Wednesday, July 30, 2008 3:06 PM yuridio

Do you really know what is and what is not supported on ISA Server?

Last two months for some reason were pretty busy of calls for ISA Server issues where customers were running on a non supported scenario. Interesting enough, the articles for non supported configurations are out there since ISA Server 2004. Maybe it is time to refresh your favorites and to start add those articles to it. Here you will find supportability boundaries, limitations and unsupported scenarios:

Article: Troubleshooting Unsupported Configurations

Description: In the above article you will find nice explanations about some behaviors, including the reason why ISA Server does not support multiple default gateways.

Article: Best Practices for Performance in ISA Server 2006

Description: this article will explain the options to deploy ISA Server 2006 in a virtual environment.

Article: Configuring ISA Server 2004 on a Computer with a Single Network Adapter

Description: this article is also valid for ISA Server 2006 and it has the limitations and unsupported scenarios for ISA Server when running in a single NIC system.

Besides the official ISA Server TechNet Library articles, we (ISA Server Team members) are documenting in the ISA Team Blog behaviors that are expected. Here are the articles that were published so far:

Understanding By-Design Behavior of ISA Server 2006: Buffering and Streaming Web Publishing Rule Content

Understanding By-Design Behavior of ISA Server 2006: Using Kerberos Authentication for Web Proxy Requests on ISA Server 2006 with NLB

Files larger than 512MB are not served from cache after ISA Server firewall service is restarted

The tip for the IT professionals that are implementing ISA Server 2006 is to review those articles before start any deployment. I know how frustrate it is to build the whole infra-structure and when call to CSS to open a ticket get the bad news that the environment is not supported. Although this can be a frustrated experience, you should feel glad that this product has very known and public supportability boundaries. This helps you to understand what can and what cannot be done before start deploying your ISA Server.

Filed under: ISA Administration

Yuri Diogenes's Blog : Do you really know what is and what is not supported on ISA Server?

Winfrasoft’s Backup for ISA Server Goes RTM

Until now there has been no real way of fully backing up your ISA Server deployments. Some may think that restarting servers, manual exports and custom scripting is the solution. However, many hours will be spent re-installing, importing settings, re-configuring and tweaking – but inevitably losing log data. The result is loss of data and productivity due to system down time.

Restores may not work as expected and even more time will be lost as everything is rebuilt from scratch.
Now you can backup on the fly and restore again in minutes!

Major Features

• Backup of ISA Server configuration
• Backup of ISA Array configuration
• Backup of ISA Enterprise policy
• Backup of Firewall logs
• Backup of Web Proxy logs
• Backup of IP and Routing information
• Backup Array log data from a single server
• Scheduled backup jobs
• High security - AES 256bit encryption
• Small size - PPMd compression (over 95%)
• Central network storage of backups
• Supports selection files
• Command line interface for scripting
• Slick .NET based Wizard driven user interface
• ISA Server 2004 and 2006 support
• Native support for Websense Security Suite*

Minimum Server System Requirements:

• Windows Server 2003
• ISA Server 2004 Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition or
• ISA Server 2006 Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition

Languages:

• Backup for ISA Server is compatible with multi-lingual versions of Windows Server 2003, however, it is only available in UK English.

• Although multi-lingual versions of Windows Server 2003 can be used, Backup for ISA Server is ONLY compatible with the English version of ISA Server. Non-English versions of ISA Server are NOT supported.

For more information and downloads, check out:

http://www.winfrasoft.com/BackupForISA.htm

HTH,

Tom

Thomas W Shinder, M.D.
Site: http://www.isaserver.org/
Blog: http://blogs.isaserver.org/shinder/
GET THE NEW BOOK! Go to http://tinyurl.com/2gpoo8
Email: tshinder@isaserver.org
MVP — Microsoft Firewalls (ISA)

Thomas Shinder Blog » Blog Archive » Winfrasoft’s Backup for ISA Server Goes RTM

Virtual Appliances Offer Effective, Scalable Messaging Security

July 2, 2008

Click Here To Download:
•White Paper: Virtual Appliances Offer Effective, Scalable Messaging Security

Variability in spam traffic forces organizations to make an awkward choice: whether to maintain peak-load messaging security capacity—and incur the associated high costs—or to prepare for routine loads, a less costly approach but one comes with the risk of under-capacity when spam levels spike. Now, there is a new approach to resolving this dilemma: virtual appliance-based messaging security solutions. With hardened, ready-to-deploy appliance images and per-seat licensing, organizations can meet a spam or virus crisis quickly, efficiently, and economically.

Virtual appliance solutions use exactly the same code and update methodology as their physical counterparts—but combine them with all the utilization, management, and cost benefits of virtualization. Although physical appliances and other solutions will still be appropriate in some circumstances, the advantages of virtual appliances are compelling.

Virtual appliance–based security solutions combine security, performance, and flexibility to adapt quickly and effectively to the requirements of any network environment—and any level of threat.

Click Here To Download:
•White Paper: Virtual Appliances Offer Effective, Scalable Messaging Security

Virtual Appliances Offer Effective, Scalable Messaging Security

ISA Server 2006 SP1 is Out

The ISA Server 2006 SP1 was release today (couple of minutes ago) and you can download from the link below: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D2FECA6D-81D7-430A-9B2D-B070A5F6AE50&displaylang=en

We do have some good articles out there already that talks about the functionalities of this release, review some of them:

Jim Harrison reveals ISA Server 2006 SP1

ISA Server 2006 SP1 Demos by Yuri Diogenes

Your New ISA Firewall: ISA 2006 Service Pack 1 (Part 1) by Tom Shinder

ISA Server 2006 Service Pack 1: New features and enhancements by Marc Grote

Filed under: ISA Administration

Yuri Diogenes's Blog : ISA Server 2006 SP1 is Out