Many years ago I installed a SBS 2003 server at our small office which has 4 staff, and I am planning on upgrading to SBS 2011 Standard before MS stop selling it at the end of this year (i.e. before they remove Exchange). I have a few questions:

Firewall

Our SBS 2003 has 2 NICs and acts as a gateway / firewall.  I understand that this is no longer they way to do it, and will need a separate "proper" firewall (we connect to the internet via a consumer level ADSL router that can block ports but not a lot else).  Can anyone recommend a suitable firewall to sit between our ADSL router and our lan? 

I was thinking of something like this http://o-www.sonicwall.com/us/en/products/TZ_100.html but I might go for one with more gigabit ports to replace our current switch which seems to have an intermittent problem. I would like it to be good enough to deal with spam and AV (I plan on not running AV on the SBS 2011, and just MS Security Essentials on the clients), but I can’t work out if I need an annual subscription for this service, or how much it would be?

Would a better option be to salvage our old server hardware and run untangle (or similar) on it? The free version of untangle seems to be enough for our purposes, but I don’t know how it compares to a hardware one. This route would be preferable as it would be free!

RWW / OWA

I think RWW is now called Remote Web Access, but apart from making the login look a bit prettier have there been any usability changes? What about OWA – has the access to Public Folders via OWA been improved (currently we can view Public Folders via OWA, but can’t file emails to them, or forward them)?

Hard Drives

Most people seem to recommend RAID, but I have never been a fan as it doesn’t remove the need for backups, and I think it just switches the risk of a drive failing to the risk of your raid controller failing (and if the controller failed in 5 years time, how easy would it be to find a replacement that can read the array?). I was thinking of 4 drives (non-RAID) – one for OS, one for Exchange DB, one for shared files, and one for snapshots of the shared files. Backups would be daily to an external USB drive kept offsite (and possibly online as well if someone can recommend a service). Thoughts?

SSL Certificate

We currently only have a self certified cert, which as far as I can tell just means a warning on login via OWA/RWW. Am I correct in thinking that recommended set up is now to purchase a certified cert? What benefits do we get from having one (I have no experience with SSL certs, and can’t seem to work out the benefits for us)? Seems to be an annual cost for not much benefit?

Thanks

Rick

We have a SBS 2011. Our system has been configured so that iPhones can collect E-Mails from outside of the network - basically, they connect to the mx (mail01.domain.com) which resolves to the WAN interface of our firewall, which is then forwarded to the exchange. So far so good.

The iPhone users now wish to collect emails from within the network via WiFi. At the moment, they need to use UMTS in order to collect emails and when they are in the office, they would prefer to use the wireless LAN. I assume we need to setup the DNS - but not quite sure what to do.

Many thanks for your help & suggestions.

OK, I am starting to give up now.  I have an SBS2008 server and started having issues after applying some updates including Sharepoint.  I found the related articles about re-running the "psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force" and it ends in failure every time I try and run it.  I have looked through the logs but am not sure whey I am having these errors.  I am obviously missing something.  I know Susan has mentioned that I can open a case with Microsoft at no charge because it was an upgrade caused problem and that is my next step but I figured I would try here 1st.  Here are the details.

There are 4 steps that the psconfig wants to run.  It is failing on step 3 with this error return

Performing configuration task 3 of 4
Upgrading SharePoint Products and Technologies...

Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products and Technologies.

An exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.PostSetupConfig
urationTaskException was thrown.  Additional exception information: The upgrade
command is invalid or a failure has been encountered.
Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products and Technologies.

Total number of configuration settings run: 3
Total number of successful configuration settings: 2
Total number of unsuccessful configuration settings: 1
Successfully stopped the configuration of SharePoint Products and Technologies.
Configuration of SharePoint Products and Technologies failed.  Configuration mus
t be performed before you use SharePoint Products and Technologies.  For further
 details, see the diagnostic log located at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Micros
oft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\LOGS\PSCDiagnostics_1_4_2013_6_15_49_415_574
475312.log and the application event log.

I then look at the 475312.log file and then the upgrade.log file.  This is the point where I get more of the granular error of a log in failure. I have logged into the SQL Server Express to see the Microsof##SSEE database and all looked fine before I started the process (I was making sure the database were not rea-only as suggested). But now I see the WSS_SEARCH_WIN-EUGSO7LO7PY database is marked as "suspect" so it may be corrupted. I have backups but am not sure sure exactly what I need to restore.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

-Richard K

[SPSearchDatabaseSequence] [DEBUG] [1/4/2013 6:33:12 AM]: SPSearchDatabaseSequence::CanUpgrade IsWYukon True WyukonMode False
[SPSearchDatabaseSequence] [DEBUG] [1/4/2013 6:33:12 AM]: Generating sqlsession in wyukon safemode for sequence [Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPSearchDatabaseSequence] and database [SPSearchDatabase Name=WSS_Search_WIN-EUGSO7LO7PY Parent=SPDatabaseServiceInstance Name=Microsoft##SSEE].
[SPSearchDatabaseSequence] [DEBUG] [1/4/2013 6:33:12 AM]: Retrying CanUpgrade with wyukon session 'System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Cannot open database "WSS_Search_WIN-EUGSO7LO7PY" requested by the login. The login failed.
Login failed for user 'NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE'.
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning(TdsParserStateObject stateObj)

[SPSearchDatabaseSequence] [DEBUG] [1/4/2013 6:33:12 AM]: Generating sqlsession in wyukon safemode for sequence [Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPSearchDatabaseSequence] and database [SPSearchDatabase Name=WSS_Search_WIN-EUGSO7LO7PY Parent=SPDatabaseServiceInstance Name=Microsoft##SSEE].
[SPManager] [ERROR] [1/4/2013 6:33:12 AM]: CanUpgrade [SPSearchDatabase Name=WSS_Search_WIN-EUGSO7LO7PY Parent=SPDatabaseServiceInstance Name=Microsoft##SSEE] failed.
[SPManager] [ERROR] [1/4/2013 6:33:12 AM]: Cannot open database "WSS_Search_WIN-EUGSO7LO7PY" requested by the login. The login failed.
Login failed for user 'NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE'.
[SPManager] [ERROR] [1/4/2013 6:33:12 AM]:    at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning(TdsParserStateObject stateObj)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Run(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj)
 

This is what I have done and what is not working:

On the server I went to each appropriate user and added their machine as a "Local Administrator"

On their local machine when going to the Administrators Group I am not able to add domain_name\User_name 

On the location tab the domain is not showing up! 

Okay so I believe my problem is related to the DNS information I added to my server so that we would have remote access through a vpn to the server.  Our ISP (Cbeyond yuck) gave me the Adapter setting to use so that we could use their VPN portal to access multiple machines remotely throughout the domain.  We do not have direct access to their managed router so I had no choice but to follow their steps.  

I need help with this, hopefully tonight since I will be here late trying to get this worked our before everyone returns in the morning.

Thanks so much!

I've SBS2011 Standard installed. It's installed not virtualized. The server therefore is the domain controller. I run a simple, single server configuration.

I'm running Sharepoint (companyweb, remote access, remote web) and Exchange 2011 on it. Everything, including Exchange is fully patched and and the recent rollup package (was installed automatically thru Winduws Update) is is on it. Everything is standard installation, nothing special.

Since I installed the Exchange 2011 rollup package a few days ago thru windows update I have a problem with the spwebapp account.

First of all: This server is domain controller. I don't understand why I have local accounts at all because a domain controller must never have local accounts. But these are here since installation.

Now with the rollup package it seems that the spwebapp account (used for SharePoint Web Applications) tries to log on to the system. It should be a system account without a profile, but since it tries to logon it results in an errror in the application event log.

I then tries to check the account itself opening it thru the Controlpanel - Users and groups. When I wanted to close it again it just hang and didn't go further. After a while (several hours) I kill the hanging process. Resulting in spwebapp local user account was removed.

When I then tried to open the company web it showed me only the message "configuration database can't be accessed".

I did a restore of the system drive (fortunatly I did a backup just before). This restored also the local account spwebapp.

Question:

What can I do to get rid of this error in the Application event log?
What is configured wrong on my side?
Is it possible to migrate the local accounts (there are 2 more: spfarm and spsearch) to the Active Directory? If yes how has this to be done?

BTW: I already went thru the recommendations to check the permissions of the profile folder. I also tried to give this account a profile. Doesn't work for this account either. It has full permission on this folder. And a logon to create a profile will not be possible with it as it's a local account and I don't have it's password. I also don't want to reset its password because it seems some system components are using this account that would fail then.

What can I do?

Henry

I have started having Sharepoint database connection errors in my logs. They are 27745, 5215, & 6398. These errors are only happening while my daily SBS Backup is running.

Why has this just started and anyone have an idea how to stop them?

SBS2011 Premium Companyweb, some workstations work some dont. Either Win7 x32 & Win7 x64 or XP x32.

These have all worked fine with the SB03 companyweb but not seeing the same experience with the SBS11 companyweb, but the overriding problem is the menu toolbar doesnt always work.

Now this is a server in the middle of migrating from SBS03 which might be a factor but what determines in IE 8 & 9 what makes the menu toolbar work properly?

On one workstation making IE9 connect to the SBS03 ISA proxy server made the menus appear, on an XP IE8 machine using compatibility view got that to work with a Lan connection to the SBS03 ISA server, but another XP workstation downloading an new critical update KB2798897 got that to workstation to work.

Where can I found more info on troubleshooting the companyweb menu problems becuase whilst the symptom of a non functioning menu toolbar is common, the solution for each workstation has so far turned out be unique for each workstation thats reported the problem.

I am getting the following error intermittently when logging in at a domain computer (either Windows XP Pro or Windows 7 Pro):

.“Windows cannot connect to the domain either because the domain controller is down or otherwise unavailable or because your computer account was not found. Please try again later. If this message continues to appear contact your system administrator for assistance.”

I have resolved this in the past by deleting and recreating the computer account on the SBS 2003 server.  The server is about six or seven years old and I have not changed the licensing (10 CALS) - although I lost five CALS and had to re-add them via the Licensing Console in SBS Server Administrator.  Not sure why I lost them - they simply disappeared.  I seem to have developed this problem since.  I have 10 CALS, but I am running over by two.  This has not been a problem in the past - so I have largely ignored the fact that I'm over. 

I don't want to recreate everyone's computer account.  Do I have to buy more CALS?  Or is there something more sinister going on here?

Thanks! 

Good day,

I am currently sitting with a connectivity issue with android's connecting to exchange.

My IIS 7 crashed after a failed windows update and could not roll back the changes and the backup also deleted retained data (only have a backup from after the crash).

When I go into server manager and try to remove the web server role, it removes all the dependent roles but gives a warning on the web server role "You must restart the server to finish the removal process".

After I restart before the logon screen appears, it tries to remove the role and at 99% it fails and rolls back the changes and after I log on it immediately returns to the role removal screen but gives me the same warning, after the 3rd time that it fails to remove web server role it it fails completely.

So I am currently sitting with the following error when trying to open IIS Manager:

and the following when opening exchange management console:

As far as what I can se there are services that are not installed like "world wide web publishing service" and they all seem to be somehow connected to or dependent on IIS.

Okay this is my problem.
I have used the Acronis clean utility but by mistake forgot to remove the registry settings for snapman etc.
Now the system SB2008 r2 will come up with snapapint64.dll not found and it will not boot even in safe mode.
Is there a way to use an offline registry editor that will allow me to change the registry.
I do have a backup, but one with the mistake. The reason for deleting Acronis was that the backup's didn't work so I ran a backup with the bootable Acronis DVD.

Any ideas

Thanks

We're running server 2003 service pack 2, using symantec backup exec for backups. Every friday we do a full backup and the rest of the days we do a partial, the full backup fails every week.

Writer Name: Active Directory, Writer ID: {B2014C9E-8711-4C5C-A5A9-3CF384484757},
 Last error: The VSS Writer timed out (0x800423f2), State: Failed during thaw operation (10).
Writer Name: Windows Internet Name Service, Writer ID: {F08C1483-8407-4A26-8C26-6C267A629741}, 
Last error: The VSS Writer timed out (0x800423f2), State: Failed during thaw operation (10).

this is the error when the full backup fails, ive checked vss writers using vssadmin list writers commands and both writer are working with no errors. 
Do you know where in the registry these 2 writers would be so I can make the timeout period longer?
Any help is appreciated, thank you.
-standard server

Hi all

Totally unrelated to SBS I know, but I live in this forum and I contribute a lot, but now I'm getting a bt fed up. For the last week, attempts to reply to a message using Firefox do not work. I can choose to reply and I can type my text, but pressing SUBMIT does absolutely nothing. Until now (e..g for the last xxx years) it has worked fine. Yes I've rebooted, reset my Firefox profile etc.

And before anyone says "it works fine in IE", the reason I use Firefox is because I have two logins, one for work and one for home, and I tend to psot to this forum with my home login BUT I also need to stay logged in with my work login for my "day job". Hence the need for two browsers.

So...please can someone pass this onto whomever manages the forums, as it's getting really frustrating now. If I can't reply to messages in Firefox, and help other users, then I'll just leave.

Many thanks to whomever can help!

Jim

Hello all, I am in a real bind here. Running SBS2008 permium, Exchange, SQL the works. Over the New Years Holidays our Email stopped and when I looked into it it was a full HDD, my C: drive. Using the Move data wizard in the SBS console I was able to free up space on the C: drive and the email came back. Well the disk space I freed up is now gone filled up and our email has stopped again. Found some older files we no longer use and moved them to a different partition, freed up 1.1 GB enough to start the emails flowing again. this lasted for about 1.5 hours. We now again have no email and the c: partition is filling up as I watch it. I need to find out what is going on and get it fixed. I have read most all of the posts I can find at Microsoft that come close to my problem, and they all suggest what I have already done "Move the Data". I am down to just over 1GB and this will be completely full I would guess in about 4 to 6 hours and I have no more data I can move. I cannot leave it till Monday It will cause a lot of customer problems.

Please help any additional info needed please request it. Thanks in advance 

Hi There,

I was (foolishly) tinkering with exchange in a new SBS 2011 installation, and broke it rather badly.  Only Exchange is broken.  I can't take the server down, blow it away and have another go at it, but I am lucky enough that the e-mail outage isn't an issue that needs fixing promptly.

I would like a brand new clean installation, so I don't have to worry about what other messes I've created in there.  I was considering doing a SBS 2011 to SBS 2011 migration following Microsoft Technet's guide "Migrate Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard to New Hardware".  I'd provide the link, but the forum will not let me...

In step 1. though it mentions installing an update, which among other things "configures Exchange Server to support migration".  Right now, there are several exchange services that will not start though (exchange rpc client access service, information store, etc).  I suspect that this may be an issue and prevent migration being possible.

Would someone be able to confirm this for me before I muck around any further?

Thanks

Hello,

I am doing some testing on a new SBS 2011 deployment I want to rollout to replace our existing setup.

I have purchased 2x Windows Server 2012 Standard licenses which are installed onto two DL 380 G7's and running Hyper-V. I understand these two Server 2012 licenses entitle me to 4 Windows 2012 VM's (in addition to the Win2k8 R2 licences for SBS and the second SBS Premium server)

In my test I had 3 VMs: SBS 2011 runing Windows 2008 R2, and SQL and RDS running Windows 2012 Server.

Everything seemed to work fine except for the RDS deployment. I am a bit confused as to where I should put the RD Gateway and the RD Web roles. Traditionally the RD Gateway is on SBS for obvious reasons, but is this supported when the RDS Server is Server 2012? If you had licenses to burn (and 2x SSL certificates for e.g. remote.domain and remote1.domain) how would you configure this setup?

Also, given the significant changes in RDS deployment from 2008 to 2011, are there any gotcha's when running RDS on Server 2012 in conjunction with SBS 2011? Any specific guides on this setup would be appreciated.

Blair

Blair

I have moved Sharepoint to another server and disabled the Sharepoint SQL Server and other Sharepoint services on the SBS 2011 standard server.  Sharepoint works fine with the SQL Server also moved to the other domain server.

However, the SBSMonAcct sends emails every half hour to my personal email accountchris@mydomain.com which was originally set up as an administrator, but has since been removed from all admin groups and permissions.  The emails go into my junk mail and fill up daily.  I have checked the event log and the task scheduler and the reports tab and the Exchange console and even tried just starting the services again, but they will not start...please help. 

Here is the email

An alert was detected on your network. Further investigation into the issue is recommended.

Computer: DC1

Date/Time generated: 1/3/2013 11:30:15 AM

Title: A key Windows Services service is not running

Source: Key Windows Services

Description:

The SQL Server (SHAREPOINT) service has been stopped.

Troubleshooting suggestions:

1) Determine whether the service has been stopped for server maintenance. If yes, restart the service after the maintenance task is completed.

2) If the service was not stopped for maintenance, then restart the service manually by using the Services.msc application.

3) Contact your IT support provider for more assistance.

Computer: DC1

Date/Time generated: 1/3/2013 11:30:15 AM

Title: A key Windows Services service is not running

Source: Key Windows Services

Description:

The SharePoint 2010 Administration service has been stopped.

Troubleshooting suggestions:

1) Determine whether the service has been stopped for server maintenance. If yes, restart the service after the maintenance task is completed.

2) If the service was not stopped for maintenance, then restart the service manually by using the Services.msc application.

3) Contact your IT support provider for more assistance.

Computer: DC1

Date/Time generated: 1/3/2013 11:30:15 AM

Title: A key Windows Services service is not running

Source: Key Windows Services

Description:

The SharePoint Foundation Search V4 service has been stopped.

Troubleshooting suggestions:

1) Determine whether the service has been stopped for server maintenance. If yes, restart the service after the maintenance task is completed.

2) If the service was not stopped for maintenance, then restart the service manually by using the Services.msc application.

3) Contact your IT support provider for more assistance.

Computer: DC1

Date/Time generated: 1/3/2013 11:30:15 AM

Title: A key Windows Services service is not running

Source: Key Windows Services

Description:

The SharePoint 2010 Timer service has been stopped.

Troubleshooting suggestions:

1) Determine whether the service has been stopped for server maintenance. If yes, restart the service after the maintenance task is completed.

2) If the service was not stopped for maintenance, then restart the service manually by using the Services.msc application.

3) Contact your IT support provider for more assistance.

Computer: DC1

Date/Time generated: 1/3/2013 11:30:15 AM

Title: A key Windows Services service is not running

Source: Key Windows Services

Description:

The SharePoint 2010 Tracing service has been stopped.

Troubleshooting suggestions:

1) Determine whether the service has been stopped for server maintenance. If yes, restart the service after the maintenance task is completed.

2) If the service was not stopped for maintenance, then restart the service manually by using the Services.msc application.

3) Contact your IT support provider for more assistance.

Computer: DC1

Date/Time generated: 1/3/2013 11:30:15 AM

Title: A key Windows Services service is not running

Source: Key Windows Services

Description:

The SharePoint 2010 VSS Writer service has been stopped.

Troubleshooting suggestions:

1) Determine whether the service has been stopped for server maintenance. If yes, restart the service after the maintenance task is completed.

2) If the service was not stopped for maintenance, then restart the service manually by using the Services.msc application.

3) Contact your IT support provider for more assistance.

Hi

I have a SBS2003 environment in a wide area network of seven sites. One of these sites is at a hosted datacentre where there is a WS2008 R2 Standard VM with Exchange 2010 installed.

When I look at the Exchange Management Console on the Exchange 2010 machine I can see all of the mailboxes under Recepient Configuration, and I can see all of the Distribution Groups and so on. Therefore I think I am now ready to complete the migration, but I am not quite sure of the final steps that I need to take. How do I switch all client machines over to use the new Exchange server? How do I check that mailflow doesnt stop and how do I decomission the SBS 2003 Exchange component without affecting its other roles?

I look forward to some guidance.

Thank you.

Tony Harvey

Tony Harvey

Hi,

I'm currently migrating my Exchange data from an SBS 2003 serveur (source) to SBS 2010 server (destination), using the SwingIt method.

Some of the user mailboxes on the source server exceed 6Gb, and the mailbox datbase exceeds 30Gb.

According to the documentation, I need to change the size of the mailbox database on the destination server and the size limit of the individual mailboxes on the source server before using the transfer wizard on the destination (Exchange 2010) server.

Unfortunately the documentation is not correct. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks