We see a number of cases coming through support regarding an issue with Public Folder databases after a CCR failover on an Exchange 2007SP1/SP2 Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) cluster. This is pretty well documented, but seems to be either misunderstood or simply unknown to many Exchange admins. For reference, here is our support stance
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123996(EXCHG.80).aspx
"CCR and public folder replication are two very different forms of replication built into Exchange. Due to interoperability limitations between continuous replication and public folder replication, if more than one Mailbox server in the Exchange organization has a public folder database, public folder replication is enabled and public folder databases should not be hosted in CCR environments."
I want to take a few minutes to explain what can happen if you have a public folder database on a CCR cluster and you replicate it to another public folder server in your organization. Keep in mind that if you have a public folder database on CCR and another public folder database in your environment, you will always be replicating between the two, even if you don't add replicas of your folders. This is because the folder hierarchy of your public folder tree is replicated to all servers, even if the content of your data is not.
The issues you will run into will occur when there is an unexpected failover of your CCR. There are three possible scenarios for CCR failover in regards to public stores mounting:
1. Scheduled Failover. If you move the CMS to the passive node via the GUI or via the Move-ClusteredMailboxServer command (and the Storage Groups are Healthy at the time), the public folder store will come online successfully. This is assuming that there are no logs lost during the failover.
2. Unscheduled Failover with no data loss. In this scenario, the active node of the CCR goes down unexpectedly and the CMS fails over to the passive node automatically. The public folder store will not mount in this scenario until the former active node is brought back online and all the logs for the storage group are available. Once the first node is back online, you should be able to run Restore-StorageGroupCopy on the second node (now active) and then mount the Public Folder store.
3. Unscheduled Failover with data loss. This scenario is the same as #2, except in this case either the original active node is unrecoverable or its log data is lost due to disk corruption, etc. Unfortunately, in this situation, you will not be able to mount the public folder store at all. When the failover occurs, the following event will be logged on the newly active node when it attempts to mount the public folder database:
Log Name: Application
Source: MSExchangeRepl
Date: 4/2/2010 9:50:28 AM
Event ID: 2094
Task Category: Action
Level: Warning
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: CCRnode2.ferris.com
Description:
Clustered Mailbox Server: CMS1
Physical Server: CCRnode2
Storage group CMS1\PF contains a public folder database that will not be automatically mounted because there was data loss.
*The last log generated before the Move-ClusteredMailboxServer operation or failover was: 0
* The last log successfully replicated to the passive node was: 0
Attempts to copy to the last logs from the active node were not successful. Error code: The directory name \\CCRnode1\f4ce3b2b-b512-412b-ba09-131ed76090b1$ is invalid.
If you then attempt to mount the database manually from Exchange Management Shell, the following error will be returned:
[PS] C:\>mount-database pf
Mount-Database : Failed to mount database 'CMS1.contoso.com\pf' after a lossy failover occurred because of the current setting for AutoDatabaseMountDial. You must run Restore-StorageGroupCopy before you can mount the database.
This sounds logical, so let’s just run Restore-StorageGroupCopy as directed. We’ll even add the –force switch since the source is not available. Now we get:
[PS] C:\>Restore-StorageGroupCopy pf -force
Restore-StorageGroupCopy : Invalid operation for Restore-StorageGroupCopy. Reason: The specified storage group (PF) cannot be restored. The database will remain dismounted because it is a public folder database and public folder replication is enabled.
So now you can see that we cannot mount the database under any circumstances. The only option at this point is to create a new storage group and public folder store on the CCR cluster. To repopulate the database you could then either use public folder replication, or swap the original .edb file with the one for the new database. As you can imagine, this is a lot of trouble to go through in the case of a single server failure.
The good news is that none of this occurs if you’re not doing public folder replication. This is why the guidance is to either (A) Create only one public folder store for your entire organization on the CCR cluster or (B) House your public folder stores on non-clustered mailbox servers and enable public folder replication. Either one is a valid scenario, and either one will give you redundancy. The big questions to answer are whether your CCR can handle the user load from all your public folder users and also whether your users are geographically dispersed and need a local public folder server.
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
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:
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.
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 –
my experience of the step by step installation -
The DPM 2010 installation will guide you through the installation of the following prerequisites:
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.
· 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:
Step by step screenshot
Once the reboot was done (post SIS install) -
I am using the local SQL 2008 SP1 for the DB
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
http://blogs.msdn.com/stevecla01/archive/2010/04/28/office-and-email-on-windows-phone-7.aspx
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
I was recently took a “Early Monday” call from a distraught customer, having just installed a nice new Exchange 2010 server they could not get any of their outlook clients to connect to their migrated mailboxes?!
By default, Exchange 2010 requires Encryption for RPC client access. Unless you specifically turn this off, Outlook 2003 clients (and Outlook 2007 clients that do not have this enabled) will simply not connect to Exchange. Enabling Encryption was not a default setting for Outlook 2003!
It should be mentioned that MIcrosoft have documented this well, prior to RTM. Unfortunately, there are some discoverability issues with the article, and that can be found here
Hope this helps some of you, feedback welcome