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Running Exchange cmdlets through a PowerShell Session

Hello folks,

When you open a Windows PowerShell prompt you cannot run Exchange cmdlets into this prompt, the following error will be occuring:

PS C:\Documents and Settings\admin.DOMAIN> Get-PublicFolder
The term 'Get-PublicFolder' is not recognized as a cmdlet, function, operable program, or script file. Verify the term
and try again.
At line:1 char:16
+ Get-PublicFolder <<<<
PS C:\Documents and Settings\admin.DOMAIN>

So.. How can I start to use cmdlets in an existent PowerShell session without open the Exchange Management Shell? To do that we can use the Add-PSSnapin to load de Exchange Management Shell into the current PowerShell, as it follows:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Admin

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Technorati : Add-PSSnapin, Admin, Exchange Management Shell
Del.icio.us : Add-PSSnapin, Admin, Exchange Management Shell

Copying NDRs to a mailbox in Exchange Server 2007

Hello Folks,

In Exchange Server 2007 the copy of NDRs is not enable by default. If you want to enable this please follow these procedures:

First of all, create an appropriate mailbox to receive the content, and also add the postmaster@yourdomain.com to this mailbox

Internal NDRs:

Set-OrganizationConfig -MicrosoftExchangeRecipientReplyRecipient "Postmaster Account"

Note: This is set up at Organization level

External NDRs:

Set-TransportServer <Hub Server Name> -ExternalPostmasterAddress postmaster@yourdomain.com

Note: We have to use this cmdlet for each Hub Transport server of the organization.

Choosing the NDRs that you want to receive

Okay, now we have a copy of the NDRs, but the question is.. which NDRs are we able to receive? By default the NDRs are: 5.4.8, 5.2.4, 5.4.6, 5.2.0, 5.4.4 and 5.1.4. But if you want to add or remove some NDRs you can accomplish this using the following cmdlet:

Set-TransportConfig -GenerateCopyOfDSNFor 5.4.X, 5.x.x>

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Technorati : Exchange Server 2007, NDRs, copy
Del.icio.us : Exchange Server 2007, NDRs, copy
Ice Rocket : Exchange Server 2007, NDRs, copy

Exchange Server 2007 CAS-CAS Proxying Guidelines..

Hello Folks,

I've seen a lot of posts about CAS-CAS Proxying in Exchange Server 2007. Then, I will go over some key points that we must not forget when we are deploying this kind of solution. These points can be seen below:

• 1 CAS Server in each site that has a MAILBOX server
• Only in the CAS which will be published on the internet you must set up the externalURL attribute with your external name
• All other "child" CAS servers must be set up with Integrated Authentication insted of forms authentication
• ExternalURL in the child sites must be empty
  Set-OwaVirtualDirectory <owa> -ExternalURL:$null
  Ps.: If you enableExternalURL in child CAS Servers, then you will have Redirection feature not Proxy.
• Make sure that you internalURL is appropriate. By default is the name of server, make sure that it makes sense (I wrote this one, because I saw a customer using external address into the internal address ) 
• make sure that RedirectToOptimalOWAServer is set to $True, you can use the following cmdlet: set-owavirtualdirectory "owa (default web site)" -RedirectToOptimalOWAServer $true
• The same for Exchange Server 2003 back-end servers you must not enable forms authentication
• If you are using ISA Server to publish the CAS Server (recommended) you must disable Forms in the "parent" CAS server, ISA server will take care of the Forms
• Give some time for Active Directory Replication

Built in tools to help you in this kind of scenario:

• IIS logs are your friend, you can validate by them if everything is going well
• You can also validated using OWA session on the About section you can see if CAS Proxy-to-Proxy is working as well

I hope that it can help you in your CAS-CAS Proxying deployment.

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Exchange Server 2007 Address Lists error on OWA when Domain Controller and OWA client have different locate settings

Hello folks,

I treated this error yesterday at Microsoft Forums, and I think it may occur easily for all administrator that do not use english domain controllers.

When you try to access Address List on OWA, you receive a message error like this:

Request Url: https://<server-ip-address>:443/owa/forms/premium/DirectoryView.aspx?ae=AddressList&t=Recipients&a=Pick
User host address: <ip-address>
User: <user-name>
EX Address: /o=XX/ou=GR/cn=RECIPIENTS/cn=SOMEONE
SMTP Address: <smtp-address>
OWA version: 8.0.605.16

This error may occur if the OWA client and Domain Controller do not have the same locale setting.

Microsoft has released a hotfix to fix it. You can check it out here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/919166/en-us

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Increasing the Rules Quota limit in Exchange Server 2007

Hello folks,

In the previous versions of Exchange Server we cannot play with the mailbox rules limit that is only 32kb (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/886616). Using Exchange Server 2007 we can do that through Exchange Management Shell. Let's see how to do that..

The cmdlet utilized to set up the mailbox is called set-mailbox: 

Set-Mailbox <mailbox> -RulesQuota:<size>

Let's change the user Alexandre to 256KB limit using set-mailbox, and after that let's visualize the changes, as it follows:

Ps.: This value is only for enabled rules, the disabled rules are not included in the amount of rules data.

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Outlook Web Access did not initialize error message after a new Exchange Server 2007 installation

 Hello folks,

I got the following error last week at Microsoft Exchange Technet Brazil forum. By the way, the user tried several times to install Exchange Server 2007 from scratch and in the both cases he got the same error, as it follows:

Event Viewer error: 

The Outlook Web Access web application failed to initialize.

Failed to parse file "themeinfo.xml" in theme folder "base". There was an error parsing the XML file. Line 0, Position 0.

OWA client side:

 Request
Url: https://<server-name>:443/owa/auth/error.aspx
User host address: <ip-address>

Exception
Exception type: Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.OwaThemeManagerInitializationException
Exception message: Invalid theme info file in folder 'base'. Line 0 Position 0. XML parser error. Root element is missing.

Call stack
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.Theme.ThrowParserException(XmlTextReader reader, String folderName, String description, EventTuple tuple, Object[] eventMessageArgs) Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.Theme.ParseThemeInfoFile(String themeInfoFilePath, String folderName, String& displayName, IDs& localizedDisplayName) Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.Theme.Load(String folderPath)
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.ThemeManager.LoadThemeFiles()
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.Globals.InitializeApplication()
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.Global.ExecuteApplicationStart(Object sender, EventArgs

If you are getting the same error you have two options to fix it:

• Change your Exchange Server 2007 media because this error may occur due the media failure
• replace the theme and subdirectories from machine from the same files located in the exchange media (default path is Setup\ServerRoles\ClientAccess\owa\version\)

If you get the same problem and resolve in a different way, please let us know and write your solution in the comments of this post.

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB935999)

Hello folks,

 The Exchange Server 2007 rollup update #3 was released last Thursday, you can check it out here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e4f8c697-3a33-445e-a7c2-a2df53c40f85&DisplayLang=en

To see what is fixed on this rollup update, you can check it out here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=935999

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio