August 2006 - Posts
Recently I was asked if I knew a method that would allow some users of my Organization to modify the information displayed in the Global Address List (GAL).
I immediately thought on the GAL Modify tool (GALMOD), a nice piece of software from Microsoft, available on the Exchange Resource Kit. There's a KB article with detailed instructions on how to use GALMOD.
But GALMOD has some limitations, for instance it has to be installed on every desktop from which you want to allow GAL editing.
To overcome some of these limitations, fellow MVP Jim McBee (or should I say, his company) developed a web replacement of GALMOD: Directory Update.
The Directory Update service is a .NET web application written in C# that provides an authenticated user the ability to update some of their Active Directory attributes. Features of Directory Update include:
- Improved directory accuracy: City, State, Department, Company, Office, and Country attributes must be selected from a customizable validated drop-down list
- Drop-down lists can be converted to text fields and vice versa - New!
- Fields or entire sections can be hidden from the user interface - New!
- Administrator can restrict which attributes can be updated
- Customizable help string and help page
- Customizable page and window titles
- Customizable attribute labels
If you are an Exchange Admin and you've never used ESEUTIL, that probably means one of two things:
- You are really good at your job, follow all the best practices and recommendations, keep your backups up to date, always test before installing a new patch, and so on, and so on, and that pays off by never having a single problem in your Exchange DBs.
- You are a lucky son of a gun!
In my case, although I like to consider myself good in what I do, unfortunately I had to use ESEUTIL for a couple of times.
When a database is corrupt or damaged, data can be restored from backup or repaired using Eseutil. Eseutil is a command line utility that works with Extensible Storage Engine (ESE), database (.edb) files, streaming (.stm) files, and log (.log) files associated with an Information Store, in a given Storage Group.
If you want to know more about this tool, read the Microsoft Exchange Server Database Utility Guide.
As usual, every month Eileen posts about the upcoming webcasts. Here's the list:
TechNet Webcast: Regulatory Compliance, Archiving, and Electronic Discovery with Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)
Tuesday, September 12, 2006 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time
David Sengupta, Exchange MVP, Product Manager, Quest Software
Martin Tuip, Exchange MVP, Product Manager, Quest Software
TechNet Webcast: Best Practices for Managing Exchange Server 2007 and SharePoint Environments (Level 200)
Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time
David Sengupta, Exchange MVP, Product Manager, Quest Software
Kathleen Lundgren, Product Manager, Quest Software
TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft IT Defends Against Spam, Viruses, and E-Mail Attacks (Level 300)
Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time
Omesh S Desai, Microsoft IT Systems Engineer, Microsoft Corporation
TechNet Webcast: Managing and Migrating to Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)
Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time
David Sengupta, Exchange MVP, Product Manager, Quest Software
Ron Robbins, Product Manager, Quest Software
Microsoft Office System Webcast: Top 10 Tips to Save Time in Office Outlook 2003 (Level 200)
Tuesday, September 12, 2006 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Andy Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Total Project Management
Microsoft Office System Webcast: A First Look at Office Outlook 2007 (Level 100)
Tuesday, September 26, 2006 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Andy Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Total Project Management
Momentum Webcast: Best Practices for Exchange Server 2003 Consolidation (Level 100)
Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Hollis Beall, Solutions Development Manager, HP
I'm back to work after a not-so-long vacations. This probably means that I'll post more often.
Approaches to Fighting Spam in an Exchange Server Environment is a technical guide designed to provide the midsize business IT Pro/Generalist with approaches to fighting spam in an Exchange Server environment.
Overview:
The Approaches to Fighting Spam in an Exchange Server Environment technical guide consists of four main sections (Introduction, Definition, Challenges, and Solutions) that discuss options and solutions to provide practical approaches to fighting spam (junk e-mail) within the Exchange Server environment. This guide includes the introduction of a framework (Exchange Server 2003 Antispam Framework) which combines different methods for fighting spam within either a single or multiple Exchange Server environments and is comprised of connection-level, protocol-level, and content-level filtering. Approaches within this framework allow both administrators and end users to precisely filter and categorize spam and decide on their end whether it is spam or legitimate business e-mail. This technical guide describes these approaches in detail, demonstrates how each approach within the framework functions, and how each of these approaches works collectively. Presented in the guide are assessment and development plans and a step-by-step guide in the deployment and management section.
I'm pretty sure I'm on vacations, that explains some lack of activity here lately.
Forget the old record, we have a new one. It's going to be a busy August!
Microsoft has just released the August update for the Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter.
"This update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail."
The update is available
here or you can use
Microsoft Update. As usual the update comes with the corresponding Knowledge Base article:
Technorati : outlook, junk email, spam
Del.icio.us : outlook, junk email, spam
I hope you all have the time to read
The Biggest List Ever!
The Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant v1.0 was released earlier this week.
"The Microsoft Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant can help to determine the cause of performance, mail flow and database mounting issues on computers running Microsoft Exchange Server. The tool automates specialized troubleshooting steps for identified symptoms.
The Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant programmatically executes a set of troubleshooting steps to identify the root cause of performance, mail flow, and database mounting issues. The tool automatically determines what set of data is required to troubleshoot the identified symptoms and collects configuration data, performance counters, event logs and live tracing information from an Exchange server and other appropriate sources. The tool analyzes each subsystem to determine individual bottlenecks and component failures, then aggregates the information to provide root cause analysis."
Harold Wong will be the instructor for some Exchange 2007 labcasts. What is a labcast? Well, it's a combination of a webcast and a virtual lab.
The TechNet Webcast and Virtual Labs teams are joining forces and offering three special featured Exchange Server 2007 Guided “Hands-On” Live Meeting webcasts! Be one of the first to join this Live Meeting as we walk through the benefits of using Exchange Server 2007. As the presenter guides you through different tasks step-by-step, we’re providing you a Virtual Lab to follow right along. The hands-on aspect will help you gain a valuable experience-based knowledge.
More information at the TechNet Webcast Blog.