BMS Blog: SBS Consulting in the UK

Thinking of installing the Live OneCare trial that comes as part of SBS 2008? Don’t bother!

This "corporate" announcement basically says Microsoft are dropping Live OneCare so if you install the trial on SBS 2008 you’ll only end up putting something else on after the trial - and probably at your own expense as labour charges go as the customer isn’t going to want to pay for your labour to remove something you recommended in the first place!

Even more reason in my opinion not to install Live OneCare or for that matter the trial of Forefront for Exchange.

Following on from my previous post about our first production SBS 2008 installation we’ve just come across another gotcha regarding the installation of Sophos SBE for SBS server.

It seems that the Sophos Control Centre will not install on a 64bit O/S! That means we have to install it on a management workstation instead, which isn’t the end of the world but it would be much nicer/easier if was on the server.

Once again this points to software vendors that are slow off the mark when it comes to updating their applications to run on the latest O/S’s. Sophos along with everyone else has known about SBS 2008 for over 12 months, so why the delay in releasing a 64bit version of the control centre?

So today we are performing our first SBS 2008 production installation. I’d like to say this has gone smoothly without any glitches and for the most part so far it has.

We were all prepared to complete a migration using the technet provided resources but unfortunately the clients already flaky server decided to give up the ghost  completely so we have had to resort to a brand new install. We were able to get all the clients data off a current backup including their Exchange data so after importing all the data and running through the to-do list we were ready to install the Client Access Licences (CALs)

After 20 minutes of 4 of us searching trying to find some kind of licensing console and doing some searching on the ‘net it finally dawned on us that there is in fact no licensing console and no licensing enforcement - yep, you heard that right - NO LICENSING CONSOLE AND NO LICENSING ENFORCEMENT!!!

So what does this say about Microsoft? Other software vendors are able (and do) lock out users of their software if the number of licences is exceeded - so why don’t Microsoft? In SBS 2003 via the licensing console we had a basic way of telling how many licences were installed and the maximum usage of those licences since the last reboot - admittedly this wasn’t foolproof but it was better than nothing! Now not only do we have to change our policies to record how many licences a client has, but it is also harder to track how many users/devices they have connected to their server - that’s what I call a huge step backwards!

I would really love someone from Microsoft to provide a single good reason for removing licence enforcement, I really would. In one fell swoop not only have MS made our lives more difficult from a technical/admin point of view, they’ve also made it (even) easier for unscrupulous partners and customers to ignore licensing issues - Come on Microsoft, you need to be sharper than this!

Emily Lambert has posted about a unique opportunity for SBSC partners to attend Distributor Bootcamps:

http://blogs.technet.com/uksbsc/archive/2008/11/07/unique-opportunity-for-sbsc-partners-to-attend-distributor-bootcamps.aspx

These look well worth checking out as not only will you hone your licensing skills but will also qualify for a free exam voucher for Windows SBS 2008 or Windows EBS 2008!!

Want to make more of the resources Microsoft make available to you as a partner? Then check out the partner program videocasts.

Microsoft have just launched a series of videocasts to kick start your knowledge of the Microsoft Partner Programme and to help you get the most value from your partnership.  All videocasts are accessible on the brand new Partner Player — you simply pick the videos you want to watch, be that learning about sales and marketing resources, getting the most from your internal-use licences, or hearing tips and tricks about how to successfully renew your programme membership.

More info from the official UK SBSC blog

Only one week to go to the most important event of the year for SBSC’s - the official launch of SBS/EBS 2008 at the Midlands SBS user group meeting held at the Arden Hotel in Coventry.

This will be a great opportunity to find out all about SBS/EBS 2008 and network with other like minded Microsoft partners and members of the Midlands SBS user group. You can find out more about the Midlands SBS user group at our website. If you’re a Microsoft partner why not come along - the event is free to attend and promises to be a good one!

The agenda includes:

5:30-6:30
Product launch overview

6:30-7:30
Marketing 101

7:30-8:00
Refreshments

8:00-8:30
SBSC Programme

8:30-9:00
Q&A

9:00 onwards
Retire to the bar for refreshments and networking with your peers.

Come along and introduce yourself.