SBS 2003

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

Paulie — Tue, 09 May 2006 08:29:51 GMT

I have now tried Jeffs method for moving SBS to new hardware and I am happy to report that it works. I can see potential issues depending on the hardware, but in my tes case it worked really well. Great news.

This now leads me on to a further licencing question.....

I have a customer who currently has SBS installed on thier server from an Action pack for which they are no longer valid and we are in the process of moving them away from that. The first step in that process was aquisution of a valid SBS license.

We decided to tie this is with new server hardware and therefore we are going to purchase a new server with an OEM SBS.

Using Jeffs migration method for new hardware we will still be using the existing copy of SBS on the new server and thus the installation will still be the action pack copy.

So in effect I suppose I have two questions:

1) Is it legal to continue using an action pack copy when clearly that hardware has a valid OEM license attached to it.

2) Is there any way to change the product details on an existing installation to make the action pack installation details match that of the OEM license.

Paulie

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

David Overton — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 02:24:32 GMT

Great news, Virtual Server just got a lot cheaper - about $0, or when travelling over the pond £0 :-)

ttfn

David

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

Ricard00 — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 09:32:05 GMT

The whole point of me existing, as far as my customers are concerned, is so that they don't have to 'do' anything IT related.

I provide maintenance, hardware, installations, upgrades, license managment and just about anything else they don;t want to be bothered with.

Profit on hardware is always 20% for me, and I buy everything from Dell. I can make a bit more on any workstations I buy as I customers with maintenance contracts must still pay for a new machine to be added to the network, so about £100 profit per PC and a lot more per server.

Most customers appreciate the fact that they need to pay up front for this stuff and they certainly appreciate it when I suggest to them that I'll have to let them go elsewhere if they can't becuase that tells them that I really can't stump up on their behalf.

Anyway, does anyone have experience with the swing migration kit...

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

Gareth — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:57:09 GMT

Richarde:

Ricard00

I overcome this by not selling hardware (or software). I specify it, source it and then get the customer to pay for it direct (usually to dell with whom I can usually negotiate a good deal). I then charge the customer my time for doing that, plus, of course the time to setup and administer their network.

I find that this gives me as much profit as the (tiny) margins on hardware would provide, and it is always 'someone elses box' so if things are wrong with the hardware you don't get quite so tarnished.

It's an approach which has worked for me for the last five years, and I have never had a customer question it. It is also a nice feeling that all the money that drops through your letter box belongs to you (and the taxman) and not a load of creditors.

Rich hi, we do the same for clients with credit reports that don't quite make the mark. Making the sale is the skill, the delivery (and payment) is (usually?) more simple.

But certainly make a charge for the time & effort. G

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

Paulie — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:48:19 GMT

I often make good margins on hardware and depening on how you approach it you should be able to as well.

For example I recently purchased 35 Dell PCs, a server with SBS preloaded and some other network hardware. I made £50 each on the PCs and about £200 on the server. The customer paid me upfront and in return got them cheaper than the listed prices on the website.

Everyone is a winner?

Some hardware I make much bigger margins on. I bought a P series IBM 6F1 running AIX recently for 8k and sold it for 12k.

Typically margins on hardware are not high, but you should be able to use it as a small addition to your services revenue if you are careful. In my opinion at least!

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:33:58 GMT

Ricard00

I overcome this by not selling hardware (or software). I specify it, source it and then get the customer to pay for it direct (usually to dell with whom I can usually negotiate a good deal). I then charge the customer my time for doing that, plus, of course the time to setup and administer their network.

I find that this gives me as much profit as the (tiny) margins on hardware would provide, and it is always 'someone elses box' so if things are wrong with the hardware you don't get quite so tarnished.

It's an approach which has worked for me for the last five years, and I have never had a customer question it. It is also a nice feeling that all the money that drops through your letter box belongs to you (and the taxman) and not a load of creditors.

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

andrewbettany — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 15:38:20 GMT

Great, thanks David,

I thought it could do all that wonderful stuff, but I was reluctant to invest tons of time to find out just in case it didn't! (at least now, if it does not work, then the problem is with me!)

Looks like I need to escalate the installation of VS nearer to the top of my current project list, since I can see a huge potential for this product :-)

Regards

Andrew

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

David Overton — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 21:46:44 GMT

Andrew,

the answer to both questions is yes. I often demo Virtual machines by accessing them by RDP and one of the main features of the networking is to have full access as if a machine on the network.

It is even possible to have 1 server, with 1 NIC card and several virtual machines, each with a different address, all on the one NIC, with the virtual machines getting the traffic routed to their IP address and there being NO NAT involved - i.e. they sit directly on the network. You can also have the connection NAT'd via the host too.

I hope this answers your questions - yes, VPC & VS are very versitle indeed.

thanks

David

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

andrewbettany — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 18:40:13 GMT

Virtual Server looks real cool. I did some initial reading on it a few weeks back and I was mightily impressed by what it could do.

It is worth looking through the various webcasts on the features, as it certainly showcases the way MS are moving in the virtualisation direction.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/techinfo/events/default.mspx

It is on my todo list for the next month or so.

I have a few questions, but most of these were addressed on the FAQ :-

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/evaluation/virtualizationfaq.mspx

My 2 main qustions, are:-

[1] can a VS client have full visibility to the WWW, ie If I have Server 2003 running Exchange, will it collect/send email?

[2]can a VS running client machine be accessed via RDP - I know that the host OS could, but I am not sure if the client can be directly accessed?

Regards

Andrew

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

David Overton — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 08:14:47 GMT

My interest has been piqued, hwo many of you use Virtual Server, and what do you use it for? I know we have mentioned the use as a support and migration tool, but is that it?

Please reply with details as to how you use it. If we have some great examples I would love to get them written up.

thanks

David

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

Tim Long — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 03:43:52 GMT

Have you considered using Microsoft Finance? There is a 3 month payment holiday available until the end of March.

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

Gareth — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 20:52:29 GMT

And of course if you're not sure there's the usual 180 day eval on the download.

It's really a no brianer!

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

David Overton — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 17:28:47 GMT

Hi guys, for starters I practise using virtual PC or Virtual server. Even if I have to buy the product, given the current price for Virtual Server, it is very much worth it. ($99 for 4-cpu version)

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/howtobuy/default.mspx

Just my $0.02 worth

ttfn

David

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

Paulie — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 12:37:35 GMT

I couldn't afford to stump up 5k for hardware either!

I bought dual core 3.0ghz servers with 2x160gb and 1.5gb of ram from Dell, £500 each. I didn't get any operating systems or licences as I will use my action pack. The servers will be on thier own lan seperate from any other environment.

Perfect environment for testing as I need to brush up on a few things.

Re: SBS 2003 Migration to new hardware

Ricard00 — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 11:34:30 GMT

Excellent, Paulie.

I have the purchase order now, and am waiting for the customers deposit.

Oh the joys of cashflow as a relatively new small business, I can't afford to stump up £5k for hardware and licenses and the customer is reluctant to stump this up in advance too. What on earth do other small outfits do to manage this problem?

We haven't been trading long enough to get terms with Dell or whoever, this is such a frustration and with another client could have cost us the business...