Need some basic Server 2003 guidance

[Kaido]

I am setting up a server for our office. We just upgraded the place to XP Pro and picked up a SBS 2003 R2 server from Dell. I want to start it out as a file server; my goal is to create several shared folders, add our XP users, and then group them into who has read access, read/write access, and no access to particular folders. How do I set this up? I am coming from a desktop/light *nix webserver background and am not used to Windows Server tools. I picked up a couple books but haven't been making much progress; any help would be appreciated!

 

[InlineFive]

I believe that you can manage users and groups under Active Directory Users and Groups (or something like that). Then it's a simple matter of setting the NTFS permissions on the files and folders.

However I am not sure if this is how it is accomplished with SBS. I know that SBS is heavily wizard based and I have only trained on 2k3 Server Standard and Enterprise.

 

[Kaido]

Yeah I thought we were getting Server 2k3 but we ended up with SBS 2k3. Any clue as to what the differences are, just wizards?

 

[Brazen]

SBS also has a 75 user limit, but also comes with Exchange built in.

 

[Kaido]

Yeah we are going to be using SQL Server in the future and bought the necessary CALs and whatnot. The whole domain thing is throwing me off lol.

 

[stash]

SBS has a 75 user limit.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: stash
SBS has a 75 user limit.

Mmm, ok, my bad, I was going from memory.

 

[RebateMonger]

SBS has Wizards both for creating Security Groups and for creating Shares. Note that the shares, by default, are going to give Read permission to ALL Users. If this isn't acceptable, you'll have to customize your folder permissions. I tend to turn OFF the "Allow inheritable permissions...." checkbox in the "Advanced Security Permissions" panel, copy the original permission set, delete the "Users" group, and then custom-add the group that I want to have access.

 

[gwag]

SBS 2003 R2 wont have SQL server in it really. you need to get premium for that.
it has SQL in it for its own monitoring etc but its not the same. (COULD BE WRONG since I am not sure about the R2 version but..)

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: gwag
SBS 2003 R2 wont have SQL server in it really.

SBS 2003 R2 comes in two editions, just like the first release. Standard Edition and Premium Edition. Premium comes with SQL 2005 Workgroup Edition and ISA Server 2004.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: gwag
SBS 2003 R2 wont have SQL server in it really.

SBS 2003 R2 comes in two editions, just like the first release. Standard Edition and Premium Edition. Premium comes with SQL 2005 Workgroup Edition and ISA Server 2004.

Out of curiosity, can you install other SQL-based applications like McAfee's ePolicy Orchestrator on the SBS? Or should you install that on another server which ties into SQL on the SBS server?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: gwag
SBS 2003 R2 wont have SQL server in it really. you need to get premium for that.
it has SQL in it for its own monitoring etc but its not the same. (COULD BE WRONG since I am not sure about the R2 version but..)

Yeah we got Premium.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
SBS has Wizards both for creating Security Groups and for creating Shares. Note that the shares, by default, are going to give Read permission to ALL Users. If this isn't acceptable, you'll have to customize your folder permissions. I tend to turn OFF the "Allow inheritable permissions...." checkbox in the "Advanced Security Permissions" panel, copy the original permission set, delete the "Users" group, and then custom-add the group that I want to have access.

Nice! Basically I want to create a domain, add users, and configure group policies as to who can access what depending upon what group(s) they are in. Like I said, it will start duty as a file server and I want to make sure to do it right.

 

[gwag]

Seriously SBS is almost impossible to mess up if you follow the wizards. how many users do you have?

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: gwag
Seriously SBS is almost impossible to mess up if you follow the wizards. how many users do you have?

wow...you have never had to clean up after a true ignorant person have you?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: gwag
Seriously SBS is almost impossible to mess up if you follow the wizards. how many users do you have?

wow...you have never had to clean up after a true ignorant person have you?

Hey, it doesn't even take total ignorance. Try inserting the wrong wildcard character sequence in an Exchange Recipient Policy sometime....

You end up with TEN THOUSAND useless Exchange email addresses, that can only be removed by using an Active Directory editor.
Don't ask me how I know about this.