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