Category Archives: SBS 2008

SBS 2008, Tweak

Stop the SBS 2008 Console from starting automatically

The SBS 2008 console is useful when setting up a server – but it starts up every time you log in! Whilst this is beneficial for a client administrative user (being presented with the easiest way to do common tasks), as a systems integrator regularly logging in to a system, you will find that you don’t need this console most times! We also give line-of-business application vendors their own administrative account, and they generally don’t need the SBS console – just log in, troubleshoot or upgrade their app, and manage a SQL database.

It is quite easy to disable, just a bit counter-intuitive as to the location. It’s not in startup, not in the registry run keys – but a scheduled task!

  1. Go to Start -> Administrative Tools -> Task Scheduler
  2. In the left-hand pane, expand out to Task Scheduler Library -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Windows Small Business Server 2008
  3. Right-click on the ‘Console’ scheduled task and select ‘disable’
  4. Log off and log back on to test!

Thanks to the Screencast on Netometer.com

SBS 2008, Windows Server 2008

WUS / WSUS failing behind SonicWall

One of my SBS 2008 sites has had a problem since installation where Windows Update Services (WUS / WSUS) has been advising there are updates for client machines, but these updates have been stuck in a pending state – the client machines also never receive their updates.

Investigation revealed the following error in the Application Log:

Source: Windows Server Update Services
Event ID: 364
Description: Content file download failed. Reason: The server does not support the necessary HTTP protocol. Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) requires that the server support the Range protocol header.

This particular client uses a SonicWall TZ150 firewall appliance. The Gateway Antivirus feature is the culprit. To enable the HTTP Byte-Range protocol header, and allow WUS to download the updates into the repository, do the following:

  1. Log in to your SonicWall
  2. In the address bar you should have something similar to “http://10.0.0.1/main.html“. change “main” to “diag” (Should read similar to “http://10.0.0.1/diag.html“)
  3. Click “Internal Settings” on the left-hand navigation bar
  4. Check the box next to “Enable HTTP Byte-Range requests with Gateway AV” (approximately 2/3 down the page)
  5. Click “Apply” in the top right corner of the screen
  6. Click “Close” in the bottom left of the screen.
  7. WSUS should shortly begin downloading updates – to confirm, open the “Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP1” management console from Administrative Tools.

Thanks to ComputerX’s post on the WSUSWiki for this info.