Microsoft Takes its Time with Backup Patch

sets that help IT administrators govern large numbers of users and

computers in an enterprise. Unfortunately, GPOs in Windows 2000 and 2003

have the very bad habit of wiping out the ”archive bit” on all files

and folders within the organizational unit (OU) of the affected servers.

these files makes it impossible for corporations to perform small,

”differential” backups of the files that have recently changed.

Instead, these companies’ backup routines must copy a much larger number

of files, since the archive bit no longer indicates which ones need

archiving.

administrative time that’s consumed by this problem varies by company.

But it’s a significant chunk of change, according to those who’ve

diagnosed the problem.

A Patch Is Born

Gary Busby is Active Directory Services Engineer for a beverage company

in Atlanta, Ga. He says he reported the problem to Microsoft last year
and urged them to fix it.

”It took them almost six months to even get us an initial patch in the

first place in February or March [2004],” Busby says. ”And then it

took a while to get the final QFE [Quick Fix Engineering patch] in

April.”

The patch is dated April 9, 2004, and replaces Windows’ buggy Scesrv.dll

file, Busby explains. The fixed files he’s been able to obtain from

Microsoft are called version 5.0.2195.6923 for Windows 2000 Server and

version 5.2.3790.160 for Windows 2003 Server, he says.

If you haven’t heard about this problem — or the fix that’s been

available for the last few months — it’s because Microsoft took its

sweet time before it posted a bulletin about the situation. It wasn’t

until July 2 that the Redmond software giant released a description

called Knowledge Base Article 833281.

Using the patch can save corporations a bundle.

”We have over 1,000 servers worldwide,” Busby says. ”We had a solid

25 percent to 30 percent reduction in the size of our differential

backups when doing our backups [after installing the fix].”

Free Hotfix For Those In The Know

I confirmed Busby’s story by calling Microsoft’s Support Customer Care

number last week. Since my name is well-known within Microsoft circles,

I asked my research director, Vickie Stevens, to pose as a Windows 2000

information systems manager during the call. She requested the hotfix

known as ”833281”, saying she’d read an article about this and had

heard from a friend that this was the number of the patch she needed.

A Microsoft support worker named Paul said at first that he couldn’t

find a Knowledge Base article bearing that number. (That was true at the

time, because the article hadn’t yet been publicly posted at Microsoft’s

site.) When he was asked to search the company’s records for ”833281”

and ”Windows 2000”, however, he quickly found an internal document

that described the update.

The staffer e-mailed us a link that allowed us to download a

password-protected hotfix file. Once we decompressed the file, we found

that it contained two related executables whose names begin with

”WINDOWS2000-KB833281”. These files were digitally signed by Microsoft

with a date stamp of April 9, 2004.

Conclusion

The above example illustrates the fact that even well-documented bugs

sometimes go unannounced for months before Microsoft will publicly

release the needed patch or bulletin. But, fortunately, the company

charges nothing for the 833281 hotfix if you know that you need to ask

for it.

Microsoft Support Customer Care can be called at 1-800-936-3500 in the

United States and Canada. For numbers in other countries, visit

Microsoft’s International Support page. Select your country, then click

the links entitled ”Contact Microsoft” and ”Phone Numbers”. You also

might want to cross your fingers for good luck.

Brian Livingston is the editor of Brian’s Buzz on Windows and the

ideas to him via his contact page.