November 2009 - Posts
Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (KB971534) is now available to download.
Overview
Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2007 SP2 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2007 SP2 customers.
For a list of changes that are included in this update rollup, see KB971534.
This update rollup does not apply to Exchange Server 2007 Release To Manufacturing (RTM) or Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1). For a list of update rollups applicable to Exchange Server 2007 RTM or Exchange Server 2007 SP1, refer to the Knowledge Base article KB937052.
Refer to the How to Install the Latest Service Pack or Update Rollup for Exchange 2007 topic in the Exchange Server 2007 Technical Documentation Library for instructions to deploy this Update Rollup.
Nice! Really, really nice! Check out the brand new Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Transport Server Role Architecture Diagrams:
- Hub Transport Server Role Architecture
- Hub Transport Extensibility
Brief Description
This download contains architectural diagrams that illustrate the Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Hub Transport server role and Hub Transport extensibility.
Overview
Many components are involved in the transport of messages through the Exchange Server 2010 mail flow pipeline. The Hub Transport server role diagram can help you understand the role each component plays in the processing of messages that enter the Exchange 2010 mail flow pipeline. Exchange administrators can use this information to help diagnose mail flow problems. The Hub Transport extensibility diagram can help you understand how the agents process a message that is in the Exchange 2010 mail flow pipeline. Developers can use this information to help create third-party agents and applications to work with Exchange 2010.
An updated version of the Forefront Security for Exchange Server 10.1 MP for OpsMgr 2007 is now available to download.
Brief Description
The Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Management Pack monitors Exchange Servers for virus and worm activity.
Overview
The Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 supports the 10.1 version of Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server with Service Pack 1. The MP supplies critical events and alerts on virus and worm activity to Operations Manager 2007, and also monitors the health and availability of these products.
The Management Pack for Forefront Security for Exchange Server 10.0 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=147D908C-9DC4-4F90-81B2-EE0764300BE2&displaylang=en
Management Pack Release History:
11/29/2007 Original release of English version of Management Pack. Localized versions of this MP scheduled for release in December 2007.
Now that Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server has RTM’ed, don’t forget to read the official documentation:
- Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server Documentation - Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server (FPE) provides fast and effective detection of viruses, worms, spyware and spam by integrating multiple scanning engines from industry-leading security partners in a single solution. Its comprehensive messaging protection includes integration with Forefront Online Protection for Exchange for the defense-in-depth benefits of hosted and on-premise filtering and content filtering to prevent out-of-policy content from entering or leaving your network. The documents available in this download include information about FPE deployment, operations, technical reference, and troubleshooting. This information is also available in the Microsoft TechNet Library at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=111583.
And don’t forget to take a look at these additional resources:
Microsoft has recently released the November update for the Outlook 2003/2007 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 2007 and Outlook 2003 or you can use Microsoft Update. As usual the update comes with the corresponding Knowledge Base article:
The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Tools (32-Bit) v685.25 are now available to download.
Brief Description
Exchange Server 2007 is a native 64-bit application that includes 64-bit management tools. You can use the management tools to administer your Exchange Server environment remotely. If the remote computer is running a 32-bit operating system, you will need to download the 32-bit management tools.
Overview
The Exchange management tools include the Exchange Management Console, the Exchange Management Shell, the Exchange Help file, the Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyzer Tool, and the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant Tool.
The new Exchange Management Console (formerly named Exchange System Manager) provides Exchange administrators with a graphical user interface (GUI) to manage the configuration of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 organizations. For more information about the improvements to the Exchange Management Console, see New Administration Functionality in the Exchange Management Console.
The Exchange Management Shell is a new Exchange-specific command-line interface based on Microsoft Windows PowerShell, formerly codenamed “Monad”. You can use the Exchange Management Shell to run a single command or a series of multiple commands for managing your Exchange Server 2007 servers and objects. For more information about the Exchange Management Shell, see Using the Exchange Management Shell.
If you’re interest in Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE), aka Forefront Online Security for Exchange (FOSE), ex-Exchange Hosted Filtering (EHF), you may find the following downloads interesting:
- Setup Checklists: Microsoft® Forefront Online Protection for Exchange and Exchange Hosted Archive 9.2 - Use the following setup checklists to help you set up the individual or combined services that you signed up for. You can choose from a combined setup checklist for both Microsoft Forefront Online Protection for Exchange and Microsoft Exchange Hosted Archive, or the checklists for each individual service.
- Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE) 9.3 Product Documents – Product documents for FOPE 9.3 include the following: New Features Guide, Administration Center User Guide.
- New Features Guide: This 12-page guide provides up-to-date information about the latest features and changes for Microsoft® Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE), including new features of the Directory Synchronization Tool, new company filtering service settings, domain enhancements, and enhanced reporting features. You can use the information in this document to help prepare your messaging environment for updated services, and to communicate information to customers, partners, and employees.
- Administration Center User Guide: This guide provides in-depth information and instructions for using the Microsoft® Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE) Administration Center, a Web-based tool that allows you to create reports and customize your e-mail filtering account services. It includes essential information for finding what you need in the Administration Center and using it to optimize your FOPE antispam, antivirus, filtering, user management, and reporting services, among others.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Language Pack Bundle v14.00.0680.000 is now available to download. Please note this is not the Unified Messaging Language Pack! For better understanding, here’s an excerpt from TechNet, Exchange 2010 Language Support:
An Exchange 2010 language pack contains the necessary resources for a supported Exchange language. Language packs can be installed during installation of Exchange 2010 or after Exchange 2010 has been deployed. Client and server language packs come grouped into a single bundle containing both client and server resource and support files. You can automatically download the language packs when you're running Exchange Setup.
For organizations that have users in multiple languages, we recommend that you do the following:
- Install the language pack bundle to provide localized messages on all server roles. This will provide localized messages for Microsoft Office Outlook Web App and Exchange Control Panel. There are no performance issues with installing all the languages because they're just stored when not in use.
Brief Description
This download contains the most recently updated language packs for Exchange 2010. The language bundle includes all packs for all supported languages.
Overview
This download is available to customers who would like to install the most recent languages packs for Exchange 2010. This bundle does not include language packs for Unified Messaging.
The Microsoft Exchange Server Inter-Organization Replication v06.05.7408 is now available to download. Do you know that Exchange Server 2010 now includes this kind of functionality? (for more information read TechNet or attend this webcast).
Brief Description
Replicate public folder and free and busy information between Exchange organizations.
Overview
Use the Inter-Organization Replication tool to replicate free and busy information and public folder content between Exchange organizations. The tool allows for the coordination of meeting, appointments, contacts, and public folder information between disjointed Exchange organizations. The tool consists of two programs: the Replication Configuration program (exscfg.exe), and the Replication service (exssrv.exe). The Replication Configuration program creates a configuration file for setting the replication frequency, logging options, folders to be replicated, and accounts to be used. The Replication service continuously updates information from one server (designated as the Publisher) to one or more Exchange servers (designated as Subscribers).
Note The Inter-Organization Replication tool allows for detailed management of intra-organizational content access and security for files transported outside of the Exchange organization's security layer.
A great document that should be used a lot: Exchange Management Shell Quick Reference for Exchange 2010.
Brief Description
This download contains a quick reference sheet that can be used to access frequently used Exchange Management Shell cmdlets and syntax in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.
Overview
The Exchange Management Shell provides a powerful command-line interface for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 that enables automation of administrative tasks. This quick reference guide provides a list of frequently used cmdlets, important conventions, and useful tips. The information is presented by feature area, such as recipient, transport, and database administration. This quick reference guide applies to Exchange 2010.
Now that Exchange Server 2010 was released, the Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 might be useful to manage and operate the best email server to date from Microsoft!
Brief Description
This management pack includes scripts and rules to effectively monitor Exchange 2010 and report on performance, availability, and reliability of its server roles.
Overview
The Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 management pack is designed to be used for monitoring Exchange 2010 events, collecting Exchange component-specific performance counters in one central location, and for raising alerts for operator intervention as necessary. By detecting, sending alerts, and automatically correlating critical events, this management pack helps indicate, correct, and prevent possible service outages or configuration problems, allowing you to proactively manage Exchange servers and identify issues before they become critical. The management pack monitors and provides alerts for automatic notification of events indicating service outages, performance degradation, and health monitoring.
Feature Summary The Exchange Server 2010 Management Pack includes rules and scripts to monitor and report on performance, availability, and reliability of all Exchange 2010 server roles including.
- Mailbox Server Role
- Client Access Server Role
- Hub Transport Server Role
- Edge Transport Server Role
- Unified Messaging Server Role
System Requirements
- Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003 x64 editions; Windows Server 2008
- Other Software: System Center Operations Manager 2007 or later.
As it was announced yesterday at Tech•Ed Europe 2009, Exchange Server 2010 is now available worldwide and can be downloaded from the Microsoft Volume Licensing site.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 helps IT Professionals achieve new levels of reliability with greater flexibility, enhanced user experiences, and increased protection for business communications.
- Flexible and reliable - Exchange Server 2010 gives you the flexibility to tailor your deployment based on your company's unique needs and a simplified way to keep e-mail continuously available for your users.
- Anywhere access - Exchange Server 2010 helps your users get more done by giving them the freedom to securely access all their communications - e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging, and more - from virtually any platform, Web browser, or device.
- Protection and compliance - Exchange Server 2010 delivers integrated information loss prevention, and compliance tools aimed at helping you simplify the process of protecting your company's communications and meeting regulatory requirements.
You can also download a trial version from here or from here.
Related Links:
Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 v11.0.0324.00 is available to download.
Brief Description
The Management Pack for Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server monitors the availability, security, configuration and performance of an FPE deployment.
Overview
The Management Pack for Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server (FPE) allows you to discover FPE installations and components and to monitor them within System Center Operations Manager 2007. When there is an issue that may impact the availability, configuration, or security of your FPE deployment, Operations Manager uses the management pack to detect the issue, alert you to its existence, and facilitate diagnosis and corrective actions.
Feature Summary:
- Support for Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server (FPE)
- Discovery and monitoring of key FPE services
- Monitoring of product license status
- Monitoring of the availability and configuration of scan jobs
- Monitoring of scan engine and definition updates
- Diagnostic and recovery tasks related to engine updates and service recycling
- Performance views of message scanning rate across scan jobs
- Discovery and monitoring of FPE running with an Exchange CCR cluster
The Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1 v6.0.6741.0 is now available to download.
Brief Description
This Management Pack includes an extensive set of monitoring including synthetic transactions to effectively monitor Exchange 2007 and report on performance, availability, and reliability of its server roles.
Overview
The Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 SP1 is designed to monitor Exchange 2007 key health indicators, collect Exchange component-specific performance counters in one central location, and raise alerts for operator intervention as necessary. By detecting, sending alerts, and automatically responding to critical events, this Management Pack helps indicate, correct, and prevent possible service outages or configuration problems, allowing you to proactively manage Exchange servers and identify issues before they become critical. The Management Pack monitors and provides alerts for automatic notification of events indicating service outages, performance degradation, health monitoring, and centralized management.
This Management Pack requires Operations Manager 2007 SP1 or later. Note that there is a separate Management Pack for Exchange 2007 monitoring for Operations Manager 2007 R2.
Feature Summary
- A number of synthetic transactions ensure the Exchange servers are available and responding in a timely manner. The synthetic transactions are maintenance-mode aware, so that if the target of a transaction is in maintenance mode, the source will not run the transaction, and not alert unnecessarily.
- A significant number of rules and monitors that are not actionable or may be noisy are disabled. Note that many of these rules are still in the Management Pack so that you can enable them if necessary.
- Support for monitoring any number of Exchange organizations using a single Operations Manager 2007 management group.
- Full support for Microsoft clustered configurations. For more details, see the Management Pack Guide.
- Discovery of Exchange 2007 server roles is disabled by default, and no Exchange 2007 monitoring is applied by default. This allows you to discover and monitor your servers gradually, as well as tune the Management Pack as you bring more agent-managed Exchange 2007 servers into the Operations Manager environment.
Release History - 11/7/2009 - Original release of English version, version 6.0.6741.0
The Exchange Server 2010 sessions on the Virtual Launch Experience site are now available. Use the links below to go directly to specific Exchange sessions:
The Outlook 2007 Best Practices document, written by the Microsoft Office Outlook Product Group is now available to download.
Brief Description
This article is intended to provide users of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 guidance on how to best use the product.
Overview
The purpose of this paper is to provide customers of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 guidance on how to best use the product. Created by the product team who created Outlook 2007, this guide represents our advice on how to get the most out of Outlook 2007. By no means comprehensive, it covers just a few core scenarios.
Why an Outlook "best practices" document?
We wrote this paper for the best possible reason: Our customers asked. We designed Outlook 2007 to be used by a wide audience with many work needs and styles. Although there's no one "right way," there are a few ways of working in the program that we know to be easier than others. We hope that by being aware of the best practices, you will have the best experience possible using Outlook.