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SBS 2008 Unleashed Book

SBS 2008 box shot standard edition Back in 2005 I was privileged to be one of the co-authors of “Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 Unleashed”. As I’m sure most authors can attest, working on a book is a very unique and eye-opening experience.  It takes a lot of time, work, testing, research and commitment to crank out a book, but in the end you have something tangible to show for all the effort. You make some great friends and learn something about yourself along the way too.

Then we skip forward several years and Eriq Neale invited me to be one the co-authors once again. This time the book was titled “Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed.” I looked at the calendar and figured, “Wow, this is really awesome. We’ve got *tons* of time – the operating system isn’t even baked yet!” So I signed on. Interestingly, time moves quickly. Very, VERY quickly. And as SBS 2008 got closer to being finished and as work on the book continued, it seemed like every movie on TV was about an author with looming publishing deadlines or writer’s block like Duplex or Stranger Than Fiction. No pressure. 😉

At any rate, as the book project moved along, you could really see it transform slowly from an idea, into an outline, to a rough draft, through revisions, technical and grammatical editing, screen shots, page layouts, and eventually all the way into a finished book. And while you’re writing and doing testing and research, the software itself (code named “Cougar”) changes. It goes through various builds, into private and public betas, Release Candidates and eventually it becomes the final RTM code for SBS 2008. Believe me, it’s a pretty long trip!

So, the writing has been done for a while, and now comes the waiting part. The book is being printed and shipped, but I haven’t held a hard copy in my hands yet. And today it was cool to get an email from Amazon.com that really hit home:

Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed

All of the sudden the book seems much more real. 🙂

Getting to this stage was a group effort, and I was just one person in a large team of folks that made this project happen. The whole team worked really hard through deadlines, daily responsibilities, lots of writing and zillions of emails.

The writers of this book include:

And here’s what’s in the book:

Table of Contents:

  1. Welcome to Small Business Server 2008
  2. Planning for the SBS 2008 Deployment
  3. Installing and Configuring SBS 2008
  4. DNS, DHCP, and Active Directory Integration
  5. Internet Information Services 7.0
  6. Remote Web Workplace and Other Remote Access Solutions
  7. SharePoint and Companyweb
  8. Exchange Management
  9. Exchange 2007 Client Connectivity
  10. Exchange Disaster Recovery
  11. Group Policy in SBS 2008
  12. User and Computer Management
  13. Macintosh Integration
  14. Additional Servers
  15. Managing Workstations Through Group Policy
  16. Monitoring and Reporting
  17. Managing Server and Workstation Security
  18. Backup and Disaster Recovery
  19. IPv6 Overview
  20. PowerShell
  21. Advanced Installation Options

Windows Small Business Server 2008 UnleashedI’m sure I speak for everyone on the writing, editing and publishing teams when I say that we’re really proud of this book! And I’d like to send a special “thank you” to Eriq Neale and Acquisitions Editor Loretta Yates for letting me be on the team again,
and for not killing me when they wanted to. 😉

We look forward to seeing the book hit the shelves and we’re certain that it will help people understand and support this amazing new operating system.

I hope you enjoy it!

Title: Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed
Publisher: Sams Publishing; 1 edition (December 6, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0672329573
Paperback: 816 pages
Language: English
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Buy.com | InformIT / Sams

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Downloads – Free Windows Server 2008 eBook

eBook - Introducing Windows Server 2008 Title: Introducing Windows Server 2008
Author: Mitch Tulloch and the
Microsoft Windows Server Team
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Published: May 30, 2007
ISBN: 9780735624214
Pages: 456
Hard copy available: $19.79 at Amazon
Register for FREE download: click here (6.5 MB)

Description:
Take a first look at the next generation of Windows Server—with insights direct from the popular author and Microsoft MVP Mitch Tulloch and the Microsoft Windows Server team. With this insider’s introduction, you will get to preview and evaluate Windows Server 2008. You will learn how to use new features that help you improve security, performance, reliability, and operational efficiency, as well as how to automate deployment and administration. Examine Windows Hypervisor virtualization, Windows Deployment Services, Internet Information Services 7.0, Windows PowerShell, Network Access Protection, and other security features. Take a guided preview from the experts and get ready to plan for deployment and perform your first upgrades and migrations to Windows Server 2008.

Source: Blog post by Ronald Grattopp (Microsoft TS2)

Update: 03/30/2008 – there’s no CD in the eBook, but you can download a 60-day trial ISO of Windows Server 2008 (that can be extended to 240 days) here. Then spin it up and install it into a Virtual PC or burn it to a DVD and install it on real hardware. -Tim

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Installing WSS v3 on a Member Server in an SBS Network

Windows SharePoint ServicesIf you’ve got a member server in your SBS network (especially if that server is a beefy SQL box) it may make sense from a performance standpoint to install Windows SharePoint Services version 3 on the member server instead of directly on the SBS box.  This is actually a pretty straight-forward process, but in case you’re not totally comfortable with WSS v3 yet, the procedure is documented below using a combination of a Microsoft e-book and the WSS on SBS instructions Chad came up with for SBS. 

Note:  This free WSS v3 e-book is NOT the whitepaper Chad mentions in his article.  This is a digital book: "Deployment for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Technology". (189 pages – published May 2007)

There are two downloads on the page (the second is for an upgrade scenario).  Choose the first install (1.1 MB).

Once you’ve downloaded the Deployment e-book, jump to page 23:

  1. Install Internet Information Server (IIS) 6.0 from the Windows Server 2003 CD 1.
  2. Disable "Run WWW server in IIS 5.0 isolation mode"
  3. Install .NET 3.0
  4. Enable ASP.NET v2.0.50727
  5. Install WSS v3

    (Select Advanced Install, Select Stand-Alone server type, Choose your data location)

  6. Run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard.

    (This may require a restart of the services IIS, SharePoint Administration Service and SharePoint Timer Service.)

  7. The default web site will be http://servername/default.aspx
    Credentials to access the site should be in the format DOMAIN\user_name and the normal domain password.

    >>This is where we switch from the Microsoft e-book to Chad Gross’ "Companyweb & SharePoint v3 – Part 4" instructions <<

  8. Following Chad’s original instructions in WSS v3 Part 4, starting with "(insert cheesy on hold music . . . )"

    Login to the SBS server and create the new Host (A) record for http://intranet that points to the private IP address of your member server, and be sure to create the associated pointer (PRT) record.

  9. Follow the rest of Chad’s instructions on that page to extend the default site to http://intranet (you may have to delete the ":80" port from the URL at the bottom of the configuration page so the final URL is http://intranet and not http://intranet:80)

    >> Now leaving Chad’s instructions <<
     

  10. If you refresh IIS you’ll notice that the SharePoint – 80 default site is gone.  However, your old "Default Web Site" (the http://servername) is still there.
  11. Right-click the Default Web Site, click Properties, click the Home Directory tab, select the "A redirection to a URL" radio button, in the ‘Redirect to:’ text box type "http//intranet". Click OK.

    image

  12. Right-click the Default Web Site and start it.
  13. Now http://servername and http://intranet should both take you to http://intranet (be sure to test it from your SBS box as well).  If the link isn’t working, make sure you flushed your DNS cache in step 8 above.
  14. Login to your http://intranet site, click Site Actions / Site Settings / Title, description, and icon / rename your site "Intranet"
  15. Download and deploy your templates from the Fabulous 40 collection. Be sure to read the readme.txt enclosed in that download.
  16. Last, but certainly not least – BACKUP!!

    Chad mentions backing up your old WSS v2 http://companyweb site in Part 3, but the stsadm for WSS v3 is located in a different position, namely:

    – WSS v2 uses ..\60\bin
    – WSS v3 uses ..\12\bin

    The command I use to backup the WSS v3 http://intranet test site is shown below (yours will vary depending on the target location of your backup files):

Start / Run / CMD / Enter

CD C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin <Enter>

stsadm.exe -o backup -url http://intranet -filename "E:\WSSv3Backup\intranet_backup.dat" -overwrite <Enter>

Of course, you can use the system timer to schedule that backup daily if you like. 

Once you get past getting your feet wet with WSS v3, be sure to check out the section, "Administering backup and recovery for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 technology" on TechNet (especially if you’re running SQL as your database engine) before rolling out WSS to client sites.

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Free Microsoft Office 2007 E-Learning and E-Book

   

Get training at your own pace on 2007 Microsoft Office user interface, or learn what’s new with your favorite program.

Each E-Learning Course is available offline for 90 days, takes about 1 hour, and helps you take advantage of new functionality by focusing on the features that will affect you the most.

FREE E-book: First Look 2007 Microsoft Office System
(Adobe PDF file – 6MB – 213 pages)
ISBN: 0-7356-2265-5
Author: Katherine Murray

With this free ebook from Microsoft Press, you’ll get the full story on Microsoft 2007 Office system directly from the Microsoft product group. This book gives you the inside scoop on the Microsoft 2007 Office system and is designed to help you get a quick sense of the huge range of changes and enhancements made to the Microsoft Office System.

It will inspire you to try out some of the new features as you’re working with early versions of the software on your own systems. Some of the biggest work challenges that we face today—information overload, knowledge management, collaboration limitations, localization issues, and more—are directly addressed by new and revamped features in 2007 Microsoft Office System. See how the 2007 release will make your life easier!

The print version is available in July at booksellers everywhere.

Source: Heartland Area Technical Partner Newsletter

 

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