Archive for Amy Babinchak
Last week during an SBS 2003 – SBS 2008 migration we ran into a problem with the installer that has not occurred in any of our previous migrations. (and we’ve done lots of them) Upon creating partitions and selecting the partition that we wanted to install the OS to, it fails to install immediately saying “Windows could not determine if the computer contains a valid system volume”.
After some fussing, rebuilding the RAID array, calling hardware support at Equus (who by the way was wonderful) we finally found something of a solution on the Internet. Apparently what we ran into is pretty common, though the solution that worked for us was not exactly as found by an Internet search.
The problem was that the server was attempting to install the OS onto the USB key (which we needed for the answer file). It was doing this even though, the USB key was not an option to select in the where do you want to install the OS screen in the installer.
The puzzling part for us is that we have done many migrations and never run into this problem before. We have used this exact same server hardware configuration. We have booted with a USB key already plugged in. We have used OEM media. This we think was our first OEM media with SP2 slipstream, but that hardly seems like something that would cause what really appears to be an installer issue. Was it the particular USB key we used? So while we’re stumped on the cause, at least we found a solution.
The Internet search solution was to go into the BIOS and move the USB key in the boot order to the last option. We did that, no dice. Same problem, this solution did not work for us but if you are having this problem it may be worth a try as others report that it does work. Our install absolutely insisted on not installing where we selected and attempting to install to a drive that was not even available as a selection in the installer!
We had to remove the USB key from the server during installation and plug it in at the appropriate time to read the answer file. The appropriate time we selected was immediately following the confirmation that the OS is installing. When your server reboots be sure to again remove the key and wait until the installation resumes before plugging it in. This will allow the installation to start and your migration to succeed.
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Third Tier offering Technical Training at SMBNation PreDay Event!
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been dying to announce this. I’m so excited! We’re doing a pre-day event at SMBNation in Vegas on October 21st. Make your flights accordingly. Very soon we will be posting a registration form. You must register in advance so keep an eye out for it.
Speakers are our own fabulous staff: Dave Shackelford, Cliff Galiher, Eriq Neale and Wayne Small
Our content has been selected by the guys to reflect the growing concern over compliance, business continuity, manageability and issues surrounding these that our customers are contacting us for help with. Case studies and examples will abound and they guys will show you how to configure the products they will be working with which including Exchange, Sharepoint, Terminal Services and Hyper-V. Expect the sessions to be intense with advanced material. Your brain will be exploding by the end of the day.
I’ll be posting more and more specifics about the content as the event gets closer. Let’s have a look at what Eriq is going to cover first:
Configuring and Using Remote Desktop Services Remote Apps – A Love Story
Many people have heard of Remote Desktop Services Remote Apps (formerly Terminal Server Remote Apps) but either haven’t had an opportunity to implement the solution or just are not sure how to. In this session, Eriq Neale will show how to configure RDS Remote Apps on a Remote Desktop Server and then go over several real-world deployment scenarios. We will also go over how to set up RDS Remote Apps to work with Remote Web Workplace on an SBS Server. Eriq will include case studies on when and why this technology is used.
Configuring RDS Remote Apps
Publishing an Application through RDS Remote Apps
Publishing an Application with multiple configuration options through RDS Remote Apps
Publishing an RDS Remote App through Remote Web Workplace
Please make your flights accordingly and plan to join us for a full day of intense training on October 21st.
Shout Out to Hewlett Packard, Symform and Storagecraft. Without awesome vendors that get the small business space and are willing to invest in partner education, this event would not be possible.
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Checking out the HP DataVault
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HP has had this product called the DataVault for some time now, but it’s kind of been flying under the radar. Everyone seems to know about Home Server but they don’t realize that HP has taken Microsoft’s Home Server and given it a business twist by boosting the specs and changing the name to make it easier to sell to a small business.
And now we break for a moment of disclosure. While I’ve previously purchased the HP DataVault for clients, recently HP sent me one for testing and that’s what has prompted this blog post.
We bought the DataVault for a small accounting client who had 7 PC’s and a SnapServer whose password they didn’t know when they came to us. Each of these PC’s have multiple versions of Quickbooks and a couple of other accounting packages, but no two PC’s are exactly the same. Each person working there needs certain accounting packages but not others and so that’s how they’ve got the PC’s loaded. Now because they were self IT’ing, each of those packages was also using factory default settings which means that they are saving data to every PC. (RED FLAG!) Each person was responsible for backing up their stuff. Shared documents were stored on the SnapServer whose admin password they didn’t know.
“How soon before you have 8, 9, or 10 people and computers here?” Never. “Never?” Never.
That’s not unusual. A lot of small businesses are happy and content with the size they are and have no plans to grow. So we could re-organize the whole network, switch over to network controlled applications, centralize data storage, create a domain, yada, yada, yada but this business owner liked things they way they were. They were really only concerned about the SnapServer issue, until we pointed out the rest. They didn’t want a total makeover, they just wanted a solution for the problems at hand. That’s why we chose the DataVault.
The DataVault comes in 1, 2 or 3TB divided on two drives leaving 2 open internal bays, 4 usb ports and a sata port externally. We got it from Amazon for well under $1000. If you have a massive amount of data there are plenty of ports available with which to add more drive space and because it’s Home Server under the hood, you don’t even have to care what kind of drive you add later.
So the DataVault goes into place, we setup workstation backup (comes with data de-duplication technology so after the first workstation is backed up they don’t take up that much space) and we move the shared folders over. We also setup a couple of people with remote access to their PC’s so they can work those crazy accountant busy season hours from home. A happy ending for everyone! Until…
…disaster struck. (Is this a perfect case study or what?) A system board failed. After troubleshooting we placed a call to HP. HP shipped out a replacement under warranty. Now, if you know something about Home Server, then you know it’s an appliance by design. That is, you don’t install the OS it comes installed and every single one is identical. If you know about the DataVault then you know every single piece of hardware is identical. Holding our breath, we pulled the drives from the dead DataVault and put them into the new DataVault and booted.
Bling! Perfect, nothing had to be reconfigured, no new drivers loaded, no new hardware was detected…it just booted up like nothing happened. A happy ending for all. We do love the DataVault. It fits particular very small clients really well and we have several of them deployed and under management.
Get your basics down with Amy and the support guys at Calyptix
Posted by: | CommentsCalyptix has long been a friend of Third Tier and this month Amy will be a guest speaker presenting Networking Best Practices with the guys from the support staff over at Calyptix in their series, Getting to know your Access Enforcer. If it’s been a while since you reviewed the basics, or you jumped right into server work and never got the basics down cold, then this webinar is for you.
- Don’t know when to use a cross-over cable and when to use straight-thru?
- Fully understand how DNS and DHCP work?
- What’s a CIDR?
- When to segment the network into multiple subnets and when not to
Register now, bring your questions and let’s get the basics down.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/726018419
Get the most out of your AccessEnforcer by investing 60 minutes in online training from the comfort of your own environment. Join Calyptix Security team members in this live session for a technical review and discussion covering a range of troubleshooting topics. The program will conclude with a question and answer session (time permitting). Participation in this training session is limited to current customers and authorized Calyptix Partners. The following items will be covered in this session.
The following items will be covered in this session:
o Overview of networking concepts
o DNS, DHCP, WINS servers and more…
o CIDR Ranges
o Managing Subnets and Multiple LANs
o Implementing Network Segmentation
o Using VLANs with AccessEnforcer
o Questions & Answers
Contact Calyptix Security at 704-971-8986
or info@calyptix.com with any questions.
Title: "Networking Best Practices"
Date: Tuesday, Aug 31, 2010
Time:12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EDT
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.
Microsoft Intune. Worthy Competitor?
Posted by: | CommentsToday Microsoft announced more about its new monitoring and management service, Intune. At first Intune seemed like a wanna-be and I know a lot of IT professionals that greeted the news of Microsoft’s foray into desktop monitoring and management in just that light. But at WPC Microsoft announced their product differentiator and today they announced the price. Here’s what they’ve got to offer:
- A cloud service. Web portal to manage all of your client’s computers from a single web portal.
- Monitoring and Alerting
- Anti-Virus
- Anti-Malware
- Remote Assistance
- Inventory management
- Updates and patching
OK so, so far it sounds like everyone else’s product. But wait there’s more:
- Upgrade rights to Windows 7 Enterprise
- Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack: Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V), Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM), Microsoft Asset Inventory Service (AIS), Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) and Microsoft System Center Desktop Error Monitoring (DEM)
All of this for $12 per month, per PC. If you don’t want the Desktop Optimization Pack, then it’s $11 a month.
So what do you think? To me it looks like Microsoft is pulling out the stops and creating a very appealing bundle not just a wanna-be. They have really differentiated and are offering something that only Microsoft can offer.
Need more help with this or some other sticky situation? Click to hire us.
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Even when it’s not a phishing site they might be phishing
Posted by: | CommentsLast week I was busy making plans for my trip to Washington DC and Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, where I’m scheduled to pick up the Small Business Specialist of the Year award. (still happily amazed) Since the hotels in Washington DC are so very expensive I decided to give Priceline.com a try. 50% off a 4 star hotel was sounding pretty good.
Priceline works like most travel websites except that you name a price that you are willing to pay, the neighborhood you want to be in, the rating of the hotel and then you let Priceline select the hotel for you. It is a way for hotels to fill rooms, even if it’s at a discounted rate.
Naturally the website wants me to create an account and they also want me to select a secret question to which only I will know the answer. Here’s the first question in the list:
I simply laughed. Here is a legitimate website phishing. Were anyone to give them this information then it is very likely that who ever has access to it could log in all over the web as them. Raise of hands…how many of you use the same password on multiple websites? That’s right, almost everyone.
I sent it my findings to a couple of people. Steve Riley (Microsoft speaker, author, noted security guru and now Amazon Web Services employee) picked up the story for his blog. Gotta love the title.
http://stvrly.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/a-rant-in-which-i-heap-scorn-upon-priceline/
Be careful out 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. Get Support Blog Twitter Facebook LinkedIN
Amy’s company wins Small Business Specialist of the Year award from Microsoft
Posted by: | CommentsI’m proud to announce that Harbor Computer Services has won Microsoft’s Small Business Specialist of the Year award.
As a small woman owned IT business in Royal Oak, we are very proud to announce that our work with Michigan small businesses has received an important award from Microsoft. It is very exciting for us that Microsoft recognizes the importance of small business to the Michigan economy and our role in helping those businesses thrive.
When Eriq and I formed Third Tier we did so out of our experiences in running IT firms in our local communities. The majority of our Third Tier staff also have local IT firms just like yours. It think it is because of this understanding that we can bring you quality IT services when you need them. It’s because we understand what it is to be you. The Third Tier staff have not given up their local businesses. Rather these business continue to thrive and excel in their local markets. It is through this continued experience that we can stay in touch with your needs.
For Release
June 23, 2010
Harbor Computer Services Honored in the 2010 Microsoft Partner Awards as
Small Business Specialist Partner of the Year
Royal Oak, Michigan, USA — June 23, 2010 — Today, Harbor Computer Services proudly announces it is a Microsoft Partner Awards winner as Small Business Specialist Partner of the Year. The company was chosen out of an international field of top Microsoft partners as delivering market-leading customer solutions built on Microsoft technology.
“Our submission highlighted our efforts to bring the best of Internet technologies and software subscription programs to our clients while co-mingling these new technologies with on-premise solutions for a rock-solid best of both worlds approach to IT. I believe that this is the path that will help our clients keep the competitive advantage by maximizing return on IT investment. I’m beyond excited that Microsoft has acknowledged our work with this award”, said Amy Babinchak, President of Harbor Computer Services.
Harbor Computer Services was recognized for superior technology and innovation in Small Business Specialist Partner of the Year. The Small Business Specialist Partner of the Year Award honors partners who use Microsoft technology in innovative ways to deploy integrated solutions that serve their customers in the small to midmarket business (SMB) space. This award recognizes Harbor Computer Services for demonstrating innovative excellence and proficiency in deploying solutions that leverage Microsoft technology scaled for SMBs. They have successfully provided ways to help small business owners save money and be competitive all while using Microsoft campaigns and sales tools.
“Microsoft is pleased to announce Harbor Computer Services as the Small Business Specialist Partner of the Year,” said Birger Steen, vice president, Worldwide SMB and Distribution, Microsoft Corp. “Harbor Computer Services is committed to helping small to midsize business customers find and utilize the best IT investments that reach their business goals. Their deep knowledge of Microsoft technologies enabled them to create a customized solution utilizing Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation and Microsoft Online Services (BPOS) to satisfy the customer needs of a fast network and remote access.”
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The Microsoft Partner Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions over the last year.
Harbor Computer Services is an IT services firm serving businesses with 100 or fewer computers across Southeastern Michigan. We believe that your IT investment should be making your company money and we care about your business.
For additional information:
Amy Babinchak, President – Harbor Computer Services.
(248) 850-8616
amy@harborcomputerservices.net
Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Introduction to Windows 7 Virtual WiFi or How to Turn Your Computer into a WiFi HotSpot
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The other day I was staffing the community table at Microsoft’s Office 2010 launch event. With me at the table were several developer MVP’s that run local usergroups. There was 1 ethernet cable provided. One of the guys volunteered to go home, pay for parking again (we were in downtown Detroit, cha-ching), fight city traffic and return with a router and bunch of cables. Just then I remember something that Dana Epp taught me and we turned the Windows 7 computer into a WiFi Hotspot. I publicly thanked Dana for making me look smart and Jason picked up on it with a twist. “I can see myself configuring my blackberry to tether to my laptop virtual wifi to reduce my device data in favour of using wired service when it’s available. Kinda the reverse of my usual tethering manoeuvre where I’m using the handset for laptop internet…”
There are two methods for accomplishing this task. We can create an ad-hoc network or if full functionality is desired we can use the command line to create a fully functional wireless access point.
To create an ad hoc wireless shared network:
- Open Network and Sharing Center and chose setup a new connection or network
- Next chose Setup a wireless ad hoc (computer-to-computer) network
- Enter a name for your SSID and type in a security code that your friends are going to use to connect to you
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- Next Click Turn on Internet connection sharing press Close and you are done.
***Don’t forget to disable this network when you are finished using it***
To turn your computer into a fully functional Wireless Access Point:
This option is new in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. This is a command line maneuver, which is documented on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755301(WS.10).aspx in the article Netsh Commands for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) in Windows Server 2008. This article lists all of your command line options for the WLAN you are about to create. I’ll mention a couple of those in a minute. First let’s get the network going.
This is direct from Dana Epp.
“To set it up, open a cmd window as Administrator and issue the following commands:
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=YOURFRIENDLYSSID key=SOMEPASSWORD
netsh wlan start hostednetwork
At that point, if Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) is setup, anyone can connect to your SoftAP (if they know the PWD of course) and the traffic will be sent through whatever adapter you want. You can actually bridge it across an entirely different adapter… or the same one a different wifi LAN.”
At this point we have something that is not that different than the ad hoc network above functionally but there is so many more options here because what we’ve just done is enable a software access point with all the bells and whistles. There’s a lot more we can do from here. MSDN has a nice article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd815243(VS.85).aspx
From the article:
The wireless Hosted Network is a new WLAN feature supported on Windows 7 and on Windows Server 2008 R2 with the Wireless LAN Service installed. This feature implements two major functions:
- The virtualization of a physical wireless adapter into more than one virtual wireless adapter sometimes referred to as Virtual WiFi.
- A software-based wireless access point (AP) sometimes referred to as a SoftAP that uses a designated virtual wireless adapter.
These two functions coexist in a Windows system together. Enabling or disabling the wireless Hosted Network enables or disables both virtual WiFi and SoftAP. It is not possible to enable or disable these two functions separately in Windows.
With this feature, a Windows computer can use a single physical wireless adapter to connect as a client to a hardware access point (AP), while at the same time acting as a software AP allowing other wireless-capable devices to connect to it. This feature requires that a Hosted Network capable wireless adapter is installed in the local computer. The driver for the wireless adapter must implement the wireless LAN device driver model defined by Microsoft for use on Windows 7
The possibilities are endless for this useful but little known feature. If you find a creative use for it, let us know.
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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. Get Support Blog Twitter Facebook LinkedIN
How to talk to your clients about security and get it right
Posted by: | CommentsDana Epp is having a pre-day event at SMBNation East on April 29th. Dana’s event is occurring right before the conference that Eriq and Amy are speaking at. http://www.thirdtier.net/2010/02/were-speaking-at-smb-nation-east/ This is going to be a good one. Small crowd. Intimate access to some amazing professionals.
Dana Epp is the premier security expert in the small and medium business space. You are probably aware of his AuthAnvil product which provides two-factor authentication to secure a variety of access needs. But you may not have heard Dana talk about valuing business assets and implementing security protections based upon these calculations. Approaching security in this way, allows an IT pro to approach management with facts that make sense to them. When it makes sense to management, you will get the green light from the business owner and CFO to go ahead with the project while providing them valuable information about their data. This is what being a trusted advisory is all about.
Attendees will learn how to discuss business and technical risk to business owners, how to build an asset catalog, and how to build a consultive trusted advisory process to generate new revenues in response to the application of risk mitigation techniques. This will help attendees to explore and find business opportunity while protecting their clients most critical information assets.
WHEN: April 29th, 2010
TIME: 9:00am to 5:00pm
Hear in Dana’s own words what he’s going to cover at this day long seminar and make your plans to attend now, before it fills up. http://blog.scorpionsoft.com/blog/2010/04/announcing-the-information-assurance-workshop.html
SBS 2008 Monitoring Database Fills to Capacity
Posted by: | CommentsOne 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data
- Once the file backup is completed, start the SQL Server (SBSMONITORING) service.
- 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):
- Sqlcmd -S %computername%\SBSMonitoring -E -i c:\windows\temp\updateSBSMonitoring.sql
- 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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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 Blog Twitter Facebook LinkedIN
