We’ve found that a recent Microsoft Security Bulletin which affects quite a few operating systems, can, in some cases, wipe IIS SMTP Server settings. In our case this caused problems for the server faxing software, which needed the correct settings applying once again after this update.

The bulletin is MS10-024, follow the link to be taken to the Microsoft site with full details. If you are affected by the problem and need a hand to resolve please don’t hesitate to contact us here at Glo Networks

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In the next few months SP1 (Service Pack 1) will be released for Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7. It will contain the usual plethora of hotfixes and some new functions. One of the great new functions that we’ve been waiting on for months is the Dynamic Memory availability in Hyper-V.

We’ve not got our hands on it for testing yet but from reading this TechNet Blog article it looks like it should do exactly what we want / need.

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Well it’s no supprise at all to read that Microsoft have withdrawn the Windows Essential Business Server from their product line.

We were part of the closed beta back in late 2007 and even then I remember wondering why a customer would want this. Where as SBS is perfect for small businesses most companies want the extra control of the individual applications. Interestingly though we’ve started moving customers away from even SBS an onto Microsoft Online (first one goes live this week) !

Glad we never recommended it for sale to any of our customers.

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We’ve recently started selling Microsoft Online Services. A great set of services that allows a business to offer email and file services without the need to worry about storing, backing up and maintanence. Yup that means no worrying out DR (Disaster Recovery) or servers in your building ! We particularly like the look of Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS). You can link it to your existing Active Directory using the Microsoft Online Services Directory Synchronization, great lets give it a go.

On setup I get a werid error ‘The Microsoft Online Services Directory Synchronization tool must be installed on a domain joined computer running Windows Server 2003 Serivce Pack 2 or greater.’. Hangon the server’s a Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise server and is a domain controler, so what’s the problem ? On digging around the MS site I find that it’s fine with Windows 2008 server but come accross this -

Installation on 64-bit environments not supported.

No way … surely not. Are we supposed to be using 64bit OSs now or not ? Exchange has been 64bit only for 2 versions or since early 2007 ! Even small hardware vendors are on the 64bit bandwagon.

Obviously now we know it’s not the end of the world but come on guys try to help us out just a little bit !

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One of our customers recently wanted to upgrade their 6 terminal server which they have hosted in a data centre, they were 5 years old and it was starting to show, with 60+ users across the 6 servers the system was starting to get slow and the costs were high for the out of date hardware they were running on. The backup of the servers was not ideal, with each of the servers backing up to each other.

Project goals –

• Upgrade the servers to new hardware
• Save money
• Better way to backup
• Faster system

We purposed to the customer that we could make their current 6 physical server in to virtual servers and host them over two powerful physical servers on a much faster connection than they currently had, back all the servers up to separate location and save them money.

The customer accepted our proposal and we recently carried out the migration over a weekend, by Monday morning the servers were all up and running as virtual server on the two new servers. The new system will save them just more than £6000 a year.

Using disk2VHD (found here) we converted the physical servers, then transferred them to the new host and set them up on Hyper-V.

As well as having backup now done to a separate space away from the host servers it also adds an extra level of disaster recovery to their system. Should they have a hardware failure, being virtual servers we can have their system up and running very quickly (less than a day) on new hardware. All users had the exact same setup as before, the only difference they noticed was that their server was much quicker.

All of this also makes future migration, upgrades or add additional servers much easier thanks to virtual servers.

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Symantec have recently released Backup Exec 2010 with some nice new features, with more systems going virtual can save a lot of time with backups and restores of virtual hard drives -

• Support for Exchange 2010
• Support for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7
• Enhanced support for Microsoft Hyper-v R2
• Continuous Data Protection for Exchange, File and SQL Servers

Hyper-V R2 support

Now from a single-pass backup, administrators will experience automated Log Truncation of a virtual machine applications. From that single backup, administrators can then easily recover either the virtual machine or granular application data such as Exchange mailboxes, messages, calendar items, and individual Active Directory user accounts or objects.

Continuous data protection for Exchange

Integrated Exchange 2010 support for the new Database Availability Group (DAG) in Exchange 2010 and enhanced granular recovery support provides fast recovery of individual email and mailboxes while eliminating the need to perform an additional mailbox-level backup.

Of course everything with Backup Exec is optional, you will need to buy the agent for each extra part you want to use.

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Anyone that does work on networks will at least a little but understand subnets. In days gone by people would work out subnets on scientific calculators. Now there are a multitude of websites offering different ways to do it.

The website we use is subnet-calculator.com, not very pretty by does exactly what you want in a clear interface.

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Core Parking is a new feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 designed to cut energy usage without impacting on system performance.

Made for systems with multi-core processors, it is able to reduce energy consumption by moving all processing to just a few of the cores (or even just one) if they are able to handle the load, and putting the other cores into a ‘Parked’ or inactive state. While in this parked state the cores use less energy but are still ready to resume normal use pretty much instantly!

The energy savings when dealing with systems with 2-4 cores will not be too dramatic, however with more cores (Server 2008 supports up to 256 cores!) this could soon add up.

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With Windows 7 in the RC stage and Windows Server 2008 R2 recently gone RTM we felt now would be a good time to discuss a couple of the features of this next generation of operating systems which may provide potential benefits both for businesses and end-users.

‘Direct Access’

With both OS’s being built from the same code tree it is unsurprising that some useful features are only available for business’s  using both OS’s together. One such feature is ‘Direct Access’, a new networking feature which provides an improved  remote access experience for users, eliminating the need for a VPN to be connected and logged in to access remote resources. This also makes managing remote clients easier and more efficient for administrators.

‘BranchCache’

Another feature which is only available when using both Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 is ‘BranchCache’. This is a feature which allows Windows 7 client PC’s in a remote location to cache copies of files from a server running Server 2008 R2 and send them directly to other Windows 7 PC’s using a peer-to-peer architecture. This could be very useful for businesses who’s servers aren’t in their main office location, or who have several users working in the same remote location which does not have a local server, as a file which has been downloaded from the server by one client PC can then be downloaded by other Windows 7 PC’s from the ‘BranchCache’ on that PC rather than from the server again.

Of course as well as features that require both Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 there have been new features and improvements included in the OS’s separately. Administrators will likely enjoy the new Active Directory Recycle Bin and a new version of Hyper-V included with Server 2008 R2 whereas users will find the visual improvements included in the Windows Vista OS have been taken and improved on once again with Windows 7, as well as a generally faster, more responsive user experience.

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Well it appears that Windows Server 2008 R2 is finished as it’s gone RTM (Release To Manufacturing). When something is labled as RTM that means that it’s finished. There will be no futher changes or tweeks to the program now, effectively it’s locked code.

We’re currently upgrading our servers from the RC (Release Candidate) to this final release and not finding any issues yet. More info can be found here or please get in touch with us.

Relase notification from here.

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