How many of you use Small Business Server?

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AMD_Gamer

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How many of you use Small Business Server 2008/11. I just got a new job with a small consulting company and SBS is one of the main products that they use for their clients. It looks pretty simple and installation automatically configures most of the stuff. I am going to download the trial and put it on my ESXi box to play with it.
 
It's the most popular server we install for our clients.....can say it's my bread 'n butter.

Many people can set it up in a basic minimal fashion. But there's a TON of money to be made it REALLY getting your clients excited about it and using all of its functionality. Depending on the size of the client....how much conversion from peer to peer or previous basic server is involved...you can easily get from 3k to over 7k just for the consulting/setup/training services that can compliment a good SBS setup.
 
Have about a dozen <30 user businesses I have set it up in. We are currently migrating my main client away from SBS to S2K8R2, but only because we have outgrown it.
 
hawk82 said:
I have about a dozen business clients with SBS, from 2003 to 2011. I just did a 2003 to 2011 migration over Labor day.

It's a love/hate relationship with SBS.

here's some helpful links I've run across while supporting/maintaining SBS:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/
http://blog.mpecsinc.ca/
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/
There's a good Yahoo groups SBS mailing list as well, http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/sbs2k/
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, I just got this book http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/07...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

Between that and playing with it on my own i should be good!
 
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We had sbs/ebs (while microsoft still had it), but we migrated away from it just because we out grew it.
 
So it is pretty popular now. I remember over the past few years reading that people did not like it? maybe it was when you use the SQL Server with it?

Anyways thanks for the info. I am going to set it up this weekend.
 
SBS is nice but not without its share of problems. Seemingly randomly an update will completely break the built-in sharepoint and it will need to be reinstalled - a huge pain in the ass.
 
D-EJ915 said:
SBS is nice but not without its share of problems. Seemingly randomly an update will completely break the built-in sharepoint and it will need to be reinstalled - a huge pain in the ass.
Click to expand...

Not randomly...it's when people selected optional updates and there was one that would break sharepoint when doing an "upgrade" to it...without paying attention to certain steps on doing it properly. Just had to be aware of it and read how to do it properly.
 
Do you have technet? If you intend to support microsoft products or just want to know about them you really need to get technet...
 
2k11 here, migrated from a 2k3.

I've always found it ironic how SBS is dumbed down for the smaller shops yet when you starting digging into it things can end up more complex than traditional setups. SBS admins end up with such a broad exposure to many different services. Nitty gritty of Exchange & SharePoint always fun to deal with. Google FTW!

Massive savings on licensing for the small shops needing SQL and Exchange.

Some things I've never really embraced is exposing the box to the internet more than needed. Email yes, anything else not so much. The RWW environment I just front end with a hardware firewall/VPN. Never used the built in VPN functionality, always had 3rd party solutions. Wizards are what they are, either use'em or don't. Middle ground always ends up messy.
 
I setup both SBS 2008 and SBS 2011 this weekend on my ESXi host and I am pretty impressed. It set everything up during installation and then you are ready to go. It even has the GPO's for the clients to use the WSUS built in.
 
SBS 2003/2008 is also vastly easier to set-up than Server 2008 Standard with Exchange 2010, for example. It's an awesome little package and a tremendous value if all or most of the features are used.
 
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