Likewise, just because you don't need some of its products today doesn't mean you won't want them down the road. That is what makes SBS such a good deal for resellers that want to offer their customers room to grow. SBS is not just copies of Exchange 2000, Windows 2000 Server, Outlook 2000, SQL 2000, Internet Security and Acceleration Server (IAS), Shared Modem Service, Shared Fax Service and Health Monitor thrown in a box. The package also includes a common installation routine, centralized monitoring and management of services and users, and an easy-to-deploy client access tool. And you get all this for about $1,499 for five users--or the price of just Windows 2000 Server and one of the bundled components.
I tested a beta version of SBS 2000 and found the installation process straightforward, though it does require a powerful PC and a lot of disk space if you install all the applications. You need at least a Pentium III with 256 MB of RAM (512 MB is preferable) and 4 GB of disk space. In fact, the installation would not work when I tried to put all the components on a PC with less than 256 MB of memory. Fortunately, the installation alerts you to any problems with hardware or inadequate system resources.
Simple Setup
Administrators should realize that SBS 2000 is designed for a single office and doesn't scale past 50 users or connect very well to an enterprise WAN. If you need to link to an existing Windows network, you should consider BackOffice Server 2000.
When you first install SBS 2000, you must assign the server as the root in the Active Directory (AD) forest. The package automatically becomes a root AD server, which is necessary for Exchange. This means you cannot connect to an existing AD. Likewise, the software is hard-coded to a Class C IP address subnet, and there is no way to change it. Fortunately, you can use an existing external IP address as a gateway for your ISP or Internet router. The package includes NAT (Network Address Translation) to let you use the internal SBS subnet and still connect to the Internet.
In addition to all the different products in a single package at a low cost, the best features of SBS are the integrated setup and the customizable management consoles. The integrated setup wizard lets you install the different components from a single menu. This saves time and makes the installation proceed more smoothly. The management consoles let you add and manage users and groups for both the OS and the different applications, such as Exchange. You can customize how the management console appears to different users. For example, I was able to give the administrator more menu options than the average user had.
SBS is a great tool for resellers and consultants because of all the components plus its remote-monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities. Windows 2000 Server includes Microsoft Terminal Services, which lets you remotely control any application on the server. You can use this capability in SBS to remotely configure software, add users, troubleshoot problems--and do almost everything you could do locally. Using the Terminal Services Advanced Client, you also can connect to the terminal server via any Web browser and perform the same tasks.
Besides the remote features of the product, the new Health Monitor utility most impressed me. Health Monitor lets you not only monitor your server's health and performance, but also set thresholds and reactions to them.
In my tests, I set up a threshold to send an alert via e-mail to a remote administrator when the disk drive dropped to 10 percent available capacity. I also created a reaction to move files off that particular disk drive to increase the available capacity. Alerts can also be sent via e-mail, or you can track network events through logs or SNMP.
Get Online With Ease
SBS 2000 provides everything you need to establish a safe and functional connection to the Internet, and does all the hard work. The new Internet Connection Wizard (ICW) will configure DHCP and DNS automatically, initiate NAT, invoke the built-in firewall and configure the Exchange server to frequently download Internet mail from your ISP or other provider. With the inclusion of IAS, an upgrade to Microsoft Proxy, SBS 2000 is more secure than earlier versions.
You can use ISDN, DSL or a cable modem along with IAS to provide NAT, routing and security. In addition to working as a caching proxy server, IAS supports VPN (virtual private network) connections and acts as a powerful stateful inspection firewall.
The shared modem and fax services are not new to SBS, but they have been updated. Among the improved features for fax is the ability to fax over IP, fax from your desktop and send broadcast faxes. The modem-sharing utility allows any client PC on the network to use a modem installed on the server. This lets you share a single modem between multiple users (but only one user can access a modem at a time).
Steve Rigney is a network consultant specializing in storage management, VoIP and remote access. Send your comments on this article to him at srigney@adisfwb.com.
FAQs
