Messaging & the world of UC

Ramblings on all things tech, trying to stick to Exch & UC...

Messaging & the world of UC

  • Office 365 - Whats that all about?

    The various documents in this link help to provide a detailed description of the features and functionality of Office 365 services currently in beta.

  • Outlook 2007 now supported by the Persoanl Archive - At last!!!

    Finally Outlook 2007 now supports Exchange 2010 personal archives, you need to install an update that is now available in December 2010 Cumulative Update for Office 2007  follow this link for more details!  Good to be back :)

  • Windows Home Server - Outlook 2010 now supported! Details HERE

    The Office Maven had now released a completely new version of Windows Home Server Outlook add-in with full support for Microsoft’s new Outlook 2010. WHS Outlook is a Windows Home Server add-in that integrates the Microsoft Outlook software with the Windows Home Server Console application – but wait, there’s actually alot more to it.

    WHS Outlook allows a single installation of Microsoft Outlook to be shared by up to 10 different client PC’s via the Windows Home Server Console (remember user CALs to stay legal etc). Using the Remote Access features of Windows Home Server, you can even gain full access to all of your Microsoft Outlook e-mail, contacts, calendar, etc. from anywhere in the world.

    Features & Changes:

    • Added Outlook 2010 support
    • Added Internet Calendar via WebDAV support
    • Added SharePoint site integration and SharePoint list support
    • Added “Sounds” command to the settings menu
    • Improved: “Send Attachment (to client)” feature
    • Improved: WHS Outlook Graphical User Interface re-sizes to fill entire console
    • Improved: WHS Outlook Connector now gives tray notification messages for reminders
    • Improved: WHS Outlook initialization and architecture
    • Fixed: “Switch Profile” functionality
    • Fixed: Problem with opening URLS on the client that contained a pipe “|” character
    • Fixed: Many other fixes, enhancements, and miscellaneous code improvements

    Screenshots




    WHS Outlook - WHS Console access WHS Outlook - Single-Sign-On WHS Outlook - remote access home page
         



    WHS Outlook - Web Site access - Settings WHS Outlook - Web Site access - Open Items WHS Outlook Settings - Advanced Settings



    WHS Outlook Settings - Remote Desktop Connectivity WHS Outlook Settings

    Share Calendars

    WHS Outlook can automatically setup your Windows Home Server as a WebDAV server allowing you to publish and consume Outlook calendars as Internet Calendars directly on your very own Windows Home Server. Second, WHS Outlook now supports SharePoint site integration allowing you to use SharePoint's "Connect to Outlook" feature from within WHS Outlook so that you can access all of your SharePoint Lists (i.e. shared calendars, contacts, tasks, etc.) from within Outlook. WHS Outlook takes care of all the dirty details for you behind-the-scenes allowing you to focus on getting your work done instead of having to spend time configuring your home server.

    For more information: Calendar Sharing in WHS Outlook - Part 1: WebDAV Publishing & Internet Calendars

     

    "Send Attachment (to client)"

    This feature of WHS Outlook has been completely rewritten to provide better integration with Outlook 2007 and 2010 (it works with Outlook 2002 and 2003 as well). When accessing the "Send Attachment (to client)" command from any e-mail message that contains attachments, you are now presented with a dialog box that lists out all of the e-mail message's attachments allowing you to select which of the attachments you would like to send over to your client computer:

     

     

    "Sounds"

    The "Sounds" command brings up the standard "Sounds and Audio Device Properties" Control Panel applet (opened up to its Sounds tab) allowing you to add, remove, or change the sounds being used by WHS Outlook.

     

    Improved Console Exerience

    When running WHS Outlook via the WHS Console it now re-sizes to fill the entire size of the Condole window giving you even more room to work in Outlook within the limited confines of the Console.

     

    A Quantum Leap Forward

    To date, most Windows Home Server add-ins fit into the administrative and media-centric user-interaction space. WHS Outlook differs that it actively provides a productivity platform.  WHS Outlook offers a wealth of new and improved functionality but the first thing you’ll notice about WHS Outlook (when used with Microsoft’s new Outlook 2010 software) is the new and much smoother user interface and overall seamless integration.

    The new version of WHS Outlook works with Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, and 2002. However, the new calendar sharing features will only work with the newer Outlook 2010 and 2007 versions.

     

  • Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server Capacity Planning Tool Released - Get it HERE!

    A quick one - I recommend anyone about to deploy FPE to take a look at the new PFE 2010 capacity planning tool to ensure you  have correct capacity (memory and CPU) on the server roles before going live!

    It can be downloaded here

  • BingTweets?? Get all the details HERE!

    bingtweets Recently, the Bing Search team announced a new service that’s a mashup of the Bing search engine and Twitter: BingTweets. Through a partnership with Federated Media and Twitter, the site integrates real-time search results from the micro-blogging service with the traditional results from the Bing “decision” engine.

    When you go to BingTweets, you’ll see two separate sections on the site – a larger window on the right for Bing searches and a thinner sidebar on the left where Twitter search results appear. To begin a search, you simply type your query in the Bing search box just as you would when performing a typical search. Once your results appear, you’ll notice that the Tweets column is updated too with Twitter search results containing your keyword or search terms.

    Even better, the Twitter search results update in real-time! The tweets in the sidebar are constantly in motion as new results are posted to the service, so you don’t have to refresh the page or column to see the latest. That’s already a notch above Twitter’s own engine at search.twitter.com where you’re forced to click the “refresh” link when new tweets are available.

    BingTweets manages to top Twitter’s “trending topics” section, too. Twitter’s trends section features a handful of the top words, phrases, and hashtags being posted on Twitter – often getting diluted with spammy marketing hashtags and other silly tags a group of folks thought it would be fun to promote. BingTweets does trends a little differently…and arguably better, if you ask me.

    They’ve divided the trends into different categories like People, Places, and Products as well as a “Popular Now” category, which is more like Twitter’s own trends. Also, the topics within each section are presented in a tag cloud style so hotter topics with more tweets are larger and fading topics with less tweets are smaller. This is useful for knowing exactly which topics are trending up and down.

    It’s interesting to compare BingTweets with Twitter trends, too, since they don’t feature quite the same info. For example, the hashtag #iranelection is still showing as a trending topic on Twitter but it wasn’t on BingTweets. Alternately, BingTweets featured two variations of “All Star Game” (last night’s big Major League Baseball event) but Twitter does not.

    Finally, a box at the top of the BingTweets page lets you share your search results either through tweeting a link to that BingTweets page or on other social media services via a “Share This” button.

    As with everything Bing, the best experience is currently US based (just set your Bing location prefences to United States) however a Europe wide rollout is planned to arrive "shortly" 

     Watch this space for updates..

  • The Win7 Success Story - 100 million+ copies and still selling out around the world!



    Ten days after Windows 7's October 22 launch, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said:
    "Certainly we’ve seen initial sales be fantastic. The first ten days were bigger than the first ten days of XP or Vista or any other Windows launch that we have done."
    All Things Digital's John Paczkowski responded with Well, What Did You Expect Him to Say? Windows 7 Is Selling Poorly?. Needless to say, similar pronouncements by Steve Jobs about iPhones/iPods/Macs/OS X would've resulted in a media frenzy of epic proportions.

    During the first month, Windows 7 sprinted past the total market share of all versions of Apple's OS X according to Internet metrics vendor Net Applications.

    Six months after its launch, Windows 7 has sold more than 100 million copies, becoming the fastest selling OS ever. The OS claimed a 10% share of the PC market in February (Macs included). Not surprisingly, Windows revenues have grown 28% in the last quarter, as reported by CFO Peter Klein during last week's earnings announcement.

    Interestingly, Apple's clever Mac v/s PC advertising seems to have run its course. "I'm a PC" is in! Along with the laptop hunter ads, it proves clever advertising isn't the exclusive domain of one company. InfoWorld's "Save XP" campaign has faded into oblivion (along with its infamous desktop computing expert, and his alterego).

    Using Windows 7 is a pleasure. The user experience is top-notch. The performance is unquestionably better than its predecessors. Nobody's having driver issues. Everything just works. And writing about Windows flaws doesn't sell any magazines or boost pageviews for tech publications.
  • Ever had an Exchange Disk Performance Issue? Try This..

    http://blogs.msdn.com/ntdebugging/archive/2010/04/22/etw-storport.aspx

    A fantastic new way in Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2 to gather information on how your server is performing with your storage…

  • Outlook Anywhere simply runs best on Windows 2008 R2..

     Greg Smith recently released this very detailed breakdown of Exchange performance when hosted on Server 2008R2 when compaired to Server 2008SP2.  The findings are quite simply incredible.  Please read on and let me know what you think;

    We recently compared the performance of the Exchange 2010 Client Access role supporting Outlook Anywhere users on both Windows 2008 SP2 and Windows 2008 R2, and found that the improvements the Windows Team has made in R2 more than doubles the number of concurrent users a given server can support, assuming CPU is the limiting resource.

    Our Client Access Server was an 8-core Xeon server (2L5335 Xeon 4-core processors @2 GHz, a 2007 chip design) running on Windows 2008 R2 with 16 GB of RAM. It was supported by: two servers running the Mailbox role, with 16 databases per server; a Hub Transport server; and an Active Directory server.

    Users were simulated from 10 client machines, running Exchange Load Generator 2010, using the Outlook 2007 Cached module and the OutlookAnywhere_100 profile (formerly known as the 'Heavy Profile' - 20 sends and 80 receives per day).

    We found the CPU consumed per user (MHz/user) increased linearly on both Windows 2008 SP2 and Windows 2008 R2. However, as shown on the graph below, the slope is 10 times smaller on Windows 2008 R2. The cost of the Exchange processes, dominated by the Microsoft.Exchange.RPCClientAccess.Service process, was independent of operating system.

    The Windows RPC/HTTP team has made many performance fixes in R2, so the dramatic improvement compared to Windows 2008 SP2 is expected. Since the improvements are in the operating system, we expect the same improvement with Exchange 2007 SP3.

    Since we have an increasing cost/user, to make predictions about the total CAS CPU consumed we fit the data with a parabola. We consider the server 'full' when it runs at 75% total CPU, or in this case when 12 GHz is consumed. From these fits we estimate that on Windows 2008 R2 this server could support about 14,000 Outlook Anywhere Users, compared to about 6,500 on Windows 2008 SP2. Note that this assumes that CPU is the limiting resource on the Client Access Server, and as there is uncertainty in any projection we strongly advise you to run your own tests before putting servers into production.

    This operating system comparison was done using Basic Auth. A comparison between Basic and NTLM authentication on Windows 2008 R2 results in a very small 2% reduction in Outlook Anywhere users supported.

    The cost per user of the other roles, all running Window2008 SP2, was basically flat above 3,000 users (only data from the CAS R2 Basic Auth runs are included here) so sizing those roles is straightforward.

    Similar runs targeting other protocols (Outlook, Outlook Web Access, Internet Mail Access Protocol 4 (IMAP4), Exchange Web Services (Entourage simulation), Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) and Exchange ActiveSync) showed no differences between the two operating systems. However, if you are supporting Outlook Anywhere users, Windows 2008 R2 is definitely the operating system to use.

    These results will be included in an upcoming TechNet whitepaper on Exchange 2010 CAS Guidance.

  • Exchange 2007 Storage Calculator Updated... Finally! Get it HERE

    Well, It’s been well over a year, but we have finally updated the Exchange 2007 Mailbox Server Role Storage Requirements Calculator to coincide with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange 2007 Performance Benchmarking Guide whitepaper update. 

    Take a look at the Updates Tracking page to see what is changed and  download the revised version. 

    The main article has also been updated.

  • PFDAVAdmin - The Ambiguous SID issue - Fixed HERE!

    With the release of the new PFDAVAdmin a few weeks ago, some customers started running into an “Ambiguous SID” error when trying to add the Everyone group or Anonymous group in the permissions window. The error looks like this:

    error

    When you add a new entity to the permissions window, PFDAVAdmin looks up all objects with that SID to make sure it is unique. However, in some cases it’s actually normal to have more than one object with an ObjectSid that matches the Everyone or Anonymous SID. You should always have one in the configuration context under CN=WellKnown Security Principals, but many environments will also have one in the domain context under CN=Foreign Security Principals. This is when PFDAVAdmin finds two matches for these SIDs, and it chokes.

    If you’re getting this error with something other than Everyone or Anonymous, then you can use the following Powershell script to figure out which objects match the SID in question.

    # Find-Sid.ps1
    #
    # The purpose of this script is to find all objects that have a
    # given SID in objectSid, sidHistory, or msExchMasterAccountSid.
    #
    # Syntax:
    #
    # .\Find-Sid <sid>
    #
    # Example:
    #
    # .\Find-Sid S-1-1-0

    param([string]$sidString)

    $gcRootDSE = [ADSI]"GC://RootDSE"
    $gcRoot = [ADSI]("GC://" + $gcRootDSE.dnsHostName)

    $sid = new-object System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier($sidString)
    [byte[]]$sidBytes = ,0 * $sid.BinaryLength
    $sid.GetBinaryForm($sidBytes, 0)

    $byteString = ""
    for ($x = 0; $x -lt $sidBytes.Length; $x++)
    {
        $byteString = $byteString + "\" + $sidBytes[$x].ToString("X2")
    }

    $filter = "(|(objectSid=" + $byteString + ")(sidHistory=" + $byteString + ")(msExchMasterAccountSid=" + $byteString + "))"
    $searcher = new-object System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher($gcRoot, $filter, @("distinguishedName"), [System.DirectoryServices.SearchScope]::Subtree)
    $results = $searcher.FindAll()

    "Matching objects:"
    foreach ($result in $results)
    {
        $result.Properties["distinguishedname"]
    }

  • OFF TOPIC - Starting your own business - become a 5 to 9'er - Heres How!

    Working 5 to 9 book cover Emma Jones

    So, this post is completely off topic but worth sharing as it seems to be a very popular topic right now and good, reliable tips are hard to find in this area  :)

    There are over 5 million people doing it and today a book is launched to help many more follow in their footsteps. We’re talking about ‘Working 5 to 9’ which involves holding down a day job and building a business at nights and weekends. The book’s author, Emma Jones, offers eight steps showing how you can do the same.

     

    Don’t give up the day job (just yet) start by ‘Working 5 to 9’

    If you are in a job but not sure for how much longer, or wanting to turn a skill/hobby/passion into a way of making some extra cash, then you’re a perfect candidate for becoming a 5 to 9’er. This is the name I apply to the millions of entrepreneurial people who are employee/mum/student by day and working on building a business, in their spare time. It’s a great way to become your own boss as you give yourself time to build confidence – and the all-important cashflow. Here’s how to get started:

     

    Find an idea – in the book I offer 50 ideas for businesses you can start in your spare time and they range from book publisher to personal trainer, toymaker to rare breed pig farmer, and all else in between. Come up with an idea that is a) connected to your hobby/passion/skill or b) fills a gap in the market or c) is something you see someone else doing and think you can do better yourself.   

     

    Make a plan – with your idea in mind, make a plan. It need only cover four pages or so to include your idea, how you’re going to promote the business, ways of getting your product or service to market and the financials that show a profit at the end of the day. There’s a template in the book for a basic business plan that will help you draft this.  

     

    Promote thyself! – promote the business and watch sales roll in. Issue a press release, host an event, enter an award and have profiles on well-populated platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Your marketing will set you up as an expert in your field, and in the book I show how you can do this without spending a single penny.  

     

    Make the most of technology – the book carries a good number of tips on this topic. Have the business work whilst you’re at work with a website that attracts an audience and makes it clear and easy to buy. Time is your most important asset when working 5 to 9 so make the most of it by using web-based email systems, time tracking software and Sky+ to ensure you catch up with all your favourite shows!

     

    Create space – have space in the house that is reserved as your office/work area and adorn it with furnishings and items that increase productivity; a vision board, decent sound system, and a sturdy desk and chair.

     

    Tell the boss – so long as you’re not doing anything that is in competition to your day job (and out of all the 60 profiled 5 to 9’ers in my book, not one of them was) then it is wise to tell your boss you’re earning outside office hours. In the book I outline how to go about this conversation and conclude that most employers see working 5 to 9 as a good thing as you are gaining new skills, with the employer realising the benefits, without having to pay for the training.

     

    Tell the taxman – we have a duty to inform the tax man of activities within three months of trading. Registration is straightforward and the book will guide you if you’re at the point of considering whether you should set up as a sole trader, partnership or limited company. It also shows how to keep the tax bill as low as possible by claiming business and homeworking expenses.  

     

    Do what you do best and outsource the rest – a strategy that applies throughout your business life, from starting up to growing into a full time venture. Stick to the activity you know best and get help from others in areas such as accounting, admin, sales, fulfilment, PR and marketing. Keep in touch with partners using free or low-cost tools such as Basecamp, Huddle, Glasscubes or Tinychat and the business will run smoothly, and profitably.   

     

    As well as 50 ideas for businesses you can start in your spare time, the book profiles 60 successful 5 to 9’ers. All of them speak about how exciting (and busy!) life has become since they started their part time venture; I hope you will read their stories and be inspired – and then take the tips and advice to become your own boss, in your own time.

     

    Visit www.working5to9.co.uk to learn more about ‘Working 5 to 9 – how to start a successful business in your spare time’  

     

    Emma Jones is founder of Enterprise Nation, a business expert, and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up’ and ‘Working 5 to 9’.

  • Exchange Server 2010 Troubleshooting Issues – Part III

    Common issues seen in Exchange 2007 migrations to Exchange 2010

    • Strange errors may appear during OWA/Outlook Anywhere, Offline Address book management (e.g. Event ID 9519 "Error 0x80004005" in the application event log, etc.).
      • In rare situations, you may need to apply the solution from the link above, to “Exchange Enterprise Servers” group (e.g. Give the group the user right to”Manage auditing and security log” in the domain controllers GPO) – I saw this issue when the original Exchange 2007 server was installed on a domain controller!
    • After creating a new Exchange 2010 database, the new database will not mount and the following error may appear in the application log: “Active Directory operation failed on <<Name of DC>>. This error is not retrievable. Additional information: The name reference is invalid. This may be caused by replication latency between Active Directory domain controllers. Active directory response: 000020B5: AtrErr: DSID-03152392, #1: 0: 000020B5: DSID-03152392, problem 1005 (CONSTRAINT_ATT_TYPE), data 0, Att 200f4 (homeMDB)”
      • This issue also appears in customer environments with only a single domain, so if you see this I recommended you review the steps below;
        • Use the following options when creating a new Exchange 2010 database:
          • Create a new Exchange 2010 database without mounting it.  Allow for AD replication.  If DB will still not mount, continue with the next steps;
          •  Use powershell to force the Exchange 2010 to use a preferred local domain controller: "Set-ADServerSettings –PreferredServer "mydomaincontrollername.domainname.local"
          • Mount the database by using the following powershell command: "Mount-Database -Identity "Second Mailbox Store" -DomainController mydomaincontrollername.domainname.local"
  • Hyper-V Best Practise Analyzer is now available for Server 2008R2!

    The hype-v BPA is now available for download from the Microsoft Download Site, linked here

    So, what is Best Practices Analyzer?

    But what is it?  How do you use it?  And why should you care?

    The Hyper-V Best Practice Analyzer is a tool that will scan your Hyper-V server and let you know if there are any common best practices that you are not following.  To use it you just need to download and install the update (from the above link) and then open Server Manager.

    When you select the entry for Hyper-V under the Roles node you should see a new section called Best Practice Analyzer:

    image

    Here you can select to scan the Hyper-V role and see how you are going against common best practices.

    While this might sound boring – I have found this tool to be quite useful.  When I ran it on my server at home it alerted me to the fact that I had a virtual machine where I had not updated the integration components to the latest version.

    One other neat feature of the Best Practice Analyzer is the ability to exclude results.  This way you can remove best practices that you do not believe apply to your environment – so you will not have to deal with a large number of unnecessary errors / warnings.

    So go grab it and try it out on your Hyper-V server!

  • Exchange Server 2010 Troubleshooting Issues – Part II

    Best practices in Exchange 2010 deployment

    • Before kicking off the actual implementation stage, verify that the required third party products in your company (e.g. Antivirus, Backup, etc.) support Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2.  Remeber you may well be able to cut some licence cosots with new functionality now available in Exchange 2010 - backupless exchange on JBOD, online archive etc, etc. 
    • Although you can install Exchange 2010 on Windows 2008 x64, I strongly recommend using Windows 2008 R2 as it provides a higher performance and greater flexabilty.  A really strong "better together" story. 
    • To use all Exchange 2010 features, you may need to upgrade the clients to use Outlook 2010, or move to an Outlook Web App model.  This is today an obvious issue and potentially a project blocker if you need online archive access etc.  Exchange 2010Sp1 is almost here and with it a good number of new feature enhancements and funtionality porting. 
    • Exchange 2010 works in RAM to complete as much of its workload as possible, we have dropped our IOPs to a level where we can support JBOD!. I really recommend adding sufficent RAM to the server by estimating the future overhead on the server.  Make sure you do your calculations with real world data gathered from the current environment.  Make sure you use the latest version of the Storage Calculator to get the best numbers.
    • Microsoft is doing a great job and is completely focused on fixing the identifed issues within Exchange 2010. Please ensure you upgrade the environment to the latest patch roll up or service pack before starting the move of mailboxes to the new Exchange 2010 environemnt
    • Use Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise edition, so you can expand your Exchange 2010 DAG beyond 5 databases as your organisation grows.
    • Using Microsoft Best Practice analyzer on a schyeduled basis to help you find any possible new or growing issues in your environment.
    • Microsoft has now released the tool “Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer” that can help you to map the current Exchange 2003/2007 environement.  This is a very good tool to help identify issues and showstoppers prior to installing the first Exchange 2010 server.  Use it!  You can download this tool from this link.
    • Review Exchange 2010 System Requirements, before starting the Exchange deployment project.
  • HOWTO increase the Logging Levels in Exchange 2003,2007 and 2010

    Im often asked about logging levels in Exchange and to be fair to my customers, when I'm not asked I will always turn the tables and start the discussion.  Logging is an important troubleshooting step, and when implimented correctly can also become a powerful pro-active mechanism to help identify issues before they become show stoppers.

    In Exchange 2003:

    There are two options to increase the Logging levels in Exchange 2003.

    Option 1:

    Over the Exchange System Manager,  the highest level of logging can be set to “Maximum” which means Level 5.

    Open Exchange System Manager – Administrative Group - Server Properties –  Diagnostics Logging, select the desired component and select one of the Logging levels:

     

    image

     

    Option 2:

    Over the Registry, the highest level of logging can be set to 7 (debug):

    The settings have to be done under:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-> System-> CurrentControlSet-> Services->

    And from here the desired component has to be selected and a value of 7 inserted.

     

    Here is an example of enabling the Logging for the Transport component:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-> System-> CurrentControlSet-> Services-> <MSExchangeTransport -> Diagnostics

    Right clicking any of the Keys and select “Modify”

    clip_image004

     

    Inserting the value 7 and clicking OK brings the Logging to the highest level that the logging can be set.

     

    Note: After the Logging is increased, slow performance issues might appear on a server, therefore it is recommended to increase the Application Log size to 16 MB, otherwise the log might be rewritten.

    Note: Increasing the Logging will bring the server to also log many additional errors which do no have anything to do with the initial issue, but these errors can most of the times be ignored.

    ==============================================================================

    Increasing the Logging on an Exchange 2007 and/or an Exchange 2010 Server:

    On an Exchange 2007/2010 Server there are 3 ways to increase the logging:

    Option 1:

    Increase the Logging using a Powershell command.

    Open the Exchange Management Shell (Start, All Programs, Microsoft Exchange Server).

    Running the Get-EventLogLevel command shows a list with all Logging components and their current level. By default the logging level is on : ”Lowest”

    image

     

    To increase the logging for a specific component the following command has to run:

    Get-EventLogLevel COMPONENT |Set-EventLoglevel -Level High.

    For example the command “Get-EventLogLevel MSExchangeIS |Set-EventLoglevel -Level High” increases the logging for “MSExchangeIS”

     

    Here is an example of increasing the logging for the Replication:

    Set-EventLogLevel –Level High| Where-Object {$_.identity -like "MSExchangeIS\9001 Public*Replication*"}

    Identity                                                                                                    EventLevel
    --------                                                                                                     ----------
    MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Replication DS Updates                               High
    MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Replication Incoming Messages                   High
    MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Replication Outgoing Messages                   High
    MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Replication NDRs                                         High
    MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Replication Site Folders                                High
    MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Replication Expiry                                         High
    MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Replication Conflicts                                     High
    MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Replication Backfill                                        High
    MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Replication Errors                                          High
    MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Replication General                                       High
    MSExchangeIS\9001 Public\Local Replication                                           High

     

     

    Option 2:

    Increasing the Logging over the Registry:

     

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services

    Select the desired component and set the value of 7.

    For Example increasing the value for “Send As”:

     

    image

     

    Option 3:

    Increasing the logging using the Exchange Management Console (In Exchange 2007 this is available only for SP2 or later)

    Open the Exchange Management Console – Server Configuration, right click the server and select Manage Diagnostic Logging Properties as shown below:

    image

    Select the desired component and place it on the necessary level.

    image

     

     

    Note: Increasing the Logging will bring the server to also log many additional errors which do no have anything to do with the initial issue, but these errors can most of the times be ignored.

    Note: After the Logging is increased, slow performance issues might appear on a server, therefore it is recommended to increase the Application Log size to 16 MB, otherwise the log might be rewritten.

  • about

    Currently working for Microsoft Denmark as a Senior Messaging Consultant.  Focused on MS Exchange large scale, genrally complex  migrations.  Solid understanding of all things UC.
  • HOWTO Enable Telnet in Windows 7 and Vista

    Telnet is a well known reliable protocol to communicate with different network hosts.It provides a bidirectional interactive communication facility between two hosts. If you want to use the Telnet application in Windows 7 then please note that it is not enabled by default. To enable it, you will have to go through the following steps.

    First of all click Start, and choose the Control Panel option, now choose the program option from here.

    Control Panel

    Here locate and choose the Turn Windows features on or off option under the Programs and Features category.

    Control Panel Program

    The Windows Feature dialogue box will be launched, from here you can manage many of the features in Windows . You will see two options here, Telnet Client (connects to remote computer by using Telnet protocol) and Telnet Server (allows others to connect to your computer by using the Telnet protocol ), enable whichever option that you need.  For contacting Exchange you only need the client.

    Telnet Enable

    Click the OK button and that’s it. Use this TechNet article to send an email using Telnet, always very useful when troubleshooting.

  • Exchange Server 2010 Troubleshooting Issues – Part I

    The following article will provide a summary on common issues in Exchange 2010 deployment in the Enterprise. The information in this article consists of my own experience and official Microsoft knowledgebase articles. Due to the fact that your Exchange environments will all vary, please read the information carefully and test the suggestions from this article - in a lab that can demonstrate the current Exchange infrastructure.

    The blogs will be is divided into the following chapters:

    1. General issues in Exchange 2010 deployment.

    2. Best practices in Exchange 2010 deployment.

    3. Common issues in Exchange 2007 migration to Exchange 2010.

    4. Common issues in Exchange 2003 migration to Exchange 2010.

    General issues in Exchange 2010 deployment

    This is a 'Live List" that I will be adding to as I see issues arise in this area;

  • Windows Phone 7 Email and Office Experience - See it HERE!!

    Take a look at the two new videos on Windows Phone 7 -  I'm very exciting about what’s coming – looks really user friendly - and about time!!!

    Enjoy.

    imageimage

    http://blogs.msdn.com/stevecla01/archive/2010/04/28/office-and-email-on-windows-phone-7.aspx

  • DPM 2010 has reached RTM! Product Code and Install Guide Here!!

    Great news… the product is now RTM, refer the DPM Blog for details

    The RTM Evaluation Software for DPM 2010 is available at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/bb727240.aspx

    A single DPM server can protect –

    • 100 production servers
    • 1,000 Windows clients
    • 2,000 SQL databases
    • 25TB SharePoint farms containing 1M items
    • 40TB Exchange databases

    my experience of the step by step installation -

    Software Prerequisites

    The DPM 2010 installation will guide you through the installation of the following prerequisites:

    • PowerShell 2.0 Community Technology Preview 3 (CTP3)
    • .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
    • Windows Installer (MSI) 4.5
    • Windows Single Instance Store (SIS)

    The following table lists additional DPM prerequisites for the supported operating systems.

    Supported OS

    Required Prerequisites Software

    Windows Server 2008

    Windows PowerShell 2.0 CTP3 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=150631)

    Windows Server 2008 R2

    No required prerequisites are required. All prerequisites are preinstalled on the operating system.

    Note: You must restart the computer to complete the installation of the prerequisite software. After restarting the computer, restart DPM Setup.

    Other Considerations

    · The computer on which you install DPM must be a member of a domain.

    · You must have administrative privileges to install DPM.

    · You cannot install DPM on the following:

    • Management Server for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager
    • Application server
    • A computer with cluster services enabled

    Step by step screenshot

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    Once the reboot was done (post SIS install) -

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    I am using the local SQL 2008 SP1 for the DB

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    Once the components are installed, it will be better to reboot the server and then start with the Configuration of the DPM server (using the Management tab to install agents, add disks and libraries)

    I hope I was able to share how the product will be installed.

    ACTION for YOU : DOWNLOAD and Install the EVAL mentioned above at the link

    Happy INSTALLING DPM2010

  • Office 2010 has now reached RTM!

    Office 2010 has finally reached RTM, which means that Outlook 2010 will now soon be available - this is great news as Exchange 2010 has a number of really great features that are pretty much dependent on Outlook 2010 (mailtips, online archive, etc.)  Out in the field I have been very much in the "chicken and egg" situation where customers love the new features but without the client support the buisness case is understandably weak.  Now to see which will hit the streets first - Exch2010SP1 or Office 2010...

    "The upcoming release of the Microsoft Office 2010 suites presents a major new opportunity for partners to provide the best business productivity experience for their customers. Office 2010 and related products will deliver innovative capabilities and provide new levels of flexibility and choice that will help customers work anywhere with Office web applications; collaborate better with Microsoft Office and SharePoint 2010; and bring ideas to life with video and picture editing and broadcast capabilities with Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, amongst a host of other features. Microsoft Office 2010 RTM was announced on Friday, 16th April, for more details of this announcement please click here."

    Regards

    John 

     

  • New Exchange 2010 installation guide templates

    I get asked if we have any step by step Exchange 2010 deployment templates/documents available anywhere on the web. The nice part about these guides are they are in Word format so you can build your own production build out documentation for your Exchange 2010 deployment.  The guide pack contains build info for all roles and DAG config.

    Download the newly released step by step install docs for Exchange 2010 here.

    Here is a sample of the type of Step by Step from the CAS NLB Installation Word template:

    "The values used in NLB must be the same across all nodes in the NLB cluster.  The values specified here will ensure that the Windows Network Load Balancing array can load-balance HTTPS (TCP443), IMAP4 (TCP143 and TCP993), POP3 (TCP110 and TCP995), RPC Endpoint Mapper (TCP135), Address Book service (TCP7576), and RPC Client Access (TCP7575).

    Note:

    The instructions use TCP7575 and TCP7576 for the Address Book and RPC Client Access services, but you can use any TCP high ports that are available within the environment.

    1.   Connect to the server via Remote Desktop, and then log on with an account that has been delegated local administrative access.

    2.   Install Network Load Balancing for your operating system:

    a.   Windows Server 2008 SP2   Open an administrative command prompt window and run the following command:

    ServerManagerCmd.exe -i NLB

    b.   Windows Server 2008 R2   Open an elevated Windows PowerShell console, and run the following commands:

    Import-Module ServerManager Add-WindowsFeature NLB

    3.   Click Start>Administrative Tools, and then right-click Network Load Balancing Manager.

    4.   Click Cluster-New.

    5.   In the New Cluster wizard, enter the local server’s computer name, click Connect and then select the appropriate network connection.

    6.   Click Next.

    7.   In the Host Parameters section, verify the host’s IP address and subnet mask.

    8.   Click Next.

    9.   In the Cluster IP Address section, click Add and enter:

    a.   IP Address

    b.   Subnet Mask

    10.  Click Next.

    11.  In the Cluster Parameters section, enter in the Full Internet Name (for example, mail.contoso.com) that will be used by the cluster and make sure Unicast is selected."

     

    Hope this helps - Feedback with you guide experinces, thanks 

     

  • Update Rollup 10 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Update Rollup 3 for Exchange 2007 SP2 and Update Rollup 3 for Exchange 2010 have been released - Links HERE!

    MIcrosoft has released the following update for Exchange Server:

    Security Update for Exchange 2000 Server (KB976703)

    Security Update for Exchange 2003 SP2 (KB976702)

    Update Rollup 10 for Exchange 2007 SP1 (KB981407)

    Update Rollup 4 for Exchange 2007 SP2 (KB981383)

    Update Rollup 3 for Exchange 2010 (KB981401)

     

    Download information for Security Update for Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 3

    The update is live at:

    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e47c90a0-c9c8-43b7-bec7-34107ddde294&displaylang=en

    http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=976703

     

    Download information for Security Update for Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2

    The update is live at:

    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=bc8391f8-5335-496b-ad4c-bae38509be4a&displaylang=en

    http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=976702

     

    Download information for Update Rollup 10 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1

    The update is live at:

    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6a894b4e-12b6-4a91-9555-d813956b6aac&displaylang=en

    http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=981407

     

    Download information for Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2

    The update is live at:

    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=b8f7f872-16d5-49d6-9867-adc01351c06f&displaylang=en

    http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=981383

     

    Download information for Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2010

    The update is live at:

    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7dcf2390-dff7-4e3a-acca-03f4d43fb79a&displaylang=en

    http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=981401

     

    The above updates have also been released to Microsoft update today. - So they might take 24hrs to replicate around the download sites!!!

     

    List of issues fixed in the Update rollups

    Update Rollups for Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2 and Exchange Server 2010 RTM:

    Refer to the Exchange rollup page at http://exse/exchangerolluppage/exchangerollup.aspx. Select desired RU under the drop down “Select Rollup”.

     

    Fixes for security issue

    A security issue has been identified in Exchange Server 2007 as documented in http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS10-024.mspx

    Customers running Exchange Server 2007 SP1 need to apply Update Rollup 10 for Exchange 2007 SP1 to address the security issue.

    Customers running Exchange Server 2007 SP2 need to apply Update Rollup 4 for Exchange 2007 SP2 to address the security issue.

    Customers running Exchange Server 2010 RTM need to apply Update Rollup 3 for Exchange 2010 RTM to address the security issue.

    Customers must only download and install the latest update rollup for the specific version of Exchange 2007 they are running.

  • Exchange Server 2010 SP1 - Its coming - Details HERE!!

    The latest from EHLO; 

    While we appreciate all the positive feedback we've received on Exchange Server 2010, we know you all are eager to find out what's been going on in Redmond since November. Today, we are happy to give you a first look at what's coming later this year in Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1).

    SP1 will include fixes and tweaks in areas you've helped us identify, including a roll-up of the roll-ups we've released to date. I also wanted to flag some of the feature enhancements we're excited to bring to you with SP1 including: archiving and discovery enhancements, Outlook Web App (OWA) improvements, mobile user and management improvements, and some highly sought after additional UI for management tasks. This is not an all-inclusive list, so stay tuned for the detailed list coming soon!

    In addition to sharing these details with you, I'm pleased to let you know that we'll be offering a beta of SP1 for download in parallel with TechEd North America this June. This will give you a chance to test drive SP1 and prepare for its official release.

    Archiving and Discovery Enhancements

    With the release of Exchange Server 2010 last November, we introduced integrated archiving capabilities aimed at helping you preserve and discover e-mail data. In SP1, we've enhanced this archiving functionality based on the great feedback you've given us since our launch. This includes adding the flexibility to provision a user's Personal Archive to a different mailbox database from their primary mailbox. This means your organization can now more easily implement separate storage strategies (or tiered storage) for less frequently accessed e-mail. And, we didn't just stop there! We've also added new server side capabilities so you can import historical e-mail data from .PST files, directly into Exchange, as well as IT pro controls to enable delegate access to a user's Personal Archive.

    To help streamline the implementation of retention policies, SP1 updates the Exchange Management Console with new tools to create Retention Policy Tags, so you can automate the deletion and archiving of e-mail and other Exchange items. New optional Retention Policy Tags give you even more flexibility in defining your organizations retention management strategy.

    Lastly, we've made several improvements to the Multi-Mailbox Search features, which can be used to conduct e-Discovery of e-mail for legal, regulatory or other reasons. A new search preview helps with, for example, early case assessment by providing you an estimate on the number of items in the result set-with keyword statistics-before e-mail located in the search are copied to the designated discovery mailbox. And, you now have a new search result de-duplication option, that when checked, only copies one instance of a message to the discovery mailbox. This can help you reduce the amount of e-mail you need to review following the search. Finally, added support for annotation of reviewed items means you can make your e-Discovery workflow even more efficient and less time consuming or costly.

    For those of you that have been holding your breath for this one, we're also happy to let you know that in SP1 timeframe, there will be an update which will enable us to support access to a user's Personal Archive with Outlook 2007.

    Watch the embedded video to hear from the Exchange team's Ann Vu and Ian Hameroff talk about the investments we've made around archiving in Exchange 2010.

    Learn more about our approach to archiving by reading the Archiving with Exchange 2010 whitepaper.

    Outlook Web App - Better Than Ever

    We didn't stop working with archiving and discovery, OWA gets a significant facelift with SP1 as well. With new work to pre-fetch message content, the OWA reading experience becomes faster. With delete, mark as read, and categorize operations running asynchronously, these actions feel instantaneous to the user. We've also made sure that certain long running operations, such as attaching a very large file, will not block the rest of the OWA experience, protecting the user from irritating web UI hang-ups. You'll see a number of other UI improvements as well to de-clutter a bit; helping make it easier to find common tasks with updated action icons and menus. The simpler UI will make OWA much friendlier to the smaller screens of ever popular Netbooks. Users will also be able to share their calendars to anonymous viewers via the web, assuming you enable this functionality as the admin.

    In RTM, we delivered Information Rights Management (IRM) capabilities in OWA, allowing you to read and compose IRM-protected messages just like you've been able to do with Outlook in the past. In SP1, you'll be able to add Web-Ready Document Viewing of IRM-protected documents as well and you'll be able to do so in Safari on a Mac as well as in Firefox or IE on a PC.

    Finally, for those of you who have been dying to change the look and feel of OWA, we're bringing OWA themes back; adding several OWA themes so you can match the OWA experience to your particular style. Oh yeah, and yes, the reading pane can be placed on the bottom or the right side.

    All The Mobility, All the Time

    While Exchange Active Sync (EAS) has become the de facto standard for mobile communication, there is no resting on any laurels in Redmond here either. In SP1, mobile users will be treated with tether-free IRM support in EAS, enabling you to send and receive IRM-protected mail without having previously connected your device to Windows Mobile Device Center to provision IRM. Updated EAS capabilities also enable support for send-as, support for notifying the user if their device has been placed on block or quarantine by their admin, full implementation of conversation view including the ability to sync only unique parts of messages. Also, for those users who need help setting up their mobile device to access mail via POP/IMAP/SMTP, we've added information in OWA to provide them the server names for these services. For those of you who haven't already seen Michael Higashi's blog post from March, take a look to read about all the updated Outlook Mobile capabilities already delivered.

    New Management UI

    We know you all love PowerShell, as do we, but SP1 will bring several new management UI enhancements to enable a number of management tasks in the Exchange Management Console (EMC) and Exchange Control Panel (ECP). Here's a taste:

    • Create/configure Retention Tags + Retention Policies in EMC
    • Configure Transport Rules in ECP
    • Configure Journal Rules in ECP
    • Configure MailTips in ECP
    • Provision and configure the Personal Archive in ECP
    • Configure Litigation Hold in ECP & EMC
    • Configure Allow/Block/Quarantine mobile device policies in ECP
    • RBAC role management in ECP
    • Configure Database Availability Group (DAG) IP Addresses and Alternate Witness Server in EMC
    • Recursive public folder settings management (including permissions) in EMC

    Many of the improvements we are delivering in the SP1 are in direct response to the feedback you've provided since RTM. I am excited about how, in a very short period time, we've been able to quickly respond and introduce these improvements and innovation to Exchange 2010. A full list of what's coming in SP1 will be on TechNet soon.

     

     

  • New support statement issued for OCS2007R2 - Get it HERE!

    Microsoft have release a new support statement regarding OCS2007R2 and Server 2008R2.  Follow the link for details.