Friday 3 December 2010

Exchange Server Deployment Assistant–Now with Clouds & Cross-Premise

The Microsoft Exchange Server Deployment Assistant now support Cloud and On-premise + Cloud deployments in addition to On-premise only. This is pretty exciting and will be a great boost to help those looking to upgrade to cloud or hybrid Exchange solutions.

You will need to have Exchange 2010 CAS role on-premise to migrate or to setup a cross-premise deployment. For now only Exchange 2003 is live, with 2007 and 2010 to come soon.

Exchange Server Deployment Assistant: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exdeploy2010/default.aspx#Index

image

The tool walks through setting up DirSync and ADFS 2.0 to support identity federation. So if you are considering Office 365, another hosted solution or just a plain old on-premise upgrade head over to the tool.

On a related note, I am pleasantly surprised by the number of organisation I come across now using Microsoft Online Services ranging from small to very large.

Daniel Noakes
http://twitter.com/dannoakes

Thursday 2 December 2010

Windows Media Format SDK for BES on Server 2008 without Desktop Experience

If you have installed BES on Windows Server 2008 you should have installed the Desktop Experience feature to install Windows Media Player and the Windows Media Format SDK 11 (WMFSDK11) runtime to support audio attachments.

If you have a requirement preventing the Desktop Experience feature being installed you can run the following from an elevated command prompt.

Windows Server 2008 x64
pkgmgr.exe /ip /m:"%windir%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-Media-Format-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000.mum"

Windows Server 2008 x86
pkgmgr.exe /ip /m:"%windir%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-Media-Format-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.0.6001.18000.mum"
Windows Server 2008 R2 x64
pkgmgr.exe /ip /m:"%windir%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-Media-Format-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.7600.16385.mum"

I suggest always installing the Desktop Experience feature. This should be run with elevated privileges.

Windows Server 2008 (command prompt)
ServerManagerCmd –i Desktop-Experience

Windows Server 2008 R2 (Windows PowerShell)
Import-Module ServerManager
Add-WindowsFeature Desktop-Experience

Daniel Noakes
http://twitter.com/dannoakes

Tuesday 30 November 2010

BES 5.0.2 & Exchange 2010 SP1 /Hosting

Before installing BES for multi-tenant Exchange 2010 SP1 /hosting you should read the following resources. You should also have deployed Exchange 2010 SP1 RU1.
This is a work in progress (so I don’t forget), so please check back for updates and corrections. Feel free to add comments or give me your experiences. There is also a forum running here, http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/BlackBerry-Enterprise-Server/Cross-organisation-user-search-exch-2010-sp1-hosted/m-p/659071#M7052.
BES 5.0.2 & Exchange 2010 SP1 RU1 /hosting:
http://docs.blackberry.com/en/admin/deliverables/16575/Configuring_Exchange_2010_environ_962756_11.j...
BESX 5.0.2 & Exchange 2010 SP1 RU1 /hosting:
http://docs.blackberry.com/en/admin/deliverables/14347/Configuring_Exchange_2010_environ_962756_11.j...
Post installation there are some other changes to make.
There is an additional step to configure BES 5.0.2 to work without public folders:
http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB24470
To restrict lookups follow this guidance:
http://docs.blackberry.com/en/admin/deliverables/16606/Configuring_a_Hosted_BB_services_environment_...
You may also want to consider using LDAP instead of MAPI to lookup users, this will require a common attribute unique to users within each tenant organisation:
http://docs.blackberry.com/en/admin/deliverables/16606/Configuring_BES_to_use_LDAP_for_addresses_PIM...
Using the above information, plus the standard installation guidance I have been able to install BES and add users.
Hopefully BES 5.0.3 will help us all out, maybe even an interim hotfix. I also recall that an MS update was required, but have a feeling this is included in Exchange 2010 SP1 RU1 - I could be wrong though.
Daniel Noakes
http://twitter.com/dannoakes

Exchange 2010 SP1 with BES 5.0.2

If you are deploying Exchange 2010 SP1 and have BES you should head over and read the Installation and Configuration Guide - http://docs.blackberry.com/en/admin/deliverables/14347/Configuring_Exchange_2010_environ_962756_11.jsp.

The guide covers most steps including configuring BES to run without public folders. There is one additional step to allow BAS to retrieve user information and is described in KB24470, Cannot add users to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 in an environment that includes Microsoft Exchange 2010 SP1 - http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB24470.

The workaround for now is to set the CONNECT_IGNORE_NO_PF flag in the MAPI profile used by the BlackBerry Mail Store Service in the following registry key.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\BlackBerryServer\13dbb0c8aa05101a9bb000aa002fc45a

Locate the key 00036604 and change the second byte value to 80.

The examples provided are:

  • If the value is currently set to 04 00 00 00, change it to 04 80 00 00 (see screen shot for example)
  • If the value is currently set to 02 00 00 00, change it to 02 80 00 00

A restart of the BlackBerry Mail Store Service completes the workaround.

Daniel Noakes
http://twitter.com/dannoakes

Thursday 11 November 2010

Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2423930): November 9, 2010

A critical vulnerability for Outlook has been reported, http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms10-087.mspx. It appears to affect All Outlook versions including Outlook 2011 for Mac and Entourage.

A specially crafted RTF email message when previewed or opened could allow an attacker to gain the same rights as the logged on user. If you have followed best practice and segregated administrative roles out the risk is somewhat reduced.

Microsoft have recommended to apply the update immediately.

Sunday 7 November 2010

BES Express for Microsoft Exchange 5.0.2 MR 1

If you are using BES Express for Exchange Server you should check out, BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express for Microsoft Exchange Version 5.0 Service Pack 2 Maintenance Release 1.

This maintenance release should be tested and installed on to computers hosting BES Express, BlackBerry Administration Service, BlackBerry Attachment Service, BlackBerry MDS Connection Service or the BlackBerry Router.

 

Fixed Issues

“(DT 838289) In the initial release of BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express 5.0 SP2, users with BlackBerry® devices running
BlackBerry® 6 are not be able to browse to their organization's intranet sites. This occurs because BlackBerry 6 handles browser
transport selection using a different method than previous versions of the BlackBerry® Device Software.”


“In BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express 5.0 SP2 MR1, the MDS Browser Domains IT policy rule has been added. You can use
this IT policy rule to specify the domain of your organization's intranet sites. After you apply the IT policy to BlackBerry devices,
users with devices running BlackBerry 6 can browse to the domains that you specified.”

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Using Autodiscover During a Migration

I came across the Autodiscover and Migration Issues post on the Migrationwiz.com Blog. It discusses a few options for working around Autodiscover issues when migrating between Exchange Orgs, typically to and from Hosted providers.

 

For some time now I have been using another method, which works very well and is great for longer term co-existence.

The Procedure

1. Setup DNS (private and public) for a sub domain on target Exchange Org and mailboxes. E.G. mail2.noak.es; autodiscover.mail2.noak.es; and daniel@mail2.noak.es.

2. Migrate the data.

3. Convert daniel@noak.es to a Mail User (strip the mailbox, retain proxyaddress etc) in the source Exchange Org.

4. Add the targetaddress (“External E-mail Address”) and proxyaddress Daniel@mail2.noak.es to Daniel@noak.es in the source Exchange Org.

This works because Autodiscover will fail on SCP records, but continue with other steps until it uses the targetaddress and will successfully connect to autodiscover.mail2.noak.es.

 

Below: Outlook 2010 using Autodiscover to resolve on an premise AD user to Hosted Exchange mailbox.

Untitled1 

 

Below: Outlook 2010 configuration complete resolve to Hosted Exchange.

Untitled2

 

It is often easier to script this and working with the right suppliers this can be done. Both Cobweb and Migrationwiz.com have API’s available which we can use to automate most of the work. When combined with taking multiple passes (initial + delta) results in minimal disruption to end users.

 

With Exchange 2010 SP1 Hosting editions beginning to appear all of this will be taken care of natively with the addition of remote PowerShell using New-RemoteMoveRequest and user federation.

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Easy Migration from Google Apps to Hosted Exchange

We use Migrationwiz.com almost exclusively for on-boarding (and when the need arises off-boarding) mailboxes to the Cobweb Hosted Exchange service. I have previously blogged about this, but it makes everything a lot simpler and overcomes a number of hurdles traditional on premise or PST migrations will encounter. Our customers have noticed and often comment on how smooth the whole process is.

A sticking point has been migrating from non-Exchange servers such as Google Apps where user credentials must be supplied for each mailbox. They have a fantastic password gathering service, which although secure has raised questions about sending users to a “new” web site requesting passwords. Well, this is no more thanks to a new addition on Migrationwiz.com enabling use of the Google Apps OAUTH domain key and secret to access mailbox data.

For more information on visit the Migrationwiz.com wiki, How do I migrate from Google using administrative credentials?

If you want someone to manage the migration for you and are looking for a Hosted Exchange provider head over to http://www.cobweb.com. If you fancy migrating yourself we all Cobweb Hosted Exchange settings are already loaded in to provider list on Migrationwiz.com.

Feel free to drop me a message if you need any other advice.

Friday 15 October 2010

Next Exchange 2010 Webinar Tuesday 26th October

I will be presenting on both shared and dedicated solutions with Exchange 2010 on Tuesday 26th October. Join me by registering here:

http://www.cobweb.com/online-learning/webinar-what-is-exchange-2010.aspx

I will have a Q&A session and invite all to ask questions.

See you there,

Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server


See me and Cobweb at the IP EXPO 20th-21st October 2010

Hi,

I will be representing Cobweb at the IP EXPO next week. Come and find our stand and talk to me about the Cloud, Exchange 2010 and what Exchange solutions we can provide to succesfully outsource your infrastructure.

See you there,

Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server



Wednesday 22 September 2010

Hosted Exchange 2010 Migration Guidance

In August I blogged about the Hosting Deployment Guide for Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Beta, which was really just an incomplete CHM file.

The Microsoft Hosting Partner Technical Advisor Blog has a new post, Hosted Exchange 2010 Migration Guide. Download the ZIP file to get conceptual architecture, migration overview, migration guidance, HMC specific migration guidance and sample scripts to support your move to an Exchange 2010 SP1 Hosting forest.

You have a few standard requirements and limitations, but you will have to upgrade your control panel or services behind it. You may choose in house development, or join the increasing numbers of hosting providers outsourcing control panels to Ensim or Parallels.

Thursday 16 September 2010

Webinar: An Overview of Microsoft Hosted Exchange 2010

Hope you all enjoyed the latest Cobweb Webinar on Hosted Exchange 2010.

Join me for the next one in October. To see availability and dates, and of course to register please follow http://www.cobweb.com/events.aspx

I take a Q&A session at the end of every one, so feel free to prepare any questions before and during should I not answer them in the presentation.

Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

Wednesday 4 August 2010

How to Protect Exchange with DPM 2010 White Paper

Microsoft have released a white paper on How to Protect Exchange with DPM 2010.

Gives some great information on why and how to protect Exchange data with DPM 2010


You can download the white paper from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=be885d26-25e5-41ff-afc8-506414aed960

Wayne Hollomby

Friday 23 July 2010

Email data migration – Migrationwiz.com

If you are familiar with the pain that can come when migrating mailbox data between servers you will appreciate https://www.migrationwiz.com.

It is a cloud service charged per mailbox that can hook in to Exchange, Gmail, Hotmail, IMAP and other mail servers and import directly to Exchange Server 2007/2010. It takes care of a lot of work for IMAP migrations such as securely gathering user credentials.

I really like the simple dashboard showing the state of the migration. I also like the option to take multiple passes at a mailbox and being able to on filter date ranges.

image

Configuration is simple.

1. Enter source server OWA/IMAP address
2. Enter destination Exchange OWA address
3. List mailboxes to migrate, then either it will handle credential gathering or you can specify a super user with access to all mailboxes.
4. Press GO and monitor.

Daniel

Test-ExchangeUMCallFlow - Unified Messaging Troubleshooting Tool

Microsoft have released the Unified Messaging Troubleshooting Tool which used some new cmdlets to help configure testing and diagnose configuration errors with call answering and voicemail.

Whether the solution is on-premise or cross-premise, use OCS R2 2007 or MCS “14” the cmdlet will emulate and run diagnostic tests in telephone, UM 2010 SP1 and cross-premise deployments. You end up with some useful information in the form of a cause and possible solutions.

Download it here, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=10d2e48f-0846-40b6-b08f-d282309811a2

OCS 2007 R2 July 2010 Cumulative Update

Can you believe July is nearly over? Microsoft have released a wave of OCS 2007 R2 cumulative update packages for OCS Server, Communicator and Group Chat.

OCS 2007 R2 Server
KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968802/

OCS 2007 R2 Database
KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2032834/

Communicator 2007 R2
KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2028888/

Communicator Phone
KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2267962/

Group Chat Server
KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2032881/

Group Chat Client
KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2032922/

Group chat Admin
KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2032949/

Wednesday 21 July 2010

Hosting Deployment Guide for Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Beta

Microsoft have released the Hosting Deployment Guide for Exchange Server 2010 SP1 which is the first of many services to break away from the HMC and MPS deployment and provisioning model. Multi-tenant capabilities are now built directly in to AD and Exchange, although there are some limitations such as the removal of public folders and no access to ECP for tenant organisations.

Despite some limitations this is the product many hosters and carriers have been waiting for, as until Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Microsoft have not provided guidance or support for multi-tenant Exchange Server 2010. The really good news for me is this opens up the doors to more complex cross-premise deployments where the customer has Exchange in-house and in the Cloud(s).

A couple of warnings about the /hosting install. 1. You must deploy in a new forest where Exchange Server has not been installed previously. 2. There is no GUI for /hosting you must install form command line using setup.com /hosting and manage the service through Powershell. This makes sense as the current Exchange GUI won’t display multi-tenant organisations in a hierarchy and it also prevents simple changes being made outside of automated provisioning 3. Resource forest type scenarios still has limitations.

If you are interested head to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a0965fc9-2723-4947-ae6b-74bc3808e72a&displaylang=en to download SP1, remember to use setup.com /hosting.

While that is installing start reading through the guidance provided here, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=bba88fb5-9d84-475c-85d7-3ffeb308636e.

I have been testing /hosting in the lab for a few months now and we still have a journey to complete before /hosting will make it in to the Cobweb production platform. I imagine we will start to see the hosting editions, lead by BPOS, gaining new and updated features through regular smaller releases.

Happy Hosting

Daniel

Tuesday 20 July 2010

Hotfix Rollup 1 for Microsoft Forefront Protection for Exchange

Hotfix Rollup 1 for Microsoft Forefront Protection for Exchange was release a few weeks ago over at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2181692/.

I’ve been testing with the build of Exchange Server 2010 SP1 that we run in production and haven’t had any problems with it.

Get the update: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2181692/

Daniel

Thursday 8 July 2010

Cobweb make it onto The Register

Our VCE offering has made it onto the front page, and can be found here.


Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

Wednesday 7 July 2010

Follow me on Twitter

Well,

I upped a geek level and now post on Twitter. You won't find me talking about randoms - you will find me posting out links to cool new technology, tools or gadgets.

http://twitter.com/OliverMoazzezi

Enjoy,

Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

Good news! Re-awarded as a 2010 MVP!

So this will be my 4th year as an Exchange MVP. In the last year I have probably made my biggest contributions to Technical Communities.

So I thought i'd take you back to where it all started, back in 2007 on the Exchange Newsgroups.

Over these last 36 months i've made nearly 5000 posts to the Microsoft Exchange Public Newsgroups, the picture below, taken from Google shows my posts and I guess somewhat crazy dedication to Exchange and helping others. You will find everything from talking about Clustering, SAN vs DAS, Exchange 2000, 2003, 2007 and 2010 to scripting and help with Active Directory.

After having a quick run through, I even noticed I posted on Christmas Day :-)























The posts slowly declined as I moved over to Microsofts replacement forums - the Exchange Technet Forums. I now post here.

You can see my threads here.

And you can follow my RSS feed here.

So with the decline or the newsgroups I also started Webinars for my employer, Cobweb. I have some far done 3 online webinars on Exchange 2010 since the start of the year. I have also presented Exchange 2010 including a live demo of OWA and it's new advanced features (Thankyou Demo Gods for a perfect demo!) at Microsoft Victoria, and I have also presented a Technet Webcast on Exchange Server 2010 Management (RBAC, Powershell), which I must say was very nerve racking but was deeply rewarding.

And with that i'l leave you with my first post I can find, when I was very much new with Exchange Server, way back in November 2005.

It's an honour and a prviledge to continue to be held in high esteem and awarded as an MVP each year, always wondering whether you will get it back again or not :-)

Take care, and Thankyou Microsoft, you guys rock..


Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

Monday 7 June 2010

Exchange 2010 SP1 public beta available

News from Microsoft TechEd 2010;
  • Today – Microsoft launches a public beta of Exchange Server 2010 SP1. The SP1 beta is available to the public and can be downloaded here.
  • Win7 SP1 beta and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 beta coming in July
    • Including two new key features in Server R2; A new graphics acceleration platform, known as RemoteFX for desktop-remoting; and a new addition to Hyper-V that will dynamically adjust memory of a guest virtual machine on demand (aka Hot Add)
Via http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-win-7-and-server-2008-r2-sp1-beta-coming-in-july/6451 & http://msexchangeteam.com/

Dan
http://twitter.com/dan_germain






    Friday 21 May 2010

    Changes in Outlook 2010

    Here's a full list of the changes in Outlook 2010 over Outlook 2007. It cover's what new, changed and removed.

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179110.aspx


     

    Dan

    http://twitter.com/dan_germain

    Wednesday 14 April 2010

    Update: Update: Rollup, Rollup, Rollup!

    Microsoft has released the following updates for Exchange Server:

    Security Update for Exchange 2000 Server (KB976703)
    Security Update for Exchange 2003 SP2 (KB976702)
    Update Rollup 10 for Exchange 2007 SP1 (KB981407)
    Update Rollup 4 for Exchange 2007 SP2 (KB981383)
    Update Rollup 3 for Exchange 2010 (KB981401)

    c/o the wonderful http://www.msexchange.org/

    Wednesday 7 April 2010

    Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1 Announced

    Service Pack 1 has been announced publicly http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/04/07/454533.aspx with a public Beta expected in June before the release later in the year.

    In the 6 months since release of Exchange 2010 the MS Exchange Team have continued to work on those features that didn't make the cut for the RTM version, or needed some improvement based on feedback from deployments in the wild and from the close technology adoption programmes.

    • There's LOADS of work been done on archiving – flexibility around personal archive stores, PST import, delegate access; and lots of work on eDiscovery including improvements to multi-mailbox searching
    • OWA, which was already really good in 2010, is now faster with a more instant feel. It does feel more like the Outlook experience now, especially if you're a busy with your mouse in your mailbox and like to read/delete/move in a flash. OWA did drag a bit when you got busy.
    • For admins, there's added support in the EMC and ECP for some of those 2010 features that you previously could only manage with Powershell – Journal rules, mailtips, RBAC roles etc.

    For more info on Addressing E-mail Archiving and Discovery with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, there's a brand new white paper (which includes the updated SP1 features) by Ian Hameroff here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/3/A/43ABF6CF-B8FE-45B3-9196-21B1F0C52E43/E2010-Archiving-WhitePaper.docx


     

    Dan

    http://twitter.com/dan_germain


     

    Tuesday 30 March 2010

    Microsoft Whitepaper for Large Mailbox Support in Exchange 2010

    Available here for download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=e3303d34-af6c-4108-861b-dc05f9cf3e76


    In Summary

    Keeping e-mail on the Exchange Server instead of allowing it to be scattered in Outlook Data Files (.PST files) helps reduce the risk of data loss, improve regulatory compliance, and increase productivity. With most email systems, the main barrier to implementing large mailboxes is the perceived cost and complexity of storage systems. Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010 is specifically designed to overcome these barriers without sacrificing performance or reliability.

    This whitepaper talks about how Exchange Server 2010 is using storage more efficiently. It lays out the basics of disk performance, how IO makes a difference for Exchange Server and why larger disks are more efficient - resulting in larger mailbox capacities with Exchange 2010

    An overview of resiliency with Database Availability Groups (DAG) explains how replication can be used to deliver robust storage systems at a lower cost.


    Large Mailbox Performance – the User Experience

    "While the management issues of larger mailboxes have been addressed by Exchange Server 2010, users still need to have acceptable performance. Larger mailboxes tend to contain more items. To ensure users had acceptable performance with Exchange Server 2007, it was recommended that folders contain no more than 20,000 items each. Thanks to database and indexing improvements, Exchange Server 2010 provides good user performance with folders containing up to 100,000 items."

    "For users that want to reduce the number of active e-mail items in their primary mailbox, Exchange Server 2010 introduces integrated e-mail archiving and retention policies. This includes a new Personal Archive—a specialized mailbox associated with a user's primary mailbox. When using the archive, all e-mail data is still stored on the Exchange Server. The combination of the user's primary and archive mailboxes can be considered together as the user's large mailbox."


     

    Dan
    http://twitter.com/dan_germain

    Monday 22 March 2010

    Join me at Microsoft London Victoria for an overview of Exchange 2010

    Registration is free, sign up here.

    The event covers Hosted Exchange 2010, but also covers Hosted CRM4 and Hosted Sharepoint.

    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server




    Thursday 18 March 2010

    TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2010 Management and Operations

    I had the honour of presenting a TechNet Webcast last week, and the presentation is now available to download on demand.

    Grab it here

    Event Overview

    Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 includes new capabilities that make the operation of your Exchange environment more efficient. Attend this webcast to discover how Microsoft made the Exchange Management Console more powerful, extended the reach of PowerShell, made it easier to delegate management tasks, and built Web-based tools to make the job of managing Exchange easier than ever. Join us to learn more.


    Presenter: Oliver Moazzezi, Technical Solutions Specialist, Cobweb Solutions


    Oliver Moazzezi specializes in hosted Microsoft Exchange. Since 2001, Oliver has worked for Cobweb Solutions, which currently hosts 50,000+ Exchange mailboxes for nearly 4,000 customers with complementary server products, including Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4, Windows SharePoint Services 3, and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Oliver is actively working on a private cloud platform and the migration of on-premise technologies to it.

    You can grab the other webcasts in the series here




    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server



    Friday 5 March 2010

    Disabling features in the ECP

    The official Microsoft Exchange Blog has a great article on RBAC. Follow this link here


    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server



    Available Now: Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 (KB979611)

    Available here:
    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6d3ae3e0-3982-46d6-9e9c-7d7d63fae565&displaylang=en

    Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2010 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2010 customers.

    For a list of changes that are included in this update rollup, see KB979611.


     


     

    Wednesday 3 March 2010

    Using Remote Powershell to administer Exchange 2010

    So you fancy administering your Exchange 2010 Org without installing the Exchange Management Tools on your workstation huh? Read on..

    First you must ensure you have WinRM and Powershell 2.0 on your workstation. This is present by default in Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7, however for XP, Vista or Server editions of 2003 or 2008 you can download the required Windows Management Framework install files here.

    Once installed fire up Powershell. It doesn't have to be run in Administrator mode for this to work. To make things easy lets cache our credentials

    $user = Get-Credential

    This binds the credentials we supply to be user later using the $user.















    Once that is done we will bind a new session to a variable. I am performing the following over HTTP due to constraints in my lab.

    $session = New-PSSession -configurationname microsoft.exchange -connectionuri http://yourcasserver/powershell -credential $user

    The above binds the New-PSSession cmdlet with our settings to $session, you can also see we supply our credentials for this using our existing $user variable we have already made.














    We can now import the session

    Import-PSSession $session

    Hopefully by now you will see how we are linking these together :-) we are calling the Import-PSSession cmdlet to our $session variable.

    Once you hit return you will see it import the Exchange cmdlets from from Exchange.














    We are now done and we have loaded the Exchange 2010 cmdlets.













    I can now use them, for example below I have used the Get-Mailbox cmdlet against my test mailbox.














    There are two things to note however:

    1. If you have any issues with execution policies in Powershell ensure you have set Powershell to allow for remote signed scripts. To check, Get-ExecutionPolicy, to change to remote signed, Set-ExecutionPolicy remoteenabled













    2. You must have Remote Powershell enabled for your user, by default this is only enabled for the account that installed Exchange, so to enable it perform the following on one of your Exchange 2010 servers

    Set-User -identity youruserhere -RemotePowershellEnabled $true









    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server



    Tuesday 23 February 2010

    Dude, where's my single instance? - msexchangeteam blogpost on the removal of SIS in 2010

    As most of you know, SIS was de-emphasized in Exchange 2007, being used for attachments only. Exchange 2010 took this further and removed it entirely.

    Ross Smith IV has written a very good post on the official Exchange Teams Blog, going all the way back to Exchange 4.0.

    You can read it here

    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server



    Tuesday 16 February 2010

    Thursday 4 February 2010

    Using ExDeploy

    Following on from the announcement that this web tool is now available. I thought I would go through the steps in upgrading an Exchange 2003 Environment to 2010.

    From the first page i select my chosen scenario, to upgrade from Exchange 2003














    Once you have chosen your selected scenario you will be presented with questions concerning your environment. You can see here I am asked certain important questions, including, am I planning to support Public Folders? Am i planning to support the Unified Messaging role? and am I planning to move all users at once?















    Once you have selected your chosen upgrade path options we can proceed.

    You will now see the Navigation checklist page - this can be taken as a general FAQ and contains some well written information to help you on your way.

















    The first step ExDeploy will start you with is the installation of the Client Access Server role, and then subsequently adding SSL certificates to secure services




























    It will show you take you through the steps to enable Outlook Anywhere (RPC over HTTPs for those that would be more familiar with this term when coming from Exchange 2003).


















    I'll move onto the next role, the Hub Transport role, but ExDeploy will carry on with the Client Access Server, helping configure OAB and Web Services directories, including detail on virtual directories.

    ExDeploy contains the right amount of detail for deployment, and in some cases showing actual screenshots from the Exchange Management Console















    Moving on to the Mailbox Server role. ExDeploy allows you to minimise information, which is a handy feature - just giving you the deployment steps you need for your immediate needs. You can see i have minimised all information here on the steps for installing the Mailbox Server role.

















    Once you have gone through the steps you can tick each one off, leaving you to finally reach the Checklist Complete stage, with hopefully a deployed Exchange 2010 infrastructure in a working state.















    There's a feeback submittal option - it shows Microsoft is listening.








    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Wednesday 3 February 2010

    Exchange Server Deployment Assistant

    Microsoft have released a great web based tool via TechNet to simplify upgrade scenarios when moving to Exchange 2010 from Exchange 2003 or 2007.





















    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Monday 1 February 2010

    Disabling 'Reply All' in Outlook

    This was being discussed on a private list today and I didn't realise you could use the the Office Admin templates for this very function.

    We all appreciate their use in disabling automatic archiving and the use off PSTs so I thought I would echo the post located here, as I see this as another nice 'value add'.


    1. Download the admin templates from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspxFamilyId=92D8519A-E143-4AEE-8F7A-E4BBAEBA13E7&displaylang=en

    2. Extract the templates into a directory

    3. Modify the outlk12.adm file with the following changes

    Goto line 2459 (KEYNAME Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security
    Move the line VALUENAME PromoteErrorsAsWarnings below this line (it should located under VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0 which causes an error when Group Policy reads the file)
    Find the line CATEGORY !!L_Disableitemsinuserinterface
    Add the following lines immediately after that line (this will add the ability to disable the Reply to All button)
    POLICY "Disable command bar buttons and menu items" KEYNAME Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\DisabledCmdBarItemsList PART "Enter a command bar ID to disable" LISTBOX VALUEPREFIX TCID END PART END POLICY

    4. Create a GPO

    5. Add the outlk12.adm template

    6. Browse to Microsoft Office Outlook 2007\Disable items in user interface

    7. Open the Properties for Disable command bar buttons and menu items. Enable this object
    Click the Show button and Add 355



    UPDATE: Microsoft have a good article on it also. Read it here:

    http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/09/29/452689.aspx



    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Thursday 28 January 2010

    Exchange and RODC/ROGC support

    Exchange does not support RODC or ROGC's. Therefore if you are deploying Exchange in an AD Site that has either of these, you must ensure that _writable_ Domain Controllers and Global Catalogs are in that AD Site.

    Do not worry about RODC or ROGC's being in the same AD Site as Exchange, Exchange will simply ignore them.



    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Friday 15 January 2010

    Hot on the heels of vBlock?

    Cisco, VMWare and NetApp are due to annouce a collaboration of some sort come January 26th.

    I would imagine this is an alternative to the vBlock cloud solution already offered by EMC, Cisco and VMWare, but sitting on NetApp storage.

    More information here:

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/14/netapp_cisco_vmware/

    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Thursday 14 January 2010

    Panasonic moves to the Cloud

    This is a pretty interesting read. Not necessarily because of the Product change (although that is talk for another day as i'm sure Panasonic must have included Microsoft or it's Partners in any tender) but because of the sheer size of the move.

    Panasonic must see huge savings in offloading their messaging infrastructure to a Cloud Provider, and have great trust in the service it will receive.

    http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10434664-62.html


    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Wednesday 13 January 2010

    Exchange Rollups when adding a new role to an existing Exchange 2007/2010 Server

    Many people on the forums seem to be confused about how to add a role to an existing Exchange Server when a Rollup (RU) is applied.

    Let's say we have an Exchange 2010 Client Access Server with RU1 applied. We now want to add the Hub Transport Role to this Server. Do I have to uninstall the RU, add my new role and then re-apply the RU?

    Well the answer is no you don't have to. Be content in the fact you can add extra roles without having to perform further Administrative tasks. When Exchange setup runs, it looks into the MSI to figure out what files and other things should be on the box for the “Add Role Scenario”. and if the MSI Service detects that a Rollup is installed, the MSI Service will combine both the MSI and the Rollup into a single entity and then install what is needed.


    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    How to view whitespace in Exchange 2010

    Many people are finding that they cannot see how much whitespace they have anymore. 1221 events simply do not show up in the Application Log anymore.

    Well the good news is this is by design, with the replacement of OLD with OLD2.

    You can now see the status of your whitespace via Powershell:

    Get-MailboxDatabase YourDatabaseHere -Status FL AvailableNewMailboxSpace

    Note the difference between using FL and Select after piping














    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Tuesday 5 January 2010

    ISA 2006 SP1 Configuration with Exchange 2010

    Ross Smith IV has written a great article on publishing Exchange 2010 with ISA 2006 SP1.



    Read it here: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/12/17/453625.aspx



    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server