Release Notes for Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials

  • Article

Updated: April 17, 2011

Applies To: Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials

Welcome to the Release Notes for the Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials server software. This topic contains up-to-date information to help you correctly install and configure Windows SBS 2011 Essentials. You should review this topic before you install your Windows SBS 2011 Essentials network.

These release notes provide:

  • Links to additional information

  • Information about known issues, organized by feature area

Additional information

Known issues

  • Installation and initial configuration

    • Security certificate warnings appear when you run the initial configuration from a client computer by using a Firefox or Opera browser

    • Setup fails when starting from a USB hard disk drive or a USB flash drive

    • Computers with Windows language packs installed cannot join the server

    • You may be unable to log on to the server because your keyboard was set to an English layout during Setup

  • Windows Small Business Server 2011 Connector software

    • Services that enable remote access must be running on client computers that you connect to the network

    • An error message appears when you attempt to install the connector software

    • Cannot join a client computer to Windows SBS 2011 Essentials

    • Auto logon does not work after the computer is connected to Windows SBS 2011 Essentials

  • Backup and restore

    • During a factory reset or server recovery, the server restarts in Windows PE and the firewall is disabled

    • The Windows SBS 2011 Essentials client computer backup features do not support the use of GPT disks

  • Remote web access

    • Windows Phone 7 cannot display more than 15 shared folders in mobile view

    • Using a Windows Live ID that contains special characters to configure a third-level domain on .remotewebaccess.com fails to authenticate

  • System health

    • Email recipients for alert notifications cannot be saved

Installation and initial configuration

Security certificate warnings appear when you run the initial configuration from a client computer by using a Firefox or Opera browser

When you use a Firefox or Opera browser to set up your headless server from a client computer, you will receive certificate warnings.

To prevent these warnings from occurring, perform the following steps:

  1. From the client computer, open Windows Explorer, navigate to \\server\certificate\, and then copy the file setup.cer to your desktop.

  2. When prompted for credentials, enter the following: Username = Administrator and Password = Admin.

  3. Open your Firefox or Opera browser and follow the instructions in your browser's documentation to install the certificate into the browser's trusted certificate authorities list.

  4. After the certificate is installed, restart the browser, navigate to https://server, and follow the instructions on the screen.

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Setup fails when starting from a USB hard disk drive or a USB flash drive

When you initiate Setup from a USB device, Setup can fail for the following reasons:

  • USB devices are listed first in the BIOS boot order.

  • Some system boards have a built-in order for the USB connectors. For example, if you have four USB connector receptacles on the front of your computer and four USB connector receptacles on the back of the computer, four of the connector receptacles may be listed at a lower level. If you insert a USB hard disk drive or USB flash drive that contains the server setup files into a lower level USB connector receptacle, the BIOS skips the USB device.

If you cannot start Setup by using a USB device, do the following:

  1. Verify that the boot order in the BIOS does not list USB devices first.

  2. Start your computer and then press F12 to access the boot order menu. In the boot order menu, select the USB device as the boot source.

Note

If the boot menu does not appear after you press F12, check the manufacturer’s information to determine which function key to press to display the boot menu.

  1. If the computer does not start from the USB device after you select it from the boot menu, verify that the USB device is not inserted into a lower level USB connector receptacle. Check the manufacturer’s information on the system board to determine which USB connector receptacles are lower-level. If you do not have information about the system board, move the USB device to another USB connector receptacle, and then restart the computer until the computer starts from the USB device.

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Computers with Windows language packs installed cannot join the server

Connecting a client computer to a server will fail unexpectedly if you have any Windows language packs installed and one of them is in use.

To avoid this issue, change your Windows display language to match the underlying parent language of your Windows installation.

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You may be unable to log on to the server because your keyboard was set to an English layout during Setup

After you choose a language and keyboard layout during Setup, your keyboard can remain in the English layout. Any passwords that are created during Setup might be based on the English keyboard layout. Because of this, you may be unable to log on to the server after Setup is finished. This can occur because the keyboard language format is set to English by default during Setup. If you change the language format, the keystrokes that you use to create the passwords may not map correctly to the keyboard layout that you are using.

To resolve this issue, after finishing Setup, perform the steps in the following procedure to reset the administrator and standard user passwords.

To reset the administrator and standard user passwords

  1. In the logon screen, click the Language bar, select English, and then log on to the server by using the password that you created during Setup.

  2. Open the Windows SBS 2011 Essentials Dashboard.

  3. On the Users page, right-click the Admin account, and then click Change the user account password.

  4. Type and confirm a new password for the account, and then click Change password.

  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the User account.

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Windows Small Business Server 2011 Connector software

Services that enable remote access must be running on client computers that you connect to the network

Before you can connect a client computer to the network, ensure that the service that enables remote access is running on the client computer. The name of the required service varies depending on which version of the Windows operating system is installed on the computer as follows:

  • If Windows XP is installed on the computer, the name of the required service is Terminal Services.

  • If Windows Vista or Windows 7 is installed on the computer, the name of the required service is Remote Desktop Services.

If the required service is not running on the client computer, you will not be able to connect the computer to the network. The service is typically set to run by default. However, if the service is not running, you must start it.

To start the service that enables remote access

  1. From the client computer, click Start, right-click Computer, and then click Manage.

  2. In the console tree, navigate to the Services section.

  3. In the details pane, right-click the required service, and then click Start.

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An error message appears when you attempt to install the connector software

A backup virtual device driver is installed when a client computer joins the network. If you click No in the pop-up window, the device driver is not installed, which causes the Windows Small Business Server 2011 Connector software installation to fail.

To continue with the installation, click Yes in the pop-up window to install the device driver.

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Cannot join a client computer to Windows SBS 2011 Essentials

Computers that have non-ASCII characters in the computer name cannot join Windows SBS 2011 Essentials. You receive an error message that says An unexpected error has occurred.

To resolve this issue, rename your computer with a name that contains ASCII characters only, and then run the Windows Small Business Server 2011 Connector software again.

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Auto logon does not work after the computer is connected to Windows SBS 2011 Essentials

If auto logon is set for the user account, the setting is overwritten when you install the Windows Small Business Server 2011 Connector software.

To resolve this issue, after you install the Windows Small Business Server 2011 Connector software, retain the password for the user account and reset auto logon for the account.

Note

The new Windows SBS 2011 Essentials domain account requires a password that meets the default password policy requirements.

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Backup and restore

During a factory reset or server recovery, the server restarts in Windows PE and the firewall is disabled

This is expected behavior.

To help ensure that your server is safe during recovery, make sure that it is not connected to the Internet.

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The Windows SBS 2011 Essentials client computer backup features do not support the use of GPT hard disks

If a client computer is running Windows SBS 2011 Essentials, and it has a hard disk that is configured to use the GUID Partition Table (GPT) format, you cannot back up or restore data from the operating system, individual files, or folders on that computer. However, you can restore individual files or folders from other computers to a client computer that uses GPT formatting.

In the event that a client computer is configured to use GPT hard disks, you must employ an alternative method to back up or restore that computer.

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Remote web access

Windows Phone 7 cannot display more than 15 shared folders in mobile view

If you create more than 15 shared folders, the Windows Phone 7 mobile device cannot display all of the shared folders in mobile view.

To work around this issue, do one of the following:

  • From the mobile device, open the Windows SBS 2011 Essentials Remote Web Access sign-in page, and then click the View Desktop Version option.

  • Merge the shared folders so that you have no more than 15 folders.

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Using a Windows Live ID that contains special characters to configure a third-level domain on .remotewebaccess.com fails to authenticate

If you use a Windows Live ID that contains special characters in the password (such as ‘”/\%$&), you may be unable to authenticate to set up your domain name.

To work around this issue, change your Windows Live ID on a site such as https://www.passport.net. Remove the special characters from your Windows Live ID before you set up your domain name. After completing the domain name setup, you can reset the password to its previous setting. As an option, you can install the most recent version of Windows Live Sign-in Assistant on your server. For more information, see Windows Live Sign-in Assistant in the Microsoft Download Center.

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System health

Email recipients for alert notifications cannot be saved

You can configure your server to send email notifications for critical alerts. In some situations, email recipients are not saved.

To ensure that the email recipients are saved, set up the recipient’s contact information in Alert Viewer.

To set up recipient contact information in Alert Viewer

  1. In the Windows SBS 2011 Essentials Dashboard, click Computers and Backup, and then click View alerts for the server.

  2. In Alert Viewer, click Set up email notification for alerts.

  3. If this is the first time that you are configuring email alerts, click Enable, complete the SMTP settings, and then click OK.

  4. On the Set up email notification for alerts page, type the email addresses of the people who are to receive alert notification, and then click OK.

  5. To test your settings, in Alert Viewer, click Set up email notification for alerts, and then click Apply and send email. The server sends a test email to the recipients.

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