Recently moved from an internal Travan 40 to an external Exabyte VXA-2. I must say that the VXA is certainly the best option for SBS'rs. The price is reasonable, the capacity is large enough for most and backup speed is 1000% better (ok exaggerating). Anyways... The travan used to take about 6 hours to backup and verify the 20 or so gig of data being backed up. The VXA takes all of an hour and a half. HUGE difference.
The VXA runs on a SCSI connection so I needed to add a scsi card to the server. Simple install and the backup wizard picked the new drive up without a hitch.
Kudos to Exabyte!
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
My Documents Redirection
I setup my second XP PC and didn't quite understand where my "My Documents" really were. I'm used to having a local copy of My Documents on my PC. When I look at the properties of the my Documents folder the path is to the users shared folders on the server. Shouldn't there be a local my doc folder on the PC that redirects the contents to the server?
Well yes, there is when offline files is enabled.
Open My Computer.
On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
On the Offline Files tab, make sure that the Enable Offline Files check box is selected.
Select Synchronize all offline files before logging off to get a full synchronization. Leave it unselected for a quick synchronization.
After synchronization you will see all your folders and doc's have an arrow. When you are disconnected from the server these files are available. When you connect to the server again the files are re-sync'd.
BETTER YET... Setup a GPO to setup offline files. Create and link the GPO at the domain level. Go to Computer Config - Administrative Templates - Network - Offline Files.
Enable - Cache Size (your choice of size)
Enable - Prohibit user configuration of offline files
Enable - Subfolder always available offline
Enable - Synchronize all files before logging (on or off, your choice)
Restart or run GPupdate.
Well yes, there is when offline files is enabled.
Open My Computer.
On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
On the Offline Files tab, make sure that the Enable Offline Files check box is selected.
Select Synchronize all offline files before logging off to get a full synchronization. Leave it unselected for a quick synchronization.
After synchronization you will see all your folders and doc's have an arrow. When you are disconnected from the server these files are available. When you connect to the server again the files are re-sync'd.
BETTER YET... Setup a GPO to setup offline files. Create and link the GPO at the domain level. Go to Computer Config - Administrative Templates - Network - Offline Files.
Enable - Cache Size (your choice of size)
Enable - Prohibit user configuration of offline files
Enable - Subfolder always available offline
Enable - Synchronize all files before logging (on or off, your choice)
Restart or run GPupdate.
Problem with GPO OU and AD OU
What happens when you rename the "MyBusiness" OU in the GPMC? Well, first off you will be unable to change permissions for users or add new users since the "MyBusiness" OU in AD is no longer there. You need to reinstall the server tools to correct this as well as a couple of extra steps (see below). Renaming the OU back to it's original name does not correct the problem as I found out.
The problem came up because I had renamed the "My Business" OU in group policy. This prevented the add user wizard from running from the management console. I had renamed the OU back to My Business (with a space) prior to reinstalling the consoles. So, I reinstalled the consoles and all is well. Except... now there are 2 OU's in group policy and in active directory. The 2 are: My Business and MyBusiness. The correct My Business folder in AD has 2 recently added Win XP PC's listed in the computers - sbscomputers section. The other "MyBusiness" entry has no such entries. The sites is more or less empty except for the user templates in the sbsusers folder.
When I renamed the MyBusiness OU back to its original name, I renamed it to "My Business" (with a space). This is why the Add User wizard still didn't work after renaming it back. It was looking for "MyBusiness". So I reinstall the SBS Console and it creates "MyBusiness" so now there are 2. I then move the user templates and security groups from the "MyBusiness" OU (no space) to the "My Business" OU (with the space). Delete "MyBusiness" and rename "My Business" to "MyBusiness".
Once you have everything moved into the "MyBusiness" (no space) OU in Active Directory Users and Computers (ADU&C), you can rename or delete the "My Business" (with the space) OU in ADU&C. After you rename or delete the "My Business" (with the space) OU in ADU&C, the change will show up in the Group Policy Management Console.
Thanks to Chris Puckett at Microsoft for support on this issue.
The problem came up because I had renamed the "My Business" OU in group policy. This prevented the add user wizard from running from the management console. I had renamed the OU back to My Business (with a space) prior to reinstalling the consoles. So, I reinstalled the consoles and all is well. Except... now there are 2 OU's in group policy and in active directory. The 2 are: My Business and MyBusiness. The correct My Business folder in AD has 2 recently added Win XP PC's listed in the computers - sbscomputers section. The other "MyBusiness" entry has no such entries. The sites is more or less empty except for the user templates in the sbsusers folder.
When I renamed the MyBusiness OU back to its original name, I renamed it to "My Business" (with a space). This is why the Add User wizard still didn't work after renaming it back. It was looking for "MyBusiness". So I reinstall the SBS Console and it creates "MyBusiness" so now there are 2. I then move the user templates and security groups from the "MyBusiness" OU (no space) to the "My Business" OU (with the space). Delete "MyBusiness" and rename "My Business" to "MyBusiness".
Once you have everything moved into the "MyBusiness" (no space) OU in Active Directory Users and Computers (ADU&C), you can rename or delete the "My Business" (with the space) OU in ADU&C. After you rename or delete the "My Business" (with the space) OU in ADU&C, the change will show up in the Group Policy Management Console.
Thanks to Chris Puckett at Microsoft for support on this issue.
SBS Doc - Adding XP PC's to your network
This is an excellent doc for SBS'rs adding Win XP PC's to their network.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/guidance/smb/xp2sbs.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/guidance/smb/xp2sbs.mspx
Using Remote Assistance
Win XP - SP2
When using Remote Assistance - E-mail an Invitation, be sure to create a password in the box provided. The password is then emailed to the recipient. Without the password RA will not allow the connection.
When using Remote Assistance - E-mail an Invitation, be sure to create a password in the box provided. The password is then emailed to the recipient. Without the password RA will not allow the connection.
ICW.EXE ERROR RESOLUTION
Came across this problem while setting up a test server using the evaluation build of SBS 2003 build 3790.
ICW.EXE Error RESOLUTION:
THE PROBLEM: The first 3 wiz*.dll's are different from working box to not working box. The remaining dll's match both size and version. The non matching dll's are as follows:
Working box:
1. wizardui.dll - Size: 1,011,712 - Version: 5.2.2651.0 - Location:\Program Files\Microsoft Integration\Win SBS 2003
2. wizchain.dll -Size: 99840 - Version: 5.2.2651.0 - Location: \Program Files\Microsoft Integration\Win SBS 2003
3. wizchain.dll - Size: 99840 - Version: 5.2.2651.0 - Location: \Program Files\Windows for SBS\Administration
Non Working Box:
1. wizardui.dll - Size: 1,010,688 - Version: 5.2.2576.0 - Location:\Program Files\Microsoft Integration\Win SBS 2003
2. wizchain.dll -Size: 99328 - Version: 5.2.2576.0 - Location: \Program Files\Microsoft Integration\Win SBS 2003
3. wizchain.dll - Size: 99328 - Version:5.2.2576.0 - Location: \Program Files\Windows for SBS\Administration
SOLUTION:Copied the dll's from working to non-working server and re-registered using regsvr32. CEICW now works.
ICW.EXE Error RESOLUTION:
THE PROBLEM: The first 3 wiz*.dll's are different from working box to not working box. The remaining dll's match both size and version. The non matching dll's are as follows:
Working box:
1. wizardui.dll - Size: 1,011,712 - Version: 5.2.2651.0 - Location:\Program Files\Microsoft Integration\Win SBS 2003
2. wizchain.dll -Size: 99840 - Version: 5.2.2651.0 - Location: \Program Files\Microsoft Integration\Win SBS 2003
3. wizchain.dll - Size: 99840 - Version: 5.2.2651.0 - Location: \Program Files\Windows for SBS\Administration
Non Working Box:
1. wizardui.dll - Size: 1,010,688 - Version: 5.2.2576.0 - Location:\Program Files\Microsoft Integration\Win SBS 2003
2. wizchain.dll -Size: 99328 - Version: 5.2.2576.0 - Location: \Program Files\Microsoft Integration\Win SBS 2003
3. wizchain.dll - Size: 99328 - Version:5.2.2576.0 - Location: \Program Files\Windows for SBS\Administration
SOLUTION:Copied the dll's from working to non-working server and re-registered using regsvr32. CEICW now works.
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