Tag: Exchange Online

Cumulative Update 8 for Exchange Server 2013

The Exchange team is announcing today the availability of Cumulative Update 8 for Exchange Server 2013. The Cumulative Update Package and UM Language Packsare now available on the Microsoft Download Center. Cumulative Update 8 represents the continuation of our Exchange Server 2013 servicing and builds upon Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 7. The release includes fixes for customer reported issues, minor product enhancements and previously released security bulletins. A complete list of customer reported issues resolved can be found in Knowledge Base Article KB3030080. Customers running any previous release of Exchange Server 2013 can move directly to Cumulative Update 8 today. Customers deploying Exchange Server 2013 for the first time may skip previous releases and start their deployment with Cumulative Update 8 directly.

We would like to call your attention to a few items in particular about the Cumulative Update 8 release:

  • Calendar and Contact Modern Public Folders favorites added in Outlook are now accessible in OWA
  • Batch Migration of Public Folders to 2013 improves migration throughput and PF migration experience
  • Smoother migration for EAS clients to O365 with automatic profile redirect upon successful Hybrid migration to O365 (EAS client must support HTTP 451 redirect)

For the latest information and product announcements please read What’s New in Exchange Server 2013, Release Notes and product documentation available on TechNet.

Cumulative Update 8 includes Exchange related updates to Active Directory schema and configuration. For information on extending schema and configuring the active directory please review the appropriate TechNet documentation. Also, to prevent installation issues you should ensure that the Windows PowerShell Script Execution Policy is set to “Unrestricted” on the server being upgraded or installed. To verify the policy settings, run the Get-ExecutionPolicy cmdlet from PowerShell on the machine being upgraded. If the policies are NOT set to Unrestricted you should use the resolution steps in KB981474 to adjust the settings.

Reminder: Customers in hybrid deployments where Exchange is deployed on-premises and in the cloud, or who are using Exchange Online Archiving (EOA) with their on-premises Exchange deployment are required to deploy the most current (e.g., CU8) or the prior (e.g., CU7) Cumulative Update release.

Moved al mailboxen to Office 365 & Still using dirsync! Can you remove the last Exchange 2010/2013 Server. Yes It Can! Just don’t do it!! You will have a support issue when you have problems!!

After a customer migrated  to Exchange Online some time ago.
They wanted not a hybrid situation. but they are using still DirSync!

After reading: Decommissioning your Exchange 2010 servers in a Hybrid Deployment a I read its not a real problem.

Changed DirSync & After that Uninstalling Exchange 2013 was very easy.

I had only to disable the Arbitration mailboxes: I did that with the following powershell command:

Get-Mailbox -Arbitration | disable-Mailbox -arbitration -RemoveLastArbitrationMailboxAllowed

I did not publish this article because i has still some doubts!!

I had still a question: Do want to remove the last Exchange Server? Have you a supported Environment without a local Exchange Server and still using DirSync??

Yes & No!!

After reading Concerning Trends Discovered During Several Critical Escalations

Microsoft Says:
You may remove the last Exchange Server locale when you move totally to Office 365/Exchange Online, but change Exchange Attribuuts trough ADSI is not supported.

If you don’t have a third party tool for that. The only way is trough ADSI and that is not supported.

My Conclusion:

You have a support issue when you dropped a Call at Microsoft and they investigate your environment.
Don’t remove the last Exchange Server even when all mailboxen exist in Office 365/Exchange Online and keep them up to date!
You can always install a Exchange Server but most of the times it will be always to late!

Exchange & Patching!!!

Microsoft recommends adopting a software update strategy that ensures all software follows N to N-1 policy, where N is a service pack, update rollup, cumulative update, maintenance release, or whatever terminology is used by the software vendor. Microsoft strongly recommend that our customers also adopt a similar strategy with respect to hardware firmware and drivers ensuring that network cards, BIOS, and storage controllers/interfaces are kept up to date.

Software patching is not simply an issue for Microsoft software. You must also ensure that all inter-dependent solutions (e.g., Blackberry Enterprise Server, backup software, etc.) are kept up-to-date for a specific release as this ensures optimal reliability and compatibility.

Customers must also follow the software vendor’s Software Lifecycle and appropriately plan on upgrading to a supported version in the event that support for a specific version is about to expire or is already out of support.

For Exchange 2010, this means having all servers deployed with Service Pack 3 and either Rollup 7 or Rollup 8 (at the time of this writing). For Exchange 2013, this means having all servers deployed with Cumulative Update 6 or Cumulative Update 7 (at the time of this writing).

For environments that have a hybrid configuration with Office 365, the servers participating in the hybrid configuration must be running the latest version (e.g., Exchange 2010 SP3 RU8 or Exchange 2013 CU7) or the prior version (e.g., Exchange 2010 SP3 RU7 or Exchange 2013 CU6) in order to maintain and ensure compatibility with Office 365. There are some required dependencies for hybrid deployments, so it’s even more critical you keep your software up to date if you choose to go hybrid.

Moving to Office 365/Exchange Online? A good idea?

Reducing IT costs: Especially in challenging economic times, organizations need to cut costs wherever possible—but without reducing capabilities.

Increasing predictability of IT costs: Replacing or upgrading on-premises IT systems can require significant one-time capital expenditures.

Increasing user productivity: Users face growing volumes of email, and need tools to help them manage it more efficiently.
Enhancing collaboration: Increasingly mobile and distributed workers need technology that helps them work together wherever they are.

Reducing IT administration: IT can be stretched thin and spend too much time managing hardware, updates, and upgrades.
Increasing reliability and availability of email: Email is a business-critical application, and many organizations face challenges keeping it running—especially with shrinking IT budgets.

Staying up-to-date with the latest technology: To stay competitive and recruit the next generation of talent, businesses need to have the latest functionality. But, upgrading on-premises software can be a significant undertaking.

1 Simplified Administration

Managing corporate email can be complex. With Exchange Online, many of the most time-consuming tasks are taken care of by Microsoft, including the management of hardware, updates, and upgrades. Additionally, Exchange Online delivers a streamlined administration experience, making it easier for IT administrators to configure and manage email services in ways that benefit the business.

2 Conclusion

The benefits of moving email to the cloud are clear; including lower costs, increased agility, simpler management, and higher-quality services. Exchange Online meets these expectations by delivering a wide-range of features and capabilities that support anywhere access, protection and compliance, and simplified administration.

But now the real world experience with Exchange Online

If your organization is using google DNS servers. You will be redirected to the Exchange Online servers in America not Dublin if you live in The Netherlands.

Exchange Online works the best if you use cached mode.

The Question is do you want is you using Microsoft Remote Desktop Services or Citrix XenDesktop or VMware Horizon (View)

Cached Exchange Mode in a Remote Desktop Session Host environment: planning considerations
Limits to using personal folders (.pst) files over LAN and WAN links.

My Conclusion:
Exchange Online is great for most organizations. Lower costs, increased agility, simpler management, and higher-quality services.

But is your organization using Microsoft Remote Desktop Services or Citrix XenDesktop or VMware Horizon (View). You need think twice for you migrate.

As IT admin you don’t want ost files locally on Remote Desktop or XenDesktop or VMware View Servers & Desktops or on your file server.

Saving money can mean angry & complaining customers….

Exchange Administrator’s toolkit

There are lots of tools for Exchange Server available, you can find most of them at the Exchange Server Wiki (some of the tools listed are for previous versions of Exchange).

Here is a short selection from the vast collection available:

Cumulative Update 7 for Exchange Server 2013

Today, Cumulative Update 7 for Exchange Server 2013 was released by the Exchange Team (KB2986485). This update raises Exchange 2013 version number to 15.0.1044.22.

Note: Customers that run backups of their Exchange databases are advised to upgrade to CU7 and perform a post-upgrade full backup. This is due to a race condition which could prevent proper restoration of pre-CU7 Exchange databases.

Notes:

  • When using Exchange hybrid deployments or Exchange Online Archiving (EOA), you are required to stay current.
  • CU7 adds support for hierarchies containing 250,000 modern public folders. Consult this article for co-existence scenarios.
  • Be advised of OAB architectural changes introduced with CU5 which are documented here. If you are affected, it is recommended to update CAS servers prior to Mailbox servers.
  • If you have installed the Interim Update to fix Hybrid Configuration Wizard, you can install the Cumulative Update over it – there is no need to uninstall the IU prior to installing CU6.

This Cumulative Update includes schema and AD changes, so make sure you run PrepareSchema / PrepareAD. After updating, the schema version will be 15965.

Note that Cumulative Updates can be installed directly, i.e. no need to install RTM or Service Packs prior to installing Cumulative Updates. Note that once installed, you can’t uninstall a Cumulative Update nor any of the installed Exchange server roles. The order of upgrading servers is irrelevant, unlike with previous generations of Exchange.

Finally, for any Hotfix, Rollup, Service Pack or Cumulative Update, I’d recommend to thoroughly test this in a test and acceptance environment first, prior to implementing it in production.

You can download Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 7 here; UM Language Packs can be found here.

This update resolves security issues that are described in December 2014 security update for Exchange Server 2013 Service Pack 1 and Cumulative Update 6.
Additionally, this update also resolves the issues that are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles:

  • 3004235 Exchange Server meetings in Russian time zones as well as names of time zones are incorrect after October 26, 2014

  • 3012655 New-MailboxImportRequest causes unreadable characters when you import an ANSI format .pst file of Russian language

  • 3012652 CalendarProcessing cmdlet does not generate delegate permissions to universal security groups in Exchange Server 2013

  • 3009631 Advanced Find against the Sent Items folder in Outlook returns no result in Exchange Server 2013

  • 3009612 Outlook Web App shows organization details on the contact card beyond the scope of user ABP in Exchange Server 2013

  • 3009291 Shared mailbox cannot be opened in Outlook in an Exchange Server 2013 environment that has multiple domains

  • 3008453 Cannot edit or delete forms from the organizational forms library in Exchange Server 2013

  • 3008438 User who is trying to Log on to Exchange Admin Console is logged in to OWA instead

  • 3006672 Move request fails if the IsExcludedFromProvisioning option is true in Exchange Server 2013

  • 3005391 Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 5 breaks free|busy lookup from Exchange Online to Exchange Server 2007

  • 3003986 RejectMessageReasonText in transport rule appears in the user section of a DSN in Exchange Server 2013

  • 3001217 TLS 1.0 is hardcoded for SMTP traffic encryption in Exchange Server 2013

  • 3001037 Distribution group cannot send email messages to a mail enabled public folder in an Exchange Server 2013 environment

  • 2999031 A cross-forest mailbox move from Exchange Server 2007 to Exchange Server 2013 finishes with CompletedWithWarnings status

  • 2998144 New-MoveRequest cmdlet with RemoteLegacy parameter cannot perform a cross-forest mailbox move

  • 2988553 Add-ADPermission and Remove-ADPermission can be run outside the management scope in Exchange Server 2013

  • 2981538 Exchange Control Panel crashes when you proxy from Exchange 2013 to Exchange 2010

  • 3014051 Cannot migrate mailboxes in a multiple domains environment in Exchange Server 2013

  • 3012986 ContentIndexRetryQueueSize value for a passive node never drops to zero in Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 6

  • 3004011 Sound alerts do not work in Outlook Web App when new email or calendar notification is received in Exchange Server 2013

  • 3003580 Event ID 4999 and 4401 when the Microsoft Exchange Replication service crashes in Exchange Server 2013

  • 3003518 “550 5.7.1” NDR when you send messages to external recipients in an Exchange Server 2013 hybrid environment

  • 3003068 Cannot see online archive mailbox after you upgrade to Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 6

  • 3000944 Subfolders under the Deleted Items folder are not visible in Outlook in an Exchange Server 2013 environment

  • 2997847 You cannot route ActiveSync traffic to Exchange 2007 mailboxes after you upgrade to Exchange 2013 CU6

  • 2997355 Exchange Online mailboxes cannot be managed by using EAC after you deploy Exchange Server 2013 CU6

  • 2997209 Exchange Server 2013 databases unexpectedly fail over in a co-existence environment with Exchange Server 2007

  • 2995263 OAB cannot be rebuilt if the .flt file is larger than two GB in Exchange Server 2013

  • 2994216 PublicFolderMoveRequest deletes all read or unread state in target mailbox for each user in Exchange Server 2013

  • 2993871 Resource Booking Assistant crashes after you upgrade to Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 5

  • 2983216 Category setting on an item in Outlook jumps the selection to the top of the list in an Exchange Server 2013 environment

  • 2931223 MAPI virtual directory is missing from Default Web Site node

Tune and optimize performance of your Office 365 connection

Microsoft has published a new course on Office 365 Performance Management at the Microsoft Virtual Academy, which contains 11 modules across planning and troubleshooting areas including:

  1. Office 365 Performance Management Course Introduction
  2. Office 365 Datacenters and Network
  3. Planning for Office 365 Internet Capacity – Exchange Online
  4. Planning for Office 365 Internet Capacity – Lync Online
  5. Planning for Office 365 Internet Capacity – SharePoint Online
  6. The Baselining Model for Internet Capacity Planning
  7. Best Practices & Real Customer Projects Planning Internet Capacity
  8. Planning for Office 365 Firewalls Whitelisting
  9. Performance Troubleshooting Process and Tools Used
  10. Performance Troubleshooting Tests
  11. Troubleshooting SharePoint Online Customizations
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