OnQ

On ISA

In case you hadn't figured it out yet, Amy Babinchak rocks. Earlier today I was working with a client trying to get ISA 2004 installed on his SBS server. We kept running into this error:

"The wizard cannot install ISA Server 2004. Try to install it again by restarting this wizard. If the problem persists, see http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/support for additional help and support."

The client had run into trouble the first time he tried to install ISA 2004, and he couldn't get around it quickly, so he uninstalled and waited until we had time to work together. We looked at a couple of things, but I was expecting to troubleshoot ISA issues after the install, not installation problems.

I had just seen Amy pop on IM, so I pinged her and gave her the quick summary. She pointed me to a post she made regarding a similar problem: http://isainsbs.blogspot.com/2005/10/isa2004-installation-fails-during-sbs.html. So I took a quick peek...

On the surface, it looked like it described the problem we had exactly. Even the errors in the sbsisa2k log file were identical. I skipped down to the solution listed in the post (and Amy said the same thing in our IM conversation) and looked at the possibility that the performance counters were indeed corrupt. However, when we loaded perfmon, we didn't see the behavior described.

Next I looked deeper into the ISAWRAP log files and found the real issue - the installer could not write temp files into a path in the user's My Documents folder. We had just relocated the share for the Users Shared Folders object on the server and had forgotten to log out and back in to recreate the link to the My Documents folder in the new location. Once we logged out and back in, the ISA installer ran fine.

Most of the issues the client had seen the first time he installed ISA 2004 on the server were not present after we restarted the server and began testing the behavior on the client workstations. However, one key item did - Outlook would not connect to the Exchange server. Let me clarify though - Outlook running in a remote session on a Terminal Server would not. Outlook running from a console logon on the terminal server would. Once we finally dug deep enough to identify that yes, in fact, it was something related to ISA, I was able to find KB 897716. We downloaded and installed the update, and Outlook started working.

Another day, another few ISA lessons learned..

On Transitions

Nothing is ever as easy as it seems. So it's been with moving my web services. Not that Vlad has been problematic, oh heck no. He's been great. It's my former web hosting provider. So here I am, two weeks later, and I still have yet to get that other domain moved over.

This one has been running along just fine, thank you, I've just been slow to post blog updates. They weren't kidding when they warned me about the SBS MVP mailing list...

On Discovery

I was browsing through a local book reseller this evening and, as is my custom these days, I went straight to the compjuter section looking for a certain title. Lo and behold, there it was in all its printed glory! Yes, the Borders in Lewisville, Texas, has a single copy of Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 Unleashed on its shelves.

Do you have your copy yet?

On Moving

Who you choose as a web host is an important decision. And I made a decision in December to change my web hosting provider for two of my sites. Today, we are fully online with the new host.

Thanks to Vlad Mazek and Own Web Now for helping me get the site and the blogs set back up. We had some fun getting it going, but it's all good now.

That's not the only change I'll be making in 2006, but it's a big one. The eonconsulting.net site had only been up for a year, so I didn't really have any loyalty to the hosting service that I was using for that. The simultaneouspancakes.com site, however, I've had up for over 7 years with the same provider, and that one took some doing to agree to move. But, in the end, I made the right choice.

Welcome to 2006!

On MVP

Yesterday, on my birthday, I was bestowed with a great honor. I was named an MVP (Most Valuable Professional) by Microsoft in recognition of the work I've done in the Small Business Server community over the past year. On the one hand, I'm thrilled to have my contributions recognized in this way by the community, and I'm very proud that I'll be able to add the MVP initials to my name over the next year. On the other hand, I'm still dumbfounded that I've been added to such an elite group of experts in the small business community. Seeing the MVP in my title may have some people think that I'm an equal with the other MVPs who belong to the SBS group. I certainly dont' think that way. I have the utmost admiration for the other members of the SBS MVP community, and I know I'll have to work even harder to live up to the expectations that the title implies.

Thanks to those who nominated me for this award, and thanks to Microsoft for researching the nomination and giving me the award anyway. It was a wild year in 2005. I can only imagine what 2006 will bring.