High CPU usage on the Trend security server

Having issues with high processor utilization or :

•It takes a long time to open applications

•High network bandwidth usage occurs

•Programs like Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook slow down

Then the following article from Trend may help

http://esupport.trendmicro.com/support/viewxml.do?ContentID=EN-1034528&id=EN-1034528

It involves the installation of a hot fix.

Talk about a D’Oh moment

Recently restored a server using Shadowprotect and had issues with the Active Directory upon reboot. The error said that Active Directory couldn’t be loaded. Hmmm…Ok so we restore from a different image and end up with the same error. Ok, this doesn’t make sense, the image worked not long ago and nothing since then has changed. Ah ha, because the image is >60 days the Active Directory is now too old to load with the current date.

Now back in the Novell days you could set the ‘epoch’ time to the current time and get around the issue. So we started looking at which utility to use to reset this in Active Directory. Strange, why can’t we find anything. This could be a problem, until someone pointed out that couldn’t we simply set the server date back in the BIOS, restore the data, boot and change the date. D’Oh, how stupid are we??

We did this, changed the date and it all worked – geeze aren’t we stupid? So after we changed the date, we updated the server with the latest patches and re-imaged. Image how much time we would have wasted if someone didn’t suggest simply to change the date? Days!

WSUS causing SBS reporting issues

Seems like some update that WSUS pulls down automatically has caused an issue with the SBS reporting. We have seen something similar when there have been OEM issues with WSUS. For more information we suggest you take a look at the official SBS Blog posting. which should give you everything you need to know.

The solution appears to be that under WSUS 3.0 you force a resync from the console. since this can’t be done with the standard WSUS 2.0 on SBS 2003 R2, the best bet appears to be simply to wait for WSUS to resync with the server. Admittedly, it is a bit of fingers-crossed scenario but for the time being their doesn’t appear to be much choice.

In all honesty, can’t say that we like or use WSUS that much at all. There are far better solutions from third parties out there. True, you have to pay fro them but when you look at the additional functionality and flexibility it is well worth the investment.

Also reading Susan Bradley’s blog, seems that SBS R2 installations are not the only ones experiencing issues. See the following Computerworld article for the impact on enterprise users. And all of this the day before patch Tuesday – Yeah WSUS !!!

The Microsoft WSUS have now posted an official response to the WSUS issue. You can find it here.

Home server offerings are coming

Wanna see what people like HP will be offering Microsoft Home Server on? Click here for a multimedia demo of the Media Smart Server from Hewlett Packard.

Must admit that box looks really sexy, which it needs to be if it is going to succeed as a consumer item but will it succeed? Do most consumers really want the added complication of a sever at home? Don’t they really just want more disk space to save all their junk on? Today’s NAS (Network Area Storage) devices are becoming more sophisticated yet simpler to use because they fulfil just one need.
Now, sure there’ll be a market for home servers for the geekier consumers but on a wide scale? Hmmm..not so convinced yet. Now, I could certainly be wrong about this but I don’t see as much potential as some of the suppliers see (knowing the consumers that I know).
Don’t get me wrong, I certainly believe it is only a matter time before every home has its own server and perhaps this is just the first attempt at that offering. Much like the early days of Small Business Server, there will be plenty of challenges but you gotta get into the market before someone else does.
It will very interesting to see the prices of these devices when they hit our shores. I wonder whether they will make in time for Christmas? You gotta think so.

Restoring with Shadowprotect video now available

We’ve added a new video that details the basics of restoring information using Shadowprotect on Small Business Server. You can view the video directly on YouTube by clicking here.

The video will cover the basics of restoring a single file using the Windows interface or restoring a whole volume by booting into the Shadowprotect environment directly from their bootable CD.

Look out for additional videos on Shadowprotect coming soon that will cver topics such as: complete server recovery, Exchange recovery, etc. As always, we appreciate any comments or feedback on what we have created.

Small Business Server course starts this week

This Thursday 8th of November is the start of our 3 week Introduction to Small Business Server 2003 course to be held at Macquarie Community College.

It’s not to late to enrol if you are interested. For more information about the course following the link :

http://www.macquarie.nsw.edu.au/index.php?action=course&course_action=detail&code=407M297

The course will give you all the information you need about Small Business Server as well as the basics of setting up a server and getting users and workstation connected.

Shadowprotect on SBS video

We have just completed our latest YouTube video. This video looks at the process of backing up using Storagecraft’s Shadowprotect. This product takes scheduled image backups of your server that allow you to qucikly and easily restore either a whol file or a whole server much quicker than traditional methods like tapes.

Click here to view the video on YouTube. This first video looks at the process of creating Shadowprotect backups. The next video will look how to restore information from these backups.

We recommend Shadowprotect to all clients with server machines. Shadowprotect also has a desktop edition which will take constant image backups of desktops as well. Sure a desktop machine may not be as important as a server but it still takes a long time to run up if the hard disk fails. That is why we have implemented Shadowprotect on all our internal workstations so we can get these up and running quickly in the event of a failure.

Please let us know what you think of this video (the audio is a little poor, we know) and watch for the next one coming real soon.