Take a look at the video from our lead Program Manager (Exchange product team) about the next release of Exchange called code name E14.

This is the 1^st version of Exchange that been written for Software as a Service SaS. At Microsoft we run we our own software in a dogfood environment to allow us to test our products. Since this release (as mentioned above) has been designed for SaS we’ve needed to scale the product above and beyond our internal infrastructure.

Universities are now running E14 on Exchange Labs which has allowed us to scale and test features of the product, which is running with 3.5 million users in over 15 organisations

The video gives you a little demo on:-

·         Outlook Client

·         OWA

·         Outlook mobile

One of the real benefits is E14 is that it saves you money in these challenging financial times!

Still loads more to come, so stand by for more videos!

Written by Daniel Kenyon-Smith

Running Outlook in Online mode

·         Running Outlook in Online Mode moves the IO burden from the client to the server and doesn't address the disconnected laptop scenario.

Network impact and ability to optimize the client

·         Cached Exchange Mode provides intelligent use of bandwidth. This functionality is enabled by synchronizing only headers on slow connections (connections that are slower than 128 kilobits per second [Kbps]). This functionality works only when a network connection is present.

·         After messages have been cached locally, typical user operations do not cause interactions that block the server. Quickflagging, marking a message as read, replying, and editing require a small amount of data to be pushed up to the server to keep the mailboxes synchronized. However, the pushing of data occurs in the background. This behavior causes much faster access to messages and to attachments, because you work from the local copy instead of the server copy.

Outlook 2003 Cached Exchange Mode offers you the following benefits:

·         Reduced server load. After messages are cached locally, re-opening the same message does not require server transactions.

·         Reduced network load. After messages have been pulled over the network one time, subsequent access to those messages does not cause additional network traffic. Because messages are also compressed, there is an additional reduction on network load.

·         When you turn on Cached Exchange Mode in Outlook 2003, and when the connection from your computer that is running Outlook 2003 to the Exchange Server 2003 computer is not available, Outlook switches to the Trying to connect state or to the Disconnected state. If the connection is restored, Outlook switches to the Connected state or to the Connected (Headers) state. Any changes that you made while you were offline are synchronized automatically when a connection to a server is available. You can continue to work while changes are synchronized.

·         Additionally, Cached Exchange Mode causes no loss of conventional functionality. New e-mail notifications, full Global Address List details, free/busy lookup, public folder access, and delegate support function as expected. However, this is true only when a network connection to an Exchange Server computer is present.

What is the Level of Security around cached mode and how it is encrypted

The .ost file is similar to a personal folders (.pst) file, but the .ost file is automatically encrypted with compressible encryption. The encryption key is stored in two places: in the mailbox on the Exchange computer and in a local Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) profile that is configured on the client workstation. If the key is lost from both locations, the .ost file is unreadable. When a client connects in Online mode, the key in the profile is checked against the key in the information store database. If the keys differ, the client copy of the key is overwritten with the key from the information store, and a new .ost file is automatically generated on the client workstation. When you reset an information store database, a new offline key is generated in each new mailbox; therefore, the current .ost file becomes unreadable at the beginning of the first successful online connection. Any changes that are made before the synchronization of the current .ost file are not uploaded.

Written by Daniel Kenyon-Smith

When planning for storage it’s a good idea to categorise users into quota limits so you can plan your storage requirements. This calculation should be done in the High Level Design phase to allow your customer to purchase the hardware. An example of how quota limits might be categorised are shown below:-  

Ø  200MB limit – Bronze limit

Ø  400MB limit – Sliver limit

Ø  600MB limit – Gold limit

Ø  2GB limit – Platinum limit

If you have mailboxes with an unlimited mailbox quota it is impossible to manage from a storage perspective as a user can effectively carry on using storage, so the unlimited users/shared mailboxes can be calculated at 2GB from a storage point of view. It’s recommended that limits are applied at something like 2GB for the following reason:-

Ø  The maximum size of the .OST file (Outlook off line cache) for the unlimited mailboxes, assuming users are logging into these accounts.

Ø  The .ost file performance is also another factor to consider if there are mailboxes in your organization that exceed 2 GB in size. If users of those mailboxes are running Outlook in cached mode, those users may experience degraded performance as the size of their .ost file grows above 2 GB.

Ø  A limit can be set by changing the registry - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832925 If no limit is set the default is 2GB to prevent corruption and user experience as mentioned above.

Ø  Specific folders can also be synchronised (if you are using Outlook 2007) therefore limiting the amount of data that be will synchronised.

When Outlook 2003 synchronises with Exchange it uses an intelligent learning algorithm that is transparent to the user. Folders used most frequently are placed in a priority order, this gives the user a better experience. The order is listed below:-

1.       Utility folders (common views, views, and security settings)

2.       Calendar

3.       Contacts

4.       Drafts

5.       Inbox

6.       All other folders (defined by the user)

7.       Sent Items

8.       Deleted Items

9.       Public Folder Favorites (added by the user)

Part II will contain details on how to plan your backend storage requirements based on quota limits.

Written by Daniel Kenyon-Smith

I get asked the question ‘how can we secure our Exchange 2007 servers’ so I’ve compiled a list from the Exchange 2007 Security Guide. As you know Exchange 2007 is by design secure, but here are the services that start automatically and the ones that you’ll start manually.

Mailbox role

The Microsoft Search (Exchange Server) service and Microsoft Exchange Monitoring are set to start manual. All other services are set to start automatically. Here are list of some of the services that are automatically enabled by default when the mailbox role starts:- 

Clustered Mailbox Server Role

The Cluster Service is set to start automatically:-

Hub Transport Server Role

Microsoft Exchange Monitoring is set to start manually. All other services are set to start automatically:- 

Edge Transport Server Role

Microsoft Exchange Monitoring and the Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search service are set to start manually. All other services are set to start automatically:-

Client Access Server Role

Microsoft Exchange Monitoring, the Microsoft Exchange POP3 service, and the Microsoft Exchange IMAP4 service are set to start manually. All other services are set to start automatically:- 

Unified Messaging Server Role

Microsoft Exchange Monitoring is set to start manually. All other services are set to start automatically:-

 Written by Daniel Kenyon-Smith