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Release Documentation for Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard

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Published: December 7, 2010

Applies To: Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard

Welcome to the Release Documentation for the Windows® Small Business Server 2011 Standard server software. This topic contains up-to-date information to help you correctly install and configure Windows SBS 2011 Standard. You should review this topic before you install your Windows SBS 2011 Standard network.

Note

This is version 3 of this topic, published December 2010. This topic is located in the Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard technical library (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=189364).

System requirements

Ensure that your computer meets the minimum hardware requirements listed, determine whether you need additional hardware, and check that the drivers for your hardware are supported by the Windows Server® 2008 R2 operating system. For information about compatible hardware, see the Windows Server Catalog Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=125619).

Hardware requirements

Hardware Minimum Requirement

Processor

Quad core 2 GHz 64-bit (x64) or faster

1 socket   (4 sockets maximum)

Physical memory (RAM)

8 GB

10 GB recommended (32 GB maximum)

Storage capacity

120 GB

DVD ROM drive

DVD ROM drive

Network adapter

One 10/100 Ethernet adapter

Monitor and video adapter

Super VGA (SVGA) monitor and video adapter with 1024 x 768 or higher resolution

Network devices

A router or firewall device that supports IPv4 NAT

Internet connection

Windows SBS 2011 Standard requires that you connect the server to the Internet.

Optional network devices
  1. Device required by your Internet service provider (ISP) to connect to the Internet

  2. One or more switches to connect computers and other devices to the local network

Fax modem

Fax services require a fax modem

As you prepare your hardware for installation, decide how to partition the drives on your server. As a best practice, for increased performance and easier backup and restoration, add the system and data partitions on separate physical drives. At a minimum, you should create one partition (the C:\ partition) for the operating system and applications, and then create a separate partition for data. As an option, you might consider using redundant storage technologies, such as RAID5 or RAID1, to help protect your data.

Post-installation

Multilingual User Interface (MUI) packs are not supported

Windows SBS 2011 Standard does not support the use of language interface packs (LIP) or multilingual user interface (MUI) packs.

Windows Server Update Services  3.0 (WSUS) is not immediately available after you install Windows SBS 2011 Standard in a Hyper-V environment

When you install Windows SBS 2011 Standard in a Hyper-V environment, WSUS is not available for up to one full day after completing the installation. During this time, you cannot change WSUS settings or synchronize WSUS with Windows Update. It is not necessary to take any corrective action. The server resolves this issue automatically after several hours.

Remote Web Access cannot connect to a computer that has Unicode characters in computer name

The remote desktop technology used by Windows SBS 2011 Standard does not support UTF-8 encoding. Because of this, you cannot use Remote Web Access to connect to a computer that contains Unicode characters in the computer name. To avoid this issue, do not include any Unicode character in the name of your server or in the name of any other computers on the network.

For a current listing of Unicode characters, visit the Unicode website (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=206329).

The error ‘Session "WBCommandletInBuiltTracing" failed to start with the following error: 0xC0000035’ appears in Network Reports

This is a Windows Kernel-EventTracing error that appears each day in the Server Event logs section of the Network Report.

You can safely ignore this error. The server is functioning correctly.

Remote desktop sessions do not close automatically when you sign out of Remote Web Access

When you use Remote Web Access to establish a remote desktop connection to another computer, the remote connection does not close automatically when you exit or sign out of Remote Web Access. This presents a security risk if you establish the connection from a public computer.

To make sure that other users cannot access your information when you are working from a public computer, make sure that you manually close all remote desktop connections before you sign out of Remote Web Access.

The error “The Remote Desktop Services ActiveX Client is not turned on” appears when you try to connect to a computer from Remote Web Access

You may encounter this error if you sign in to Remote Web Access from a computer that is running Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3) and either Internet Explorer 7 or Internet Explorer 8 installed. When you click the help link, the Enable Remote Desktop Services ActiveX Client option is not available.

To work around this issue

  1. From the computer that is running Windows XP SP3, open Registry Editor. To open Registry Editor, click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

Warning

Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on the computer.

  1. Create the following registry key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\PreApproved\{7390f3d8-0439-4c05-91e3-cf5cb290c3d0}

  2. Open Internet Explorer.

  3. On the menu bar, click Tools, click Manage Add-on, and then enable Remote Desktop Services ActiveX Client.

Computers that are running Windows XP with Service Pack 3 may not be able to use Remote Web Access to connect to other computers on the network

If a user signs in to Remote Web Access from a computer that is running Windows XP with Service Pack 3 installed and then tries to connect to another computer, the following error may appear:

"Your computer can't connect to the remote computer because an error occurred on the remote computer that you want to connect to. Contact your network administrator for assistance."

To resolve this issue, you must log on to the Windows XP computer, and turn on the Credential Security Support Provider (CredSSP). For detailed information and instructions, see KB951608 “Description of the Credential Security Support Provider (CredSSP) in Windows XP Service Pack 3” at the Microsoft Support website (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=206328).

Computers that are not in the Windows Small Business Server organizational unit in Active Directory cannot connect through Remote Web Access

If you have computers on your Windows SBS 2011 Standard network that are not in the Windows Small Business Server organizational unit in Active Directory® Domain Services, you cannot assign remote access to those computers through the Windows SBS 2011 Standard console. Consequently, those computers are not available for remote connection through Remote Web Access.

To fix this issue, after you add users to the Remote Desktop Users group, create a new registry key on the server to enable the client computers to connect to Remote Web Access.

Note

The steps for adding users to the Remote Desktop Users group vary slightly, depending on your operating system.

To add users to the Remote Desktop Users group on a client computer

  1. From the client computer, click Start, right-click Computer, and then click Properties.

  2. Click Remote settings.

  3. In the User Account Control window, click Continue.

  4. In the Remote Desktop section, click Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop (less secure).

  5. Ensure that your firewall allows remote desktop traffic through port 3389.

  6. Add users to the Remote Desktop Users group. To do this, in the System Properties dialog box, in the Remote Desktop section, click Select Users.

Note

Network administrators are already part of the group and do not need to be added.

  1. In the Remote Desktop Users dialog box, click Add.

  2. In the Select Users or Groups dialog box, type the object names, and then click OK.

  3. Click OK, and then click OK again to exit the dialog boxes.

To create a new registry key

  1. From the computer running Windows SBS 2011 Standard, open Registry Editor. To do this, click Start, in the search field type regedit, and then press ENTER.

Warning

Incorrectly editing the registry might severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on the computer.

  1. In the User Account Control window, click Continue.

  2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SmallBusinessServer.

  3. Right-click SmallBusinessServer, click New, and then click Key.

  4. Name the key BusinessProductivity.

  5. Right-click BusinessProductivity, click New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.

  6. Name the new value ShowAllComputers.

  7. Double-click ShowAllComputers, and then, in the Value data text box, type 1.

  8. Click OK, and then close Registry Editor.

The Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard networking wizards do not support network teaming

Some hardware manufacturers provide network adapters and drivers that feature fault tolerance technology. You can use fault tolerance technology to group network adapter ports for a connection to a single physical segment. This is known as “network teaming.” If connectivity through one port does not work, another port is automatically activated to handle the connection. This process is transparent to the operating system and to other devices on the network.

The Windows SBS 2011 Standard Connect to the Internet Wizard and Fix My Network Wizard do not support network teaming because it is a scenario that is not typically used in a small business environment. However, you should use these wizards to correctly configure the server to use a single network adapter.

If you decide to use network teaming, you should not use the Windows SBS 2011 Standard networking wizards after you configure teaming because doing this will have an unknown effect on the team. Additionally, because the Windows SBS 2011 Standard networking wizards do not support network teaming, if you require assistance from Microsoft support, you will be instructed to remove the network team and then to use the Windows SBS 2011 Standard networking wizards to correctly configure the server for the network.

To remove a network team

  1. Uninstall the network teaming software, and then restart the server when you are prompted.

  2. Use Device Manager to uninstall the virtual network adapter, and then restart the server when you are prompted.