Technology Reflections is a newsletter sponsored and prepared by Mickler & Associates, Inc. of Battle Ground, Washington.  The newsletter addresses the technology concerns of small business in every day lingo, and reflects on trends, issues, and tips to help your company gain competitive advantage from tech spend. Please feel free to distribute to colleagues and partners.

Windows Server 2008 and the SMB

On February 27, 2008, Microsoft released Windows Server 2008 – the latest version of the Windows Server product designed as an upgrade to Windows Server 2003. Small businesses will be given the licensing option for 2008 when they go to purchase new servers this year. Sadly, the 2008 Server offers a number of appealing features that would benefit larger-scale organizations and relatively few benefits for the small to midrange business (SMB). Yes, the GUI of the 2008 Server has changed to reflect the Windows Vista metaphor but, no, Server 2008 is shipped without the Aero interface. Small Business Server 2003 R2 with the latest service packs and updates performs 95-percent of the same functions as Small Business Server 2008, yet there are some features in 2008 that could lend to a business case for SMB adoption.

Licensing Options for Windows Server 2008:

• Small Business Server 2008. Microsoft’s SBS 2008 still offers the best value to the small business. SBS 2008 comes in two licensing modes: Standard and Premium. Bundled with SBS 2008 Standard are Microsoft’s solutions for calendaring and email through Outlook, integration with Office 2007 features, a web-based collaboration system, and a new anti-virus and anti-spam package called ForeFront. ForeFront is new to the SBS bundle and provides some native protection against common threats that small businesses would usually have to purchase a separate product for. Premium allows companies to run all of Standard’s features in addition to Microsoft’s Line-of-Business Application Platform designed to be installed on another hardware server. This feature is new to SBS as well. In short, SBS 2008 Premium allows for two hardware servers: one running Standard features and the other running 2008 Server and SQL Server 2008 Standard which allows the small business to physically divide processor utilization between the two servers. Although Client Access Licenses can be purchased for each license in 5/10/20 increments, SBS doesn’t scale beyond a single server installation so there is some risk in selecting SBS 2008. It presumes that your company will not grow to another site or you will not desire to install a second server during the life of the product.

• Windows Web Server 2008. A crippled version of Windows Server 2008 can be purchased at a lower cost to provide frontend web services to a company. As this license would be purchased for hosting an internal or external web application, it has limited applicability to the SMB but could represent a significant cost savings for certain deployments.

• Windows Server 2008, Standard Edition. The most common version of the 2008 operating system, the 32-bit version of Standard can support up to 4gb RAM and up to four core processors; the 64-bit version of Standard can support up to 32gb RAM and up to four core processors. Standard is the SMB option should the company wish to install and support more than one license of Windows Server, and the SMB would likely wish to secure the 64-bit version to allow for the greatest scaleable flexibility and performance.

• Windows Server 2008, Enterprise and Data Center Editions. Focused on taking on very complex, large-scale processes for many hundreds of users, these editions fall outside traditional SMB needs and can scale to dozens of processors supporting many hundreds of terabytes of RAM.

Feature improvements and enhancements to Windows Server 2008 that are applicable to the needs of the SMB:

• Extensive Group Policy Enhancements. The new version of Windows Server ships with over 800+ new policy objects that allow administrators to control desktop configurations from the server. If your SMB presently takes advantage of Group Policies to control client configurations, 2008 would be a significant benefit to your company, especially if you’re running Windows Vista.

• Self-Healing NTFS. One of the most touted features of this version is a running background application that scans the file system for corruption and fixes the corruption before it can be re-read by an active application. In older version of the NT File System, if this corruption was encountered by an application, the application could stall and break the server. The fix for this was to down the server to gain exclusive access to the volume, run CHKDSK, and defrag to re-organize the disks’ contents. Windows Server 2008 can promise better uptime stats and more reliability because of real-time file system “healing”. This has a lot of bearing on terminal services were files and applications can be held open by waiting sessions.

• SMB 2.0. A core feature of Microsoft solutions that has existed forever is the Server Message Block. The SMB protocol handles Session-Layer interactions between a Microsoft Server and its client operating system, Windows. SMB 2.0 was released in Windows Vista and is incorporated in Windows Server 2008. SMB 2.0 optimizes interactions between the client/server relationship and improves network performance. The best way to describe how SMB 2.0 works is as a buffer. Transactions are pooled into buffer of activity then transmitted which optimized input/output on the network and on secondary storage devices like hard drives. This means that if you’re storing and reading large volumes of data – lots of files or datasets – the performance improvement can be up to 10-30 times faster than Windows Server 2003.

• User Profile Hive Cleanup Service. Another great feature associated with terminal services and “self-healing” of the server is the Hive Cleanup Service. This service helps to clean up after user sessions after terminating or logging off. It removes temporary files, registry entries, cached content, and other elements in physical memory. It allows the server to retain stability after abrupt or unexpected user activity.

• Bitlocker. Implemented in Vista, Bitlocker is an encryption mechanism that works with specific controller technologies. Essentially, Bitlocker would allow the SMB to robustly encrypt hard drive contents on the server at the controller-level (Bitlocker is not addressed at the NTFS level). Bitlocker adds good encryption capability to Windows Server that has been sorely lacking.

• Terminal Services 2008. If there was anything that I’d recommend upgrading to 2008, Terminal Services would be it. Many of Windows Server 2008’s new features complement Terminal Server functions and makes TS more reliable. Because SMB’s rely on Terminal Services for local and remote access to applications, this is one of the more compelling reasons to consider upgrading. This version incorporates many updates and changes with Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) 6.x that make the user experience more positive: printing, multi-monitor support, video support up to 4096x2048, and high-encryption connectivity options. Further, on the administration-side of the problem, 2008 includes something called Terminal Services Web Access (TSWA). TSWA allows clients to first connect to a webpage where users can login and logout of their Terminal Services connections; this simplifies getting in and out of a Terminal Service session. No more manually setting up of RDC-connectoids on the desktop! Also, 2008 includes Terminal Services Remote Programs – a tool to publish applications to remote users which is easier to control than Windows’ native software installation process. Lastly, Terminal Services Gateway allows TS 2008 to run across the standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) – port 443. This means that instead of opening up a special port (port 3389) on a company’s firewall to allow for previous versions of Terminal Server, we can use TSG in TS2008 to run across a standard port already traditionally open to a server, port 443, greatly improving security, use, and setup behind a firewall.

• RODC. An interesting slant to the Domain Controller function in Windows Server 2008 is the role of a Read-Only Domain Controller. RODC’s would be deployed to branch offices were pieces the Active Directory Global Catalog (ADGC) would be pushed to a standing local server. Doing this speeds up login and credential verifications at the branch office, especially over VPN or slow WAN connections. This process relies on centralized administration and reduces the security exposure of a company if the full ADGC was pushed to a remote office.

• Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server. ForeFront is probably another one of those features that I would encourage the purchase of SBS 2008 for. ForeFront is an integrated applications gateway that manages client relationships between trusted and untrusted networks. ForeFront simplifies access to data and provides better security management over company data. The fact that ForeFront for Exchange is shipped with SBS means that the small business is better protected than ever before against spam, viruses, and mail-based service attacks, and the management of this function is centralized and integrated with the Server. It used to be that I would have to recommend a $600+ product to perform this role in addition to the Server license, but ForeFront would remove that expense for the SMB. Not a bad deal.

• Windows Server 2008 Core. Finally, I think one of the more interesting aspects to Windows Server 2008 is its ability to run as a console. You see, Windows has – forever – been laughed at because you can play solitaire on the server. Well, you shouldn’t be able to play solitaire on a server – that’s just silly! Windows always needed to be used in a graphic state, so, you could always play solitaire. Well, no longer. Windows Server Core is now a console-based UI that is an installable option, so, for the first time, instead of booting to a graphic environment, we can boot to a DOS prompt. This may sound like a feature downgrade but is actually quite useful for administrators who simply wish to execute commands to a console rather than “drag and drop” instructions in a GUI.

Okay – Let’s Recap: Why Should I Upgrade?

Today I’ve introduced a lot of features and capabilities of Windows Server 2008 that are applicable to the small to mid-range business. There’s a lot to digest here and certainly I’ve totally avoided more scaled benefits to this platform. In my opinion, if you’re a small business already running Windows Server 2003, there’s not a compelling business case to upgrade to Windows Server 2008, unless:

1. Your server is high-risk. It’s vulnerable to or has suffered from Internet attacks, excessive spam or email attacks, or, is in a physical space where it’s likely to be stolen. 2008’s new security features, integrated ForeFront and Bitlocker, and improved Terminal Service features are important to you.

2. Your company depends on Terminal Services. It’s very likely that your administration of Terminal Services under 2003 has been burdensome and painful, and users complain of diminished functionality. The combined improvements to Server 2008 make an upgrade very compelling to lower that anguish, contain Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and make TS a more enjoyable end-user experience.

3. Your company extensively leverages Sharepoint and Office. If your company has migrated to Office 2007 and wish to take full advantage of the latest Office integration features with Sharepoint, then an upgrade is for you.

4. You’re in the market for a new server. Are existing applications unstable, or, is the server’s utilization highly unbalanced? Are applications lagging or are you running out of drive space? Have you budgeted for a replacement server? A 2008 upgrade is compelling as a scaled replacement option.

5. You’re a mid-range business looking for better performance. The 64-bit Windows Server 2008 Standard offers a 32gb addressable RAM ceiling with support for four processor cores. Further, SBS 2008 ships with Line-of-Business Application Platform to separate SQL Server from Domain Controller functions. This is great news for the small business looking to scale application performance.

If your shop doesn’t meet this criteria then waiting for a while on Windows Server 2003 would probably be in your best interests.

Russell P. Mickler, CISSP | MCSE
Principal Consultant, Mickler & Associates, Inc.
360.601.0818 | rmickler@micklerandassociates.com

Maximizing Google

Google is a powerful search engine and it has several advance operators to tell Google to a specific kind of search… to hone-in on something you’re looking for. If you’re looking to become an ace at Internet search, then here’s a couple of useful tips that you can use with Google. Notice in all of these examples that there is no space between the colon following the query command and the website/search term you’re providing as an argument.

Cache

A cache is a stored web document on Google’s servers. If you include the cache command in your search – example: cache:www.micklerandassociates.com tcp/ip – Google will show all cached content with the phrase “tcp/ip” highlighted for you. It’s a more direct way instead of clicking on “cache” in the web results. Notice that there is no space between the colon and the URL.

Link

Using the Link query will list webpages that have links to a specific webpage. The following example of link:www.micklerandassociates.com will list webpages that have links pointing to this webpage.

Related

Using the Related query will list pages that are similar to a specified web page. Example – related:www.micklerandassociates.com will list web pages that are similar to this page. In using this query, Google is trying to rationalize the similarity between the content found on both sites to develop a pagerank.

Info

The query Info will present information that Google has about a web page. Example: info:www.micklerandassociates.com. Really, this query looks at some meta text found in the index.html of a website you’ve targeted.

Define

The Define query will provide a definition for the word you entered after it from the web. Example – define:politics – will produce a list of definitions for the word “politics”.

Stocks

If you start a query with Stocks:, then Google will search for ticker symbols and show stock information for those symbols. Example – stocks: intc – will show stock information for Intel, then, search information on Intel.

Site

If you include the Site modifier the query, Google restricts its results to the website given in the domain. Example – cooking steaks site:www.about.com – will only return results about cooking steaks from the website About.com. Again, note that there is no space between the colon and the website’s URL.

Allintitle, Intitle, Allinurl, and Inurl

If you start your query with allintitle, the Google will only search for those words in the web page’s title and not its content. Example: allintitle:comic books – only returns web pages with “Comic Books” as a title in the web page. A similar function is intitile which is used the same way, and returns only a single word in the title – example: intitile:comic. Also, you can start a query with allinurl to look for words found only in the URL of a website – example: allinurl:comic books only returns documents that have both of these terms in the URL, and inurl:comic returns those documents that have just “comic” in the URL.

Filetype

One of the more powerful commands in Google allows you to search for a specific document type by document extension. Say, for example, you only wanted to see PowerPoint Presentations available from your search results. You could insert a modifier of filetype:ppt into your query – example: management consensus filetype:ppt – to return a whole bunch of presentations on consensus-based management styles. This works on many other formatted files, too: Public Domain Formats (pdf), Word formats (doc), Excel formats (xls), Rich Text (rtf), Google Earth documents (kml/kmz), and so on.

Convert Units

Less of a command and more of an undocumented feature, Google will automatically convert numerical units into other numerical units. Example - 1 cm in m – will have Google convert 1 centimeter to meters (syntax: [number] [unit of measure] in [unit of measure]). Another example – 12 ft in in – will produce a result of 144 inches.

Google Calculator

Also an undocumented feature is calculator. You can enter any logical operator expression into Google to return a mathematical result. Example – 12+12 will return the answer of 24 for me; ((12+12)*2)/2 will also return 24 for me.

Google is a powerful engine with many different functions that expand beyond just searching for content on the Internet. Take a look at all of Google’s options and capabilities at http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/.

Russell P. Mickler, CISSP | MCSE
Principal Consultant, Mickler & Associates, Inc.
360.601.0818 | rmickler@micklerandassociates.com