They'll restrict the domain to two Domain controllers instead of SBS's one.... wonderful. Enabling technology my ass...

Twenty versions of the same software, all at seemingly random prices and no way to compare what you get for your money ....

All come with the guarentee that you will be missing at least one essential component , and to get this you will need to upgrade everything else ....

You can have as many domain controllers as you like in an SBS domain. You just cannot have domain trusts. One of many myths of SBS...

There's another reason - locking companies in AD, where workgroup would be more appropriate.

Business as usual...

SBS doesn't restrict you to one DC, it restricts you to one Domain.

The trouble with the Microsoft various OS versions is... nobody knows what the restrictions/features are with SBS until they want to upgrade and then its too late!

You CAN have multiple DCs, but only one can be SBS, the others must be Win Server. Why is this a problem? With multiple sites you can only have one SBS server with its wizard driven management, all the others require admins to work with a full blown MMC.

"locking companies in AD, where workgroup would be more appropriate"

I can't imagine having to manage a 70 - 250 client workgroup yikes!!!. SBS Active Directory is wizard driven and very easy to manage, i can't see an issue with running it if you have all MS clients.

The only issue i see here is the amount of different versions of SBS which in the past has been a good product and as said before you can have as many severs as you like but the SBS must hold the FSMO role.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that MS advise you not to have AD/exchange/SQL running on the same box... but that's exactly what the SBS does.

Forget Active Directory. Use an open source LDAP server, or Kerberos instead.

After all, ADS is merely a rebadged LDAP implementation with typical nonstandard M$ extensions to make sure they break standard client implementations 'just enough' to force use of their product.

For small businesses that require file/print/email server SBS is untouchable in the features it provides and if you buy it with hardware the cost are negligible and once setup its easy too manage for non-techies.

No other solution comes close to the Exchange/Outlook/Web-access combo for email.

How is SBS locking companies into AD? If you don't want SBS don't buy it, but the whole point is to get Exchange, Sharepoint and a Directory Service. That's like accusing Ford of locking you in to having an engine.

Buy a bike, set up a workgroup - no one's stopping you.

...why can't they just sell Server and Exhange at a reasonable price, make the money from larger companies through license sales, allowing smaller businesses to buy into it as they need fewer licenses.

Microsofts product range should read:

Windows Vista - for workstations.

Windows Server - for servers.

And then Exchange, SQL etc as standalone applications as they already are.

Paris, because she's my favourite boxed product.

Microsoft further confuses its customers with its offerings. Kinda like making Server 2003 R2 a separate product just because it has features the original release should have had.

That's only if they're too stupid to read the documentation on TechNet

Actually SBS limits you to one domain and only one copy of SBS in the domain (you can use standard addition for the other domain controllers). You can't even have a second domain with a second copy of SBS on the same network even if you don't want trusts between the domains - SBS will just shut down - good 'ol Microsoft.....

W.

I'll start with @Common myths with SBS

You are correct, if you have a trust relationship between 2 SBS domains for longer than 21 days they will both shutdown, there is a reason for that, you get a hell of a lot of software with SBS for 2/3 the cost of a server 2003 standard license, not to mention all the other stuff included. so the restriction is fair...

@@Common Myths of SBS - AC

When people want to upgrade, or they out grow SBS, they can purchase the Transition Pack, which provides licenses to the full versions of each product installed on the SBS flavor they have, it also allows them to separate the services to different machines and so on, without having to rebuild their domain. so no customers who buy SBS arent screwed when they out grow it...

@still with the bundling

You are correct, with the stand alone products its not advised to put AD, exchange, SQL on the same box for security reason, however SBS is designed specifically to run with all these components integrated, and its more secure out of the box than any server product on the market, from any vendor... period...

In an SBS environment, you can add anything you want, except a second SBS server, you can have multiple exchange servers, SQL servers, as many DC's as your heart desires, those DC's can even be global catalogs! whatever floats your boat...

SBS is an absolutely awesome product, and its the best product microsoft has ever produced, and especially for the cost, it kicks ass, its well put together, easy to install / manage / maintain, and its feature packed.

I manage over a dozen SBS servers every day, i've built a business around supporting mom and pop shops running SBS, its a very lucrative market, SBS is its own animal so there is very little competition...

i left a career of 12 years with the fire department to run my own business as an SBS specialist and have never been happier... Much love for SBS...

"i left a career of 12 years with the fire department to run my own business as an SBS specialist"

Just what SBS needs - a firefighter!

Even the SBS specialists seem to be fighting among themselves as to the what you can and cannot do.

Anyway let me get this straight - You buy an SBS server and as many seats as you need for a single domain - so far so good. But you may need to upgrade later to the different version of SBS that has slightly different spec and extra functions such as IAS. You then might need to add a file server - not a problem you just buy another SBS server? Nope -sorry a standard server for which you now need different licences because this requires standard licences which are different to SBS licenses. Now if I need to add a third server (say IIS with SQL server) then I need another standard server and sql server , 2 sets of standard licences and 1 set of SBS licences. But now I need to add a second domain cos my business is growing to two distinct departments so I have to purchase a transition pack which probably means converting my original SBS licences into Standard licences and doing some funky AD messing on my original server.

How could I possibly think that was complicated. Send for the fire brigade!

With all these experts, and SBS being so easy to configure, why do I keep getting emails that have been burnt and twisted by SBS with annoying winmail.dat attachments

</flame>

I feel better now.