It seems currently there are so many different versions of Windows/Active Directory we can all easily get confused to what Exchange Server version is supported on which OS/Active Directory.
Luckily there is a support matrix that explains this very clearly!

Below is a screenshot of the Active Directory Support Matrix (Double click below to see the full matrix)

On this page there is information for Support Matrix:

• Release Model
• Supported Operating System Platforms
• Supported Active Directory Environments
• Web Browsers That Are Supported for Use with the Premium Version of Outlook Web Access
• Web Browsers That Are Supported for Use with the Basic Version of Outlook Web Access µ
• Web Browsers That Are Supported for the Use of S/MIME with Outlook Web Access
• Clients
• The Microsoft .NET Framework
• Windows PowerShell
• Microsoft Management Console
• Windows Installer

Exchange Server Supportability Matrix:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee338574.aspx

Windows Server 2008 R2 introduces a new command-line utility, DISM, the Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool.    One of DISM’s many useful features is the ability to use its edition-servicing commands to upgrade an R2 installation without requiring install media.  This is functionally equivalent to Windows Anytime Upgrade in a Windows 7 client install, and can be performed on both an online or offline image, and on both full Server and Server Core installations.

Upgrades using the edition servicing method are quick, and don’t require a full reinstall of the operating system.  Deployed roles and features, and other characteristics (machine name, user and admin accounts, etc) are persisted forward.     Because the target editions are staged within the image, only the updates necessary to move from edition to the next are applied.

The upgrade options are limited to edition families, and are irreversible – you can’t downgrade once you’ve gone up an edition.  Additionally, you can’t move from full Server to Server Core (or vice versa).

The supported upgrade paths are:

·         Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard -> Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise -> Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter

·         Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Server Core -> Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Server Core -> Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Server Core

·         Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation -> Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard

The tool essential for this process, DISM.exe, is included in every installation of Windows Server 2008 R2, and the general usage for online and offline use is documented on TechNet here:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744380(WS.10).aspx

One scenario that we sometimes use internally is the online upgrading of Hyper-V hosts.  If you decide that you want to move from Enterprise’s 4 VM limit to Datacenter’s support for an unlimited number of VMs, you can migrate the VMs to another host, upgrade the old host in less than thirty minutes, and then immediately migrate the VMs back once the process is complete.  There’s no need to take the whole server offline or rebuild from scratch.

The syntax for DISM is fairly straightforward.  From an elevated command prompt, you can query for the current edition, for possible target editions, and initiate the upgrade.  To upgrade, you need to provide a valid 25-character product key for the edition to which you’re upgrading.

After running the /Set-Edition command, DISM will prepare the operating system for the edition servicing operation, then reboot twice while it applies the changes to the operating system.  After the final reboot, you’ll be running the new edition!

Though this is not a direct Exchange post, I hope many of you will find this video I was pointed to, Hypervisor is not running error: How to fix (http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/details/25d07f2e-b2e0-4c0c-b456-79b08bfe58be), interesting.  Since Im guessing most of us do our testing in a virtual environment, its good to pass along the info.  Please leave comments here or on the video site, thanks

On October, 6th 2009 - Microsoft announced the new launch of 30 new Windows Mobile 6.5 phones.   You can read the official press release or read the announcement on the official team blog.

Two new additional services have also launched: 

My Phone, a free service that syncs data from a phone -- like pictures, music and text messages -- to a Web portal for safe keeping. If a phone is stolen, left behind, sandwiched between couch cushions or otherwise lost, My Phone can locate it, ring it (even if on vibrate), lock it or wipe it clean of personal information. And when you buy a new Windows phone, My Phone will restore contacts, photos, videos and messages right back to the new device.

Windows Marketplace for Mobile,  Discover apps that unlock the power of your Windows® phone, Shop securely and with confidence and download instantly to your phone.  

 For further information visit the Product Website where you can also access additional downloads free extras.

One of the really cool new features of Exchange 2010 is the ability to provide high-availability for all 4 server roles by using just 2 actual machines. There are definitely some caveats, like the fact that you need a hardware load-balancer to distribute inbound request to the CAS and HT roles (NLB simply doesn’t play well with our replication tech at the moment) but I honestly think we’ll see a greater adoption of high-availability using a multi rolled CAS/HT/MBX in the smaller or midsize business space with this model. HA for the masses, that can only be good news for everyone.

The 2010 DAG feature is shares some similarities with 2007’s CCR. One area is that it also requires a file share witness to act as a voting mechanism. Since your two Exchange servers are part of the DAG, one of the limits is neither can actually host the witness share. In this case you’ll need a 3rd server to act as the file share witness which would normally if possible be another Exchange server. In my lab set up the only other server I had was a domain controller so I decided to use that as my FSW instead of standing up another server. When I ran through DAG wizard I received the following error;

Warning: Specified witness server ‘DC01.test.com’ is not an Exchange server, or part of the Exchange Servers security group.

Warning: Insufficient permissions to access file shares on witness server ‘DC01.test.com’ Until this problem is corrected, the database availability group may be more vulnerable to failures. You can use the Set-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup cmdlet to try the operation again. Error: Access is denied

The DAG is still created, but really doesn’t have the FSW ability at this point. The first warning is also a little confusing because the problem actually lies in the Exchange Trusted Sub system group permissions, not the Exchange Servers security group. You can follow the steps below to resolve this and get your DC to act as FSW:

·       Add your domain controller’s computer account to Exchange Trusted Subsystem group in AD.

·       Add the Exchange Trusted Subsystem group to the Builtin\Administrators group of the domain.

Obviously the second change isn’t ideal and if you’re going to use the DAG features I’d really recommend putting your FSW folder on something other than a DC, our best practise recommendation in this area has not changed from Exchange 2007 – Hub servers.

At this point this issue should be resolved and you should see the FSW folder and share created on DC01.

I also found that if I created the folder on the DC ahead of time and then ran the DAG wizard it would fail because the folder and share permissions were not correct. The best action here is to not create the FSW folder or share ahead of time and just let the cmd-let take care of the hard work.

Hope this helps,  John 

I have had a large number of customer requests asking for help to clarify our support stance - so here goes;
 

The news was initially made public via the Microsoft Exchange Team blog when discussing rollup 9 for Exchange Server 2007 service pack 1

Specifically, the Exchange Team note that one of the fixes in the RU is “Support for Windows Server 2008 R2 Domain Controllers in the environment” adding the disclaimer “Note: Exchange Server 2007 itself is not supported to be installed on a Windows Server 2008R2 system.”

The blog permits reader comments and one reader, “Tony” asked “I have a Windows Server 2008 x64 server running Exchange Server 2007 x64. The Windows Server is also a Domain Controller. When Windows Server 2008 R2 comes out will I be able to upgrade the server to R2?”

The Exchange Team respond, “Exchange Server 2007 will not be supported to run on Windows Server 2008R2. So for the system which is running Windows Server 2008 + Exchange Server 2007, you cannot upgrade the platform to Windows Server 2008R2.

If you have a domain controller which does not run Exchange, you can upgrade it to Windows Server 2008R2 since it is a supported scenario to run against Windows Server 2008 R2.”

This means companies who have been planning an early migration to Windows Server 2008R2 need to proceed with some caution. You should revise plans to recognise your Exchange Server 2007 system cannot have its operating system upgraded without simultaneously upgrading to Exchange Server 2010, so in reality a migration project will need to be scoped.

This also means that companies contemplating an Exchange Server 2007 rollout should consider their plans and determine whether this information affects their proposed roadmap.  Exchange Server 2010 is strongly expected to be Generally Available within a couple of months.

In Exchange 2007 and previous versions, Exchange used the cluster resource management model to install, implement and manage the Mailbox server high availability solution, so we were completely reliant on the cluster manager. Historically, building a highly available Mailbox server involved first building a Windows Failover Cluster, and then running Exchange Setup in clustered mode on the top. In this mode, the Exchange cluster resource DLL, exres.dll, would be registered and allow the creation of a clustered mailbox server or CMS (called an Exchange Virtual Server in Exchange 2003).

Exchange 2010 now uses a new component called Active Manager that provides functionality replacing the resource model and failover management, features provided by integration with the Cluster service in previous versions of Exchange

All Exchange cluster resources provided by exres.dll no longer exist, including the construct known as a clustered mailbox server (CMS). A Windows Failover Cluster is still needed and used by Exchange, but there are no cluster groups for Exchange, and there are no storage resources in the cluster. So, if you examine the cluster using cluster management tools, you’ll see only the core cluster resources (IP Address and Network Name, and if needed, quorum resource). Cluster nodes and networks will also exist, but those are managed by Exchange (DAG Networks) and not the cluster or cluster tools.

Say Hello to PAM and SAM...

Active Manager runs on all Mailbox servers that are members of a database availability group (DAG). There are two Active Manager roles: Primary Active Manager (PAM) and Standby Active Manager (SAM). PAM is the Active Manager in a DAG that decides which database copies will be active and passive. PAM is responsible for getting topology change notifications and reacting to server failures. The DAG member that holds the PAM role is always the member that currently owns the cluster quorum resource (default cluster group). If the server that owns the cluster quorum resource fails, the PAM role automatically moves to a surviving server that takes ownership of the cluster quorum resource. The PAM controls all movement of the active designations between a database's copies. The PAM also performs the functions of the SAM role on the local system (detecting local database and local Information Store failures).

So, what’s SAM up to then?

The SAM provides information on which server hosts the active copy of a mailbox database to other components of Exchange that are running an Active Manager client component (for example, RPC Client Access service or Hub Transport server).  The SAM detects failures of local databases and the local Information Store. It reacts to failures by asking the PAM to initiate a failover (if the database is replicated).  A SAM does not determine the target of failover, nor does it update a database’s location state in the PAM.

Replication, Replication, Replication..

In Exchange 2010, the Microsoft Exchange Replication service periodically monitors the health of all mounted databases. In addition, it also monitors Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) for any I/O errors or failures. When the service detects a failure, it notifies Active Manager (PAM). Active Manager (PAM) then determines which database copy should be mounted and what it requires to mount that database.  In addition, it tracks the active copy of a mailbox database (based on the last mounted copy of the database) and provides the tracking results information to the RPC Client Access component on the Client Access server to which the client is connected.

When the lights go out in database world..

When a failure occurs that affects a replicated mailbox database, the PAM initiates failover logic and selects the best available database copy for activation. PAM uses up to ten separate sets of criteria when locating the best copy to activate. Before using its selection criteria to locate the best copy to activate, a process called attempt copy last logs (ACLL) occurs. Exchange 2010 has been enhanced to deal with multiple database copies, and it recognizes which copy is the best source for copying log files. ACLL makes parallel remote procedure calls to each Mailbox server in the DAG that hosts a copy of the mailbox database to check whether the server is available and healthy, and to examine the value of LogInspectorGeneration for the database copy. The mailbox database copy with the highest value for LogInspectorGeneration is the best source for copying log files.

After the ACLL process has completed, if all missing log files were copied from the selected best source, the database mounts without any data loss. This is known as a lossless failure. If the ACLL process is unsuccessful, the configured value for AutoDatabaseMountDial is consulted. For more information about AutoDatabaseMountDial, see Set-MailboxServer. If the number of lost logs is within the configured value for AutoDatabaseMountDial, the database is mounted. If the number of lost logs is outside the configured value for AutoDatabaseMountDial, the database isn't mounted until either missing log files are recovered or until an administrator explicitly mounts the database and accepts the larger data loss.

Which of my 300 database copies are you going to mount up then?? - Active Manager Best Copy Selection Criteria

When a failure affecting the active database occurs, Active Manager calls several sets of selection criteria to determine which database copy should be activated. Active Manager attempts to locate a mailbox database copy that has a status of Healthy, DisconnectedAndHealthy, DisconnectedAndResynchronizing, or SeedingSource, and that meets all of the following criteria:

• It has a content index with a status of Healthy.
• It has a copy queue length less than 10 log files.
• It has a replay queue length of less than 50 log files.

If none of the database copies meet all of the preceding criteria, Active Manager tries to locate a database copy that meets the next set of criteria:

• It has a content index with a status of Crawling.
• It has a copy queue length less than 10 log files.
• It has a replay queue length of less than 50 log files.

If none of the database copies meet all of the preceding criteria, Active Manager tries to locate a database copy that meets the next set of criteria:

• It has a content index with a status of Healthy.
• It has a replay queue length of less than 50 log files.

If none of the database copies meet all of the preceding criteria, Active Manager tries to locate a database copy that meets the next set of criteria:

• It has a content index with a status of Crawling.
• It has a replay queue length of less than 50 log files.

If none of the database copies meet all of the preceding criteria, Active Manager tries to locate a database copy that meets the next set of criteria:

• It has a replay queue length of less than 50 log files.

If none of the database copies meet all of the preceding criteria, Active Manager tries to locate a database copy that meets the next set of criteria:

• It has a content index with a status of Healthy.
• It has a copy queue length less than 10 log files.

If none of the database copies meet all of the preceding criteria, Active Manager tries to locate a database copy that meets the next set of criteria:

• It has a content index with a status of Crawling; and
• It has a copy queue length that is less than 10 log files

If none of the database copies meet all of the preceding criteria, Active Manager tries to locate a database copy that meets the next set of criteria:

• It has a content index with a status of Healthy.

If none of the database copies meet all of the preceding criteria, Active Manager tries to locate a database copy that meets the next set of criteria:

• It has a content index with a status of Crawling.

If none of the database copies meet all of the preceding criteria, Active Manager tries to activate any database copy with a status of Healthy, DisconnectedAndHealthy, DisconnectedAndResynchronizing, or SeedingSource. If it can't find any database copies with this status, it isn't able to automatically activate a database copy.

In each of the preceding passes, if more than one database copy meets all of the preceding criteria, the configured value for ActivationPreference is consulted, and the database with the lowest value is activated and mounted.

Mitch Irsfeld posted a blog entry talking about a new tool called Disk2vhd from Sysinternals which sounds like it could prove to be a really useful tool.

From the Disk2vhd page:

Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft’s Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online. Disk2vhd uses Windows’ Volume Snapshot capability, introduced in Windows XP, to create consistent point-in-time snapshots of the volumes you want to include in a conversion. You can even have Disk2vhd create the VHDs on local volumes, even ones being converted (though performance is better when the VHD is on a disk different than ones being converted).

For October's patch Tuesday we are releasing 13 bulletins (eight critical and five important), addressing 34 vulnerabilities, affecting Windows, Internet Explorer, Office, Silverlight, Forefront, Developer Tools, and SQL Server. Most of these updates require a restart so please factor that into your deployment planning.  For more information visit the Advanced Notification page on the MSRC blog

Also, for customers who have some questions, there will be a live webcast on Wednesday Oct. 14 at 11:00 a.m. PST and get answers to any questions and concerns you might have. To register, just follow this link.

Exchange 2010 is code complete and has reached the Release To Manufacturing Milestone.  Congratulations to the whole product group.  Check it out at the MS Exchange team blog