ExBPA 2.6 released - many great changes!

Jeffrey’s Ruminations - Networking Blog

Jeffrey’s Ruminations - Networking Blog — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 06:02:27 GMT

PingBack from http://www.networkblog.net/archives/2006/04/another-exchange-2003-tool-update/

Lots of New Exchange Tools

Jeff's Connected Corner — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 06:53:39 GMT

Looks like the Exchange team has been busy lately.&nbsp; Here&rsquo;s a list of new/updated downloads...

Exchange Best Practices Advisor gets a visual overhaul and new features for v2.6

Aaron Tiensivu's Blog — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 07:14:04 GMT

Enhanced support for clusters, and other little 'nice touches' that make this program even more of a 'must have' for anyone doing Exchange work. Worth more than the price of admission (free) and catches a lot of problems before they impact your organizat

Henrik Walther Blog » Blog Archive » ExBPA 2.6 released

Henrik Walther Blog » Blog Archive » ExBPA 2.6 released — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 09:12:01 GMT

PingBack from http://blogs.msexchange.org/walther/2006/04/06/exbpa-26-released/

re: ExBPA 2.6 released - many great changes!

Christian Schindler — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 14:00:38 GMT

Great! Until up to now EXBPA is not only my "Tool of the year 2005", no, it is also my "Tool of the year 2006". Well, until up to now... *g* Please continue the excellent work!

re: ExBPA 2.6 released - many great changes!

GeneK — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:24:07 GMT

Paul Bowden, you are my favorite Microsoft Program Manager!

Thanks for the most useful Exchange tool!

re: ExBPA 2.6 released - many great changes!

Shawn — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:37:08 GMT

I got this error after installing and trying to launch the new version:

"The configuration file C:\Program Files\ExBPA\en\ExBPA.Transport.xml could not be loaded because it has an invalid signature."

Exchange Server: ExBPA v2.6

Martin Pavlis - pavlis.net — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:41:36 GMT

re: ExBPA 2.6 released - many great changes!

Christian Schindler — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:41:38 GMT

Well, I thought EXBPA were my "Tool of the year 2006". I ran it at a customer site today... And I was not very amused. EXBPA reports critical errors where no errors exist. For example: There are three cluster running at the customer site. EXBPA reports an error because of a name mismatch between the computername in the registry and the actual computername! ? Hey, this is a cluster! It is normal that the virtual name differs from the host name of the node! Another example: EXBPA complains that the DHCP Client Service is not running on all the servers. But it is running! I didn't get those errors with V2.5... Maybe Paul Bowden can clarifiy on these things... Thnanks! I'd like to have my "Tool of the year 2006" back *g*

re: ExBPA 2.6 released - many great changes!

Darth — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 17:08:24 GMT

I also get the "The configuration file C:\Program Files\ExBPA\en\ExBPA.Transport.xml could not be loaded because it has an invalid signature."
error on startup. You would think that these issues would be worked out before they threw this over the wall, but it just seems more and more that MS just doesn't care anymore....

At least the earlier version worked.

re: ExBPA 2.6 released - many great changes!

GeneK — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 17:27:23 GMT

The upgrade worked for me without any errors.
Did you try to uninstall it and the install it again?

re: ExBPA 2.6 released - many great changes!

Darth — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 18:59:55 GMT

Uninstall and re-install corrected the issue.....

re: ExBPA 2.6 released - many great changes!

Paul Bowden [MSFT] — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 19:49:36 GMT

Thanks everyone for your feedback. We've received a few reports about the invalid signature on ExBPA.Transport.xml. Not everyone is hitting this, and we're still investigating as to how this issue occurs. The file that's causing a problem is a remnant from the last update for ExBPA v2.5. However, what should happen is that the v2.6 MSI overwrites the older v2.5 file as part of the update. It appears that this is not the case on some machines out there.

Christian - From the errors that you're seeing, it sounds as if we're hitting a WMI problem on the server in question. If you look at the Run-Time Log, it should give you the underlying errors that are occurring. Feel free to e-mail me at pbowden@microsoft.REMOVETHIS.com if you want to discuss the problem.

re: ExBPA 2.6 released - many great changes!

NavSysEng — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 20:09:51 GMT

Great tool! Only problem is it's not allowing me choices of my printers -- only "non" printers. So far haven't been able to get this changed; so I'm not able to print the reports.

re: ExBPA 2.6 released - many great changes!

Paul Bowden [MSFT] — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 20:16:06 GMT

NavSysEng ...can you elaborate further please? Or if it's easier, please send me a screenshot (pbowden@microsoft.REMOVETHIS.com)

re: ExBPA 2.6 released - many great changes!

NavSysEng — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 21:16:39 GMT

I believe it's due to the fact that I'm using a domain ID to run on my general desktop and though that ID should have all printers listed, it's not showing any. Once the tool is finished, I will double-check. Thanks.

re: ExBPA 2.6 released - many great changes!

Paul Bowden [MSFT] — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 17:10:34 GMT

We now understand what's going on with the 'invalid signature' error that some people are seeing. Under some conditions, the ExBPA.Transport.xml file that was provided in the last v2.5 web update (~3 weeks ago) does not get overwritten by the v2.6 installer, causing an incompatibility. Not everyone will be affected by this, it really depends on the speed of the network connection. The repro is a little obscure, but if the last v2.5 web update took >1sec to download and store the 18Kb XML file, then you hit the problem with the v2.6 upgrade.

We have a fix for the v2.6 installer underway, and should testing complete successfully, we'll re-release the v2.6 MSI file. For anyone who's successfully upgraded already, there is no action to take, as the bug is in the installer, not the tool itself.

My sincere apologies to those people who have hit this problem. We certainly do take issues like this very seriously.

Kind Regards, Paul.

re: ExBPA 2.6 released - many great changes!

Scott Bueffel — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 18:31:57 GMT

You recommend setting the TarpitTime if BPA detects that Recipient Filtering is enabled. But this is only applicable if you also have the "Filter recipients who are not in the Directory" option checked. You should update BPA to check for both settings before recommending setting the tar pit value.

Weekend reading

subject: exchange — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 19:32:08 GMT

"The" weekly list, this time on schedule.

Microsoft Exchange Server Profile Analyzer Web Release 2.5...

Lots of Cool Happenings Since January

Is this thing on? — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 18:44:04 GMT

Well, although I started this blog with the best intentions, I have been very bad at keeping it regular.&nbsp;...

May 2006 - Technical Rollup

Garry — Mon, 01 May 2006 12:33:42 GMT

Security
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News
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Are Smart Cards the New Way of Life? - Solving the...

May 2006 - Technical Rollup

Garry — Mon, 01 May 2006 12:34:42 GMT

Security
&nbsp;

News
&nbsp;
Are Smart Cards the New Way of Life? - Solving the...