Re: SwingIt Pain and Suffering

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There are 4 different Technician Kits available, they can be ordered
individually with 90 days of updates or with a subscription you get the use
of all 4 scenarios and a full year of access and updates.

For reference: (please don't complain that I'm posting this for marketing
reasons...I didn't start the thread and I'm only addressing the exact nature
of the questions on this thread. The person who started this thread still
has never contacted me back offline, so this is how I can answer his
questions. Besides, this post is so long it's not effective marketing, only
useful to people who actually care.)

Technician Kit ($200 USD) with 1 project scenario, 90 days of updates, 1
project support

Duet Bundle Subscription ($345 USD) with 4 project scenarios, 1 yr of
updates, 1 project supported

Annual Subscription Renewal ($195 USD) all project scenarios, 1 yr of
updates

You originally purchased one of the four and your access expired 90 days
later as expected (it's a date based automatic configuration), and it sounds
like you are now using your "lifetime use license" while working on a
project outside the scope of the kit documentation your ordered and you
encountered an issue which is therefore not in the scope of the project
reference you obtained. However, during the time your account was open you
had available to you the release notes, the Domain Audit Guide, the Exchange
Forklift Guide as well as access to review postings in the groups related to
other projects than the one you ordered. Ironically, because I do provide a
number of common supplemental documents to all customers, you did in fact
have exactly the same background resources and online website resources
available to you. What you didn't get is a scenario specific highlight like
what Susan looked at, the information was however in the general
troubleshooting references available to you. To some extent, you can think
of that is being like the difference between a project specific checklist
and general technical reference.

In fact, by overlooking the Domain Audit Guide, you overlooked not only the
information on the Widnows Firewall, you also overlooked the entire
prescriptive audit and troubleshooting reference you were so emphatically
ranting about in your first post. That was the document you wanted, perhaps
you didn't download it.

As you indicated that you ordered the SBS 2000 Redeployment version (hence
why that supplement on SBS 2000 Redeployment specific conditions was
included in your kit). That means you bought the kit which is intended to
help someone through replacing SBS 2000 with a clean install of SBS 2000, it
doesn't address all issues and procedures related to deploying or working
with _SBS 2003_. Before you snap to a conclusion about that not making
sense, consider that your kit didn't get information on how the NT to 2003
project specific issues are handled either. Prior to 2006, I originally
offered all information to everyone and the feedback I got was to make
references more specific per project scenario. That's why it moved in the
direction to make the information more project scenario specific.

I've been updating issues as it applies to the designated scenario.
Admitedly, there is a stable 2004 core document which your kit includes that
discusses some aspects of SBS 2003 in a deployment only because there has
been such a limited demand no for that one SBS 2000 to SBS 2000 project, it
hasn't been worth developing a 100% scratch written document on that project
at this time. I'm going to look at that again later this year once all the
rest of the new documentation is out, and I'll decide if it is worth
filtering out the information to grind it down to a 2000 specific reference.

By contrast Susan bought herself an annual subscription which includes
information on all 4 scenarios including the kit that covers SBS 2003
specific issues, and annual use of the site resources. She also has a
current account which means she can access the discussion forums on demand
and current downloads where this issue is among many more current items you
could easily locate with a review of the posts there.

I'm in the final process to unveil new documents replacing what is on the
site even today. The 2004 core document (about to be retired) that was cited
below as dating from 2004 has remained unchanged from the original release
because it has essentially remained a healthy baseline reference. I have
released updated information in the form of supplements over time to expand
off the core issues or address new challenges. The discussion of the
firewall issues shows up in several of the supplements and troubleshooting
resources.

The new documentation that will be released in the next month will be the
first time I have rewritten the full reference set (therefore replacing or
updating all the 2004 references. I have consolidated all information from
all previously released supplemental documents. The end result will be a
totally new project guide document that includes all of the highest profile
and high-frequency "gotcha's" mentioned inline in the core reference, rather
than in topic specific supplements or troubleshooting guides. That doesn't
mean that every single issue I have ever seen will appear in the core
document, that would be pretty pointless to clutter the document with.
(Imagine a whitepaper with every related KB for SBS ever released as cited
in full-text inline.)

Keeping stable documentation and mentioned exceptions in a couple of
separate references made it possible for anyone already familiar with the
project in summary to find "changes and additions" more easily than spotting
them inside the core reference would have allowed.

It's extremely challenging to write a reference guide on a project this
scale that finds a middle ground on saying enough essential information
without an excess of instructions to look at things you are 98% unlikely to
encounter. The firewall issue comes up as a hang-up at a much lower
frequency among all projects excecuted than most people think, yet a high
frequency issue for those who have issues of any kind. (Sort of like most
people drive a car everyday without having an accident, but most fatal
accidents are related back to DUI as a leading contributor.) The answer
isn't to test every driver every day for DUI, right? Adding every possible
warning at every possible juncture would create an unusably noisy document.

The new documentation probably mentions firewall conditions in 4 different
places, mostly because the Swing involves working with 3 different servers
in the course of the project. The new documentation also mentions a wealth
of other items that come up often enough or are of concern to a particular
plateau of skill and experience that means the new documents are far more
tutorial than the original release. Adding more details to a project guide
is sort of like padding on a gym floor, it has to be consistent throughout
or someone's expectations will lead them to get hurt when they assume how
they are being evenly protected. Yet, the formatting changes I've introduced
make it much easier to identify and skip past the tutorials if you are not
in need of that level of granular information.

By no means do I want to suggest that my site, documentation, or services
can't be improved...I haven't run out of ideas for that nor have I slowed
down on trying to make improvements available. The single biggest value I
can offer my customers is to be committed personally to help them, and to
provide them a consistent documentation set that enables my help to be
minimized, but not necessarily eliminated for all people in all conditions.
Unlimted support for 90 days on one project is a pretty significant offer. I
really am not sure what to say about this case. The documentation that was
purchased wasn't stated to cover the scope of the project being attempted;
the option to maintain an account extending updates to the project guide
covering this scope was not adopted; the supplemental documents that
actually address every issue that has been raised were apparently not
obtained from the website while the account was active. I wasn't contacted
about the need for any special consideration

Basically, I was never contacted by this person about any of these concerns
prior to having this thread launched. If you had only contacted me at some
point, none of the issues you raised need ever have affected you.

- Jeff Middleton SBS-MVP
YCST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



"gbchriste" <gbchriste@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:373967FE-19FA-41A0-8E30-9896FB4C208E@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Understood. But it seems Susan is aware of a kit version that has a a
"2003
SPS Redeployment Notes" doc that my version doesn't include.

"Leythos" wrote:

In article <CBBDD19F-9949-4359-B32D-F8800A740D20@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
gbchriste@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx says...
That document is not part of my kit. My kit has a SBS 2000
Redeployment doc,
version 1.20 - 3.5.2005 that addresses how to do a SBS 2000 to 2000
swing. ,
not a SBS 2003 doc. The "Part 2 - How To Perform A Swing Migration"
document
in my kit is version 1.1 - 10.20.2004.

My kit was purchased on March 1, 2007.

My kit docuemnt contents are:

Welcome Guide - Get Started Here
Swing Migration Policies and Licensing
Doc 1 - Detailed Overview
Doc 2 - How To Do A Swing Migration
Doc 3 - Troubleshooting
Doc 4 - Technicians Kit Tools Reference
SBS 2000 Redeployment Notes
Exchange Forklift and Pub Folder Repair

My kit, Doc 2, purchased Feb this year, was version 1.1 - 10.20.2004

The kit included a single Zip file with 17 files/documents/scripts.

Jeff was most helpful, even after the 90 days, as we didn't do our
migration during the 90 days because of a customer delay.

--

Leythos
- Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
- Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented worker" is like calling a
drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist"
spam999free@xxxxxxxxxx (remove 999 for proper email address)



.

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