James Moody: Geek in Paradise

Remember the SBS 2003 Server I was taking over from another consultant that hadn’t been updated in 2+ years?

Yeah, flawless updating through all 5 SBS 2003 SP1 updates, Server 2003 SP2, Exchange SP2 and WSS SP2, as well as the accompanying 39+ patches after all the SP’s were in. Side effect of all the patching? Server now runs way snappier and I look kingly to the business.

The previous consultants departing gift was an update to their Linux firewall that hadn’t been updated in a year. End result was a firewall that ate itself during the upgrade and a forced reinstall of the entire box. The worst part of the botched upgrade was it happened at the beginning of business hours on Friday so the business was without internet until I could get in and pop a router into place until the other consultant could get onsite and reload the Linux box. The previous consultant is a friend of mine, so of course, I had a field day giving him a hard time.

The SBS 2003 update process took ~13 hours start to finish. 7 hours of that was a full backup of the server before I started the process, so ~6 hours for all the service packs and patches to go in. Part of that time was also dedicated to clearing out the Exchange queues of all the spam that had resided there for over a year after they got hit while using Exchange as their mail server. Once I get the chance to show them the beauty of Direct Push, I believe I can get them to swap back over and get them subbed to ExchangeDefender run by the (in)famous Vlad Mazek.

I did have the foresight of knowing that the Server 2003 SP2 caused issues if the NIC drivers were old, so that was the very first thing updated once the Server was taken down for a good cleaning out and put back online. I’m sure you’d like to hear about having to work around quirks that popped up during the updates, but there were absolutely none. Completely flawless start to finish. The previous consultant, being mostly Linux based, was highly impressed with the speed of the machine after updating. Security isn’t the only reason you should patch.

All in all, a win for the Windows Server product and a black-eye for the Linux product in the eyes of the business. Can’t say I’m unhappy about that.

Tags: Microsoft SBS 2003 SP1 SP2 Exchange ExchangeDefender Linux Firewall Patch

Finally! The long awaited tool for SBS 2003 was released for public consumption today as announced by the Official SBS Blog. I haven’t had a chance to give it a whirl just yet, but soon, very soon.

The Windows SBS Best Practices Analyzer examines the server and collects configuration information from many sources including:

• Active Directory
• Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
• Registry 
• Metabase

After collecting information about server configuration, the Windows SBS Best Practices Analyzer verifies that the information is correct and then presents administrators with a list of issues sorted by severity. The list describes each issue and provides a recommendation or possible solution.

I already know the first victim will be my own box, just to see what effect the various KB fixes I’ve had to apply to fix little issues had on the box. Next in line will be a SBS 2003 box that a previous consultant hasn’t touched in 3 years that I’m getting ready to take over. I don’t expect that one to be too much fun getting it whipped into shape.

So what are you waiting for, head on over and get the goodies and make sure to check out KB 940439 for more information regarding the tool.

Tags: Microsoft SBS 2003 Best Practices Tool Exchange Sharepoint SQL Server Update Services

These, are a must see even if you’re not a Microsoft fan. You’d think that Microsoft has hired honest to god film producers to tout the Office 2007 Suite and supporting applications, instead of having Joe Accountant who edits family video in his spare time do the job. All funny, some more than others, and is the first time I think I’ve ever seen Brussel Sprouts bandied about as a weapon. I had planned on going to bed, but decided to see if there was any new stuff to add to Office. I think I’ll be up a bit more after the laughs.

Check them out at the Official Microsoft Office site. One click away from the Office entry page.

I love Best Practices Analyzers, and Microsoft came through today with one tailored for WSS 3.0 (Windows Sharepoint Services).  They’re the best for techies that are still in the process for fine tuning their application knowledge as they let you know what can be changed without actually making the change, so you can research why they recommend specific changes, as well as seasoned techies as a check to make sure you didn’t miss a critical setting. Specific setups may not benefit from these, but they’re a very good guideline to start from.

You can check out the blog post here or check out the synopsis page here. Download is available from either page. Enjoy!