M. Omer Siddiqui's Blog

Step by step guide for upgrading Active Directory from Microsoft Windows 2003 to Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Exchange 2010 CAS Array – Steps and Recommendations

Appear Offline in Microsoft Office Communicator Server 2007

Exchange 2013 Sizing Calculator

M. Omer Siddiqui — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:26:03 GMT

After a long wait, the calculator is there. The calculator recommends mailbox and CAS sizing as well as transport recommendations.

You can find more details on the calculator and to download http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/05/14/released-exchange-2013-server-role-requirements-calculator.aspx

Read my favorites blogs:

Step by step guide for upgrading Active Directory from Microsoft Windows 2003 to Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Exchange 2010 CAS Array – Steps and Recommendations

Appear Offline in Microsoft Office Communicator Server 2007

Exchange 2010 Database Availability Groups and Disk Sector Sizes

M. Omer Siddiqui — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:42:47 GMT

These days, some customers are deploying Exchange databases and log files on advanced format (4K) drives. Although these drives support a physical sector size of 4096, many vendors are emulating 512 byte sectors in order to maintain backwards compatibility with application and operating systems. This is known as 512 byte emulation (512e). Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2 support native 512 byte and 512 byte emulated advanced format drives. Windows 2012 supports drives of all sector sizes. The sector size presented to applications and the operating system, and how applications respond, directly affects data integrity and performance.

For more information on sector sizes see the following links:

Understanding the Impact of Large Sector Media for IT Pros
Advanced format (4K) disk compatibility update
KB 2510009 Microsoft support policy for 4K sector hard drives in Windows

When deploying an Exchange 2010 Database Availability Group (DAG), the sector sizes of the volumes hosting the databases and log files must be the same across all nodes within the DAG. This requirement is outlined in Understanding Storage Configuration.

Support requires that all copies of a database reside on the same physical disk type. For example, it is not a supported configuration to host one copy of a given database on a 512-byte sector disk and another copy of that same database on a 512e disk. Also be aware that 4-kilobyte (KB) sector disks are not supported for any version of Microsoft Exchange and 512e disks are not supported for any version of Exchange prior to Exchange Server 2010 SP1.

Recently, we have noted that some customers have experienced issues with log file replication and replay as the result of sector size mismatch. These issues occur when:

Storage drivers are upgraded resulting in the recognized sector size changing.
Storage firmware is upgraded resulting in the recognized sector size changing.
New storage is presented or existing storage is replaced with drives of a different sector size.

This mismatch can cause one or more database copies in a DAG to fail, as illustrated below. In my example environment, I have a three-member DAG with a single database that resides on a volume labeled Z that is replicated between each member.

Read the complete blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/04/24/exchange-2010-database-availability-groups-and-disk-sector-sizes.aspx

Read my favorites blogs:

Step by step guide for upgrading Active Directory from Microsoft Windows 2003 to Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Exchange 2010 CAS Array – Steps and Recommendations

Appear Offline in Microsoft Office Communicator Server 2007

What’s New in Application Virtualization 5.0 SP1 and User Experience Virtualization 1.0 SP1

M. Omer Siddiqui — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:34:15 GMT

As you may have seen, on Wednesday, we announced that MDOP 2013 is now available and detailed the new updates and features made to Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM). But some of you might be saying, “What about Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V), and Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 5.0? What is updated in these products?”

As you have heard us say over and over, your feedback is very important and helps drive what we build. Both UE-V and App-V 5.0 were released five months ago and we have seen these technologies adopted by companies like Eastman, NTTX, Etisalat Lanka. As more organizations continued to test and deploy these solutions, the more feedback we received. This feedback drove us to release service packs for UE-V and App-V 5.0 in MDOP 2013.

Read the complete blog at http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/springboard/archive/2013/04/11/what-s-new-in-application-virtualization-5-0-sp1-and-user-experience-virtualization-1-0-sp1.aspx

Read my favorites blogs:

Step by step guide for upgrading Active Directory from Microsoft Windows 2003 to Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Exchange 2010 CAS Array – Steps and Recommendations

Appear Offline in Microsoft Office Communicator Server 2007

Mysterious mail loop on Edge Transport server: Check your size limits!

M. Omer Siddiqui — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 18:34:58 GMT

I'm a support engineer in CSS. I was working with a customer who reported a mail loop error for a specific domain like contoso.com. This error was only observed in large emails. Yeah that’s really mysterious until you figure out that the mail loop is due to size restriction on the Send connector. I thought this was curious enough to share.

Understanding the configuration and root cause of the issue:

I initially thought that this might have been the outcome of the Edge server being configured to use an external DNS server (a DNS server that resolves external hosts). Usually, when the Edge Transport server is configured to use an external DNS, it resolves the domain name to the public IP addresses (generally pointing to itself, the external firewall, or the service provider) instead of a Hub Transport server in the Active Directory site, causing a mail loop.

Read the complete blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/03/28/mysterious-mail-loop-on-edge-transport-server-check-your-size-limits.aspx

Read my favorites blogs:

Step by step guide for upgrading Active Directory from Microsoft Windows 2003 to Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Exchange 2010 CAS Array – Steps and Recommendations

Appear Offline in Microsoft Office Communicator Server 2007

Announcing Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer (MCA) 1.0 and Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer (RCA) 2.1

M. Omer Siddiqui — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 18:32:12 GMT

Back in November 2012, we announced our MCA Beta client. We have been very busy working to improve the testing options that are available from the MCA client. Here’s what we’ve built for the 1.0 release:

Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer Tool 1.0

We are excited to announce the 1.0 release of the Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer. This tool is a companion to the Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer web site. The MCA tool provides administrators and end users with the ability to run connectivity diagnostics for five common connectivity symptoms directly from their local computer. Users can test their own connectivity, and save results in an HTML format that administrators will recognize from viewing results on the RCA website.

Install the MCA 1.0 tool here: https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/?tabid=client

Read the complete blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/03/11/announcing-microsoft-connectivity-analyzer-mca-1-0-and-microsoft-remote-connectivity-analyzer-rca-2-1.aspx

Read my favorites blogs:

Step by step guide for upgrading Active Directory from Microsoft Windows 2003 to Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Exchange 2010 CAS Array – Steps and Recommendations

Appear Offline in Microsoft Office Communicator Server 2007

Now Available: Exchange Server 2013 Deployment Assistant

M. Omer Siddiqui — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:43:10 GMT

We’re excited to announce the availability of the Exchange Server 2013 Deployment Assistant at http://technet.microsoft.com/exdeploy2013. The Exchange Deployment Assistant is a web-based tool that helps you deploy Exchange 2013 in your on-premises organization, configure a hybrid deployment between your on-premises organization and Office 365, or migrate to Office 365. It asks you a small set of simple questions and then, based on your answers, creates a customized checklist with instructions to deploy or configure Exchange 2013. Instead of trying to find what you need in the Exchange library, the Deployment Assistant gives you exactly the right information you need to complete your task.

The first scenarios available show you how to deploy Exchange 2013 in an organization with no previous installations of Exchange and show you how to configure a hybrid deployment between your on-premises Exchange 2013 organization and Office 365. We’re working hard on additional scenarios, such as upgrading from Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2010. These additional scenarios will be added in the coming months.

The Deployment Assistant for Exchange 2013 is supported on most major browsers and has a completely redesigned interface that’s no longer dependent on Silverlight technology. Here’s a screenshot from the Deployment Assistant after the initial set of questions were answered and the customized checklist was generated.

Of course, we can’t forget about Exchange 2010! If you still need to deploy Exchange 2010, you can access the Deployment Assistant for Exchange Server 2010 at http://technet.microsoft.com/exdeploy2010.

We would love your feedback. Feel free to leave a comment here, or send an email to edafdbk@microsoft.com directly or via the 'Feedback' link located in the header of every page of the Deployment Assistant. Also, please send us your 'success stories' after using this tool... we'd love to hear about them!

Katie Kivett
Microsoft Exchange Deployment Assistant PM

Read my favorites blogs:

Step by step guide for upgrading Active Directory from Microsoft Windows 2003 to Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Exchange 2010 CAS Array – Steps and Recommendations

Appear Offline in Microsoft Office Communicator Server 2007

Time to go PST hunting with the new PST Capture 2.0

M. Omer Siddiqui — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 16:00:04 GMT

Ahoy, Exchange Ninjas! It’s time to buckle up and go PST hunting again with the new PST Capture 2.0!

Earlier this week, we released a brand new version of the free PST Capture tool that allows you to hunt down PST files on client computers across your network. After it finds PST files on users’ computers, the tool consolidates the PST files to a central location, and then easily injects PST data to primary or archive mailboxes on your on-premises Exchange Servers or Exchange Online.

What’s new in PST Capture 2.0?

PST Capture 2.0 includes the following improvements:

Support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013

Updated profile generation code to use Outlook Anywhere (RPC over HTTP).

Fixed Exchange Online import failure issue when PST Capture is not installed on an Exchange server.

Removed User Interface limit of 1,000 users when performing an import to Exchange Online.

General performance improvements

Download PST Capture 2.0 from the Download Center (aka.ms/getpstcapture), check out the PST Capture documentation (aka.ms/pstcapture) and then go get those PSTs!

Exchange Team

Read my favorites blogs:

Step by step guide for upgrading Active Directory from Microsoft Windows 2003 to Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Exchange 2010 CAS Array – Steps and Recommendations

Appear Offline in Microsoft Office Communicator Server 2007

Hosting and Multi-Tenancy Guidance for Exchange Server 2013 Now Available

M. Omer Siddiqui — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:50:47 GMT

We are pleased to be able to announce the oft-requested Hosting and Multi-Tenancy Guidance for Exchange Server 2013 document. It is available for download here.

As the keen eyed reader will observe, it is very similar to the guidance for Exchange Server 2010. That’s not because all we did was a find, copy and replace, but because the strategy we decided upon for Exchange 2010 holds true for Exchange 2013. That is, you should only use the built in tools, cmdlets and interfaces for configuring your solution, and you should not under any circumstances directly manipulate objects in AD to meet your desired configuration.

What also holds true is the notion that not all features are going to work as you might want them to in a multi-tenant like configuration. For example, MailTips will work exactly the same as they do in a standard on-premises type deployment – and typically that may result in unwanted data between tenants being exposed. The document highlights features that might not work as hoped when you configure Exchange for multi-tenancy, and makes recommendations for configuration, or for disabling where necessary.

Core to the important directory segmentation element of your solution is the Address Book Policy feature. With the recent announcement of a transport agent, created to take advantage of Address Book Policies, we hope you will find your 2013 solution even easier to build and maintain.

Read the complete blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/02/20/hosting-and-multi-tenancy-guidance-for-exchange-server-2013-now-available.aspx

Read my favorites blogs:

Step by step guide for upgrading Active Directory from Microsoft Windows 2003 to Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Exchange 2010 CAS Array – Steps and Recommendations

Appear Offline in Microsoft Office Communicator Server 2007

Exchange, Firewalls, and Support… Oh, my!

M. Omer Siddiqui — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:00:23 GMT

Over the years Exchange Server architecture has gone through a number of changes. As a product matures over time you may see us change what is supported as we react to changes in the product architecture, the state of technology as a whole, or major support issues we see come in through our support infrastructure.

Over the years a large volume of support calls have ended up being caused by communication issues between Exchange servers or between Exchange servers and domain controllers. Often times this results from a network device between the servers not allowing some port or protocol to communicate to the other servers.

Read the complete blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/02/18/exchange-firewalls-and-support-oh-my.aspx

Read my favorites blogs:

Step by step guide for upgrading Active Directory from Microsoft Windows 2003 to Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Exchange 2010 CAS Array – Steps and Recommendations

Appear Offline in Microsoft Office Communicator Server 2007