Tag: Active Directory

Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3

Exchange-server-2007_logoStacked

Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2007 SP3 resolves the issues that are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

2498066 “Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service" error message when you try to extend database files in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

2497679 A meeting request may not open correctly after you disable the "Display sender’s name on messages" option in the EMC of Exchange Server 2007 SP2 or SP3

2493529 Event ID 1160 is logged and the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service randomly stops responding on an Exchange Server 2007 server

2492384 A meeting response status from an external attendee may be incorrect if you send the meeting request from an Exchange Server 2007 environment

2490788 A calendar synchronization times out when you use ActiveSync to synchronize with an Exchange Server 2007 mailbox on a mobile device

2489898 An item is removed unexpectedly from a public folder in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

2480197 The "Require SSL" setting is unexpectedly unselected on the RPC virtual directory on an Exchange Server 2007 server

2479939 The "ScheduleOnlyDuringWorkHours" property of a resource mailbox may not function as expected in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

2477139 DTMF inputs are not accepted by a UM auto attendant while the greeting message is playing in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

2470759 The "Test-Replicationhealth" cmdlet fails on a stretched cluster in an Exchange Server 2007 SP3 CCR environment

2461537 The Microsoft.Exchange.Search.ExSearch.exe process consumes 100% CPU after you apply Update Rollup 1 or Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2007 SP3 on the passive node of a SCC

2457838 "554 5.6.0" NDR message when you send an email message to an Exchange Server 2007 mailbox from a Macintosh computer

2450078 The sent time in an email message body is incorrect when you reply or forward the email message by using an EWS application in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

2448291 "Object has been corrupted and it is in an inconsistent state" warning message when you view a transport rule on an Exchange Server 2007 SP3 server

2445129 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2445129/ ) The W3WP.exe process may crash when a WebDAV client connects to an Exchange Server 2007 server

2418993 The Edgetransport.exe process crashes when you close a Telnet session before you receive an SMTP banner in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

2410330 The EdgeTransport.exe process crashes if the pipeline tracing feature is enabled together with a redirect transport rule in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

2408435 "Computer account for ‘SMTPSVC/’ not found in Active Directory." error message in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

2394853 The returned URL is incorrect when you use the WebDAV "X-MS-ENUMATTS" method to enumerate an attachment in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

2294143 Duplicate read receipts are sent when using a POP3 client or an IMAP4 client in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

2267661 Some body parts of a message are displayed as attachments when an Exchange Server 2007 user sends the message by using a third-party mail client

2032592 VSS backup fails on a passive node of an Exchange Server 2007 CCR cluster and Event ID 2034 is logged

982714 The values of total items that are returned by running the "Export-ActiveSyncLog" cmdlet on an Exchange Server 2007 server are incorrect

979338 Fax communication sessions are dropped by an Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging server

955480 A meeting request is stamped as Busy instead of Tentative when it is sent from an external user to an Exchange Server 2007 user

Download the Update HERE

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Documentation

Migrating from Communications Server 2007 to Lync Server 2010

This document provides guidance from migration from Office Communications Server 2007 to Microsoft Lync Server 2010.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Device Management and Troubleshooting Guide

The purpose of the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Device Management and Troubleshooting Guide is to provide guidance on how to manage and update devices. It is also intended to answer frequently asked questions. This document identifies supported topologies, configurations, and scenarios described in detail in the Lync Server device deployment and planning documentation.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Reference: Call Data Recording and Quality of Experience Database Schema

This document describes the call detail recording (CDR) and the Quality of Experience (QoE) databases schemas in Microsoft Lync Server 2010.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Group Chat Administration Guide

This document guides you through the process of administering Lync Server 2010 Group Chat Server and the related components that are required to let organizations set up searchable, topic-based chat rooms that persist over time, allowing geographically distributed teams to better collaborate with one another while preserving organizational knowledge.

Migrating from Communications Server 2007 R2 to Lync Server 2010

This document provides guidance from migration from Office Communications Server 2007 R2 to Microsoft Lync Server 2010.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Monitoring Deployment Guide

This document guides you through the process of deploying Lync Server 2010 Monitoring Server.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Announcement Deployment Guide

This download guides you through the process of configuring the Announcement call management feature for Enterprise Voice.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Archiving Deployment Guide

The purpose of the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Archiving Deployment Guide is to guide you through the process of deploying Lync Server 2010 Archiving Server and the related components that are required to support archiving of instant messaging and web conferencing (meeting) content.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Group Chat Deployment Guide

This document guides you through the process of migrating and deploying Lync Server 2010 Group Chat Server and the related components that are required to let organizations set up searchable, topic-based chat rooms that persist over time, allowing geographically distributed teams to better collaborate with one another while preserving organizational knowledge.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Client and Device Deployment Guide

This download guides you through the process of deploying client software and devices for Lync 2010.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Call Park Deployment Guide

This download guides you through the process of configuring the Call Park call management feature for Enterprise Voice.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Voice Guide

This download contains two documents: Deploying Enterprise Voice at Central sites and Deploying Branch Sites

Enabling QoS with Microsoft Lync Server 2010

If your Windows Server network supports Quality of Service (QoS) management, you can take advantage of this functionality to optimize media traffic in your Microsoft Lync Server 2010 deployment. This guide shows you how.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Response Group Deployment Guide

This download guides you through the process of configuring the Response Group feature for Enterprise Voice.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Edge Server Deployment Guide

This document guides you through the process of deploying Lync Server 2010 edge servers and Directors.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Standard Edition Deployment Guide

This document guides you through the process of deploying Lync Server 2010 Standard Edition and configuring dial-in conferencing.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Active Directory Guide

This document guides you through the process of preparing Active Directory for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and includes the Active Directory schema reference.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Edition Deployment Guide

This document guides you through the process of deploying Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Edition and configuring dial-in conferencing for Lync Server 2010.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Supportability Guide

This guide provides a central, high-level reference for supported server topologies and configurations and supported client configurations. It is also intended to answer frequently asked questions. This document identifies supported topologies, configurations, and scenarios described in detail in the Lync Server deployment and planning documentation.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Planning Guide

This document contains information for planning a deployment of Lync Server 2010 and Lync clients.

Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guide for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 with Service Pack 1

The Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guide for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 with Service Pack 1 is very handy for successfully designing an Exchange Server 2010 infrastructure. The guide will help consultants make informed decisions about the design of fault tolerance and scalability so that their overall requirements are met.

The guide covers these key steps in the Exchange Server 2010 infrastructure design process:

  • Defining the project scope by identifying your individual business and IT requirements for a messaging infrastructure.
  • Mapping features and functionality based on the defined scope to develop the appropriate Exchange Server 2010 design.
  • Designing the infrastructure and role requirements for the proposed Exchange Server 2010 architecture.
  • Determining the sizing, fault tolerance, and physical placement of Exchange Server 2010 roles.

The Exchange Server 2010 Guide includes the following content:

  • Step 1: Define the Business and Technical Requirements
  • Step 2: Define the Instances of Exchange Server 2010
  • Step 3: Design the Mailbox Server Infrastructure
  • Step 4: Design the Client Access Server Infrastructure
  • Step 5: Design the Hub Transport Server Infrastructure
  • Step 6: Design the Edge Transport Server Infrastructure
  • Step 7: Design the Unified Messaging Server Infrastructure
  • Step 8: Define the Active Directory Domain Services Requirements

Launch the download of the IPD Guide for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 with Service Pack 1.

Launch the download of the entire Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide series.

Publish Exchange 2010 With TMG (Forefront Threat Management Gateway)

When you want you use Forefront Threat Management Gateway to publish Exchange 2010 you must do the following things

1. Get a SAN Certificate.

I my case I have the following URL’s registered with the certificate.
webmail.wardvissers.nl
autodiscover.wardvissers.nl
legacy.wardvissers.nl
casarray.wardvissers.local

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2. Import the Certificate in to Exchange 2010. 
How to check HERE

3. Create on the Exchange 2010 Server a Client Access Array.
How you must do it I spoke it Configuring Client Access Array. I this case a used casarray.wardvissers.local for the client acces array.

4. Setting the internal & external url’s

Set-ClientAccessServer -Identity ward-ex01 -AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri https://casarray.wardvissers.local/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml

Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Identity “ward-ex01\EWS (Default Web Site)” -InternalUrl https://casarray.wardvissers.local/ews/exchange.asmx -ExternalUrl https:// webmail.wardvissers.nl/ews/exchange.asmx

Set-OABVirtualDirectory -Identity “ward-ex01\oab (Default Web Site)” -InternalUrl http:// casarray.wardvissers.local/oab -ExternalUrl https://webmail.wardvissers.nl/oab

Enable-OutlookAnywhere -Server ward-ex01 -ExternalHostname “webmail.wardvissers.nl” -ClientAuthenticationMethod “Basic”-SSLOffloading:$False

Set-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory -Identity “ward-ex01\Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync (Default Web Site)” -InternalURL https://casarry.wardvissers.local/Microsoft-Server-Activesync
-ExternalURL https://webmail.wardvissers.nl/Microsoft-Server-Activesync

Set-ECPVirtualDirectory –Identity ward-ex01\ECP (default web site) -InternalURL https://casarry.wardvissers.local/ECP -ExternalURL https://webmail.wardvissers.nl/ECP

5. Configure Exchange 2010 for basic authentication

Set-OwaVirtualDirectory -id ward-ex01\* -BasicAuthentication $true -WindowsAuthentication $true -FormsAuthentication $false

set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Identity “ward-ex01\EWS (Default Web Site)” -WindowsAuthentication $true -BasicAuthentication $true

set-EcpVirtualdirectory –Identity ward-ex01\ECP (default web site) -BasicAuthentication $true -WindowsAuthentication $true -FormsAuthentication $false

set-OabVirtualDirectory -Identity “ward-ex01\oab (Default Web Site)” -WindowsAuthentication $true -BasicAuthentication $true

set-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory -Identity “ward-ex01\Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync (Default Web Site)” -BasicAuthentication $true

6. Import the SAN certificate in to the TMG server.

1. Click Start –> Run –> Type MMC
2. Click File –> add remove Snap-in –> Certificates –> ADD –> Computer account-> Next –> finish-> ok
3. Click Personal –> certificates
4. Right Click certificates –> all task –> import –> next –> select the *.pfx file –> next –> Password –> next –> next –> Finish

7. Publish OWA

1. Publish Exchange Web Client Access

2. Exchange Publishing rule name: OWA 2010
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3. Choose Exchange Server 2010 & Outlook Web Access

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4. Next ( I have only Single TMG Server)
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5. Next
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6.Internal Site Name: Client Access Array name. My Case casarray.wardvissers.local
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7. Public Name: webmail.wardvissers.nl
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8. At this moment I have no Web Listener so we gone create them

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9. Weblister Name: HTTPS
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10. Next
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11. I choise for All Networks (and local host) because the Server has one NIC.
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12. Select the Certificate that you just imported.
image image
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13. Choise for LDAP (Active Directory)
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14. SSO Domain name: my case wardvissers.nl (External Domain name)
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15. Finish
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16. Next
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17. Next
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18. Next
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19. Finish
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8. Publish Active Sync

1. Publish Exchange Web Client Access

2. Exchange Publishing rule name: Active Sync 2010
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3. Exchange Server 2010 & Exchange ActiveSync
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4. Next
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5. Next
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6. Internal Site name: CasArray name
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7. Public Name: I my case webmail.wardvissers.nl
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8.Choise the HTTPS web listerner
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9. Next
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10. Next
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11. Finish
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Next Time I will publish how to deploy a Legacy Exchange Server 2003 & 2007 with TMG

Exchange 2010 SP1 Prerequisites

Some day’s ago Microsoft Releases Exchange 2010 SP1. When you install Exchange 2010 SP1 you need to install some hotfixes. The Exchange Team have made a nice over view witch hotfixes you need for the OS.

Hotfix Download Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows 7 & Windows Vista
979744
A .NET Framework 2.0-based Multi-AppDomain application stops responding when you run the application		 MSDN
or Microsoft Connect		 Windows6.0-KB979744-x64.msu (CBS: Vista/Win2K8) Windows6.1-KB979744-x64.msu (CBS: Win7/Win2K8 R2) N. A.
983440
An ASP.NET 2.0 hotfix rollup package is available for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2		 Request from CSS Yes Yes N.A.
977624
AD RMS clients do not authenticate federated identity providers in Windows Server 2008 or in Windows Vista. Without this update, Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) features may stop working		 Request from CSS using the “View and request hotfix downloads” link in the KBA | US-English Select the download for Windows Vista for the x64 platform. N.A. N.A.
979917
Two issues occur when you deploy an ASP.NET 2.0-based application on a server that is running IIS 7.0 or IIS 7.5 in Integrated mode		 Request from CSS using the Hotfix Request Web Submission Form or by phone (no charge) Yes N. A. N. A.
973136,
FIX: ArgumentNullException exception error message when a .NET Framework 2.0 SP2-based application tries to process a response with zero-length content to an asynchronous ASP.NET Web service request: “Value cannot be null”.		 Microsoft Connect Windows6.0-KB973136-x64.msu N.A. N. A.
977592
RPC over HTTP clients cannot connect to the Windows Server 2008 RPC over HTTP servers that have RPC load balancing enabled.		 Request from CSS Select the download for Windows Vista (x64) N.A. N. A.
979099
An update is available to remove the application manifest expiry feature from AD RMS clients.		 Download Center N. A. Windows6.1-KB979099-x64.msu N. A.
982867

WCF services that are hosted by computers together with a NLB fail in .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

 MSDN N. A. Windows6.1-KB982867-v2-x64.msu (Win7) X86: Windows6.1-KB982867-v2-x86.msu (Win7)
x64: Windows6.1-KB982867-v2-x64.msu (Win7)
977020
FIX: An application that is based on the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2 and that invokes a Web service call asynchronously throws an exception on a computer that is running Windows 7.		 Microsoft Connect N. A. N. A. x64: Windows6.1-KB977020-v2-x64.msu

X86: Windows6.1-KB977020-v2-x86.msu

Some of the hotfixes would have been rolled up in a Windows update or service pack. Given that the Exchange team released SP1 earlier than what was planned and announced earlier, it did not align with some of the work with the Windows platform. As a result, some hotfixes are available from MSDN/Connect, and some require that you request them online using the links in the corresponding KBs. All these updates may become available on the Download Center, and also through Windows Update.

These hotfixes have been tested extensively as part of Exchange 2010 SP1 deployments within Microsoft and by our TAP customers. They are fully supported by Microsoft.

The TechNet article Exchange 2010 Prerequisites is updated with the hotfixes and install the prerequisites required for your server version (the hotfixes are linked to in the above table).

You can use the Install the Windows Server 2008 SP2 operating system prerequisites on a Windows 2008 R2 server. Only you have to run the following powershell command: Import-Module ServerManager

Installed Exchange 2010 SP1 on a Windows 2008 R2 Server with problems. I feels that the MMC is faster. Tomorrow upgrading a DAG/NLB cluster to Exchange 2010 SP1.

Your account in Microsoft Exchange Server does not have have permissions to synchronize with your current settings 0x85010004 or Eventid 1053 Exchange ActiveSync doesn’t have sufficient permissions to create the user container under Active Directory user "Active Directory operation failed on domain controller.

Error: Your account in Microsoft Exchange Server does not have have permissions to synchronize with your current settings.

Afb0021

Eventlog:
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Exchange ActiveSync doesn’t have sufficient permissions to create the "CN=ward,OU=Users,DC=wardvissers,DC=local" container under Active Directory user "Active Directory operation failed on DC2008-03.ad.local. This error is not retriable. Additional information: Access is denied.
Active directory response: 00000005: SecErr: DSID-031521D0, problem 4003 (INSUFF_ACCESS_RIGHTS), data 0
".
Make sure the user has inherited permission granted to domain\Exchange Servers to allow List, Create child, Delete child of object type "msExchangeActiveSyncDevices" and doesn’t have any deny permissions that block such operations.

Because my account has domain admins rights the security settings will be reset every hour by
AdminSDHolder

Each Active Directory domain has an object called AdminSDHolder, which resides in the System container of the domain. The Admin-SDHolder object has a unique Access Control List (ACL), which is used to control the permissions of security principals that are members of built-in privileged Active Directory groups (what I like to call “protected” groups). Every hour, a background process called SDPROP runs on the domain controller that holds the PDC Emulator operations master role. It compares the ACL on all security principals (users, groups and computer accounts) that belong to protected groups against the ACL on the AdminSDHolder object. If the ACL lists aren’t the same, the ACL on the security principal is overwritten with the ACL from the Admin–SDHolder object. In addition, inheritance is disabled on the security principal.

Temporally Solution:

1. Active Directory Users and Computers

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2. Enable Advanced Features
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3. Search the User and go to the Security tab.

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4. Advanced
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5. Include Inheritable permissions from the Object’s parent
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Source: Blog

Exchange 2010 Configuring Mail Tips

MailTips is a one of the new features of Exchange Server 2010. When a user sends a message, MailTips gives the some status information of the recipient and that helps to reduces unnecessary and undeliverable e-mails, as well as reduce some embarrassing things done by senders. MailTips are hosted as an Exchange Web Services on the Client Access Server.

MailTips are work with the Scenarios given below.

  1. If one of the recipients is out of office.
  2. When the recipient’s mailbox is full
  3. Message size exceeds sender’s send limit.
  4. If The Message quota exceeds of the recipient.
  5. When Sending email to a large number of recipients.
  6. When trying to send email to restricted recipients.
  7. When a booking a room with exceeded invitees.
  8. When sending to External and invalid domains.
  9. When trying to send to moderated recipients.
  10. Attaching more attachments than allowed.

Configuring MailTips

Gather Organization wide configuration MailTips settings.

Get-OrganizationConfig | fl *mailtips*

clip_image001

Enable or Disable MailTips.

You must use “Set-OrganizationConfig” CmdLet to enable or disable mailTips. Mailtips are enabled by default.

Set-OrganizationConfig -MailTipsAllTipsEnabled $true

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Configure the large audience size for MailTips.

You must use “Set-OrganizationConfig” Cmdlet to configure large audience size. With a fresh Exchange Server 2010 installation it would be 25 by default. If we decrease it to 15, then Mailtip would be display to sender if sender add more than 15 recipients. See figure 3.

Set-OrganizationConfig -MailTipsLargeAudienceThreshold 15

Large Audience Threshold MailTip will display after adding more than 15 recipients . See figure 4.

 image

Enable or disable the External Recipients MailTips

We have some embarrassing experiences of sending some internal information to external parties. However company doesn’t want to restrict sending emails to outside domains. With MailTips  at least we can give a alert to the sender before click send button. See figure 5.

Set-OrganizationConfig –MailTipsExternalRecipientsTipsEnabled $True

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External Recipients MailTips displays when trying to send to an external domains. See figure 6.

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Enable or disable MailTips that rely on mailbox data

Mailbox based MailTips are rely on the mailbox data. There are two Mailbox based Mailtips, The Recipient Out of Office and Mailbox Full MailTips, rely on the mailbox data.

Set-OrganizationConfig -MailTipsMailboxSourcedTipsEnabled $true

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The Recipient Out of Office. You can get to know if whether the recipient is out of the office before you send the email. See figure 8.

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Mailbox Full. If recipient’s Mailbox is full, you can know that before sending the email. See figure 9.

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Configure Group Metrics

MailTIps relies on Group Metrics data to provide information on the the size of distribution groups and dynamic distribution groups. Exchange  server normally query a lot of LDAP requests to the Active Directory to get group membership information for each message.This could affect the the performance experienced by the users. To eliminate these issues Exchange server uses the Group Metric data. Group Metric data can be scheduled to run during office hours. You should use Set-MailboxServer CmdLet to configure Group metric Data. See figure 10.

Set-MailboxServer DAGEK10-01 GroupMetricsGenerationEnabled $true

image

Used this article as Source for my article.

VMware vSphere 4.1 Released

WHAT’S NEW:

Installation and Deployment

Storage

  • Boot from SAN. vSphere 4.1 enables ESXi boot from SAN (BFN). iSCSI, FCoE, and Fibre Channel boot are supported. Refer to the Hardware Compatibility Guide for the latest list of NICs and Converged Adapters that are supported with iSCSI boot. See the iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide and the Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide.
  • Hardware Acceleration with vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI). ESX can offload specific storage operations to compliant storage hardware. With storage hardware assistance, ESX performs these operations faster and consumes less CPU, memory, and storage fabric bandwidth. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.
  • Storage Performance Statistics. vSphere 4.1 offers enhanced visibility into storage throughput and latency of hosts and virtual machines, and aids in troubleshooting storage performance issues. NFS statistics are now available in vCenter Server performance charts, as well as esxtop. New VMDK and datastore statistics are included. All statistics are available through the vSphere SDK. See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.
  • Storage I/O Control. This feature provides quality-of-service capabilities for storage I/O in the form of I/O shares and limits that are enforced across all virtual machines accessing a datastore, regardless of which host they are running on. Using Storage I/O Control, vSphere administrators can ensure that the most important virtual machines get adequate I/O resources even in times of congestion. See the vSphere Resource Management Guide.
  • iSCSI Hardware Offloads. vSphere 4.1 enables 10Gb iSCSI hardware offloads (Broadcom 57711) and 1Gb iSCSI hardware offloads (Broadcom 5709). See the ESX Configuration Guide, the ESXi Configuration Guide, and the iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide.
  • NFS Performance Enhancements. Networking performance for NFS has been optimized to improve throughput and reduce CPU usage. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.

Network

Availability

  • Windows Failover Clustering with VMware HA. Clustered Virtual Machines that utilize Windows Failover Clustering/Microsoft Cluster Service are now fully supported in conjunction with VMware HA. See Setup for Failover Clustering and Microsoft Cluster Service.
  • VMware HA Scalability Improvements. VMware HA has the same limits for virtual machines per host, hosts per cluster, and virtual machines per cluster as vSphere. See Configuration Maximums for VMware vSphere 4.1 for details about the limitations for this release.
  • VMware HA Healthcheck and Operational Status. The VMware HA dashboard in the vSphere Client provides a new detailed window called Cluster Operational Status. This window displays more information about the current VMware HA operational status, including the specific status and errors for each host in the VMware HA cluster. See the vSphere Availability Guide.
  • VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) Enhancements. vSphere 4.1 introduces an FT-specific versioning-control mechanism that allows the Primary and Secondary VMs to run on FT-compatible hosts at different but compatible patch levels. vSphere 4.1 differentiates between events that are logged for a Primary VM and those that are logged for its Secondary VM, and reports why a host might not support FT. In addition, you can disable VMware HA when FT-enabled virtual machines are deployed in a cluster, allowing for cluster maintenance operations without turning off FT. See the vSphere Availability Guide.
  • DRS Interoperability for VMware HA and Fault Tolerance (FT). FT-enabled virtual machines can take advantage of DRS functionality for load balancing and initial placement. In addition, VMware HA and DRS are tightly integrated, which allows VMware HA to restart virtual machines in more situations. See the vSphere Availability Guide.
  • Enhanced Network Logging Performance. Fault Tolerance (FT) network logging performance allows improved throughput and reduced CPU usage. In addition, you can use vmxnet3 vNICs in FT-enabled virtual machines. See the vSphere Availability Guide.
  • Concurrent VMware Data Recovery Sessions. vSphere 4.1 provides the ability to concurrently manage multiple VMware Data Recovery appliances. See the VMware Data Recovery Administration Guide.
  • vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) Enhancements. VADP now offers VSS quiescing support for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 servers. This enables application-consistent backup and restore operations for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 applications.

Management

  • vCLI Enhancements. vCLI adds options for SCSI, VAAI, network, and virtual machine control, including the ability to terminate an unresponsive virtual machine. In addition, vSphere 4.1 provides controls that allow you to log vCLI activity. See the vSphere Command-Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide and the vSphere Command-Line Interface Reference.
  • Lockdown Mode Enhancements. VMware ESXi 4.1 lockdown mode allows the administrator to tightly restrict access to the ESXi Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) and Tech Support Mode (TSM). When lockdown mode is enabled, DCUI access is restricted to the root user, while access to Tech Support Mode is completely disabled for all users. With lockdown mode enabled, access to the host for management or monitoring using CIM is possible only through vCenter Server. Direct access to the host using the vSphere Client is not permitted. See the ESXi Configuration Guide.
  • Access Virtual Machine Serial Ports Over the Network. You can redirect virtual machine serial ports over a standard network link in vSphere 4.1. This enables solutions such as third-party virtual serial port concentrators for virtual machine serial console management or monitoring. See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide.
  • vCenter Converter Hyper-V Import. vCenter Converter allows users to point to a Hyper-V machine. Converter displays the virtual machines running on the Hyper-V system, and users can select a powered-off virtual machine to import to a VMware destination. See the vCenter Converter Installation and Administration Guide.
  • Enhancements to Host Profiles. You can use Host Profiles to roll out administrator password changes in vSphere 4.1. Enhancements also include improved Cisco Nexus 1000V support and PCI device ordering configuration. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.
  • Unattended Authentication in vSphere Management Assistant (vMA). vMA 4.1 offers improved authentication capability, including integration with Active Directory and commands to configure the connection. See VMware vSphere Management Assistant.
  • Updated Deployment Environment in vSphere Management Assistant (vMA). The updated deployment environment in vMA 4.1 is fully compatible with vMA 4.0. A significant change is the transition from RHEL to CentOS. See VMware vSphere Management Assistant.
  • vCenter Orchestrator 64-bit Support. vCenter Orchestrator 4.1 provides a client and server for 64-bit installations, with an optional 32-bit client. The performance of the Orchestrator server on 64-bit installations is greatly enhanced, as compared to running the server on a 32-bit machine. See the vCenter Orchestrator Installation and Configuration Guide.
  • Improved Support for Handling Recalled Patches in vCenter Update Manager. Update Manager 4.1 immediately sends critical notifications about recalled ESX and related patches. In addition, Update Manager prevents you from installing a recalled patch that you might have already downloaded. This feature also helps you identify hosts where recalled patches might already be installed. See the vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.
  • License Reporting Manager. The License Reporting Manager provides a centralized interface for all license keys for vSphere 4.1 products in a virtual IT infrastructure and their respective usage. You can view and generate reports on license keys and usage for different time periods with the License Reporting Manager. A historical record of the utilization per license key is maintained in the vCenter Server database. See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.
  • Power Management Improvements. ESX 4.1 takes advantage of deep sleep states to further reduce power consumption during idle periods. The vSphere Client has a simple user interface that allows you to choose one of four host power management policies. In addition, you can view the history of host power consumption and power cap information on the vSphere Client Performance tab on newer platforms with integrated power meters. See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.

Platform Enhancements

  • Performance and Scalability Improvements. vSphere 4.1 includes numerous enhancements that increase performance and scalability.
    • vCenter Server 4.1 can support three times more virtual machines and hosts per system, as well as more concurrent instances of the vSphere Client and a larger number of virtual machines per cluster than vCenter Server 4.0. The scalability limits of Linked Mode, vMotion, and vNetwork Distributed Switch have also increased.
    • New optimizations have been implemented for AMD-V and Intel VT-x architectures, while memory utilization efficiency has been improved still further using Memory Compression. Storage enhancements have led to significant performance improvements in NFS environments. VDI operations, virtual machine provisioning and power operations, and vMotion have enhanced performance as well.

    See Configuration Maximums for VMware vSphere 4.1.

  • Reduced Overhead Memory. vSphere 4.1 reduces the amount of overhead memory required, especially when running large virtual machines on systems with CPUs that provide hardware MMU support (AMD RVI or Intel EPT).
  • DRS Virtual Machine Host Affinity Rules. DRS provides the ability to set constraints that restrict placement of a virtual machine to a subset of hosts in a cluster. This feature is useful for enforcing host-based ISV licensing models, as well as keeping sets of virtual machines on different racks or blade systems for availability reasons. See the vSphere Resource Management Guide.
  • Memory Compression. Compressed memory is a new level of the memory hierarchy, between RAM and disk. Slower than memory, but much faster than disk, compressed memory improves the performance of virtual machines when memory is under contention, because less virtual memory is swapped to disk. See the vSphere Resource Management Guide.
  • vMotion Enhancements. In vSphere 4.1, vMotion enhancements significantly reduce the overall time for host evacuations, with support for more simultaneous virtual machine migrations and faster individual virtual machine migrations. The result is a performance improvement of up to 8x for an individual virtual machine migration, and support for four to eight simultaneous vMotion migrations per host, depending on the vMotion network adapter (1GbE or 10GbE respectively). See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.
  • ESX/ESXi Active Directory Integration. Integration with Microsoft Active Directory allows seamless user authentication for ESX/ESXi. You can maintain users and groups in Active Directory for centralized user management and you can assign privileges to users or groups on ESX/ESXi hosts. In vSphere 4.1, integration with Active Directory allows you to roll out permission rules to hosts by using Host Profiles. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.
  • Configuring USB Device Passthrough from an ESX/ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine. You can configure a virtual machine to use USB devices that are connected to an ESX/ESXi host where the virtual machine is running. The connection is maintained even if you migrate the virtual machine using vMotion. See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide.
  • Improvements in Enhanced vMotion Compatibility. vSphere 4.1 includes an AMD Opteron Gen. 3 (no 3DNow!™) EVC mode that prepares clusters for vMotion compatibility with future AMD processors. EVC also provides numerous usability improvements, including the display of EVC modes for virtual machines, more timely error detection, better error messages, and the reduced need to restart virtual machines. See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.

Partner Ecosystem

  • vCenter Update Manager Support for Provisioning, Patching, and Upgrading EMC’s ESX PowerPath Module. vCenter Update Manager can provision, patch, and upgrade third-party modules that you can install on ESX, such as EMC’s PowerPath multipathing software. Using the capability of Update Manager to set policies using the Baseline construct and the comprehensive Compliance Dashboard, you can simplify provisioning, patching, and upgrade of the PowerPath module at scale. See the vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.
  • User-configurable Number of Virtual CPUs per Virtual Socket. You can configure virtual machines to have multiple virtual CPUs reside in a single virtual socket, with each virtual CPU appearing to the guest operating system as a single core. Previously, virtual machines were restricted to having only one virtual CPU per virtual socket. See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide.
  • Expanded List of Supported Processors. The list of supported processors has been expanded for ESX 4.1. To determine which processors are compatible with this release, use the Hardware Compatibility Guide. Among the supported processors is the Intel Xeon 7500 Series processor, code-named Nehalem-EX (up to 8 sockets).

You can download VMware vSphere 4.1 HERE

Exchange 2007 SP3 is released

What’s New in SP3 for Exchange 2007


Windows Server 2008 R2 Support

Exchange Server 2007 SP3 supports all Exchange 2007 roles on the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system.

Windows 7 Support

Exchange 2007 SP3 supports the installation of the Exchange 2007 management tools on a computer that is running Windows 7. Additionally, Exchange 2007 SP3 provides support for the installation of the Exchange 2007 Management Tools together with the Exchange Server 2010 Management Tools on the same Windows 7-based computer.

Improved Password Reset Functionality

Exchange 2007 SP3 introduces password reset functionality for Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.

To enable the password reset feature

  1. Log on to the Exchange server that is running the CAS role by using an account that has local administrator rights.

  2. Start Registry Editor, and then locate the following registry subkey:

    HLKM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchange OWA

  3. Create the following DWORD value if it does not already exist:

    Value name: ChangeExpiredPasswordEnabledValue type: REG_DWORDValue data: 1

  4. Exit Registry Editor.

 Updated Search Functionality

Exchange 2007 SP3 includes updates to the Exchange Search (MSSearch) component. MSSearch provides support for creating full text indexes for Exchange stores. Exchange 2007 SP3 updates the MSSearch binary files to MSSearch 3.1.

Schema Changes

Exchange 2007 SP3 includes Active Directory schema changes for certain Unified Messaging (UM) mailbox attributes. For more information, see Active Directory Schema Changes (SP3).

Support for Right-to-Left Disclaimer Text

Exchange 2007 SP3 includes support for Right-to-Left text in e-mail message disclaimers in a right-to-left language, such as Arabic. In earlier versions of Exchange, when you use a transport rule to create a disclaimer in a right-to-left language on an Exchange 2007 Hub Transport server, the text appears incorrectly when you view it from Outlook 2007.

Exchange 2007 SP3 adds functionality to the transport rule setting to fully support right-to-left text in disclaimers.

Download here SP3 for Exchange 2007

Database Availability Group (DAG) in Exchange 2010

One of the new features of Exchange 2010 is DAG Database Availability Group. The Customer were i work now wants Exchange 2010 in a dag cluster because they have a datacenter for failback.
Because i going to implement Exchange 2010 at the customer i created a test setup.

Configuration:

Server 1 – HYPERVDC-01
OS: Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Standard x64
IP: 192.168.150.90
Roles: Active Directory / Hyper-V

Server 2 – CHEK10-01
OS: Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Standard x64
IP: 192.168.150.91
Roles: Exchange 2010 HT / CAS

Server 3 – CHEK10-02
OS: Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Standard x64
IP: 192.168.150.92
Roles: Exchange 2010 HT / CAS

Server 4 – DAGEK10-01
OS: Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise x64
IP: 192.168.150.93
Roles: Exchange 2010 MBX

Server 5 – DAGEK10-02
OS: Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise x64
IP: 192.168.150.94
Roles: Exchange 2010 MBX

Creating the DAG

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Groupname: DAG01
Witness Server: CHKEK10-01 (Microsoft says use one of the CAS or Hub Servers. You cannot use a DAG Server! If you want use a non Exchange 2010 server you must at the Exchange Trusted Subsystem group at the local administrators group.
Witness Directory: C:\DAG01
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Add a MB server to a DAG

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Setting a IP address on a Database Availability Group

With the following command you can set the DAG Database Availability Group an IP address. Set-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup -Identity DAG01 -DatabaseAvailabilityGroupIpAddresses 192.168.150.96

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