January 2007 - Posts
Today I was performing the first phases of a Swing Migration (www.SBSMigration.com) and all seemed to be going fine, except... The new domain controller (an SBS 2003 server VPC on my notebook) wasn't finishing the replication. Running NET SHARE from the command prompt did not show the NETLOGON nor SYSVOL share. Looking at the File Replication System event logs shows that the it also showed that there was a problem with replicating the new domain controller. Without a solid replication, swinging doesn't happen.
I beat my head on the (fire)wall trying all I could think of. I tried doing a dcpromo to reverse making my VPC a domain controller. That wouldn't work either. I Googled, I EventID'd, and then EventID.net lead me to an article on Microsoft's site that suggested assigning specific TCP/IP ports to the Active Directory replication process and opening up those ports in the Windows Firewall. Well, since this is a temporary domain controller that will be used OFF the Internet, the security of a firewall was secondary to getting the replication accomplished. I went in and disabled the Windows Firewall. Voila! The replication suddenly took place and the much sought after shares appeared in the temp DC. There was more work to do (I ended up demoting my temp DC and then re-promoting it just to be sure.) Now I have a temp DC I feel confident in as I move forward on this migration.
I almost called this "The Internet Comes to San Antonio"! Today it was announced that Microsoft will be building a major data center right here in sleepy little (8th largerst US city) ole San Antonio, Texas! This won't be an itty bitty little site but a 1/2 BILLION DOLLAR facillity. It is slated to house a major chunk of Microsoft web and eCommerce servers.
San Antonio was picked from among cities around the globe. Factors that I'm sure influenced the selection were the abundant, cheap electrical power here and the stability of the weather. Yes, it gets hot in the summer. And yes, we just had an ice storm. But we are virtually unaffected by such weather events as hurricaines, tornados, and such.Of course the City of San Antonio went out of its way to offer Microsoft incentives as well.
The new Microsoft data center will be located in the growing western section of the city, out by Sea World. Apparently Lowes is putting a major data center out there as well. Of course World Savings headquarters is in the area too. Pretty soon, sleepy lil ole San Antonio will be Data Center, USA!
Here's a link to an article in MySanAntonio.com.
Tonight I went on line to my national distributor to find pricing on licensing for Windows XP. Couldn't find it. Then I tried MS-GearUp.com, a partners tool for figuring out the proper licensing, part numbers, pricing, etc. There was NO listing for Windows XP! But there Vista. Going back to my distributor's web site, I WAS able to find pricing for the Vista SKU MS-GearUp gave me. Still, looking up an 'old' XP SKU provided nothing.
I posted my observation to the 'Family' e-mail group and Susan Bradley, SBS Diva, reminded me that certain MS licensing allows for downgrade rights. So, if you want XP for now, you buy Vista licenses, use the downgrade rights with XP until you're ready for Vista, and then move to Vista. The pricing for Vista appears to be about the same as the XP Pro licensing was.
Susan also pointed out Eric Ligman's blog on the subject. Love this URL!
http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/archive/2006/12/14/if-i-have-the-windows-vista-business-upgrade-or-windows-xp-professional-upgrade-through-volume-licensing-what-do-i-have-the-rights-to-run-using-the-downgrade-rights.aspx.
Thanks, Susan. Thanks, Eric.
New Year's Day is always a bit melancholy. Christmas is my favorite season. I look forward to November all year long as that is the beginning, almost, of the holidays. And it usually means an ending of the South Texas summer heat! We have Halloween and then Thanksgiving, and then on to the Christmas season with all the pretty decorations, the family togetherness, and sometimes a bit of a break from the regular workday grind. Then New Year's hits. The kids are gone and the tree has come down. Back to the old grind tomorrow.
But on a happier note, I received my CRM MVP renewal today! It is a nice vote of confidence to receive that confirmation once again.
2007 should be an exciting and busy year. Microsoft will soon be launching its newest products, CRM 4.0 (code named Titan) will likely be released at some point in '07, the MVP Summit will be in March in Redmond. I also expect to make a number of trips to Chicago to conduct CRM training.
Here's hoping 2007 will be a Happy New Year for all!