Deployment Guide

White Paper

Published: February 2001

Contents

1

Overview...... 1

Planning...... 1

Hardware Recommendations...... 1

Considering Your Current Environment...... 2

Other Preinstallation Considerations...... 3

Setting Up Small Business Server 2000...... 4

Before You Begin...... 4

Preparing Your Disk...... 4

Setup...... 6

Establishing a Good Backup Plan...... 10

Post-Setup Configuration...... 10

Adding Users and Computers from the To Do List...... 10

Connecting to the Internet with Small Business Server Internet Connection Wizard..13

Setting Up Dial-In and VPN for Remote Access...... 17

Microsoft Small Business Server 2000 Deployment Guide

White Paper

Published: February 2001

For the latest information, please refer to

Overview

This deployment guide gives information about the planning and deployment of Microsoft® Small Business Server 2000. It is meant to augment the information found in the Microsoft Small Business Server 2000 Planning and Installation guide (located in your product box). This guide also provides good preparation for some of the information you will find in the Small Business Server 2000 Resource Kit.

This guide was designed to describe the three basic stages of deployment: planning, product setup, and post-setup configuration. While by no means exhaustive, this document gives a good sense of the issues you will face and the decisions you will need to make during these phases. The “Post-Setup Configuration” section covers basic tasks such as working through the Setup Wizard and setting up users, computers, and Internet access. It provides considerable detail and offers commentary to put each task in context.

Planning

Planning is perhaps the most critical factor in the successful deployment of your Small Business Server 2000 network. Large organizations typically spend the majority of deployment time doing up-front analysis and planning of business requirements and implementation. Small businesses need to take planning just as seriously, but they must do so with little to no IT personnel and with much smaller budgets.

Hardware Recommendations

While planning your Small Business Server installation, you need to take into account whether your current hardware will support Small Business Server 2000. To begin, check to ensure that all your hardware is on the Microsoft Windows® 2000 Hardware Compatibility List (). Then verify that your server computer meets these minimum hardware requirements. Also, to offer the best possible performance, consider the hardware recommendations and best practices.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

  • Pentium II 300-MHz processor or compatible processor
  • 128 MB RAM
  • 4 GB available hard disk space
  • CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
  • 1 network adapter card
  • Video graphics adapter capable of 256 colors and 800 X 600 pixels

Recommended Hardware

  • Pentium III 500-MHz or compatible processor
  • 512 MB RAM
  • 2 mirrored 4 GB (or larger) hard disks
  • 2 modems: one for Shared Fax Service, and one for remote access, Shared Modem Service, and ISA dial-up

Hardware Best Practices

Hardware is the most common cause of performance problems in a Small Business Server network. You can optimize the performance of Small Business Server components—especially Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server and Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000—by considering the following:

  • RAM—Additional physical memory is often the key to improved performance, especially for Exchange 2000 Server. To maximize server performance, be sure to increase system RAM.
  • RAID Hardware—Using multiple fast SCSI drives (7200 RPM or faster) and individual SCSI disk controllers can improve input/output (I/O) processing as well as read/write times. If you are running SQL Server 2000 and/or have heavy file sharing and printing on your Small Business Server network, consider using RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) hardware.
  • Paging File—Spreading your paging file across multiple disks improves virtual memory access.

Considering Your Current Environment

Hardware requirements are relatively easy to determine. Harder to determine are the less tangible realities of the way you currently work. Making Small Business Server 2000 an effective tool in your organization will require that you and your users are comfortable with your tools.

Consider how your plan to implement Small Business Server will change the behavior of your employees. If you think your employees will experience a significant change, you should consider a short-term “pilot project” before a full implementation. For example, your business might not have e mail, Internet connectivity, server-based faxing, or an electronic accounting package today. You might assign three or four employees, or just your accounting department, to try out these new features on a server configured the way you expect the system to be deployed in the entire business. As these few employees learn the system, you will learn how this change might affect the rest of your employees. Once you’re satisfied with the change in your employees’ behavior and the configuration of the system, you can start adding employees incrementally or over the course of a weekend.

If you plan to go from an entirely non-PC business to a full client/server networked business environment, again you should consider a small pilot project with a few employees to make sure that you will attain many of the efficiency gains you expect and that your employees will be able to handle the change in business practices.

If you plan to migrate from an older client/server or peer-to-peer network, you will want to make sure all your key line-of-business applications work on Small Business Server. Again, you should consider a pilot project in which you install your business application on Small Business Server and test the application to ensure that it operates as you expect it to. Run this application on both the old and the new platforms for a week or until you are comfortable with making the final switch to the new network.

Another important consideration in the planning phase is to understand the requirements imposed by any line-of-business applications. If you understand the technical requirements of your applications, you will be able to determine whether you can move the entire network to Small Business Server or if you will need the product’s capability to coexist with other platforms.

Other Preinstallation Considerations

In addition to hardware considerations, verify the following items before you begin to install Small Business Server 2000:

  • All of the applications you will install are compatible with Windows 2000 ().
  • You have updated device drivers that are compatible with Windows 2000 (contact the hardware manufacturer for updated device drivers for their products).
  • You have a network adapter card installed and connected to a hub.
  • You have collected and recorded the information required for installation using the Before You Begin card included with your Small Business Server packaging or Appendix C in the Small Business Server 2000 Planning and Installation Guide.
  • If you are upgrading to Small Business Server 2000, you have backed up all critical data on your system and tested your backup to ensure data integrity.
  • You have secured an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for your server. In the event of a power outage, a UPS will provide the server with enough backup power to save your data and safely shut down.
  • You have planned your Small Business Server 2000 installation for growth. You may only have 15 employees now, but in a year or two you may have 40. Plan your installation for 40; doing so will save you time and money in the future.

For more guidance on planning your Small Business Server 2000 installation, refer to the Planning Your Small Business Server Installation tour from the opening page in the Small Business Server 2000 compact disc. It provides valuable information you should consider before installing, as well as a number of links to other planning resources.

Setting Up Small Business Server 2000

The following section provides an overview of the setup procedure. For more details about setting up a server, please refer to the “Server Setup” white paper on the Small Business Server Web site at:

Small Business Server 2000 Setup includes a maintenance mode. This means that if you do not want to install all of the product components at once, you can install them later using the Add/Remove Programs program in the Control Panel.

If you are upgrading from Small Business Server 4.5, note that Microsoft Proxy Server has been replaced by its successor, Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server.

Finally, Windows 2000 Server Setup and Small Business Server 2000 Setup have been tightly integrated so that you can add new hardware drivers during Small Business Server 2000 Setup, if necessary.

Before You Begin

Important If you are upgrading from another network operating system, make sure you back up your server and client computers.

  • Review the “Hardware Recommendations” and “Other Preinstallation Considerations” sections in this paper.
  • Review the Readme.doc file located in the root directory of Setup Disc 1 (or your DVD) for the most recent update on known issues.
  • Consider how you will set up your disk partitions and whether you will use hardware or software RAID for fault tolerance, as described in the next section.

Preparing Your Disk

Paying attention to the way you set up your hard drives (partition configuration, whether you will use a hardware RAID array) can pay off big in terms of the reliability and availability of your server. Read the following sections before you begin Small Business Server Setup.

Setting Up Disk Partitions

If you are setting up Small Business Server on a new system, one of your first priorities is to set up the hard disk partitions. If your system includes existing disk partitions, consider removing these partitions during the character mode of Small Business Server Setup. You should, however, review your system documentation to determine whether the vendor-installed disk or system utility partition (if present) is required to make changes to the BIOS or disk controller. Since this will usually be a partition of less than 50 MB though, leaving it is the easiest and safest option. See the “Phases 1 and 2: Windows 2000 Server Installation” section below for details on partition creation.

Setting Up a Fault-Tolerant Server

For the purposes of this document, a fault-tolerant server is a system in which the failure of one disk will not cause the system to fail, allowing you to continue to work and keep your business running until the disk is replaced. Aside from creating a fault-tolerant disk configuration, consider other safety precautions such as using a UPS, adhering to a solid backup plan, and keeping your server in a well-ventilated room.

Disk fault tolerance involves various levels of RAID. The most common RAID levels that provide disk fault tolerance are RAID 1 (disk mirroring) and RAID 5 (disk striping with parity). While one benefit of a RAID set is fault tolerance, perhaps a bigger benefit is the increased levels of disk I/O performance. RAID sets allow you to save different parts of the same file to multiple disks at the same time. You might be writing the first part of a file to disk 0 and the second part of a file to disk 1 simultaneously. Similarly, you can read different parts of the same file from multiple disks at one time, providing faster reads/writes than a single disk would.

The only real drawbacks of RAID sets are higher costs and decreased disk space. Because RAID sets require at least two disks and more expensive disk controller cards, you should expect to pay several hundred or even a thousand dollars more than you would for IDE cards with a single large disk. In the case of RAID 1, you will require at least two disks, and you can use only half of the disk space for data storage. So, if you purchase two 8 GB disk drives, you get a total of 8 GB of space. However, RAID 1 is the only way you can back up your boot and system partition. In the case of RAID 5, you will require at least three disks and you can use up to two-thirds of the total disk space for data storage. This provides better performance, but it cannot give fault tolerance to your boot and system partitions.

RAID sets come in two forms: software RAID and hardware RAID. Software built into Small Business Server supports various levels of software RAID. Software RAID will increase overall disk I/O performance and cause only small performance hits to the processor. Hardware RAID provides the best overall performance at no cost in processor performance.

Hardware RAID must be configured before Small Business Server Setup (refer to the next section). Software RAID is configured after the Windows 2000 Server portion of Small Business Server Setup. See “Phases 1 and 2: Windows 2000 Server Setup” below for details on how to configure software RAID.

Drives with Hardware RAID Controllers

Hardware RAID controllers should be configured before any software partitioning or operating system setup. Typically, hardware RAID controllers have their own BIOS configuration utilities. During the system boot sequence, you will have an opportunity to access the RAID controller configuration through a key sequence. Refer to your controller card documentation for detailed instructions.

  • After your hardware RAID set is configured, you are ready to run Small Business Server Setup. During setup, the system will recognize the nonpartitioned space based on what is reported by the RAID set. For example, if you have three 4 GB disks set up with RAID 5 (stripe with parity), Small Business Server Setup will report a single nonpartitioned space of approximately 8 GB rather than three nonpartitioned drives.

Setup

The Small Business Server 2000 setup process consists of three phases.

The first phase is Windows 2000 Server text mode setup, a character-based user interface in which some of the key operating system files are copied to your system.

The second phase is Windows 2000 Server graphical mode setup, which installs the operating system.

The final setup phase is a wizard-based installation that collects the necessary information and sets up all the server applications. Upon completion of the integrated setup, all the applications and client installation files will be installed on the server computer.

The following sections present a high-level view of what you will experience during setup. Make sure you review the “Before You Begin” section of this document for the best experience.

Anticipated Total Number of Restarts

You will need to restart your system up to five times during installation, including after the following steps:

  1. Text-based setup of Microsoft Windows 2000 Server.
  2. GUI-based setup of Windows 2000 Server.
  3. Completion by Small Business Server Setup of the Windows 2000 configuration.
  4. Installation of Service Pack 1 for Windows 2000.
  5. Completion of your Small Business Server 2000 installation.

Phases 1 and 2: Windows 2000 Server Installation

When you insert Small Business Server Compact Disc 1 (or DVD) into your disc drive, the Windows 2000 Server Setup Wizard starts automatically. It proceeds through text-based and GUI-based setup sections of Windows 2000 Server and, once finished, Small Business Server Setup starts automatically.

Important When setting up a RAID controller or other SCSI controllers that do not have native drivers included with Windows 2000 Server, press F6 at the beginning of setup. You can provide the manufacturer-supplied Windows 2000 drivers later in the Windows 2000 Server setup process.

Starting from Startup Floppy Disks

Small Business Server 2000 does not ship with startup floppy disks, so if you do not have a bootable CD ROM drive and need to use startup floppy disks, perform the following steps. You need four high-density, formatted disks.

To create Small Business Server 2000 startup floppy disks:

  1. Insert Small Business Server Compact Disc 1 (or DVD) into the disc drive of another computer.
  2. When the Auto Run page appears, click Browse this CD.
  3. Expand the BOOTDISK folder.
  4. Double-click makebt32.exe.
Continuing Setup

If you have not deleted existing partitions, the character-based portion of Small Business Server Setup will display them. Select an existing partition and follow the on-screen instructions to delete the partition. Repeat this for other partitions, except for utility partitions or other partitions that you want to keep.

Once a partition has been deleted, Windows 2000 Setup will display free disk space as “Unpartitioned Space.” Select this location and follow the on-screen instructions to create a new partition. It is recommended that you create a partition of at least 4 GB. When determining partition size, consider whether you will use software RAID.