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February 11 Windows Server 2008 cannot perform streaming backups of Exchange Server 2007 DatabasesUpdated on March 4th, 2008
You may not have heard about this yet, but more and more people have been asking me about this. The "Windows Server Backup" feature running on Windows Server 2008 cannot backup your databases/stores on Exchange 2007. What were refer to as streaming backups, is no longer supported with the built-in backup tool (still possible with 3rd party). So what do we use to backup the DBs? Well, you have a few options. First, of course, you have 3rd party products, the same you may currently be using to backup Exchange 2003 servers, are available in versions supported by Windows 2008/Exchange 2007. Second, if you want to stay on the MS side of things, you will want to use System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) to perform VSS-based backups of your Exchange 2007 servers. (SC DPM cannot take streaming backups)
Now what will happen in Cougar (SBS 2008)? I haven't had a chance to check it out yet, but this may be prohibitive to small businesses who look for simple backup solutions. My guess (and this only a guess) is that they will leverage SC Essentials with a minimal version of SCDPM. Well... at least that's what I would do...
I also want to point out though that I've recently been told that you can restore, on Windows2008, Exchange Offline DB backups done in Windows Server 2003 (no online backups supported). I've actually tried this out (other than the SCDPM) and the options for Exchange are simply not there.
More guidance on this from Microsoft will be arriving soon.
December 14 Learning path for Exchange Server 2007I was recently asked by Microsoft to create a Learning Plan for Exchange Server 2007. These Learning Plans were promoted as part of a marketing initiative that took place at IT Forum in Barcelona this year. Basically, its a list of resources, in a relevant order, that you can use to become knowledgeable on Exchange Server 2007.
November 21 Get ready for Exchange Server 2007 SP1Any day now... Exchange Server 2007 SP1 will drop. Initially, Microsoft has said that this service pack will be released in conjunction with Windows Server 2008. Well, Windows has slipped, but the Exchange team has stuck to their guns and SP1 will be released this quarter. Typically, this doesn't happen too close to x-mas, which means any day now!!!
Why should you care about this Service Pack? Well sure, you get SCR, support for Windows 2008, better mobile device policies, improved management from the EMC... but really, we know that the favorite new features will be the new Zune and XBOX 360 OWA themes :) October 25 SSL certificate server name is incorrect - Exchange System Manager issueI came across this issue today, where the Exchange System Manager returns the following error when accessing the Public Folders node:
SSL certificate server name is incorrect
All Internet queries to this problem point to the following Microsoft article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324345 The article offes two solutions, one is to match the FQDN of the server in the certificate assigned to the website. This was not a realistic option for us, given that the server was installed with a .PRIV domain name. The second option was to remove the SSL requirement on the EXADMIN virtual directory. This task was easy enough to do, but didn't solve the problem. I found that the solution was actually in Active Directory. When we made the modifications on the EXADMIN virtual directory in IIS manager, the setting did not propagate to Active Directory. So to resolve the issue, browse to the EXADMIN object in ADSIEdit and remove the SSL port value (443) from the MSExchSecureBinding property.
Now, we can manage our Public folders again. October 22 Announcing System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008Over the years, a lot of management of mobile devices has been handled by Exchange servers. This never felt like a natural fit, but a defacto method of managing devices in lieu of another solution. The new solution is arriving soon... The System Center Mobile Device Manager (SCMDM) 2008 will allow administrators to manage mobile devices, deploy policies to devices and even push down applications to corporate mobile devices.
Expected to land on your MSDN pages, second quarter 2008... October 15 Troubleshooting CAS Autodiscover problemsSo i've posted about client connection issues before. It seems that most admins encounter configuration issues all the time, regarding RPC over HTTP, Exchange ActiveSync and AutoDiscover. This article is really dedicated to a problem I often see with Autodiscovery.
First, some basics. If you are having trouble getting Autodiscover working, there is a lot file on the client machine that holds all Autodiscovery information. You will find it at: %userprofile%\Local Settings\Temp\2\olkdisc.log
If you look in this log file and find failed URL errors, chances are you have an erroneous URI (that's right not URL, URI) in the SCP (Service Connection Point) that is stored in AD or that your certificate is badly configured. So lets troubleshoot both problems:
1. Reset your SCP in AD: I get this question often, how do you set the URL (actually URI) that is used from the Internet to access your Exchange server. Well you need to publish that information in AD through the SCP (there's actually other connection methods, but that discussion is for another day :)).
To reset your SCP with the accurate URI, use the following EMS command:
Set-ClientAccessServer -identity "EXCHANGECASSERVERNAME" -AutodiscoverServiceExternalURI HTTPS://EXTERNALFQDN/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml -DomainController "DC NAME"
Force replication betwen all DC's in your domain, restart Outlook and if you had a bad URI, you're golden now!
2. If you have a cert problem, ensure that the following are correct: Certificate is not expired, Certificate is trusted on the client computer and that the name in the certificate matches your external URI.
Good luck with your CAS deployments!!!
June 21 Tasks that CANNOT be performed from the Exchange Management Console
I’ve been getting this question a lot! “What tasks CANNOT be performed from the Exchange Management Console?” The following is the answer to this question. I’ve done a “best effort” to compile a complete list of these tasks. Feel free to comment here if you feel I should add information to this post or if there is incorrect information. Tasks that MUST be performed from the Exchange Management Shell Mailbox, Recipient and Public Folder Settings
Transport Settings
Client Access Settings
Following settings should be used with a Get-CASMailbox and piped to the Set-CASMailbox to be applied globally.
Other
June 20 Confusion about Antispam agents on Hub Transport serversA recent discussion has prompted me to write this and clarify some of the cmdlets and features relating to Antispam agents on Hub Transport servers; so here are the facts around it:
Confused yet? Basically, when you disable an agent from the list of agents in the EMC, and run a Get-TransportAgent, it shows as enabled. That is because you are disabling the filtering feature of the agent from the EMC and not the actual agent running on the messages. The whole thing is really not documented anywhere and may lead to confusion from some admins. Even more confusing, if you run the Set-TransportServer -Antispamagentsenabled $True cmd, the tab will show up in the EMC, but the agents will actually NOT be installed.
May 22 SMTP over SSL from Outlook Express *only* over 25I had an issue on a brand new implementation of Exchange 2007 last month, I resolved it in a funny and never really understood the underlying reason for the problem. Basically, I tried to connect Outlook Express clients through IMAP4 and SMTP. You may know that Exchage 2007 creates two defaut Receive Connectors, one of which is meant for SMTP relaying from POP3/IMAP4 clients. I enabled certificate encryption on the Receive Connector, but couldn't get the clients to redirect over the default port, 587. Whatever I tried, the client would get an error. I could get the client to connect over SMTP (no ssl). I ended up fixing the issue by recreating a new Receive Connector and forcing the clients to go to SMTP over SSL on port 25.
Today, I was catching up on my Exchange Team Blog reading and I came across an article that describes the exact issue I ran into. Basically, this is an Outlook Express problem and is fixed in Vista Windows Mail. There may be future fix to Outlook Express to get this to work.
Reason 3268 for moving to Windows Vista ;) March 19 Using the Set-emailaddresspolicy after your migration to Exchange 2007The syntax used in address lists and recipient policies in Exchange Server 2003 is not compatible with the administration tools in Exchange Server 2007. Therefore, immediately following the transition of your administrative tasks to the 2007 servers, you should upgrade the lists and policies. If you don't, you will not be able to modify the Address Lists (used to view recipients in Outlook) or the E-mail Address Policy (used to define the incoming SMTP domains in your Exchange organization.)
To upgrade your Recipient Policy to a E-mail Address Policy syntax:
Set-emailaddresspolicy -includedrecipients allrecipients (when prompted for the name of the list, enter "Default Policy" if you are using a default naming convention.)
To upgrade your Address Lists to an Exchange Server 2007 syntax:
Set-AddressList -includedrecipients mailboxusers (This is for the All Users list, that included mailbox users; for other lists, enter the appropriate value, such as MailUsers, MailContacts, Resources or MailGroups) (Of course, when prompted, put in the correct list name.) March 16 Managing multiple SMTP domains during coexistence between Exchange 2003 and 2007As many of you start to Transition your Exchange environments from 2003 to 2007, you'll find out that most transition mean coexistence. Coexistence means issues... An issue you'll have to deal with is how certain settings are replicated betwen Exchange versions and others are not. For example, when you install your first Exchange 2007 server, Exchange 2003 Recipient Policies are regenerated in 2007 in the form of Accepted Domains and E-mail Address Policies; no problem there. However, if you create additional Recipient Policies, the associated Accepted Domain is NOT created. If you happen to decomission your 2003 servers, without noticing this, e-mail messages destined to those domains will be rejected. Solution: Create the new Accepted Domains manually. Voila. February 20 Top 5 routing concepts that have changed in 2007 (In brief)Many people have been asking many questions about all the changes in Exchange Server 2007. One concept that's been catching everyone asleep, is the new message routing features, paths and services. So here's your "In brief" review of the new routing concepts:
1. No more Routing Groups / Site Connectors used for internal Exchange messaging: Partially true, since you still maintain a routing group for coexistence with Exchange 2000/2003. So what's used instead? AD Sites and AD Site Links (with costs)
2. Exchange-specific routing costs: To tie in quickly the previous point, if you want to modify message routing costs and do not want to affect your AD replication paths, you can apply Exchange-specific costs. (Hint: Use the EMS for those)
3. Direct delivery of messages across sites: An Exchange server will try to establish a direct connection to a destination/target server in a destination site. If there are multiple sites in the routing path, the Exchange server (HT) will communicate directly with the final hop in the routing path. If that server is unavailable and all destination servers in the site are unavailable, it will back-off to the closest point of failure and queue it on that server (site).
4. Send Connectors and Receive Connectors: The concepts of "Sending" and "Receiving" are now clearly divided into Send and Receive Connectors. They're actually the new implementation of SMTP VS, without some of their limitations. Some Send Connectors are created "Dynamically) and cannot be modified (HT), some Send Connectors are created during the installation and allow for sending mail to the Internet (ET).
5. MexRuntime Agents: All antispam and filtering components run as agents. These agents can run on both HT and ET servers (except for a couple that are only available on ET. (Hint: To install most agents on an HT, run the install-antispamagents.ps1 script)
Of course, other things have changed, but lets start herefor now... April 28 Major permission change in Exchange Server 2003 StoreSince I know many readers of this blog are using BES or GoodLink servers, you'll be very interested with this change in behavior. In a nutshell, to send mail as another user in Exchange 2000/2003, Full Mailbox Owner permission is no longer enough, in conjunction with this permission, you also need the "Send As" permission. This will only affect you if you install an update to store.exe after April 28th, 2006.
Microsoft has created a script to help you identify the users in your organization that will require this update. The following KB has all details about this issue and the script. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912918
For more information about the specific Store.exe version affected, look at the following KB article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/895949/
Of course, nobody believes in conspiracies to make your life real complicated to use BES or GoodLink for wireless access and in fact convince you to purchase som Mobile 5.0 direct push devices... Rubbish!!! April 21 Troubleshooting Exchange Server ActiveSync through an ISA serverI'm spending more time on advanced issues related to Exchange Server 2003 these days. I don't get calls anymore to migrate or install servers, i'm getting requests for RPC over HTTP, multi-node clusters and configuring Server ActiveSync. This makes for much more interesting projets...
So this week I had to configure a new client's Server ActiveSync environment and ensure connectivity through an existing ISA 2004 server. Of course, the current environment wasn't properly configured and I had to stabilize a few things before I could move on... However, when it came to the ActiveSync portion of the work, I ended up forgetting a few details and I made myself a list of gotcha's. Here they are:
Once all of this is done, configure the profile on the PDA to point to the FQDN on the certificate and start syncing!!! January 18 Windows Vista vs Windows XP Prohttp://www.bentuser.com/article.aspx?ID=332& : Good read!
I don't typically post links to articles, but i'm getting a lot of questions lately about the differences between Vista and XP. Although there are many differences under the hood, the interface differences are very impressive as well. As always, MS is pushing towards a user friendly interface and an effortless management of information. Sometimes succeeding on both fronts...
I'll write more in the months to come about Vista, as one of our clients has been selected as a MS TAP client for Vista and we'll be managing the deployment during March and April. January 11 More on the 64 Bit version of Exchange 12...Or Exchange Server 2007 as it will probably be known...
As an MCT (Trainer), one of the things I was very worried about is the 64Bit only version of Exchange 12. Since we run a lot custom courses and MS courses on Exchange, we would have to put in 64Bit processors as a requirement for our courses, driving costs up. After understanding a bit more of the driving factors for this 64Bit decision, I fully support it now and look forward to the new features and performance gains. But I was still concerned about not being able to run it on 32Bit hardware...
Quote from Terry Myerson (Exchange Team): "We will release a 32-bit version of E12 for feature evaluation, training, and demonstrations—but we are not planning to support this release in production"
I'm pretty sure this means it will be available post-beta. This is good news!!! January 01 Peering through the technological fog of 2006During the month of December, I typically spend some time looking back at the year behind me and the projects I've worked on, as well as the projects ahead. I usually spend some time looking into where I should focus my energy for the upcoming year. I run a brief analysis of what is moving and shacking in my market and globally with IT in general.
This year, I think we'll see some interesting changes in 2006. Of course we have the obvious, the release of Windows Vista and (hopefully) the new Office. But where is the IT focus shifting to? What's going to emerge this year as a front runner or new leader in IT. For example, as far as I'm concerned, 2005 was the year of Sharepoint/WSS. Not necessarily cause i've worked so much with the product, but because of the buzz around it. 2006 will see many more implementation of Sharepoint technologies and a continued rapid growth for the product. A probable integration into the next version of Exchange will only speed up the adoption rate of this technology. In 2006, we'll also a continued effort from MS to push its business solutions products. As a MS Certified Partner (we reached Gold Partner status this year
 ) we are constantly promoted the virtues of these technologies for our clients. I believe MS sees itself hold a larger portion of that market and 2006 may be the year that is spent positioning the company with the important clients. As an example of that, will be the proposed integration of Office 12 with SAP. A pilot project of the SAP integration will take place at some point this year.So what should we keep our eyes open for this year?
The continued speed of adoption of Sharepoint technologies.
The impact/adoption rate of Windows Vista.
The growing news and impact of 64bit only Exchange 12. (E12)
Office 12, level of integration with other products and the evergrowing suite of server side Office products.
Another one I'm curious about is Live Communication Server 2006 (heard it is going to be renamed). Lets see what the rate of adoption on that product will be. If IM is any indication this technology should be hot this year.
And of course all those new ERP products arriving towards the end of 2006, early 2007.
Happy new year everybody and good luck with your implementations... November 15 Will it be named Exchange Server 2006 or 2007?At the IT Forum in Barcelona, Microsoft announced the release schedule for the next version of Exchange, code named Exchange 12. I've blogged about E12 before, including all its exciting new features. More details to come about this very soon...
Exchange 12 release schedule:
So which one will it be 2006 or 2007. Let the pool begin... I'm betting on March 2007. August 17 Using MONAD to administer Exchange Server 2003I know, i've been MIA for a while. I've been busier than a japanese tourist at a Canon Outlet, but something real interesting brought me out of hiding.
As many of you know, MONAD is all the buzz these days. Especially, the security benefits of this new technology in being touted around. However, what I only learned a few weeks ago is the administrative benefits that MONAD will provide for Exchange 12. For Exchange administrators that are not comfortable writing or using complex ADSI scripts to perform automated Exchange management, MONAD will provide a simplified syntax for management.
Here are a couple of examples I just came across from the Exchange Team Blog:
To Set the send quota for ALL mail enabled users in a DL to 1MB
Get-DistributionGroup “DL_NAME” | Get-DistributionGroupMember | Set-Mailbox –ProhibitSendQuota 1024
To move all users from one Exchange server to another Exchange server
Get-Mailbox –server SOURCE_SERVER_NAME | move-mailbox –targetDatabase “DESTINATION_SERVER_NAME\DESTINATION_MBXSTORE”
This looks like pretty exciting stuff. More about E12 soon, but before that ,watch out for some SP2 stuff coming up.
June 17 How to move an Exchange mailbox with a BlackBerry / BES userAt TechEd last week, I noticed that over half of the attendees carried blackberries. Today, almost all my clients incorporate BES servers into their messaging infrastructures. This means one thing for me, i need to know more about troubleshooting BES servers and their communication with AD and Exchange. So look for more Bberry info in this blog in the future. Here's an issue I just encountered this week. When a mailbox is moved from one Exchange server to another. the BES server needs to be told. If not, the BBerry device is useless. You need to run a utility called handheldcleanup.exe with an –m parameter to update moved mailboxes. You can run the tool in a verification mode only first to identify moved mailboxes before applying the change. The tool will update the DN name of the mailbox in the BES database. You can find this utility in this directory on the BES server C:\>Program Files\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\Utility |
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