Nice work by Michel

http://eightwone.com/2011/04/05/exchange-2010-sp1-network-ports-diagram-v03/

This notification is to let you know we published  a revised version of Exchange 2007 SP3 RU3 (v2).  

The Exchange Servicing team has fixed the reported issue with RU3 and is making available a new version of RU3 for our customers, which is version 08.03.159.002

RU3 Installation Guidance:

·        Customers with RU3 already installed within your Exchange environment

It is not necessary for you to uninstall the existing RU3 within your environment. The new RU3 package can be installed over the top of the existing package installed on your servers.

·        Customers with previous SP3 RU’s installed within your Exchange environment

You can simply install the new version of the RU3 package.

If this is not a performance issue due to:

• CPU issues on the CAS or Mailbox Servers

• Disk latencies on the Mailbox Server

Then consider the follwoing:- 

1) Update 5.0.2 Maintenance Release 4 of Blackberry Enterprise Server
2) Update MAPI/CDO on the BES servers to

Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects 1.2.1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=E17E7F31-079A-43A9-BFF2-0A110307611E&displaylang=en

3) Exchange 2010 SP1 RU3 on the CAS and Mailbox server.

Still having problems ? Consider trying BES script/program to promote MAPI properties (From RIM)

Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2492690

Update Rollup 3 for Exchange 2007 SP3

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2492691

Use Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Help content to help you plan, deploy and manage your Exchange 2010 SP1 organization

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=2685440c-8e55-463a-ab96-102eddf8a7c4

·        http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328841

·        http://support.microsoft.com/kb/245822

·        Exchange 2003 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823166

·        Exchange 2007 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332342(EXCHG.80).aspx

·        Exchange 2010 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332342.aspx

An easy way to find database whitespacee in Exchange 2010 (since there are no 1221 events),is by using PowerShell

In the Exchange Management Shell, use the following cmdlet :

Get-MailboxDatabase -Status | fl  Server,Name,AvailableNewMailboxSpace

Outlook 2007 is now supporting access to  Exchange 2010 Personal Archives, this can be achieved by installing the following update: Office 2007 Cumulative Update for February 2011

The archive mailbox is only accessible when the user is connected to the Exchange server.( the archive mailbox is never cached locally)

A user can:

• Move or copy messages and folders between their primary mailbox and the archive mailbox
• Move or copy messages and folders between a PST file and their archive mailbox (if access to PST files is not blocked by the administrator).

A user cant:

• Search across primary and archive mailboxes: When a user searches the primary mailbox, and selects All Mailbox Items, Outlook does not search the archive mailbox. Similarly, when the user searches the archive mailbox, the primary mailbox is not searched.
• Archive policies: In Outlook 2007, users can't use personal tags (also known as archive policies) to move items to the archive mailbox. Any default archive policies for the mailbox continue to be applied. Users can use Outlook Web App to see or apply archive policies

Looking for some Exchange 2010 well designed solutions ?! Microsoft has release examples of well-designed, cost-effective Exchange 2010 solutions deployed on hardware offered by Microsoft's server, storage, and network partners.

Single site, 500 mailboxes
Single site, 16,000 mailboxes
Two sites, 9,000 mailboxes
Two Sites, 20,000 mailboxes
Two sites, 15,000 mailboxes

Earlier today the Exchange CXP team released a number of Update Rollups for versions of Exchange Server to the Download Center and via Microsoft Update.

• Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1
• Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3
• Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2010 RTM
• Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2

very cool tool, enjoy !

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/12/07/457139.aspx

I was thinking to write a blog post around schema version till I found this great post:

http://www.bhargavs.com/index.php/2009/11/20/verify-exchange-server-schema-version/

Head over to the Download Center to download the Exchange Server 2010 Architecture Poster (PDF).

I had complaints from some of my customers that moving users to Exchange 2010 SP1 system is slow and taking long time. In RTM Exchange was doing 5 parallel moves at a time due to the following settings:

RTM values:

MaxActiveMovesPerSourceMDB: This property indicates the number of mailboxes that can be moved on the source mailbox database at one time. The default value is 5 concurrent moves.

MaxActiveMovesPerTargetMDB: This property indicates the number of mailbox moves that can be moved on the target mailbox database at one time. The default value is 5 concurrent moves.

SP1 values:

MaxActiveMovesPerSourceMDB: This property indicates the number of mailboxes that can be moved on the source mailbox database at one time. The default value is 5 concurrent moves.

MaxActiveMovesPerTargetMDB: This property indicates the number of mailbox moves that can be moved on the target mailbox database at one time. The default value is 2 concurrent moves.

The change in MaxActiveMovesPerTargetMDB in SP1 means that we can only do 2 concurrent connections.

The workaround: check the values in the following file “Exchange Server\V14\Bin\MSExchangeMailboxReplication.exe.config” and you can change MaxActiveMovesPerTargetMDB back to 5 to allow 5 concurrent moves.

Don’t forget to restart the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service and do this configuration change on all your CAS servers

Problem: After installing Service Pack 1 for Exchange Server 2010, the Exchange Management Shell is missing.

Cause: Missing certain .ps1 scripts from the bin directory, removed during SP1 setup.Resolution: There is no resolution at this time. 

Workaround:

This download comes as a pre-configured VHD. This download enables you evaluate Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP1 for 180 days.

One VHD with

• Windows 2008 Domain Controller & Global Catalog
• Rights Management
• Exchange Server 2010 SP1
• DNS
• Certificate Authority
• Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010
• Office Communications Server Standard Edition

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=53F7382A-3664-4DE3-8303-31E514D69F02&displaylang=en#filelist

Exchange 2010 SP1 released

• download
• what's new
• release notes

One of the new cmdlets added in Exchange 2010 SP1 is “New-MailboxRepairRequest”cmdlet. In earlier version of Exchange we could repair a mailbox with the Information Store Integrity Checker (Isinteg.exe) tool. To repair mailboxes, we needed to dismount the mailbox database on which that mailbox resided and run the fixes while the database was offline. Exchange 2010 SP1 introduces the New-MailboxRepairRequest cmdlet that allows you to detect and repair a corrupted mailbox while leaving the mailbox database online.

We can run this command against a specific mailbox or against a database. While this task is running, mailbox access is disrupted only for the mailbox being repaired. If you're running this command against a database, only the mailbox being repaired is disrupted. All other mailboxes on the database remain operational.

The “CorruptionType” parameter in the New-MailboxRepairRequest cmdlet specifies the type of corruption that you want to detect and repair. The following types of mailbox corruptions can be detected and fixed with the New-MailboxRepairRequest cmdlet:

•             Search folder corruptions (SearchFolder)

•             Aggregate counts on folders that aren't showing correct item count (AggregateCounts)

•             Views on folders that aren't returning correct contents (FolderView)

•             Provisioned folders that are incorrectly pointing into parent folders that aren't provisioned (ProvisionedFolder)

The following example detects and repairs search folder corruptions for mailbox nawar@contoso.com: New-MailboxRepairRequest -Mailbox nawar@contoso.com -CorruptionType SearchFolder

This example detects and repairs AggregateCounts for all mailboxes on mailbox database MBXDB11: New-MailboxRepairRequest -Database MBXDB11 -CorruptionType AggregateCounts

The output of New-MailboxRepairRequest will be a number of Event IDs with a source of “MSExchangeIS Mailbox Store” and you will need to watch for the following events related to a repair request “0044,10045,01146,10047,10048,10049,10050,10051,10059,10062”

All this information is based on the pre-release version of Exchange 2010 SP1

Problem:

When planning to deploy Exchange 2010 RTM Schema in an Exchange 2007 environment that is running SP3, you will encounter the following error:

“Setup encountered a problem while validating the state of Active Directory. The Active Directory schema version (14625) is higher than the Setup’s version (14622). Therefore, PrepareSchema can’t be executed.”

This is becasue the schema version of Exchange 2007 SP3 is higher than the one from the Exchange 2010 RTM setup.

Solution:

Exchange 2007 SP3 already has the schema changes required by Exchange 2010, so you don’t need to perform E2010 prepareschema again. Please remember, that you still need to run setup.com /PrepareAD from Exchange 2010 setup.

In Exchange 2007 Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access (OWA) includes a feature to let users change their passwords. However, this feature requires that users log on to OWA to change their passwords. In a scenario in which a user password has expired, or in which users have to change their passwords when they first log on, users cannot log on to OWA to access the password change feature. Exchange 2007 SP3 adds a new feature to the Client Access server (CAS) role. This feature creates a new Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 module that detects expired passwords, and redirects users to a new change password page. By default, this feature is disabled. To enable the password reset feature, you must set a registry key.

To enable the password reset feature  

1.     Log on to the Exchange server that is running the CAS role by using an account that has local administrator rights.

2.     Start Registry Editor, and then locate the following registry subkey:

HLKM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchange OWA

3.     Create the following DWORD value if it does not already exist:

Value name: ChangeExpiredPasswordEnabledValue type: REG_DWORDValue data: 1

4.     Exit Registry Editor.

5. Perform IISReset.

The password reset functionality is enabled when ChangeExpiredPasswordEnabled is set to a nonzero (0) value. If this registry value is missing or is set to a value of zero, the password reset functionality is disabled.

Exchange 2010 SP1: Now that SP1 has RTM, it brings this feature to Exchange 2010, the password reset feature is not active by default.  To activate this feature in Exchange 2010 SP1, you will need to add the registry key above.

In Exchange Server 2010 as with Exchange Server 2007, all e-mail must go through a Hub Transport server before delivery to the mailbox. This is mainly to allow for compliance, but it also provides a means for data recovery.

Transport dumpster is a feature built into Exchange Server 2010 HUB transport role  and designed to minimize data loss during mail delivery to a DAG in a lossy failover scenario. This feature was first introduced in Exchange 2007 for CCR and LCR mailboxes.

The transport dumpster is used for replicated mailbox databases only. It doesn't protect messages sent to public folders, nor does it protect messages sent to recipients on mailbox databases that aren't replicated (not member of a DAG). The transport dumpster queue for a specific mailbox database is located on all Hub Transport servers in the Active Directory sites containing the DAG. The transport dumpster is stored inside the mail.que file. 

Exchange Server Transport Dumpster Settings

There are two settings that control the life span of a message within the transport dumpster. They are:

•MaxDumpsterSizePerDatabase   Defines the size available for each storage group on the Hub Transport server. The recommendation is that this be set to 1.5 times the maximum message size limit within your environment. The default value for this setting is 18 MB.

•MaxDumpsterTime   Defines the length of time that a message remains within the transport dumpster if the dumpster size limit is not reached. The default is seven days.

If either the time or size limit is reached, messages are removed from the transport dumpster by order of first in, first out. we can run the following command to see the current settings:

Get-TransportConfig |fl *Dumpster*

Changes in Exchange 2010

In Exchange 2007, messages were retained in the transport dumpster until the administrator-defined time limit or size limit is reached. In Exchange 2010, the transport dumpster now receives feedback from the replication pipeline to determine which messages have been delivered and replicated. As a message goes through Hub Transport servers on its way to a replicated mailbox database in a DAG, a copy is kept in the transport queue (mail.que) until the replication pipeline has notified the Hub Transport server that the transaction logs representing the message have been successfully replicated to and inspected by all copies of the mailbox database. After the logs have been replicated to and inspected by all database copies, they are truncated from the transport dumpster. This keeps the transport dumpster queue smaller by maintaining only copies of messages whose transactions logs haven't yet been replicated.

The transport dumpster has also been enhanced to account for the changes to the Mailbox server role that enable a single mailbox database to move between Active Directory sites. DAGs can be extended to multiple Active Directory sites, and as a result, a single mailbox database in one Active Directory site can fail over to another Active Directory site. When this occurs, any transport dumpster redelivery requests will be sent to both Active Directory sites: the original site and the new site.

In Exchange 2010 none of the preloaded role groups have the Mailbox Import Export role, The person performing the import or export must have the appropriate permissions within Exchange. The easiest way to grant this permission is by adding  Mailbox Import Export role to a role group.

To create the role group we need to run the following:

New-RoleGroup "Mailbox Import-Export Management" -Roles "Mailbox Import Export"

This will create a group called “"Mailbox Import-Export Management"”, every user added to this group will have the right to run the import/export cmdlets, adding a user can be done by running the following:

Add-RoleGroupMember "Mailbox Import-Export Management" -Member <user account>

If you try to run the cmdlets and you don't have the correct permissions, you'll receive an error stating that the cmdlet doesn't exist. And by the way , you'll need to restart the Exchange Management Shell after you add the Mailbox Import Export role to the role group.

The Exchange Server 2007 SP3 bits are available online in 11 languages and on two platforms (32/64bit). The accompanying documentation includes: Release Notes and What's New in Exchange Server 2007 SP3.

My fav is this :)

Exchange 2007 SP3 introduces password reset functionality for Internet Information Services (IIS) 7. For more information, see How to Enable the Exchange 2007 SP3 Password Reset Tool.

The KB is http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=982639 

Download from here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=09b4973e-3a80-4fb9-9f60-5c6e2b7a2727&displaylang=en

By the way Exchange 2007 SP2 is at Update Rollup 4 : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=b8f7f872-16d5-49d6-9867-adc01351c06f 

Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Beta incorporates a number of feature updates including: archiving and discovery enhancements, a faster Outlook Web App (OWA), upgraded mobility features, and several improvements in the management UI. The SP1 beta is available to the public and can be downloaded

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a0965fc9-2723-4947-ae6b-74bc3808e72a&displaylang=en