subject: exchange

Weekend reading

Rui Silva — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:18:19 GMT

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TechNet Magazine - August 2008

Rui Silva — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:58:30 GMT

The August edition of TechNet Magazine is now available online or, if you prefer, you can download as an HTML Help .chm file for offline reading.

Since the main subject is SQL Server, there aren't very articles I would like to highlight, besides these very interesting field notes, written by R'ykandar Korra'ti: IMAP Saves the World.

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ISA Server 2006 SP1 released

Rui Silva — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:40:22 GMT

The Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 Service Pack 1 was finally released.

Brief Description
Microsoft® Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 Service Pack 1 introduces new features and functionality to ISA Server 2006 Standard and Enterprise Editions.

Overview
The new features focus on configuration change management and enhanced troubleshooting designed to help you identify and resolve ISA Server configuration issues within the ISA Server Management console.
The service pack includes the following new features and feature improvements:

Configuration Change Tracking—Registers all configuration changes applied to ISA Server to help you assess issues that may occur as a result of these changes.
Test Button—Tests the consistency of a Web publishing rule between the published server and ISA Server.
Traffic Simulator—Simulates network traffic in accordance with specified request parameters, such as an internal user and the Web server, providing information about firewall policy rules evaluated for the request.
Diagnostic Logging Viewer—Now integrated as a tab into the ISA Server Management console, this feature displays detailed events on packet progress and provides information about handling and rule matching.

Improvements for existing features, including:

Support for integrated NLB mode in all three modes, including unicast, multicast, and multicast with Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP). Previously, ISA Server integrated NLB-supported unicast mode only.
Support for use of server certificates containing multiple Subject Alternative Name (SAN) entries. Previously, ISA Server was able to use either only either the subject name (common name) of a server certificate, or the first entry in the SAN list.
Support for Kerberos Constrained Delegation (KCD) cross-domain authentication. Credentials from users located in a different domain than the ISA Server, but in the same forest, can now be delegated to an internal published Web site by using KCD.
Support for client certificate authentication in a workgroup deployment. This removes the requirement to map each client certificate to an Active Directory® directory user account when forms-based authentication is used as the primary authentication method and client certificates are used as the secondary method.

For more information about this service pack, see Microsoft Article 943462.
For general information about installing ISA Server updates and hotfixes, see Microsoft Article 885957.

Hey, did you notice that SAN certificates are now fully supported?

Related links:

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Weekend reading

Rui Silva — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:18:52 GMT

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Free eBook - Sybex's Best of Exchange Server 2007

Rui Silva — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:10:09 GMT

You can download this neat eBook if you register for Simple-Talk Exchange Newsletter.

"For a limited period, we've teamed up to offer you a FREE copy of "Sybex's Best of Exchange Server 2007" e-Book, comprising 10 chapters, and 350 pages of in-depth Exchange knowledge, compiled from five of Wiley's most popular Exchange 2007 books."

Table of Contents:

Mastering Exchange Server 2007 - Barry Gerber, Jim McBee

Chapter 2: Exchange Server Architecture
Chapter 6: Scaling Upward and Outward

Exchange Server 2007 Infrastructure Design: A Service-Oriented Approach - David W. Tschanz

Chapter 4: Applying Planning Principles to Exchange Sever 2007

Exchange Server 2007 Implementation & Administration - Jim McBee, Benjamin Craig

Chapter 2: Exchange Server Administration
Chapter 4: Installing Exchange Server 2007
Chapter 12: Sizing Storage Groups and Databases

MCITP: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Messaging, Design and Deployment Study Guide (Exams 70-237 & 70-238) - Rawlinson Rivera

Chapter 5: Defining Policies and Security Procedures
Chapter 10: Planning a Backup and Recovery Solution for Exchange Server 2007
Chapter 15: Planning Exchange Server 2007 Security

MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Configuration Study Guide (Exam 70-236) - Will Schmied, Kevin Miller

Chapter 10: Creating, Managing Highly Available Exchange Server Solutions

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Updated Exchange Server 2007 MP for OpsMgr 2007

Rui Silva — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:07:11 GMT

The long awaited updated version (v6.0.6278.12) of the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 was finally released!

The MP comes with a nice technical guide with detailed instructions about its installation and configuration.

Brief Description
This management pack includes scripts and rules to effectively monitor Exchange 2007 and report on performance, availability, and reliability of its server roles.

Overview
The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 management pack is designed to be used for monitoring Exchange 2007 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 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 Service Pack 1.
This Management Pack requires the Operations Manager 2007 updates specified in Knowledge Base articles 950853, 951979 and 951380 (see the Management Pack Guide for details).

Release History:

10/9/2007 - Initial Release, version 6.0.5000.0
6/22/2007 - Updated Release, version 6.0.6278.12

List of updates:

All updates included in the 08.01.0240.001 version of the Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, except updates relating to reports.
Overrides were documented in the Management Pack Guide for the LDAP Search Time and Failure DSNs Total rules and monitors.
The management pack was updated to support the renamed performance counters in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1. Performance counters for the Database object were renamed to MSExchange Database.
The management pack was updated to support non-default names of the Reporting data warehouse.
The OWA Connectivity performance view was updated to show performance data.
Fixed an issue where cluster virtual servers where discovered as type Microsoft Exchange 2007 Mailbox Servers Installation.
The Management Pack was updated so that alerts are correctly generated for events logged by physical cluster nodes in an Exchange Server 2007 cluster.
Fixed an issue where the Exchange cluster virtual servers were discovered as type Microsoft Exchange 2007 Mailbox Servers – Physical Computers Installation.
The Microsoft_Exchange_Server_Exchange_2007_Mailbox_Replication_Health_Test_ReplicationHealth_Events view was updated to target the Microsoft.Exchange.2007.Microsoft_Exchange_2007_Mailbox_Servers___Physical_Computers_ComputerGroup.
The reports were updated to support non-US locales on the Reporting Server.
The date/time picker was added to the reports, allowing for more flexibility in report scheduling.
The Failure and Delay DSNs Total monitors were updated to look for deltas. Previously, the monitors measured the averages for the sampling interval.
Fixed an issue where the cluster virtual servers were discovered as type Microsoft Exchange 2007 All Servers Installation.

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Funcasts, Podcasts and Webcasts

Rui Silva — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:13:06 GMT

Besides the Exchange webcasts I announced some time ago, you may be interested in these additional ones:

FunCast: Recovery Storage Group - Interested in knowing more about the Recovery Storage Group in Exchange 2007? Have a look at a new posted recorded "funcast" by Ilse Van Criekinge.
Podcast: Exchange PowerShell with Ilse Van Criekinge - Today we’ll be speaking to noted Exchange MVP, trainer, and author Ilse van Criekinge. Also on tap: news, resources, and a bunch of PowerShell tips for you.
Webcast: High Availability in Exchange Server 2007 SP1 (Part 1 of 2): CCR vs. Other High Availability Solutions (Level 300) - Are you digging out your backups every time there is a failure? Are you paying a lot for hardware replication that promises zero data loss? Join us in this webcast to learn about the advantages of cluster continuous replication (CCR) over other high availability solutions and get a deep dive into CCR internals.
Webcast: How Microsoft IT uses the Exchange Hosted Services to Protect the Messaging Environment (Level 300) - Microsoft deploys and supports more than 130,000 Exchange Server mailboxes for the global organization. All mail delivered to mailboxes@microsoft.com is first routed through Exchange Hosted Services, a hosted service that filters mail for spam and viruses and enforces corporate e-mail policies “in the cloud” before the mail reaches the Microsoft corporate network. This session describes Microsoft IT deployment, including server configuration and implementation, collecting server evidence, and lessons learned from deployment. Exchange Hosted Services is a service offering to enterprises that currently serves over 10,000 customers and processes 3.5 billion messages across the EHS global network.

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Weekend reading

Rui Silva — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:59:59 GMT

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Free Microsoft Exchange Monitoring Tool

Rui Silva — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:11:40 GMT

SolarWinds released recently a free Microsoft Exchange monitoring tool.

"SolarWinds free Exchange Monitor is a clever desktop dashboard that continuously monitors Microsoft Exchange to deliver real-time insight into Exchange services, mail queue sizes, and host server health.

SolarWinds free Exchange Monitor makes it easy to:

Quickly identify and troubleshoot Exchange server problems, preventing email delays and calendaring issues
Spot growing mail queues that can indicate bigger issues, like transport failures, Internet connection failures, and virus activity
Leverage out-of-the-box settings based on best practices to start monitoring Exchange immediately
Prevent performance issues before they impact users with built-in red, yellow, and green health indicators
Monitor critical server health indicators, including disk space, CPU utilization, and memory utilization to ensure optimal hardware functionality."

This is how the tool looks like:

When you first run it, you're presented with a window to configure the desired threshold and what services to monitor:

Exchange Web Services Windows Vista Gadget

Rui Silva — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:27:09 GMT

The Exchange Web Services Windows Vista Gadget Sample Application is available to download from the Microsoft site.

Overview
The Exchange Web Services Windows Vista Gadget sample application uses Exchange Web Services to retrieve Inbox, Calendar, and Task information from a user's Exchange 2007 mailbox. This sample application enables you to do the following:

View your latest e-mail messages, upcoming appointments, and tasks.
Page through your Inbox.
Open items in a fly-out window.
Open items in Outlook Web Access.
Mark messages as read or unread.
Delete messages.

The Pro-Exchange site has a good review about this gadget.

There are a couple of other related samples that you might be interested in:

Unified Messaging Web Service Sample - The Unified Messaging Web Service Sample describes how to create proxy classes that interact with the Unified Messaging Web service. The proxy classes make it easier to implement the interaction between the client and the Web service.
TimeChangeType Extension Sample - The TimeChangeType Extension Sample extends the TimeChangeType that implements IXmlSerializable to create an IXmlSerializable partial class.
Exchange Server 2007 Legacy API Property Mapping - The Exchange Server 2007 Legacy API Property Mapping download includes a spreadsheet that maps WebDAV/CDOEX properties to Exchange Web Services properties. You can use the information in the spreadsheet to migrate your WebDAV/CDOEX–based applications to Exchange Web Services in Exchange 2007.

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