Wednesday 9 December 2009

Released for Download 09-Dec 2009 - Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 (KB976573)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=371add31-d7a0-4c8b-8325-a6fced2d05e6

Update Rollup 1 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 KB976573.

Issues that the update rollup fixes

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 fixes the issues that are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

977439  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977439/ ) Exchange Server 2010 users cannot open certain attachments when they access their mailboxes by using Outlook Web App

977551  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977551/ ) Meeting requests that are sent to a room mailbox are not processed in Exchange Server 2010

977552  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977552/ ) Exchange RPC Client Access service crashes in the Handler.dll that is located on an Exchange 2010 Client Access service server

977553  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977553/ ) Exchange RPC Client Access service crashes in Parser.dll on the Exchange Server 2010 CAS server

977554  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977554/ ) The subject or body of a message that is hosted in an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox is not set as expected

977555  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977555/ ) The message body is inaccessible when the property conversion from PR_BODY_HTML to PR_BODY fails

977556  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977556/ ) The body text of an e-mail message is invisible after you create exceptions for a recurring appointment or for a recurring meeting by using a CDO application together with Exchange Server 2010

977557  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977557/ ) An E_FAIL error occurs when you create an exception to a meeting request by using a CDO application for a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 mailbox

977558  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977558/ ) A folder name is not changed when you try to move and then rename the folder in an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox by using the CopyFolder method of the IMAPIFolder interface

977559  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977559/ ) The location of a meeting or an appointment is not updated on an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox

977560  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977560/ ) Update fails when you use a CDO application to update a recurrence task on Exchange Server 2010

977561  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977561/ ) VSS backup process stops responding when you try to perform a Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) backup for Exchange Server 2010 databases

Thursday 19 November 2009

Cobweb Solutions launches a new managed service for Dedicated Exchange 2010 with Active Directory integration

I'm very pleased to announce Cobweb have completed development and testing of a new managed service for Dedicated Exchange 2010 which includes integration into a customers' existing Active Directory.

Cobweb has built this messaging and collaboration solution based on Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, and are able to offer integration with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Once again, Cobweb has been part of the TAP (Technology Adoption Programme) for Microsoft Exchange 2010, as they were for Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007. It's interesting to note that Cobweb have developed this solution for a VMware vSphere 4 platform. As such, Cobweb are now a listed Partner for Virtualizing Exchange.

I believe that this service will allow organisations, from 500 seats and upwards, to consolidate their messaging and collaboration environments, improve business productivity and reduce operational costs. With no capital expenditure and predictable costs, this private-cloud service provides scalability and performance for organisations to meet their ever changing technology demands.

Integration with an established on-premise Active Directory is an important development for Cobweb and provides customers with single sign-on for users, unified user management, and wider application support. The fragmentation of user management can often be a barrier to the adoption of cloud services for enterprise organisations. When moving to any cloud service, it's important that the experience is risk free for the organisation and painless for the end-user. In the majority of deployments, it's now possible to move from on-premise Microsoft Exchange servers to our Dedicated Exchange service with no end-user disruption – settings, user name and passwords remain the same.

For further details visit www.cobweb.com/DedicatedExchange2010


Dan - http://twitter.com/dan_germain

Monday 9 November 2009

Exchange 2010 RTM available to download now!

Grab it here:


http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=05741f65-2a7b-4070-879f-d74208d6171d#tm

You can trial it before having to apply licenses - the same way 2007 was delivered.


Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

Wednesday 4 November 2009

Supporting Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2?

It's near... http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/11/04/453026.aspx

To quote;

We heard from many customers that this was important for streamlining their operations and reducing administrative challenges, so we have changed course and will add R2 support.  We are still working through the specifics and will let you know once we have more to share on the timing of this update.

So, keep the feedback coming.  We are listening.


 

Dan - http://twitter.com/dan_germain

Exchange 2010 Web Services (SDK)

The Exchange 2010 Web Services (SDK) has been released

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=155ab218-3cd5-439f-9ce3-5e6983ab6b79#tm

The Exchange 2010 Web Services SDK assists developers who are building Web services–based applications for Exchange 2010. This release of the SDK provides new and updated information and sample code to help you develop collaborative enterprise applications for Exchange 2010. The Readme file contains installation instructions for and late-breaking information about the Exchange 2010 Web Services SDK


 

Dan - http://twitter.com/dan_germain

Thursday 8 October 2009

Monday 5 October 2009

IBM launch Lotus Notes Hosted Messaging.

Read all about it here:



http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/notes-hosted-messaging/


This is an interesting twist to the market that already includes Microsoft and Google, and third party providers of those platforms.


Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

Monday 28 September 2009

Friday 25 September 2009

Welcome to Exchange2010.com

Exchange 2010 is here, Beta/RTM... official or not just yet? We're blogging about it and bringing you news about Exchange 2010

If you want to blog for www.Exchange2010.com please let me know – you'd be welcomed into to a great team of Exchange experts!

Dan - http://twitter.com/dan_germain

Tuesday 22 September 2009

Exchange Server 2007 SP2 and Windows Server 2008 R2

Here's some additional information from the Microsoft Exchange Team on how they made the decision to support Exchange Server 2007 SP2 on Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 but not Windows Server 2008 R2.

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/09/21/452567.aspx


 

Dan - http://twitter.com/dan_germain

Monday 21 September 2009

Exchange Server 2003 is end of Mainstream Support, what next?

It's a fact – Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2003 still have the majority share of Exchange deployments around the world. However, with Exchange 2010 hot on the heels of Exchange 2007 there's a dilemma now about upgrading.

I know I need to move from Exchange 5.5/2003, but do I upgrade to 2007 which is understood, tried and tested now, or jump to Exchange 2010?

Early adoption of Exchange 2007 was difficult; firstly it required the move to a 64-bit platform, remember - in 2007 you still had to make the purchasing choice and pay a premium for 64-bit hardware. Also, Exchange 2007 saw a technological shift from Exchange 2003 with a different storage model, new clustering and availability technologies, and new roles with CAS/HT etc. Organisations need time to understand this – there are technical skills to develop, architectures and roadmaps to develop, and projects and budgets to fit in with. This caused slow adoption of Exchange 2007 by the mainstream corporate market. You can see this from the big Exchange marketing push that Microsoft made in the summer of 2008 – the pace of adoption for Exchange 2007 was below expectations.

While 5.5 and 2003 may have their limitations, they are trusted and reliable email platforms which organisations depend upon. But, here's a new problem... mainstream support of Exchange 2003 has now come to an end. What's the difference between Mainstream Support and Extended Support? When a product moves into Extended Support, Microsoft will provide for Paid Support and Security updates only. You do NOT get Non-security hotfix support, no-charge incident support, warranty claims, or support for any design changes and feature requests. Beyond this you have access to online self-help support only, i.e. the Microsoft Knowledge Base, or you have to pay for support. (~£140/hour, help yourself - http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy) or you can buy Custom Support from Microsoft if you have a dependency on Exchange server.

OK, so that's not the end of the world, in fact it went into Extended Support in April 2009 and you didn't even notice! If you don't mess with it, an Exchange server will keep running 24/7 and will continue to provide enterprise email and services to you users for many months or years to come. However, you will need to move sometime – after don't get caught out on an unsupported and ineffective platform. Overtime, the upgrade options available to you become harder to swallow – moving from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2007 isn't so simple.

As ever, there are many options available if you're at this crossroads. One to consider – go hosted by moving your Business Email to a provider of Hosted Exchange. You can even make considerable savings on your Microsoft licensing agreements too!


 

Dan - http://twitter.com/dan_germain

Thursday 27 August 2009

Exchange 2010 UM – interview and demo video

I recommend you watch this video What's new in Unified Messaging in Exchange 2010 on the edge.technet.com site

Voicemail was in Exchange 2007 right, so what's new then? This video shows, Voicemail preview, call answering rules & custom routing menu options (setup using OWA), find me etc.

So simple, yet effective and powerful.


 

Dan - http://twitter.com/dan_germain

Tuesday 25 August 2009

Exchange Server 2007 SP2

Just in case you missed it, Exchange Server 2007 SP2 launched today. Get it here, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=4c4bd2a3-5e50-42b0-8bbb-2cc9afe3216a.

It will be of particular interest to those wishing to upgrade to Exchange Server 2010.

Daniel

Wednesday 19 August 2009

OCS R2 Mobile Client

Microsoft has kindly made a site for smartphones to download the software. Point your phone at:

http://www.getcomo.com/


Oliver Moazzezi

MVP - Exchange Server

Tuesday 18 August 2009

Exchange Server 2010 Release Candidate Available

Well done to the Exchange Team – the Release Candidate for Exchange 2010 is ready. See http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/08/17/451974.aspx

Worthy of note are the following new features in the Release Candidate:

  • Support for Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Support for in-place upgrade from Exchange Server 2010 Release Candidate to Exchange Server 2010 RTM. i.e. you can planning and deploying your Exchange Server 2010 environment today and rely on a safe upgrade to RTM later.
  • Co-existence with Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2003. For Exchange Server 2007 co-existence, Service Pack 2 (SP2) is required, and will be available later this month.


 

Dan - http://twitter.com/dan_germain

Thursday 13 August 2009

Entourage 2008 Exchange Web Services Edition

 

For those in the know, WebDAV is no more in Exchange 2010. This is big problem for Mac users who access Exchange mailboxes using Entourage. The solution to this is Exchange Web Services, a protocol that first appeared in Exchange 2007. Exchange Web Services also opens open the flood gates for custom applications that tie in to Exchange Server.

To get the latest Entourage 2008 Exchange Web Services Edition Beta you will need to go here, http://www.microsoft.com/mac/itpros/entourage-ews.mspx. Note, you will need to have Office 2008 for Mac SP2 with the 12.2.1 update release.

From the Exchange side you will organisation will need to have Exchange 2007 SP1 RU4 or later. You’ll need to enter the EWS address which is normally similar to OWA, but with a different ending (e.g. https://mail.example.com/EWS).

New features include:

  • AutoDiscover enhancements
  • Notes and Tasks synchronisation
  • GAL/LDAP access over the web

Monday 20 July 2009

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

 

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Friday 17 July 2009

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.

(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.

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

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Wednesday 15 July 2009

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

Friday 26 June 2009

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

Thursday 25 June 2009

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.


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

Wednesday 24 June 2009

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

Thursday 18 June 2009

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

Tuesday 16 June 2009

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

Friday 12 June 2009

Google Apps trying to get some Outlook love

If you didn't know already, Google are trying to muscle in on the lucrative enterprise e-mail business. Microsoft has the lion's share of this market with their Exchange Server platform, yet to the majority of enterprise users, Exchange Server is invisible - it's the client that makes the experience a pain or pleasure. Across the world, Microsoft Outlook is the client of choice.

This week Google announced support for Microsoft Outlook as a client interface for Gmail/Google-Apps but how will this help Google to catch-up with Microsoft?

Gmail is one of the better webmail clients, it works well in a browser, integrates with other Google applications, message views work (Gmail already has a good threaded conversation view doesn't it? Outlook 2010 is catching up here) and the feeling of a huge mailbox, delivered with some archiving, works well. It's popular with universities and students I hear. The trouble with the Gmail client is that this only really works well for an individual. What's lacking are features to meet the needs of more than an individual – organisations and enterprises, the target of the ongoing Google development efforts.

Last week Google unveiled Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook. This is a synchronisation technology that supports Outlook as a client Gmail and/or Google Apps. It's touted as a change that gives enterprises the option to oust Microsoft Exchange Servers for Google Apps while keeping the all-important end-user experience in place. Sounds good? Maybe...

I don't believe that this takes the game to Microsoft at all. In reality this is little more that Google catching-up with other non-Microsoft mail vendors with a corporate alternative to Exchange Server – MailSite, Open-Xchange, Zimbra have all had MAPI connectors and sync capabilities emulating Outlook for several years now.

There is a problem here that any vendor is going to really struggle to overcome - Outlook is built to work with Exchange Server. The list of features that only work with Exchange (and active Directory) as the backend is long – Outlook Anywhere (IMAP4 is your alternative), Auto-discovery (Manual client or script-based setups are needed), and Google Gears isn't anything like cached-Exchange.

There is a published list of Google Apps Sync has a list of differences. It's a list of things that don't work and I counted 46 items; Public Folders, delegation of mailbox permission, delegate access to your calendar, non-mail items are not synchronised, Global Address List only shows the user name and their email address and none of the contact or organisation attributes, attachments in calendar items etc. etc.


 

Google have a brand advantage and they are winning the publicity battle at the moment, but there's a long way to go and much hard work ahead of them if they're to achieve real success in the Enterprise. Don't forget that Exchange 2010 will be here later this year with Office 2010 along soon after. The new 2010 Outlook Web Access is already blowing people away. Outlook 2010 FTW!

Dan - http://twitter.com/dan_germain

Wednesday 20 May 2009

Update Rollup 8 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1

Microsoft have released Update Rollup 8 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 to the Download Centre. Get more information here, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968012.

The MSExchangeTeam.com have pointed out the following highlights:

  • KB 969690 - We have fixed the bug introduced in Update Rollup 7 which caused the sender of the Delivery Status Notification (DSN) to be unresolved.
  • Disable kernel mode authentication in Windows Server 2008 for CAS servers - As documented here, it was required to manually take the additional step to configure the CAS servers running Windows Server 2008 to disable kernel mode authentication. Starting this rollup, the installer will configure this for you.
  • X-Header promotion to named properties- Change to the way X-headers are promoted to named properties. More on this in Jason Nelson's blog post Named Properties, X-Headers, and You.
  • KB 961606 - We have fixed a bug where Outlook Web Access (OWA) users may find that the font size of plain text messages is extremely small on third-party Web browsers.

    Get the download here, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e1f5c8b2-c4f2-4eba-849b-e464d4f2869c&displaylang=en

    Daniel
    http://twitter.com/dannoakes

  • Mobile Twitter – Twikini out now (off topic)

    I’m hooked on Windows Mobile and Twitter, the mobile browser interface wasn’t working well for me so I started looking at the mobile apps available. The best app for me has been Twikini. It’s clean, simple and best of all it makes a bird tweet noise when new updates are received.

    Try it free, http://www.trinketsoftware.com/Twikini.

    It integrates with Twitpic and services like TinyURL. You can add location information using GPS, or by entering a place name. I added my location to tweets the other week and so far I haven’t noticed any new stalkers.

    I’m undecided whether to use “Tweet song info” about songs playing in Windows Media, it could generate a lot of updates and be a bit embarrassing when I’m listening Kylie.

    If you update multiple Twitter accounts there is a “Switch account” option, which is proving pretty handy especially if you have personal and company accounts to update.

    twikini

    Try it for free from http://www.trinketsoftware.com/Twikini and follow me from your Windows Mobile.

    Daniel
    http://twitter.com/dannoakes

    Monday 18 May 2009

    Computational Knowledge Engine

    WolframAlpha is now released. It appears to be pretty good at what it does, although I doubt it's a worry to Google at the moment.


    Ask it 'the meaning of life' :-)

    http://www.wolframalpha.com/


















    If anyone remembers Spielbergs 'AI', then this will bare a resemblance to Doctor Know, although in less impressive fashion.














    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Exchange 2007 + OCS 2007 R2 Proof of concept

    If you want to evaluate the features of Exchange 2007 and OCS 2007 R2, but do not want to install and configure it then try this.

    Exchange Server 2007 Proof of Concept (POC) in a Box.

    You get 4 pre-configured VM’s that you can run on Hyper-V. Enjoy

    Daniel
    http://twitter.com/dannoakes

    Friday 15 May 2009

    ActiveSync (beta) for Andriod HTC Magic

    If you have bought a HTC Magic or HTC Dream you can get a free beta ActiveSync client from http://www.dataviz.com/products/roadsync/android/.

    You get Push email with HTML formatting, calendarand contact synchronisation including caller photo ID integration.

    For the security conscious a remote wipe can be initiated from Exchange Server should the device go missing. The beta ends on 30 May 2009

    Daniel
    twitter.com/dannoakes


    Thursday 14 May 2009

    Microsoft release Shadow Redundancy information on TechNet

    Following my earlier post, check here for more detail on the feature.

    RAID0 FTW!


    "Understanding Shadow Redundancy" http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd351027(EXCHG.140).aspx


    "Shadow Redundancy mail flow scenarios" http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd351091(EXCHG.140).aspx



    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Exchange 2007 SP2 and Windows 2008 Backup

    Microsoft have announced that Exchange 2007 SP2 will include the ability to backup using Windows 2008 Backup Tool as currently you cannot use this application to backup Exchange.

    There has been quite a lot of noise about this as previously the functionality was available with NTBackup on Windows 2003 and it's good to see Microsoft adding the functionality as it's very useful to have this available even if you do have a backup system in place already.

    Check out all the details here http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/05/13/451311.aspx

    Wayne Hollomby

    Saturday 9 May 2009

    Hyper-V virtual network card anomaly prevents Exchange installation

    I ran into an interesting problem today which prevented me from installing Exchange 2010 onto 1 out of 4 Hyper-V guest OSes I was setting up. The problem was that the host couldn't find what site it belonged to for some reason. nltest /dsgetsite would return an error "DSGetSiteName failed: Status = 1919 0x77f ERROR_NO_SITENAME" and therefore Exchange setup couldn't pass the prereq checks.

    This issue isn't just an E2K10 issue; it goes all the way back to Exchange 2000. See the following KB article for more details: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/264001

    Checking the configuration of the OS didn't yield any red flags, and in fact the OS was built and configured from the same sysprep image as the other 3 that were working. IP settings were correct and there was only one virtual NIC assigned to the guest. All other domain related nltest queries worked fine, and the Site settings in AD Sites and Services were all correct.

    Before wiping the VM and starting from scratch, I decided to try one more thing. I decided to uninstall the NIC from Device Manager, shut down the OS, use Hyper-V Manager to remove the virtual NIC, and then add a brand new one. It worked! When the OS came up it found the new NIC, and after configuring it with the same settings as the previous incarnation the nltest /dsgetsite command came back with the expected result - my site name!

    So if you run into the same issue installing Exchange 2007 or the 2010 beta onto a Hyper-V virtual machine, try removing the NIC and reinstalling - it did the trick in my case. I've only seen this on one VM out of dozens I've installed Exchange on, but I didn't find anyone else via Google that had run into the same issue, so hopefully this post will help somebody out. Cheers!

    Friday 8 May 2009

    Over 2000 Seats? I'm over here, i'm free and i'm available!!!!

    Thinking of going to 'The Cloud' to save on your Exchange Server infrastructure spend?


    Over 2000 seats?


    I will design a custom solution for you taking into account your needs and my time will be on the house, zero, free - although you're welcome to buy me a beer :-)


    If you are interested please contact me.


    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Thursday 23 April 2009

    Customer service and cloud computing

    Cnet published an interesting article by James Urquhart entitled "Customer service and cloud computing" yesterday. The article is a wake-up-call for many in the emerging Cloud computing market.
    Customer service should be at the heart of any organisation actually wanting to help their customers achieve their goals, but James suggests this isn't being implemented widely in the Cloud Computing market yet.
    James goes on to provide a "wish list" of customer service options which are well worth a read no matter what industry you are in.
    What do you think makes good customer service?

    Sunday 19 April 2009

    Leaked screenshots of Outlook 2010

    Here's a screenshot of Outlook 2010. It's simple and been edited to protect the identity of the end-user as this has been leaked out, it's not an official release.

    I like the look of the cleaner interface and the new ribbon, including a Quick Steps menu - common forward tasks to Team, Manager, FYI. You can see the Ignore button too.

    There's a peek of the new Office logo as well - I expect an outburst of logos and colour schemes based on this new orange over the next year!


    Dan - http://twitter.com/dan_germain

    Friday 17 April 2009

    Exchange 2010 Outlook Web Access and the ECP

    Take a look at Exchange 2010 Outlook Web Access!






















    Note the new layout and updated views. I believe it's a nice evolution of the Web Browser experience. Further if you use Firefox or Safari you too can use the Premium version of OWA now - you won't be subjected to the Light version. Good news!


    Take a look at the Options screen:






















    You can immediately see a new feature to connect Outlook to your account - a great idea (and about time :-) )


    Clicking on Groups shows the Groups you belong too and the Groups you own. Notice you can request to join _and_ leave groups

















    And finally if you're an Administrator you can manage your Org to a certain extent through the ECP. Note I have changed the 'Select what to manage' setting in the top left corner to 'my organisation'. You can see I can add Users, Groups and Contacts, and also delete them if I so choose. I am also able to perform Message Tracking from here.










    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Exchange 2010 Hub Transport feature, Shadow Messaging/Redundancy

    Fed up with RAID10 for your Hub Transport Servers? Well half the cost of your Hub Transport disk subsystem with Exchange 2010.



    Exchange 2010 Hub Transport Servers support a feature called Shadow Redundancy. This means that the HT Server gets confirmation the other HT it passed it onto actually successfully passed it on itself.



    Great you say! But how does this benefit me? Well for a start your users won't have to resend lost messages, and well secondly you don't necessarily have to rely on RAID10 anymore. RAID0 is a real possilbility for your Hub Transport Servers. You still need your IO (when you are transferring a lot of messages and have features like Journaling or Transport Rules are setup and enabled), but you now have the potential to half your disk cost.



    Take an Enterprise that has 20 Hub Transport Servers, they may have a 6 disk SAS based RAID10 solution for their mail queue database. That's 120 SAS disks. With Shadow Redundancy you can half that to 60, with just as good or slighter better IO (no write penalties).



    If a disk fails then you just rip it out and rebuild the RAID set, and then reboot your Server or restart your Microsoft Exchange Transport Service - you don't have to worry about the lost mail in that mail database as previous hops will have not recieved confirmation of delivery and they will re-route using alternative HT Servers.



    Now RAID0 isn't great in all circumstances. You wouldn't use RAID0 for any Hub Transport Servers that recieved mail directly from the Internet for example. However this is a perfect solution for Hub Transport Servers in dedicated Hub Transport AD Sites - where they only ever pass mail onto Hub Transport Servers in other AD Sites.



    Note this feature isn't support with communication between Exchange 2010 and 2007 Hub Transport Servers, It's 2010 to 2010 only.




    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Exchange 2010 High Availability! Database Availability Groups RIP SCC, CCR and SCR

    Rest in peace SCC, CCR and SCR!

    Exchange 2010 now only supports one method for High Availability, and that's Database Availability Groups, or DAGs for short.

    You can have upto 16 Servers in a DAG, and you aren't limited to just two copies of a database like you were with CCR - you can have 2+ or more copies if you so wish. Also all Mailbox Servers that are Members in a DAG don't necessarily have to have all databases log shipped over to each other.

    Benefits of Database Availability Groups!

    1. You now fail over at the MAILBOX LEVEL. This means you don't fail over an entire cluster anymore. Your Mailbox Server a little over utilized? Then move 1 or 2 Databases over to a lesser used Mailbox Server to stabilize resources.

    2. You can have truly multiple copies of a Database! Technically with 3 or more copies you could use Circular Logging and enter into a Backupless state!

    3. DAG Servers can stretch AD Sites! Making DR and HA one solution - without having the pain of having to have an SCR Target.

    Play with DAG in the released Exchange 2010 BETA.

    Powershell cmdlets:

    1. New-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup









    This creates the DAG


    2. Add-DatabaseAvailabilityGroupMember









    This adds a Mailbox Server to the DAG

    3. New-DatabaseAvailabilityNetwork









    This allows you to specify a Network for Log Shipping

    and finally, 4. Get-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup









    This shows you all available DAGs, it's members and Operational Servers.

    It is noted this is all available to do through the Exchange Management Console too for all those still not quite accustomed to Powershell:


















    It is worth noting you still need a FileShare Witness if you have an even number of Mailbox Servers in the DAG. You specify this at the time of DAG creation.
    DAGs also rely on the use of Failover Clustering, so Windows 2008 Enterprise is still needed.
    A very very good feature for smaller companies is that you can have Mailbox Servers as members of a DAG and achieve HA with your Mailbox Data and still also have both the Hub Transport and Client Access Server roles on the Server - effectively total HA with the use of just TWO Servers! This does not take into account Active Directory tin, and also you would need Hardware Load Balancing - as Windows NLB is not supported on a Server with Failover Clustering installed.


    That's it for now, I will take you through the steps of creating a DAG and multiple copies of a Database is a future post.



    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Exchange 2010 Technical information starts to appear on TechNet

    Microsoft has kindly already started filling TechNet with Exchange 2010 information



    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124558(EXCHG.140).aspx


    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Wednesday 15 April 2009

    Exchange 2010 BETA released!!!

    Grab it here:



    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1898ed2c-2f88-48ac-824e-d3d20fad77d7



    I've been playing with it, expect some how to's in the next couple of days.


    Oliver Moazzezi

    MVP - Exchange Server

    Tuesday 14 April 2009

    More BES 5...

    If you are a BlackBerry Alliance Partner why not take a look in the Downloads section today, there may be a treat for you posted on 13/4/9.

    http://www.blackberry.com/partnerzone

    Daniel

    Sunday 12 April 2009

    BES 5 documentation

    Documentation has appeared for BES 5 on the BlackBerry website, this is great news as there are some cool features that have been missing to date.

    http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/docs/subcategories/?userType=2&category=BlackBerry+Enterprise+Server+for+Microsoft+Exchange

    My top 3 are HA, monitoring and administration.

    High Availability
    To date to achieve HA with BES you needed to buy an additional product, such as Neverfail, and configure hot swap servers. BES 5 includes Neverfail style clustering out of the box, so no more down time for BlackBerry users.

    Monitoring
    With BES 4.1.5 the BlackBerry Monitoring Service was released, it presented much need statistical information about servers and devices in a web based console. BES 5 builds on this.

    Administration
    BES 5 administration is all web based, so no more rolling out management tools. The BlackBerry Web Desktop Manager has also been updated and allows users to provision there own devices, so long as they are enabled on BES. There are also now over 400 built in policies to choose from.

    Daniel