Mariette Knap 
The Netherlands
Member since
3/24/2005
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Posts: 12895
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| 5/31/2007 06:41 PM |
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From "SeanDaniel.com - SBS 2003 and Technology Discussions: Hey! Where's my next version of SBS?" http://sbs.seandaniel.com/2007/05/hey-wheres-my-next-version-of-sbs.html You wanna know about the next version do you? Well, Since our trip to New Orlean's a TS2 blog has popped up some public information.(here), I'd like to take the opportunity to publish similar information here.
Cougar is the code name for the next version of SBS. When the SBS team decended on New Orleans, some of the following information came out to the public. I wanted to make sure I shared so you could know what's going on with the next version.
- Cougar includes Exchange 2007 which is x64 only, This means that Cougar will be x64 only.
- Since Cougar is x64 only we can deduce some things just based on how the technology works. This means in-place upgrades from earlier versions will not be supported (x86 hardware cannot support x64 software). Since Chris Almida was also there to speak to migrations, and he is our man in charge of the migration he is not planning to provide an in place upgrade from x64 hardware (again, this makes sense since the OS is x86, and it cannot be upgraded to x64). There will be a migration too that will take you from your current SBS to Cougar on ANOTHER BOX. We are still working on this solution. (I had a meeting yesterday on this actually!)
- The SBS Backup solution is being completely re-vamped. However, we have made the full switch, and the backup solution will no longer support backing up to tape. Using snapshot technology, the backups will be extremely quick using incrementals that can be scheduled as often as every 30 minutes. A copy of NTBackup will be able to extract files from the old SBS 2003 format, but no new data can be added. If tape is super important to you, start sizing up 3rd party backup solutions.
- To date, we are not planning on changing the 75 user limit.
- Cougar will need to be installed behind some kind of firewall and the single-NIC model will be the only mode. You must use a firewall in front of the SBS box, this can be a hardware router type item, or a software firewall such as ISA.
- Cougar will be based on Longhorn server now officially called Windows Server 2008.
In addition to the points made in New Orlean's, I'd like to add my own. Cougar looks really really sweet! But then again, I am biased. :o)
Our Beta 1 is in the field with our MVPs (don't ask, they can't talk about it either!) and I'm already starting to contemplate an upgrade to Cougar at my house. Now I just need to find some x64 hardware.... hrm....
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| Mariëtte Knap Smallbizserver.Net Administrator | Mission accomplished. We have joined the branch office to our SBS 2003 Headquarters and have the same user experience on the branch office as we have on our local network at the Headquarters. Want to know how? Signup up for a subscription and get instant access to the article series 'How to add an additional Domain Controller from a remote office to the SBS domain' |
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Steven Mckenzie
Australia
Member since
11/3/2006
Registered Users
Posts: 100
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| 6/01/2007 07:09 AM |
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That Sounds Great... Hopefully less heartaches once setup...
I was wondering, a while ago i was reading they were going to bring out Windows version for Medium Size Bussiness and then a Enterprise Version.. Do you know if this is still going to happen?
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Steven O'Neill
United Kingdom
Member since
5/24/2005
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Posts: 446
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| 6/01/2007 11:53 AM |
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| Okay then so it's thinking caps on time for everyone...interesting to see some of the comments being made about Cougar (especially about tape backup...what will be the preferred system then...a seperate disk based system?). I also take it that ISA won't come with the new version so will there now only be one flavour of SBS? So an additional box would be needed for firewall protection (if the intention was to use ISA)? |
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Mariette Knap
The Netherlands
Member since
3/24/2005
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Posts: 12895
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| 6/01/2007 12:21 PM |
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- Yes, disk based backups or NAS/SAN has the future
- I have no idea if there will be some sort of Premium/Standard versions.
It is to early to tell and because I am one of the beta testers (NDA) I cannot tell a lot without getting into trouble. As soon as there is something to tell I will post it to these forums and if the beta is opened up to the public we will use this forum also.
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| Mariëtte Knap Smallbizserver.Net Administrator | Mission accomplished. We have joined the branch office to our SBS 2003 Headquarters and have the same user experience on the branch office as we have on our local network at the Headquarters. Want to know how? Signup up for a subscription and get instant access to the article series 'How to add an additional Domain Controller from a remote office to the SBS domain' |
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Lethy
Member since
Posts: 0
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| 6/09/2007 02:13 AM |
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I think moving to a 1 NIC model only is a great move for so many reasons.
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Mark Regler
Germany
Member since
2/17/2006
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Posts: 146
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| 6/19/2007 07:49 PM |
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And there i was thinking dual NIC is the bees knees!! What gives? Single NIC means one interface for inter and intranet surely this is an uneccessary risk, or not?
Shame about the x64 aswell. Why do i need to by completely new hardware when the old stuff runs just fine? I remember being told never touch a running system.
I guess i won't be able to convince my boss to change. The cost is to high for to little roi :o(
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Andrew NP Tech
Australia
Member since
10/16/2006
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Posts: 72
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| 6/24/2007 11:40 AM |
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There is no need for Dual NIC anymore as the ISA firewall has been removed from the SBS box itself. On SBS 2000/3 standard you could run dual nic's with the standard firewall (RRAS) which was mainly due to hardware firewalls being expensive a few years ago and ISP's were supplying links where you have a bridged connection with a public IP to assign to your sever. These days everyone uses gateway hardware routers with a PUBLIC WAN IP and a private LAN IP.
As for x64 my question is why has it taken so long to standardize on this. x64 will have been around for five years by the time cougar ships. Just a month or so ago a certain teir1 manufacturer had a promotion where they were selling x64 servers with SBS for only about 20% over the cost of the OS itself purchased alone. How can a boss argue with that? In fact in a years time the first of the 64bit capble PC's will be turning up at tips (ie free). In fact I have one floating around in my room im not using, the MB died so I started using another PC I had. |
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Dave Claxon
United States
Member since
4/4/2005
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Posts: 88
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| 7/17/2007 05:32 PM |
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Will it be possible to migrate directly from SBS 2000 to Cougar, or will we have to upgrade the current system to 2003 first? Our preloaded OEM 2000 system was still new when 2003 came out and there has not been a compelling need to upgrade, and then it didn't make sense to upgrade to a system as old as 2003 is now and on the verge of being replaced, so I've just been hoping the old system would hold out until 2008 was out. (So far, so good!) And since the hardware will be 5 years old this fall, I had already planned on doing a migration to new hardware when the time came. But now seeing how much different Cougar is going to be, will I be able to make the jump directly?
Thanks,
Dave
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Marina Roos
The Netherlands
Member since
3/24/2005
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Posts: 12523
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| 7/20/2007 05:27 PM |
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Hi Dave,
There isn't much known yet, and that what is known, can't be shared. But knowing that Cougar is running only on 64-bit hardware, it shouldn't make much difference in migrating to it from SBS 2003 or 2000.
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| Marina Roos Smallbizserver.Net Administrator | Mission accomplished. We have joined the branch office to our SBS 2003 Headquarters and have the same user experience on the branch office as we have on our local network at the Headquarters. Want to know how? Signup up for a subscription and get instant access to the article series 'How to add an additional Domain Controller from a remote office to the SBS domain' |
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Andy Fearless
United Kingdom
Member since
4/1/2005
Platinum Membership
Posts: 136
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| 8/02/2007 01:09 PM |
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I've been Single NIC-ing my SBS boxes since SBS2000 and have always thought it was simpler, and dual-nic was unnecessary. I've always been told i was wrong on these forums..
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Andrew NP Tech
Australia
Member since
10/16/2006
Registered Users
Posts: 72
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| 8/14/2007 02:01 PM |
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| It depends on who the end client is and a number of other factors. Back in the SBS 2000 days bandwith was limited somewhat and routers were more expensive/less reliable so even though ISA 2000 had issues it also solved issues for some clients. Fast forward to SBS 2k3 and ISA 2000 was a poor solution by then as routers were comming down in price, much more reliable, caching was no longer that usefull ect. Luckily ISA 2004 was a massive improvement and a free upgrade. I think for a customer with only one office, who trusted all their staff and had less than say 15 employee's then ISA was probably not ideal. However for multiple office, greater than 15 users, a lights out management card in the server and management wanting the reports then ISA was good - I mean you were mainly buying it so management could get their report each month and they were willing to pay you to fine tune all the ISA rules to restrict what users could or could not do. The remote management card is the real key as it means you can do remote upgrades/fixes on the server without geting "locked out" by ISA.
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Stewart Brown
United States
Member since
8/22/2005
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Posts: 616
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| 8/20/2007 01:29 AM |
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Does this mean that we will have to devote one full server as the ISA server behind the router, then have the SBS and all other clients and servers behind that?
In order to afford that I would probably want that firewall server do more jobs than just ISA firewall. What other tasks would be reasonable to use on that to make it worthwhile to devote an entire machine?
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Robin Wenham
Wirral/Cheshire UK
Member since
9/26/2006
Platinum Membership
Posts: 213
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| 8/22/2007 11:39 AM |
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Stewart - why not consider a separate firewall appliance?
Having said that you may have a specific application for an ISA-based firewall: what would that be?
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Robin
Make it a good day. |
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Stewart Brown
United States
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8/22/2005
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Posts: 616
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| 8/23/2007 02:53 AM |
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Well I don't know really, i'm trying to figure it out. ISA has a lot of advantages. It''s an internet cache, that's cool. It allows us to set rules and monitor conduct, to limit behavior, that's cool. It is software based so it can be updated easily - the hardware it runs on can be updated in capability - it's not a piece of hardware that becomes obsolete and that you end up throwing away. And it is part of an overall system that extends all the way down to clients - it's not an appliance that just sits at the perimeter and provides no further assistance thereafter. And to cap if off it really is a great firewall.
So what appliance would provide the substitute? I don't know much about appliances, other than the low cost ones I've seen from the likes of Symantec and Netgear, and those don't impress me. I wouldn't trade ISA for that type appliance. |
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Robin Wenham
Wirral/Cheshire UK
Member since
9/26/2006
Platinum Membership
Posts: 213
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| 8/23/2007 10:25 AM |
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You seemed to be unsure about dedicating a box to the firewall role so I was suggesting an alternative - but you've just given yourself several reasons to do just that!
Having said that, I don't have a review of all the firewalls on the market, but we sell and support Watchguard Fireboxes. Of your advantages for ISA, the Firebox will do the setting rules and monitoring conduct, limiting behaviour, while the hardware is fixed once you have bought it the firmware is upgradeable to add capability, it can handle router to router VPNs and dial-in VPNs, it will give you WAN failover and VPN failover if that is what you need, and it's not Windows so is not subject to Windows vulnerabilites.
I'd offer to sell you one, but it's a bit of a long way... |
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Robin
Make it a good day. |
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Vishal Sharma
United States
Member since
12/7/2007
Registered Users
Posts: 1
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| 12/07/2007 08:45 PM |
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| do any one know what is the average employee size of a SBS customer ? |
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Garth Honhart
United States
Member since
5/3/2006
Registered Users
Posts: 4
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| 12/16/2007 08:56 PM |
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Is there going to be an RC program for 08 or even some revised system specs?
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Garth H
webdev511@spamcop.net
Microsoft Certified Professional
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Mariette Knap
The Netherlands
Member since
3/24/2005
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Posts: 12895
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Andy Fearless
United Kingdom
Member since
4/1/2005
Platinum Membership
Posts: 136
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| 12/17/2007 12:25 PM |
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will it include Sharepoint 2007?
Andy
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Mariette Knap
The Netherlands
Member since
3/24/2005
Forum Admins
Posts: 12895
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| 12/17/2007 01:39 PM |
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Andy,
Don't ask for something I cannot answer. I have signed a NDA and that means I am very limited on what I can say about Cougar. The only thing I can say is that Microsoft always surprises me with new versions!
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| Mariëtte Knap Smallbizserver.Net Administrator | Mission accomplished. We have joined the branch office to our SBS 2003 Headquarters and have the same user experience on the branch office as we have on our local network at the Headquarters. Want to know how? Signup up for a subscription and get instant access to the article series 'How to add an additional Domain Controller from a remote office to the SBS domain' |
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