One of the more common events we see in organizations that are migrating to Exchange 2003 from 5.5 is the 9548.
Event Type: Warning Event Source: MSExchangeIS Event Category: General Event ID: 9548 Date: Date Time: Time Computer: Computer Name Description: Disabled user /o= Organization Name /ou= Administrative Group Name /cn=Recipients/cn= Computer Name does not have a master account SID. Please use Active Directory MMC to set an active account as this user's master account.
This event occurs when you have a disabled user account that is not configured correctly. The mailbox may not be able to receive mail and the mailbox may not be able to be logged in to by certain users. In the past we had a utility called NoMas.exe that would fix these accounts, but it was a manual process to run it unless you set it up to run at a scheduled time.
The great news is that we have released a Post SP1 hotfix that should make administrators jobs a little easier. The Post SP2 hotfix is soon to be released.
903158 A hotfix is available to modify the way that Exchange Server 2003 handles a disabled Active Directory user account that is associated with an Exchange Server 2003 mailboxhttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;903158
You will need to call Microsoft Support to receive the hotfix.
(Kudos to Alex Seigler and others for helping to push this fix through...)
(Edit: The post SP2 version of this hasn't been released yet.)
Does anyone else find the fact that you have to do an F4 in Outlook to Find something extremely annoying? I use CTRL-F for every other application to do a Find. But evidently Forwarding is more important.
I found that Jenson Harris wrote about this in detail as to why this is the case.
I still don't like it... :)
On March 20, 2006 we released an updated set up rules for EXBPA. Next time you fire up EXBPA you should be notified of this. This will update the rules to 2.11.2.0. You can verify this by clicking on "About the Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer"
If you have to do a manual download then you can go to: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=34290There are some 50 new rules in this update. One of them really makes me happy: We recommend using StorPort instead of SCSI Miniport drivers. Happy days...
I am in Redmond today and next week. It is always nice to get away from my office since I tend to have time to poke around in areas that I normally don't.
I like scripts. The power a few short lines of code can possess never ceases to amaze me. That is why I am really looking forward to Exchange 12 (We are still calling it that publicly, right?) and Monad.
I ran across the Microsoft Exchange Community-Submitted Script Center today. If you are looking for scripts that run on Exchange 2003 take a look there. I've mentioned Glen's site before as well. He has some good stuff up there. I have found that his scripts don't always work in every environment, but they are very useful if you don’t know where to start.
Also Monad Beta 3.1 is now available for download. You can get the x86 version here.
The Script Center has more information on Monad as well.
You can find the first published book on Monad here.
As you can see, I don't post much to this blog. There are many reasons for this, but most have to do with the time to post what I consider "quality" posts. However, it seems that most perople who read this blog would prefer that I post more often. I actually get email asking for this.
After taking some time to think about this, I have decided to change my postings so that I may be including information that you are already aware of. I will still try to post information every couple of weeks that may be new as well.
Hopefully you will still find it useful.
Here is some recommended reading. Ross Smith IV has made another post about the changes in DSProxy that occurred with SP2. He does a very good job of explaining what will happen when you install SP2, but he also mentions that there is a hotfix available to change the behavior back to the way it was with a registry key.
http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2006/03/17/422350.aspx
You will need to request the hotfix in order for the registry key to have any effect.
There has been some confusion as to what number should be put into the MinUserDC registry key if you decide to use it. Most people use this registry key to reduce the load on their PDC emulator (PDCE).
298879 Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange 2000 Server may experience performance problems when the PDC emulator is used for DSAccesshttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;298879
If you read that article it may seem that setting the number to one less than the total number of DCs in the site might be a good idea. But, what number should you subtract 1 from? If you have other DCs from other domains in the Site, should they be included? Will this limit the total number of DCs that the Exchange uses? What if I figure out that there are 10 DCs available and I set MinUserDC at 9? If I have 1 DC stop working, then won't the PDCE be used? Should I set the number at 8 then? But then, what if 2 go down...?
The easy answer to this is: Don't worry about it. If your overall goal is to not use the PDCE, then set the value at "1". The way this works is that as long as there is at least more than one DC available, then we won't ever use the PDCE. Simple enough...
Next time DSAccess goes through and creates the list of DCs available to decide which ones to use, it won't include the PDCE in that list. Unless, of course, there is only one server available then we will use the PDCE if it is the only one still running.
Setting this number at 1, doesn't limit the total number to only 1 DC. (Well, I suppose it would if you only had 2 DCs.) It really is like a switch. If you have the number "X" as the value and we have more than "X" DCs available, the option to use the PDCE is switched off and we don't use the PDCE.
I hope that this makes more sense now.