I am having several issues with a new SBS2000 installation. One problem is
that at various times certain workstations (if not all workstations) cannot
browse the domain. The SBS2K box can always browse the domain. For all
computers other than the SBS box, the domain is listed under "Microsoft
Windows Network" but no computers are listed under it. Clicking the domain
does nothing (does not produce any error messages either). This server is
in a "production" environment, so I am not able to reboot it at will, but I
believe that previous reboots have made browsing possible for a limited
amount of time. I have a second Win2000 server (that I think I would like
to also be a master browser) that I have promoted to DC that periodically
gets the "The browser service has failed to retrieve the backup list too
many times on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{<big GUID-looking number>}. The
backup browser is stopping." error. Drives mapped to shares on either
server (from any workstation or server) seem to function normally.
I am also having a licensing problem, so I am wondering if it is related to
the browsing issue. I am periodically getting the "The product Windows
Server is out of licenses. Use License Manager from the Administrative
Tools folder for more information on which users are out of compliance and
how many licenses should be purchased." error message on the SBS2K machine.
I have 25 CALs (the normal 5 plus a 20 CAL add pack) with less than 25
client computers (including the second Win2K server) in the network. Most
clients are XP pro (SP1). There are 4 Win2K pro (SP4) machines and two NT4
(SP6) machines. All Win2K computers in the network have SP4 and I do not
use Veritas backup software, so the licensing issues related to these
products should not apply. Clicking "about" from the SBS administrator
console does indeed show 25 as the number of licenses.
License Manager on the second Win2K server shows:
--Purchase history is completely blank.
--(On the Products view tab) Windows server as having 0 "per seat
purchased", 30 "per seat allocated", 0 "per server purchased", and -5 "per
server reached"; Microsoft BackOffice is all zeros.
--(On the Clients (Per Seat) tab) All domain users are listed with a 1 for
"Unlicensed Usage" and a 0 for "Licensed Usage"; all "computers" (with a $
appended to the name) are also listed with a 1 under "Unlicensed Usage". I
think the 30 "per seat allocated" listed on the Products view tab is related
to this because the sum of the users and "computers" (with a $ on the end)
is 30. Each client workstation is evidently being counted twice -- once for
the user and once for the "computer".
--At various times, the browsing difficulty mentioned above prevents me from
seeing any computers on the Server Browser tab, but when it is visible, the
SBS2K shows "per server" mode for 30 concurrent connections. I'm not sure
where this "30" is coming from unless somehow it is adding the 25 from the
SBS2K with the 5 that come with standard Win2K server.
--I attempted to create a license group, but it appeared to do nothing more
than change the icon next to the users from a head to a yellow warning
(exclamation mark) symbol. I also attempted to "add" licenses. License
manager accepted my input (I received no error messages), but the Purchase
History tab is still blank.
I don't remember ever selecting "per server" mode during the SBS
installation. I know I wouldn't have consciously selected "per server"
because I want both servers to be in "per seat" mode. Can SBS2K operate in
"per seat" mode? I thought that it could because I have read that the SBS2K
CALs allow clients to connect to other Win2K servers in the same domain
without the need for addition Win2K server CALs. If SBS2K can operate in
"per seat" mode, and if my SBS2K box is in "per server" mode, how do I
change it to "per seat" (license manager and license applet in control panel
do not work in SBS)?
Any help would be MUCH appreciated.
TIA,
Kevin