Author Archive for Third Tier – Page 3

Jan
21

Foundation Webinar Q&A

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Here is the Q&A from today’s Foundation Server webinar. The recording will be available soon in our Store, http://www.thirdtier.net/store.

Question: Good to hear that Texas twang again. :)
Answer: you’re quite welcome, sir! :)
Question: Will it run on Hyper-V?
Answer: No, we’ll cover the limitations of the product in the presentation.
Question: Russell Clements – Systems Administrator at Institute for Creation Research (DFW-SBS President in my spare time…). I’ve used Third Tier twice and was VERY impressed with the OUTSTANDING service provided. It’s a GREAT resource – THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!
Answer: Thanks, Russell.
Question: He mentioned 15 users in AD. Does that count include all the “default” users (Administrator, Guest, IIS_WPG, IUSR_SVRNAME, IWAM_SVRNAME, etc.)? Or only the named users that we add for the customer’s employees?
Answer: No it does not includes those users. Only the named users. There is a licensing service then runs every few minutes and checks for users in the domain.
Question: I am not seeing slides changing
Answer: You should be on the slide What CAN Founcation Server do? Slide. If not, you may have lost connection and need to sign out and back in again.
Question: they are changing REALLY slowly
Answer: OK, well at least moving. Eriq hasn’t shown many slides yet.
Question: In Server 2003, there was a POP3 mail server. Is there one available for Foundation?
Answer: If there is in Server 2008 R2 then it’s available in Foundation Server.
Question: If a vendor says in there specis that they need server 2008 will a Foundation Server work?
Answer: Yes, unless it hits upon one of the feature limitations that eriq mentioned. But in almost all cases, yes it will.
Question: How are you handling email with this solution?
Answer: I am using hosted Exchange. POP mail through an ISP would also be an option.
Question: Do you have a link that compares windows home server with foundation server?
Answer: There is no direct comparison because they are housed in different divisions within Microsoft.
Question: Will there be evals or NFR’s that we can get maybe through the Action Pack to get familiar with the software?
Answer: Foundation Server came in the Action Pack with the last quarter delivery.
Question: For the small offices that have been limping along on Server 2000 or Server 2003 is there a migration path to Foundation? What about SBS03 users that have decided to move to hosted Exchange?
Answer: There is no direct migration from 32-bit to 64-bit.
Question: Can you add Exchange, Sharepoint ect. and is there any separate pricing for it.
Answer: Sharepoint services is a free download. Anything that you install onto Foundation Server will need to be purchased.
Question: Since this is sold in OEM only, if the server hardware dies then we cannot do bare metal restore because it violates OEM license EULA, correct? Or am I missing something.
Answer: Yes, regular OEM licensing limitations apply.
Question: What about a migration path similar to SBS03->08? If we want to preserve the existing AD …
Answer: Yep, you can join it to the existing domain as a domain controller, it will then have a copy of the AD. Don’t forget to move the FSMO roles after you remove the old SBS03 server.
Question: I’m not that familiar with the low-end Dell boxes. What is your recommendation for RAID? PERC S100/S300 (“software based”)? Or a hardware RAID card?
Answer: This is a matter of opinion. But in my mind, this is a low end box and therefore mirror is probably most appropriate. There are no limitations in the product itself regarding drives.
Question: Great job, but I joined late. Is this recorded?
Answer: YES! http://www.thirdtier.net/store
Question: So we need to be careful with additional users, like backup service, zenith remote admin, etc (which aren’t specifically “named Users” but it sounds like they will take up a foundations CAL?
Answer: Yes, any created user would count as one of the 15 users.
Question: 15 users – counting disabled? // What if foundation is not a DC role, can it be in a domain with trusts? // Can virtualization be used for validation of recovery processes OR as a temporary solution for recovery in case of critical hardware failure? // What are you doing to address Backup of foundation server?
Answer: answering live
Question: can Foundation Server software be purchased from Ingram or D&H?
Answer: No. Foundation Serveris OEM only and only to the major manufacturers at that.
Question: There was some debate in forums about whether you can attach in a larger domain as long as the user usage is 15 or lower. IE. 50 user shop. 10 users hitting FS with TS?
Answer: Nope. It can only be installed at the root of the domain, so it will count all of the users in the entire domain.
Question: You said Dell will ship this preinstalled. How do they configure RAID, disk partitions, etc.? Are there OK options or do you end up blowing it away and rebuilding?
Answer: The options availalbe from Dell have seemed OK to me. We have left it as installed and just setup our own data partitions.
Question: Foundation was recently sent to SBSCs for test setup
Answer: Yes, SBSC’s did get a copy of Foundation Server.
Question: Can you comment on why one would put in a foundation server vs a windows home server?
Answer: answering live
Question: Standard Microsoft Action Pack subscribers do not get Foundation server. I just checked on my online product downloads page. I am not SBSc.
Answer: It was shipped as a seperate DVD and not available for download. It may have been for SBSC Action Pack subscribers only.
Question: so the “administrator” counts as one user already, out of the 15?
Answer: We are not certain. We will get the answer and post it to the blog.
Question: Does the administrator user account count as one of the 15 users?
Answer: Look for the answer to this on our blog.
Question: Very good stuff guys. Thanks!
Answer: Welcome
Question: Excellent webinar.. thank you very much.
Answer: Welcome
Question: Thanks good info
Answer: Welcome
Question: Great info as usual.
Answer: Thanks Tom
Question: Foundation server only adds AD and TS?
Answer: Group Policy and all features of Windows 2008 R2
Question: is $299 the msrp?
Answer: Yes
Question: Thanks – Great Info
Answer: Welcome
Question: except direct access
Answer: It can be a DA client, just not the server side

URLs mentioned in the webinar:
Foundation Server Marketing Page: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/foundation.aspx
Foundation Server Technical Page: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744832(WS.10).aspx
Server 2008 R2 Feature Comparisons: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/r2-compare-features.aspx
Server 2008 R2 Role Comparisons: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/r2-compare-roles.aspx

0 Categories : Foundation Server, Q&A, Webinar
Jan
21

Third Thursday Webinars

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While you’re waiting for today’s Third Thursday Webinar on Windows Server 2008 Foundation Server at Noon EST (https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/harborcomputerservices/join?id=5ZTH8D&role=attend&pw=jj%7D%3E%3F%4093X), you can head over to the Store (http://www.thirdtier.net/store) and download last week’s Friends of Third Tier webinar on Virtualization with Dave Sobel!

0 Categories : Eriq Neale, Foundation Server, Friend of TT, Virtualization, Webinar
Dec
19

Outlook Repeatedly Prompting for Authentication

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We’ve seen a large number of people posting in various newsgroups, web forums, mailing lists, etc., regarding a sudden change in behavior in Outlook where it starts prompting for authentication on a regular basis. Many of the ones we’ve seen have been Outlook 2007 against SBS 2008 (Exchange 2007).

We’ve found one possible source for this behavior, see if this matches your situation:

If you have installed any of the following updates on the workstations, it changes the authentication mechanism.

970430 Extended Protection for Authentication in the HTTP Protocol Stack (http.sys)
974318 Vulnerabilities in the Internet Authentication service could allow remote code execution
976325 MS09-072: Cumulative security update for Internet Explorer
971737 Description of the update that implements Extended Protection for Authentication in Microsoft Windows HTTP Services (WinHTTP)
973917 Description of the update that implements Extended Protection for Authentication in Internet Information Services (IIS)

These updates can come down automatically and they are on the assumption that you have already applied the latest rollup from Exchange which was released a while back. If you have not, then Outlook will no longer be able to retain its authentication with the Exchange.

You can download it here: You will need to restart the server afterwards

Install Update Rollup 9 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB970162)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=55320be2-c65c-48bb-bab8-6335aa7d008c&displaylang=en

Exchange Rollup 9 should be coming down via WSUS, if you are using that. If you are not, then it is also an automatic update from Microsoft Update. If you are using another patching mechanism be sure to include Exchange Rollups in the configuration.

Other resources will point out that Exchange SP2 also includes the updates that will address this issue, but as Exchange 2007 SP2 is a challenge to install on an SBS 2008 server, we recommend holding off on installing SP2 on an SBS 2008 server and wait for updated instructions for how to safely install that update.

Hopefully this will help some of you who haven’t found the solution on your own just yet.

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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 : Eriq Neale, SBS 2008
Dec
7

Where did it all go?

by Third Tier

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Ok – so I have a somewhat funny story to share . . .    About a week ago, I received a monitoring alert via Kaseya that free space on the C: drive on my SBS 2008 server was getting low.  I logged in to the server, opened My Computer and it showed that I was using 73 GB of my 80GB C: partition.  So I downloaded TreeSize Free to see what was taking up all of the space.  The problem I ran in to was that TreeSize was showing that I was only using 31.9 GB of space on my C: – no where near the 73 GB that Windows was reporting.  TreeSize did indicate that it couldn’t access the C:\PerfLogs or C:\System Volume Information.  I manually verified the PerfLogs folder was empty, and I did find that I had approx 8GB in ShadowCopies for the C: drive that I didn’t need since all of my critical shares had been moved to a different partition, so I disabled ShadowCopies on the C: drive, but that still left me with a 33GB discrepancy between Windows & TreeSize . . .

At this point, I am going to share two crucial bits of information:  1) This is the first time I’ve dealt with low-drive space on a Windows 2008 box.  2)  I’ve been using TreeSize for years, and by force of habit, I always open My Computer, right-click on the drive I want to scan and launch TreeSize from the context menu.   So can you see where I went wrong?

Yep – I was quietly bitten by UAC in SBS 2008.  By launching TreeSize in my normal fashion, TreeSize was not running with elevated permissions and was unable to access all of the directories on the drive, many of which were several layers deep.  Interestingly enough, TreeSize Free didn’t throw any errors when it encountered a directory it couldn’t access.  Once I launched TreeSize Free from the Start Menu with elevated permissions, it was able to scan the full drive and show me my smoking gun – 27GB of IIS logs for the WSUS Administration site collected over the last 12 months.  So after cleaning up my unnecessary Shadow Copies & purging old IIS logs, I’m back to 41.2 GB (51.5%) free space on my C: drive . . .

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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.
Third Tier Get Support BlogFeed Blog Twitter Twitter Facebook Facebook LinkedIn LinkedIN
0 Categories : Chad Gross, SBS 2008
Dec
3

Welcome Edwin Sarmiento!

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Third Tier is pleased to announce the addition of Edwin Sarmiento to the team. Edwin currently resides in Canada, but has spent a great deal of time on the other side of the globe. His specialty is SQL, but you can learn about his other areas of expertise in his bio.

Glad to have you as part of the team, Edwin!

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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.
Third Tier Get Support BlogFeed Blog Twitter Twitter Facebook Facebook LinkedIn LinkedIN
0 Categories : Uncategorized
Oct
19

Group Policy Loopback Processing

by Third Tier

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Subtitled – “Wow, I learned something new today!”

So in the Third Tier support queue today, Jon posed an interesting question:

How do I exclude Folder Redirection from applying to one domain-joined laptop that is out of the office & disconnected from the domain most of the time?

To revisit Group Policy basics for everyone – GPOs can apply to either computer accounts or user accounts.  GPOs that apply to computer accounts are processed when computers boot up (we’ve all seen the “Applying Computer Settings” message during startup), and GPOs that apply to user accounts are processed during login.  Obviously, Folder Redirection is a user setting in Group Policies, and GPOs don’t have the same targeting options that Group Policy Preferences do.  So how do we have different GP user settings implemented when users log in to specific machines?   Via User Group Policy loopback processing, of course . . .

So what is User Group Policy loopback processing?  It is a Group Policy setting that applies to Computer accounts.  When enabled, it effectively tells a computer to process User Settings in GPOs that apply to the computer account whenever a user logs on to that computer.  As a result, we are able to define user GP settings in a GPO applied to computer accounts instead of user accounts.

User Group Policy loopback processing can be enabled in one of two modes:  merge or replace.  In merge mode, both GPOs applying to the user account and GPOs applying to the computer account are processed when a user logs in.  GPOs that apply to the computer account are processed second and therefore take precedence – if a setting is defined in both the GPO(s) applying to the user account, and the GPO(s) applying to the computer account, the setting in the GPO(s) applying to the computer account will be enforced.  With the replace mode, GPOs applying to the user account are not processed – only the GPOs applying to the computer account are applied.

In Jon’s specific case, he wanted to exclude Folder Redirection for one remote laptop.  The folder redirection settings in Group Policies do not have a “disable” option – only “Not Configured” or enabled via the “Basic” or “Advanced” modes.  Since there isn’t an option to explicitly disable Folder Redirection, the merge option would not meet Jon’s needs, since the user GPOs would be applied and Folder Redirection would remain enabled on the laptop.  By using the “Replace” mode and not defining Folder Redirection in the GPO that applies to the computer account, Jon is able to achieve his desired result.

Take-aways on User Group Policy Loopback Processing:

  • This is a COMPUTER setting, which is found under Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System | Group Policy | User Group Policy Loopback Processing Mode
  • You want to create a new OU in AD that is dedicated to computer accounts that will have loopback processing enabled.
  • Create a new GPO in your new OU to enable User Group Policy Loopback Processing and set the appropriate mode (merge / replace).
  • You will define the user settings you want to apply to the loopback-enabled PCs via GPOs in this same new OU.  You can define these settings either in the same GPO where you enabled the User Group Policy Loopback Processing setting, or you create another new GPO in the same OU for your user settings.
  • Remember that when using the REPLACE mode, none of your other user GPOs will be applied when a user logs in to a machine that has loopback processing enabled.  ONLY the user settings that are defined in the GPOs that apply to that machine will be applied.
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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.
Third Tier Get Support BlogFeed Blog Twitter Twitter Facebook Facebook LinkedIn LinkedIN
0 Categories : Chad Gross
Oct
6

Welcome Mikael Nystrom

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Third Tier is pleased to announce the addition of Mikael Nystrom to our team. Mike is a well-respected member of the SBS community and presented a session on deployment techniques for Windows 7 at the recent SMB Nation conference in Las Vegas.

You can learn more about Mike on his bio page.

Welcome aboard, Mikael!

—–

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.
Third Tier Get Support BlogFeed Blog Twitter Twitter Facebook Facebook LinkedIn LinkedIN
0 Categories : Announcement, Mike
Sep
27

Welcome Steve Banks

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Third Tier is pleased to announce the addition of Steve Banks to our staff.

Steve will be helping to man the SBS, Exchange, and General support queues. Steve has been an SBS MVP since 2003 and has also been heavily involved with the EBS product as well.

Steve founded and has been running the Puget Sound SBS user group for a number of years. He has also spoken at a number of events, including the IT Pro Conference in New Orleans. You can read Steve’s full biography here.

Welcome to Third Tier, Steve!

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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.
Third Tier Get Support BlogFeed Blog Twitter Twitter Facebook Facebook LinkedIn LinkedIN
0 Categories : Announcement, Steve
Sep
26

Calyptix/Third Tier SMB Nation Welcome Reception

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If you are headed to SMB Nation for the 2009 Fall Conference, Calyptix and Third Tier would like to invite you to visit us Thursday evening to kick off the conference:
Calyptic/Third Tier Reception Invitation

We hope to see you there!

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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.
Third Tier Get Support BlogFeed Blog Twitter Twitter Facebook Facebook LinkedIn LinkedIN
1 Categories : Announcement, Calyptix, SMB Nation
Sep
25

Third Tier at SMB Nation

by Third Tier

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For those of you who are heading to Las Vegas for the SMB Nation conference, several Third Tier members will be in attendance as well.. Eriq Neale will be speaking at the conference, and you can check out his presentation on Alternative Solutions in the SMB Space Friday at 11:30am on Friday. Amy Babinchak and other Third Tier staff will be on hand throughout the conference. Please stop us and say “hello” if you pass by during the weekend.

See you in Vegas!

—–

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.
Third Tier Get Support BlogFeed Blog Twitter Twitter Facebook Facebook LinkedIn LinkedIN
0 Categories : Announcement, SMB Nation
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