The Sikh Geek

Scott Guthrie is giving a talk on ASP.NET MVC tomorrow , 3rd July, at Microsoft UK, Reading. This event was initially over subscribed but I just saw that a bigger room has been booked so there are some more spaces available. However, you’d better hurry because even these are going fast.

See Scott’s blog post on this.

I am booked to go on this, so if you’re going see you there. We are looking to use ASP.NET MVC on a new client project.

I wanted to congratulate the new Microsoft UK SBSC PALs who were recently announced. They are Steve Wright and Andy Trish SBS MVP. I have known these guys for a number of years and it is great to see them represent the Microsoft UK Small Business Partner Community from July onwards. I know they’ll be very passionate and committed to getting our thoughts and challenges across to Microsoft.

It’s always good to have a change, to get new thinking and have a different perspective. It was one of the reasons I stepped down from leading the Midlands SBS Group AMITPRO last year and Steve was voted to takeover. He’s certainly taken the Group on to where we have regular paying members and a gradually increasing base of members. As a Group we continue to enjoy close co-operation with Microsoft and other vendors.

I remain convinced that the collaborative approach that epitomises the SBS Community is a key component for business success. Therefore, it is important that we support Steve and Andy going forward and that we let our thoughts be known. They are successful business owners, so they know what it is all about in having successful strategies.

I also want to thank and pay tribute to my fellow PAL Gareth Brown of Sytec who has been a good friend of mine and a great advocate of SBSC. What many people have not seen and appreciated is that we both lobbied very hard within Microsoft as to the value of SBSC with the help of Robbie Upcroft.

Things have changed for me massively is my business life and I have a great partnership with Ashish in our business Ardent iSys, which continues to grow and develop very nicely and is Microsoft Certified Partner.

Mostly, I have made a number of very good friends within my couple of years as a PAL and worked with some amazing Partners who made up the other PALs from the Globe. It’s been a huge honour to be among some of the best of the best. From July, I will become an Alumni PAL and I’m sure I will provide my input from time to time to Microsoft.

Ashish and I are part of the newly created Microsoft UK Partner Advisory Council, so our input continues. I will continue to be a regular contributor to AMITPRO and I have my blog and twitter feed if you want to follow it.

Are you prepared for the SBS 2008 Configuration exam 70-653? If you haven’t already taken it and you are looking for study guidance then join your peers in the first of a series of Microsoft Live Meetings where SBS MVP Andy Trish will be giving an overview of the features you’ll need to learn and guidance on exam taking for those that haven’t yet experienced Microsoft testing before.

The live meetings will be intensive so be prepared to answer questions thrown at you and you’ll be given homework to prepare for the next one with the intention of all candidates being able to complete the live meetings and take their exams prior to the end of June.  The cost of attendance is free however if you don’t have a voucher the exam cost will need to be funded by yourself but as Andy says, this is a great investment you are making in your future both for you and your customers.

Exam 70-653 will be one of a choice of exams required to be SBSC in the upcoming changes Microsoft are making in the Partner Community so get out your notepads and join in. The first event is Thursday 28^th of May at 3:30 and is due to last 1.5 hours

The registration link is https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/0000000379_116/Registration.aspx?pageName=9jp66cq70v4t53q2

On Saturday 9th May we had a SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 Migration Workshop at Ullesthorpe Court Hotel which was led by that well know SBS Guru, David Overton. After discussing the Microsoft Migration method with David at Microsoft TVP earlier in the year and spending a couple of hours drawing up the method on a whiteboard, I thought it would be a great idea if we could have a live migration event. At the time there was quite a lot of talk around whether the SBS 2008 Migration method by Microsoft was good or bad and how it compared with the Jeff Middleton’s SWING Migration.

David has just published a book on SBS 2008 called “SBS 2008 – Installation, Migration Configuration” which I helped to review and during the event David used his book as reference point for doing the Migration. The book can be bought from Amazon and also as an eBook from the publisher Packt. Having reviewed the book and also seen it in action at the event, then this is by far the easiest reference you’ll find on the Microsoft Migration method. It has lots of pictures and even more valuably it has links to scripts which David has written to help people migrate the User Share Data and Sharepoint.

We provided David with two machines he’d never seen before and the only access to the internet was via wireless. The two machines were HP ML115s and the source server was running a vanilla install of SBS 2003 under VMWare Server. The SBS 2003 install had been fully patched beforehand, which was pretty lucky as trying to get internet access using the wireless using ICS didn’t work.

This was a paid for event and the 11 people present were all paid up members of AMITPRO and were paying £25 per person and spending a Saturday at the event. It was held at Ullesthorpe Court Hotel and was arranged through Combined Knowledge who do their Sharepoint training there.

The first phase of the migration was checking the source server, checking the Service Pack Levels and running the SBS 2003 Best Practice Analyser. One of the key parts to the Migration is creating an Answer File and booting the destination server with the answer file present which was done via a USB stick. The installation is started and searches for an Answer File. This was the point at which we broke for lunch and left the installation going.

This part of the installation took about 2 hours to complete before the destination server was up and running. David then took us through the Migration Wizard in the SBS Server 2008 Console.

There were a number of points to highlight for me which were :

• You can transfer the FSMO roles back from the destination server back to the source server to effectively pause the 21 day migration duration.
• You should be familiar with the eseutil utility for checking the Exchange integrity.
• Do a trial restore of your backup because this will be your fall back position (but you do that anyway don’t you??)
• You are raising the domain level before the migration from 2000 to 2003
• SBS 2003 disk 2 contains the support tools (e.g. dcdiag) which you should install and probably best to have on there by default
• The Number 1 issue is Active Directory problems on the source server
• Exchange Server 2003 SP2 is not offered up on WU so make sure you install it as it is a feature upgrade.

The Microsoft Migration guidelines say you have to make a note of the Share permissions which is not ideal. So, if you buy David’s book then he has some tool recommendations and scripts to automate some of this. That’s definitely an area that Microsoft could improve in the future which wouldn’t really be that hard to do!

We had put about 600MB worth of Email in one of the user accounts and the Migration was able to transfer this within a few minutes but if you have GBs worth of data then this might take a while. During this time you are still able to receive email. You end up with a server with a different Name on the network so any UNC path references have to be changed but I guess you could add a DNS entry to put the old name to the new server after removing the SBS 2003 server from the network.

David also demonstrated the migration of the Sharepoint site by detaching the content databases from the WSS 2.0 site and attaching them to a new site in SBS 2008. The process of attaching the old content content databases actually upgrades these automatically for you to the WSS 3.0 format, which was pretty cool. However, this process does take a while and if you’ve got quite a lot of data in the Sharepoint site be prepared for quite a wait!

The final process of Migration is to uninstall Exchange 2003 and remove the SBS 2003 server from the network.

We started the Migration at about 12.00pm and were finished by about 6.30pm with about an 1.5 hours and breaks in between, so that is not bad going.

The things I learnt from the event were :

• The process is fairly straightforward and although there are number of steps to follow, I can see the process is fairly repeatable
• Much depends upon the state of the source server and in particular the AD/Exchange health
• You are in a fully supported state using this method from Microsoft and if you get into trouble you should use them because despite what you may hear there is a good support team behind SBS
• Test your backup restore before proceeding with this but that goes for any method you may use.

Most of the feedback from the event was that people were much happier with the process now that they had seen it in action.

You can also use the EBS Preparation tool on SBS 2008 to check the AD health as well, this was tip from Chris Almida who owns the Migration feature at Microsoft in his SBS 2008 Migration webcast.

Some resources are :

SBS 2008 Migration info on Technet

Migrating from SBS 2000 to SBS 2008 from Nick King’s blog

The SBS Official Blog (the main place for up to date info)

David Overton’s blog – although I believe there is a website to go along with his book

I saw that the nominations for the next UK PALs is open.

As I have been one of the UK PALs for the past 2 years, I would certainly encourage people to nominate themselves. In terms of the Microsoft gives, the attendance at the Worldwide Partner Conference has certainly been a highlight for me. It is difficult to explain the real value of WPC unless you go and experience it yourself. Apart from the great networking available, I have made some great friends from across the globe.

As a PAL you really do have the ear of Microsoft at some of the highest levels and the feedback is taken seriously. That’s not to say that Microsoft will always make the changes you want but you have a direct input into shaping the SBSC Programme for the future. You get to talk directly to the Product Teams and Product Managers at Microsoft Corp and most of the SMB Campaigns are highlighted first to the PALs. I have always found that I got to know things before the Microsoft UK people got to, which has always been quite interesting.

At the end of the day to represent your peers has been both an honour but also a big responsibility. I have at times found myself caught between the Microsoft and Partner World, with some Partners questioning my true impartiality. On the other hand you do have to resist some of the inevitable Microsoft Marketing Messaging that will come and that you do not just become a conduit for that. It has always been my view that I would not be serving my fellow SBSC Partners to the best if all I did was criticise Microsoft. Firstly, they would quickly stop  listening to me and start counting the days until the tenure was over! For me Community has always been key and that everything would automatically derive from a strong and successful Partner Community.

For SBSC Partners in the UK, we have got to stop always looking to the US for our success and ideas and content. We need to start having more leaders within our own ranks and people willing to contribute stuff. As I like to put my money where my mouth is, you will have seen a Live Meeting invite in the latest SBSC Newsletter that Andy Trish and I are hosting for SBSC Partners to discuss issues which are effecting them and how we can support each other more effectively and to drive change within Microsoft where it matters to us. I believe this is a first of its kind and I really need to thank Andy Trish of NCI Technologies of driving this and Emily Lambert of Microsoft in supporting the Logistics of it. This is a Partner Event, not a Microsoft Event!

Whoever, the new PALs are they will have my full support as I know it’s not always an easy role and it’s essentially a volunteer role. I respect anyone who gives up their time to support others.

If anyone wants to chat with me informally about the role then give me a ring on 07773 123 562.

A few weeks ago Ashish (my partner) and I received a message from Priyanka who manages the HR at our offices in Mumbai. It highlighted to me some of the differences in attitude that I have witnessed between employees here in the UK and over in India. I also thinks it says a lot about the culture we have within our business over in India.

Hi Ashish & Vijay Sir,

Congratulations from the whole team of AR Wonders India!!!

We are glad that Ardent iSys Uk will be moving to the new office in London.

We assure you of our continuous support and will keep doing good work in future also.

Kind Regards,

Priyanka

HR Executive

We have actually got an office in Luton but everybody in the World only really knows where London is in the UK.

Ashish and I are always referred to as “Sir”, which is a common thing in India. I love the “can do” attitude, where everything is possible and nothing is too much trouble. We also employ two women software developers, which is two more than I’ve seen in most places here in the UK and it is not uncommon for us to interview a good number of women for technical positions when we are recruiting.

Now if I can only get them blogging !!

This is a very interesting report on SMB that I saw on Nick King’s blog  (who is a Technical Product Manager for Microsoft)

The “Microsoft SMB Insight Report” reflects the insight of Small Business Specialists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Brazil. The following are some of Microsoft’s key findings on the technologies most likely to drive growth and profitability for SMBs in 2009

It seems to validate Microsoft’s approach to SMB and the shift towards more Online Services as articulated by SBSC Partners from a number of countries across the World.

It is well worth a read and seeing some of the trends and insights.

I thought about whether to blog about this or not. I am never really too bothered about companies bringing out new products/services. I’ve seen too many releases of various things to get worked up by them. However, it has been quite disappointing that Microsoft could reveal details of this product to its MVPs at the recent MVP Summit under NDA but couldn’t do the same with the SBSC PALs. To be fair, Microsoft, has in the past shared many things with the PALs which they hadn’t shared with even their Subs and Field people, so it has to be seen within the wider context. Nevertheless, quite disappointing!

Emily has some info here but it is not currently available in the UK and as I understand a date for availability here  cannot yet be given. It kind of goes against the fact of having this all under NDA  until release, to announce it officially and then not be able to answer questions such as availability in your region, Partner readiness, etc.

It will be available only via OEM and may only be through certain distributors. I have no real issues with it from what I understand of it from a technical viewpoint. There is a couple of interesting points for me, which are :

Available only as OEM is an acknowledgement that Small Businesses buy this way and the majority of SBSC Partners sell this way. It’s something we’ve been saying for many years, so maybe the penny has finally dropped with Microsoft! Although, I would be interested to find out if Software Assurance will be available on it within 90 days of OEM purchase. It’s also a fact that Microsoft Licensing is too complex for most small businesses and often see it as  punitive in its pricing.

It gives a platform for Microsoft’s Online Services such as BPOS. Let’s make no mistake, Microsoft is not stopping along the “Online” route and there is little if anything that is going to change that. SBSC Partners cannot shift enough of Microsoft’s Products/Licenses for their liking. This is fact, you just have to live with it. Most SBSC Partners make their money from service/support revenues, they will never have a major impact on Microsoft’s licensing revenues. BPOS is a direct relationship between end users and Microsoft and Foundation Server is there to support that strategy.

SBSC is only a component of Microsoft’s overall Small Business Strategy, they are attacking SMB on multiple fronts. If Microsoft is prepared to compete against it’s larger Partners such as Hosters, Anti-virus vendors then do you think they are going to think twice about competing with SBSC Partners?

Foundation Server will probably help to make some deals in the current climate you would’ve found hard to close with SBS 2008. It does make you think whether the price increases in SBS 2008 over SBS 2003 were to make a large differential between Foundation Server and to make the latter more attractive. I’m sure Foundation Server was in the planning for a while but I’m sure we’ll never find that out.

For Microsoft people this is their job but for us it is our livelihood supporting our families and employees, so we have to get clever about how we tackle the markets we operate in!

Karl Palachuk has some good thoughts on this as does Harry Brelsford. Susan Bradley has some technical links to Technet information.

UPDATE

I just noticed that Andy Parkes has posted on this as well.

Firstly congratulations to David Overton on finishing his SBS 2008 Book, I bet it feels good to him that he’s reached this point. As one of the reviewers of the book, I know there is a very good chapter on migrating from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008. The details are below :

http://davidoverton.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2009/04/03/sbs-2008-installing-migrating-and-configuring-book-now-available-to-pre-order.aspx

To order, go to http://davidoverton.com/r.ashx?1M

Small Business Server 2008 – Installation, Migration, and Configuration

David Overton

There is a ton of stuff/applications out there which have been written in VB6 and which are still around in many organisations. Previously when I was working with Java, I used to deride people who were writing in VB6 for reasons such as no object oriented paradigm and that it ran in a pseudo interpreted mode. It was however easy to create GUI applications on the Windows Operating System and allowed an easy method for linking to COM/DLLs.

As we’ve just recently migrated a business critical application for a client, I thought I would share some of our learning. Migration of an existing piece of code is never an easy task and even more so when there is no documentation provided with it and has been developed by a one man band outfit who is no longer interested in supporting it. We are talking the type of code that no self respecting .NET developer would want to touch in that state.

There are a number options for legacy VB6 applications, which are :

• Rewrite the application in .NET from scratch
• Migrate the application using the Visual Studio 2005 Migration Wizard
• Use the Interop Forms Toolkit to add .NET functionality running within a VB6 process for a gradual migration process

We used the Migration Wizard in Visual Studio 2005 which takes the VB6 code and attempts to automatically upgrade the project to VB.NET. After the upgrade has taken place you would attempt to compile the new project. The likelihood is that there will be many compile time errors which would have to be individually resolved. This is a painstaking process and certainly not glamorous.

VB6 and VB.NET only have the “VB” bit in common, they are essentially completely different programming languages. VB6 is unmanaged code and loosely typed, whereas VB.NET is managed code and strongly typed. Therefore at this stage significant portions of the application may require to be rewritten. Migrating to .NET is a good choice as this is a great platform to develop for and Visual Studio is still probably the best Development Environment around.

Once you have got a clean compilation and subsequently resolved any linking issues to DLLs/COM components you can then attempt to run it. This is the point at which you will hit the runtime errors and where you will discover that linking to some of your precompiled DLLs no longer work. This is also where you find that the User Interface looks rubbish because the Migration Wizard has converted into a Form Control which is not like the original. Also you must remember that there is not a one-to-one mapping between the VB6 Controls and VB.NET Controls, so you’ll probably be doing more rewriting here.

Microsoft has a good site for VB6 Resources and Migration Guides.

You can also find the support statements for VB6 here, which is essentially out of mainstream/extended support.