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Feb
21

Eriq Neale Appearing on Talk TechNet February 25, 2011

by Third Tier

Third Tier co-founder Eriq Neale will be appearing on Talk TechNet live this coming Friday, February 25, 2011. This is a LIVE event where you can call in and ask questions via phone, or connect using Live Meeting and submit questions through that interface during the hour. Based on previous episodes, this promises to be an entertaining and educational hour.

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032476777&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Talk TechNet with Keith Combs and Matt Hester – Episode 10: Eriq Neale on Small Business Server (Level 200)

Event ID: 1032476334

Language(s): English.

Product(s): Windows Small Business Server.

Audience(s): IT Decision Maker, IT Generalist.

Event Overview

Talk TechNet is all about discussing topics and trends in the world of IT Professionals. In this show we’ll have guest Eriq Neale. Eriq is a Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) MVP six years running. Eriq is a native Texan, founder and owner of EON Consulting. I’m sure you’ll recognize his name as lead author for the books Microsoft Small Business Server Unleashed (both 2003 and 2008). Call in and join us for what promises to be a lively 60 minute session. Get some burning questions answered.

1 Categories : Announcement, Eriq Neale, SBS 2011

Feb
17

Q&A from the February 2011 Third Thursday Webinar – Configuring SBS 2011

by Third Tier

The following is the Q&A from the February 2011 Third Thursday webinar on Configuring SBS 2011 Standard. If you didn’t get a chance to ask your question or you have a question after listening to the recording of the webinar, head on over to our Forum site (https://www.thirdtier.net/forum) and post your questions in the Third Tier Info / Webinars area!

Question: If you click on the Status column first, and then in the Startup Column, any services that are not running will be at the top of the list. Saves you from scrolling down the lsit.

Answer: good tip!

Question: for later: certificates: do I order a certicate for remote.corbus.nl or corbus.nl?

Answer: you’ll likely get the cert for remote.corbus.nl, unless you are wanting a wildcard certificate for the entire domain.

Question: Public share is not moved by the Wizards – must be done manually

Answer: That’s correct.

Question: Does the SBS2011 built-in backup support Exchange-aware backup? SBS2008 did not if I’m not mistaken…

Answer: Yes, both SBS 2008 and SBS 2011 do include Exchange as part of the backup process.

Question: If using a third party backup, what is the recommended procedure to get SBS to not report that backup is not configured?

Answer: It was not possible to change that alert in SBS 2008, I have not checked to see if that has changed in SBS 2011, but I suspect that it works the same as SBS 2008, meaning that you will still see the alert even though you have a third-party backup configured and running.

Question: for smaller clients that might use Microsoft Security Essentials will they be reporting back to the SBS console that they are up-to-date, or virus riddled?

Answer: MSE should report correctly to the SBS console

Question: When you change external backup drives in the morning, does it make a full backup at noon on the new cartridge, thereby slowing down the system?

Answer: I believe that is correct. A full backup is taken when a backup drive is swapped out.

Question: Are you seeing issues with Forms Based Authentication service not starting up on reboot?

Answer: answered live

Question: Haven’t seen it on our production 2011.

Answer: Thanks.

Question: setup of USB backup drives needs to be done with all external drives connected – got error when adding another drive until original drives were reconnected

Answer: Great tip!

Question: Symantec Protection Suite Small Business Edition is not yet supported for SBS 2011 – any other recommendations?

Answer: Some of us are holding off on installing any AV on the SBS 2011 for the time being.

Question: If you decide to use Trend client on server, use WFBS6 for now, not WFBS7. We have WFBS7 running on our SBS 2011 TAP site, but recommend WFBS6 on new deployments for now.

Answer: That’s something we’ve heard from several people, thanks for sharing.

Question: I did experience an issue on a clean install of SBS 2011 with BAckup configured and functioning properly. For some reason the Exchange transaction log files were not being committed and deleted. I resolved the issue by killling the origional backup and after reconfiguring backup Exchange realized the backups were being performed and the transaction logs flushed. Much panic when the C: drive ran out of space in a matter of a day or two.

Answer: Thanks for sharing, we hadn’t heard about this specific item.

Question: I have Trend WFBS 7 installed on one production – most current patch released end of January addresses memeory and PCU issues. appears to work OK

Answer: Good to hear, thanks for sharing.

Question: Any issues with Outlook Anywhere / Autodiscover that you have come across on your lab boxes (that have haunted SBS 2008 in the past)?

Answer: answered live

Question: +who does a hosted console for their AV ?

Answer: Trend, Vipre are the two that i’m aware of. Others may also.

Question: thanks guys!

Answer: welcome

Question: Thanks………….. Lots of good info!

Answer: welcome!

—–

So who wrote this blog and what do they do for a living anyway?
We’re Third Tier. We provide advanced Third Tier support for IT Professionals.

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0 Categories : Amy Babinchak, Eriq Neale, Q&A, Webinar

Feb
1

IPv6 is Here! Learn all about it: Third Tier welcomes Tom Shinder’s IPv6 Course

by Third Tier

2011 is the year of IPv6! With the last IPv4 address allocations made in January of this year, the future of TCP/IP networking is IPv6. Over the next five years you’ll find the major carriers rolling out support for native IPv6 networks and providing IPv6 allocations to their customers. In the past there wasn’t much to motivate you to learn IPv6, since nobody was using it other than bleeding-edge implementers and techno-geeks. Those days are gone and the time has come to bring IPv6 into the mainstream. To help you get started on your IPv6 trek – Tom Shinder is offering a 32-week IPv6 course to all members of the Microsoft community. Don’t let the 32-week thing intimidate you. The course will be a couple of hours, every two weeks.

Third Tier is please to be part of the community effort to provide education to IT Professionals on IPv6. Tom Shinder will present a year long course (delivered in bite sized pieces) designed to train IT Professionals on understanding and using IPv6. As part of the community effort, Third Tier will provide the webinar location, TechNet wiki, TechNet Forums and Edge Man blogs will provide continuing education and an opportunity to contribute to the conversation after the webinar sessions. Third Tier will also record the live sessions for later viewing.

This course, slated to being in April 2011, will focus on IPv6 fundamentals for those entirely new to IPv6. The focus will be on the Microsoft implementation of IPv6 and we will use Joe Davies’ award winning book Understanding IPv6, Second Edition as our textbook. The only prerequisites are that you have a basic understanding of IPv4 (you don’t need to be a networking guru), that you purchase the book and you want to get a head start on understanding IPv6 so that you’ll be prepared for the inevitable adoption and deployment of IPv6 on both home and corporate networks. The course will be delivered online and will be archived for later viewing. This is a community effort and we’ll adopt a number of community accessible tools (such as the TechNet wiki and TechNet forums and the Edge Man blog among others) to create a highly interactive and valuable learning experience. More details will be available in March 2011.

Let me introduce you to Tom Shinder, Principal Knowledge Engineer, DAIP iX. Anywhere Access Team

The “Edge Man” blog : http://blogs.technet.com/tomshinder/default.aspx
Twitter: http://twitter.com/tshinder
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tshinder

Stay tuned for details as the launch of this educational series draws near. Meanwhile, you might want to pick up the text book, Understanding IPv6, Second Edition

—
So who wrote this blog and what do they do for a living anyway?
We’re Third Tier. We provide advanced Third Tier support for IT Professionals.
Get Support BlogFeed Blog Twitter Twitter Facebook LinkedIN

0 Categories : Announcement, Friend of TT, IPv6, Webinar

Feb
1

Join Amy on TechTalk Feb 2nd. Topic: SBS

by Third Tier

Join Amy Babinchak on TechTalk Wednesday February 2nd. This is a TALK show that means that you get to dial in and ask questions. How cool is that? So get your questions ready and join me on the show.

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/Register.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032476334&CountryCode=US&IsRedirect=false

TechNet Webcast: Talk TechNet with Keith Combs and Matt Hester – Episode 3: Amy Babinchak on Small Business Server (Level 200)

Event ID: 1032476334

Language(s): English.

Product(s): Windows Small Business Server.

Audience(s): IT Decision Maker, IT Generalist.

Talk TechNet is all about discussing topics and trends in the world of IT Professionals. In this show we’ll have guest Amy Babinchak. Amy is a Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) MVP five years running. Amy is President of Harbor Computer Services and an international speaker on SMB security. Call in and join us for what promises to be a lively 60 minute session. Get some burning questions answered.

Presenters: Keith Combs, Sr. Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation, Matt Hester, Senior IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation, and Amy Babinchak, President, Harbor Computer Services

1 Categories : Amy Babinchak, SBS 2011

Jan
25

January Webinar Available for Download

by Third Tier

For those who were not able to attend last week’s webinar, the first in the Managing SBS 2011 series, the LiveMeeting recording is now available for download from our Store page (http://www.thirdtier.net/store/). To view the webinar, download the file, extract the ZIP file, go into the folder, and open the ReplayMeeting.htm file.

0 Categories : Amy Babinchak, Eriq Neale, SBS 2011, Webinar

Jan
20

Q&A from Managing SBS 2011 – Installation webinar

by Third Tier

Here is the Q&A from today’s webinar on Managing SBS 2011 – Installation:

Question: sas or sata drives?
Answer: We are using primarily sata drives. Where we find that they aren’t fast enough, we generally provide a second sever for file storage with those drives.
Question: A lot of DVD burners do support DL, but good luck finding the media! I have found it easier to find Blu-Ray burnable media than DVD DL media…
Answer: Good tip. We’ve found the same thing. The USB setup is very simple and so much faster.
Question: Can we build SBS 2011 and fully configure it with our unique “recipe” (GPOs, tweaks, setup wizards, etc) then image it? Could we then apply that “custom” image to new servers and then tweak a few things for that specific customer? And… If we build that base as “company.lan” can we change that after that fact to “xyzcorp.local”?
Answer: You can’t do all of those things, but you can do most of them. This is a pretty complex questions. We’ll talk about it at the end during Q&A
Question: Do i need an trial key, for trial period of SBS2011. (Have downloaded from MSDN)
Answer: It will let you run without a key for a few days. If you have an MSDN subscirption you can get a key from your downloads section.
Question: I have a customer installation with my ISO file. But need an trial period, before I get the key to my customer. OEM editions have not been released yet in Norway.
Answer: You should be able to install without a product key when you run the install and then add the product key later.
Question: So i dont need an trial key for getting 60days trial
Answer: There is no place in the install where a key is asked for, so no trial key is needed. I’m not certain about the timeframe allowed before a key must be entered, but it doesn’t prompt for a key during install.
Question: Are you all using HP or Lenovo/IBM hardware or whitebox/HAAS hardware for SBS 2011, in particular I’m interested in the RAID controller and any out of band management you deploy.
Answer: Eriq’s company is using Dell hardware for hardware. We’ll discuss this more in live Q&A.
Question: I have started an SBS2011 server installation with 8GB ram for a customer, and i am worried that this will be a problem for my customer. Should i sell more RAM or keep on with 8GB?
Answer: If the customer is very small, it might be OK. But you will find it slow. I would recommend a few more GB minimum. Ram is pretty cheap these days.
Question: It is a 4user business with a simple MySQL database for an LOB software
Answer: I think I would still get them another 4GB. It will help the server have a long healthy life
Question: Most of customers coming from SBS2003. Firewall recommendations and why… What to look for?
Answer: We are using Calyptix. I would recommend a UTM appliance of your choice because attacks today come from all angles.
Question: We use HP 410i with 512MB FBWC controller + 4x146GB SAS 10K disk in RAID5. Choose BBWC or FBWC on the controller. Makes it much faster.
Answer: Thanks for the recommendation.
Question: When we virtualise SBS & a seperate SQL box then we have a mix of SATA and SAS.
Answer: Thanks for the recommendation
Question: If we are okay with using “company.lan” as the internal domain for all customers can we use the “confgiure and image” method and just change the external domain name “xyzcorp.com” using the wizard (in other words not run that wizard before imaging). In other words if we are okay with a generic internal domain name for AD are there any other reasons we cannot build an image of SBS 2011 for use in deployment?
Answer: This is a much better choice. We haven’t tried it. Do some experimentation first and keep us posted on how it goes.
Question: Is there anything new in SBS 2011 that better supports Macintosh / Ipad / Iphone Os es?
Answer: answered live
Question: Amy, how much cache ram on the raid controllers for your SATA installs?
Answer: 256 or 512mb
Question: Teaser question re migration: it sounds like I need another physical server even when I have a perfectly capable box currently running sbs2008. Is this true????
Answer: There’s no in place upgrade. This is function of Exchange. So you do need two boxes. We either replace the existing hardware or if we reuse it we virtualize the SBS 2008 on a temporary server.
Question: Does Remote (RWA) work from Safari Browser?
Answer: It depends..Yes but you can’t remote control a machine in the domain.
Question: Have you tried doing an install on an SSD? If so what RAID options did you choose, if any? Since SBS 2011 is based on Windows 2008 R2, it supports TRIM to increase SSD life span. I have my production SBS 2011 running on 2008 R2 Hyper-V and the virtual disk on an SSD and the performance is amazing! I’m not doing this for customers yet but was just wondering if you guys have played around with SBS on any type of SSD structure yet.
Answer: We have not. But this is great information for everyone. Thanks for sharing.
Question: Will handout or recording of the slides be available?
Answer: The webinar has been recorded and will be available on the site. Most likely there will be a subscription available for supporting materials later.
Question: Are there any documents I should follow or that Eriq can recommend for Macintosh join on SBS network SBS 2011?
Answer: I’ll be doing a post on Macintosh connectivity to SBS 2011 in the near future (read weeks, not days )
Question: Have you found a way to disable the remote file share access that shows up in the remote web?
Answer: answered live
Question: Do you feel it is too soon to put SBS 2011 into a client production environment?
Answer: Eriq does not, we have a number of proposals out right now for SBS 2011 migrations.
Question: Thanks. That’s too bad than you can’t filter somehow. Just like the remote control server only shows up for admins, not normal remote users.
Answer: Yes, we’ve bugged it for a future update, but no idea if/when it will be updated.
Question: This might have been discussed earlier, but when clients with SBS 2003 need a hardware refresh and aren’t ready for SBS 2011 yet, do you typically P2V it? If so, what tech do you use?
Answer: I use Storagecraft backup restore into a MS hyper-V machine. MS P2V should work equally as well
Question: Any difference in specs for virtual installs?
Answer: Not much experience with this yet. We expect that the requirements will be higher for virtual servers.
Question: Thanks – Great Job, as usual!!!
Answer: You’re welcome!

0 Categories : Amy Babinchak, Eriq Neale, Q&A, SBS 2011, Webinar

Dec
22

Third Tier Staff Named in SMB 150 List

by Third Tier

Third Tier is pleased to announce that five of our staff were named in the SMB 150 list published in the Q4 2010 issue of SMB PC Magazine. This list was compiled by SMBTN and started with almost 900 nominations and features vendors, media personalities, and other people active in the SMB IT community. Our staff who appeared on the list are:

Amy Babinchak
Steve Banks
Eriq Neale
Dave Shackelford
Wayne Small

The digital edition of the magazine can be downloaded from http://www.smbnation.com/Publications/Magazine/tabid/72/Default.aspx (free registration required to access the content).

Congratulations to Amy, Steve, Eriq, Dave, and Wayne for being named in this prestigious list!

0 Categories : Amy Babinchak, Announcement, Dave Shackelford, Eriq Neale, Steve, Wayne

Dec
21

SBS 2011 Release Party Download Available

by Third Tier

Last week’s Third Thursday webinar presentation of the SBS 2011 Release Party is now available for download from the Store page. To view the recording, download and extract the ZIP file, then open the contained folder and open the ReplayMeeting.html file.

Categories : Amy Babinchak, Eriq Neale, SBS 2011, Webinar

Dec
17

SBS 2011 Standard Download Available

by Third Tier

Following this past Monday’s release of SBS 2011 Standard to manufacturing, the bits are now available for download from Technet Plus and MSDN. For those who have been wanting to take a look at it before deploying it to customers, now is your chance! Expect that the download site might be a little bogged down today, though.

1 Categories : Announcement, SBS 2011

Nov
18

RDS Remote Apps Webinar Starts Soon

by Third Tier

Eriq Neale’s Third Thursday webinar on RDS Remote Apps starts at noon Eastern. Here’s the link to join the meeting:

https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/harborcomputerservices/join?id=8KN645&role=attend&pw=3CdN%3Fp%2F%3AR

See you there!

0 Categories : Announcement, Eriq Neale, Webinar

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