solution for small to medium businesses, with 50 to 250 client computers in their organizations. Windows®Essential Business Server offers a standardized server configuration that is designed to meet the needs of most midsize businesses. The configuration is optimized to meet the currently recommended practices for networking, security, collaboration, and remote access. The tightly integrated Windows Essential Business Server simplifies setup, migration, and licensing for Microsoft infrastructure server products that a midsize business uses most frequently. Most network services and resources are managed through a single Windows®Essential Business Server Administration Console, which is accessible from anywhere on the network or remotely over a virtual private network.

Windows®Essential Business Server is installed on three physical servers. These are referred to by their primary roles in the network:

·         Windows®Essential Business Server Management Server – Centralizes management of your Windows Server "Centro" network. Enables and manages worker collaboration and network services.

·         Windows®Essential Business Server Security Server – Manages security, Internet access, and remote-worker connectivity.

·         Windows®Essential Business Server Messaging Server – Provides messaging capabilities and manages network services.

If you are interested in joining the Windows®Essential Business Server upcoming Beta 2 effort;

1. Please go to http://connect.microsoft.com,
2. Click on Invitations and sign in with your Windows Live ID (Passport ID).
3. Enter the following invite ID: EBSE-VKDP-276Y. 
4. You will be asked to take a short survey.  
5. Once you complete the survey we will evaluate your application for participation in the Techbeta.
6. Then look for an email from MsftConn@microsoft.com with further details.

Thanks again,

Kevin Beares

Community Lead

Windows Server Solutions Group (WSSG)

Last week was an amazing week... We started off on September 27th and 28th with over 20 MS MVPs (mostly SBS MVPs aka the SBS Family) in town before SMB Nation 2007 for a set of Round Table / Deep Dive / NDA conversations with the Centro, Windows Home Server and SBS teams. The primary objective of these sessions is to drive product feedback from the MVPs to the product teams and also to keep the MVPs up to date on where we are with our development efforts. These sessions basically occur twice a year and are a huge source of information for both the product teams and MVPs who attend. Needless to say, that is all I can share about what goes on at these sessions.

 On Saturday, September 29th, the three day long SMB Nation 2007 Event kicked off. I dropped by for a number of sessions on Sunday, Jeff Middleton's party on Sunday night and a couple more sessions on Monday. The event was on campus in Redmond, WA, so it was pretty easy to drop in. I am glad I was able to attend. There were a number of great technical sessions that the MVPs presented. It was pretty cool to see them in their element. :)

The one thing that became abundantly clear to me while I was hanging out at all the sessions and Jeff’s party was that there was a huge amount of interest in Windows Home Server (WHS).  I cannot tell you how many times I was approached and asked about WHS. It was pretty cool to be able to talk to so many SBSers about WHS. I kind of knew that there was some interest in WHS, but never thought that there would be this much interest. If you don’t believe me that there is a lot of interest, just read Susan’s two blog posts. The buzz at SMBnation ..part two  and The buzz about "Stuff" Server... I mean "Home Server" at SMBnation.

 So, enough background. The BIG Question: "Can I install and run one of more Windows Home Server(s) on an SBS Network to backup my top 10 ( or more) client machines? Is this supported? "

Yes. * There is nothing in our the Windows Home Server Licensing terms of use that prohibit WHS from backing up Domain Joined Machines.  There is also nothing in the SBS Licensing terms of use that prohibit a Windows Home Server from participating in an SBS Network (Home Server does not join the domain, but can run within the network). As Susan stated in her later blog post, you could simply use “Pass through authentication”.

* The only disclaimer I will put in here is that we do not support backing up or running the Windows Home Server Connector software on an SBS Server. I know that Susan was able to install it and backup her server. Heck, Grey Lancaster, our first official WHS MVP did this in the first week that he had WHS installed. He backed up his production SBS server and then ran a restore and it worked. Still, it doesn’t mean that this is a supported scenario because we haven't fully tested it.

Personally, I love Home Server. I have been using it at home for over a year. I frankly cannot live without it. I do not run an SBS Server at home. I have never had a need to ( I bet you most of you could would argue I do), but I can say that I know that a lot of people have already used WHS to backup domain joined machines, both SBS domains as well as large corporate network joined machines. 

Here are the other things that I heard from the SBSers in the crowd at SMB Nation. I cannot argue that WHS would not be a good solution for any of these scenarios:

• Besides My Documents backup, there is no really good solution from Microsoft to backup and restore full clients on an SBS network that is priced for the Small Business space.
• Current third party NAS devices and other third party backup software is not as robust a solution as WHS.
• They stated that the technologies in WHS with backup and DE are far superior to any device that is currently available on the market.
• The ability to virtualize a backup and restore files on the fly was an amazing feature that any IT admin would die to have.
• SBS Partners always need a way to provide additional services to their customers
• They see WHS as being an option that they could provide to their existing SBS customer sites
• With WHS, they can provide an additional service of backing up the business critical non server machines in an office. Just think of the CEO, whose machine goes crash and you don’t have a backup of it. How long will it take you to get the CEO back up and running?
• They see WHS as a low cost solution to lower the cost in supporting existing SBS sites.
• With every installation of SBS comes the added bonus of desktop support. A partner that has 10 SBS installations to support has on average 200 desktops to support as well.
• With lower cost for supporting existing SBS sites, they can now go out and take on more SBS Customers.
• WHS could seriously help them take care of the very predictable one off request by the CXO’s to come customize/support their home network. WHS is a turnkey solution that could get them back to billable hours supporting SBS.
• They do not see WHS as a replacement to SBS.

I hope that you find this helpful.

Thanks, 

Kevin

A lot of you have contacted me lately asking to get in on the Windows Server Code Name Cougar Beta program that we are hosting on MS Connect. Right now, we are at a level of participation that meet our goals for feedback. We are still taking applications for future releases of the beta of Cougar here. http://connect.microsoft.com/cougar. You can fill out the survey and when we get closer to our next milestone, we may be opening up the beta to a larger set of users. At that time, we will get in touch with you to see if you are still interested.

Just some insight on why me made a decision to start off with a smaller beta earlier on the development of Cougar... Often when teams run a beta, they have to balance the level of participation for feedback against other factors. I don't think that there is a software development team in the world that does not struggle with this. Some of the factors that we have to consider when determing the level of participation are; the need to keep the features of the future release of our product confidential in the early stages, we do not want the future release of our product to be a distraction to their purchasing decision, we do not want to let our competitors know too much about what we are doing, to name a few.

We also know that if we do not provide early enough access, our partners will be ill prepared to plan for the next release. We know that people need time to plan for a future release. So, a lot of thought and discussion has gone into this. So, we will do our best to provide as early a look as we can with future builds of Cougar. So, if you are interester, please go up to the link I mentioned earlier and register your interest.

Thanks a lot,

Kevin

So, how do you provide feedback to Microsoft today? What I am talking about when I say feedback is a bug or a suggestion like you would on a beta. I know that participating in a Beta like the Windows Home Server Beta is one way to get in your suggestions and bugs to the product team, but how do you do it on RTM product? For this conversation I want to focus completely on simply providing feedback to Microsoft to improve the quality of the product.

Now, I want to immediately remove one scenario from this discussion. The scenario is a bug that is impacting you today that you cannot get around and you need help. In these cases, you should always get help from either Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) or another Microsoft Partner or Consultant.

The methods that I know of that exist today for providing feedback to the Microsoft Product teams are the following:

1. Newsgroup or Web Forum. You can post a suggestion or bug in a newsgroup or Web Forum and hope that the thread attracks enough attention that someone at Microsoft or someone like an MVP or a Microsoft Partner pick it up and do something about it. The problem with this technique is that is unreliable, and is inconsistent. The other problem is that it is not a communication technique that allows for the loop to be closed on the feedback. The customer is left with an empty feeling in their stomach because while they may have gotten the issue off their chest, there is no closure in most cases.
2. Blog or Personal Web Page. Of course you can always get the issue off your chest by blogging about it. But again, for the same reasons as I mention above this is not a very reliable technique and the there is no closure. The only exception is when your blog or web site has a Big Audience. In these cases, usually issues raised on these very influencial community sites get Microsoft's attention. The funny thing is, usually these people already have an inside track and usually do not blog about it first.They usually just their contacts within Microsoft to get an issue raised. The problem with this technique is it really the voice of the customer or just a vocal minority. In cases where the feedback comes from an MVP or someone who is a very prominent member in the community, the feedback is usually spot on because these individuals have gotten pretty adept at triaginig everything they have read out on the net and been able to raise the issue that they see as the most pressing.
3. As I mentioned above, you can always engage with CSS for a bug or suggestion even if the intent of the feedback you want to provide is to simply pass along an idea or an observation. The two options you have with CSS is either pay Microsoft for the case or send a letter. With the pay option you will get a full refund if your situation is indeed a bug, but in the case of a suggestion your only option is to send a letter. With this option CSS will research your bug all the way through and the benefit of this technique is that you do get closure most of the time. You will at least get a explanation of what Microsoft plans to do about the bug. The letter option is kind of like option 1 and 2 above. It makes it to the team, but there is no closure. It is kind of like MSWish used to be.
4. So, last, but not least. In some cases, some teams are using MS Connect for enabling feedback with their customer base. The only two that I know of today is the Visual Studio Team and the Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) team. I was responsible for the MOM team turning on MS Connect for the general public. What is interesting about this technique is that the two teams each have taken different approaches to this channel of feedback. In the case of MOM, the volume is so low, they simply roll the feedback up into their Sustaining Engineering team. In the case of Visual Studio, from what I understand, they have a team that helps triage and look at the feedback. They give feedback to the customers on what they are doing with the feedback and they also get the issues onto the teams radar.

So, here is what I am thinking. I would like to enable the last option of turning on MS Connect to the general public for Windows Home Server RTM and also Small Business Server R2 RTM this year.  So, why haven't I done it already you ask? I think it all comes down to bacisally 2  to 3 issues/points of discussion that are all related to one another and overlap in a number of ways;

1. How do you prevent this solution from being a black hole? The fear is about setting expectations with the community. If you provide this channel to the community, how do set and meet the expectations? I think a lot of people on the product team side of the fence believe that if we enable this feedback channel, each and every issue needs to be responded to. I think this is a unfair expectation that the product team puts on itself. I do not think that the community actually realistically believes that we have the ability to simply staff enough people on our team to handle any and all feedback on a one for one basis especially in the case of our mainstream products like Windows Server and Office. I think Windows Home Server and SBS fall into the mainstream bucket. In the case of  the MOM product which I already mentioned is using Connect to capture feedback on their RTM product, they get about 5 pieces of feedback a week which actually scales for them where they can handle and respond to each piece of feedback on a one for one basis.
2. How do you staff/fund it? This to me is a pretty interesting discussion if you actually manage the expectations of the customers from the first point above. If we told the community at large that we want your feedback and we are providing a channel for you to communicate this feeback, but we have a a few rules for this feedback would the community have an issue with it?
   
• What if we said for example that we will only look at a bug feedback item that has a minimum of 10 votes, has an aveage rating of 4 or above and 5 validations at minimum? And that if you want to get the bug to meet this bar, you have to help us get the votes, rating and validations? You all already know how to do this today. You post a link to the bug on Connect on the web forum/newsgroup and/or blog and you ask people to weigh in on the feedback item.
  
• Would the community really have an issue with this? We at least are providing a way for feedback to be logged, tracked, triaged, and responded to on a very large scale unlike any of the other techniques mentioned above.  The other important point is that the throttle can be adjusted. If the throttle is too wide open and we get overwhelmed we can always pull back and require more votes and/or a higher average rating, and/or a higher number of validations. Conversely, we could always open the throttle wider if we could handle a larger volume.
  
3. What is the process for handling this feedback? Who is going to watch this channel and be on the hook to respond to the issues? I touched upon this before, but if we were to set the expectation of the customer, and if we could throttle the level of feedback that is coming in from the community, what do we do with the feedback? I think it is pretty simple from this point. If we meet the first two points above, the need for additional staff is not necessary. The existing Sustaining Engineering and Product teams should be able to absorb this additional channel with only minimal amount of adjustments to their process because the feedback is being throttled.

There are a number of side benefits of doing this:

1. There is a single place where all community feedback lives.
2. The loop can be closed for the issues that are looked at by the product team.
3. The SE, CSS, and Product teams can look at this feedback at any time to gain additional knowledge of the issues that are effecting the community.
4. In the case of SE, this could potentially shorten the time to resolution on an issue that came in from CSS. They be working on a case that they do not have enough information to go on. If they had a database of bugs that came in via the Connect channel there may find a bug that is very similar if not the same that had the additional information that could help them resolve the case faster.

So, what I need from you is a thumbs up/ thumbs down on this idea. What do you all think about this idea?

Thanks for listening.

Kevin Beares
Community Lead
WSSG (Windows Home Server, SBS, Centro)

Hi all,

The Survey is now closed. Thanks again to all of you who responded to the survey. We received a ton of feedback. I have my work cut out for me, but I promise that I will get back to you all with the results and let you all know what we plan to do in response to your feedback.

Thanks again,

Kevin

Back in October I announced the Windows Server Code Name “Centro” Beta 1 release and provided a way for people to sign up for the beta:  So, what is "Centro" you ask...........?

We have released a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows Server Code Name “Centro” and the team is looking for program participants to provide confidential feedback. Input from the community will directly impact the design of this exciting new product!

 “Centro” is built on Windows Server 2008 and provides an integrated server and management system for midsize businesses.  The CTP includes many new Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 based components, as well as updates to the server applications that shipped in “Centro” Beta 1 (updated versions of System Center Essentials 2007, Exchange Server 2007 and ISA, as well as new updates to setup, Active Directory domain join functionality and a host of other improvements). 

Please take a moment to read through the hardware requirements below.  If you meet these requirements, go to http://connect.microsoft.com, click on Invitations, sign in with your Windows Live ID (Passport ID) and enter the following invite ID; EBSE-VKDP-276Y. We will send an email to you from MsftConn@microsoft.com once we have reviewed your application. If you don't already trust this address, please add it to your trusted email addresses. Please be aware that Windows Server “Centro” CTP is Confidential, and you will be required to accept the terms and conditions of participation detailed on the Connect site. 

With this CTP, we will be providing newsgroup support from the product team, and will be actively accepting bugs from participants.  

To install Windows Server “Centro”, you need three physical servers and the associated network hardware.  Ideally, the servers should be configured identically, although this is not a requirement.  The minimum hardware requirements are as follows:

·         64-bit (x64) processor

·         60 GB hard-disk drive

·         2 GB RAM Management Server (4 GB recommended)

·         2 GB RAM Messaging Server (4 GB recommended)

·         2 GB RAM Edge Server

·         DVD-ROM drive

·         1 network adapter (2 in the Edge Server)

If you have additional questions, please feel free to send mail to the team at mailto:centbeta@microsoft.com.

Thank you,

Kevin Beares

Centro Community Lead

Since I said that it was open until the end of the month, I got a bunch more responses and a lot of great comments. So, since I will be on a family vacation the week of July 4th, I will leave it open until I return. Please take the survey if you haven't already done so. We reallly want to hear from you. I promise to read each and every comment and do everything in my power to act on your feedback. I really appreciate your time and energies. 

 SBS WW Community Survey 2007

 Thanks,

Kevin

Wanted to post a link to the SBS 2003 Technical Library announcement. I think this is a great addition to the Community and I think helps address a lot of concerns that people have raised in the SBS WW Community Survey 2007. The ability to search for information on SBS I think has been vastly improved with this addition. Please check it out and let me know what you all think.

Kevin

Here is the post from the SBS Doc Team:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sbsdocsteam/archive/2007/06/22/introducing-the-windows-sbs-2003-technical-library.aspx

It is with extreme pleasure that we announce the launch and availability of the Windows SBS 2003 Technical Library! The WSBS Technical Library centralizes all of the core product documentation for WSBS 2003 and WSBS 2003 R2. In doing so, it significantly improves your ability to search for and discover topics of interest. By centralizing this documentation within a common interface, you are assured of getting quick access to the latest information. There is also far less chance of being confused or annoyed by running into multiple and conflicting versions of the same document.

An added bonus of this release is that it also enables you to take advantage of the built in feedback system. The feedback system makes it possible for you to let us know if you find the documentation helpful or to share your thoughts on how we can correct or improve it.

On the back end, it is much easier for us to collect and evaluate your feedback. Updates to documentation are handled more efficiently and the library is refreshed on a weekly basis.

You can access the library by clicking on any document link on the SBS Product Documentation Web pages or from the SBS TechNet site. 

In the coming months, we will introduce more features that enhance your experience with our product documentation on the Web. Stay tuned!

Thanks everyone for sharing your feedback this year. It is so amazing the read the comments and see where things stand with the people who have taken the time to share their time in filling out the survey. I am glad that a lot of other Community Leads that I work with are considering doing the same thing with thier communities. Kind of funny that we break it up into mini communities based on technologies when really a lot of the people out there could as easily take an Exchange, SQL, WSS, Windows Server, ISA, etc. community survey and give their feedback.

 What I am hoping is to get some feedback that is directed right at the SBS product team that we can take as action items in the next fiscal year. The hope is that we can do at least one thing more next yeart that we didn't do or do that well this year.  Based on some of the comments, I think there are plenty of things that we can do, the question is what bubbles up to the top.

 Looking forward to a lot of reading.

 Keep the data coming in. Like I said over on Vlad's blog. "once you get to a certain number of responses the statistical relevance does not change much. What becomes more important and is always more important to me are the comments. Nothing speaks louder than a host of comments that echo concerns, suggestions, tips, etc.. The voice of the community is important to the product team. My job is to keep the volume up. The leadership team in SBS completely dig the feedback and I know that they will again this year. We are listening. Thanks for sharing everyone."

My Plan is to post a summary of the results up here for everyone to see. 

Thanks,

Kevin

The Windows Small Business Server Product Team would like to hear from the Windows SBS Community. This anonymous survey of the Windows SBS Community is brought to you by the Windows SBS Product Team. 

We want to know how valuable your experience is with the community resources and information that is available to you today as a member of the Windows SBS Community. We also want to know what you think could be done to improve your Windows SBS Community Experience. Please take a couple of minutes to provide us your candid feedback via this survey and let us know what you think.

 SBS WW Community Survey 2007

 Thanks in advance for your feedback.

 Kevin

Hey all,

 Been a little busy lately with 3 betas running in tandem and all, but I thought I would put this heads up out here to let everyone one know that the SBS Community Survey is coming. I decided after all of the data that I got from the last survey that it would best to make this an annual survey verus twice a year.  Look for the link in about a week.

 Look for more on the betas later on.

 Kevin

Hey all,

 If you are interested in what people are talking about in regards to Windows Home Server Beta 2, head on over to http://forums.microsoft.com/windowshomeserver. As promised, we are having a public discussion about Beta 2.  All of the people participating in the beta are asking their questions there. You can also ask questions and make suggestions even if you are not in the beta.

If you are interested in participating in the beta, you can register your interest at the following site: http://connect.microsoft.com/windowshomeserver

 It was pretty exciting last Friday, we let a big block of people into the beta and the feedback is flowing in. Who knows how big this could get?

 Kevin