Archive for Steve
August 19, 2010 PSSBS Meeting
Posted by: | CommentsFor our August, 2010 Puget Sound Small Business Server User Group meeting, Kevin Brown, Vice President, Sales & Marketing for Symform, will be presenting and demonstrating their new v2.0 version of their affordable online data storage and disaster recovery solution.
Symform claims the new version is 10X faster and full of new features including:
- Flexible Contribution - contribute from anywhere – including the MSP’s office
- Resource Groups - pool bandwidth and storage across multiple nodes
- Instant Restore – keep a hot copy of the client’s data at the MSP’s office, the owner’s home, wherever…
- Laptop backup support
Symform will be covering the food/drinks for the evening and bringing a door prize.
In addition to Symform, we will also have two special guests in attendance. SBS Microsoft Most Valued Professionals, Philip Elder, and Jason Miller, are both in town working on a project over at Microsoft this week along with Steve Banks, and are excited to spend time with the group sharing the latest on the recently announced Aurora beta (http://connect.microsoft.com/sbs to sign up for it). With Symform’s Kevin Brown, and Philip and Jason all here, it will prove to be an incredible evening, so looking forward to seeing everyone there. Will be at our usual location, Microsoft’s Lincoln Square offices in downtown Bellevue (700 Bellevue Way NE - Lincoln Square, Bellevue, WA 98004).
Park in the Lincoln Square garage and meet at the elevators on the first floor by 6 PM to head up to the meeting (take a ticket when you enter the garage, but parking will be free for the evening).
Meeting will be from 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM.
EBS Migration SKUs
Posted by: | CommentsAre you a Volume License customer, looking to migrate out of EBS per Microsoft's offer? Here are the part numbers you'll need to order the new media. Microsoft says to order from your original reseller. If you have EBS Premium, your SQL media will already work, so they have not included that SKU.
Windows Server Standard 2008 P73-03830
Windows Server Standard 2008R P73-04819
Exchange Standard 2007 312-03748
System Center Essentials 2007 UCH-01603 System Center Essentials 2010 UCH-02057
How do you move out of EBS now that it is retired?
Posted by: | CommentsDetails on how to move out of Essential Business Server are now live at http://www.microsoft.com/ebs/en/us/default.aspx. Well, really it is here at http://www.microsoft.com/ebs/en/us/offers.aspx. You have until December 31, 2010 to do the change over if you are going to.
Jamison West presenting in the 5W/25 Series 9 AM this morning!
Posted by: | CommentsGo to http://www.mssmallbiz.com/training/ and scroll down toward the bottom to register. Session is at 9 AM today. If you miss it, go back and download it and watch.
Don't miss PSSBS' own Jamison West as he shares insight into his proven successful MSP business with the rest of us! Thank you Jamison! :-)
Building and Growing Your Managed Services Business
The decision to transform a business from a reactive break/fix model to a proactive recurring model is not one to be taken lightly. In this session we will discuss the following:
A definition of Managed Services
Resources for more information on this business model
o Industry Conferences and Events
o Peer Groups
o User Groups
o Media
What needs to change in your business to support the new model
o 180° Thinking
o Marketing and Sales Message – Selling your brand, not your vendors brands
o Excellent Tools (PSA & RMM)
o Compensation Incentive Strategies
* Service – Pay for utilization vs. profitability
* Sales – Hunter vs. Farmer
o Evolution vs. Revolution
SPEAKER BIO: Jamison West is the Founder and CEO of Jamison West Consulting Services (JWCS), an IT infrastructure management company driven to make technology work FOR business. He envisions a future where every small to mid-sized company will include their IT partner as a vital part of its core operations team.
In 1995, Jamison made the decision to combine his gadget-guy mentality, passion for technology, and innate entrepreneurial spirit into an independent company where he could create solutions for small to mid-sized businesses that would cause a radical shift in their long-term success. Recognizing the immediate need for businesses to have IT partners they could rely on in the face of ever-evolving systems and an onslaught of highly sophisticated viral threats, JWCS was launched and began serving clients in Seattle and the surrounding area. In late 2006 Jamison decided to dramatically change his business model from a lifestyle sole proprietorship doing break/fix work to a structured Managed Services business. Since then he has incorporated and grown to a staff of 10 with revenues well north of $1M. Jamison’s enthusiasm makes it easy to rally others into his corporate vision: To be recognized as the region’s most trusted advisor for IT Services, ensuring that our clients can focus solely on their business while we focus on seamlessly integrating technology.
Jamison holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the University of Washington. When he’s not personally overseeing JWCS, he devotes time to his kids and wife, a good book, or even a pickup basketball game to create a positive work/life balance.
MDOP and DaRT – My favorite tool, and most frightful if in the wrong hands. :-)
Posted by: | CommentsThanks Brad for the post "Windows Management with MDOP" to bring awareness to the Advanced Group Policy Management and DaRT pieces of MDOP. If you are in IT and not using it in your Windows network, you're missing a great tool set in MDOP.
Third Tier at SBS Migration IT Pro Conference
Posted by: | CommentsThird Tier staff members Eriq Neale and Steve Banks are attending the SBSMigration.com conference in New Orleans and will be speaking in various sessions this weekend.
Steve will be moderating and leading a discussion on “right-sizing” servers Friday afternoon from 3:00-4:15pm.
Eriq will be doing a demonstration of the Kerio Connect group collaboration solution Saturday morning from 9:15-9:45, then leading a panel discussion on monitoring and remote access form 9:45-10:45. Eriq will also be posting summaries of the various conference sessions over at his MVP Blog.
If you’re at the conference, be sure to stop them and introduce yourself!
Looking for those Outlook file locations?
Posted by: | CommentsTrying to find the signature file location, where the nk2 file is located, or other Outlook settings so you can take them with you over to your new Windows 7 PC? Check out Microsoft's KB 287070 for great info on PST files, and the best part, where the nk2 and signature files are located. Copied that info below for you too.
How to back up Outlook settings files
If you have customized settings, such as toolbar settings and Favorites, that you want to replicate on another computer or restore to your computer, you might want to include the following files in your backup:
- Outcmd.dat: This file stores toolbar and menu settings.
- ProfileName.fav: This is your Favorites file, which includes the settings for the Outlook bar.
- ProfileName.nk2: This file stores the Nicknames for AutoComplete.
- Signature files: Each signature has its own file and uses the same name as the signature that you used when you created it. For example, if you create a signature named MySig, the following files are created in the Signatures folder:
- MySig.htm: This file stores the HTML Auto signature.
- MySig.rtf: This file stores the Microsoft Outlook Rich Text Format (RTF) Auto signature.
- MySig.txt: This file stores the plain text format Auto signature.
- Windows Vista: Drive\users\Username\appdata, where Drive represents the drive that Outlook was installed to and Username represents the user name that Outlook was installed under.
- Windows XP or Windows 2000: Drive\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook, where Drive represents the drive that Outlook was installed to and Username represents the user name that Outlook was installed under.
- Windows 98 or Windows Me: Drive\Windows\Local Settings\Application Data, where Drive represents the drive that Outlook was installed to.
Note If you use Microsoft Word as your e-mail editor, signatures are stored in the Normal.dot file as AutoText entries. You should back up this file also.
Fixes for 64-bit Adobe Reader preview handler and thumbnails
Posted by: | CommentsLeo Davidson is a testimony to there still being great people out there. Thanks for taking the time to write your Adobe Reader preview fix, and for offering it for free to the rest of us. For those who use it, please drop him a donation. He deserves it!
Thanks again Leo,
Steve
How to create (or recreate) an Edge Subscription in Exchange 2007
Posted by: | CommentsThe 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.)
Elvis has left the building (EBS retired)
Posted by: | CommentsMicrosoft 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
