Hello folks,

MRM (Messaging Records Management) is a cool feature of Exchange Server 2007 however to work properly the users should be trained to use it. Exchange Server 2007 allows us to configure a page when you click on Managed Folder item when using Outlook 2007. Creating a page to instruct the user the basic steps should help your users a bit, so let's see how to do that, as follows:

#1. Ask you marketing department to create a nice webpage with nice pictures and good technicall stuff explaining how to use MRM

#2. Add the content created in a web server. You can use your CAS server to host that page. In my example here I created a simple hello world page.

#3. Configure the MRM page, using the following cmdlet:

#4. Now it's time to test it. Click on Managed Folders and on the right side and you will be able to see the page that you have just configured.

Grande abraço,
Anderson Patricio

Technorati : MRM, Managed Folder, start page

Hello folks,

I've just read at Harold Wong's Blog Site that there is a document explaining how to use a cisco load balancer with OCS 2007.

Here is the document at cisco website: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Verticals/ansmsocs.html

Read more at source: http://blogs.technet.com/haroldwong/archive/2008/07/02/configuring-cisco-hardware-load-balancer-with-ocs-2007.aspx

Au revoir,
Anderson Patricio

Hello folks,

I saw an interesting post in the PowerShell Team Blog (https://blogs.msdn.com) and they explained that running the script below you can increase the speed to open your PowerShell Console, as follows:

Set-Alias ngen @(
dir (join-path ${env:\windir} "Microsoft.NET\Framework") ngen.exe -recurse |
sort -descending lastwritetime
)[0].fullName
[appdomain]::currentdomain.getassemblies() | %{ngen $_.location}

Read more at source: http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/default.aspx

I ran in my machine and the startup time was much better than before. There is also a comment on that post to use Microsoft.NET\Framework64 in case of a x64 system.

What's your impression? Has it tuned up your PowerShell? Drop us a line about your experience.

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio.

Hello folks,

Actually this information is not new anymore :( I've been working in a project using ILM between two Exchange 2007 forests and I couldn't update this blog in the last couple of weeks. Well, I'm returning to blog regularly now and I hope you enjoy reading it..

So.. in this meantime the Rollup Update 3 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 has been released, as follows:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949870/

There is also the same update for the RTM version and its number is 7, as follows:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953469/

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio

Hello folks,

If you updated your server to Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Rollup Update 3 then you will be able to remove the text "Sent by Microsoft Exchange Server 2007" using the following cmdlet:

Set-TransportConfig WritingBrandingInDSNEnabled $false

More information at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;941770&sd=rss&spid=10926

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio

Technorati : Remove, Sent by Exchange Server 2007

The MSExchangeTeam released three new documents about Exchange Server 2007, one of them explains how to monitor exchange Server 2007 without using SCOM, as follows:

Ensuring that servers running Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 are operating reliably is a key objective for daily messaging operations. Therefore, ensuring server reliability should be systematically approached based on the principles outlined in Microsoft Operations Framework. For more information about Microsoft Operations Framework, see Microsoft Operations Framework.

A significant aspect of Exchange 2007 daily operations is monitoring the health of the Exchange components to achieve the following goals:

• Generate alerts when operational failures and performance problems are about to occur or do occur.
  
• Represent the health state of servers and server roles.
  
• Generate reports of operational health over time so that you can estimate future demands based on usage patterns and other performance data.
  

For administrators who do not use System Center Operations Manager to monitor their Exchange 2007 environment, a thorough understanding of the most important performance counters and their thresholds is critical to establishing a performance baseline and monitoring plan to proactively monitor your Exchange 2007 environment and troubleshoot and resolve issues when they arise.

Read it here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/bb201720.aspx

Hello folks,

I've just seen on the Is this thing on? blog about Hyper-V and Exchange Server 2007. We can expect a support statement document for Hyper-V and it will be released at msechangeteam.com blog site.

In the same post Scott Schnoll gave some information about best practices and requirements, as follows:

• We're only supporting guests running Exchange Server 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008.
• We're only supporting fixed disks, and not dynamic disks.
• Storage should be on spindles that are separate from the Guest operating system VHD physical storage.
• Storage must be SCSI passthrough or iSCSI (with a preference of SCSI passthrough for queues, databases and log files).
• All Exchange server roles, except for the Unified Messaging server role, will be supported.
• For backup, hardware VSS should be used.
• There's a limit on VHD size of 2040 GB.

Read more at source: http://blogs.technet.com/scottschnoll/archive/2008/06/15/exchange-server-2007-and-hyper-v.aspx

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio

Hello folks,

Microsoft KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937052 tracks all Service Packs and Rollup Updates for Exchange Server 2007. It's a useful resource to find out what is the latest update available.

This article describes how to obtain the latest update rollup for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Update rollups are a common way to distribute Exchange 2007 fixes and Exchange 2007 modifications. You can install the latest update rollup to help keep the product up-to-date.

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio

Hello folks,

A new version of Mailbox Server role Storage calculator was released today. You can download it from here: http://msexchangeteam.com/files/12/attachments/entry438481.aspx

You read more at source as well: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/06/12/449007.aspx

Cheers,
Anderson Patricio

The Communicator Team has blogged how to use the conference resource in OCS 2007 and there some examples how to start a conference from Outlook Client as well.

Conferencing was a large investment for OCS and OC in the 2007 release. We define conferencing as a conversation having three or more participants in it. This can be IM, Audio, Audio/Video, data (Live Meeting), or any combination of those items. For Communicator, we worked hard to keep the fact that it is a "conference" fairly transparent in our user experience. In this article I will explain how easy it is to take advantage of conferencing assuming that you have a conference supported version of OC/OCS 2007.

Read more at source: http://communicatorteam.com/archive/2008/06/06/296.aspx

Hello folks

An interesting post from Communicator Team explaining how to schedule an OCS confence call from Outlook.

With the Office Communicator and the Conferencing Add-in for Outlook, you can schedule a VoIP conference call well in advance, and join the call using Microsoft Office Communicator.

Read more at source: http://communicatorteam.com/archive/2008/06/02/273.aspx

Hello folks,

Speaking of accessing Microsoft Exchange Server - if your organization selects not to use Microsoft Office Outlook in cached mode, you can set a Group Policy to index Exchange in online mode. Windows Search 4.0 will then index with minimal impact to the server. Our internal testing of this configuration shows significant decrease in the load on the server and the network as compared to Windows Desktop Search 3.01.

Read more at source: http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsexperience/archive/2008/06/03/windows-search-4-0-released-to-web.aspx

You can also download it from here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940157

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Hello folks,

An interesting post about Exchange Server 2007 and DPM 2007.

As more and more data is stored in electronic formats, data backup and recovery is increasingly becoming a key business requirement. Apart from being an operational requirement, today companies also may need to maintain a backup of their data for other reasons such as to fulfill legal requirements. Data comes in various forms, such as operational data, accounting information, and emails among others.

In this blog post, we look at Exchange data recovery goals and why Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 (DPM) is an effective solution to protect emails and mailboxes on Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 (Exchange).

Read more at source: http://blogs.technet.com/dpm/archive/2008/06/02/protecting-and-recovering-e-mail-using-dpm-2007-and-exchange-2007.aspx

Technorati : DPM 2007, Exchange Server 2007

Hello folks,

In this new release a Windows 2008 and Windows Vista support was added to the MAPI Clien and CDO Tools.

The Messaging API is a COM-like API that provides access to the contents of messaging stores. CDO 1.2.1 (Collaboration Data Objects, version 1.2.1) is a package providing access to Outlook-compatible objects through a COM-based API. Using either CDO or MAPI, a program can connect to a MAPI store, and then perform operations against that store. Starting with Exchange 2007, Microsoft will distribute the MAPI client libraries and CDO 1.2.1 as a Web download.

You can download it from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94274318-27c4-4d8d-9bc5-3e6484286b1f&DisplayLang=en

Hello Folks,

It might be useful for the Exchange Server 2003 admins. The Performance Team explained three different ways to find out if the /3GB is enabled, as follows:

We've talked a lot about the /3GB switch and its effect on system resources in previous posts. Today we are going to discuss how to determine whether or not /3GB is enabled on a 32-bit system without looking at the boot.ini file or using MSCONFIG.EXE. Finding out this information is not as difficult as you would think - there are actually multiple ways to find this information. We are going to find this information in three different ways - by looking in the registry, by using PSTAT.EXE and by looking at a Memory Dump File. So, without further delay, let's look at the simplest of the three methods - finding the information in the registry.

Read more at source: http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2008/05/27/two-minute-drill-find-3gb-without-using-boot-ini.aspx

There is a new post about the new features of ISA Server 2006 SP1 in the ISA Server Team blog. One of these upcoming features will be the SAN Certificates support.

This Service Pack introduces new features and improved functionality for ISA Server 2006 Enterprise and Standard Editions. The new features focus primarily on enhanced troubleshooting mechanisms designed to help you identify and resolve ISA Server configuration issues. Also included in this package are the updates we've promised for so long, such as SAN certificate support.

Read more at source: http://blogs.technet.com/isablog/archive/2008/05/23/isa-server-2006-service-pack-1-features.aspx

Hello folks,

We can change the company name and URLs information that comes with the live meeting invitation in OCS 2007. Let's see how to change the default settings, as follows:

1. Open Microsoft Office Communicaton Server 2007 console
2. Expand Forest - <Domain name>
3. Expand Standard Edition Servers
4. Expand <OCS Pool Name>
5. Right click on <OCS Server name>, click on Properties and then click on Web
   Component Properties
6. In General tab, fill out with your organization name as shown in the figure below
   

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Technorati : Live meeting, OCS 2007, URLs, Web Component
Del.icio.us : Live meeting, OCS 2007, URLs, Web Component
Ice Rocket : Live meeting, OCS 2007, URLs, Web Component
Flickr : Live meeting, OCS 2007, URLs, Web Component

Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2007 SP1 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2007 SP1 customers.

Get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=99DA32E0-D9E3-4156-AABF-8369BF96E3E7&displaylang=en

List of changes that are included in this rollup: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948016

Best Regarsds,
Anderson Patricio

Yuri Diogenes has blogged about how to troubleshoot an OWA publishing rule on ISA Server 2006.

Sometimes troubleshooting publishing rules can be really challenging. The main reason for that is because of the thin line between the published server and the edge firewall (in this case ISA Server). Where is it broken? Is my ISA Server not allowing the connection from outside or my published server that is not answering the request from ISA Server?

The sequence of articles written by Jim Harrison about RPC over HTTP helped to clarify how the protocols works and also to troubleshoot the main issues that happen when publishing Outlook Anywhere through ISA Server 2006.

Read more at source: http://blogs.technet.com/isablog/archive/2008/04/29/troubleshooting-owa-2007-publishing-rules-on-isa-server-2006.aspx

Technorati : ISA 2006, OWA 2007, Publishing rule, Troubleshooting OWA
Del.icio.us : ISA 2006, OWA 2007, Publishing rule, Troubleshooting OWA
Ice Rocket : ISA 2006, OWA 2007, Publishing rule, Troubleshooting OWA
Flickr : ISA 2006, OWA 2007, Publishing rule, Troubleshooting OWA

Read more at source: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/messenger/default.mspx

Technorati : MAC Messenger 7.0, OCS
Del.icio.us : MAC Messenger 7.0, OCS
Ice Rocket : MAC Messenger 7.0, OCS
Flickr : MAC Messenger 7.0, OCS