Unified Communications News Tips and Tricks : Powershell

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Tools (32-Bit) released

David Figueiredo — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:03:14 GMT

Exchange Server 2007 is a native 64-bit application that includes 64-bit management tools. You can use the management tools to administer your Exchange Server environment remotely. If the remote computer is running a 32-bit operating system, you will need to download the 32-bit management tools.

Download Link:

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6be38633-7248-4532-929b-76e9c677e802&DisplayLang=en

Create custom addresslist in Exchange 2007

David Figueiredo — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:32:00 GMT

In a first glance to the Address List creation Wizard it seem's that a old fashion query is missing from it, as usual we use Powershell to solve the issue.

The new way to create a custom address list has been simplified in Powershell, instead of the old headache that the LDAP queries in Exchange 2003 were we have now a simple syntax were we can choose all attributes that will filter our Custom address list.

In the following syntax we are creating a new address list that includes all users enabled mailbox that their offices is in Lisbon:

New-AddressList -Name Teste -RecipientFilter {((RecipientType -eq 'UserMailbox') -and ((office -eq 'Lisbon')))}

The full command description can be found here:

http://uat.technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996912.aspx

And the full list of Filterable properties can be found here:

http://uat.technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb430771(EXCHG.80).aspx

Using Exchange Database Portability in Exchange 2007

David Figueiredo — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:39:36 GMT

This is a great feature of Exchange 2007, that was a real headache in Exchange 2003 if you all remember in "those days" if you want to mount a DB in another server a series of requisites were needed to do so (The worst of all was that the target server needed to have the exact same name has the old one, fact that in production environments were a major problem, and the alternative was mount it in a lab environment). So now with Exchange 2007 just have to put the DB in any server with any name mount it and change the users info trough PS. This sound very simple, doesn't it? but it is.. here's how:

The first step is to guarantee that the DB is in a clean state for that just run eseutil /mh NAME-OF-DATABASE.EDB against it

This should be the result

So the next step should be the creation of a new mbx in the destination server, this mbx shouldn't be mounted in the end, and we must allow it to be overwritten. Another point to consider is that the name of this database should be the same of the original.

New MBX

New-MailboxDatabase -StorageGroup <Server_Name>\<StorageGroup_Name> -Name <Database Name>

Allow it to be overwritten

Set-MailboxDatabase <Database Name> -AllowFileRestore:$true

(This can also be performed trough the Exchange Management Console)

Ok, so after this we just have to copy the original Database to the path defined for it, if you don't know were is it just check the database properties in the Exchange Management console.

Now we're ready to mount it

Mount-Database <Database Name>

And finally change the user account setting to point to the new server and Database to do so:

Get-Mailbox -Database NAME-OF-SERVER1\DATABASE-NAME |where {$_.ObjectClass -NotMatch '(SystemAttendantMailbox|ExOleDbSystemMailbox)'}| Move-Mailbox -ConfigurationOnly -TargetDatabase NAME-OF-SERVER2\DATABASE-NAME

After Active Directory replication your users will be able to access their Mailboxes, one last thing be aware that Outlook 2007 clients should be redirected automatically because of the auto discovery service, in Outlook 2003 you should manually change the users server.

Bulk creation of Exchange 2007 Mailboxes

David Figueiredo — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:00:00 GMT

So this week I had the need of some test's of integration with Exchange 2007, and the first show stopper was at the point of creating 1000 users for testing purposes. Ok the creation of the users in AD is easy just grab the old vbs scripts, now the Select All -> Enable Mailbox where is it??? ooops just forgot that this is Exchange 2007 users, well let's take a look at the Powershell notes:

And the result was this piece of cmdlet

get-user | where-object{$_.RecipientType –eq "User"} | Enable-Mailbox –Database "SERVER NAME\MBX NAME"}

Get all users -----> then enable mailboxes for each one in this Server and Mailbox

You can filter a little more by choosing the OU or other users attribute like department or Office

get-user –organizationalUnit CONTOSO OFFICE | where-object{$_.RecipientType –eq "User" -and $_.department –eq "Marketing"} | Enable-Mailbox –Database "SERVER NAME\MBX NAME"}

Set recipient limits in Exchange 2007

David Figueiredo — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:13:00 GMT

Ok continuing the quick tips for Exchange 2007 operations, here goes another useful task. By default I recommend to all my customers to define recipient limits to all users, just to avoid some "mistakes" like someone that selects all users in the GAL, to send some email that shouldn't be sent to Everyone, as well as some spam that sends emails with bulk recipients.

So there are several ways to establish limits in E2K7, Globally, by server, by receive connector, by transport.... my tip is to establish a limit in the internet receive connector:

Set-ReceiveConnector "Name of Connector" –MaxRecipientsPerMessage “Number of messages allowed per mail” *

* To check all connectors name just enter a "Get-ReceiveConnector" in the Edge Server

This will establish the recipient limit for mails received externally

Next step establish a limit to all users:

get-user | Set-Mailbox -RecipientLimits "Number of Messages allowed per mail"

Of course that you have to put some exceptions (Corporate emails etc.), for that just increase the mailbox limits:

Set-Mailbox "MAILBOX Name" -RecipientLimits "Number of Messages allowed per mail"

More info about mailbox limits:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124345.aspx

Powershell book for Download

David Figueiredo — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 02:23:00 GMT

Frank Koch, has made available for download a great ebook about powershell programing, you can download it in the follow link:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/9/4/a94270c7-ed16-4c72-8280-658c66315719/Windows%20Powershell%20-%20EN.zip