Archive for the ‘SBS’ Category

SBS and ProfWiz

Using the wizards has always been compulsory with SBS, in particular the wizard to connect a computer to the SBS domain;  SBS 2003 http://SBSname/connectcomputer and SBS 2008 & 2011  http://connect  The SBS 2003 wizard performed a multitude of operations to join the domain, and configure the computer and user environment. If interested in more detail see Susan Bradley’s blog:  http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2005/01/23/33632.aspx

However with SBS 2008 and now SBS 2011, most of this is performed by Group Policy instead of the
connectcomputer process itself. Currently the primary advantage of using the wizard is its ability to import the current user’s local profile. Though I still strongly recommend using the wizard, it will only import a local workgroup profile so you may wish to look at other options if the machine was previously a member of any domain, or if the SBS wizard for some reason does not recognize the local profile.  You could manually join the domain and then file by file copy user items such as My Documents, Desktop, Favorites, etc. but a more complete and much faster solution is to use a very simple free tool called ProfWiz (User Profile Wizard), from
ForensiT, which will also retain all user configurations.  http://www.forensit.com/downloads.html

To use Profwiz; download, unzip, and start the application. The wizard can be used to migrate a
remote machine but for simplicity assume we are logged on to the machine to be joined to the domain. Select local computer and move to the next window.

Enter the NetBIOS name of the SBS domain, check Join domain, and enter the DOMAIN user account that will be used after joining the domain.

In the final configuration window highlight the current local profile to be migrated. There are other options to disable or delete the local account after completion. If you leave these unchecked the user could still use their old local logon, but it will create a new local profile when they do. Best practice would be to choose to at least disable the local account.

Clicking next will start the migration and joining the domain.

You will be prompted for domain admin credentials to allow joining the domain.

….and then the wizard completes.

Click Finish and upon reboot the computer will be joined to the domain, the user can log in with domain credentials, and they will still have their same user profile.

Category:

SBS, SBS 2008, SBS 2011, Uncategorized

VPN client name resolution (Updated)

VPN clients will often not resolve names for the remote domain to which you are connected, especially if connecting from a non-domain joined machine. There are numerous options to address this such as; using IP’s rather than names, adding entries to LMHost (NetBIOS) and/or Host (DNS) files, or using WINS. However DNS is the best and only practical solution since Server 2008. Though the VPN server should be configured to ‘hand out’ these options via DHCP to VPN client’s, in some configurations such as using a RRAS Static Address Pools, this is not possible. If so, there are two simple additions to the VPN network adapter required on the client machine. Under properties for the VPN/PPP adapter, go to the DNS tab under advanced TCP/IPv4 properties:

  • Add the IP of the remote site’s  DNS server, either under “DNS server addresses, in order of use”, or on the “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties” page under “Preferred DNS server”, which will automatically add it to the former.
  • Add the remote site’s internal DNS suffix to the “DNS suffix for this connection” box

Should you wish to explore the other options mentioned above (IP’s, Host & LMHost files, WINS), or need use those methods for legacy systems, you can read more about these on my other blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/robwill/archive/2008/05/10/vpn-client-name-resolution.aspx

Category:

RRAS/VPN, SBS, Uncategorized

SBS 2003 Daily Report indicates .NET Framework NGEN v4.0 automatic service is not running

It seems many have chosen to install .NET v4 updates on SBS 2003. When “Microsoft .NET Framework NGEN v4.0.30319_X86” is installed on SBS 2003 the normal state for this service is automatic but not started. This flags an “auto-started services not running” warning in the SBS daily reports. The message reads; “In normal conditions these services should be running. For details it is recommended that you review errors in the Event log related to the service”.

image

This can safely be ignored, however it can be annoying to see the message in every report. Microsoft has publish a “FixIt” and documentation to configure the warning to be ignored and thus remove it from the daily reports:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2290390

Category:

SBS, SBS 2003, Uncategorized