The end of Essential Business Server

This morning, Microsoft announced that Essential Business Server 2008 development will stop in June 2010. Announcement on EBS website Support will continue for the next 5 years, so no need to panic! Existing customers will be able to trade-in EBS licensing for Standard versions of the products that make up EBS including CAL’s e.g. 3 x Standard Windows Server 2008, 1 x Exchange, TMG, Forefront … Continue reading The end of Essential Business Server

EBS 2008 Configuration Data Introduction

Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS 2008) is more than just Windows 2008 server with a bundled applications. Under the covers Active Directory is used to store configuration data used by the various EBS roles (management, messaging and security). Changes to configuration after installation should be made using the utilities like “ChangeIPAddress” rather than manually to avoid unwanted side-effects. It is however nice to understand a little bit of what … Continue reading EBS 2008 Configuration Data Introduction

Upgrade fun: SBS 2003 to EBS 2008

Last weekend I received a call for help from a mate who was having trouble with his first Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS 2008) installation. He was upgrading and existing Small Business Server 2003 site to Essential Business Server. The EBS 2008 environment is virtualized and installed with SBS 2003 still in place. Their are many good reasons to consider EBS 2008 when choosing and … Continue reading Upgrade fun: SBS 2003 to EBS 2008

How to customise Remote Web Workplace

Remote Web Workplace (RWW) is a feature of both Small Business Server and Essential Business Server. This post relates to the 2008 versions of those products. RWW is a great way to provide remote access to email, computers on the internal network and even Sharepoint. Here are a couple of things you can do to customise RWW. The RWW is built on IIS and so … Continue reading How to customise Remote Web Workplace

Essential Business Server Replacement Mode Install

I recently had an issue with the System Centre Essentials on the Management Server of an Essential Business Server (EBS08). One of the catches with EBS08 is that you can’t easily reinstall the SCE component, you actually need to reinstall the server it is on. This is of course worst case scenario. I found this article on Technet which explains how to do a “Replacement … Continue reading Essential Business Server Replacement Mode Install

Should I choose Essential Business Server?

Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS) is Microsoft’s mid-range business server bundle. Making the choice to move to EBS is one that should be considered by anyone with network supporting between 25-250 users. I hope this post will help with the decision. Reasons to consider EBS: EBS has a 300 user limit. Take this into account, if you are near 300 users choose Standard Server instead. … Continue reading Should I choose Essential Business Server?