MPECS Inc. Blog

System Builder: Replacing that OEM COA

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:47:00 +0000

For those of us that are OEM System Builders we can request a replacement COA label if the original one was damaged beyond recognition or the case it was affixed to needed to be replaced.

We just replaced a case for a client that has an integrated power supply. So, we needed to apply for a replacement COA.

When we did so the result was:

So, we sent an e-mail off to the address with all of the relevant information. Hopefully we get word back.

System Builder: OEM COA Replacement Request Form

Note: A Microsoft ID associated with an OEM Reseller account is required to access the above link.

In this case the Windows 7 Ultimate x64 OEM software package was purchased through legitimate distribution channels here in Canada. And we are the system builders. :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Capacity Planner for Hyper-V Replica

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Thu, 23 May 2013 00:22:00 +0000

Found on Microsoft's Download site:

Microsoft Downloads: Capacity Planner for Hyper-V Replica

We head on over and download both the executable as well as the Word document that accompanies it.

Then on to:

And finally:

Ooops. We are looking to assess a Hyper-V Replica that is set up and online already!

Well, like any good IT Professional the next step is to actually read that manual! ;)

Based on the FAQ later in the document we will need to run this tool against some VMs hosted on Server 2012.

So, the next step for us will be to run some tests against the required Hyper-V environment to get an idea of what the tool will be reporting.

More to come on that . . .

The link for this little tool comes to us via Susan Bradley the SBS Diva.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Repeat After Me: DHCP and DNS Belong on a DC

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:01:00 +0000

When configuring any network one needs to have an understanding of just how DNS works.

If DNS is not set up correctly there are so many things that break it is not funny.

Unlike mail routing (MX records) that offer a priority system for directing mail to the final destination where the system compensates for an offline mail server DNS operates in a round robin fashion.

So, if DHCP is set up on a router and delivers the following IPs for the client’s DNS queries:

192.168.99.5 (local DC)
192.168.99.1 (router)
8.8.8.8 (Google DNS server)

Guess how many times the client’s on-premises resource DNS queries, in general, will fail.

If you guessed “67%” then you would be right.

It seems that folks are missing the reason for “Domain” in “Domain Naming System” or DNS for short.

The primary excuse we’ve heard so far to set the above DNS server IP settings on clients and even Remote Desktop Services servers and other servers is:

I want my clients to be able to browse the Internet if the DC and DNS goes offline.

There is, however, a fatal flaw in that line of reason . . . the missing “Domain” in DNS.

Or, to be blunt: A lack of understanding how DNS works on-premises and on the Internet and why the two are separate from each other.

Let’s have a look at this very crude drawing:

The left hand box is the on-premises Domain network. On that network MYDC is authoritative for that domain. Everything inside the box boundary for the network belongs to that DC and its on-premises DNS setup.

MYDC is the Start of Authority (SOA) for that domain (DOMAIN.LOCAL).

Being that our MYDC has the SOA means that no other DNS server _anywhere on the planet_ will be an authority for that domain. At least, for _that_ particular domain name in that particular location.

Not to mention the Top Level Domain (TLD) .LOCAL is not to be found anywhere on the Internet either.

What that means is that any client that queries DNS where MYSQL is will get the correct IP address from the DC that hosts the on-premises _domain’s_ DNS because that server is _authoritative_ for that domain.

Now, what happens on the client if they query DNS for MYSQL.DOMAIN.LOCAL and Google/OpenDNS server IPs are on the client’s DNS “where to query” server list and they respond?

That query goes OUTSIDE of the domain network to Google or OpenDNS and the response back is, “I have no clue who, what, or where the chicken DOMAIN.LOCAL is. Check ROOT SERVERS.” And of course, they answer same.

So, we have 67% of our on-premises queries failing DNS resolution.

Let’s think about that for a moment.

. . .

67% of our DNS queries are FAILING.

That means poor network performance, network print problems, LoBs that depend on database/SQL connections losing their connections, improper RDP routing, and so much more.

The _proper_ way to configure a domain’s DNS is as follows:

On the only DC on the network

AD and DNS are properly integrated
DHCP on the server

Name Protection Set (Ticks on 2003):
Admin credentials set to update DNS with IP:

The DC NIC properties:

IP: 192.168.33.5
SN: 255.255.255.0
GW: 192.168.33.1
DNS0: 192.168.33.5 (SELF ONLY)

AD integrated DNS takes care of delivering IPs for other DC with DNS on the network. There is NO reason to put any other IP in DNS1.

DHCP configuration:

Scope Options:

003 Router: 192.168.33.1
006 DNS Servers: 192.168.33.5 (and other AD integrated DC/DNS server IPs)
015 DNS Domain Name: DOMAIN.LOCAL

That’s it. Google/OpenDNS server IPs DO NOT belong here.

DNS Server service

Forwarders Tab

OpenDNS IPs or ISP’s DNS server IPs (at least two).

DHCP belongs on the server. Period. Full-stop.

If DHCP is on the router with DNS pointers to Google/OpenDNS or ISP DNS servers served to the on-premises DHCP clients then changes need to be made to put DHCP back where it belongs. . . on the DC.

If there is a concern about the only DC going down and leaving the clients helpless then make sure the backups are good.

If a need for redundancy is there then install an HP MicroServer with a Standard license and DCPromo that box into the domain. Make sure replication and AD integrated DNS are functioning between the now two DCs on the domain (we’ve seen situations where the second DC or RODC had no SYSVOL due to broken replication).

Or install an online cold backup device but make sure that the primary server has Software Assurance as Cold Backup is an SA only option.

For Small Business Server networks there _is_ a caveat to having another DC on the domain when in a disaster recovery situation.

MPECS Inc. Blog: SBS Disaster Recovery – Secondary DC SBS Restore Caveats

In the end, a good chunk of the problems on a network such as connectivity, Line of Business application problems, performance, and more can have their source in an improperly configured DNS structure.

It is our job as IT “Professionals” to know the “WHY” things work so that we can set things up properly.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

SMBKitchen Project Open Chat Today

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:20:00 +0000

We will be having an open chat with the SMBKitchen Authors this afternoon/evening at 1600Hrs Mountain (1800Hrs Eastern).

Please make sure to use the full Lync client as the Web based client seems to not pick up audio streaming properly.

The feedback on my How-To video for setting up Hyper-V on Windows 8 as well as a greenfield VM based DC with DNS and DHCP along with setting up the Hyper-V networking and a 2008 R2 Standard VM as a router.

I go through step-by-step for setting up the vSwitches, NIC(s) on the VMs, installing and configuring the operating systems, and then finally setting up AD/DNS/DHCP on the 2012 VM and RRAS in NAT mode on the 2008 R2 VM.

We will discuss our current content along with the content we should be posting over this coming month.

This chat is open to everyone both subscribers and not.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Creating a Fixed VHD in Windows 7 and a ShadowProtect P2V

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:57:00 +0000

We have a VHD creation process running in the Windows 7 Disk Management console:

The above VHD is being created on a network share hosted by one of our Hyper-V servers (2008 R2). It will be a 160GB fixed VHD that will host the Windows 7 machine’s OS once ShadowProtect is finished.

While that process is running ShadowProtect is taking an image of the Windows 7 machine as it will be P2Vd onto the above Hyper-V host.

This image is running to a 2008 R2 file server.

The machine is a Core i7-875K with a pair of 80GB Intel X25-M SSDs running in RAID 0 and is soon to be retired.

We will use our P2V Hyper-V Integration Services (previous blog post) step to get rid of the RAID signature and enable IS in the OS. Then, we will use our Hardware Independent Restore (previous blog post) steps to clean out any left-over devices from the physical machine.

We find out of all products available to us, including Microsoft’s own Disk2VHD too, that ShadowProtect gives us the most reliable method of moving a physical machine into a virtual setting or taking a VM and restoring it to hardware.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Repeat after me: SATA does not belong in servers.

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Thu, 09 May 2013 12:01:00 +0000

One of the very last servers we deployed with SATA drives had yet another failure in it.

There is a new Intel R2208GZ4GC 2U server in place with eight 600GB 10K SAS drives configured in a RAID 6 array already installed and waiting for tax season to slow down for them (they are an accounting firm).

Our client recently moved to a new location with the servers now located in a dedicated room in the basement. The little A/C unit in that room was a leftover from the previous occupant that we were not too sure about.

Well, the hot spare in this server, an Intel Server System SR1560SFHS with three 750GB Seagate ES series SATA drives, died about four months ago. Since the system was slated for replacement we left the remaining two in a RAID 1 array alone.

Well, that ended this morning with one of the drives in the pair having gone full stop. This was probably due to the fact that the temp in the room upon arrival this afternoon was close to 90F.

Someone had fired up the A/C unit without realizing that the hose that puts the heat outside was not connected to the back of the unit. Thus all of the heat it was trying to pull out plus its own heat yielded a very high temperature in that room.

Once the hose was affixed to the back of the unit the temperature started to come down.

So, here we are writing this blog post at 2216Hrs on a Wednesday evening after having logged in to check on the progress of the array rebuild and the above was what we saw.

The RAID controller is an Intel RAID Controller SRCSASRB with battery backup.

SATA does not belong in a server when it comes to spindled hard drives. This experience with the blind failure and the dismal rebuild times, during off hours no less, are definitely a part of it.

SAS/SCSI was designed and engineered to run in server environments. SATA was not.

The firmware tweaks that the hard drive vendors have introduced, along with the pretty much failed NCQ effort, to try and mimic a SAS setup within the SATA controller do not come close to the performance, longevity, and stability that SAS drives offer.

By the way, this goes for NearLine SAS drives as well. These drive types are SATA internals with SAS electronics slapped on to the external of the drive. There is a very good reason why the drives are called "NearLine". :)

The cost on 2.5" 10K SAS drives in 300GB and 600GB sizes have come down quite a bit in the last year. The 900GB 10K SAS drives are still relatively expensive per Gigabyte but provide an opportunity for a large aggregate of storage when needed.

Another way to look at it is this: How many RMA efforts have gone in to server setups with SATA drives in them? Compare that with the servers that have SAS setups. In our case, where we have lots of servers deployed, there is virtually no comparison. Over time the SAS drives have completely trumped the SATA drives in all aspects.

Even with 24x7x365 by 4 hour response times most vendors require time wasted on the phone prior to initiating that on-site visit to replace the failed drive. This time is expensive and to some extent a waste.

Oh, and one more thing: If going with parity in an array go RAID 6 with at least eight 10K spindles and make sure the RAID controller has either flash backed cache or a battery backup.

Storage is almost always the weakest point in a server both for hardware failures and I/O bottlenecks. Kill both. Use a wide array of eight spindles or more and make sure the drives 10K SAS.

The risk when using SATA is just not worth the "savings" IMNSHO (in my not so humble opinion).

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

The “Right” Client and Our Business

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Tue, 07 May 2013 19:04:00 +0000

Fellow MVP Cris Hanna pointed to the following article:

Inc.com: 8 Customers You Should Avoid

It took us almost 5 years to be able to start being choosy about the work we took on and the client relationships we wanted to build.

In that first five years we had to learn _a lot_ of lessons from the school of hard knocks.

Everything from a long standing and ongoing client not paying for work they signed off on to folks that expected a whole lot of work for no pay.

Then there was the scope creep on big projects where the original job, say a migration, then included a bunch of Line of Business application upgrades and migrations . . . and were not in the original proposal/agreement but, “since you’re already here . . . “

One of the more difficult lessons was in communication. That is communicating with the client about ongoing scheduling, jobs, and other task needs.

A really bad habit to break is to _not_ communicate with a client we have an appointment with that we are running late or even that we may need to reschedule.

In this day and age where we are facing pressures from all sides to cut and run we need to be extra mindful of the one gem in the rough we have in SMB: The face-to-face contact and relationship with our client contacts.

Be a man, or woman, of our word.

Need to make a change? Communicate first.

Use the tools at hand.

Outlook calendar invites, ticketing system if you use it, and keep lots of notes!
Phone is best. Texting seems to be a close second.

Be legit, stay legit, and deal with folks that operate above board.

This is especially true for software licensing.

Be personable.

When on-site reach out, say hello to everyone, and especially ask them how their day and tech are doing!

Operate on principle.

Create a project scope and a set of terms & conditions.
Stand by them.
Add-on charge _everything_ not included in the original scope.

Having an established set of terms & conditions is one thing.

Abiding by them and following through on them are two _very_ important aspects of the business relationship. By doing so, we place the expectation ball in the prospect’s/client’s court of being honest and forthright in their communications and negotiations with us and ours with them.

By not following through on our commitments, and holding them to theirs, we place ourselves in a very awkward position where precedent gets set that the prospect/”client” may indeed be free to take advantage of us.

This is a very dangerous precedent to set.

The same is true for time spent on _any_ client related need. Any and all time must be billed for and tracked with a full set of notes. But, most importantly, the client _must_ approve that work in writing ahead of time.

Yes, on-the-fly this may be difficult to be had, but again this is where communication abilities come in to play.

An e-mail simply stating that we hit a snag and that extra time will be needed can be fired off from a Smart Phone in a matter of seconds. If the contact approves of it verbally confirm that by e-mailing them back with a “Thanks for your approval” note.

Keep a paper trail. Keep an e-mail trail. Keep all documentation and notes related to any and every project small or large. Get a scanner that can do scan to PDF with OCR so that any font text can be read into that PDF and be searchable later on.

Scan all handwritten content in and set it into a client’s folder called NOTEs or ticketing system.

In the end if a question about what we have done ever comes up then we have something to fall back on including any and all communication with the client/contact.

We also use SNIP in Windows to take snippets of all of the situations we are working with.

In the end keeping the above approach to running our IT business protects both our clients and us.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Signs of the Times: IBM PartnerWorld Withdraws the Registered Reseller Program

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:28:00 +0000

We went through the grief of getting registered with IBM as we had a proposal that required Tier 1 with IBM fitting the bill better than Dell.

With the recent rumblings that IBM is looking to sell their System X (Intel x86 line) product group possibly to Lenovo the above announcement makes some sense.

Though, given how difficult the whole partner process was to get signed up and registered in the first place maybe enrolment was really low to begin with.

In the end, our Tier 1 hardware needs can be more than met by Dell so long as it is backed up by the 24x7x365 by 4 hour on-site response warranty with no “Phone Support” clause. :P

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Intel Announces the End-Of-Life for the Intel Modular Server Platform

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:18:00 +0000

Bummer ...

Intel Product Change Notification: 112168-00: IMS Compute and Chassis (link to PDF)

Wow, we had a good run with the IMS platform.

It was the platform we build our first Hyper-V failover cluster on.

It was the platform where we learned what VLANs do, Trunking means, and how to configure centralized storage for shared access.

We have done _a lot_ of testing on this platform, Hyper-V cluster deploys, and so much more. We have had the fortune to have been in touch with folks from all around the world that reached out to us for assistance with their IMS questions.

We do see some neat changes coming down the pipe including a new Intel Storage System JBOD2224S2DP platform that is perfect for Windows Server 2012 Storage Spaces and VHDX delivered via SMBv3 to Hyper-V Failover Cluster setups. The new Intel Server System R1208JP4OC 1U single socket unit looks to be a perfect fit for entry level nodes with the ability to tie in two SAS HBAs for redundancy.

So, time to move on with our individual node configurations utilizing Promise, IBM, and now we are even looking at Dell MD3220 smart storage as an option.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Hyper-V: Defragment the “Drive” in a Guest OS?

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:19:00 +0000

This post is as a result of a discussion on the SMB Virtualization Yahoo Group.

The article is in the TechNet Wiki:

TechNet Wiki: Hyper-V: Defragmentation

Bryan’s response about whether to defragment the guest starts with it being relative to personal preference.

Indeed, we have a very specific reason set for _not_ defragmenting within a guest OS.

Why not?

For most VHD/VHDX deploys there has been an underlying disk subsystem set up. Sometimes on a RAID array hosting 4, 6, 8, 16, or more disks. Sometimes on a SAN or DAS with 16+ disks.

Now, we set up a _fixed_ VHD/VHDX file in the first place so as to limit file fragmentation at the host storage level (whether local, SAN, or DAS).

Some folks prefer to allocate dynamically expanding VHD/VHDX files however over time in larger storage situations defragmentation can indeed have an impact on storage throughput/IOPs.

Disk access is not the same for a guest OS. Running a defragment routine within the guest OS does not improve Read/Write access for a set of spinning platters as it could have back when.

In fact, running a defragmentation routine within the guest OS may only serve to load down the disk subsystem with unnecessary I/O for no real gains.

Back in the day we did indeed test disk setups for our NT Server deploys and found that over time a system partition integrated swap file caused disk access times to increase and overall throughput to degrade.

When we started to deploy our servers with a dedicated swap file partition with a defined swap file on that partition the server’s disk performance over time remained relatively robust.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Android, Apple, and Windows Ad = Funny . . . and a bit of snow!

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:37:00 +0000

This is our wonderful Spring weather in North Central Alberta this morning:

We’ve had a wet and heavy snow falling for quite a while now. It made for some interesting driving into town this morning. :)

Fellow SBS MVP Dave Nickason posted this to a list this morning and it’s hilarious!

Don’t fight. Switch to the Nokia Lumia 920 Windows 8 Phone

The video is very well done and quite funny to boot!

Happy Monday everyone. :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

QuickBooks 2013 and Flash – Install the Database Setup on a Server And . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:35:00 +0000

We get Flash!

We're not 100% sure where exactly Flash is required when it comes to the Database Manager for Intuit's QuickBooks.

But, it's not a really happy thing to be installing Flash on a server. :(

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

SBS 2011 Standard: Install Error 0x80300001 - "Windows cannot be installed to Disk 0 Partition 1" OR "Cannot find a System Partition"

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:02:00 +0000

There was one other error that came up depending on if we SHFT+F10 to get to the command prompt and try formatting using DiskPart.

Internet searches came up with swapping optical disks between the Windows installer disk and the driver disk but we had everything including the Answer File (this was a migration run attempt in a lab setting) on a bootable USB flash drive.

After fighting with it for an hour we brought in another known good bootable USB flash drive that had the SBS 2011 Standard install files on it and low and behold the process worked!

Meh ... Very frustrating to run through all of that troubleshooting only to find out that the ISO we pulled the files from was bad.

So, the second step in troubleshooting any Windows OS install error in WinPE is to download a new ISO, format a flash drive as bootable using DiskPart, and copy the SBS files over.

Blog Post: Windows Vista - Using the DiskPart Command to Create a Bootable USB Flash Drive

Note, for SBS files use NTFS for the file system since the WIM file is over 4GB in size.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Move the Symantec SEM5.db file to another partition

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:07:00 +0000

We have an SBS 2008 Standard setup that’s getting really tight on the system drive.

We’ve pretty much moved everything and anything we can off of the system partition to keep space as free as possible.

One of the last pieces to be moved is the SEM5.db file that runs around 2GB or more.

To move that file we followed these instructions:

Go to services.msc
Stop the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager Service
Stop the Symantec Embedded Database Service
Go to \Program Files\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager\db and cut the sem5.db file and paste it to the new drive
Click Start
Click run
Type regedit
Go to HKey_Local_Machine\system\CurrentControlSet\Services\ASANYs\Parameters\ click on the Parameters option in the right hand side column and change the path of the sem5.db database file to the new location as New Drive:\Folder name

Our folder:

Restart the Symantec Embedded Database Service from services.msc

NOTE: We were able to log on to the SEP Management Console once we had both services started at this point.

Go to Administrative Tools
Click on Data Sources (ODBC)
Click on System DSN tab
Click on Configure button
Highlight the database tab and replace the path for the sem5.db file and ensure connectivity by clicking on Test Connection
Go to Management Server configuration Wizard and perform the server reconfiguration

That freed up over 2GB of storage space which at this point for this particular SBS is _a lot_ of space to be had! :)

Symantec Forums: Move SEM5.db for SEP 11

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

How to Acquire an SMBKitchen Project Subscription

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:44:00 +0000

We’ve received a number of questions about the subscription for the SMBKitchen Project.

First, the subscription cost is $180 for the _calendar_ year. That cost is broken down over twelve months. So, subscribe in January and the cost is distributed across the 12 months. Subscribe this month and the January through April payments will be required. From there the cost will be distributed over the remaining months at $15/Month.

The fee covers all content on the site, live author’s chats where our subscribers get Q&A time with us, freedom to ask the authors questions on subscription content, and so much more.

The sign-up process is as follows:

Click into the SMBKitchen Project site.
Click the Sign up for a subscription link.
Click the Register button.

Put your name, e-mail address, and password to access the site in.

An activation e-mail will be sent to that address. Please confirm.
Log on to the site.

Click the Payments button.

Click the Make a Purchase button.

Click the Subscription button.

Change the Subscription option to 1.

Scroll down a bit to see the option to purchase additional months up front.

Click the Check out with PayPal button.

From there the routine is straight forward.

A Welcome Letter, and Article Summary, and an Invitation to the next SMBKitchen Project event will arrive in your Inbox shortly after that.

Each category will have a number of articles, how to videos, author chats, and other content for you to access.

Our goal with this project is to give current IT solution providers the best possible tool set to provide on-premises and hybrid on-premises/Cloud solutions that can be delivered today and tomorrow.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

SMBKitchen Project: Author's Chat on now!

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 22:08:00 +0000

SMBKitchen Project subscribers our Author's Chat is just starting! Check your e-mail for the link.

As an FYI, part of the SMBKitchen Project subscription is access to us authors on a monthly basis via Lync and also via the Third Tier ticketing system.

During the chat we do some presenting on new content in the SMBKitchen Project knowledgebase and a Q&A session.

Please use the full Lync client as the Web client does not pick up audio properly at this time.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Office 365’s New Wave 15 Management Portal

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:44:00 +0000

We received notice that our hosted domain was upgraded earlier in the week.

It is important to note that any company looking to Office 365 for their hosted service provider needs to keep in mind that change-control is completely out of their, the customer’s, hands.

Let’s take a quick peak at the new administration centres for the features we regularly use:

The new Office 365 Admin Center

There is some reporting available under the current health column with links to INCIDENT IDs however they seem to be protected behind the service’s Microsoft ID logon. So, we will perhaps hold-off publishing the histories found in those reports until we are sure that we can.

Suffice it to say SharePoint Online and Exchange Online have had issues this month. :)

The Exchange admin center is pretty much the same as the one we find in our own Exchange 2013 deploys:

Exchange admin center

In the EAC we have the ability to finely tune our O365 Exchange experience right down to individual SPAM settings. This is even before we venture into PowerShell for Office 365!

And finally, the SharePoint Admin Center:

The service has most certainly taken a huge step forward . . . in feature set but also in complexity for management.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

SMBKitchen: Installing Hyper-V on Windows 8, Configuring Networking, and VM Setup Video Posted

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:01:00 +0000

I’m happy to announce that my first How-To video has been posted to our SMBKitchen Project knowledgebase.

I demonstrate the following process:

Setting up the partition configuration.
Setting up Intel NIC Teaming for a dual NIC motherboard.

Windows Client does not have NIC teaming built-in as does Server.

Installing the Hyper-V Windows Feature.
Configuring Hyper-V networking with a private and public virtual switch set.
Configuring Hyper-V configuration and VHD file storage locations.
Setting up a Hyper-V based lab environment.

VM: Set up Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 as a router

Private and Public vSwitches bound.
RRAS configured in NAT mode.

VM: Set up Windows Server 2012 Standard as a DC.

Proper network setup for DNS, DHCP, AD, and more.
Forward Lookup Zones for the Domain and Active Directory zones.
Reverse Lookup Zone settings for AD.

There are a significant number of helpful pointers throughout the video that will give you a _very_ good idea of how we set up and deploy Hyper-V but also do a greenfield Windows Server Stack deployment for a new client.

The video is about 43 minutes in length.

Please do check it out! SMBKitchen Project

The small subscription fee helps to justify the time to do these types of How-To efforts. :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

CCH Taxprep T1, SMBKitchen Project, and Third Tier

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 20:03:00 +0000

Things have been moving along at a great pace!

With tax season upon us we had a crazy number of calls over corrupted Print Formats in CCH Taxprep T1 2012 v1. Somehow during the conversion process from the previous year’s Print Formats things got mangled and we were running our feet off trying to keep up.

We ended up needing to rebuild the Print Formats and get them hooked into the HP LaserJet printer setups that we have for them. Most of our accounting firm clients use multiple Print Format files with custom configurations depending on the forms being printed. Some get duplex printed to save paper while others are simplex printed such as the invoice and title page.

Once those and a few other small bugs in the accounting applications were settled down things have been relatively stable for us with ongoing systems, cluster, and end user needs.

Amy Babinchak of Third Tier extended an invitation to me to step into the Third Tier fold a little while back. Monique and I discussed my involvement with TT and the time commitments required along with an idea of what to expect in the way of trouble tickets and figured it would be a good fit.

Now, we do get support requests via the blog every once in a while, and via other forums I participate in but for the most part things are MPECS and contract client focused. Well, that’s not too challenging if you know what I mean! ;)

I’m very happy to report that the trouble tickets that I have been a part of over the last week or two have indeed been challenging, successful, and very rewarding. The folks we get to serve in TT have been second to none and the TT Team is phenomenal.

Joining Third Tier was indeed a great decision. :)

Now, the SMBKitchen Project content is soon to be updated with quite a few items. One is a just finished video walkthrough of setting up Hyper-V on a Windows 8 client machine, installing two VMs, one a Server 2012 DC and the other a Server 2008 R2 router, along with the requisite steps.

I have a number of documents in the works. One on sizing a Hyper-V solution tailored to a client’s specific needs and the other a two part document introducing a client and their needs in part 1 and a full-on RFP response proposal in part 2 that we presented to the prospect. This particular proposal is one of the best documents I’ve ever done so I look forward to sharing it.

With our regular client needs, now Third Tier’s needs, SMBKitchen work being done, and ultimately my taking a hardline on spending time with my family things are very brisk.

Posting to the blog over the next while may be a bit spotty due to demands on time here but we will do our best to keep the relevant posts flowing!

Thanks for reading and for your support over the years! :D

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Synnex Canada Responds and Makes Things Right After an Error

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 12:01:00 +0000

Recently, we went through our first DOA HP LaserJet business series printer in what seems like years!

We spent a few hours troubleshooting with HP support walking through everything from firmware updates, firmware recoveries, to recovery-mode firmware wipe and reloads.

Nothing worked to get the printer to recognize the 1500 sheet tray that we added to the unit.

So, HP Support ticket ID in hand we called in to our supplier, had the printer set as DOA, and provided the printer’s serial number to our Synnex Customer Service contact.

Needless to say, through a series of errors made on Synnex’s end we ended up spending a _lot_ of time working through the resulting mess over a series of months.

We put out a couple of Tweets to let the powers that be at Synnex know that our frustration levels were reaching critical mass.

After the first Tweet Mary Ellen Grom approached us almost immediately by phone.

Long story short, we went through a mind-bending RMA process with Ingram Micro Canada a number of years ago and needless to say we leave them to the very last for any distribution orders we need to place.

Synnex Canada came very close.

We are very happy to announce that not only has the mess been straightened out but Synnex took extra steps to make sure we were happy given the amount of time we spent on the problem.

This situation and its resolution demonstrates very clearly to us why a very substantial part of our distribution purchases have been made through Synnex Canada over the history of our company.

The Synnex Sales Team that is assigned to us has always been very responsive whether by phone, e-mail, or notes on an order placed.

Our Synnex Microsoft licensing contacts have been consistently better than any of the other distributor’s contacts hands-down.

Most certainly we are _not_ the biggest fish in the sea. However, in this day and age when we all face business pressures from all sides every customer/client relationship needs extra special attention. And, when we make an error the restitution to our customer/client should be worth something to them.

Thank you to Mary Ellen and the Synnex folks that reached out to us to straighten things out and make things right. :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Intel Wired Ethernet Drivers Download Links

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:46:00 +0000

Intel has a page for us to land on to find an Intel PROSet driver without having to dig through the Download Centre first.

Intel Network Connectivity: Drivers and Software for Intel Gigabit and PRO/1000 Gigabit Server Adapters

As of this writing the various download links take us to Intel PROSet version 18.1 for the various Windows flavours.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Exchange 2013 OWA Comparison: RTM to CU1

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:27:00 +0000

We are happy to report that after walking through all of the troubleshooting steps we needed to that Exchange 2013 CU1 installed successfully on one of our Exchange 2013 RTM greenfield deploys.

Note that there were 18 steps to the whole process _after_ completing the AD prep steps and installing the required components on Server 2012.

This is a shot of Exchange 2013 RTM OWA:

This is a shot of Exchange 2013 CU1 OWA:

We now have the SPAMfighter folder listed.

One thing we noticed is that OWA loaded a _lot_ faster on the new platform than it used to on RTM.

As always, _test_ updates in a lab setting before wondering out and running them on production systems.

We had a System State and a full ShadowProtect backup of this particular setup before we jumped in as a just-in-case.

Given that some of the RTM bugs were critical at this site we jumped into CU1 right away on a production system.

So far, we can report that things are back to normal. So far . . .

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Might want to hold off on Exchange 2013 CU1

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 16:19:00 +0000

We ran into a hiccup with applying CU1 in the "Prerequisite" stage. We backed off with essentially no changes made, at least the routine did not jump into running the actual update and this morning we have no mail flow.

In the mean time, things are not working. :(

The above is OWA and mail flow is not coming in or going out.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Some Thoughts on the Nokia Lumia 920

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:46:00 +0000

The purchase of the Lumia 920 was unfortunately a fiasco. The Rogers kiosk in West Edmonton Mall (Rogers Wireless – Phase II by West 49) really gave me a hard time. The kiosk is run by Digital Communications Group. Needless to say, after that experience we will not be back to any of their stores.

On to the White Nokia Lumia 920.

Wow, is it _heavy_! This is one solid phone and will take a bit to get used to the weight.

One would not think of it, but button placement on the Samsung ATIV S was a real pain. The buttons on the Lumia 920 are in a perfect spot.

Power is right where one’s ring and middle fingers sit naturally so powering up and down is easy. The volume and camera buttons are on the same side and in easy reach.

The ATIV S has the volume along the bottom, so when the phone is rotated landscape for tapping messages the volume control slider occasionally comes up due to a knuckle hit on the button. A real pain. The power switch is on the left near the top of the phone when screen faces forward. That was always tough to get to or it would be hit accidentally while landscape tapping.

WOW! The Lumia 920 takes _awesome_ pictures and the first shot is fast!

My daughter took that shot in the passenger seat while poking around the phone. We were driving West into a full-blown 1630 Hours low horizon sun. The camera compensated really well for the light changes especially considering I’m wearing a black shirt!

Suweet: When the phone was first fired up the first question the OS asked was: Do you want to restore your settings from the ATIV S phone?

Answered, “Yes” and about 10 minutes later _everything_ that was on the ATIV S was now on the Nokia. There are a few apps/games that are stuck in the download queue that need to be looked at though.

Screen: The screen quality is noticeably better on the Lumia. This was surprising as Samsung makes one of the better quality LED/LCD panels out there. Everything is crisp, clear, and colour rich on the Lumia’s screen.

The screen’s glass is a bit thick so it will take some getting used to when it comes to tapping out messages.

In the end, the original decision to run with the Samsung was a solid one. Yes, we have the added cost of the Samsung however we now have a reasonable “loaner” if the Nokia gives us any issues, plus after having worked on the Samsung for a couple of months or three the contrast between the two already stands out.

We shall see what happens three months down the road! :)

Note that the Rogers LTE version of the Nokia Lumia 920 has _all five bands_ for the LTE radio where TELUS and Bell tend to strip bands out. This is important for those that intend to roam into the US or other areas of the world.

Also, the Lumia 920 on Rogers has 32GB of internal storage. So, no real loss there since the ATIV S had 16GB of internal and a Micro-SD card at 16GB.

Vlad: I stuck with Windows Phone because I do like the OS. Yes, it has its issues. Another reason is that I am heavily invested in the Xbox Music Pass music content. It has literally saved me four figures worth of downloads on other services that would otherwise get trashed.

The one thing that bites about Android is this: In our make-up art class yesterday (Anne-Marie and I have been going to art class once a week during the school year together for over three years now) Anne-Marie finished her piece. Dixie, our art teacher, likes to take photos of the finished work. She has an S3. She said yes to an Android update the other day.

Guess what her complaint was? And, I’ve heard this many times before after Android updates...

Since the update things are missing and other things don’t work. Her camera on the phone can no longer focus on the art pieces that she takes shots of plus, as above, things are missing and/or now broken.

At least with Windows Phone updates I know that the phone will be the same after the fact.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

The Verdict: 2 Months in and Xplornet Does Indeed Trump Hotlink Wireless Service

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Elder SBS MVP) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:51:00 +0000

Here we are two months later after posting this:

Rural Wireless ISP Review – Hotlink Wireless Versus Xplornet WiMax

We signed up for the 10Gbit plan and have been more than happy with the service.

One thing that is readily apparent for us, or will become so for those making the transition, is that Windows 8 is bandwidth hungry.

Wherever there are two or more Win8 profiles hooked into a Microsoft ID any changes made on one, depending on the services, will be replicated to the others.

Well, I download a lot of music on my Windows Phone 8 device and thus that gets replicated to all Win8 machines I sign into with my Microsoft ID or domain account that has that ID integrated.

Our network at home that Xplornet services is our primary video, television (we do not subscribe to cable/satellite), movie, and entertainment via Zune/Xbox Music Pass and Netflix.

Other than the occasional stutter on the standard definition movies we have streamed in via Zune/Music Pass (which look _way_ better than Netflix) we don’t see much.

The shaping becomes apparent when downloading content like updates, large PDFs, and other files. We can get several downloads going at around 125KB/Second despite our connection being 10Gbit. One would expect one download, like Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 would come down at 800KB to 900KB per second. Nope.

We can however have several downloads going at the 125KB/Second rate.

So, we leave the large downloads for our office connection. :)

In the end our decision to change our ISP provider from Hotlink has been a very positive one. The step up in the monthly fee has been more than worth the ability to have five to eight stable RDP sessions to our client sites at any one time.

Plus Internet streaming content comes down at a reasonable rate with very little interruption.

Our recommendation: Choose Xplornet WiMax if there is an option between Hotlink and Xplornet.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer