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

Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer (ExRCA) tool Released

Microsoft have just released there Remote connectivity Analyzer tool this allows you to perform testing of your Exchange 2007 services remotely from a web page ! awesome hey

Allows you test ActiveSync, Autodiscovery, Outlook Anywhere connectivity and inbound mail too. Very useful for testing your configuration is setup correctly but can also be used for testing after maintenance has been performed on Exchange to confirm it's all working correctly etc

https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/

More information can be found here : http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/03/25/450908.aspx

Enjoy !

Wayne Hollomby

HMC 4.5 Released

Microsoft have just released there latest and greatest version of Hosted Messaging and Collaboration Solution the new version has some really good added features that will please hosters there is support for OCS 2007 as one of the major components to be added but also some added features for Exchange 2007 SP1 being supported like resource mailboxes and web based offline address books to give you option of moving away from having these sitting on the public folders servers if all of your users are running Outlook 2007.

Download and information above this release can be found on the new service provider website from Microsoft at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/serviceproviders/default.aspx

You will also be glad to here there is a migration kit on it's way to enable you to move from HMC 4.0 to 4.5 and directly from HMC 3.5 to 4.5 i will post more information about this when it becomes available.

Wayne Hollomby

Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Released

Microsoft have released another rollup fix for Exchange 2007 SP1 to follow on from rollup 1 a few months ago.

You can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=99DA32E0-D9E3-4156-AABF-8369BF96E3E7&displaylang=en

This update has all the fixes that were in Rollup 1 included so you can now just install rollup 2 and you will get all the latest updates.

A description of the fixes included in rollup 2 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=99DA32E0-D9E3-4156-AABF-8369BF96E3E7&displaylang=en

Windows 2008 Core Configurator Tool !

I came across this very cool tool to help configure a Windows 2008 Core server without needing to lookup all the CLI commands :-)

http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/files/folders/guyt/entry68860.aspx

Wayne Hollomby