Russ Warren's questions

First of all, let me give you the specifics of our setup:

• Windows Small Business Server 2008 Domain w/ all applicable updates on the DC
  • The DC does DHCP for the main site
  • The DC does DNS for all sites
• 3 sites including our headquarters where the DC is located
  • All sites are connected through OpenVPN SSL tunnels terminated by an Untangle box at each site
  • The 2 remote sites us the Untangle box as a DHCP server for their subnet, which assigns the DC as the primary DNS server
• Collection of Windows XP and Windows 7 workstations connected to the domain

Here's the issue:

All of the workstations at the main site register with the DNS server on the domain controller fine. As they grab an IP from the DHCP server, it updates the DNS server with the new host record. I have 2 systems (each at different remote sites) that fail to register with the DNS server. I've attempted the following troubleshooting steps:

• Confirmed the network adapter is using the DC as a DNS server
• Confirmed 2-way traffic is possible between DC and workstation
• Verified the "Register with DNS server" setting was checked in the adapter properties
• Attempted ipconfig /registerdns and received no errors

For the time being, I have setup a DHCP reservation for these systems and manually created a host record. This seems to work fine, but I need a solution for any new systems that go out there.

Here's the rundown on the server:

• Server 2008 Standard running as a member server in a Server 2003 domain
• Running Terminal Services for 5 users that need to access a POS application using RemoteApp
• Running it's own licensing server:
  • 5 TS Per User CALs are installed
  • The "Configuration Review" gives me a splat complaining that the licensing server is not installed on a DC.
  • The server is a member for the "Terminal Server License Servers" group in AD
  • It does not seem to be handing out licenses, although users can log in fine.

I receive the following error when users login:

The Terminal Services license server cannot update the license attributes for user "[username]" in the Active Directory Domain "[domainname]". Ensure that the computer account for the license server is a member of Terminal Server License Servers group in Active Directory domain "[domainname]". If the license server is installed on a domain controller, the Network Service account also needs to be a member of the Terminal Server License Servers group. If the license server is installed on a domain controller, after you have added the appropriate accounts to the Terminal Server License Servers group, you must restart the Terminal Services Licensing service to track or report the usage of TS Per User CALs. Win32 error code: 0x80070005

This appears to be causing some issues with the RemoteApp users. The session seems to disconnect then leave a completely black screen on their system. They can't close the black screen -- I have to log them off remotely using Terminal Services Manager. It also forces them to load the RemoteApp in the "Show Details" window that shows when the user is logging into the Terminal Server (that's hard to describe -- I'll grab a screenshot if anyone needs one).

I've read this thread and this one on technet, and both point to the following security keys:

• msTSExpireDate
• msTSLicenseVersion
• msTSManagingLS

I've searched high and low to find these keys so that the licensing server can adequately license the users, but I can't find them anywhere. I'm selecting my OU for my user accounts and attempting to change the security there, but I can't find the keys to change.

This domain was upgraded to Server 2003 from Server 2000, so that might be why the keys aren't there. A few people have mentioned doing adprep from the Server 2008 machine to write the correct security keys to the users, but would that cause problems with my existing Server 2003 domain controllers? I don't plan to upgrade my domain controllers to Server 2008 until later in the year.

Does anyone know how I can add the security keys manually to the 5 users that are using this terminal server? Is there anything else I can do to fix this?

Thanks!

EDIT: I'd specifically like to know if running adprep from a Server 2008 MEMBER SERVER in a Server 2003 domain will fix this or cause other problems. Does anyone have any insight?

Instead of sticking with our normal Backup Exec & LTO Tape system that we've used for production servers in the past, I'm looking at alternatives for our new SQL 2005 server that will go live in about 2 months.

What kind of software and hardware are you guys using to backup a single SQL server? This server will see a moderate amount of usage during normal business hours and little-to-no usage outside of business hours. I expect to have no more than 500GB of data that needs to be backed up on a regular basis. In the past, we've done full SQL and system backups overnight to a tape library, alternating sets of tapes weekly. I'd like to move away from storing 8-10 tapes per week to maybe a removable storage solution like the Dell RD1000. Does anyone have any real-world experience using a RD1000 for nightly backups? Similarly, is Backup Exec still a decent choice or should I be looking elsewhere?

Thank you!