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Archive for SBS – Page 7

Hotfix Rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 2008 R2 SP1

by KW · Comments (0)
Mar 13 2013

On March 13, 2013 Microsoft released KB 2775511. They refer to this as “an enterprise hotfix rollup” for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 2008 R2 SP1. This rollup contains 90 hotfixes that have been issues since the release of SP1 for Windows 7/Windows 2008 R2.

The chatter on this release is that a lot of work went into this rollup, and that you definitely want to be looking at this for your customers and your own systems. Microsoft says that this hotfix rollup improves the overall performance and system reliability of Windows 7/Windows 2008 R2 SP1 systems.

One small example: I installed it on my own Windows 7 workstation and saw a dramatic improvement in boot time.

Now, for whatever reason, you will NOT find this hotfix rollup on Microsoft Update (MU) or Windows Update (WU) or on WSUS. That’s correct – you will NOT find it there. Instead, you will find it on the Microsoft Update Catalog download site. I know … I’m with you on this one as I didn’t know about this site myself.

But lets stop gabbing and get to downloading and installing the rollup!

  1. You can read the details about this rollup here: KB 2775511 
  2. Or go straight to the Microsoft Update Catalog site
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  3. In the Search box, enter 2775511 and click Search
  4. The list of available files are displayed. There are separate versions of this hotfix rollup for Windows 7/x86, Windows 7/x64, Windows 2008 R2 x64, and Windows 2008 R2 Itanium.
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  5. Click on the Add button for those versions you want.
  6. After that, click on the Download button and choose your desired drive/folder location to store the downloads.
    image   image
  7. For each version, a folder is created with two files in it — a .exe file and a .msu file.
    Double click on the appropriate .msu file to install the hotfix.
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  8. Install and reboot your system. That’s it!

Now, for those who like to do performance measurement, there’s a tool called XPerf you may want to take a look at. There’s a nice blog post on using XPerf to measure Slow Boot Slow Logon (SBSL) scenarios

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Categories : News, SBS, Servers, Windows
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Installing Exchange 2007 Rollups for SBS 2008

by KW · Comments (0)
Feb 28 2013

There are things that I do in managing my computer systems that I would classify under the category of “trusted habits”. For example, whenever I am updating a server, I always reboot it before installing updates. Or, I generally install any .Net updates separate from other Windows security patches.

Another trusted habit of mine is to install Exchange related rollups or service packs on their own, manually. That is, I don’t use WSUS or WU/MU to automatically install Exchange updates.

As an example, let’s take a quick look at applying Update Rollup 10 for Exchange 2007 SP3, which  was released in February 2013 (see KB2788321).

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Before proceeding, make sure you do my three essential pre-requisites:

  1. Backup your server
  2. Reboot Your Server
  3. Disable any anti-virus software running on your server

Even though WSUS/MU properly informs me that Update Rollup 10 is available, I won’t use WSUS/MU to install it.

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Instead, go to KB2788321 this link, and download and save the 64 bit version of RU10 to your desktop or Download folder.

Right click on the downloaded file, click Apply, then click Open, and wait a few minutes while it computes space requirements.

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Please note: If you get an error message about insufficient permissions or privileges, DON’T PANIC.
Just open up an elevated command prompt, and locate/run the download file from there.

Click Next, when prompted, to begin the installation, and accept the License Terms. Wait while it generates the required .Net files, then click Next. The installation will proceed, and may take 30-40 minutes to complete.

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Once the rollup has been installed, go ahead and reboot your server, and then check and verify that all of the appropriate Exchange services have started, and delete the rollup file you downloaded.

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Categories : Exchange, SBS, Servers
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First book on Windows Server 2012 Essentials released

by KW · Comments (0)
Jan 17 2013

My good friend and fellow SBS MVP’er, Boon Tee, has released the first book published on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Essentials. This Administrator’s Guide is available as an e-book only.

You can read more about the book and order it online here: http://adminguide.ws2012e.us

You can also download a sample of his book here: http://www.powerbiz.net.au/files/BookSample.pdf

Cover

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Categories : Essentials, News, SBS, Servers
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Swing Migration Updated!

by KW · Comments (0)
Jan 16 2013

Jeff Middleton is founder of IT Pro Experts and creator of the Swing Migration methodology and tool kit. He has just announced new updates to his kits.
http://itproexperts.com/blog/platform-migration-project-solutions-matrix/

I have successfully used Jeff’s Swing Migration for years to upgrade customers from older versions of SBS to the newer Microsoft platforms (SBS 2008, SBS 2011, Windows Server Essentials 2012). His methodology also applies to standard Windows and Exchange server migrations.

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Categories : Exchange, News, SBS, Servers, SMB
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KWSupport in Tampa Tribune

by KW · Comments (0)
Jan 16 2013

Tribune ArticleAn article on KW Support & Consulting LLC was published in the Brandon edition of The Tampa Tribune on Wednesday January 16th, 2013.

2013-Tribune-Article

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Categories : News, SBS
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Avoid sfc /scannow on Windows 8/2012

by KW · Comments (0)
Jan 06 2013

Symptom: your Windows 8/Windows 2012 system locks and crashes after installing some updates

We are still collecting information and data on this issue, but here’s a word of advice:

  • Wrong solution: you should NOT use the sfc /scannow command
  • Correct solution: you should try to redo the tokens.dat file per KB 2736303.
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Categories : Essentials, SBS, Windows
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Display Exchange 2010 version

by KW · Comments (0)
Jan 01 2013

Working with Exchange 2010 and SBS 2011, you should expect to become familiar with PowerShell. Here’s a quick easy solution for displaying the version of Exchange 2010 installed on a server:

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  1. Start the Exchange Management Shell (EMS). Give it a few seconds to start up.
  2. From the PowerShell [PS] prompt, type: get-exchangeserver | format-table name, *version*
    Note: the above PS command is NOT case sensitive
  3. Compare your result to the following table (see this Microsoft Technet page):
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 – Build 14.0.639.21 – Date 11/9/2009
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP1 – Build 14.1.218.15 – Date 8/24/2010
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP2 – Build 14.2.247.5 – Date 12/4/2011

In my case (see screenshot above), I have Version 14.2 (Build 247.5) which indicates that I have Exchange 2010 SP2 installed.

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Categories : Exchange, SBS, Servers
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2013 Microsoft MVP!

by KW · Comments (0)
Jan 01 2013

I just received a letter from Microsoft indicating that I have been renewed as a Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for the Small Business Server (SBS) product for the 10th consecutive year.

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2013 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in Small Business Server technical communities during the past year.

This one was truly a surprise, considering that my level of active participation in the SBS technical community was virtually non-existent for the first half of the year as I recovered from congestive heart failure. I’m thankful to those involved with the decision to renew my status as an MVP.

Every year I say that I am truly honored with the selection, and that is the simple truth. I’m honored to be associated with a great group of fellow MVP’s that are more than that – they are my good friends and family. I value their wise business advice as well as their technical expertise. Their encouragement to me and my wife during this last year with my health issues has been extraordinary.

I also wish to remember one of our MVP’s, Eriq Neale, who passed away in June after a long fought battle with cancer. He was a fellow guitar-player like me, and enjoyed life, family and his God with equal fervor and zeal.

https://kwsupport.com/2012/06/eriq-nealefriends-o-mine/

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Categories : News, SBS
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Uninstall NT Backup Utility after SBS Migration

by KW · Comments (0)
Dec 31 2012

When migrating from SBS 2003 to SBS 2011, I will often backup data folders on the old server with NT Backup. However, SBS 2011 does not provide the NT Backup utility natively on it. However, Microsoft does offer a “read only” version of NT Backup (KB 974674) that can be installed on SBS 2011 and used to restore .bkf backup files.

Once your migration is complete, it is critical that this NT Backup utility is uninstalled from your SBS 2011 server as it affects the regular daily backup that you will be doing with your SBS 2011 server. The issue would not become apparent until you attempt to do a bare metal restore of your SBS 2011 server. See Susan Bradley’s blog post on the subject.

What’s not addressed is how to uninstall this utility. You won’t find it in the regular Add/Remove programs section of the control panel. Nor will you find it anywhere from Start > All Programs.

Here’s how to uninstall it:

  • Click Start –> type appwiz.cpl and press Enter
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  • Click on View installed updates
  • Under the section Microsoft Windows, locate Update for Windows (KB974674)
  • Click to select KB 974674 and then click Uninstall
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Categories : Backup, SBS, Servers, Tools
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SBS 2008 and SharePoint Log File

by KW · Comments (0)
Dec 27 2012

I am still encountering SBS 2008 servers where the Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) reports that the SharePoint SQL Log File is getting too large. There is a KB article that documents a script that will truncate the log file. I’ve created a zip file with the appropriate SQL command line plus a batch file to run it (see Part 1 below).

It is also recommend that after truncating the SharePoint database log file, that you set the recovery mode to “simple” for the database log file (see Part 2 below), and then you won’t need to use this command script again!

Part 1 – Running the command script

I created a zip file that contains both the SQL command line file that the KB article describes, plus a .cmd file that you can use to run the SQL command. In addition, my .cmd file will display the size of the SharePoint database log file both before and after.

Steps:

  1. Click here to download my zip file. (be sure to rename it from logshrink.z_i_p to logshrink.zip)
  2. Create a directory C:\Scripts
  3. Extract the contents of the zip file to the C:\Scripts directory
  4. Review and edit the .cmd file to adjust the location of the SharePoint database log file. I usually move SharePoint to a D:\ (Data) drive.
  5. Create a shortcut to the logshrink.cmd file and place it on your desktop
  6. To run, right click on the shortcut and click ‘Run as administrator’
    Here is a screen shot of the results of running the script:
    image

Part 2 – Switching Recovery Mode

Steps

  1. Open SQL Server Management Studio Express (using Run as Administrator)
  2. In the Connect to Server window, for the server name, enter: \\.\pipe\MSSQL&Microsoft##SSEE\sql\query
  3. Under Databases, locate SharePoint_Config_29c26fca…
  4. Right click on the above database, and click Properties
  5. Click on Options in the left frame, and in the right frame you will see that Recovery Mode is set to Full.
  6. Use the drop down option box and select Simple
  7. Click to save, and then exit SQL Server Management Studio Express
  8. Here’s a screen shot where you will change the recovery type from Full to Simple:
    image
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Categories : SBS, Sharepoint, Tools
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