Small Business Server 2003 R2 Release

Microsoft recently released the next revision for the SBS product.  Despite the mixup with the release causing delays, the new release adds some nice new functionality.  Although SBS 2003 is a solid product packed with features and the new feature set in R2 is not that extensive, Microsoft hit the nail on the head with the new features.  The new feature set includes green check of health, exchange changes, SQL server changes and expanded CAL rights.

The Green Check of Health is actually WSUS bundled with and integrated into SBS 2003 R2.  This is not like the typical free WSUS product you can download and administer yourself (and then never use) - instead you’ll access a feature in Server Management called Update Services.  This features solves the headache of manually making sure (or just hoping) all machines are updated with the latest patches.  Software updates for all of your connected systems are stored locally on the SBS server and issued according to schedule and administrator approval.  In addition there is a report showing the status of all computers on the network so you can see at a glance whether SBS and all its connected clients are up to date with the latest patches and security updates.

SBS R2 includes the 75GB mail store limit for Exchange (increasing from 16GB in previous versions).  Although you can manually change this on existing Exchange servers with Exchange SP2, installing SP2 is not the simplest task.  This is a blessing most people cannot appreciate.  Even in small businesses the 16GB limit may not be enough and setting up different storage groups or getting users to constantly clean their mailboxes and defragging the Exchange databases is a real hassle due to the insuffient size limit.

SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition has been replaced with SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition.  This has caused alot of controversy but in reality it benefits the customer.  In truth, SQL Server 2005 Workgroup edition is more closely matched in features to SQL Server 2000 Standard  than SQL Server 2005 Standard due to all of the changes in SQL Server 2005.  The inclusion of SQL Server 2005 Workgroup edition enabled Microsoft to price SBS 2003 R2 at a lower cost than its previous version which may allow for more customers to choose the Premium edition of SBS.

Previously, each user or device connecting to a SBS needed to have a CAL, but the CAL was only applicable to that one server.  So if a second server was added they would have to purchase additional CALs for any user or device that connected to the new server.  Microsoft has changed the CAL so that it covers an additional Windows Server.  So as a business grows and needs to offload functionality to a second server (SQL Server, Exchange…) additional CALs are not required saving the business money.

SBS server has proven to be a great product with its feature rich and easy to use environment.  With the release of SBS R2 Microsoft has only added to the continued success of the product.