Re: Rebuilding SBS Server 2003 SP2

The issue with ESM is since installing theSLL cert it refuses to allow
browsing of the public folder tree claiming that the server name differs
from that specified in the cert. I cant give you the error number becuase it
isnt doing it now as removing the cert then re-applying it fixes the issue
until reboot. Every time I reboot I have to remove/re-install the cert if I
want to administer public folders using esm.

The issue I keep getting with RPC over HTTP is filed connection or refused
login credentials. When i play with the settings I can get a login prompt
pop up but no matter which account I try to use the prompt keeps popping up
and the process proceeds no further. I actually though it was a firewall
issue, I entered the login details for the firewall router one time and the
process seemed to proceed but stalled. I spent a good week on the phone to
our ISP trying to fix it in the event their router was blocking something
but no all is apparently cool. I will make sure I am forwarding all the
correct ports as stated by msoft and mentioned by Gregg Hill, run CEICW and
have another pop.

Everything else (and i mean everything) is working a bl**dy treat and I so
dont wanna do it all again for this!

Thanks for having a read!


"Gregg Hill" <bogus@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ePvWyOziIHA.4080@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
You stated, "...now getting issues with exchange system manager...."

What issues? ESM never even came into play when I set up my system, except
to correct the SMTP greeting to be my WAN FQDN to match my MX record. I
used the CEICW to install my GoDaddy cert.

Gregg Hill



"Billy Burrows" <billy.burrows@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:H%FEj.886$4f4.831@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks again for replying again Lanwench, I'd be well stuffed without
your help!



I read like three how-to's online, the stuff @ Microsoft and I bought a
book and of course the help files inc with SBS, Windows Small Business
Server 2003 Administrators Companion. My problem is that I like to get
stuck in and learn by doing so I skim (a lot), think "that sounds
reasonable" (a lot) then dive on in. This approach has worked well over
the years except in women, kids, and now SBS, I guess it really is true
that preparation avoids disappointment!



Your promise of not needing to re-install my server interests me VERY
much (someone else said that a couple of weeks back) but I don't see a
way past it! Say for instance my server is named "IHATEMYBOSS.server"
(.server and not .local because of MAC clients) but our MX record and SSL
certificate state mail.ourdomain.com. I can't use Exchange system manager
because it's whining that there's a SSL certificate in place and the
server names do not match, and they don't, one specifies IHATTEMYBOSS
while the cert says mail. I also have issues with RPC over HTTP (although
not 100% connection failure is done to this but i got a gut feeling!),
the Outlook over the internet settings is given using
IHATEMYBOSS.ourdomain.com but the MX record and SSL are configured for
mail.ourdomain.com. The only reason I am rebuilding SBS is to make the
server name mail, because for some dumb reason you can't re-name a SBS
server.



I have run through the msoft support page that talks you through removing
the SSL on the inetmgr website related to exchange system manager but no
joy and even if exchange system manager worked I'd still be stuck with
the RPC issue!



What's really really annoying is that everything else (OWA, RWW, VPM,
everything) works perfectly save a few system warnings about latency on
C:\ and processes using a high amount of RAM (sometimes). I suspect that
I could help this situation by staggering maintenance processes somewhat.
I just configured everything to @ run at night out of business hours so
the poor thing is trying to run a server backup, data backup, mailbox
gizmo and probably updates too all within a 4 - 6 hour period. I should
maybe stagger this a lil better! As for the RAM I have an additional 2Gb
just waiting for my lazy self to stick it in.



If I really do not have to re-install I would love not to but I have
tried to resolve above issues for weeks with no joy so mentally I'm
reduced to ok, I will do it, I will rebuild but please god let it be one
last time! What I find really funny is other servers off site running
UBUNTU server (LDAP, SAMBA, QMAIL, APACHE, PHP, MYSQL) all have uptimes
in the months and months and it would have been longer save for a
relocation. apt-get upgrade updates the whole system and there's never
ever a problem. I've almost totally forgiven bash and that evil VI
editor, but thank god there's help with SBS, if I put these questions in
a lug or nix forum all's I'd get out is RTFN.



By X2 I meant two drives (X 2 hard drives like times two), I like the
idea of RAID but it caused me a huge pain in the A the last time I
implemented it so I now have some reservations. My first problem is the
number of available disks I could now put into an array if i decided to
run with it. The first ever implementation of our SBS used a main board
with up to I think a 6 drive array that would have done a 1 + 0 RAID
array. SBS ran like a dog until it totally wouldn't work and this tuned
out to be a main board issue. The supplier was happy to swap it out but
in troubleshooting I found lots of forums with people complaining about
it so I changed the make and model last minute and didn't have a lot of
time to check it out, local supplier too so had limited options to choose
from.



The board we ended up with has onboard RAID but will only accommodate two
drives in the array leaving me with the only options of either striping
or mirroring with two drives. I would like the additional performance of
striping (but wouldn't it be pants over just two drives anyway?) but
reluctant to have another striping only config, I love the redundancy
idea but this is pointless performance wise I would have thought and a
lot of people on this forum totally slated using onboard RAID controllers
when I was on here crying about the last SBS falldown, so i'm assuming
using that what I have would be a bad idea anyway?



The board I have has 6 SATA II ports but only the first two can be used
in a RAID array, sux dunit! So I suppose what would be really cool would
be for an EXPERT to say ok your boned but the best option is this . . . .
. .



As I see it my options are:



1) Talk the boss outta some cash and go get a RAID card and implement
some cunning schema as detailed by you earlier and while im there I can
get some new drives because the uber spec ones the supplier PROMISED
rocked actually suck in a big way! This approach is likely to fail
though, if I could scam cash that easily I'd go grab a blade server or
something



2) Just stick in one drive for the OS and partition for the OS and data,
install a second drive for backups only, configure XPress Recovery2 or
just ghost it and hope any failure is not hardware related



3) Install two drives in a RAID 0 array grabbing some extra clocks and
backing up nightly to a third drive



4) Install two drives in a RAID 1 array perhaps experience a performance
hit and still backup to a third drive nightly



5) Go 2 disk JBOD and backup data to a third nightly and cross my
fingers, tightly.



My reasoning is leaning towards a 2 disk mirror with a third disk for
nightly backups then later on when we get the 2008 SBS I can maybe
justify some new kit. I suspect this is going to be a weekend of
learning, thanks a lot for your time and thoughts on all my
woes!!!!!!!!!!!



Cheers ;-)





"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
<lanwench@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:eW03f0riIHA.4744@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Billy Burrows <billy.burrows@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Lanwench,

Thanks for your help! You have helped me out before, I think with the
last rebuild I had to do.

Yep grateful, I swear im getting lysdexic with age, and lack of sleep
;-)

Totally understood.



Being new to SBS I actually followed the install wizard through word
for word and didnt pay much attention to the server name beyond
making sure that the domain was not .local (we have mac's). I then
configured an MX record for mail.ourdomain.com and got an SSL cert
for that domain.

Got from where? And how did you install it? You don't need to reinstall
your server for this reason, I promise.

Im now getting issues with exchange system manager
because the SSL server name (being mail) is different from our server
name, I also cannot configure Outlook to go all RPC over HTTP and
suspect the same reasons. Going to RWW and hitting the link that says
connect outlook over the internet the suggested settings are correct
as per our server name but not correct according to our MX record or
SSL cert. I have tried the MS resolution to my Exchange system
manager issue but the problem persists and quite right too as the
server name is wrong for the cert.
Have also been getting disk latency warnings and high RAM usage
warnings so figured a rebuild was the perfect time to investigate
these (chuck more RAM at it and use a quicker disk).

You can put more RAM in now to test, before doing anything further.


Disabling offline files makes perfect sense to me but they like it on
a just in case basis, in the event the server goes down while working
on something important but it will be disabled!

If your single server dies, your users should immediately cease working
on the network until you get it fixed. Or you could well end up with
mismatched data.


We did have RAID but like a numpty I configured a 4 disk array in
srtripe mode then one of the drives failed and I was in a world of
smelly stuff. kind of reluctant to do it again, well not really I
just dont have enough disks to do it now. Was intending to configure
X2 disks as stripe then another two as mirror but I swapped the mobo
out for another which only has space for 2 drives, is it worth
configuring a x2 drive mirror?

I don't know what X2 means, sorry. I'd do either a RAID1 on two drives
for the OS & a RAID5 for data, or a single RAID 10, or a single RAID 5
with a global hotspare. I use SCSI or SAS but some people are fine with
SATA.

I love partitioning with nix, once setup everything is v-tidy and
helps a lot with re-installs but havent a clue with partition sizes
with SBS, I have sucked and seen many times with unix to get it right
but then unix doesent suck out 2 days of your life re-installing and
reconfiguring so really really gonna try and get it right first time
through on this third time through, lol

Cheers :-)

I do relate, dude.



"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
<lanwench@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:ezDiCeqiIHA.5088@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Billy Burrows <billy.burrows@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi PPL,

Over this weekend I will be rebuilding our SBS server and have some
questions, if someone would be kind enough to impart some of their
wisdom and experience I would be most greatful.

Grateful, even? :-)

This will be the second rebuild (first time due to hard drive
failure) this time to overcome a server naming issue.

Wow. What's your server called - IHATEMYBOSS ? This is a pretty
large task to undertake for something that's merely cosmetic (and
internal).

Some things that I am not sure about:

Is it worth partitioning the main SBS installation drive into the
following?
C:\ (Main SBS partition)

D:\ (pagefile)

E:\ (data).

There's no advantage to putting the page file on a different
partition. You will see a performance improvement only if it's a
separate disk/array. If you don't have that setup, and will have a
single array, I would do something like this:

C: (OS, pagefile) - 20 to 40GB
D: (Exchange & SQL data) - at least 100GB depending on your needs,
ideally more
E: (Users shared folders, clientapps, fax, any other custom / company
shared data) - the rest of the space

The advantage of the partitions is that things don't step on each
others' toes. So, a user's data folder can't get chock full of MP3
files and knock Exchange offline.

The hard drive is 400Gb,

I'm hoping you've got a hardware RAID array in here?

the system has 4Gb RAM. With Nix we would
normally assign a swap partition of 3X system RAM, would the same
sizing principles apply to SBS for the pagefile partition?

We do this routinely with NIX systems for performance reasons

No performance benefit here, as per the above.

and so
that we do not have to worry about recovering data from backup in
the event of having to re-install the system.

Sure. And it's just tidier.

Does partitioning like this
on an SBS system improve performance and will it help in the event
of a future system re-install? If so what's the recommended
partition sizes for the base installation, page file partition and
the data partition?
How can I remove the old server from client systems so that offline
files will not try to synchronize with it?

Disable offline files first. And keep it that way -what's the need
of that nonsense on a LAN-connected computer?

On The previous re-build
simply un-ticking the option to synchronize to the old server in
start > All Programs > Accessories > synchronize didn't appear to
work.

Disable it via group policy.



Many Thanks for any advice!









.

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