Failover, not fall over - how to keep running when the hardware fails

Failure is not an option in business and redundancy is the solution. You can offer customers systems that keep running when the hardware fails.

Server failure used to mean widespread panic and a scramble to find backup tapes and a spare server to restore onto. Inevitably this meant business interruption, user frustration and even data loss. Recovering from a backup can take hours; even planned maintenance can take the server down during business hours leaving users unable to work. Today there is no excuse for this situation.

Spacemonger - pinpoint what’s taking up the space on your hard drives

The best thing about Spacemonger (www.sixty-five.cc/sm, $24.95) isn’t that its intuitive display of how space is used on a hard drive allows you to pinpoint what’s taking up the space on your hard drives in a matter of seconds. The screen area shows a colour-coded and hierarchical treemap where the size of the box for each directory or file is in proportion to the space it takes on the drive. Hover the mouse over any element to see a popup with more detail, and scroll the mouse wheel to zoom down to level of individual files.

Upgrading Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2007

For clients who have outgrown SBS 2003, or who just can’t wait any longer for Exchange 2007, migrate them to a new server that’s 64-bit. Microsoft has made a lot of changes with Exchange 2007. The biggest is a switch to only supporting a 64-bit version.

Monitoring servers remotely

Staying on top of customer servers without making a visit using logs, scripts and consoles – and how Windows Server 2008 helps

Selling the first server

A server can make life easier for a small business customer and for you – but how do you convince them of that?

Server installations go wrong for any number of reasons, especially when it’s the first time the business has had a server, and for the strangest reasons. The server was built to specification. The engineer was on time and eager to start. The problem? The customer didn’t like the colour.

Set up Exchange anti-spam features

Move anti-spam settings from one server to another with the Exchange 2007 Anti Spam Migration tool, from Microsoft www.microsoft.com/do.. Run it on the SBS 2003 system to create a PowerShell script that you can run on your Exchange 2007 server to import the appropriate settings.

The Exchange 2007 Management Shell

The Exchange Management Console gives you a quick and easy way of working with your Exchange 2007 server, but it’s the Management Shell that unleashes the full potential of Exchange 2007.

Getting a SAN certificate for Exchange 2007

Exchange 2007 uses SAN certificates, which allow you to mix several different server names in a single certificate. Generating a certificate can be a problem, as the PowerShell command needed to generate the certificate signing request can be long, and unwieldy – and it’s easy enough to make a mistake when typing in part of a long command.

Building clusters with Windows Server 2008

Microsoft has upgraded the Cluster Service in enhanced-capability editions of Windows Server 2008 and the whole process of creating and managing clusters has been made much simpler.

Handling virtual and physical servers together

Microsoft’s own tools don’t support clustering between physical and virtual machines. This means that customers can end up with spare servers that they don’t believe they need.