Because I can
Mafia the city of lost heaven was my best gaming experience ever and now the sequel is available. Hope it gets delivered soon.
I went for the Xbox 360 version because my pc’s graphics card can hardly handle this game. I don’t feel like investing € 200 + for a decent graphics card that will run the game smoothly.
The demo seemed pretty fluent on my 360, not as pretty as the pc version but I can live with it.
Attention to all MCP’s out there. The “Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2″ E-book is temporary available for free on the microsoft website. You can download it here.
Keep in mind this is temporary!
Aurora’s log, day 2.
The most important feature to me in Small Business Server 2008 is the remote web workplace. Aurora also has some web capabilities called remote web access and I played with it this morning.
You can access the remote web access by surfing to https://remote.yourdomainname.bla . Upon loading this page you are greeted with a login windows similar to the one we had in SBS2008.
After logging in you are provided with several columns which contain items from 3 different categories. First up are the computers which are available to connect to (Remote desktop), next to that are the shared folders and finally there is a list with important links (these can be customized in the dashboard).
Connecting to the server or a client pc is pretty straight forward. You click the icon and provide the credentials. The Aurora server link however does not start a standard rdp connection. What it does do is start a remote app which contains the dashboard.
On the shared folder page you can download and upload files from and to the server. If you want to upload multiple files at once you have to use the plugin which is presented by the page.
For a complete list of available computers you can click the computer button on top.
I also stumbled upon my first beta error. Jay! It’s a minor one but it was confusing when I first saw it.
So there we have it, the remote web access feature. The shared folder part will hopefully also be integrated in the SBS 7. I also wonder if other remote apps from a terminal server can easilly be added to the list of computers.
Well finally the beta was released of Windows Server Codename Aurora. This server is oriented for business’ that are getting their first server and supports clients up to 25 users.
The install is pretty straight forward. There is however one big difference with installs of other Windows version. You cannot partition the hard drive yourself. This is due to the way Aurora manages the storage devices. Every drive is added to a storage pool. If enabled shared folders can be duplicated over these different drives (providing there is enough space available).
The first thing you see after booting is a screen which asks you basic information such as:
This information cannot be changed afterwards. Up till now things are pretty much similar to a small business installation.
Once on the desktop you can click upon the dashboard shortcut. After which you are greeted with this screen:
Just like in Small Business Server you have to complete a list of task before you can use the server.
First up is enabling microsoft updates:
Yep that’s it, nothing more to do there. Next up is configuring and scheduling the backup. The following screenshots pretty much explain the entire process. There is no backup possibility for tape devices, if you recall this was ditched since Server 2008. I don’t regret this, I hate tape restoring.
Next up is ‘Set up remote access’. This step will configure you router (you need a upnp device for this, if you do not have such a device you will have to manually setup some port forwarding).
Next the wizard will ask you to configure a domain name. It will also ask you to fill in a certificate or request one. If you skip the certificate question a trusted root certificate will be assigned to the remote workspace.
Next you have the option to set up sharing. This function adds a user and sets the appropriate permissions for him.
The next task explains how centralized storage works and how it is an advantage for a business. The most important lesson in the text is availability of the data from anywhere.
The last real task is to set up email alert. Because Aurora lacks exchange you have to configure a relay server to send out messages concerning the server (drive failures, …).
There are a few things I have noticed on this Aurora install. Unlike other Small Business Servers Aurora does not have the DHCP server role installed by default. This also means that you have to make a DHCP reservation on your router for your Aurora Server.
The operating system is installed on a 60GB partition on the primary drive. I do not think that the server can survive a primary hard drive crash without downtime. The folder replication only duplicates shared folders and not the system partition. I would advice to use an appropriate RAID system for the primary drive.
The server folders are visible in the explorer as drives.
I also managed to connect an XP client system to the server. The installation is pretty straight forward and reminds me of the connect system in SBS2008. The user can simply surf to http://servername/connect. After which you can start the connect program. This program configures the system and also asks which user will be using the system. There is no need for network administrator credentials to connect the client machine.
Upon restarting the client and logging in a launchpad application loads. This essentially has shortcuts to the options the Aurora server offers such as:
The backup function is simple and quick. Not much to say about it. The server comes with a restore CD which you can use to restore systems. I haven’t tested this function yet but I sure will.
A few heads up for the people who are going to test this server with an ISP which blocks ports such as 443 and 80. You can add a binding in IIS to the default site to make it available on another port (Though port 80 is only used internally for as far as I can see).
If you want to create your own certificate you can use the selfsll.exe application from the IIS Resource toolkit (this is ideal for the dyndns users out there). Well that’s it for today. Stay tuned for more Aurora exploration soon.
I stumbled across this article on Tom’s Hardware. The pictures really tell everything. Only thing I’m curious about is if he has the matching boards.
There are some cpu’s in the list I owned 
Microsoft hasn’t released the Small Business Server 7 beta which I am eagerly awaiting. I’m most curious about the new remote workspace.
In other news, turned 25 tuesday and my 2 week leave has started today! Haven’t celebrated my birthday yet with pie. I will do so for sure tomorrow! Hope there will be strawberry pie in the bakery tomorrow.
It seems that Mac Os X Snow Leopard can easily be installed in vmplayer.
There’s an article here which explains how to do this.
You do however need a cpu that supports virtualization. For some reason the article says that this won’t work on AMD Cpu’s. I don’t really understand why since most AMD cpu’s support virtualization. There are however some limitations:
The ethernet connection seems to work. This machine is very useful for people who want to learn more about this OS and see how it responds when integrated into an existing network.
Speaking of which, it is really easy to integrate a Mac into an Active Directory. In fact I wish it were just as easy to integrate a Ubuntu machine into a network. This article explains how you should do it.
Well my previous blog post mentioned that all components were available for the next version of Windows Small Business Server. Well this week Microsoft announced that the new one will be called “7″.
The key components that were updated were indeed Windows Server 2008 R2, Sharepoint and Exchange 2010. The Remote Web Workplace has been renamed to Remote Workspace App. It has also had a major overhaul making it look even better. Shared folders can also be made available on it, the components can also be dragged into different order. From what is visible right now the SBS Console is still pretty much the same (which is a good thing!).
Windows Aurora is a new product. It is meant for small business’ up to 25 users. It cannot be added to existing domains, migration from another server is also not an option. This product is aiming for new clients. It also features a Windows Home Server Disk management service. You can just insert a disk and it is added to the pool. It doesn not provide Exchange or Sharepoint out of the box. These functions can however be bought as an extra service from microsoft. I don’t know if this “cloud” approach will be successful on the market. Basing a professional product on a platform that is meant for home use does not seem like a super idea to me (even though that home product was in its own based upon a professional product). To be honest, I fear that Aurora will end up next to Windows Essential Business Server which was discontinued.
You can find out more about these products on these following pages: