Upgrade fun: SBS 2003 to EBS 2008 December 9, 2009
Posted by Steve in EBS 2008, Exchange 2007.Tags: EBS 2008, Exchange 2007
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Last weekend I received a call for help from a mate who was having trouble with his first Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS 2008) installation. He was upgrading and existing Small Business Server 2003 site to Essential Business Server. The EBS 2008 environment is virtualized and installed with SBS 2003 still in place.
Their are many good reasons to consider EBS 2008 when choosing and upgrade path from SBS 2003. EBS 2008 scales to 300 users, includes System Centre Essentials, Forefront TMG and many other goodies. EBS 2008 can be virtualized onto a single server, keeping the hardware requirements to a minimum.
Good Stuff
In an upgrade scenario, EBS 2008 is installed side-by-side with SBS 2003. You have 21 days to complete the upgrade before the SBS 2003 server will stop talking to the network (I haven’t actually seen what happens, but my advice is make sure you don’t have to either). Both the SBS and EBS Exchange servers can exist together during the 21 day window.
The best thing about the in-place upgrade option is that you don’t need to touch workstations or user accounts and Exchange mailboxes can be migrated to the EBS 2008 server slowly over a few days. This really takes the pressure off and is a big timesaver.
A few issues
The installation had a few issues which we’re resolved with some excellent advise from a nice guy at Microsoft (I’ll call him Mark). Twitter really comes into its own here, I was in New Zealand and Mark was in Texas, USA. Posting cries for help with the hashtag #EBS08 resulted in excellent advice very quick. Thanks guys!
The first issue was an error installing .NET 3.5 on the Management Server. The fix for this problem can be found here – EBS .NET 3.5 installation issue
The second issue was an error installing Silverlight on the Management Server. The fix was to unplug the NIC and reboot the Management Server to continue the installation. Thanks again Mark.
The real panic set in when we started installing the Messaging Server. The first issue was with Exchange 2007. The installation failed with an error saying that the “System Attendant Mailbox was inaccessible”. Checking the Application Event Log showed that Exchange was trying to install the Information Stores to E: drive. Oops, this was actually a ISO image mounted as a drive…Restarting the installation and changing drive letters resolved the issue.
At this point we got stuck with this error “Failed to create Edge Subscription”. After a lot of investigation we decided to call it a day and keep the users mailboxes on SBS 2003. Thank goodness for the 21 days. A couple of tweets for help to #EBS08 and I found I wasn’t alone. Relief! Then Mark responded again, this time with a link about time. EBS Timezone issue.
I didn’t think the error was exactly what we were getting so emailed Mark C:\Program Files\Windows Essential Business Server\Logs\mmssetup.log and went to bed. The next morning, he replied pointing out the Time Sync error in the log that I had missed. At that point we noticed the time between the SBS 2003 server and EBS server was out of sync by 5 minutes. Synchronizing the clocks and restarting the Messaging Server install from scratch resolved the issue. Happiness!
Here is the error message from MMSSETUP.LOG clearly indicating that time was the issue
[2872],”2009/12/05 23:12:29.890″,”MMSNet_Exchange”,”Information”,”Command: New-EdgeSubscription -FileName:C:\Program Files\Windows Essential Business Server\Data\MmsEdgeSubscription0.903150528158597.xml -Site:Default-First-Site-Name -Force”
[2872],”2009/12/05 23:12:30.078″,”MMSNet_Exchange”,”Error”,”ImportSubscriptionOnMessaging failed Microsoft.EssentialBusinessServer.Common.PowerShell.MmsCommandException: The clock setting for the Edge Transport server to be subscribed and the computer on which you are running this task are not synchronized. Make sure the clocks on all Exchange servers in your organization and your Edge Transport servers are synchronized. —> System.InvalidOperationException: The clock setting for the Edge Transport server to be subscribed and the computer on which you are running this task are not synchronized. Make sure the clocks on all Exchange servers in your organization and your Edge Transport servers are synchronized.
— End of inner exception stack trace —
Although the installation had a few issues, we were never stuck without options. The end users weren’t aware of the issues and user impact was almost zero.
If you are considering doing an EBS installation, join twitter and search for #EBS08. You’ll find a great group of people who love to share experiences and give advice when it is needed.
How to customise Remote Web Workplace November 22, 2009
Posted by Steve in EBS 2008.Tags: RWW
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Remote Web Workplace (RWW) is a feature of both Small Business Server and Essential Business Server. This post relates to the 2008 versions of those products. RWW is a great way to provide remote access to email, computers on the internal network and even Sharepoint. Here are a couple of things you can do to customise RWW.
The RWW is built on IIS and so it is possible to customise the appearance. The website can be found on the Messaging Server (EBS 2008) or on any Small Business Server 2008. TechNet Article – adding company logos to RWW
A link to an internal Sharepoint site can be added to RWW to provide access from the internet. TechNet Article – adding a Sharepoint link to RWW
Small Business Server 2008 specific configuration can be found here SBS 2008 RWW customisation
Essential Business Server Replacement Mode Install November 7, 2009
Posted by Steve in EBS, EBS 2008.Tags: EBS 2008
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I recently had an issue with the System Centre Essentials on the Management Server of an Essential Business Server (EBS08). One of the catches with EBS08 is that you can’t easily reinstall the SCE component, you actually need to reinstall the server it is on. This is of course worst case scenario.
I found this article on Technet which explains how to do a “Replacement Mode Install” of EBS08.
Essential Business Server Replacement mode article on Technet.
Replacement Mode allows reinstallation of any one of the EBS08 servers in event of hardware failure or a particularly nasty software issue that is best resolved by a reinstall.
Note that it is extremely important to ensure you have a complete backup before attempting this.
Expert Advice:
The following tweets are a response from Mark Stanfill at Microsoft Support in response to a question posted on Twitter about doing a replacement mode install. Thanks very much Mark, this is really useful stuff.
Tweets from: @Markstan (Senior Support Engineer at Microsoft)
Marks blog is: blogs.technet.com/essentialbusinessserver
@nztechtweet: found this when investigating how to reinstall a broken SCE on #EBS08, anyone tried this? http://tinyurl.com/yexnnh6
@nztechtweet @energizedtech done dozens of #EBS08 Replacement Modes ( http://tinyurl.com/yexnnh6) Ready for a brain dump? New series…
#EBS08 New Series – Mark’s Rules for Successful Replacement Mode – MR4SRM. RM = replacment mode.
#EBS08 MR4SRM Rule #1 – Make a complete server backup first. No exceptions.
#EBS08 MR4SRM Export config to XML using http://bit.ly/2jlxkE. Pay special attention to all IP addresses . Make sure they’re corrrect.
technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd430092(WS.10).aspx
#EBS08 MR4SRM You need 2 functional EBS servers for Replacement Mode. If not, restore one server from backup.
#EBS08 MR4SRM Always back up CALs on Mgmt server before RM.
#EBS08 MR4SRM Mgmt server needs CALs reinstalled or restore post RM.
#EBS08 MR4SRM Mgmt Server RM will pull down all WSUS data again – many GB. Export & import – http://bit.ly/4DUxtN. Backup data drive
technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680473.aspx
#EBS08 MR4SRM All servers are going to need patching. Expect many reboots, considerable time.
#EBS08 MR4SRM Security & Msg can pull updates from WSUS rather than MU. Deselect optional updates during RM. Critical updates come from MU
#EBS08 MR4SRM Make sure AD is healthy before RM. Always run IT Health Scanner first – http://bit.ly/Od1uH
blogs.technet.com/essentialbusinessserver/archive/2009/10/28/how-to-run-the-it-environment-health-scanner-in-an-ebs-environment.aspx
#EBS08 MR4SRM Never, ever delete computer accounts or run metadata cleanup before RM. http://bit.ly/Cwsrr
blogs.technet.com/essentialbusinessserver/archive/2009/02/24/properly-handling-an-ebs-2008-setup-failure.aspx
#EBS08 MR4SRM All DCs need to be online and contactable before RM.
#EBS08 MR4SRM Make sure IIS is healthy, started, listening on port 808 for /remoting directory on all servers before RM.
#EBS08 MR4SRM Run “dnscmd /config /enableglobalqueryblocklist 0″ for wpad autodiscovery – http://bit.ly/3NceQm
technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc995158.aspx
#EBS08 MR4SRM Management Server restore – repair all SCE clients underAdministration node.
#EBS08 MR4SRM RM on Messaging obviously does not restore mailboxes & PFs. Make backups first – online, offline, PSTs. Belt and suspenders.
#EBS08 MR4SRM To get Security Server to report back to SCE after RM – “net stop fweng /y”, repair SCE client, restart services
#EBS08 MR4SRM Remove UM (if present) from Exchange before RM of Messaging Server to avoid setup failure.
Seventh Heaven? October 22, 2009
Posted by Steve in Windows 7.Tags: Windows 7
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Today is Thursday 22nd October 2009, the offical launch date of Windows 7 and probably the biggest day on the technology calendar this year.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on Windows 7 back in July and I am sure that Microsoft are going to be having a very happy board meeting next Monday. Record pre-orders on Amazon, millions of people blogging about it, hardware available that runs nicely (unlike the launch of poor old Vista) and a generally heightened level of excitement.
Well done Microsoft, I hope you are all having a wonderful day.
Windows 2008 R2 is almost here October 20, 2009
Posted by Steve in Virtualization, Windows 7, windows 2008.Tags: Windows 2008 R2, Windows 7
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It is just 2 days until the release of Windows 2008 R2. While a lot of people are hanging out for the Windows 7 (released on the same day), it is the new server operating system that is going to make waves in server rooms everywhere.
Significant improvements have been made to Hyper-V in the form of Live Migration (think VMotion but without the price) and support for more memory and more virtual CPU’s. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that Microsoft have already changed the game by making Virtualisation affordable to the masses and that now they are beginning to add Enterprise Features. Hands up who thinks VMware ESXi would exist if Hyper-V didn’t?
Windows 2008 R2 is also the enabler for many of the enterprise features of Windows 7. The server component of the DirectAccess “VPN-less VPN” feature requires Windows 2008 R2. DirectAccess does have some fairly specific requirements that make it more suited to medium to larger sites. Businesses with highly mobile work forces should also consider it as a way to simplify end-user remote access experience and as a way to better manage laptops that spend a lot of time out of the office.
The server can also be used in conjunction with BranchCache to reduce pressure on WAN links and accelerate access to services that use SMB, HTTP or BITS for remote users. Think of this as WAN acceleration but without dedicated hardware. Nice one Microsoft!
One of my personal favourites is the Active Directory undo feature. I would never admit to doing this myself, but I am sure a few accidents have happened over the years where this feature would have saved a lot of pain and agony!
The ability to park CPU cores is an interesting feature which allows the server to actually turn-off cores within a CPU when they are not required. This has the potential to save significant amounts of power and lower the operating costs of servers. Power consumption as the focus of governments globally and it my opinion is going to be an area where technology innovation is focused.
Don’t forget that this release builds on the many features of previous Windows versions. Remote Desktop Services, Network Access Protection, Distributed File System, Active Directory, Read-only Domain Controllers, IPv6, Windows Deployment Services etcetera. It builds on the same reliable, understandable and efficient foundation we already have with Windows 2008.
One more small note, this is a 64bit only operating system, time to consign those old 32bit only items to the giant recycling bin in the sky (some may of course not meet the criteria to get into software heaven and spend the rest of eternity being prodded with a blunt fork somewhere very hot). Software vendors should be supporting modern technologies by now. If they aren’t it is definitely time to put the pressure on. Isn’t that why we pay annual maintenance fees?
Microsoft will release Windows 2008 R2 on October 22nd 2009. No news on when or if we are likely to see R2 releases of Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 has been announced yet.
