Infrastructure Optimization

If you’re a user of Microsoft Deployment 1.x and upgrading to Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2008, then you’ll want to pop over to Michael Niehaus’ blog, where he’s posted instructions on this scenario. Seems they included BDD to MDT migration, but not MD to MDT migration.

One thing of note from this posting (as we ourselves are getting down with MDT):

• Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) has been updated to 1.1 - this was a big download before, so clear the pipes, folks, if you’re planning on deploying Vista SP1.

Is anyone out there planning on deploying Vista SP1 in the near term? I’d love to hear your experiences, you brave souls!

From the excellent 4sysops blog:

Vista SP1 is officially only available for enterprise customers, but the reports about problems caused by this service pack are piling up. This post contains a list of all SP1 issues I am aware of.

List of Issues with Vista SP1 (4sysops)

Good to know, especially if you are managing Windows Updates at the Enterprise level. Also good to know for you early adopters with TechNet subscriptions.

You’re absorbing caffeine from a white cup with green letters while surfing the web on your laptop and you suddenly remember that you need something from your corporate VPN. What to do? Yes, I know you’ll try to establish VPN even if you tried it just last Thursday. You’re an optimist who believes that they just might have realized that outgoing VPN is not evil. But alas, you’ll need to head back home since airports, hotels and coffee shops notoriously block most all of the really cool protocols from working.

Some day soon (we hope) you’ll be able stay comfy and do your work. This is all due to the upcoming Windows 2008 and Vista support of SSTP!

The Secure Socket Tunnel Protocol is really an ingenious convergence of secure HTTP (HTTPS/SSL) and Point-to-Point Protocol technologies. In order to make this work you’ll need a few things:

• Windows 2008 Server - Expected February release
• A certificate authority (This can be an internal enterprise CA)
• A firewall - My personal favorite: Microsoft ISA 2006
• Vista SP1 - Early to mid March release. There’s discussion on whether XP SP3 will add this support but the future is unclear. Check again later.

Now, I won’t tell you that giving your road warriors this kind of freedom is going to take 15 minutes and a wizard, but there are already some great resources published to get you ready.

• Dr. Thomas Shinder (The smartest firewall guy I know) has published an article on ISAserver.org on how to configure ISA 2006 for SSTP access:
  • http://www.isaserver.org/tutorials/Publishing-Windows-Server-2008-SSL-VPN-Server-Using-ISA-2006-Firewalls-Part1.html
• Another Dr. Shinder article on WindowsSecurity.com. This one is a 2-part article. Part 1 is a deep-dive on the new protocol and part 2 focuses on configuring required Windows 2008 services:
  • Part 1: http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Configuring-Windows-Server-2008-Remote-Access-SSL-VPN-Server-Part1.html
  • Part 2: http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Configuring-Windows-Server-2008-Remote-Access-SSL-VPN-Server-Part2.html
• Samir Jain from the TechNet Routing and Remote Access blog has posted a primer on the SSTP protocol:
  • http://blogs.technet.com/rrasblog/archive/2007/01/10/how-sstp-based-vpn-connection-works.aspx

Happy Tunneling!

Jonathan Connery MCSE+I, MCSD
Senior Systems Architect
Getronics Consulting and Transformation Services
Infrastructure Optimization Team

If you assumed that the first service pack for Exchange was just a collection of hotfixes, let me assure you that it is ever so much more.

What’s in it?

This SP has everything:

• Support for Windows 2008 Server
• Active Directory schema updates
• New replication options: Standby Continuous Replication (SCR)
• Additional functionality that didn’t make it into the RTM (release to manufacturing)
  • More complete Exchange Management Console (EMC)
  • Many enhancements to Web Services
• Support for native IPv6 networks (Windows 2008 environments)
• The ability to export a mailbox to a PST file from the command line

Important! About Windows 2008 support:

Even though Exchange 2007 SP1 supports 2008, it will not support a Windows 2008 upgrade. What this means is that if you’re running Exchange 2007 RTM on Windows 2003, you’ll not be able to install SP1 then upgrade the server 2008. Of course this also means you’ll not have the ability to upgrade to Windows 2008 on the RTM either. So if you plan to run Exchange on 2008 server you’ll need to at least uninstall Exchange prior to the upgrade or better yet just build it up from bare metal. Plan accordingly!

Things to keep in mind before updating:

• Windows 2003 must be running service pack 2 prior to the update.
• Install .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 before updating.
• Source files should be stored locally on the server you’ll be upgrading. This is due to the fact that the setup application is a .NET 2.0 application which requires source files to from a trusted local source. But don’t worry, if you install from a network location, the files will be cached locally during the installation automatically.
• To update Active Directory you’ll need “Schema Administrators” and “Enterprise Administrators” rights.
• To upgrade the first server, you’ll need to be a member of the “Exchange Organization Administrators” role and local administrator rights. Additional servers require you to have local administrator rights.
• There are 2 ways to deploy the SP, the first of course being the standard wizard (GUI) as well as from the command line. This is especially helpful if you wish to script portions of the domain preparation if you have a large forest of domains.
• Any post RTM hotfixes will not require an uninstall. The service pack will identify and remove these prior to installation.
• Upgrade Client Access Server roles prior to upgrading other roles. This ensures that the ActiveSync, OWA Premium, OWA light and POP3/IMAP components can correctly display content to remote users.

More Resources

I’ll not bore you with the step-by-step walk-through but when you’re ready for the upgrade, please follow the steps outlined by Microsoft and the good guys over at MSExchange.org.

• MSExchange.org SP1 deployment article: http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/migration-deployment/deploying-exchange-server-2007-service-pack1.html
• Exchange 2007 SP1 release notes: http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5770BD59-376E-42EC-B940-BE6225CD97FF&displaylang=en

Here’s some more useful links regarding Exchange and/or Exchange SP1:

• MS Exchange Team Blog: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/02/23/435699.aspx
• Exchange 2007 SP1 -  What’s New: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb676323.aspx
• TechNet (Exchange 2007 general information): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124558(EXCHG.80).aspx
• Exchange system requirements: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996719.aspx

Cheers and good luck!

Jonathan Connery MCSE+I, MCSD
Senior Systems Architect
Getronics Consulting and Transformation Services
Infrastructure Optimization Team