When the branch office server has successfully joined the SBS network and when replication has succeeded, there are still a few steps that will need to be done on the SBS server as well as on the Branchoffice server to finish the Branch Office setup.

 

In this third part of the series "How to add an additional Domain Controller from a remote office to the SBS domain" we will review some common events and errors that will always appear whenever a SBS server is rebooted. Those can be safely ignored, as long as no other errors or warnings show up after both servers are fully up and running. The Directory Services event log is very important and it should not show any errors or warnings on the remote Branchoffice server ever. It will also have the steps to create an email alert when the RRAS VPN connection is down.

 

The next step will be to modify the SBS Windows XP Firewall GPO so it will include the remote subnet in a few settings. We will then modify the Default Website in IIS to include the remote subnet. You will have to mind though, that each time you would need to rerun the CEICW wizard, you will have to correct the IIS settings manually again.

 

If you have run the SBS BPA tool on a SBS server that has the Windows 2003 SP2 installed, you will have been noted to adjust a few registry settings for the TCP/IP service. It is a good thing to make those same changes on the remote Branchoffice server as well and the complete steps will be described.

 

RRAS on a SBS server which has ISA 2004 installed, is behaving a bit different from a common server without ISA. This is because most settings in RRAS are being dictated by ISA 2004 and there are not many settings you can change without it being reset by ISA every time the ISA services are being restarted. This also has consequences for WINS and DNS and the behavior is being described as well as some solutions. You will have to realize though, that when you browse the Network Neighborhood from the SBS network, you will never see the remote machines appear. In the remote office however, you will see the SBS machines appear in Network Neighborhood. This is totally due to using this kind of site-to-site VPN connection with RRAS and ISA 2004.

 

The last page has a graphical overview of the ComputerWorks network with the public and private IP's that have been used in this series of articles.

 

The contributions from Justin Crosby from Microsoft CSS were very valuable for the last chapter and I want to thank him again.

 

These steps are covered in the following chapters:

Installing BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express on a Small Business Server 2003 Premium (SBS 2003) is not as easy as it looks. The documentation from BlackBerry is not complete and difficult to understand. I have decided to write documentation with all screenshots for this installation. My customer has an excisting SBS 2003 Premium SP1 (not R2) so we will install a new SQL 2000 named instance and create a BES service account that will run the BES software.

 

This document assumes that you have downloaded the Black Berry Enterprise Express software from the BlackBerry website. Before we can install the BESExpress software there are several things we need to do on the SBS 2003 Server. Most import step is that we create a BES service account that will run the BlackBerry Enterprise server.

In the first article of the series "How to add an additional Domain Controller from a remote office to the SBS domain" we have configured the SBS server and prepared it for a new additional domain controller. In this second article we will configure the Windows 2003 server that is located at the remote office so it can be joined to the SBS domain and promoted.

 

We will want the new server to be running DHCP, WINS and DNS, so these services are going to be added. We will configure RRAS so it will have a persistent VPN connection to the SBS network. DCPROMO will be run so the server is becoming an additional Domain Controller in the SBS network. We will correct the network adapters configuration, configure DHCP server and correct DNS server. Then we will check if the replication has completed and enable remote desktop so we can RDP to this new Domain Controller from within the SBS network.

 

The third article will have the finishing steps that will need to be done to complete the remote office setup. These steps are different for the SBS server and the additional Domain Controller.

 

I would like to thank Brian Desmond, Directory Services MVP, for his valuable additions, in particular about the DHCP event 1056 and the add new subnet in Active Directory Sites and Services (part 1).

 

The following chapters are included in this article:

Now that Mac OS 10.5 has hit the streets, there are folks who are wanting to know how to connect a Mac running the new operating system to an SBS network. This document covers steps for connecting a Macintosh running Mac OS 10.5 to an SBS 2003 network. This document assumes a healthy SBS network set up according to best practices.