Archive for Cliff Galiher

Jan
6

Solving the Unresponsive Exchange, SBS Server Problem

by amy

For several months I had a couple of SBS servers that would occasionally fail to respond. Often times I was able to RDP to the server. The event logs would not show a problem but workstations were unable to access anything on the server. A look at the workstations also found nothing wrong. In my experience there are two things that can cause mysterious problems like this: cabling and memory. We look at the cabling and the switch. They weren’t the problem. The problem was server memory sharing or lack thereof.

We’ve gotten used to Exchange hogging all the memory on the server, but in pre-2007 versions it was pretty good at sharing that memory with other applications. But no more. Exchange grabs that available memory and doesn’t let go. When the server comes under load it then becomes unresponsive to additional requests. Wait for a long time and the problem will go away. Reboot and the problem will go away. Restart the Exchange Store and the problem will go away. But what we really need to do is prevent it from happening in the first place.

The solution to this problem is to tune Exchange caching to your environment. TechNet has an article on how to calculate how much cache and therefore memory that Exchange will need. You can find that article here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee832793.aspx. This is a great article in that it gives you the formula for determining the minimum and maximum memory allocation your environment will require and also point us to another TechNet article that shows us where to make this change. (Interestingly enough this later article is from Exchange 2000 days.) That second article is here: How to modify the Store Database maximum cache size in Exchange 2000 Server

If you do nothing then this is now much ram the Store service is taking on your server right now:

The amount of ram that you want to set aside for Exchange will vary based on the number of emails sent by the organization so you will want to perform the calculation outlined in the article above.

I’m a small business consultant with many clients running exchange on-premise. For my purposes I needed to find a standard that fit the majority of my clients. We can of course tweak said standard when the situation warrants, say the client is very small or very large. So I calculated a number that I felt would never be exceeded. My number is 10GB maximum and 5GB minimum. You should note that although it doesn’t say so in the article, the one written for the 2000 era, setting a minimum and a maximum was required in order to have the desired effect on freeing up the ram. You should also know that the value you enter into msExchESEParamCacheSizeMax and Min must be an increment of 32k. Thus 10GB is 326780 an 5GB is 163840. (Many thanks for Michael B Smith for assisting with the calculation and pointing out the importance of 32k)

Where is this parameter? It’s in Active Directory. You’ll need to enable Advanced Features viewing. Browse to the Information Store object and modify the attributes. Yes you will need to restart the Exchange services for this change to take effect.

Many thanks also to our fabulous staff at Third Tier for getting to the bottom of this issue.

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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 : Amy Babinchak, Brian Higgins, Cliff Galiher, Exchange, Jeremy, SBS 2011

Sep
23

All the Details for the Brain Explosion

by amy

We had a dress rehearsal of one of the presentations last night with a small local audience. The most technical guy, stopped me on our way out the door and said “I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I learned something tonight. I shouldn’t have but I did. Who was that speaker again?” I was thrilled. That’s what it is all about, isn’t it? Picking up that tidbit that you didn’t know. Even if you think you know something inside and out there is always room to learn just that much more on a technical topic. When you pick up that nugget it make the whole thing worth the effort. That’s why I love IT and I bet that’s why you love it too. I’m looking forward to being in a whole room of amazing IT professionals. See you in Vegas! We have a great day planned for you.

Haven’t registered yet? Please do so now. www.thirdtier.net/registration Your registration fee includes a full day of training, lunch and an evening with Third Tier at the local pub. Space is limited so register today.

2011 Brain Explosion – A Master Class in Remote Access

8:30am – doors open, meet & greet, welcome by Amy Babinchak
9:00am – DNS Mysteries Unveiled
10:15 – break (15 min)
10:30 – Under the Covers of Remote Web Access
12:00 – Lunch – Calyptix Security
12:30 – Securing Remote Access using Radius
1:15 – Direct Access for Smaller Businesses
2:30 – break (15 min)
2:45 – Becoming a Messaging Sleuth
3:30 – Thin Client Standardization and Configuration
4:15 – Final thoughts, dismiss by Amy Babinchak

Later that same evening: PARTY with Third Tier and SBSMigration at McFadden’s Pub.

Direct Access for Smaller Businesses – Cliff Galiher

DirectAccess is a remote connectivity technology that opens new doors for end users to access company resources like never before and can greatly reduce the support burden of managing computers that are regularly outside a company LAN. Implementing DirectAccess can be a daunting task with most of the documentation focusing on large enterprise deployments. In this session you will learn about the DirectAccess from the inside. When you are done, you will know where it can fit in your network, how to do a deployment focusing on the small or midsized business, and some common pain points with troubleshooting tips, making DirectAccess more available to small businesses than ever before.

The Managed Edge – Ben Yarbrough, Calyptix

Calyptix Security is pioneering the development of “The Managed Edge”^tm cybersecurity solution. The Managed Edge is born out of two massive trends that are converging to put extreme pressure on IT security for small and medium sized businesses. We’re seeing a massive migration of computing and network infrastructure from the main office into the cloud; and a parallel rapid proliferation of mobile computing devices in the form of bigger, faster tablets and smart phones. The combination of these two forces has resulted in a dramatic expansion in demand for remote access to corporate computing resources from employees who are increasingly working from home, on-the-road, or deployed virtually in an array of satellite offices.

KISS Edge Security – Brian Higgins

What do your wireless access point, a cable / DSL modem, and a VPN connection have in common? They can all be authenticated against a central user database such as Active Directory using RADIUS. RADIUS is one of the least known / utilized methods of authentication available in Windows, but one of the most useful. The most common use for RADIUS in small business is to authenticate external users who want to connect to a company’s VPN appliance, enabling them to use the same username and password for their remote access as their AD logon, because everything, including their password, is tied back to their Active Directory account. Ever wonder how an ISP tracks who is connected to their network, or what speed internet service you purchased? In this session we will answer that question and more as we explore some of the various uses of RADIUS, ways you probably already interact with it (probably unknowingly), and how you can take advantage of this very useful protocol to provide your clients with a simpler, more streamlined connection process, while actually making things easier to manage.

Under the Covers of Remote Web Access – Eriq Neale

Since SBS 2003, the SBS family of products has included a feature that, quite frankly, has made some of the other product lines jealous – the Remote Web Workplace (now called Remote Web Access in the 2011 series of products). Starting with the 2008 product series, Microsoft made some significant changes to the way this remote connectivity tool works behind the scenes, and in some cases that has led to some frustration on the part of the user and IT support community. In this session, we will show you how remote connectivity works under the hood so you can learn how to gain remote access to servers and workstations while bypassing the RWA interface, as well as finally being able to allow Macintosh and other devices to remotely control PCs using this same mechanism. Plus, we’ll show you how to build your own remote access infrastructure using the same tools that MS uses to make the remote connectivity of RWA work.

Becoming a Message Sleuth – David Shackelford

Sometimes as a consultant you are asked to be the expert on what happened to a message that was or wasn’t delivered. While you may have used the Exchange message tracking logs and the application log, there are also the SMTP protocol logs, the filtering logs and additional diagnostic logging at your disposal. This session will get you familiar with the tools and give you the best practices for getting useful data out of them, making you look like a CSI guy (or gal). I’ll focus on the scenarios that I encounter every week working for ThirdTier.

DNS Mysteries Unveiled – Jeremy Anderson

Name the single most important aspect of any computer network, from the smallest office to the largest multi-national corporation. Name the one thing that each of us use every day, that we don’t even think about. This is DNS.DNS is a complex protocol that is required for daily operation of your networks. DNS is often set up behind the scenes and has little maintenance and configuration. But what do you do if it’s not working? How do you troubleshoot and verify its operation? Can you be certain that you have your DNS set up and configured according to best practices? An overview of DNS and how it works, with an emphasis on ‘WHY’ it matters, how to troubleshoot, and what tools to use to verify its operation. I will go over the different types of DNS servers, split scopes, DNS replication, and other terms that you may have heard. DNS is a practical solution to an everyday problem, that we do not nearly spend enough time on, assuming that it will just work. The intricacies and mysteries of DNS will be explained to you.

Thin Client Device Standardization – Steven Banks

In a world of MultiPoint and increased use Remote Desktop Services it’s time we gained some understanding on how to best manage thin client devices. They aren’t PC’s after all and capabilities and available tools very from manufacturer to manufacturer and even among models of devices. Get too many varieties and you could have a real mess. We’ll have several different types of devices with us to demonstrate management techniques.

We still have a few tickets left, so feel free to share with your friends!

0 Categories : Amy Babinchak, Brain Explosion, Brian Higgins, Calyptix, Cliff Galiher, Dave Shackelford, Eriq Neale, Jeremy, SMB Nation, Steve

Sep
7

Brain Explosion Session Detail: Direct Access for Smaller Businesses

by amy

Cliff Galiher knows technology. Direct Access is the kind of new technology that requires a Brain Explosion to get. Cliff will make your that your Brain explodes so you can provide your clients with this awesome new technology. Direct Access is the solution that they’ve been waiting for and after this session you’ll be the ONLY IT firm in your State that can provide it. It’s not that complicated. Cliff will show you how it’s done.

Remember, register to reserve your space. Last year we sold out. www.thirdtier.net/registration

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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 BlogFeed Blog Twitter Twitter Facebook LinkedIN

0 Categories : Brain Explosion, Cliff Galiher, SMB Nation

Aug
10

Registration is OPEN!

by amy

Join us for a Brain Explosion Master Class in Remote Access

exploding-brain

Join us on September 29th in Las Vegas for an SMBNation Pre-Day event.

The day will begin at 8:30am with introductions, then at 9:00am sharp the first session begins. Lunch and an evening at the pub are included with your $100 registration fee. So not only are we providing amazing content by our very own Third Tier consulting team, but we’re going to have fun too!

Members of our own staff will be presenting at this event: Eriq Neale, Brian Higgins, Dave Shackelford, Jeremy Anderson, Steve Banks and Cliff Galiher

Here’s what we’ve got planned:

2011 Brain Explosion – A Master Class in Remote Access

8:30am – doors open, meet & greet, welcome by Amy Babinchak
9:00am – Mastering DNS
10:15 – break (15 min)
10:30 – Under the covers of Remote Web Access – how it all works.
12:00 – lunch break (30 min) Vendors Lunch.
12:30 – Securing Remote Access using Radius
1:15 – To Be Determined
2:30 – break (15 min)
2:45 – Advanced Exchange Diagnostics
3:30 – Really Enabling Work from Anywhere on Multiple Devices
4:15 – Final thoughts, dismiss by Amy Babinchak

Later that same evening: PARTY with Third Tier at the local Pub.

0 Categories : Amy Babinchak, Announcement, Brain Explosion, Brian Higgins, Cliff Galiher, Dave Shackelford, Eriq Neale, Jeremy, Steve

Aug
8

Return of the Brain Explosion: Mastering Remote Access

by amy

Join us on September 29th in Las Vegas as we gear up for the SMB Nation conference with a Masters Class in Implementing and Supporting Remote Access brought to you by members of our staff.

Last year we had a ball, training all day and freely pouring beer into the night. A true geek festival. We’re going to do it all over again. Since last year there’s been a dramatic proliferation of demand for remote access by your users. During this pre-day event we’re going to deep dive into the stuff that makes remote access to network resources reliable, secure and functional for your end users. When you implement this stuff you’ll be the hero! All the content is going to be delivered by Third Tier staff. This is your chance to pick their brains in person. Speakers include: Brian Higgins, Jeremy Anderson, Steve Banks, Amy Babinchak, Cliff Galiher and David Shackelford. That’s a lot of big brains for one room!

Space is limited. Last year we sold out! Registration is about to open. So save the date and keep an eye on this blog.

Here’s what we’re going to cover:

8:30am – doors open, meet & greet, welcome

9:00am – The day begins with DNS. A fitting start to a day full of understanding remote access technologies. DNS is the foundation to all network communications and we’ll show you how the packets flow, which DNS entries are critical and how to create them.

10:15 – break (15 min)

10:30 – So now you’ve got your DNS records in place and understand which remote access technologies require which kinds of records. This bring us to security. In this session we’ll demonstrate how to secure VPN remote access using Radius. You’ve seen that Radius option in your router, in your firewall and even in your server. So why aren’t you using it to secure remote access to your network? We’ll show you how it’s done.

12:00 – lunch break (30 min) Vendors Lunch.

1:00 – Remote Web Access is a very popular feature of Small Business Server. In this session we’re going to tear it down bit by bit and show you exactly how it works. There’s no OZ behind the curtain. Instead there’s built-in Windows technology. Leave from this session not only able to troubleshoot RWA but also able to create an RWA like interface for your non-SBS domains.

2:30 – break (15 min)

2:45 – Tablets, netbooks, iPads, Smart Phones, Apple, Microsoft, Android these devices are everywhere! Which apps can really empower your end users? Which apps are secure and can you make them more secure? In this session we’ll demo a bunch of stuff that it working in the real world for real clients.

4:15 – Final thoughts, dismiss

Later that same evening: PARTY with Third Tier at the local Pub.

0 Categories : Active Directory, Amy Babinchak, Brain Explosion, Brian Higgins, Cliff Galiher, Dave Shackelford, Jeremy, Networking, SBS 2011, SMB Nation, Steve

May
11

Cliff’s Great Article on Understanding the Difference Between SBS Standard and SBS Essentials

by amy

SMB Nation has published Cliff Galiher’s article on understanding the difference between SBS 2011 Standard and SBS 2011 Essentials. While the names are the same, there are some very significant differences.

2011 will see a refresh of SBS, but it also brings us something new; a modification in SBS that poses the potential to be as game-changing as SBS itself. Small Business Server is no longer a single product, but has become a brand with three distinct products.

To read the full article: http://www.smbnation.com/Home/tabid/36/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/791/SBS_Standard_and_Essentials__Which_is_Right_for_You.aspx

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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 like you.

www.thirdtier.net/support

0 Categories : Cliff Galiher, SBS 2011, SMB Nation

Feb
8

Cliff Galiher Article Featured in SMB PC Magazine

by amy

Third Tier’s Cliff Galiher has been published in SMB PC Magazine in an articled titled “SBS Standard and Essentials – Which is Right for You? In this article Cliff makes clear how to make the choice between the various version of SBS that are available now.

Here’s an excerpt:

Download the whole magazine from this link: Feb SMB PC Magazine SMB Nation – Source For Small Business Specialists

WordPress Tags: Cliff,Galiher,Article,Magazine,Third,Tier,Standard,Essentials,version,Here,excerpt,Download,Nation,Source,Small,Specialists

0 Categories : Announcement, Cliff Galiher, SBS 2011

Sep
7

Training Content Details: It’s Only Plug & Play if you Know THESE Ninja Moves

by amy

Cliff Galiher SBS, DNS and Exchange guru says…

The mobile landscape has changed. What was in the office, is now in the hands of your clients. They expect it to work and they expect you to make it secure. Mobile devices communicate with Exchange in their own unique way. We’ll take a deep look at how devices communicate with Exchange and get technical about the protocols. This will cover activesync AND autodiscover at a protocol level. Then we’ll walk through the process of setting up different devices and visually tie the steps back to the theory. So now the mobile device works and you understand why it works, how are you going to secure it? Cliff will cover controls IT can have on activesync devices such as remote encryption and remote wipe, how to use and how to configure it.

Join Third Tier in Las Vegas for an all day training on the day prior to SMBNation. See other content details elsewhere in our blog. Thanks to our sponsors, Hewlett Packard, Symform and Storagecraft we are able to keep the cost down to only $50. So head on over to the store and reserve your space for this all-day training session! Seats are limited for this event and we expect to sell out. So register early. http://www.thirdtier.net/store Training takes place October 21st.

0 Categories : Cliff Galiher, Events, Exchange, SBS 2008, SMB Nation

Aug
30

Register now for our SMBNation All-Day Training

by amy

Content? Yes, we have content.

Eriq Neale: Configuring and Using Remote Desktop Services Remote Apps – A Love Story

Dave Shackelford: Things you didn’t know were in Exchange 2007

Cliff Galiher: AutoDiscovery, DNS and ActiveSync in depth. Like seriously deep

Wayne Small: Hyper-V R2, yes is does make a difference. Configuring Disk subsystems and effects on performance

Thanks to our sponsors, Hewlett Packard, Symform and Storagecraft we are able to keep the cost down to only $50. So head on over to the store and reserve your space for this all-day training session! http://www.thirdtier.net/store Training takes place October 21st.

0 Categories : Cliff Galiher, Dave Shackelford, Eriq Neale, Events, SMB Nation, Wayne

Aug
27

Third Tier offering Technical Training at SMBNation PreDay Event!

by amy

I’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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0 Categories : Amy Babinchak, Cliff Galiher, Dave Shackelford, Eriq Neale, Events, Exchange, Hyper-V, SMB Nation, SharePoint, Virtualization, Wayne

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