Windows Small Business Server 2. Essentials. Where Windows Home Server 2. Windows Small Business Server 2. Essentials, is currently more of a mixed bag. That's not because there's anything wrong with the product per se. It's just that the necessary add- ins that will make this server truly useful have yet to materialize. But even on its own, SBSE, as I'll call it from here on out, is an undeniable achievement, with the cute caveat that I've been asking for a product like this for years, and a complete rethinking of Microsoft's Small Business Server product line for the cloud computing age: Where previous versions of SBS simply grafted a host of Microsoft productivity servers into a single, lengthy, and complex install process and integrated management console, SBSE goes in a different direction. Instead, it drops the complexity and provides just basic on- premise services (user and PC management, data storage, and so on) and expects that the productivity services- -email, contacts, and calendar, document collaboration, and communications- -will occur online via services like Office 3. There is a separate SBS 2. Windows Small Business Server 2. Standard, which is designed as an upgrade for the classic SBS product line; this version includes on- premise versions of Exchange, Share. Point Foundation Services, Windows Server Update Services, and other tools. I do not recommend this product for new installs, and will not be reviewing it.)Basically, SBSE is a stripped down version of Windows Server, or a small business version of Windows Home Server 2. And at a high level, the big differences between SBSE and WHS 2. Where WHS is essentially unmanaged, offering the workgroup model of networking organization, SBSE provides a full- featured, Active Directory- based, domain services organizational scheme. And it does so in the simplest package I've ever seen: I honestly didn't think this was even possible.) And where WHS 2. PC management- -SBSE is aimed at the very smallest small businesses, those with the most limited budgets that are the least likely to pay for expensive and complex infrastructure. You know, the type of place where people use their own PCs for work. Latest trending topics being covered on ZDNet including Reviews, Tech Industry, Security, Hardware, Apple, and Windows. “If you ever had any doubts about the capabilities of SBS Backup, put them aside. You can absolutely depend on Windows Server/SBS 2008 Backup to create complete and. How To: Install and Configure RRAS (Routing and Remote Access) VPN in Windows Server 20. Small Business Server 2011 Standard (SBS 2011 Standard) needs to have a few ports open on your firewall router to allow specific traffic to flow into your SBS 2011. I've been using SBSE alongside WHS 2. I don't currently rely on this product as much as I do WHS- -for the lack of add- ins reason I alluded to above and will expand on later in the review- -I do use it regularly and have come to understand what it does, and does not, offer the budding small business. And while the functionality is fairly basic right now, I suspect that the value equation for this cutest of Windows Servers will jump exponentially when those add- ins do start appearing. Here's what's going on with Windows Small Business Server 2. Essentials. Automatic, centralized PC backup. Install Hyper V On Sbs 2011 Essentials ConnectorAs with WHS 2. 01. SBSE provides automatic, centralized backup of all the PCs on the local network; however, unlike with WHS, which works with only 1. PCs, you can use SBSE with up to 2. PCs. This feature alone is a decent reason to stock up on some cheap local storage, though of course the PCs need to be on the local network- -and not out and about in the world, as would be the case with many of today's new small businesses- -to be backed up. Automatic server backup. Again in tandem with WHS 2. SBSE also offers twice- a- day backups of whatever server- based data you want backed up, by default. You can customize the schedule to your own needs.) Unique to SBSE, however, I'm told this service works with whatever other servers you may install in your environment as well, though I've not tested this. As you'll discover in a bit, SBSE can be co- installed alongside an optional second server called the SBS 2. Premium Add- on.)Network health monitoring. Identically to WHS 2. SBSE also lets you monitor the health of any PCs and servers on the network. This works when PCs are used remotely as well, and gives you the same types of alerts for such things as configuring Server Backup, out of date malware definitions, and so on, as does WHS 2. I am curious to see whether a future Windows Intune add- in will let you farm out this service to the cloud at a per- PC cost, though I find the current Intune version to be a bit expensive, as will most very small businesses. Perhaps a SBSE- specific pricing scheme could be established to make that more viable. Content storage and sharing. Where WHS 2. 01. 1 provides pre- configured shared server folders for both documents and digital media files, SBSE is all business, and comes with a different set of stock shared server folders. Client Computer Backups, as its name suggests, stores your PC backups. Server Backup is configured separately and uses a different drive for its needs.) A Company share appears to be SBSE's stab at providing access to company- wide shared files, though of course most small businesses will want to create their own specific folder shares. And Users is analogous to the Documents shared folder in WHS 2. What's missing in SBSE, of course, is any form of digital media sharing. Sure, you could store digital media files- -music, photos, videos, and the like- -on the server and access them over the network normally. But SBSE doesn't provide a DLNA- based sharing mechanism like WHS 2. I suppose a future add- in could correct this easily enough.) Likewise, as a managed environment (described below), SBSE does not integrate with Windows 7's simpler Homegroup sharing scheme. Remote access. SBSE provides nearly identical remote access features as does WHS 2. You can access server- based documents and files remotely via the web- based Remote Web Access interface and a unique domain/URL. It has the same UPn. P dependencies as WHS 2. I overcome this; even if my silly router worked correctly with UPn. P, I'd stick with the solution I've found, and it works equally well with SBSE as it does with WHS 2. Full Active Directory functionality. Where WHS 2. 01. 1 goes a bit beyond a truly unmanaged environment by offering centralized network health monitoring and PC and server backup, at its heart is the unmanaged workgroup- style networking organization. SBSE, however, offers full- fledged, Active Directory- based domain services like a "real" Windows Server. And yet it exceeds Microsoft's supposedly more full- featured Windows Server versions in two key areas. First, the AD- based domain is created for you automatically during Setup, so you don't have to go in afterwards and manually set that up, along with all its prerequisites. Secondly, the complexity of AD is completely hidden from both users and administrators. This is the first time I've ever seen an AD- based server that could actually be used and managed by non- technical people. It's quite an accomplishment. For those of us who are used AD, however, it's also somewhat disarming. In fact, in early pre- release versions of SBSE, I had to really muck around in the system to be sure it did what it said it did. It just didn't seem possible. But it's real, and in the theme of "best of both worlds" that will be repeated in the Add- ins section below, I'd note that you get simplicity here as well as the full power of Active Directory if you want it. Here's a simple example. When you create a new user account in the SBSE Dashboard, you're prompted for first and last name, password, and the "level of access," which can be either Standard user (the default) or Administrator. You then configure the type of access the user has for each shared server folder and whether they can use remote access.) On a "normal" Windows Server, new users are added via the far more complex Active Directory Users and Computers interface. Here, in addition to the fields mentioned above, you're prompted for the user logon name and domain, a pre- Windows 2. Later and separately, you determine what that user's access level is via the incredibly complex Member of tab of the busy- looking Properties dialog. Yikes! What's interesting is that these options are of course still available in SBSE, and if you want to dig down into the Active Directory Users and Computers interface for some reason, you can. And that's true of virtually anything in SBSE: All the advanced controls are still there. And while I bet most customers will never need them, it's nice to know you can do it all with SBSE if you need to. Extensibility through add- ins. SBSE is part of a new family of "Colorado" servers at Microsoft, each of which of utilize the same Windows Server 2.
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