SBS has some core fundamental design changes that allows Exchange to run "Better" and "More Secure" on a Domain Controller. Plus the wizards and installers are set up in a way that allows all the services to co-exist in a happy way, preventing some issues like DLL overwrites and such. It may not be "Enterprise" best practice, but its designed to be a Secure all in one package. And it works VERY well for a small business.
There are several advantages to SBS over the regular "toss it on one server deal" The biggest advantage is Licensing, 1 SBS cal covers Your Server CAL and Exchange CAL. That alone is worth it. Plus SBS is cheaper than buying Exchange and Server 2003 Separately, again, saving money for a small business which is VERY important. Remote Web Workplace is awesome, as well as the server management console. The fax wizard works great. If you install and properly use SBS, the "Connect computer" wizard sets up all the Exchange setting in the Outlook client, Configures IE, etc. Very handy and keeps you from having to write Group Policies and PRF's. Template GPO's for the firewall settings too is a BIG time saver. Its not for everyone, but when its set up properly in the right environment, it rocks. When I was consulting for small businesses I used to cringe when I walked into a network and see that some previous hack had put Exchange and Server2k3 together on a box and the client had never even heard of SBS. SBS is Designed to have all those component running together, Exchange and Server 2k3 are not. Use the best tool for the job...... -----Original Message----- From: Ben Scott [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 7:02 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: SMB question.. On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 7:54 PM, Cesare' A. Ramos <[email protected]> wrote: > The majority are under 20) that are currently running a single server > that is acting as AD, file, print, IIS, DHCP, Internal DNS, and > Exchange 2003 server on MS Windows 2003 standard server. Until a couple years ago, %DAYJOB% was basically a single-server shop. ~70 workstations Dell PowerEdge 2500SC 1 GB RAM 733 MHz CPU (single core) 90 GB HD storage (RAID 5, 18 GB x 6, hardware controller) Windows 2000 Server Active Directory (sole DC) File and printer sharing Internal DNS, DHCP, WINS Internal IIS (not used for much) Exchange 2000 Enterprise Firebird (Interbase) database server Never had any server failures or serious craziness due to the server. It was a bit slow to boot, but that's more because the Dell RAID controller's initialization time is measured in minutes. The server is still in production, albeit doing a lot less. We technically had (and still have) another Windows server, but it's more of a glorified desktop, and just does a handful of "utility" tasks: MS WSUS, MS RIS, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Symantec AV Server. Our newer server is running much of the same workload. No problems yet. Knock on wood. I'm hoping to finally get a dedicated Exchange server when we go to Win Server 2008. > Is MS Windows SBS and option yet but not a reality.. SBS is basically a purchase bundle, plus the installers do some of the integration/tuning work for you. (Plus you get the SBS wizards. Whether you consider that a feature or not is your call.) SBS doesn't fundamentally change the underlying software. So if SBS can do it, so can the individual piece parts bought and integrated separately. Microsoft Product Support Services will tell you they don't recommend running everything on the same box. But that caveat applies *to SBS as well*. PSS would really prefer SBS just didn't exist. But PSS doesn't have to like it; they just have to support it. Certainly, if a given configuration is a bad idea for the stand-alone SKUs, it's an equally bad idea for SBS. SBS isn't magic. All that said, it is true that spreading out your services across multiple servers is a always a good idea if you can afford it. This is basically just not putting all your eggs in one basket. If Exchange has some kind of heartburn and you need do heavy maintenance on the server, with a dedicated server, it means just Exchange is down. If it's an all-in-one server, *everything* is down. Plus, with everything on dedicated hardware, you don't have to worry about compatibility, integration, tuning, balancing, etc. But those are all administrative/planning benefits; they're not technical requirements of the software. Random example of something you have to worry about: Putting MS RIS and Exchange on the same filesystem (drive letter) will cause the SIS Groveler to puke all over the place. (For 2000, anyway.) But that applies to SBS, too. Dedicated Exchange server means you never encounter that problem. Adequate testing means you encounter it and plan for it before going into production. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
