Office 2008 for Mac Sp2 & Document Connection for SharePoint

Microsoft's MacBU today released Office 2008 for Mac SP2. Try it by downloading from here, http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx. It's listed in the right hand pane titled 'Newest' as of today (20 July 2009).

Along with the usual performance boosts Microsoft have added much requested features, one being Document Connection to improve working with SharePoint and Live WorkSpace.

The press release is here, http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/jul09/07-20MacOfficeSP2PR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases.
The Register have a piece on it here, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/20/mac_office_service_pack_two/

Oh, don't touch this if you are doing anything with Entourage EWS Beta or you’ll have to use OWA.

Daniel Noakes

 

Technorati Tags: Daniel Noakes,Office 2008,Mac

Exchange 2010 Installation Tips

If you have installed Exchange 2010, then you have no doubt come across a few hurdles. Here are my top tips.

Open the command prompt (best to “Run as Administrator”) and use the syntax ServerManagerCMD –ip Exchange-ROLE.xml to install the the roles and features required for each server.

• Exchange-CAS.xml
• Exchange-HUB.xml
• Exchange-MBX.xml
• Exchange-EDGE.xml
• Exchange-UM.xml

(Right click Save Target As / Save Link As on above files.)

You may need to set the NetTcpPortSharing service to Automatic and start it.

Install the pre-requisites applications on all Exchange 2010 servers.

• .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (includes ASP.NET AJAX 1.0)
• WinRM 2.0 CTP3
• PowerShell V2 CTP3
• Server 2008 MMC update

Now go ahead and run the GUI installer (best to “Run as Administrator”).

Once the first Exchange 2010 CAS is installed hop over to your Exchange 2007 CAS and MBX servers and add the group Exchange Trusted Subsystem to the local administrators group.

Leave the Windows Firewall On, during the installation this should be configured correctly.

I hope this information helps.

Daniel

Technorati Tags: Exchange 2010,Daniel Noakes

Nokia N97 review - ActiveSync, Applications and you can make calls too.

So everyone is drinking the iPhone koolaid, I even have an Apple iPod - but traditionally i've always gone for Nokia phones. Notably I love the Symbian OS and the fact you can install Apps on your mobile from any Developer.

Choosing my new phone has been no different, except I have read wildy varied reviews on the Nokia N97 - but I still decided to take the plunge.

After using it for 24 hours I am seriously impressed. Activesync works like a charm - and Administrator enforced Mobile policies are enforced - for example I had to agree to put a 5 digit lock code with 15 minute timeout on my N97 (forced from policy) before I could sync. Sync'ing in the latest release of Mail for Exchange is great and all bugs from previous versions appear to have been ironed out. You still cannot see other folders than your inbox but hopefully this will be resolved in a future update.

I haven't got a Symbian S60 emulator so if you need detailed instructions on setting up your N97 check:

http://blog.brightpointuk.co.uk/setting-mail-exchange-nokia-n97


I should also note that the N97 version of Activesync supports Autodiscover so it can grab all your Activesync details and you just need to enter your username and password.

There are some other useful default Apps too.

Qik - this allows you to stream video from your mobile in real time over the Internet, very very cool.

BBC iPlayer - again very cool, catch up on missed TV on this App designed for the N97.

Facebook - again honed for the Nokia phone. I found it particularly interested you can snap a pic when in the Applications and immediately tag, name and then upload into a photo album of your choice. Great feature.

Nokia appears to be countering the iTunes store with Ovi.

Ovi has a great intuitive 'App bar' across the top of the screen that allows you to swipe your finger and move through Recommened, Games, Audio and Video and Personal.

It obviously hasn't got the pace or support of iTunes yet but it appears to be trying hard to do just that.

The ultimate feature is that the N97 can be used as a VOIP phone, with full SIP connectivity support, you could use it as an OCS phone and really work from anywhere!


Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

Steve Ballmer talks up SaaS

Read it here:


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/14/balmer_tough_love/


My thoughts:

The cloud is the future in some respects, and Microsoft has to compete against the 'cloud' competitors such as Google. I firmly believe Microsoft can offer a better cloud portfolio than any other provider to boot.

Where does that leave SaaS Providers - the intermedias, USA.Nets and Cobwebs of this sector?

Well we simply all have to offer what Microsoft does - and more. This isn't as hard to do as one might initially predict. Offering tight integration with non Microsoft products to Customers is a real win, something Microsoft aren't tradtiononally doing. Offering more personal bespoke solutions, Account Managers to a Customer that Microsoft wouldn't, and fine tuning what a Customer wants all the way to personalizing their Backup routines and custom integration into their on-premise AD's - this is where we will all excel.



Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

Google to launch Google Chrome OS

To launch in the middle of 2010

Read about it here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8139711.stm

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/08/google_operating_system/



Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

OCS 2007 R2: The absolute importance of correct SSL certificate generation and configuration: Syncronizing the Address Book

Are you getting Address Book errors like this?

















The likihood is that you have SSL Certificate configuration issues. Either with the generation of the Certificate, the configuration of the Certificate, or the validation checking of the Certificate.

Most internal deployments if an internal CA is available will use it, so if using this method here are the three steps to check:

1. Ensure you install the Certificate Chain when configuring your Certificate through the OCS 2007 R2 Deployment Wizard, this will be a PB7 file. Ensure you download it as DER format and note Base64 encoded, otherwise the Wizard will complain the Cert is corrupt.

2. Check that all clients can locate the .CRL URL of the Certificate presented to them so they can check it's validity:
















You can check the URL in a browser window:
















3. Ensure you have performed the manual step of configuring IIS7 to use the Certificate, the Address Book URL is reached over SSL only so IIS must support this method.

Once that is done you should be able to see the Address Book:
















Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

OCS 2007 R2: Validating Front End Server Configuration

Another confusing OCS 2007 R2 error for the untrained.

When testing the Front End Server configuration and asking the Wizard to test Automatic Logon you may find you get the following error:

Failed to send SIP request: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it

Confusing. What you will find though is the IP address it points to for the SIP port (5061) is a Domain Controller with DNS. This is your first clue.. And is also caused because we wanted to test auto logon configuration.

Follow this TechNet article to create the relevant SIPInternalTLS SRV record in ADDNS.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb663700.aspx

At this stage you will find it still doesn't work, and that's because the Test Users you selected must be enabled for OCS. This is performed in ADUC. You will also need to install the OCS Administrative Tools to have this functionality.

Once the Users are enabled via ADUC re-run the Test. You will now find the Test is a success:

Enjoy!

Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

OCS 2007 R2: Descriptive Name: Office Communications Server Monitoring Agent Service Status: Error

Getting this error when installing OCS R2? The Log shows this also:

Failure [0xC3EC79E6] Service failed to start as requested.

This is due to not having the correct Services installed prior to OCS R2 rollout. It's a bug of the actual Product installation as it doesn't state it is needed, and you will find when you finally get to start the Services you are presented with this confusing and frustrating error.

The fix:

Install Windows Powershell if not already present on your Windows 2008 Server. Run the following commands:

ServerManagerCmd -i MSMQ-Services

ServerManagerCmd -i MSMQ-Server

You will find the first one should install the second as a pre-requisite.

Re-run the Start Services wizard in the OCS 2007 R2 Deployment Wizard, and voila! you now have a happy service state.

Here's a visual view of what you get and how to remedy:








































Enjoy!


Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

HP announces 'Datacentre in a box'

Performance Optimized Datacentre - or POD for short.

http://h20341.www2.hp.com/enterprise/cache/595887-0-0-0-121.html



The specs say that the 40-foot container can house up to 3,520 compute nodes (blade servers) - 5000 if you use the new SL servers - and 12,000 3.5-inch hard drives, or any combination, which HP claims to be the equivalent of a 4,000 sq ft data centre. Third-party blade servers can be used. PODs can be stacked two high.



Prepare to hand out over $1m for one of these bad boys.


Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

Some good Exchange 2010 BETA screenshots on zdnet.co.uk

There's a nice article here on zdnet.co.uk which takes a first look at Exchange 2010. The screenshots are worth a view if you haven't see Exchange 2010 in action – Voicemail, 2010 OWA, ECP (Exchange Control Panel), and the management UI are shown

 

Dan - http://twitter.com/dan_germain