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

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.

Check it out here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/exdeploy2010/default.aspx#Home

Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

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

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

Rollup2 for Exchange 2007 SP2 is available to download

Grab it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fa83be11-9d5e-47bc-9a51-a10986f22928&displaylang=en

For a list of changes in this rollup see the following kb:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=972076


Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

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

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

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

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