Month: July 2007

Managing SQL 2005 memory in SBS 2003 R2

When we install SBS 2003 Premium with SQL 2000 we normally go into the SQL Manager and manually limit the total amount of memory that SQL can use. This generally gives better performance for the whole SBS box. We certainly wish we could do this with Exchange, but alas no.

Now we have been trying to do the same on SBS 2003 Premium R2 which includes SQL 2005. No where could we find anywhere to manually limit the memory. After some research it urns out that tools to do this aren’t even installed on the server by default. What you need to do is go back into Control Panel | Add and Remove Programs, select SQL 2005 and Change. When the application launch you need to modify the installation to install the Management tools. You will be asked for the Premium Technology CD 2 to install the software. After what seems like a long time the tools will be installed and you can then run the Management tool to limit the maximum amount of memory SQL 2005 uses.

We’ll detail specific steps to limiting the memory in our next post but the first step is to install the SQL Management tools on SBS 2003 R2 Premium, which they aren’t installed by default.

Using Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 in a Windows Small Business Server 2003 Network

Document from Microsoft :

Brief Description
Use this document to join computers that are running Windows Vista to your Windows Small Business Server 2003 network using the “Update for Windows Small Business Server 2003: Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 compatibility (KB 926505).

Overview
The “Update for Windows Small Business Server 2003: Vista and Outlook 2007 compatibility (KB 926505)” adds support for the Client Deployment tools in Windows Small Business Server (Windows SBS), and it resolves compatibility issues for running Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 in a Windows SBS network. Use this document to join computers running Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 in your Windows SBS network.

An guess what ???? You can only install this update on your SBS 2003 server if you have already install Service Pack 1.

Update for SBS 2003 to support Vista and Outlook 2007

You can now download a fix from Microsoft (KB 926505).

Brief Description

This update adds support for the Windows SBS Client Deployment tools along with other compatibility issues for Windows Vista and Office 2007 in a Windows SBS network. For the full list of updates necessary for Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 compatibility see the Instructions section.

Overview

You can use the Client Deployment tools in Windows SBS to easily connect a client computer to your Windows SBS network. You can also use the tools to configure the correct settings to support solutions that are specific to Windows SBS (like remote access to your office computer).

This update, together with the additional updates and service packs listed later in this section, addresses compatibility issues with Windows Vista and Office 2007 in a Windows SBS network, including the following:

  • Support for the Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions of Windows Vista (including both 32-bit and 64-bit). This update does not apply to Windows Vista Home.
  • Updated Client Deployment tools, so you can configure the newer versions of components in Windows Vista.
  • Changes that make a user who is assigned to a computer that is running Windows Vista an administrator in Admin Approval Mode.
  • Changes to Group Policy to support configuration of the new Windows Firewall in Windows Vista.
  • Configuration of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (MAPI profile, not Outlook deployment) for client computers that are running Windows XP or Windows Vista.
  • A small change to the user experience when joining Windows Vista to the Windows SBS domain using http://server/ConnectComputer to address Internet Explorer 7 in Protected Mode.
  • Changes to Remote Desktop settings that support Windows XP and Windows Vista.
  • Changes to the Power Management settings to support Remote Desktop.

SharePoint best practices analyser

Microsoft have released a SharePoint 2007 best practices analyser. They say :

Overview

The Microsoft Best Practices Analyser for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System Best Practices Analyser programmatically collects settings and values from data repositories such as MS SQL, registry, metabase and performance monitor. Once collected, a set of comprehensive ‘best practice’ rules are applied to the topology.

Administrators running this tool will get a detailed report listing the recommendations that can be made to the environment to achieve greater performance, scalability and uptime

 
Click here to download it from Microsoft

Why isn’t this a critical update?

Got wireless? Have you got this “patch” from Microsoft? KB917021 . If you don’t then I’d make sure that you do. You’ll also have to download it MANUALLY, yes manually it is not available from Windows download at all. Why is this “patch” important? Well …

Changes for nonbroadcast networks

In Windows XP with Service Pack 2, Wireless Auto Configuration tries to match preferred wireless networks to wireless networks that broadcast their network name. If no network matches a preferred wireless network, Wireless Auto Configuration sends probe requests to determine whether the preferred networks are nonbroadcast networks. In this manner, a Windows XP wireless client advertises its list of preferred wireless networks. An observer may monitor these probe requests and configure a wireless network by using a name that matches a preferred wireless network. If the wireless network is not secured, this network could enable unauthorized connections to the computer.

Yes, you read right. If you have Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and all the patches and a wireless adapater that you leave on even when it is not connected to a wireless acess point then without this patch Wireless Auto Config sends probe requests to determine whether the network you used to connect to are there. Bottom line Windows XP wireless client tells anyone who wants to listen its list of preferred wireless networks. This ain’t good.

Also while you are in fiddling withyour wireless setting turn off your wireless adapters ability to connect to ad hoc networks. This option is default on Windows XP and may allow someone to connect to your computer via ad hoc wireless if you leave your wireless card turn on.

Safest bet? When you aren’t using wireless on your laptop – turn the adapter off.

Exchange update 931978

Know what we hate about updates like 931978? They basically stop all the Exchange services like the Information Store, SMTP service, WWW publishing service and fail to restart them. Basically, this means you have to reboot the server immediately so the services will restart. You can however, restart all the service manually from the Services MMC but until the server is rebooted the updates won’t take effect. But you gotta remember to this immediately after the update has been installed.

It would be nice at the end of a Microsoft Update if it said something like … we tried to restart these services but couldn’t…. or … the following services are stopped… This way you’d know from the update what wasn’t working rather than from your customer who starts ringing after you have applied the update that Outlook is coming up with all these errors since Exchange server has stopped. Gotta admit we hate that, so come on Microsoft give us techies a little more information about exactly what your updates are doing in the background, especially what services are being stopped and started.

How many times do we have install this *&%@%@^& Genuine Advantage?

Come on Microsoft. We are getting sick of having to Genuine Advantage everytime we want to download something. Surely by now you’d know that we have a legitimate version of Windows XP on our machine.

It is not as though we had to register our copy of Windows XP when we installed it – Wait a moment we did!

It is not like we have installed the latest Genuine Advantage via Windows Update – Wait a minute we did!

It is not like we have never installed Genuine Advantage via a manual download before – Wait a moment we did!

We could go on ….

Geeze Microsoft if you are going to make it such a pain for LEGITIMATE users of your software to keep the stuff up to date then why would you bother?

Please, why the hell can’t we just install Genuine Advantage once and be done with it? We have no issue with it being loaded on our systems and being used to verify our software BUT we think this download and install of Genuine Advantage should only HAPPEN ONCE!