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.

Replicating Active Directory

This is one of the easiest systems to add redundancy to. Active Directory contains all the information about your customer’s users and machines. If this fails, and you have no backup, they have a problem.

Set up event subscriptions in Windows 2008

Set up an event subscription between two Windows Server 2008 systems