Windows 2008 SBS + Restarting

[Izi]

When I need to restart the server, all the computers on the network can no longer access the internet.

I assume that is because SBS is acting as DHCP and DNS client?

Is there a way to use the server as primary, but then role back to default so to speak when it is being restarted?

I tried Googling but my Google skills fail me

 

[Izi]

pick a free DNS server and set dhcp to send out its IP as a secondary DNS server..

I dont restart often, just seems like a bit of a flaw for a SB. What if the server needs to go for repair?

I like the idea above, I will set the secondary DNS server to 8.8.8.8 which is Googles free DNS, this should work?

 

[Izi]

"go in for repair"

Your server should have redundancy and be managed properly - it should never go anywhere and definitely shouldnt be restarted throughout the day.

Dont set the secondary DNS to something like that, you'll only run into problems with domain stuff further down the line.

If you're at the size where such a thing is an issue, you should be using full blown windows server with multiple domain controllers. From the sounds of it, it's either a non issue or it's down to poor management/unsuitable hardware

really? for a small company? Redundancy? Its all well and good if you can afford what you describe but what if you can't?

Windows SMALL business server was surely aimed at people like myself - am I supposed to be running two SBS's in tandem in case one goes down, could this even work?

@christophe52 - thanks I will give it a go.

 

[Izi]

snip

Fair enough. You are right, a restart is needed once in a blue moon when updates are applied or similar which can normally be done outside of office hours.

The server is a dell server with a mirrored raid array. I am also going to get a Drobo box for attached storage.

The reason this all sparked off was because the server through a BSOD which meant everyone went off line. I thought it really should be able to reroute traffic so when the server is off line people can still work - it makes sense to.

I let it dump to disk, whats the best way to find out what caused the BSOD? I am going to install the latest dell drivers to start.

 

[Izi]

Where in the server logs would I expect to see something?

 

[Izi]

Dont set the secondary DNS to something like that, you'll only run into problems with domain stuff further down the line.

thanks iaind for your help re bluescreen.

Re the above - what problems might I encounter? Doing this does indeed fix the issue, but obviously not worth it if the world will come to an end by doing so.

 

[Izi]

fair enoguh

OK final question promise! With folder direction, is a copy of the users files kept on both the local pc and the server storage location? I.E does it 'cache' user files on the local hardrive for offline use/faster speed? How does it know what to sync to the server?

 

[Izi]

You can do it either way, the proper terms to google are folder redirection and offline folders.

To be honest, I've never had any issues with speed doing it without offline folders, waiting for the changes to copy back at logoff is really annoying IMO

the only reason I ask is because most of the computers are development machines and reading many thousands of small files over a network is slow, normally.

 

[Izi]

Shouldn't be any slower than local really. Problem is, when you log off it copies any files that have changed back if you're using offline folders. It'll often throw an error so won't shut down, meaning people have to wait for all the files to copy back before leaving work.... It really annoys people!

I am going to enable it for my profile only and see how it goes - it seems that offline mode is the default setting from Microsoft.

 

[Izi]

I suppose it wouldn't make any difference to performance if the user profiles were kept in drobo via firewire?