subject: exchange : Technical stuff

Exchange 2010 sessions on the virtual launch site now available

Rui Silva — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:53:46 GMT

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: Exchange Online Introducing Exchange Server 2010 Addressing E-mail Archiving...(read more)

Upcoming Exchange Server 2010 TechNet Webcasts

Rui Silva — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:19:21 GMT

These are just a couple of upcoming webcasts about Exchange Server 2010 that you might find interesting to attend: Microsoft Virtualization Best Practices for Exchange Server (Level 300) Wednesday, November 04, 2009 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada...(read more)

Exchange 2010 webcasts, virtual labs and other free learning resources

Rui Silva — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:15:02 GMT

While reading some of the blogs from my blogroll, I collected this set of learning resources for Exchange 2010. What’s your excuse now? Development Webcasts 10/13/2009 - Exchange Server 2010 Development (Part 1 of 6): Migrating Applications to Exchange...(read more)

Exchange Server 2010 @TechNet Edge

Rui Silva — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:49:27 GMT

Check out these cool TechNet Edge Videos about Exchange Server 2010: Rights Management Services Infrastructure in Exchange Server 2010 Ed Banti, a Microsoft Program Manager, presents an overview of new features with Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010 and...(read more)

Quick install notes for Exchange Server 2007 SP2

Rui Silva — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:27:36 GMT

The long awaited Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 has finally been released. There are many exciting new features, but if I would like to highlight 2 of them: Exchange Server 2010 support : SP2 is a pre-requisite for installing Exchange Server 2010...(read more)

Microsoft Exchange Server Training

Rui Silva — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:29:38 GMT

Microsoft launched recently the Exchange Server Training Portal , a site with great learning resources for both Exchange Server 2010 and Exchange Server 2007. As Scott points out , don’t miss the special offer: Clinic 6899: Exploring Features of Exchange...(read more)

Exchange 2010 sessions from TechNet & TechEd

Rui Silva — Sat, 30 May 2009 08:20:53 GMT

The You Had Me At EHLO blog have a nice list of upcoming Exchange 2010 TechNet sessions: TechNet Webcast: Exchange 2010 High Availability (Level 300) Monday, June 01, 2009 9:00 AM Pacific Time Event Overview: Welcome to the future! The future of...(read more)

How the IIS vulnerability (Security Advisory 971492) affects Exchange 2003

Rui Silva — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:04:00 GMT

Microsoft released recently Security Advisory 971492 , which alerts for a vulnerability in Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0, 5.1 and 5.0 (7.0 is not affected), that can allow elevation of privilege. The vulnerability only occurs when WebDAV is...(read more)

It’s the binding order, stupid!

Rui Silva — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:03:32 GMT

Recently, when I was trying to enable the automatic anti-spam updates on an Exchange Edge server, I kept getting this error: Enable-AntispamUpdates : An error occurred while accessing the registry of the specified server: "E2K7EDGE". The error...(read more)

Exchange "How Do I?" Videos

Rui Silva — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:42:14 GMT

I got this info while reading David Strome's Blog . Exchange "How Do I?" Videos focus on specific tasks and show you how to accomplish them in Exchange. Checkout the 6 videos available right now: How Do I: Enable the Anti-spam Agent in a...(read more)

Tech·Ed EMEA IT Pro 2008 session videos

Rui Silva — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:52:21 GMT

Now that Tech·Ed EMEA IT Professionals 2008 is over, it's time to review some of the great sessions of the event. And the good news is that some of those recorded sessions are available online, even if you didn't attend the event. There a couple...(read more)

Upcoming Exchange Labcasts

Rui Silva — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:33:20 GMT

TechNet Labcast: Exchange Server 2007 (Part 1 of 5): Installing Service Pack 1 and Transitioning from Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200) Friday, October 17, 2008 11:00 AM Pacific Time Jeff Sparks, Senior Consultant, United Training...(read more)

Exchange Server 2007 now supported in Hyper-V... and others!

Rui Silva — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:44:22 GMT

Microsoft finally announced its support for Exchange Server 2007 in a virtualized environment. Exchange will not only be supported under Hyper-V, but also under any hypervisor validated under the Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP).

Here's an excerpt from the post announcing this at the You had me at EHLO blog.

Microsoft now supports Exchange Server 2007 SP1 running Hyper-V or hypervisors validated under the Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP).
Microsoft is waiving its 90-day license reassignment policy to enable customers who virtualize Exchange to move their licenses between servers within a data farm as often as necessary.

For all the details, please read Microsoft Support Policies and Recommendations for Exchange Servers in Hardware Virtualization Environments.

Bharat did a wonderful job gathering the required conditions for full support:

What's supported: Exchange Server 2007 SP1 running on Windows Server 2008
Supported Exchange 2007 Server Roles: All except Unified Messaging
What Hypervisor: Microsoft Hyper-V, or any hypervisor validated by MSVVP
Not supported: Differencing disks and expandable virtual disks
Not supported: Taking VM snapshots (these aren't application-aware)
Not supported: Combining Exchange's clustering features (SCC and CCR) with availability features from the virtualization layer, such as Hyper-V's quick migration.

Related links:

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Exchange 2007 Whitepapers

Rui Silva — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:03:13 GMT

Microsoft released recently a couple of Exchange Server 2007 technical whitepapers:

White Paper: Continuous Replication Deep Dive - This white paper provides the technical details for a technology in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 called continuous replication.
White Paper: Planning for Large Mailboxes with Exchange 2007 - This white paper provides an overview of the benefits of deploying large mailboxes with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. It also provides planning guidance to help you successfully implement the deployment of large mailboxes.

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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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Exchange Server 2007 Setup Architecture and Troubleshooting

Rui Silva — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:36:49 GMT

Installing Exchange Server 2007 can be a little tricky and sometimes even frustrating. That's why I rejoiced when I found out this wonderful technical guide, written by Microsoft Customer Service and Support: Exchange Server 2007 Setup Architecture and Troubleshooting.

Brief Description
This document is a step-by-step guide to help end users install Exchange Server 2007.

Overview
Exchange Server 2007 Setup Architecture and Troubleshooting was written by Microsoft Customer Service and Support to prepare Support Engineers who are assisting customers installing Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1). We hope that you find the step-by-step approach useful and appreciate any feedback.

Although the Exchange Server TechCenter has lots of high quality technical information, this document condenses the most important steps required for a successful setup, and also provides some additional tips. For instance, the troubleshooting chapter suggests that you format the output of the Exchange Setup log file to HTML:

To enhance output, output can be directed to HTML using the OUT-HTML and OUT-IE scripts using the following command:

Get-SetupLog –tree:$false –error:$false | Where { $_.status –eq “Error” } | select datetime, depth, description, status | Out-HTML | Out-IE

And here's a personal tip: I like to follow the setup progress using the Tail utility, from the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools:

Tail -f C:\ExchangeSetupLogs\ExchangeSetup.log

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Installing Exchange 2007 on Windows 2008? Don't forget IPv6!

Rui Silva — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:10:16 GMT

Hyper-V really rocks! Period.

Migrating my VMs to Hyper-V has given me the opportunity to test new scenarios, namely to finally have x64 machines with Exchange Server 2007. And it was during one of my latest installations that I faced an interesting challenge: to install an Exchange Server 2007 on Windows Server 2008 x64, that was also a Domain Controller.

Let me first remind you that installing Exchange on a DC (which is also a Global Catalog) is not a recommended solution, since you can face some challenges, as the ones described in KB940845.

But my problems started during installation. Let me give you some more details. It all began when I decided to install Exchange Server 2007 SP1 on a brand new Windows Server 2008 x64 virtual machine. After following the steps to accomplish the necessary prerequisites to install Exchange Server 2007, as described on this TechNet article, I kicked the Exchange setup.

It all seemed well, when suddenly the setup process stopped with the error: Service 'MSExchangeTransport' failed to reach status 'Running' on this server.

My next logical step was to examine Application Event Log, where I found the following events:

Source: MSExchange ADAccess Event ID: 2114 Task Category: Topology Level: Error Description: Process MSEXCHANGEADTOPOLOGYSERVICE.EXE (PID=1784). Topology discovery failed, error 0x80040a02 (DSC_E_NO_SUITABLE_CDC). Look up the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) error code specified in the event description. To do this, use Microsoft Knowledge Base article 218185, "Microsoft LDAP Error Codes." Use the information in that article to learn more about the cause and resolution to this error. Use the Ping or PathPing command-line tools to test network connectivity to local domain controllers.

Source: MSExchange ADAccess Event ID: 2604 Task Category: General Level: Error Description: Process MSEXCHANGEADTOPOLOGY (PID=1784). When updating security for a remote procedure call (RPC) access for the Exchange Active Directory Topology service, Exchange could not retrieve the security descriptor for Exchange server object E2K7-X64 - Error code=80040a01. The Exchange Active Directory Topology service will continue with limited permissions.

Event ID: 2601 Source: MSExchange ADAccess Category: General Type: Warning Description: Process MSEXCHANGEADTOPOLOGY (PID=1784). When initializing a remote procedure call (RPC) to the Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology service, Exchange could not retrieve the SID for account <WKGUID=DC1301662F547445B9C490A52961F8FC,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,...> - Error code=80040a01. The Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology service will continue starting with limited permissions.

After doing some research on the Internet, I finally came to the conclusion that the problem was related with IPv6 being disabled on the Network Properties.

Exchange Server 2007 needs IPv6 in order to run on Windows Server 2008 (unless you completely disable IPv6). There are a lot of components that depend on IPv6, as you can check on TechNet: IPv6 Support in Exchange 2007 SP1.

If you decide to completely disable IPv6, follow these steps that David Chen described on TechNet Forums (I didn't test it):

Open Registry with "Regedit"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters
Create a dword (32-bit) value and name it as "Disabled Components" and then click OK
Double click "Disabled Components" and type 0xffffffff(hexadecimal value) or 4294967295 (Decimal value)
Please note: The above value 0xffffffff(hexadecimal value) or 4294967295 (Decimal value) will disable all IPv6 components, except the IPv6 loopback interface.

Although some people suggest that you must configure a fixed IPv6 address (like Alexander Zammit), I left the default settings (obtain an IPv6 address automatically), restarted the setup process and it went smooth like a breeze.

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Exchange Server Error Code Look-up

Rui Silva — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:57:32 GMT

Microsoft released an updated version (v6.0.4011.0) of the Exchange Server Error Code Look-up.

Overview
Use the Error Code Lookup tool to determine error values from decimal and hexadecimal error codes in Microsoft Windows® operating systems. The tool can look up one or more values at a time. All values on the command line will be looked up in Exchange’s internal tables and presented to you. If available, informational data associated with the value or values will also be shown.

Here are a couple of examples of the output of the tool:

C:\temp\Err>err 0x8004010f
# for hex 0x8004010f / decimal -2147221233 :
ecNotFound                                     ec.h
ecAttachNotFound                               ec.h
ecUnknownRecip                                 ec.h
ecPropNotExistent                              ec.h
MAPI_E_NOT_FOUND                         mapicode.h
# 5 matches found for "0x8004010f"

C:\temp\Err>Err.exe -528
# for decimal -528 / hex 0xfffffdf0 :
JET_errMissingLogFile esent98.h
# /* Current log file missing */
# 1 matches found for "-528"

TechRepublic has a great article about this: Quickly identify problems using the Exchange Error Code Look-up tool.

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Exchange webcasts for June 2008

Rui Silva — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:32:50 GMT

I've just got this from Eileen Brown's Weblog:

TechNet Webcast: Forefront Security for Exchange Deployment Best Practices (Level 300)
Tuesday, June 03, 2008 - 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM Pacific Time
Mike Chan, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032377121&Culture=en-US

MSDN Webcast: Building Asynchronous Contextual Collaboration with Exchange Web Services (Level 300)
Thursday, June 26, 2008 - 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Chris Mayo, Technical Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032378675&Culture=en-US

Momentum Webcast: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox Role Memory Characterization Using HP BladeSystem (Level 200)
Thursday, June 19, 2008 - 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Stuart Ladd, System Engineer, HP
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032378658&Culture=en-US

MSDN Webcast: Behind the Scenes with Communications Server 2007, Communicator 2007, and Exchange Server 2007 (Level 300)
Thursday, June 19, 2008 - 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Chris Mayo, Technical Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032378646&Culture=en-US

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Quick Reference for Outlook Voice Access

Rui Silva — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:35:18 GMT

Microsoft released version 3 of the Quick Reference for Outlook Voice Access.

Brief Description
This download contains a quick reference sheet that can be used when navigating the menu system found in Outlook Voice Access.

Overview
Outlook Voice Access lets UM-enabled users to access their Exchange 2007 mailbox using analog, digital, or cellular telephones. By using the menu system found in Outlook Voice Access, UM-enabled users can read e-mail, listen to voice messages, and interact with their Outlook calendar. This quick reference sheet shows the navigational tree and the options that are available to UM-enabled users when they are using Outlook Voice Access.

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