Happy New Year 2009

Dear Blog readers,

Just would like to say thanks for the support for the year 2008.

Please continue to support us in year 2009!

Happy New Year!

Backup Software that protect Exchange 2007 Standby Continuous Replication

Just got an e-mail from local Microsoft that DPM 2007 now SP1!

Its a great news - its now be able to do more - including protecting VMs in Hyper-V, which be able to protect in Virtual Server 2005 SP1.

What is more interesting is, it is now be able to protect Exchange 2007 SP1 SCR! Yeah - a good news huh?

This will give a complete DR scenario.

What are you waiting for, path your DPM 2007 today or start using it.

What is new in Service Pack 1:
http://www.microsoft.com/SystemCenter/DataProtectionManager/en/us/WHATs-NEW.aspx

DPM 2007 sp1 x86 download:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=125991

DPM 2007 sp1 x64 download:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=125992

Backing up Exchange 2007/Windows 2008 with DPM

Knowing that till today, if Exchange 2007 SP1 to run on Windows 2008, there is a challenge to back it up.

DPM 2007 for sure is the great product ever to backup every 15 minutes.

There are few questions/issues prompt to us, would like to share here:

1) You can install DPM either in Windows 2003/Windows 2008, 32 bit or 64 bit.

2) To backup Windows 2008, you will need to install DPM 2007 feature pack: KB949779 and other latest patches/hotfixes if there is any

3) When protecting your Exchange 2007, you will need to copy this two files (ese.dll & eseutil.exe - from Exchange installation CD/BIN folder) to DPM server bin folder. Please take note, if you are using DPM 2007 32 bit, you will need to get the 32 bit edition of those file.

4) You are then ready to go. If you would like to backup system state, ensure you have enough of free disk space, it will take about 10-18GB of space...

Exchange Virtualization

A long wait, but worth the time. At last, Microsoft release one article about Exchange on virtualization 18 Aug 08.

Personally, feel really great and happy to see this article. Folks that passion about Exchange and would like to plug it to virtualization, this article shows you the supported environment and best practices.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794548.aspx

Really worth 10 mins to go through.

Bravo Microsoft.

HIbernation for Windows Vista/ 2008

Recently, get some queries about - where Hibernation goes - which its in power option in Windows XP.

In Windows Vista/2008 - it is now changed.

You need to run the following command as administrator.

powercfg.exe /hibernate on - to enable hibernation

powercfg.exe /hibernate off - to disable hibernation

To know more about this, please visit the following KB:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920730

Windows Vista SP1 FREE support till 19 March 09

We got a recent e-mail mentioning about this. this is great and we are excited about this.

You can help us spread the word!

Free, unlimited installation and compatibility support is now available for customers using Windows Vista SP1, until March 18, 2009.

Telephone support is available. Some countries also offer Chat and Email support.

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Effective dates
From now until 18 March 2009.

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Find out more and access the service at http://support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx?rdpath=1&prid=11274&gprid=500921

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Who is affected
All users of Windows Vista SP1.

Page file setup for Windows Servers

Lots of the customer, even our internal staff is asking, what is the proper page file should we set for the servers? Should we let the Windows set for us automatically?

To answer this, Paging file is the process where transfering data from the physical memory to the system.

By default, if the operating system fails, it will copy everything in memory to a .dmp file, so, to be able to get the information in the physical memory, you must have a paging file size that larger than the physical amount of memory you have, plus some space to gather the data.

Example, if your machine has 4GB ram, your page file should set more than 4GB, eg: 4.1GB.

What is the recommendation? In NT4 days, we will recommend the two times of your physical memory, but with the latest hardware as for now, we will recommend physical memory + 10MB - which we get this info from TechNet.

My hard disk space

I got a prompt from my laptop that I am running out of disk space. My God...Wondering what stored inside until my 120GB Harddisk full?

When surfing the Internet, read an article from Darien, Microsoft Malaysia. He shared a tool from his blog - WinDirStat

http://blogs.msdn.com/darien/archive/2008/05/25/where-s-my-hard-disk-space-gone.aspx

Its awesome and now, I know what is the type of files fill up my disk.

Once, thanks to Darien, and for sure, thanks to BLOG.

New Product Strategies for Exchange 2007

Last time, when we talk about patches, roll up updates, apply it in sequence is important to ensure the stabilities.

However, recently read an article published July 7 2008. Good news to share:

In Exchange 2007, Microsoft works in a different way. Let say you are applying rollup update 2. All the fix and files in rollup update 1 will be included too. This means, less updates need to be done. Personally, this is a good change - which no one would like to patch our server all the time...

Want to know more?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937194/

The MAXimum character that Exchange 2007 supports

Recently, in one of our project, they do ask about what is the maximum character that Exchange 2007 supports? Well, the answer is the same as Windows Server 2003 AD, which is - 64! This info apply to distribution list/distribution group as well.

Try it out, what you need to do is create a user account, and start couting :)

Looking Back, Moving A Head - Bill Gates

A tribute to Microsoft Founder - Bill Gates.

Farewell and thanks for the contributions to communities, IT industries and the world.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/videos/video-list.aspx

Attached the video for the past.

WELL DONE.

A day where LOVE is in the air

15 June 2008 is a great day. Working with CHHS Alumni and Rotary Club of Sri Petaling, we pay a visit to Ti-Ratana, an orphanage house in Malaysia.

That day is also a father's day, and about 150-200 of us, celebrating fathers' day with a big group of children.

Had some activities, including choir singing, Ti-Ratana chilren perform...

Sometimes, doing IT, computing, we are dealing with machines, social works like this will need to do more, thats the complete of life. As a group, we donated computers, water heaters as well as washing machines for them.

This day, some of our communities leaders and members are there too, feeling the samething - LOVE is in the air. We hope this will not stop here, more and more people will do this, showing that we care for the communities, we CARE.

Certificates in Exchange 2007

Lots of our customers, partners and sttudents has this problems while inplementing Exchange 2007 (With its client) - certificates.

Question now is, what certificate used in Exchange 2007?

• ActiveSync
• Autodiscover
• Internet client, like POP3 and IMAP4 client access
• Outlook Web Access
• Outlook Anywhere
• Edge Server

Now, since there are so many components, can we use all with the same name? The answer is no. Thus, in Exchange 2007, we will need certificate that support wildcards name. However, by default, when installing Exchange 2007, a self signed certificate is installed - can we use it? Yes, you can, but we will not recommend as it will not know the Internet domain name you are going to use, not supporting SAN extension supports (X.509 standard).

After knowing this, choosing a right certificate in Exchange 2007 is important. Knowing Exchange 2007 client that support wildcard certificate is also another challenge. For what we know as for now, the following client do support:

Outlook Express, Outlook, Internet Explorer (OWA)

However, clients running Windows Mobile 5.0 do not support secure connection to servers where wildcards are used in the certificate. Do take note.

Cheers

Storing PST on server? You should think few times...

Recently, we have been busy touring Malaysia to share our thoughts about Microsoft Exchange Server. Hope the Exchange business will just flow into not only Max Solution, perhaps Microsoft too :)

However, in one of the bank that we visited, there is an interesting question and idea - We want to store all the PST to the network storage. Is it recommended?

After thinking for few seconds, for sure, the first question is, WHY?

Some reasons for the summary:
1) We want to keep the Exchange DB small
2) We want to keep a copy of users' email
3) Storage nowadays can consider cheap
4) Do not want to heavy load Exchange server...

Hold on... Do we need to put PST file in server to get those features?

Few things to share:

First of all, it is not "possible" or recommended to put all user's PST in a network storage. See the following article - a good one from Microsoft.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297019/en-us

Second of all, to meet the auditors, governance compliances, a company should think about a cool recent product - DPM 2007. This will fulfill the requirements for 1,2 & 3...

Guys, this is our advice, to ensure you will be able to gain the performance, yet, protecting your data.

Do read Microsoft or our blogs for the next version of Exchange - another great product to solve most of the industry issues.

Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging - supprted PBX and gateways

Its being quite a while Unified Messaging introduced to the IT market. Ya - it really flies. However, lots of people still asking - What do I need?; My PBX supported?; Do I need to buy a new PBX?

In Microsoft Technet, there is a good article mentioning about this - Its a telephony advisor!

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/telephony-advisor.mspx

For me, I bought a gateway about 1 1/2 years ago. me too, get the advice from the website too.

Hope this link will help most of folks out there deploying UM.

A valuable trip to Seattle - a meet up with my Guru

MVP Summit 2008 in Seattle from 14 to 18 April 2008 is a memorable and valuable time.
I have chance to meet up with my Guru/Mentor which met up about 5 years ago.
Visiting Microsoft HQ for sure an eye opener and understand the really meaning of "Passion" in technology.

This is a dinner, together with Lee and Pete - years of MVP for Microsoft. A special tribute to Lee, who nominated me to become the new MVP last year.

Advise to bloggers that have passion in Microsoft technology - its really a great experience and worth journey.

Setting Exchange 2007 Pre-Req in Windows Server 2008

Recently prepared few labs on Windows 2008 - Installing Exchange 2007 SP1.

To install Exchange 2007 on top of Windows 2008, first of all, you will need:

1) Exchange 2007 SP1 - will rollup update if possible
2) Active Directory installed of course (Can be in different server)
3) Same in Windows 2008, you will need to install .net framework (3.5) at this time
4) Install Windows PoiwerShell (In Windows 2008 Server Manager, under features)
5) Install Exchange 2007 pre-req server roles and features- then, you are READY

this section, we will share on what is the IIS pre-req in no 5 that we are talking about:-

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Digest-Auth
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Dyn-Compression

Once it installed sucessfully, you can now install Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP1

How to configure Edge to Sync with Hub Transport

After the teo posts, some of you urge to know how to configure the edge sync. Here is the general steps:

1) In Exchange MSH, type:
New-EdgeSubscription -FileName "C:\EdgeSubscriptionInfo.xml"

2) Transfer the xml file to a thumb drive and copy to the Hub Transport Server

3) In Hub Transport Server, Open the Exchange Management Console. Expand Organization Configuration, select Hub Transport, and then in the result pane, click the Edge Subscriptions tab.

4) In the action pane, click New Edge Subscription. The New Edge Subscription Wizard starts.

5) On the New Edge Subscription page, in the Active Directory Site: drop-down list, select the Active Directory site where you want the Hub Tranport to sync with Edge.

NOTE: The Hub Transport to sync should be in the site selected

6) On the New Edge Subscription page, click Browse. Locate the Edge Subscription file to import. Select the file, and then click Open.

7) On the New Edge Subscription page, click New.

8) On the Completion page, click Finish.

Edge Transport will only sync with the Hub Transport every 4 hours. To force its sync, type the following command in Hub Transport:

Start-EdgeSynchronization

Monitor and review the end result.

Edge Transport Address Rewriting

Recently, because of Malaysia's election, we got a quick project on migrating Linux to Exchange server, using Exchange 2007 HUB/CAS/MB and Edge.

One of the requirement is to use address rewriting feature in Edge Transport server.

To know more about edge transport server, please visit:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124701(EXCHG.80).aspx

However, once we configured the HUB/CAS/MB and the Edge (in other server of course), the address rewriting is not working at all...

Discovered that we will need to perform Edge Subscription, which means sync the Edge and Hub Transport - the address re-writing then works.

Will check with the product team if this is a must - which not getting from any official doc.

Just a share.

Setting up CCR - There was a problem accessing the registry on this computer

Guys,

Recently, when we are setting up CCR for one of our customer, we got this weird message when Exchange 2007 is doing its Readiness check - There was a problem accessing the registry on this computer.

After hours of checking - its because of:
1) We disable File and Print sharing and
2) Client for Microsoft Network

For the heartbeat as this is the recommended way to setup a cluster.

Once we enable back those two, everything just flies...

Hope this will help some of those facing this problem.

SP1 to install in CCR

Recently, one of our customer is asking on how to implement Exchange 2007 SP1 into thier beloved CCR.

As known, CCR is a clustered solution, which means only can fit in Mailbox Server Role. Thus, to apply SP1, it is recommended to apply to a CAS (Client Access Server) and HUB (Hub transport Server) first.

Once both of the server updated, then you can update your CCR by using a command prompt, not GUI :)

Upgrade your CCR to a passive cluster node (eg: Node 2) first using the following command:

setup /m:upgrade

Once successfuly, upgrade the active node (eg: Node 1).