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!