The long awaited Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator v5.1 has finally been released. Like its predecessor, the Exchange 2010 Mailbox Server Role Requirements Calculator, it was announced by Ross Smith IV at the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog.
There are several new features introduced by this version. Like you probably noticed from the name, the tool is no longer a mailbox exclusive calculator, it now includes client access servers and transport sizing (as the transport role is now part of the mailbox role).
For full details and prescriptive guidance on how to use the tool, read the Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator Readme
Microsoft has recently released the May updates for the Outlook 2003/2007/2010/2013 Junk E-mail Filter.
"This update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail."
The update is available for Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010 (32-bit, 64-bit) and Outlook 2013 (32-bit, 64-bit) or you can use Microsoft Update. As usual the update comes with the corresponding Knowledge Base article:
The May 2013 edition of the TechNet Magazine is now available for online reading.
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Microsoft IT release a couple of documents that highlight some of the best practices to secure Active Directory.
- Securing Active Directory: An Overview of Best Practices - The threat of compromise to IT infrastructures from external attack is rapidly growing and evolving. The Active Directory environment is often the target for these attacks. This article details steps that your organization can take to protect its Active Directory environment
- Best Practices for Securing Active Directory - This document contains recommendations to assist organizations in enhancing the security of their Active Directory installations. By implementing these recommendations, organizations will be able to identify and prioritize security activities, protect key segments of their organization’s computing infrastructure, and create controls that significantly decrease the likelihood of successful attacks against critical components of the IT environment. This document discusses the most common attacks against Active Directory and countermeasures to reduce the attack surface, and recommendations for recovery in the event of complete compromise.
The Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Management Pack v15.00.0620.030 is now available to download. For detailed information about importing and using this management pack, refer to the Exchange Server 2013 Management Pack Documentation.
Overview
The Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Management Pack provides comprehensive service health information for your Exchange organization.
The Exchange 2013 Management Pack is engineered for organizations that include servers running Exchange 2013.
The key feature of this management pack is user focused monitoring. The simplified dashboard focuses on the user experience and makes it easier for you quickly determine exactly what your users are experiencing.
Feature Summary
The Exchange Server 2013 Management Pack works with the Managed Availability feature in Exchange 2013. The alerts within the System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) portal indicate unhealthy states as reported by the Managed Availability components in Exchange 2013.
The following are some of the new features in the Exchange 2013 Management Pack: - Simplified dashboard The dashboard of the Exchange 2013 Management Pack has been simplified and refined into the following three categorie
- Active Alerts Provides a list of all outstanding alerts in your organization.
- Organization Health Provides an overview of the overall service health in your organization.
- Server Health Provides an overview of the health of individual servers in your organization.
- User focused monitoring Exchange 2013 introduces a monitoring and recovery infrastructure called Managed Availability. Managed Availability focuses on the user experience. All Exchange 2013 components have built-in monitors that detect problems and attempt to recover the service availability. Any issues that can't be recovered automatically are escalated to the Exchange 2013 Management Pack as an alert.
System Requirements
Supported Operating System: Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Windows Server 2012
You have one of the following versions of System Center Operations Manager deployed:
- System Center Operations Manager 2012 RTM or later
- System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 or later
Microsoft Exchange PST Capture 2.0 has recently been made available to download.
Overview
PST Capture 2.0 is used to discover and import Outlook Personal Folder (.pst) File Format files into Exchange Server and Exchange Online. PST Capture helps an organization that wishes to gain more control over their email data repositories by placing them into Exchange. By optionally installing PST Capture Agents on target machines, administrators can determine where .pst files are located and who their file owner is via the PST Capture Console. Administrators can import .pst files via Import Lists to Exchange Server or Exchange Online. Data can be directly imported into the primary mailbox or associated archive mailbox.
System requirements
Supported operating systems: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Vista
- Review the Technical Documentation prior to installation of Microsoft Exchange PST Capture 2.0
- Exchange Server 2010 or Exchange Server 2013, if used to import to Exchange Server 2010 or Exhange 2013 mailboxes or In-Place Archives
- Exchange Online (Office 365) subscription if used to import to Exchange Online (Office 365) mailboxes or In-Place Archives
- Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 or later
- PowerShell 3.0 or later
- Microsoft Outlook 2010 x64 (only required on the host computer where you install the Central Service and Console)
Don’t miss the latest TechNet Radio show: Exchange Ideas – Exchange 2013 Upgrade & Coexistence
Ann Vu and Brian Day are your hosts for today’s Exchange Ideas episode and in this installment they discuss how to upgrade to Exchange Server 2013. Tune in as they walk you through some simple steps to help transition you from Exchange 2007 or 2010 as well as how to manage your environments after everything is set up.
Following last week’s post about Exchange 2007/2010 Public Folders Migration to O365 Scripts, Microsoft released recently another set of useful scripts: Microsoft Exchange 2013 Site Mailbox Directory Sync Support Scripts.
Brief Description
Site Mailbox Directory Sync Support Scripts enable synchronizing site mailbox objects from Office 365 cloud into on-premise Active Directory to support access for on-premise users.
Overview
Site Mailbox Directory Sync Support Scripts are used to support on-premise users accessing Office 365 site mailboxes. It pulls any changes to the site mailbox objects including property changes, permissions etc. from Office 365 and merges them into the on-premise Active Directory.
Microsoft recently release the necessary support scripts to migrate Exchange 2007/2010 Public Folders to Office 365.
- Microsoft Exchange 2013 Public Folders Migration Scripts - Use these scripts to migrate public folders from Exchange 2010 or 2007 to Exchange 2013. In order to migrate Exchange 2010 or 2007 Public Folders to Exchange 2013 on O365, we need to analyze the existing Public Folder hierarchy for size to figure out the number of Public Folder mailboxes that are required on O365 and the distribution of folders across mailboxes.
- Microsoft Exchange 2013 Public Folders Directory Sync Support Scripts - Use this scripts if you need to do one of the following - - Initial creation of mail enabled public folder objects in the destination Active Directory for public folder migration from Exchange 2007 or 2010 to Exchange 2013 - Synchronization of mail enabled public folder objects from cloud to on-premise Active Directory - Synchronization of mail enabled public folder objects from on-premise to cloud Active Directory - Synchronization of public folder mailbox objects from cloud to on-premise Active Directory.
Microsoft has recently released the April updates for the Outlook 2003/2007/2010 Junk E-mail Filter.
"This update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail."
The update is available for Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 (32-bit, 64-bit) or you can use Microsoft Update. As usual the update comes with the corresponding Knowledge Base article:
The April 2013 edition of the TechNet Magazine is now available for online reading.
Featured Articles:
Columns:
The long awaited Cumulative update 1 for Exchange Server 2013 is finally available to download. From now on there’s no excuse for not upgrading Exchange Server 2010 to 2013.
Overview
Cumulative Update 1 for Exchange Server 2013 resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2013 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2013 customers.
New Functionality Included in Cumulative Update 1
- Address Book Policies
- Groups can once again manage groups
- Public Folder Favorites Access through Outlook Web App
- Exchange Admin Center Enhancements
- High Availability and Monitoring Enhancements
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