Windows Small Business Server Documentation

This Blog is now Retired!

WSSG Doc Team — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:33:00 GMT

Now that Windows SBS has morphed into Windows Server Essentials and is now a full member of Windows Server, it is time to retire this blog. You can continue to get up-to-date information about WSBS and WSE at the Windows Server Essentials and Small Business Server Blog.

Many thanks to all of our readers over the years. We will continue to post relevant documentation-related information on the WSE & SBS Blog.

Best Regards!

- The Former Windows SBS Information Experience Team

Windows Server Solutions Best Practices Analyzer Update 2 is now available for download

WSSG Doc Team — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:31:00 GMT

The Windows Server Solutions Sustained Engineering and Product Support teams are pleased to announce the availability of Update 2 for the WSS BPA. This update includes the following:

44 new rules for Windows SBS 2011 Standard
13 new rules for Windows SBS 2011 Essentials
11 new rules for Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials
4 new rules for Windows MultiPoint Server 2011

The new rules are fully detailed in the article "Windows Server Solutions BPA Updated February 2012" on The Official SBS Blog. For additional information, see KB Article 2652984.

To obtain this update, run Windows Server Solutions Best Practice Analyzer 1.0.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Update Rollup 2 for Windows SBS 2011 Essentials, Windows Home Server 2011, and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials is now available!

WSSG Doc Team — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:45:47 GMT

Hey everyone! The Windows Server Solutions Sustained Engineering team has just released UR2 for the subject products. This is great news, and is the largest UR to date. It includes a number of features and code fixes, including the Office 365 Integration Module for Windows SBS 2011 Essentials! To obtain these updates, go to the Windows Update website.

For detailed information about the features and fixes included in Update Rollup 2, see the following KB articles:

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Office 365 Integration Module for Windows SBS 2011 Essentials Released Today!

WSSG Doc Team — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:03:00 GMT

After a popular and successful beta program, the Office 365 Integration Module (OIM) for Windows SBS 2011 Essentials is now available to download. This FREE add-in for the Windows SBS 2011 Essentials Dashboard enables you to subscribe to, monitor, and manage Office 365 accounts directly from the server Dashboard. You can download the OIM from the Microsoft Download Center. For information about how to install and configure the OIM, and manage Office 365 accounts, see "Integrating Office 365 with Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials" in the Windows SBS 2011 Essentials Online Help. For information about Office 365, see the Office 365 website.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

The Microsoft® Office 365 Integration Module Beta for Windows SBS 2011 Essentials is now available!

WSSG Doc Team — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:53:00 GMT

The highly anticipated Microsoft Office 365 Integration Module for Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials is now available for download. This module extends the features of the Windows SBS 2011 Dashboard by providing seamless integration with Office 365 services.

For more information about the Office 365 Integration Module for Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, see the related article on The Official SBS Blog.

If you would like to download the beta, visit the Microsoft Connect page for Windows SBS.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

An update to the Windows SBS 2011 Migration Preparation Tool is now available

WSSG Doc Team — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:52:39 GMT

The Windows SBS Sustaining Engineering team has just released an update to the Migration Preparation Tool. This tool is run on the migration source server (for example, a computer that is running Windows Small Business Server 2003 or Windows Small Business Server 2008) to prepare the source server for migration. This update adds preparation rules and fixes known issues. For a full description of the update and for information about how to obtain the update from Microsoft, see KB Article 2578426.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Update Rollups are now available for Windows SBS 2011 Essentials, Windows Home Server 2011, and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials

WSSG Doc Team — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:29:00 GMT

The Windows Server Solutions Sustained Engineering team has announced availability of a handfull of Update Rollups (UR's) that address known issues. The updates are available from Windows Update. For detailed information about the updates, see the following topics in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Two new articles published in the Wiki to help you troubleshoot Certificates and Client Deployment

WSSG Doc Team — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 22:29:03 GMT

The Windows SBS Sustained Engineering team contributed the following articles. We hope you find them useful!

How to repair certificate issues in Windows Small Business Server 2011, Windows Home Server 2011 and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials

Troubleshooting Client Deployment Issues when using Windows Small Business Server 2011, Windows Home Server 2011 and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Find SBS Migration Information -- FAST!

WSSG Doc Team — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:32:00 GMT

Over the past few years, we've received a lot of customer feedback about the availability, applicability, and discoverability of SBS Migration information. In the past, this kind of information has been published in various forms and made available in a variety of ways. Sometimes on the release media in the form of a CHM file, sometimes on the Microsoft Download Center in the form of a white paper, and always in the TechNet Technical Library for the product - where the most current version of a document is maintained. Unfortunately, while a variety of content delivery vehicles can serve the needs of many (instant context, printable docs, etc.); there is a big downside in that the amount of overhead that is necessary to maintain these formats can quickly result in inconsistencies in content freshness, and versioning.

We know! We feel your pain! We are listening!

Therefore, in one small step for our team, and one giant leap on your behalf, we are pleased to announce availability of the Windows Small Business Server Migration Portal. This latest enhancement to the Windows SBS migration information experience is designed to provide quick access to a broad spectrum of migration guides, tools, and community knowledge that can help guide you through the process of migrating from your current version of Windows SBS to a more recent version of the product, or to a new or significantly modified computer.

This portal does not mark the end of the work to be done in this area. Oh no. We are always learning, always evolving, always improving. And thanks to your passion, experience, and involvement, we like to think that your voices lend beautiful harmonies to our work. Or is that the other way around? Either way, we hope you find the Migration Portal helpful.

Always listening...

- The SBS Information Experience Team

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Announcing New Online Help Sites for Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Home Server 2011

WSSG Doc Team — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:41:00 GMT

Windows SBS 2011 Essentials and Windows Home Server 2011 will soon be available from your favorite retailer or channel provider. And to help you understand the changes and new features in the products, we have just published two online help sites that you can access now! No need to wait until your new home server is delivered, or until you crack the clam shell to install the software. A visit to one of the following help sites will put you on the fast track to installing and using these great new servers.

Remember, Knowledge is power!

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Additional Migration Guides for Windows SBS 2011 Standard are Available!

WSSG Doc Team — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:02:00 GMT

As promised, we have just published additional migration guides to help you migrate to Windows SBS 2011 Standard. The following guides are available:

Migrate to Windows Small Business Server 2011 from Windows Small Business Server 2008

Describes how to migrate an existing Windows SBS 2008 domain to Windows SBS 2011 Standard and then to migrate the settings and data. This guide also describes how to remove your existing server from the Windows SBS 2011 Standard network after you finish the migration.

Migrate Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard to New Hardware

Describes how to migrate an existing Windows SBS 2008 domain to Windows SBS 2011 Standard to Windows SBS 2011 Standard on new or significantly changed hardware.

Move all SharePoint Foundation 2010 databases for Windows SBS 2011 Standard to another server

Describes how to move the databases that are associated with Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 from a computer running Windows SBS 2011 Standard to another server that is running the Windows SBS 2011 Premium Add-on.

For printable versions of the migration guides, see Downloadable documentation for Windows Small Business Server 2011. The printable versions will be available by end-of-day Thursday, February 3rd.

Because these are the initial versions of the documents, expect periodic updates to incorporate new information and customer feedback.

Enjoy!

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Preparing to Migrate to Windows SBS 2011 Standard? Take the Inside Lane!!

WSSG Doc Team — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 02:32:00 GMT

To help you get a jump on your future server migration, we have just published a downloadable and printable copy of "Migrate to Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard from Windows Small Business Server 2003"! This guide describes the migration process in detail and walks you through the various steps. Do you want to get a look at the doc before you download it? An online version of the doc is available in the Windows SBS 2011 Standard Technical Library.

Keep in mind that this is a living document, and as we acquire more information from our customers, we will update the guide accordingly. So check back from time to time to make sure that you have the latest and greatest information.

In the next couple of weeks, we will be publishing guides that help you migrate from Windows SBS 2008, and from server that is already running Windows SBS 2011 Standard.

Happy New Year!

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Using your feedback to improve Windows Server Code Name “Aurora” and Windows Server Code Name “Vail” Online Help documentation

WSSG Doc Team — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:55:32 GMT

We would like to hear from you. Please visit Windows Server Code Name “Aurora” Online Help and Windows Server Code Name “Vail” Online Help websites, check out their content, and then click What do you think of this website? Take a quick survey at the top of the page to complete an anonymous survey. We will use the information to improve your experience on these websites.

Thanks for helping us!

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Windows SBS 2011 Standard has been released to manufacturing!

WSSG Doc Team — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:04:00 GMT

We are very pleased to let you know that we have achieved a major milestone in getting the next version of Windows SBS into the hands of customers. We signed-off on the RTM software, which will become available to the general public early next year. Windows SBS 2011 Standard includes familiar server management tools and the same core set of features as Windows SBS 2008. Also included are a variety of new and updated features that help make it easier to back-up and restore data, to collaborate, and to deploy Windows SBS 2011 Standard in an existing Windows SBS environment. For a high-level overview about what’s included with Windows SBS 2011 Standard, see “What’s New in Windows SBS 2011 Standard.” We have published the initial batch of product help and information to the Windows SBS 2011 Standard Technical Library. We are working on much more documentation that will be published in the weeks ahead.

Visit The Official SBS Blog to read the official announcement.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Introducing the next version of Windows Small Business Server!

WSSG Doc Team — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 20:58:00 GMT

Hi Everyone,

The Small Business Server team has been heads down for many months now conjuring up the latest offering of our all-in-one solution server. We are now very pleased to announce that Windows Small Business Server "7" Preview is now available to download and test.

Built on Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows SBS "7" includes Exchange Server 2010 SP1, Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, and Windows Software Update Services. Additionally, there are many enhancements to the security and management features, as well as more robust features for providing file-and-print, email, and Internet services to employees. Windows SBS "7" also includes significantly enhanced migration tools that will help you upgrade your server so you can take advantage of the new and improved technologies.

We are very proud of the work that we have done thus far, and owe much of it to your feedback and participation in the Customer Experience Improvement Program. However, the work is not done yet! If you are not already a beta tester, consider becoming one today! We need your help to make Windows SBS "7" even better. For information about Windows SBS "7" and about how you can become a beta tester, visit the Windows Small Business Server Beta page at the Microsoft website.

Happy autumn!

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Major Correction to "Guide to Migrating from WSS to WSF on SBS '08"

WSSG Doc Team — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:52:42 GMT

A huge "Thank you!" to Susan Bradley and others who pointed out a significant discrepancy with Step 10 of the the newly published "Step-by-Step Guide to Migrating from Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 on a server running Windows Small Business Server 2008" that we announced in the previous blog posting. The discrepancy was the result of a "cut and paste" error that occurred just prior to publication. Step 10 has been corrected in the downloadable version of the guide at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=2dc66a0f-f840-4b29-93d3-13db70c85cba&;;displayLang=en. The corrected online version will go live during next week's regularly scheduled publishing cycle. Look for the online version of the guide to go live on 9/16. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience that this caused.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

How to upgrade your Windows SharePoint Services websites on Windows SBS 2008 to Windows SharePoint Foundation 2010

WSSG Doc Team — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:56:51 GMT

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Windows SharePoint Services is now Microsoft SharePoint Foundation.

Maybe you knew this, and maybe you didn't. In either case, we can shed some light on the path to upgrading your existing CompanyWeb site (and any other Windows SharePoint Services site) to SharePoint Foundation. How? Through the illumination provided in our newly published article: "Step-by-Step Guide to Migrating from Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 on a server running Windows Small Business Server 2008." This guide walks you through everything you need to know about how to successfully upgrade your existing SharePoint sites to the SharePoint Foundation platform.

Is an upgrade to SharePoint Foundation 2010 right for you? SharePoint Foundation 2010 improves the user experience for information workers and introduces new administration and performance tools that expand and enhance manageability of the platform. To learn about the features, benefits, and technical requirements of SharePoint Foundation, read the article "Introducing Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010".

And as always... Enjoy!

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

TechEd and BI Conference: Unleashing IT and business users

WSSG Doc Team — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:22:00 GMT

I’ve noticed an interesting convergence of themes at the TechEd North America 2010 conference in New Orleans. The TechEd sessions here are combined with the Microsoft BI conference, sometimes held separately. So what does a conference for a bunch of infrastructure and developer geeks have in common with one for information workers and the IT analysts who support them? Quite a lot, it turns out.

A big IT infrastructure theme this week is the cloud. Some attendees wring their hands and worry for the future of on-premises IT – one discussion group tackled the question “IT Going to the Cloud: Are We Crazy?”. But a consensus may be developing around the idea of commoditizing certain parts of the infrastructure. For example, can a typical business gain a competitive advantage by provisioning, managing, monitoring, patching, and upgrading its basic messaging infrastructure? In today’s competitive climate, businesses that need their IT people to work on strategic projects may decide they can’t afford the opportunity costs of maintaining commodity on-premises infrastructure workloads.

Assuming that the cloud providers and hosters can satisfy customer demands for availability, reliability, affordability, compatibility with on-premises systems, regulatory compliance, and so on, business will probably move standard workloads to the cloud in greater numbers. Does that mean the on-premises IT and their consultants and partners will be out of a job? I don’t think so, but the job descriptions might have to change. For example, attention previously paid to administering an on-premises messaging workload might have to be redirected – maybe to a new kind of identity and access workload that spans a web of on-premises and cloud applications. Or perhaps to strategic projects like…business intelligence.

The well-attended BI sessions here focus on strategies and tools that IT departments, even small ones, can use when trying to provide business users with the actionable data, metrics, reports, and performance scorecards they demand. This kind of strategic work takes a lot of time and partnership between IT and business groups, and a healthy amount of infrastructure. Ted Kummert of the Microsoft Business Platform Division talked in his BI keynote on Tuesday about the long-standing “fairy tale” that businesses can get the data and analytics that they want, delivered in the form they want it (often in an Excel workbook), while IT successfully manages an end-to-end infrastructure that assures data integrity, availability, and security. John Hagerty of Gartner talked about “unleashing” a long-frustrated business user fed up with traditional IT processes. The present state for many businesses is a report treadmill for the overburdened IT department, assuming they can even get to the strategic work, along with lots of unmanaged Excel workbooks that business users put into the wild.

With improved tools from Microsoft and other vendors, delivering an end-to-end solution for “managed self-service BI” seems more likely to succeed, especially in an analytical business culture supported by the right IT infrastructure and staff. On the managed side, BI reporting and analytical services span SQL Server 2008 R2 and Excel 2010, with SharePoint Server 2010 and PerformancePoint Services in the middle. For self-service, information workers can use the new PowerPivot Excel add-in for ad hoc analysis and on-the-fly data cube development by combining data from multiple data sources, whether managed or not. A SharePoint infrastructure (either on-premises or in the cloud) administered by IT provides the context for sharing and managing all the BI artifacts.

What do you think? Will moving some infrastructure to the cloud give IT pros the opportunity to deliver more business value in areas like BI? I think it’s possible.

--Dan Lepow

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

We’re all in … New Orleans at TechEd North America 2010!

WSSG Doc Team — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:41:00 GMT

Great live band music and a Windows 7 Phone t-shirt cannon at 8:30 in the morning? OK, you have to be at TechEd North America in person to experience those – and enjoy the excitement of mingling, meeting, and networking with more than 10,000 IT Pros this week at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. But even if you’re not lucky enough to be at the conference this year, you can follow the best of the TechEd and BI sessions and get that “almost there” feeling by logging on to TechEd Online.

Bob Muglia’s keynote speech to the crowd this morning made it clear that for Microsoft the cloud – with five dimensions, no less – is the key IT paradigm today, and nearly every Microsoft technology and product he spoke about has a cloud component, interface, or story. And he made it clear we’re at just the beginning of this big shift. Microsoft’s approach is to make sure you can leverage your existing infrastructure and IT investments and find the right mix of on-line and cloud services to deliver business value and cost savings to your organization.

If this cloud talk still seems a bit nebulous (if you’ll pardon the pun) for those of you in the SMB space, there are at least two ways to see how the cloud may change the way you do your work:

1. Check out the Microsoft hosted versions of Exchange and SharePoint (more at Microsoft Online Services). In the fast-moving cloud application space, these are road-tested, mature services that you can put to work right away and begin to mingle your on-premises and cloud assets.

2. Learn more about Microsoft Intune, a comprehensive cloud-based management solution that includes Windows 7 PC management, malware protection, Windows upgrades, and more. Intune is in beta now, but you’ll be hearing more as the product gets ready to ship within about a year.

Exciting times to be at the beginnings of a big shift in IT, and to be at TechEd North America!

--Dan Lepow

Are you attending TechEd 2010?

WSSG Doc Team — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:41:15 GMT

Me too! It's going to be a blast, and I'm looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible. Dan Lepow and I will be on duty at the Windows Server iX booth in the TLC on Monday from 12-3, Tuesday from 3-5, and on Thursday from 10:30-1pm. We'll be demonstrating some pretty cool new technologies, so do plan to stop by and check it out and say hi. Even if we're not on duty. However, chances are that we won't be far away. Like you, we're anxious to put on our learning and thinking caps, and we'll be exploring the convention right along with you.

See you there!

-Steve Holland

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Birds of a feather...

WSSG Doc Team — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:17:00 GMT

... Tweet together!

Are you a member of the ever-growing flock of folks who use Twitter to find and share information? If so, be sure and check out these fine feathered friends:

WindowsSBS - Official Twitter account for the Windows SBS product team.
WindowsEBS - Official Twitter account for the Windows EBS product team.
winhomeserver - Official Twitter account for the Windows Home Server product team.
StvHolland - Steve Holland shares information about product documentation for SBS, EBS and other Microsoft apps.
seandaniel - Sean Daniel is a virtual and dynamic encyclopedia of information about SBS and EBS technologies.

Remember, "Knowledge is power!" (and the early bird catches the worm)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

New look for TechNet sites

WSSG Doc Team — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:54:00 GMT

The next time you visit a Microsoft TechNet site like the Windows SBS TechCenter, enjoy the freshly redesigned TechCenter pages and other improved features. We think it’s a great improvement in the experience. Some comments from around our team:

“This is definitely very cool.“

“A nice fresh new look. I like it!”

“Looks more friendly.”

“It definitely looks nicer. Light, more open.”

This isn’t just about spring cleaning, though. The TechNet 2.0 improvements run more than skin deep. You might want to check out:

· Improved scoped searches within TechNet (courtesy of Bing)

· The new “Scriptfree” view in the TechNet library which makes pages load super-quick if you don’t need all the navigational panes

For more info and podcasts on the redesign, see the TechNet 2.0 blog series on Keith Combs' Blahg.

Look for more innovation in the coming months as Microsoft continues investments in TechNet to make this a premier Web destination for IT Pros!

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

What social networks do you follow or use?

WSSG Doc Team — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:33:00 GMT

Hi everyone! We’d like to learn a little more about the resources you find helpful. Please spend about 60 seconds to take a short, anonymous one page survey. We’ll use the information we receive to plan what information we provide and how to best communicate with you. The survey is located at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LHJBSJ9.

Thanks for helping us continue to improve your product experience!

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Great utility to create help files from content available in TechNet libraries

WSSG Doc Team — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:27:00 GMT

File this one under Cool Tools!

Package This is a neat little program that enables you to select topics from the Table of Contents in either the TechNet Library or the MSDN Library, and build the selected content into Help (.chm and .hxs) files. This can be really useful if you find yourself visiting TechNet often, or if you want to create customized help files for network users. There are a few prerequisite technical bits, and it has some limitations, but it's a great little tool with a simple UI. Check it out! You may have a place in your toolbox for it. There is a good example of its use here.

Thanks to Terri Schmidt for pointing us to this one.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Calling all SBS Migration Gurus!

WSSG Doc Team — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:25:00 GMT

Have an opinion on the SBS migration process or content?

We know many of you do - and we need your help. We're looking for a few courageous people in the community to help us improve our SBS migration content. Specifically, we'd like to establish a virtual content review board. We'll solicit ideas and suggestions from the board members. We'll also send board members revised content for feedback.

What's in it for you, you say? If you're willing to collaborate with us to improve the content, we'll give you a byline in the final content.

Interested? Drop a line to sbsdocs@microsoft.com.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.