For a while, Dell was shipping their Small Business Servers with a 12GB System partition.  While that may have seemed like a lot of space at one time, it's not amymore, and we're seeing clients' servers getting stressed out as they're pushing the limits of the partition size.

Upon setting up the server, moving the USERS share was always the first order of business.  Even when 12GB seemed roomy, it was obvious 15 users was going to eat their way through the share space in nothing flat, and a move to the data partition was in order.

The Health & Monitoring server was another space hog, with its database growing out of control until it expanded, like a gas, to fill all available space.  So, a quick reinitialization of the database clears up some space...

But a lot of these things are quick fixes, but there's a lot of them... so it was very nice of Microsoft to bundle all of them into a single document: Moving Data Folders for Windows Small Business Server 2003

The 600k Word Document is a tremendous little cookbook! It covers just about everything:

• Step 1: Complete and Verify a Full Backup
• Step 2: Notify Users that Resources will be Unavailable
• Step 3: Move the Users Shared Folders
• Step 4: Move the SharePoint Databases
• Step 5: Move the Monitoring Database
• Step 6: Move Exchange Databases and Log Files
• Step 7: Move the Sent Faxes Folder
• Step 8: Move the ClientApps Shared Folder

Thanks, SBS Team!

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Recently installed SQL Server 2008 on a Windows 2008 box and was happily adminsitering it from the console of the local server.  When I fired up SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) from my development machine, it wouldn't connect.

I turned the firewall off  and still couldn't connect.

Turns out TCP/IP isn't turned on by default.  Maybe I knew that at one time, but this time it totally slipped  my mind.

To turn it on, go into SQL Server Configuration Manager, expand "SQL Server Network Configuration" and change "Disabled" to "Enabled" by right-clicking on "TCP/IP" and suddenly, I could connect from my development machine.

This article first appeared at the now-closed Win32Scripting site. Since I find it useful, and my bookmark no longer works, I have been unable to reach its author, Jeff Trumbull, so I hope he doesn't mind that I've archived it.

Author: Jeff Trumbull

Description:
Backup files that make a Microsoft virtual server with only about 1 minute of down time. Suspends the virtual server, takes a shadow copy , starts the virtual server then copies virtual server files. This could be used to copy any open files. Requires vshadow.exe from vss sdk.

Script:

Long story short, you can't... at least not thru the interface. Instead, you need to totally blow out your configuration and reconfigure the server.

However, it's not as bad as it seems - there's not so much to configure that it should be too big of a hassle.

If you have console access, close your databases, and make note of your settings.

• Stop the Filemaker Service.
• Assuming a default installation, go to c:\program files\filemaker\filemaker server\admin\conf and delete the 4 XML files in there.
• Restart the Filemaker Service
• Reconnect to the Filemaker Console

It'll re-walk you thru the wizard to set up the server, and the first thing you do is set up a username and password. Your databases (again, assuming a default installation) will already be there, ready to go...

Got a call from a client today who was unable to get his laptop to connect to his wireless network.

The client has a standard Linksys WRT54G which is sitting behind a WatchGuard SOHO router.  (The WatchGuard predated my involvement with the client, and we determined it was easier to use the WRT54G as an access point rather than ripping out the WatchGuard...)

Upon inspection, the laptop WAS connecting to the wireless network, it just didn't have internet access.  Vista would show it had Internet connectivity, but it would then just go away.

Upgraded the WRT54g's firmware, same result.  Changed from WEP to WPA-2. Same result.

Reviewed the logs on the WatchGuard and saw "User count exceeded. Packet dropped."

A-HA!

The WatchGuard, unlike most consumer routers, has a user limit to it.  It keeps track of 10 IPs and when IP number 11 hits the routing table, it gets whacked with a big ole' DENY rule.

When I plugged the laptop into the WRT54g via ethernet cable, the IP address was one of the 10 in the routing table and packets were allowed to flow.  The IP address assigned to the wireless interface was not in the table and therefore blocked.

We couldn't figure out why the laptop stopped working.  The client mentioned the laptop stopped working when we put a new computer on the floor.  We did a quick count of all devices on the network and only came up with 7...

Just as I was leaving, one of the warehouse guys came in holding his iPhone asking "Did something happen to the wireless network?"

Of course, something had -- I hadn't changed the Linksys back to WEP after the WPA-2 experiment, and he lost his connection... and the mystery of the additional devices was solved.

So, the moral is two-fold -- look for user licensing restrictions where you least expect them, and someone else's handheld device from home sitting on your network might have a negative impact on your ability to get work done.