Blocking certain outlook version to access Exchange 2007

Running a campaign with Microsoft Malaysia - a day with MVP. Again, its interesting.

There is one question regarding on how to block certain version of outlook being accessing Exchange 2007? Is it possible? The answer for sure it is.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb885056.aspx

The above technet article shows on how to disable by particular mailbox, as well as per server basis. Now, you can fully ensure your environment is using Outlook 2007...

get-storagegroupcopystatus - initializing - can not failover

Implemented few Exchange CCR projects. Lots of customers are happy to see sucha great idea, despite the need of more storage...

During explanation and hand over, we normally share on get-storagegroupcopystatus command in Exchange management shell as well as we do not recommend to failover CCR using failover cluster or cluster administrator. Guess what? Sometimes, it shows initializing...

Just to clarify and share with the community, it is NORMAL if the DB does not has any activity (activity means transaction log...). It is because MSFT would like to ensure the checksum health check prior to the failover...

One of the product team guy, Tim, has a great blog and one article talking about this. Great stuff which will explain to you...

http://blogs.technet.com/timmcmic/archive/2009/01/26/get-storagegroupcopystatus-initializing.aspx

SCL Junk Threshold

Outlook for sure is the best client for Microsoft Exchange. In Exchange 2007 and Outlook 2003/2007, there is a folder called Junk Mail.

When working with Exchange 2007, the default value is 8, which mean the email Spam Confidence Level (`SCL`) level lis 8 will move to user's Junk Email folder. Normally, once the Junk Email settings set, you might want to modify this setting.

The recommended value for the SCLJunkThreshold parameter is 4. However, you can monitor your organization behavior and set it.

In the Exchange Management Shell:

Set-OrganizationConfig -SCLJunkThreshold 4

Record commands when you are using Exchange Management Shell

One of the reasons i like Exchange so much is because of the Exchange Management Shell - develop using PowerShell.

However, some of the time, to get what you have typed and configured, its a pain - especially need to copy one by one (when doing documentation especially).

Today, during routine of checking our company and customer's Exchange server, i got this tips which think will benefit you guys:

To Record exactly what happen when you are using EMS!!
Awesome thing is, you can use the Start-Transcript cmdlet. Anything that you do after you runthis cmdlet will be recorded to a text file that you specify. To stop recordingyour session, use the Stop-Transcript cmdlet.

However, this command will overwrites the previous reocrding file, unless you append the session. How? Use the Appendparameter:

Start-Transcript c:\MyRecordSession.txt -Append

Once, Happy New Year.

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...

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.

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.

Standby Continuous Replication Steps

Thanks for drop by on my track session during OCS Launch 31 Oct. Some of you actually asking for the step on the SCR demo.

Here you go. To enable SCR, you will need to have:
1) Both source and target to be Exchange 2007 SP1
2) One store per storage group

Assumption:
Source Server Name: DC1
Target Server Name: W2K8-E2
Source SCR Storage Group Name: SG1, Store Name: SG1.edb
Target SCR Storage Group created SG1Port, Store Name:Mbx1Port

Steps:
For the source SCR,
# **** This is to enable SCR to SG1 ****
Enable-StorageGroupCopy SG1 -StandbyMachine W2k8-E2 -ReplayLagTime 0.0:0:0#
**** This is to check the SCR Status in W2008 ****
Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus SG1 -StandbyMachine W2k8-E2

For the target SCR,
# **** We will now go back to the production Server and Simulate Failure ****
# **** Now, time to Restore the enabled SCR ****
Restore-StorageGroupCopy DC1\SG1 -StandbyMachine W2k8-E2 -force:$true
# **** Now, we will move DB portability DB ****
Move-StorageGroupPath W2k8-E2\SG1PORT -SystemFolderPath C:\SG1 -LogFolderPath c:\SG1 -ConfigurationOnly -Confirm:$falseMove-databasepath W2k8-E2\SG1PORT\Mbx1Port -EdbfilePath C:\SG1\SG1.edb -ConfigurationOnly -Confirm:$false
# **** Allow the Database to be overwritten ****
Set-Mailboxdatabase W2k8-E2\SG1PORT\MBX1PORT -AllowFileRestore:$true
# **** Mount the Database ****
Mount-Database W2k8-E2\SG1PORT\Mbx1Port -Confirm:$false
# **** Update Mailbox configuration in AD to map to the DB portability copy ****
get-mailbox -database DC1\SG1\SG1 where {$_.objectClass -NotMatch '(SystemAttendantMailboxExOleDbSystemMailbox)'} Move-Mailbox -ConfigurationOnly -TargetDatabase W2k8-E2\SG1Port\Mbx1Port -Confirm:$false

There you go. You might want to put into a powershell script and rename it to .ps1

Happy SCRing

Exchange 2007 Public Folder Administration

As everyone knows that managing Public Folder in Exchange 2007 is nont easy. Few of our implemented customer requested for some help. Here it is. We would like to share on a tool, which is available from Microsoft for FREE - PFDAVAdmin. This tool is already available since Exchange 2003.

This Exchange Server tool can use to perform several tasks related to public folder management:

• Modify folder permissions on folders in the MAPI tree by using an interface similar to ESM on Exchange 2000/2003 which is not avail in E2007 prior SP1.
• Add, modify and remove ACEs
• Export and import folder permissions on public folders and mailboxes - this can be useful for some checking during maintenance.
• Export and import replica lists.
• Look for and remove item-level permissions in bulk.
• Exceed the limits imposed by the ESM user interface for values on the Limits tab.
• Display and modify folder properties in bulk.
• Modify the permissions of the Calendar folder in bulk.

Interesting? However, just a note. When Exchange 2007 SP1 is out, you may no need to think about this tool :) Do visit OCS 2007 launch this month. There is a session on Exchange 2007 SP1. However, in this article, we would like to share about the tool:

When you lauch this tool, the below window will prompt. Key-in your Exchange Server and GC server name.


You will then be able to see the PF hierarchie. And there you go, performing the feature mentioned above.

Cheers