Update: I’ve discovered that Outlook 2007 works fine if you switch the networking options in virtualbox from “NAT” to “Bridged”. It also fixed some other issues I was having (mapped network drives and group policy didn’t get applied. For reference the domain controller is a Windows 2008 SBS server.

w32tm /config /syncfromflags:MANUAL /manualpeerlist:time.nist.gov
w32tm /config /update

Obviously you can use your preferred time server instead of time.nist.gov, but run these two commands and wait a few minutes, and you should see your clock correct itself. The process will show ‘time-service’ events in the system event log to confirm your changes.

If you are using a stand-alone computer or if you want to enable verbose status messages on only one computer, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK.
3. Expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then click System.
4. In the right pane, double-click Verbose vs normal status messages.
5. Click Enabled, and then click OK.
6. Close Group Policy Object Editor, and then click OK.

Run a gpupdate /force if you can. After doing this, we noticed our machines were hanging at the printers group policy. After disabling the offending printer policy, logon worked fine again. As techies we decided to leave Verbose Status Messages switched on, as it can actually be very useful. Check out Chris’s previous post for more on our printer issues.

When connecting a computer via the SBS connection wizard (found at the URL http://connect) by default, we found that when the _sbs_netsetup user logs on, that it does not log off again, and any attempt to log off manually just causes it to automatically log back on.

To solve this we needed to grant local administrator rights to the local user _sbs_netsetup. Obviously as the user is currently logged on and you cannot log off in order to log back on as an administrator, it is not possible to do this on the local machine. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Run MMC on your server
2. Add computer management snap-in and set it to manage the computer in question
3. Browse to Local Users and Groups / Users
4. Add _sbs_netsetup to the Administrators group
5. Log off the local machine

Now the SBS setup process should complete as normal and you should end up with a machine connected to your domain and ready to go!

The user ‘HP LaserJet 2300 Series PCL 6′ preference item in the ‘Common {<id>}’ Group Policy object did not apply because it failed with error code ‘0×8000ffff Catastrophic failure’ This error was suppressed.

This error is not very helpful as you can see, and infact turned out to be that the driver for the printer was not available. This led us into another issue – that of installing x86 drivers on the server to be available for clients when they connect.

Initially, we thought this would be easy. “Oh, just go into sharing and tick the x86 box in additional drivers”, we thought. Having tried to do that it turned out to be a lot more complex than it should be. Ticking this box will ask you to browse to find the x86 version of the x64 driver you currently have installed – easy. Then it will ask you to ‘please provide path to windows media (x86 processor)’ – OK, that’s doable?

It seems to be looking for the file ntprint.inf, and wanted to look on a CD-ROM, in the I386 folder by default. So, recognising the folder name we stuck in the XP pro disc, thinking we would be off, but alas, it tries to load the file and then gives the same prompt again! I then decided to search my own workstation (Vista Ultimate x86) for the the file and found the following directory to contain it, as well as an I386 folder.

C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\ntprint.inf_xxxxxx

I copied the contents of this directory to the same directory on the server which holds the x86 version of the driver in question, and then went into sharing and ticked the x86 box once more. It again asked for the path to the driver, but this time did not prompt asking for the additional media!

So, in conclusion, it seems you need both your x64 server and an x86 client available in order to get the driver installed, for our printer at least.

FATAL: DcPromo_JoinDomain: The server was not promoted to a domain controller.

The solution was surprisingly simple. An active network connection is required to start the setup, however I had disconnected the NIC during setup. Bad move, this causes the setup to bail out. The solution, of course, is to make sure the network card remians connected for the duration of the setup.

With politeness out the way, I made a start on opening the box. The arrival of a new server is always an exciting time in the office, lasting approximately 30 seconds (maximum). This server is particularly special as it’s for our own use. Unfortunately nobody else was around to share the moment and there was no way on earth it could remain boxed, especially not for an entire week while Chris was on holiday.

The plan was to setup the new server with Windows 2008 SBS, we have deployed Windows 2008 before but never Windows Server 2008 Small Business Server – which is due for release in early November.

With the SBS 2008 DVD in one hand and server in the other (err, you know what I mean), nothing could was going to stop me trying out the new OS. The DVD booted fine and setup began. I left it going in the background and approximately 30 minutes later I heard the fans spin up following a reboot. I eagerly awaited the GUI to load up. Then it hit me… a non continuable error message stating that 4GB of RAM was required.

I couldn’t believe this wasn’t detected earlier in the setup. Lesson learnt – don’t just assume your brand new server will meet the minimum requirements. SBS 2003 would run on pretty much anything, but 2008 requires a whole lot more. I guess with the ever decreasing cost of RAM this isn’t a huge problem. Never the less, it caught me out.

Let’s just compare the difference in minimum requirements for SBS 2003 and SBS 2008

Windows 2003 Small Business Server:

• Minimum: 750 Mhz
• 512 MB RAM
• 16 GB Hard Disk Space

Windows 2008 Small Business Server:

• Recommended: 2 GHz (x64 processor) or faster
• Minimum: 4 GB RAM
• Minimum: 60 GB Hard Disk Space

That’s almost 3 times more CPU power and 8 times more RAM than the previous version. Based on those figures, expect Windows 2013 SBS to need a 6 Ghz CPU and 32 GB of RAM!

The MDB application shows a lot of latency, taking several seconds between screens. Having looked at the MDB Performance FAQ we discovered that a technique called SMB signing can decrease network transfer speed by 10-25%. There are a couple of registry keys that can be tweaked:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Lanmanworkstation\Parameters\enablesecuritysignature

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Lanmanworkstation\Parameters\requiresecuritysignature

On a domain controller the default setting is to have “requiresecuritysignature” set to 1. We’ve changed this to 0 and will report our findings back shortly.