Microsoft InTune

If you weren’t aware then there is yet another cloud solution coming that I believe will make a major impact on the SMB space. It is called Microsoft InTune and will offer PC Management and security from the cloud.

It basically allows the installation of client software that connects the PC to the cloud allowing you to perform a number of tasks. Firstly you can monitor and examine the PC, you can also control the updates on the machine, you can also implement security and anti-malware and finally you can also use it for remote support. More information about the product can be found here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/magazine/ff742836.aspx

and the actual product site is here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsintune/default.aspx

The product is also in beta so I though I’d hurry along and sign up to have a look but unfortunately, it seems to be limited beta of which Australia currently isn’t part.

Damm! I’m sure that it will make it’s way ‘down under’ soon and I’m keen to give it a whirl as I feel there is real call for such a product especially deploy via something like Microsoft BPOS (which is the plan).

There are already plenty of other tools out there that do the same or more but I think there is certainly a call for something simple and standard, a bit like Microsoft Security Essentials. It won’t be everything to everyone but I certainly think it will appear to a large segment of the market.

I think this certainly adds value to a potential BPOS offering and will allow IT Professionals to offer a greater range of services at a lower cost. Combine this with the planned implementation of Exchange 2010, SharePoint 2010, Office Web Apps and improved Office Communications Server I think you’d really have to be mad to not at least be checking out what these offer and how they can be integrated into your business.

This is simply more evidence (for better or worse) that Microsoft is moving to the cloud in a big way. I also think they are approaching it in a smart way with things like the new SBS Aurora which is a hybrid solution. However, this means resellers are going to have to learn to become ‘cloud and proud’ as I say.

I was wrong

When I said two years ago that I thought SBS 2008 was going to be the last version of SBS (here’s the post). Interestingly, it has taken until now for the future of SBS to be revealed and it seems to be a bit of an each way bet.

Firstly there will be a version called SBS 7 that will be the traditional in house SBS with servers, Exchange, SQL and so on. However, there will be a hybrid version called Aurora that will be based on Windows Home Server and have services hosted in the cloud. You can read about these products here:

http://www.winsupersite.com/server/sbs7_preview.asp

and here

http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2010/07/12/announcing-previews-of-our-simple-and-affordable-servers-for-small-businesses.aspx

Interestingly the Aurora product allows up to 25 users while SBS 7 allows up to the traditional 75.

My observations?

1. If the average SBS install is 15 users then Aurora is going to be the product that is most popular.

2. With most businesses divesting themselves of infrastructure (especially small businesses) Aurora gets the nod again.

3. If you are a reseller and you haven’t started learning about Microsoft online services a.k.a. BPOS well here is what Steve Ballmer recently told partners at the Microsoft world wide partner conference:

“If you don’t want to move to the cloud, then we’re not your company.”

4. SharePoint Foundation 2010 is included with SBS 7 and via the cloud so it is probably going to be an even more utilized feature of SBS going forward. If you don’t know SharePoint, Office Web Apps, Office co-authoring then you are going to struggle to provide value above and beyond just installing common services like email.

Reading Paul Thurott’s review (above) I have to agree with the following:

“solutions like Aurora make more sense, I think, for a much bigger percentage of the customer base”

So, good news that SBS will live on in at least two forms. I will be very interested to see how Aurora performs against 7 given the push to the cloud, now even more so by Microsoft.

SharePoint site migrated

As you can see from the above screen shot I have managed to migrate my public facing SharePoint site (http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au) into SharePoint 2010. I tried this a number of ways (in place migration, database swing, etc) all with abject failure. The most likely reason was a number of additional features and templates that I’ve added over time.

This time I used stsadm –o backup to save a complete copy of the site and then used ststadm –o restore to recover the site to a new clean SharePoint v3 installation. From there I did a database swing migration across to SharePoint 2010 which finally resulted in success.

That migration also migrated the blog that you are now viewing but as the screen shot above shows I don’t think it is as nice as what I have in SharePoint v3. So at this stage I think I’ll leave the existing site as it is until I can ‘tart’ SharePoint 2010 up a little. However, what this experience has shown me is that the quickest way to do a migration (and strip away the incompatibilities) seems to be to use stsadm to do a back and restore of the site to a new clean SharePoint v3 installation and from there to do a database swing migration.

Perhaps what it has also taught me is that the less modifications you make to SharePoint the easier it is to migrate, but that is pretty much the same with any other application then isn’t it?

KB983444 killed my SharePoint server

After learning the hard way a few years ago that Microsoft updates sometimes do bad things to nice servers I have always been extremely careful in how I update my internal SharePoint server. Now the box is nothing special, simply a stand alone server running nothing but SharePoint v3. The major difference is that it is a virtual machine running on Microsoft Hyper-V.

The advantage that a virtual machine gives me when doing updates is that I can shut it down, take a snap shot, power it back up and install the updates. If they go bad (which they did in this case) I can simply roll back to that snap shot quickly and easily. This ability allowed me to isolate KB983444 as the cause of the my issues (although I thought it was the Dot Net updates initially).

A further advantage of the virtual machine is I can take a copy of the machine and run it up elsewhere and test the exact system without interfering with the production system. When I locate the problem on the copied system I can apply it to the production system. Simple as.

The small amount of servers that I do maintain for testing purposes are all virtualized and having been that way for a few years now I’d never consider anything else. If you are an IT Pro and you haven’t looked at virtualization, especially Microsoft Hyper V for Microsoft server then I’d recommend you do if for nothing else than testing purposes. I can’t tell you the number of major update dramas I have been able to avoid by having the luxury of rolling back to a previous snap shot.

SharePoint Foundation on SBS 2008 – the video

I have just made available to all Windows SharePoint Operation Guide subscribers 3 videos that cover the whole process of getting SharePoint Foundation 2010 running on SBS 2008. These videos cover how to install the prerequisites, SharePoint Foundation 2010 on SBS 2008 as well as migration of existing Companyweb data.

I will be updating the Guide documentation to cover all the information in these video but I wanted to make sure that subscribers had access to this as soon as possible. Going forward I am planning on doing more video tutorials for subscribers as I think they arte generally an easier way to convey information quicker.

Now all my subscribers know

That’s right, the July update of the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide has been released to subscribers and it contains the complete instructions on installing SharePoint Foundation 2010 on SBS 2008. It takes you through the whole process as well as the integration with the existing SBS 2008 console.

In very near future I’ll also be covering in the Guide how to do a complete migration of any existing Companyweb site onto SharePoint Foundation 2010 on SBS 2008. I’ll also release these details via this blog but over a longer period of time as my first priority is to the people that subscribe to my Guide (thanks to all those). So if you really want to know how to do it step by step then I’d suggest you get my Guide (it’s cheap for the amount of time it will save you and you get for 12 months!).

Another upgrade to this month is the migration of the Guide to its own SharePoint site. Much like my new BPOS Portal the new Guide site will provide a much better platform to deliver content for subscribers.

As you can see from the above screen shot the Guide covers a number of different versions of SharePoint including WSS v3, Foundation 2010, MOSS and even BPOS. Many of these are still a work in progress but the important things is that additional information is being added to these regularly. I used to update the Guide monthly but this new SharePoint site should allow me to do it far more regularly.

Now not only do subscribers now have a step by step process for getting SharePoint Foundation running on their SBS 2008 machines, they have a new site full of SharePoint content that is being updated daily and of course that have full access to the new CIAOPS BPOS Portal as that is a free inclusion for all Guide subscribers.

As AMEX says, the benefits of membership.

SharePoint Foundation 2010 on SBS 2008 – the prep

So you want to install SharePoint Foundation 2010 onto SBS 2008 eh? We’ll I’m here to tell you that you need to do your prep work or else you are going to end up in a horrible mess. This post will take you through the steps you should complete prior to any upgrade. Future posts will cover the upgrade process.

Let’s assume that you have decided that you really want to install SharePoint Foundation 2010 on SBS 2008. The most compelling reasons are the ability to run Office Web Apps and allow document co-authoring with Office 2010. The first question to ask is whether you are planning to migrate your existing Companyweb data or start fresh? If you want to migrate your data (which the most likely option) then you are going to need to ensure that it is backed up.

I’d always recommend that you backup your SharePoint data a number of different ways just in case you need to roll back. So the first suggested way is to do a normal full backup or image of your system using the inbuilt SBS backup or imaging software. Ensure that you have all the SharePoint databases on that backup. By default the WSS v3 databases on SBS 2008 live in

c:\windows\sysmsi\ssee\mssql.2005\mssql\data (although they can be relocated manually or via the SBS 2008 wizards).

Next I’d do a command line stsadm backup via:

stsadm –o backup –url http://companyweb –filename drive:\directory\filename -overwrite

This will create a single file backup of your WSS v3 site. Why this? It is much easier in my books to create a new clean WSS v3 site somewhere (say on a virtual PC) and then restore a full WSS v3 backup using the above command. This form of backup is probably the most easily transportable there is for WSS v3.

While still at the command line I’d also do:

stsadm –o export –url http://companyweb –filename drive:\directory\filename1 –includeusersecurity –overwrite

Why this extra command you ask? The difference is that the –export command allows me to import the data into an existing WSS v3 site, whereas the –backup command overwrites what is there. Thus, maybe I want to import the data to a sub area of another site for testing or maybe recovery. Like I said the more options the better in my books.

With that complete and still at the command type the following:

stsadm –o preupgradecheck

What that will do is run a check to see whether there are any obvious deal breakers to prevent an upgrade from WSS v3 to SharePoint Foundation 2010. That command will produce a file you can study at your leisure and see if something untoward might pop out during the upgrade process.

If all that looks good then you are probably ready to commence the upgrade but here’s where I’d ask you to stop and think. What is your fall back procedure? What happens if it all goes belly up and you need to roll back to the original WSS v3? What happens if you need to reinstall WSS v3? Have you ever tried that? Do you know where to find the documentation for that? I’ll tell you now that there ain’t any install wizard to get Companyweb back up and running on SBS 2008 if things go pear shaped so I strongly recommend you understand how to do a full disaster recovery of WSS v3 on SBS 2008 before you go any further.

With that in mind, and with you hopefully scurrying off to do some research I’ll let you know that you can’t simply upgrade WSS v3 Companyweb on SBS 2008 to Companyweb on SharePoint Foundation 2010. You will have to uninstall WSS v3 completely from SBS 2008 before attempting to install SharePoint Foundation 2010. Yep, you read that right, totally remove WSS v3 from SBS 2008.

Now even before you install SharePoint Foundation 2010 on SBS 2008 you are going to need to install a swag of prerequisites. Do you know what these are? Will they affect anything that is already on the server? Will they interfere with any third party apps installed on the server (like AV produces say). Hopefully, you now understand my point about making sure you have a fall back plan in case problems do arise.

Next consider what database version you are going to use with SharePoint Foundation 2010. By default SharePoint Foundation 2010 comes with SQL Express 2008. Great you say but remember that SQL Express 2008 has a 4GB database limit. WSS v3 came with SQL Server Embedded Edition 2005 (SSEE) which has no database limit. So if your existing Companyweb databases are greater than that, or likely to grow beyond 4GB you have some thinking to do. The easiest and cheapest option is to go with SQL Express 2008 R2 which now has a 10GB database limit and remains a free download. Maybe you want to go full SQL Server 2008 as a license is included with SBS 2008 Premium if you have it. See, not as straight forward as you think.

Now SharePoint Foundation 2010 is going to need to have a version of SQL Server 2008 at least to operate installed prior to the installation of SharePoint Foundation 2010. There is already SQL Server 2005 on SBS 2008 that is used for WSUS amongst other things. What conflicts might that cause? What compatibility issues might that raise? Well for starters SQL Server 2008 generally can’t be installed if SQL Server 2005 Management tools are already installed so these will have to come off before SQL Server 2008 goes on. Do you know how to do this? Have you every installed SQL Server onto a SBS 2008 server? Do you know the correct procedure for getting it working? In some cases when you go to install some versions of SQL Server 2008 onto Windows 2008 it says that it won’t work on that version of the operating system. As I have blogged here before you may need to install an SQL Server 2008 Service pack first, then SQL Server 2008 then the Service Pack again. Simple eh?

I hope that you can at least begin to appreciate the complexities involved in getting SharePoint Foundation 2010 on SBS 2008 operational. I agree there are plenty of benefits but in my experience there is also plenty of pain. Stayed tuned to future posts where I’ll run through the steps of actually getting SharePoint Foundation 2010 running on SBS 2008. But for now do your backups, run the upgrade check and make sure you have a recovery plan.