The NEW Small Business Server 2008 – x86/x64 Print drivers

Posted by Frank on Jan 13, 2009 • (0)

It’s here, of course it is at the end of 2008. Microsoft now has gone to Small Business Server 2008

First thing to understand is that this is a 64bit version Only. The requirements for loading are on a different level than SBS 2003.

Minimum RAM is 4GB and 60GB HDD (however it will allow loading at 40GB). It is very strict on using these numbers and will auto-detect your system and will not allow installing if you do not meet these requirements.

Printing can be a chore for some deployments as I have been finding it difficult to find x64 AND x32 print drivers to allow 32bit workstations to be able to connect and print. I have found that you have to install the ‘exact’ same driver name/ver for x86 and x64 to have one printer be used by the server and 32bit clients. Thanks to the Universal Print driver from HP which has saved the day.

If you have ‘older’ printers you may have to settle with generic type drivers our manually add them to the workstations. I suppose you could install multiple printers on the server 1 with a PCL5 x86 driver and another with a x64 PCL6 driver but this may confuse your users when they browse the printers.

Currently I am deploying SBS 2008 with a TS server and am going through a somewhat steep curve. Things to note if you plan to go to SBS 2008:

-Drivers – as noted above if you are doing Network printers on the server make sure you can get both flavors of drivers (x86/x64)

-Remote Web Workplace – Still fighting this battle, but it appears to be very picking about having a certificate on the workstation that is connecting (if self-issued)
I will write another post on this one when I get this issue figured out.

-SBS Console – *gripe* You must create an email address/account for a user through the wizard. However you can go to the Exchange Management Console and DISABLE the email account. If you use the REMOVE option it will delete the user account. BEWARE – You want to DISABLE. It will give you a warning on both options but still easy to take the wrong choice.

That’s enough for now, I’ll let you know how the rest of the project goes.