Yours truly , sitting in my office at Redmond, talk about the differences between “Aurora” and “SBS7” as well as provide a 5 minute demo of Aurora. We’ll be going more in depth at SMBNation, as we have a whole 90 minutes just for Aurora!
To comment on the TechNet Edge video, point your browser here.
You can download the Aurora Tech Preview here.
[This post comes courtesy of Adrian Maziak, our System Health PM]
Windows Server “Aurora” is currently in Beta (You can download it from Connect, or read about the beta announcement). You’ve had it for a few months, and have probably run out of things to try on this beta. Well, I wanted to get you back involved with some customization goodies for the health and monitoring alerts that are built both into the Aurora and the Vail products that will carry into the final release.
In previous versions of Home Server, Monitoring could only be done without an add-in in the local console, or from the system tray icon on a local client. You needed something like @WHSTweet to get the alerts off the box (which by the way was a wicked application, I use it for my V1), or perhaps another add-in that I’m not aware of. Also, in previous versions of Small Business Server, there was an Exchange mail server locally to send the alert. But in Aurora there is no exchange server, that’s saved for SBS7.
With Aurora or Vail we provide the ability to insert a “SmartHost” email server that you can send mail through. This can be an email server that lives out on the Internet that you have access to, or the one at your ISP that you simply have access to simply by being part of their network.
However, not all alerts will generate e-mail. The health team took a hard look at all the alerts and have made a call on which ones might be critical for the admin to know immediately, and which ones that can wait until the admin is on the network. But while we optimize this for certain scenarios, we may have missed yours. This is where customization comes in.
Each health alert is defined in a health definition file. These definition files are stored in C:\Program Files\Windows Server\Bin\FeatureDefinitions\Microsoft Base\definition.xml.config.
For example, if you were to scroll down in this file to the “AutoStartServicesVistaWin7Client” for the alert about auto started services on clients that aren’t running. This doesn’t alert by default via email, but if you wanted it to, you can add a line to the XML file <Escalate>true</Escalate>.
<HealthDefinitionConfiguration Name="AutoStartServicesVistaWin7Client">
<Configurations>
<Enable>true</Enable>
<Escalate>true</Escalate>
</Configurations>
<Arguments>
<Argument Name="Description">don’t touch this stuff</Argument>
</Arguments>
</HealthDefinitionConfiguration>
Likewise, if you are getting an alert via email that you really don’t care about, then simply open up the definition xml file and remove the <Escalate> line.
Important Tip: Make sure you back-up the definition.xml.config file before you change it. You never know when you’re going to need to revert back to the default version!
Some Known SmartHosts
| SMTP Server | SSL? | Auth? | Port | Logon Information |
| smtp.live.com | Yes | Yes | 587 | Full LiveID username & Password |
| smtp.comcast.net | Yes | No | 587 | Must be in Comcast’s Network |
| smtp.gmail.com | Yes | Yes | 587 | Full GMail username & password |
| smtp.mail.yahoo.com | No | Yes | 25 | Email Name and password |
*Subject to change without notice
Example using the Live Smart Host
So this year SMB Nation is in Las Vegas, NV, and I have the pleasure of flying down from my home office here in Victoria, BC to demo and show the Windows Server Codename “Aurora” product, and a co-worker of mine, Michael Leworthy will be doing the demo of Windows Server codename “SBS7”.
Aurora will debut at 9:15am on Friday morning, grab a cup of coffee and head on over to my session where I will demo and present the Aurora product. I’ll also be answering many of your questions about the Aurora product. Later on the same day, at 3pm, Michael will be presenting the many features and answering your questions on SBS7.
Michael and I will also be passing through the Microsoft booth from time to time on both Friday and Saturday, so if you miss a session or have follow-up questions, you can find us there.
Hopefully I’ll see you at my Aurora session, if not at the booth.
Björn Levidow, Group Program Manager for SBS, tells us about some of the new enhancements in the next version of Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008), currently called "SBS 7" for short. You can download the SBS 7 Preview by going to this Connect site.
This morning Microsoft released the Windows Small Business Server “7” release to Beta. This marks yet another major milestone for the Windows Server Solutions Team, now releasing both the Windows Home Server “Vail”, and Windows Small Business Server Hybrid Edition “Aurora” into beta.
SBS 7 marks a major release in the *next* set of all-on-premise solutions. Updates include:
You can try out the new SBS “7” beta by pointing your favorite browser to the SBS Connect site, or jump straight to the downloads page. Don’t forget if you need help, or find an issue to give us feedback, or talk about it in the Newsgroups.
Looks like our first Aurora add-in has shown its head! the AWIECO RemoteLauncher. If you want to try add-ins, then go ahead and try this one out.
The AWIECO RemoteLauncher add-in for Small Business Server "Aurora" and Windows Home Server "Vail" Beta Refresh is a free and useful add-in, which gives you more administrative possibilities to manage your SBS or WHS remotely. With this add-in you have access to predefined System Tools like
Dana covers important topics about what you can do to give your employees remote access, while at the same time ensuring the security to your network is maintained. Learn more about Dana’s AuthAnvil program at Scorpion Software.
Today is a special day, because not one, but TWO products make it to public beta. The Small Business Server mystery sku known as “Aurora” and the next public beta of the Home Server sku, known as “Vail”. It’s official once it’s on the official blog!
Vail, you’re probably familiar with (if not just a little bit) as it’s been in public beta for a while, but this version has more stuff! For example, you can now change users passwords, or set a password policy, or even change the password of the home server! An a lot of the bugs and reports that you, our beta testers have submitted, are now fixed
Aurora is the new server, you’re probably not familiar with
Aurora is a light weight version that provides the essentials of what a business needs. You know, data security, protection, backup, access. All that good stuff. You might notice that Vail and Aurora have similar consoles, that’s on purpose. The base platform of the system is similar in nature, but Aurora uses the Active Directory to store it’s users so you can have that single sign-on and user management experience you’ve become familiar with in a business. It also has shares, and PC backup, and the familiar remote access webpage, now coined “Remote Web Access”.
I’m planning on a series of posts over the next week to get you acquainted with “Aurora”, but for now, you should get started!
As always, Aurora is available over on the Microsoft Connect Website, and so is Vail. Remember to test it out, beat it up, and file those bugs. Now’s the time to make sure your business or customer’s business can be fully operational on Aurora, so let us know if it’s not, we want to hear from you!
HP has teamed up with Becky Och’s, one of our Senior Program managers on the team to talk about what’s in Windows Server Codename ”Aurora”, the new cloud integrated version of Small Business Server. Becky recorded a short video with the HP Coffee Coaching team to get you up to speed. As with all Coffee Coaching videos, this one is 4 minutes, which makes it a great video to get up to speed on “Aurora” while you’re wolfing down your morning coffee.
Jump into Coffee Coaching and get more great videos from HP and Microsoft on “Aurora” and other Small Business Products: http://www.facebook.com/CoffeeCoaching
Up on VarVid.tv, Aaron managed to get our Product Planner, Guy Haycock, on camera talking about the announcements of “Aurora” and “SBS7”.
Wow, over on WeGotServed, Terry found an awesome video that talks about Aurora from our very own Michael Leworthy, product planner for SBS. He talks about the differences between “SBS7” and “Aurora”, and why you might want Aurora over SBS7
Today we (as in our fearless leader Kevin Kean) pulled the lid off what our team has been working on for the past few years. Two new versions of Windows Small Business Server. That’s right. TWO new versions.
From a traditional standpoint, we’ve continued the single-server mantra with Windows Small Business Server “SBS7”. This version includes updates to all the major products in SBS, such as Windows Server 2008 R2, Exchange Server 2010 SP1, SharePoint 2010 Foundation, WSUS 3.0, and SQL 2008 R2 (with Premium edition). These new versions provide our customers with security and management. We also included a brand-spanking new version of Remote Web Workplace! This version of SBS will continue to support the familiar 75 users
The second version, code named Windows Small Business Server “Aurora” is the new edition of SBS. It’s cheaper than SBS7, and is even a lighter weight “first server” option for small businesses as is a hybrid server delivering both on premise services, as well integrates with the cloud. It also includes PC Backup, and server backup/restore capabilities. The same new version of Remote Web Workplace! This version of SBS will support up to 25 users.
“Aurora” also brings a key new functionality of add-ins to drive integration between new and existing on-line services with Aurora. Developers can find the SDK on Connect. We have been working with a lot of partners with SBS Aurora such as Symantec, Level Platforms and Disk Keeper are all making statements this week around plans to integrate products with SBS Aurora. HP is not only showing SBS Aurora in their booth at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, but has a sneak peek at http://www.facebook.com/CoffeeCoaching. And you’re sure to hear more as we get closer to releasing the preview.
You can sign-up to be notified when the Preview of these servers are available over on the SBS Connect website.
It’s nice to finally be able to talk about the products I’ve been working on for the last number of years!
[Official Blog Post on the Official SBS Blog]
[First discovered review of SBS7 and Aurora, by Paul Thurrott]
The 3rd in a series of blog posts on Vail extensibility went live today, teaching the developer in you how to extend the Remote Web Access website. The full article can be found on the Windows Home Server blog - “Vail” Remote Web Access and Its Extensibility
What is new in Remote Web Access site of Vail?
Let’s check out the latest look & feel of Remote Web Access site first (RWA site for short). Pretty, hah? Do you like it? :-)
When we designed this new RWA site, we had two visions to guide our engineering team. First, we want to provide an easy, reliable way for users to access their data and computers from anywhere, anytime, on any device. Second, we want to provide an extensible platform for OEM and ISV partners/developers to add tightly integrated remote web access value. The second vision maps exactly to the extensibility framework of RWA site.
Basically, every built-in feature you are looking at (i.e. Computers, Shared Folders, Media Library, etc) is built on top of the extensibility framework. All the APIs we used are public to you (our favorite developers) as well. We can build it, you can build it.
Besides the look & feel and extra functionalities, the extensibility framework is the key difference comparing the new and old Remote Web Access sites.
For reference, here are the previous posts:
Happy Development!
Over on Lifehacker.com, one of my favorite sites, they talk a bit about how to stay safe on Public, or even those looming “open” networks that you might discover in an apartment building. It’s important to consider these because network traffic, when not encrypted, bounces off other computers or is just visible to snooping computers and can leave you compromised. In fact, this is one reason I refuse to use straight-up POP3 (without SSL), because back in University, my roommate showed me how he was just getting usernames and passwords to email addresses on Rogers ISP. Kind of scary when you see that.
Browse on over to LifeHacker to get details, but I’ll copy the essentials here for easy reading. Lifehacker also provides both Windows 7 and MAC UI and instructions. I’ll copy the Windows ones here
| Turn off File & Printer Sharing | Enable Your Firewall |
| Use SSL Where Possible | Consider using VPN |
| Turn it off when you’re done | Change to the Public Profile |
Some other things I’d recommend above and beyond are:
As it turns out, that little “unsecure lock” you see on those public Wi-Fi networks is there for a reason, to give you extra warnings to head, as mentioned above.
It’s a zoo out there, stay safe!
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