Vlad Mazek – Vladville Blog

The first SBS Show podcast is now live! Battling some food poisoning and a hurricane at the moment but the podcast is up and I hope you can all enjoy it. I was joined by Chris Rue (happyfunboy) and we chatted about a number of things that happened last week and that will be happening this week.

This is the very first show and I’m still figuring it all out. You can download an MP3 of it outright and drop it into your player, or you can subscribe to it using iTunes or Yahoo Music. This show was 45 minutes long and fit in ~12 Mb so it should not be too difficult to download. What did we talk about?

• Exchange 2003 SP2 features, documentation, and best practices
• SBS Road Show in Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale.
• Service pack installation best practices
• SBS 2003 NFR on Sale!
  and the pending spanking
• Farewell to Lewis Lin
• VSS Admin chat from the Official SBS Support Blog

The idea behind this podcast is to take a popular item of the week and discuss it with people that have an expertise in that area. Important items often get lost in massive email threads and the podcast is a more elegant way of spreading that information.

We want this to be a dynamic community property, give us your opinion or tell us who you’d like to hear from. So if you have something interesting to say, comment or if you want to talk to us during the recording – please let us know. There is also a number you can call around the clock [(407) 965-2945)] and we’ll edit you into the show if you’d like.

This needed to stand out on its own, because without support from gentlemen like Lewis Lin information sources like this one simply would not exist. Lewis (was) the Microsoft SBS Product Manager and was involved in support initiatives that allowed for the growth of many SBS user groups all over USA. One of the key people at Microsoft that encouraged feedback, moved quickly to correct mistakes, moved quickly to offer support behind many community initiatives.. is moving on to a new role MSN. Several of us got a chance to meet Lewis at SMB Nation so if you’ve never seen/spoken to Lewis rest assured that many of the things you see today are a direct result of his hard work.

So on behalf of us in Florida that have have benefited directly from your hard work, and the global SBS community:

And not just in Florida where we await yet another hurricane. It has been somewhat slow over the past few days at least in comparison to the frenzy surrounding the launch of Exchange 2003 SP2. I must say, things are going pretty well and I’m happy with everything, but here are a few problems that I see with my biggest partner that may snowball if they are not addressed soon.

Exchange SP2 Followup
Problems are starting to surface from people that waited to deploy it over the weekend, and most are related to SQL and XML issues that may have been present previously. Thankfully these issues are recognized during setup before serious problems can hit your Exchange infrastructure. I think one of the fundamental problems, and disappointments, with the launch of Exchange 2003 SP2 has been the lack of documentation. While I can appreciate the more urgency Microsoft is taking to bring their next generation of servers online, but if that rush is at the cost of poorly documenting the new technology I for one don’t look forward to it happening. You can’t close the source, not release documentation, and ignore questions. You can’t expect to feel it is good enough to burn CTP’s and expect your customers to be your beta testers and buy, lets face it, poorly written books that come out too late.

OpenOffice 2.0
Now from the other side of software theology comes the Open Office 2.0, the long awaited update that promises huge performance increases. I’ve written about this before and I will do so again – you do not need more than what OpenOffice has to offer. I know the new Excel spreadsheets look great, I know the next Word will be so much easier to use but I’m in interoffice business documents all day long and they rarely, if ever, use more advanced features. One of the things Greg Boyd always stressed in his presentations has been the fact that people do not use features that are more than two clicks away. And yes, the new Office bars look pretty and dynamic, but its hard teaching and old (and overworked) non-technical office dog new tricks and there is little that separates Microsoft Office from OpenOffice for those people. Not everyone is a techie, not everyone is going to experience the “remarkable productivity gains for information workers” if they do not dig for those advanced features to begin with.

The Official SBS Support Blog #5
The new episode is on the web and this is yet another shining example of Microsoft employees that understand their customers. Now, these guys work in the support channel and they help customers that call and pay for help. They also have a public blog that rapidly responds to the most frequent new issues that come up. Peter Gallagher even has a blog on which he posts the support call of the day. These guys do awesome work, share it with everyone willing to read, take calls, take questions on the blog, participate in the public mailing lists to answer questions. And all is good, right?

Nope. Why are these people so hard to find? Why is the SBS Support Podcast only being marketed by Susan Bradley and Vlad Mazek? Why is it that the almighty Microsoft.com search does not show a trace of the Official SBS Support blog? Its been up there for five weeks, you’d figure it would be indexed somewhere by now but no.

Is it really a problem?
Depends on how you read it. Look at stories #1 and #3, then look at story number two. If Microsoft’s priority is on releasing undocumented software while pushing aside the very people that support and explain their platform, then what is my incentive to ignore their competitors? The only way this makes sense is if the next generation of Microsoft’s products sets up on its own and never experiences problems, in which case documentation and support will be irrelevant. I will start taking bets on this now 🙂

Update: I just got an email from Carlos asking whats bothering me today and what Microsoft has done today to piss me off. Nothing is bothering me and the real motive behind Exchange and SBS Support Podcast comments is really a bright, shining spotlight on how Microsoft priorities seem to be in the wrong place:
– SBS Support podcast nowhere to be found at Microsoft.com
– Exchange SP2 documentation limited to release notes and three blog posts.
– 52,000 (as of Sunday, 4AM) people have looked at my Exchange SP2 guides. Nearly double the regular volume.

Windows Mobile Security and Feature Pack also known as MSFP and after working some communities I broke down and I decided to call my contact at Microsoft (Sr. Product Manager at Microsoft Mobile & Embedded devices) and here is the skinny:

– MSFP will be complete and released to manufacturing within a month
– After testing this software will be distributed by the manufacturer
– It will not require a flash, just installation (might depend on manufacturer)
– Expect to see something within 2 months of next months release to manufacturing.

So thats the status of it right now. MSFP will only be available on Windows Mobile 5, likely within 3 months. If you are considering a new phone try to stick to a provider that has a good reputation of providing timely software updates for its branded devices.

Several people are reporting on routing issues that have been plaguing the interconnectivity of the Internet over the past month. Last night, two Tier1 providers french fried when they should have pizzad (South Park reference) and its not pretty. This is just adding on to the compounding volume of SPAM and viruses, along with yet another Microsoft Windows 2000 POC exploit soon to be released.

So if the net seems a little slow today, takes you a few minutes to get your email or you happen to be on Level3 or Cogent solely. Please accept my condolences. Slashdot is also running a big discussion on this, it has been a while since we had major routing issues on the Internet and those times seem to be upon us again.

Man, can’t I take a single day off from my blog without people asking if I’m alive? I’ve been working on the SP2 deployments and I have some more documentation. Perfect time to go to bed, Susan Bradley noted relative lack of documentation for Exchange SP2 (for example, store limits) so here are some guides and screenshots for the folks that are still looking.

As a matter of fact, Susan wrote a great process check-list on how to go about applying patches and making proper backups. Read, print, glue to the monitor.

Here are the articles:

Exchange 2003 SP2 on SBS
http://www.vladville.com/articles/exchangesp2sbs2003.asp

Enabling IMF 2 in Exchange 2003 SP2
http://www.vladville.com/articles/exchangesp2imf.asp

Easy guide to Changing Exchange Store Database Limits
http://www.vladville.com/articles/exchangesp2newdb.asp

Modifying the Outlook Web Access Login Page
http://www.vladville.com/articles/exchangesp2logon.asp

Alright, so everyone is asking: Does this work on my SBS? Will it break anything? How do I install it? Why should I install it? Hopefully all those questions, and more, will be answered by the article linked to below:

Exchange 2003 SP2 for SBS
This article quickly walks you through the upgrade of Exchange 2003 with Service Pack 2 on SBS 2003. Installation process is fairly trivial but there are a few catches with every service pack. Learn how to upgrade Exchange, IMF and get the most out of your SBS Exchange platform.

Enjoy and feel free to ask questions. I’m in the process of writing additional articles to cover the launch of Exchange SP2 and all the new technology that comes with it.

Updates:

• I just spoke to Symantec and it is at this time an unsupported patch, they have not completed testing on it yet. — Andy Goodman, SBS-MVP, MCP, MSA
• Release notes for Exchange SP2 still read “Exchange SP2 CTP” – The CTP period has ended, Microsoft Exchange team has been notified and corrections have been made. Replication takes time.
• No, I don’t know when the Mobility Pack will be available, contact your vendor.
• The store expansion to 75GB is not automatic, it requires an ADSI and regedit modification to work.
• No, you do not need to tweak Exchange Enterprise to take advantage of the 75GB limit, enterprise has 8000 GB limit per store. However, the ADSI tweak I am working on will allow you to put these limites in place, especially if you don’t have 8TB of storage and also no limits on the store growth in ESM. If you’re running Enterprise you really show know better tho.
• Release notes have been upgraded to Exchange 2003 SP2 Release, they were previously linking to CTP release notes.
• No news on MSFT, apparently nobody has it. It has to be integrated into the rom, so don’t try installing the MSFP from the Microsoft Mobility development kit (if you bought one for $5)
• There is now an Exchange SP2 and Windows Mobile 5 HOL (hands on lab). Its free and they will teach you how to sync and remote wipe devices.
• “Early reports indicate things are fine with Trend” – Kevin Weilbacher, SBS-MVP
• Task Synchronization (over-radio: GPRS, Edge, etc) is the only feature of SP2 that does not require Microsoft Mobile Security and Feature Pack. It does require Windows Mobile 5. Remember that WM5 removed the ability to ActiveSync over wi-fi.

Good news: Exchange Server SP2 has been released.

You can download it here and apply it on a test system. Please remember the golden patching process: backup early and often, reboot before the service pack, disconnect the system from the network, apply the service pack, test, probe, poke and only after nothing new breaks stick it back onto the network.

I’ll have an Exchange SP2 support blog for SBS specifically over the next 24 hours to help some of you get this deployed correctly. Do not rush into this, Exchange is the core of your network. This breaks and along go the alerts, the monitoring, the SharePoint and guess whats the first thing people notice and complain about? Yup, “I can’t get my email!” So walk softly and check back here over the next 24 hours.

P.S. There is little in this SP2 that would require urgency. The Mobile Feature Pack was NOT included in SP2, it will instead be provided by your phone manufacturer/carrier, so if you’re running into this head first just to sync your PocketPC or SmartPhone, you will be disappointed.

Some days I feel Apple deserves a lot more public spanking than even Microsoft. In todays news, Apple is claiming to be sick and tired of people profiting off its success, and aims to tax the iPod accessory makers. Now mind you, this is the company that cried not even a week ago about how labels were trying to require more than $0.99 per song if it was very popular.

Pardon the little guy attitude here, but this is the epitomy of utter greed. Apple iPod is popular because it has all these accessories and is useful. Without all the accessories it would be.. well, just another MP3 player. This, as a matter of fact, is why Apple has been such a miserable failure for years in the PC industry – no applications. So now that they have a leading portable music player, happy customers and partners they are deciding to tax their partners without which it wouldn’t be as successful.

Greed is good, lets hope that this greed opens up an opportunity for the runner up players. As we have seen from the other monopolies, single player market damages its consumers the most and it takes partners years to regain that trust.

Found this little gem earlier on the Microsoft Mobiles site and I must say I find it impressive. This software (also available for PocketPC) allows you to setup a podcast feeder on your SmartPhone and listen to your podcasts on the go. It supports multiple feed subscriptions, has the ability to resume downloads, schedule download parameters and configure feed subscriptions… and it looks very pretty. Get it today, you’ll need it sooner than you think, hint hint hint.

Download it here for free.