2010 March :: Third Tier

Archive for March 2010

Mar
31

Apple Releases Mac OS 10.6.3, Update Addresses Record Number of Fixes/Improvements

by Eriq

On Monday, March 29, Apple released a major update to its Snow Leopard operating system, making the incremental update of 10.6.3 available for download and installation. According to ComputerWorld ( http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9174337/Apple_delivers_record_monster_security_update) and other sources, the 92 updates and fixes included in the release is a record number of issues addressed in a single update.

The default Software Update settings in Snow Leopard will check in with the Apple update servers on a weekly basis, so within the next 5-7 days any Mac running Snow Leopard should notify its operator that new updates are available for download and installation. Users can check for this and other updates manually by selecting Software Updates from the Apple Menu on any Mac running OS 10.x.

A security update for Mac OS 10.5 was also released on Monday, and while it is not as large of an update as 10.6.3, it still addresses several significant security issues and should be installed on any 10.5 Macintosh as soon as possible.

Categories : Eriq Neale, Security

Mar
29

How to create (or recreate) an Edge Subscription in Exchange 2007

by steve

The following directions are for EBS 2008, but will work for any 2-server Exchange 2007 deployment:

Security (Edge) Server
1. From Exchange Management Shell, enter the following command:
a. New-EdgeSubscription -FileName "c:\windows\temp\EdgeSubscriptionInfo.xml"
2. Copy “c:\windows\temp\EdgeSubscriptoinInfo.xml” to the Messaging server

Messaging Server
1. Open the Exchange Management Console.
a. Expand Organization Configuration
b. Select Hub Transport
c. In the result pane, click the Edge Subscriptions tab.
2. In the action pane, click New Edge Subscription. The New Edge Subscription Wizard starts.
3. On the New Edge Subscription page, in the Active Directory Site: drop-down list, select an Active Directory site.
4. On the New Edge Subscription page, click Browse. Locate the Edge Subscription file to import. Select the file, and then click Open.
5. On the New Edge Subscription page, click New.
6. On the Completion page, click Finish.
7. Open elevated Exchange Management Shell instance and run the command:
a. start-edgesynchronization (or restart the Microsoft EdgeSync service in the Services console.)

Categories : Uncategorized

Mar
25

Third Tier now tweeting in the land down under

by amy

You are following our tweets, right? We’ve been tweeting for a long time now. New content, content calling out information hidden within our blogs post and announcements. All for our techie friends. But now, we’re also tweeting for our techo friends as well.

Third Tier will be tweeting during Australia time zone hours. So welcome Aussies. Please tell your friends to follow us! @thirdtier

0 Categories : Announcement

Mar
24

SBS 2008 Monitoring Database Fills to Capacity

by amy

One of the differences between SBS 2003 and SBS 2008 is how the monitoring database is handled. In SBS 2003 the database did not have a size limitation and was able to grow as large as required. In SBS 2008, this is no longer the case. SQL Express has a 4GB limit and the other day one of my clients hit it.

So how do you know when your SBS Monitoring database is full? You’ll get this error in the Application Log:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        MSSQL$SBSMONITORING
Date:          3/19/2010 7:36:29 AM
Event ID:      1827
Task Category: (2)
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          SYSTEM
Computer:      SBS2008.domain.local
Description:
CREATE DATABASE or ALTER DATABASE failed because the resulting cumulative database size would exceed your licensed limit of 4096 MB per database.

It’s pretty clear from the message what the problem is. So what caused it and how do we fix it?

The cause is that the database is not configured to purge old data. There is a fix for this and it turns out to the same sql script that is used for an SBS problem where the Console displays too slowly. Run this script against your SBS Monitoring database and it will only hold data for the last 90 days. So if your database isn’t completely filled up yet you’ll want to run this now.

NOTE: The following instructions and script link from from the Official SBS Blog posting SBS 2008 Console May Take Too Long to Display Alerts and Security Statuses, Display Not Available, or Crash.

Download the following file to the server you are going to be working on:

http://cid-d5fe25afb6c3615f.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/updateSBSMonitoring.sql
We recommend you save the file to an easy to access path, such as c:\windows\temp.

Complete a backup of the SBSMonitoring Databases

Open Services from Administrative Tools, Services
Accept the UAC prompt
Find and stop the SQL Server (SBSMONITORING) service.
Make a copy of the files in the following folder:
1. C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data
Once the file backup is completed, start the SQL Server (SBSMONITORING) service.

Proceed to run the following set of commands to implement the improvements

Open an Administrative Command Prompt (Run As Admin)
Type the following command, substitute the path to the updateSBSMonitoring.sql file as needed (We recommend that you do NOT copy & paste this command directly from the blog post):
1. Sqlcmd -S %computername%\SBSMonitoring -E -i c:\windows\temp\updateSBSMonitoring.sql
2. Success will show an output like this:
  Changed database context to ‘SBSMonitoring’
  (1 rows affected)

If your database is completely filled up like mine was, then you need to replace it with a clean empty one. I consulted out resident SQL expert, Edwin Sarmiento, for this advice. You’ll have to get clean empty database through one of 3 methods: Open a ticket with Third Tier, open a ticket with Microsoft, or stand up an SBS 2008 server and grab it from there.

To install your new clean database do this:

Open an elevated SQL Server Management Studio Express
Connect to the <servername>\SBSMonitoring database using Windows Authentication
Expand Databases and right-click on SBS Monitoring
Choose Tasks, then Backup
Make a backup of the current database
Next Choose Tasks, then Detach to detach the database from SQL
Open Services.msc and stop the SQL Server (SBSMonitoring) and SQL Full Text Search (SBSMonitoring) services
Open an elevated Windows Explorer and drill down to c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data and replace the SBSMonitoring and SBSMonitoring_Log files with the blank ones you obtained.
Start the services that you stopped earlier
Verify that you can run a report from the console

Since you have now gone to the trouble of installing a new database, to insure that this doesn’t happen again run the above SQL script on the new database.

—
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10 Categories : Amy Babinchak, Edwin Sarmiento, SBS 2008, SQL

Mar
18

Going to SMBNation East or Thinking about it? Start your networking now, over a beer

by amy

And don’t forget, Third Tier’s Amy Babinchak and Eriq Neale will both be speaking at the conference. We look forward to seeing you there.

SMB BEERFESTS MARCH 23-25, 2010 EAST COAST

— SMB Nation and SpamSoap supporting small and medium business channel partners, technology consultants and resellers at well-respected evening “BeerFests” —

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WA March 17, 2010 – The major worldwide SMB community organization, SMB Nation, announced today that it has teamed with SpamSoap and committed to a series of “BeerFests” in three east coast cities between March 23-25, 2010. This event is limited to 25-attendees.

The small and medium business (SMB) channel partner that attends this evening BeerFest enjoys socializing and networking with like-minded technology professionals and SMB author Harry Brelsford. The attendee also has a strong preference for enjoying a good pint of beer. There is an emphasis on bona fide fun as well as peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.

The agenda is simple. After opening remarks from SpamSoap regarding its SMB protection software and its reseller program, SMB Nation’s Harry Brelsford will introduce the SMB Nation Spring 2010 conference coming to East Brunswick NJ (April 30- May 2). After those short speeches and an honorary toast, the conversations and beer flow freely. Past conversations have included:

· The withdrawal of Windows Essential Business Server (EBS) from the market

· SMB Voice-over-IP alternatives

· Making money in a cloud computing world

· How to sell managed services as an MSP.

“Right now, there’s an incredible opportunity stemming from the recovering SMB market to get together and night and have a friendly beer,” said Harry Brelsford, CEO at SMB Nation. “An independent VAR/consultant/.channel partner can meet like-minded professionals in a fun environment and discuss business! Think of these BeerFests as a community event.”

“We’ve found combining business and beer to be a great way to meet the fantastic SMB community,” commented Leonard Dimiceli, director of channel sales for SpamSoap. Details for the 8:00pm to 9:30PM EST evening BeerFest events are:

Boston (March 23, Tuesday), 8PM EST. Sign up HERE: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=146736

· New York City (March 24, Wednesday), 8PM EST. Sign up HERE: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=146677

Washington DC (March 25, Thursday), 8PM: Sign up HERE: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=146679

0 Categories : Uncategorized

Mar
17

Understanding ASP.NET session state management from a DBA’s perspective

by edwin

While I no longer do .NET development nowadays, I find it hard not to use my previous background as a reference when talking about databases. One specific discussion that came up today was how ASP.NET manages session state.

In order to configure an ASP.NET application to do session state management, you need to configure the section in the web.config file of the web application. There are four modes that are available for use

OFF- this means that session state is turned off for the web application
InProc - this means that sessions are kept in memory on the web server. This is the default behavior. You can configure the cookieless attribute if you want the sessionID value in the URL.
StateServer - this means that you are storing session state in a separate process called the ASP.NET state service
SQLServer - well, you guessed it, it stores session state in a SQL Server database
Custom - you can write your own custom mechanism or any other that is readily available as a session storage mechanism

What we as DBAs are concerned about is the use of the SQLServer option as a session state storage mechanism for ASP.NET. As a DBA or a developer, you can create the session state database by using the aspnet_regsql.exe utility that comes with the .NET Framework. Running this utility, by default will create the MembershipProvider database for ASP.NET security outside of Windows authentication. But that's not what we want. We want to create the database to store the ASP.NET session state. To do that, we need to run the utility from the command-line, passing the correct parameters.

aspnet_regsql.exe -S YourSQLServerInstance -E -ssadd

This will create the database named ASPState to store the stored procedures and functions needed for session state management. But there's a catch to this. the default will be to create the stored procedures and functions in the ASPState database, however, the tables that will store the data will be in the tempdb database. Now, as a SQL Server DBA, we all know that anything stored in the tempdb database will eventually be flushed out when the SQL Server service restarts. If you have active sessions on your ASP.NET web application, you will lose these anytime your SQL Server service is restarted. What you need to do is explicitly pass another parameter on the aspnet_regsql.exe utility to store everything in the ASPState database.

aspnet_regsql.exe -S YourSQLServerInstance -E -ssadd -sstype p

The -sstype parameter explicitly tells the utility to create the tables in the ASPState database instead of the tempdb database (the P value stands for persisted) ill survive service restarts so you need to make use of the ASPState_Job_DeleteExpiredSessions job specifically created to do this. The default behavior of this job is to run every minute which would probably be not a good idea especially as it logs all of the job execution information in the msdb database.

So, the next time you need to work with ASP.NET applications storing session state information in a SQL Server database, check this out with your web developers

Categories : Edwin Sarmiento

Mar
17

Slipstream Office SharePoint Server 2007 Service Packs for Windows Server 2008 R2

by edwin

This article took quite a while in the making. I've been seeing a lot of IT Pros deploy SharePoint in their infrastructure particularly on a Windows Server 2008 platform. However, SharePoint with Service Pack 1 is not supported on a Windows Server 2008 R2 platform.

This article outlines the steps in slipstreaming service packs for SharePoint for use with Windows Server 2008 R2. I'll work on a series of articles on how to deploy a NLB solution for SharePoint as well as implement Kerberos delegation for a SharePoint farm

Categories : Edwin Sarmiento, SharePoint

Mar
5

Microsoft Pulls the Plug on EBS

by amy

Microsoft stunningly pulled the plug on EBS today. It’s a stunning move because the highly anticipated version 2 was near release. Code was complete, TAP (technology access preview) customers were running it in production, TAP customers were recently flown in from around the world for training, and MVP’s received in depth information and training on the new version. The consensus of everyone who had used the new version was that it was a homerun and would live up to the promise made to the mid-market. An excitement was in the air.

Batter up! EBS V2 at bat, bases loaded with companies 25-500 users. Microsoft bean counter pitching. SBS 2010 standing way back in right field picking daisies. EBS is using 2 bats today, one traditional and one interesting new lean bat. Awaiting the pitch. Time out! Here comes Marketing from the sidelines to the pitching mound. It seems the pitcher is refusing to pitch to EBS. EBS is out of the game.

We saw something similar happen with Response Point. Just as V2, chock full of requested features and lesson learned from V1 and a partner community revving up, the Response Point plug got pulled. It makes one wonder if Microsoft has the stomach for marketing building; if they can create a new product and stand behind it long enough for the marketing to develop and the partner community to join in.

It’s a sad day for all involved. My condolences to the development team. You put in so much hard work.

1 Categories : Amy Babinchak, Announcement, EBS

Mar
5

Elvis has left the building (EBS retired)

by steve

Microsoft today announced the discontinuation of Windows Essential Business Server. Catch the full story at the EBS Official Blog. Thank you to all who have made EBS a great adventure over the past four years.

Steve

Categories : Uncategorized

Mar
4

Top Influences in SMB – Vote now

by amy

Be heard! Who are your primary influencer’s in the SMB Space?

Take SMB Nation’s survey of the top 150 influencers.

http://tinyurl.com/smb150-2010

0 Categories : Announcement

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