EBS 2008 – how can it help you?

Wayne Small

Whereas SBS 2008 was designed to cater specifically for the customer with little to no IT experience, EBS 2008 is developed for a totally different client set in mind, the business that has dedicated in-house IT staff.

The type of IT staff in an “M”-style client are likely to be a jack of all trades, master of none.

Now I don’t mean that as a slight against them, it’s just that typical of most medium business environments, there is little time for training the IT staff and they get by very much in reactive mode.

EBS 2008 is built specifically to address the needs of this market from a number of different angles. To install EBS 2008 will require a minimum of three 64-bit servers with 4GB RAM on two of them and 2GB of the third server.

These three servers are designed to fit three key functions that a network of this size will require. All servers have as a base Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition 64 bit. This gives each of the servers access to up to 32GB of RAM, and four physical CPUs.

All the functions that are present in Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition are present in the EBS 2008 systems. The only limitations on an EBS 2008 network are that it must be at the root of the Active Directory forest, and you cannot have trust relationships with other forests.

Existing Child Domains are permitted, but the creation of additional Child Domains is not. These limitations are small ones and I’ve yet to see an “M”-style client that would see this as a problem.

EBS 2008 comes in two versions similar to SBS 2008. The standard version includes the three key servers that make up the core of the EBS 2008 network. The Premium version includes an additional Windows Server 2008 standard Edition license as well as a SQL 2008 Server Standard Edition license. This gives the “M” client the power to have a dedicated server for their line of
business application.

The first server is called the Management Server and will host Active Directory for the entire network, basic network services, file and print operations and also System Centre Essentials 2007 (SCE).

This will also be the primary point from which the IT pro will use to monitor and control the entire network via the EBS 2008 console. The EBS 2008 console provides a simplified way to manage the systems in the network without the need to directly connect to each server individually.

The EBS 2008 console can be extended by third-party application providers to allow for a better management experience of their products from the EBS 2008 console. Applications such as Windows Sharepoint Services, SQL Server and Microsoft CRM are just a few that take advantage of this extended functionality.

System Centre Essentials is one of the real gems in EBS 2008 product as it forms the basis of the management of the entire network. Using it, the IT pro can monitor, manage and remotely control all Windows-based assets in the network. The IT pro can also via SNMP monitor other non-Windows-based devices such as printers, switches, firewalls and so on.

Alerts can be configured to proactively warn of pending failures, giving the IT pro a leg up in the right direction and allow them to start to resolve potential problems before they cause the business any major loss of downtime.

The IT pro will also use this to deploy any software updates to all computers in the network or even roll out new software installations such as Office 2007 to all workstations or selected groups of workstations.

SCE provides a large amount of the information to the EBS 2008 console and therefore the IT pro is protected from needing to know SCE from the start just to monitor the network.

The second server is called the Messaging Server and will also host Active Directory for the network. Having Active Directory on two of the servers allows for a degree of redundancy and protection. Should one server fail then due to the design of EBS, the failed server could be reinstalled using a feature called “Replacement Mode”.

In Replacement Mode, key information about the configuration of the server is stored in Active Directory and the failed server can be quickly rebuilt and have its data restored, thereby minimising downtime to the client.

The second server also has Exchange 2007 installed to host email for all of the users in the network. It includes all the features of Exchange 2007 Standard Edition along with the unlimited data storage size for mail.

To be technically accurate, it allows the IT pro to configure multiple storage groups and multiple mailbox stores. You can have up to five storage groups and each storage group is able to contain up to five mailbox stores. Each mailbox store can be up to 16TB in size.

So yes – I guess for all intense purpose you could call that unlimited.

Why then do we care about this? Simple – it allows us to have certain groups of users on different storage groups and mailbox stores. We can then take a mailbox store offline for maintenance and only affect the users on that particular mailbox store. All other users will continue to operate normally.

If you think about scenarios where EBS can be deployed such as a school, with 1000 users, this gives us the ability to segment the users into logical groups, ie school grades and handle things differently for the different groups. This level of flexibility was previously only available in the enterprise versions of Exchange which came at considerable additional cost.

The third server in the EBS 2008 product is called the Security Server. Its purpose is to act as the perimeter security watch dog and control all inbound and outbound access to the network.

It includes a product called Forefront Threat Management Gateway, Medium Business Edition. We’ll call it TMG for short. TMG is the next version of ISA Server being written based on a full 64-bit code base.

It includes all the features of ISA 2006 as well as newer features such as Malware Content Inspection on the fly. This is a subscription-based feature (12-month trial included) that will scan content coming in before it reaches the users’ desktop.

If the content is malware, it will either attempt to clean it or block access to it. Providing malware inspection at multiple levels and not just at the users desktop, helps to improve the overall security of the network.

In addition to this feature, the Security Server can also act as an endpoint for remote site VPN tunnels, with wizard-based configuration helping to minimise the potential problems that an IT pro might have when setting up the network.

As mentioned above, in an EBS 2008 Premium network, you will have a fourth server which will be used for your line of business application. SQL 2008 Standard Edition is included, but can be downgraded to SQL 2005 Standard Edition if required as many application vendors have not yet finished their testing for SQL 2008.

Both 32- and 64-bit versions of each come on the DVD for the next 12 months. You will want to closely consider running either the 32-bit or 64-bit version based on the application vendors support for 32- and 64-bit ODBC drivers.

I’ve seen specific issues where a vendor only has a 32-bit ODBC driver available and it cannot talk to a 64-bit SQL server hosted on the same server.

Management of the SQL server can be performed from the EBS 2008 console on the main server therefore easing the load on the IT pro.

Beyond the servers mentioned so far, you can install additional servers as required up to a maximum of 15 servers in total. You may choose to do this so for remote branch office scenarios, or additional application servers for things such as Terminal Services.

SBS is designed first and foremost to be the first server in a client environment and therefore is built to be deployed in a network in which there are no existing network infrastructure. The size of the “M”-style client is larger than the “S”-style client, being typically 50 PCs up to 300 PCs.

EBS 2008 therefore, due to the size of the networks, is designed from the ground up to be built into the pre-existing network as part of the servers build process.

This build process is one that starts with running a Preparation Wizard on the existing network environment in which it analyses the current structure and provides guidance and assistance on resolving issues that would thwart a normal installation.

Once the Preparation Wizard has been run, the IT pro will then run the Planning Wizard. The Planning Wizard will capture additional information that will be used to automate the installation process and document the end installation prior to even commencing building of the first server.

Following the Preparation and Planning Wizards, you are ready to commence building the servers. Each of the EBS 2008 DVDs are designed to build each of the three key servers specifically.

You start the build process by connecting the first server to the existing network, and booting from the Management DVD. It will ask for some additional information and then commence building itself into the network.

Once in the network, it will proceed to become a domain controller in Active Directory and then complete its installation with all the other services that the Management Server requires including SCE.

At the end of this, it will display the task list with the remaining 22 tasks to be completed for the network.

The next server is built in a similar way but with the Security Server DVD. You will not be able to commence the installation of the Security Server until the management server is completed. Once completed the task list on the Management Server is updated showing the current status of entire network deployment.

The last server is built using the Messaging Server DVD in the same way as the previous two servers.

It presents the final steps in the build process and once complete, you will return to the EBS console to complete the remaining tasks.

At this point in time, the three EBS servers have taken over some of the basic roles of the network without the IT pro being aware of it.

Should a server have a major failure during the build process, the build of that server can simply be restarted. The EBS 2008 setup is designed to check for things like this and will automatically clean up a failed installation and then recommence the installation of that server again.

The remaining tasks on the to-do list on the Management Server include things such as connecting remote sites via the VPN wizard on the Security Server, migrating DNS and DHCP over to the new servers and so on.

This task list approach ensures that the primary network changes take place in an order that sees the new servers are implemented with the minimum of interruption to the business environment. Once complete, the user is presented with the normal EBS 2008 console from which he can manage the network and
all connected devices.

If you’ve read both this and the previous article you will now have a better understanding of the features of both SBS 2008 and EBS 2008.

With this in mind, I challenge you NOT to assume just because a business has 50 users that SBS 2008 MUST be the right product for them.

Instead, look at the features offered by both products before deciding which product is the better fit for the client’s environment.