Microsoft released the Windows Small Business Server 2008 RC0 today.
For those of you who do not know SBS: SBS has traditionally been a single server setup with Exchange, SQL Server and ISA Server. It consolidates all “big” Microsoft technologies on a single server. This contradicts most “Best Practices” published by Microsoft, and as such SBS has always been seen as the red-headed stepchild in the Windows Server Family. SBS 2008 aims to improve several of these points (especially with the Premium Edition shipping with TWO server licenses).
After a 6 hour downloaded that trickled in at a few meager 200kbyte/s, i was finally able to get started with it.
SBS 2008 now demands x64 hardware - so for testing i used an IBM x3650 running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise with the Hyper-V RC1. Hyper-V supports 64bit guests. Other hardware requirements have also gotten steeper - you’ll need 4GB RAM minimum (though i launched the VM with only 2GB). The Premium Edition now comes with licenses for two servers - finally making it possible to have redundant domain controllers even in a Small Business setup without paying for full server licenses.
The first half of the setup is similar to what you know from Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista - you boot, select the disk, have the chance to enter a product key, and finally start the installation. After that, the WIM image is expanded to the harddrive. The machine reboots after installation, and this is where things get different.
After booting, you’ll land in “Install Windows Small Business Server 2008″ Wizard. This can be mostly automated using an Answer file, which is mandatory when migrating from earlier versions. I will check that out later and proceed with a simple installation without using an Answer file.
I get nagged by a “Insufficient Hardware Screen”, reminding me that my (virtual) machine only has 2GB RAM. After acknowledging the warning, i can setup my date and time. I choose the CEST timezone, and move onwards.
Next, a screen confronts me with the fact that i don’t have a NIC - which is true. The machine is running on Hyper-V RC1, and i wasn’t able to install the integration components yet. Luckily, there is a “Browse” Button, where i can launch the Integration Services setup. Installation of the Integration Components worked fine, the machine rebooted. I hope Microsoft packs the Hyper-V RTM bits into SBS RTM. This would make it easier to install it into a VM, but as you can see, it’s not much of a hassle.
I was back at the beginning, at the start of the SBS Wizard. Luckily, i was now able to use the mouse after installing the Hyper-V IC. Next, i get an Update Dialog, asking me if i want to update my server. I choose yes and have to wait.
Next, i was asked to enter my company information. Next, i was able to name my server and the NETBIOS name of the Domain. I was not able to choose a DNS Name for the Domain (This is only possible if using an Answer File). Interestingly, Dashes “-” were not accepted as part of the server name. I wonder why - our production setup uses dashes extensively in server names, and so does Microsoft (judging from their Mail headers).
Then i was asked to create an an administrative account - a good idea. The “Administrator” account shouldn’t be used in a production setup, instead each user with administrative rights should have their own account. SBS enforces this - a very good idea.
After confirming Server name, Domain name and Company name, the installation continued on it’s own. This took a good amount of time, during which the server restarted several times - of course completely unattended. No need to play disc jockey or logon - much better than SBS 2003.
After the installation, i was greeted with a screen that told me that it was unable to install some critical updates. Clicking on that bar revealed an IE7 404. I checked the IP configuration - the server was configured to use 192.168.0.2, and didn’t have a DHCP server installed. There was no default gateway set yet.
Next, i launched the “Connect to the Internet Wizard” which told me that i was already running a DHCP server - which makes sense. After choosing “Postpone”, the Wizard aborted. That wasn’t quite what i was hoping for.
I shut down the VM and reconfigured it to use a private LAN. That way, it wouldn’t have a connection to the internet, but it wouldn’t have to deal with a DHCP Server either. But SBS didn’t like that either - it wanted a router. So i setup a second VM running IPcop (which works flawlessly on Hyper-V using Legacy NICs and a small virtual hard drive).
It was interesting to see using “tcpdump” what SBS did under the covers to detect the router. ARP scanning, IPv6 Discovery, Everything. This seems rather well designed. It was sucessfully able to detect my IPcop VM which didn’t have a DHCP server.
Next, i started the wizard to enable my domain name. It seems that SBS will be able to do some of these things automatically if you live in the US. Here of course we have to do things manually.
So far i don’t like that SBS tells me very very few technical details. But this might be because Microsoft somehow thinks that a Small Business Owner will setup SBS on their own (which just seems a horribly stupid design decision).
Next, it told me that i couldn’t configure my Internet Router properly (my IPcop instance didn’t have UPNP support enabled). It’s interesting to see that it wants to forward port 25 to the server. It looks like the POP3 Connector was finally killed off for good. That’s very good to hear!
I also had to configure outbound email properly, with the ability to configure a smarthost or use direct sending. There is also a wizard to easily create a properly signed official SSL certificate - nicely done and will surely improve the security of the many SBS setups that are out there.
SBS 2008 also ships with OneCare for Servers already preinstalled. You can just activate it with a few clicks. I don’t see this very positively - I’ve made a few bad experiences with ForeFront Client Security, which OneCare is based on. We’ve been using McAfee for the past. So in the future for SBS setups we will have to either remove OneCare from the SBS, or deal with having multiple virus scanners on the network (a management nightmare).
Another interesting tidbit is that UAC is enabled in approval mode, just like on standard Windows Server 2008 installations when not using the Administrator account. This is annoying, IMHO. I don’t have a problem with UAC on my desktop because i usually use my desktop to work and not change settings - but when i’m logged onto a server, i want to change settings all the time.
That’s it for the first impressions. I will have a closer look at SBS 2008 over the following days and will keep you all updated.
Pictures are here:
