John Howard - Senior Program Manager in the Hyper-V team at Microsoft : Exchange

Exchange Server 2007 Management Shell & Scripting

jhoward — Mon, 08 May 2006 23:59:00 GMT

Another Webcast (level 300) coming up shortly which should be worth watching - I'm keeping half an eye on what's happening with Exchange 2007 and some of the big changes especially around the way in which it is managed. Unfortunately it starts at 9PM for those on UK time so it clashes with whatever drama's are on TV on a Tuesday night (I'm really starting to miss BBC/ITV/C4!)

Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Pacific Time

This webcast focuses on the command-line and scripting interface (based on Microsoft Windows "Monad") in the next version of Microsoft Exchange Server, code-named Exchange Server 2007. See how to convert your multiple-page Microsoft Visual Basic and component object model (COM) scripts to a single line in Exchange Server 2007. We cover the basics of the management shell along with the underlying design and key concepts. Learn tips and tricks for building larger scripts that you can use to automate small, medium, and enterprise business scenarios. The session includes demonstrations of several single-line scripts that you can use immediately, with little or no tweaking.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032293396&Culture=en-US

Cheers,
John.

Exchange 12 CTP has arrived

jhoward — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 19:16:00 GMT

So I've been a little light on blogging over the past couple of weeks while I've been over in Redmond for a house-hunting trip before moving over in a couple of weeks, so there was a fair bit of post waiting for me back in the office. The March TechNet Plus subscription was among the pile, complete with the Exchange 12 CTP build (based on the beta 1 codebase). Not that with everything else going on I'll have a great deal of time to install it and have a real look at how far it's progressed :(

I also noticed in the March MSDN shipment, disk 3028.1 is Virtual Server 2005 Enterprise Edition, both x86 and x64. Now I'll have to wait until I get home, but I was sure that I only got Standard edition through MSDN before.

Exchange 12 and 64-bit

jhoward — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 19:36:00 GMT

Worth a listen is a podcast recording by the Exchange Team who explain more about their decision to go 64-bit only. Link is here.

Find out more about Exchange 12

jhoward — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 16:08:00 GMT

I have to share this one with you - in around three weeks time, there's a series of webcasts on Exchange 12 running over 4 days. The better news is (I'm guessing for US attendees only though) is that if you attend all four webcasts (can be viewed on demand, not necessarily live) and you submit your evaluations before 31st March, there's a small gift of a Microsoft travel mug, plus a chance to win a TechNet Plus subscription. TechNet Plus will get the Exchange 12 CTP (Community Technology Build) hopefully next month.

Tuesday 14th March: Overview of Exchange 12
Wednesday 15th March: Giving the Administrator More Control in Exchange 12
Thursday 16th March: Client Access and Web Services in Exchange 12
Friday 17th March: Message Security and Active Protection in Exchange 12

Here's the registration link

Part 25: Infrastructure essentials Blogcast - RPC/HTTP for Outlook & Exchange - Integrated Auth

jhoward — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 11:45:00 GMT

Continuing the blogcast series on infrastructure essentials.

The final part to the RPC/HTTPS series shows you how to alter the configuration we have such that Outlook 2003 can move seamlessly between external and internal connectivity through the use of integrated authentication. To do this, we need to change both the ISA server and the Exchange server. The overall end user experience, as you will see, is far better.

So over the Christmas break, I'll get round to recording a few more parts to the series, including VPN connectivity.
Click here to view.

Series Index:

0. Network configuration and series background.
1. Getting started
2. ISA Server configuration to allow basic web browsing capability
3. ISA Firewall Client basic configuration
4. ISA Firewall Client auto-detection through WPAD configuration
5. Configuring an Exchange mailbox and Outlook profile
6. Fixing 0x8004010F on Outlook send/receive
7. Installing our first Certificate Authority
8. Publishing OWA through ISA using Forms Based Authentication
9. OWA /exchange redirection
10. OWA nearly goes SSL - we have a certificate
11. OWA is available over SSL/HTTPS
12. Sending external email - Configuring outbound SMTP
13. Mail retrieval through POP3 polling
14. Preparations for Email retrieval through SMTP Transfer
15. Completing Email retrieval through SMTP Transfer
16. RPC/HTTP: Overview and installing RPC Proxy component
17. RPC/HTTP: IIS Config and a bit on certificates
18. RPC/HTTP: Exchange IIS Config completion
19. RPC/HTTP: Working from internal network
20. RPC/HTTP: Revisiting our ISA rules
21. RPC/HTTP: Outlook working externally. OWA still requires more work
22. RPC/HTTP: Bounce OWA through localhost
23. RPC/HTTP: OWA Back to HTTPS
24. RPC/HTTP: RPC Publication

Part 24: Infrastructure essentials Blogcast - RPC/HTTP for Outlook & Exchange - RPC Publishing

jhoward — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 13:48:00 GMT

Continuing the blogcast series on infrastructure essentials.

In the last part, forms based authentication for Outlook Web Access was back running again, bouncing through the localhost listener. In this part, we put RPC/HTTP back into place. We create a publishing rule for the Exchange Virtual Directory being published (/rpc). We also create a publishing rule for the RPC server. However, since recording this blogcast a couple of months ago now, this step is actually not necessary - I recommend you do not do this part of the configuration.

Click here to view.

Part 23: Infrastructure essentials Blogcast - RPC/HTTP for Outlook & Exchange - OWA back to HTTPS

jhoward — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 16:51:00 GMT

Continuing the blogcast series on infrastructure essentials.

We now move Outlook Web Access back to HTTPS, and we correct a naming error on the Network Listener "FBA LocalHost 443" in the last part (it's actually listening and remains listening on port 80). After having ripped things apart over the last few parts to this series, we piece things back together by updating the publishing rule "ExternalBasic-LocalHost (OWA)" for redirection of https://mail.contoso.com to https://mail.contoso.com/exchange

Only two more parts to go for a fully configured ISA Server publishing Exchange OWA and RPC/HTTP. Stay tuned.

Click here to view.

Outlook calendars - display multiple timezones

jhoward — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 12:43:00 GMT

I've just got out from a meeting and after a colleague happened to display their calendar on the projector noticed something which (for me at least) is really dead useful. I never knew you could display more than one timezone on your Outlook calendar simultaneously. I regularly have online meetings with people based over in Seattle, and although I know they are always 8 hours out from me, this is a bit of a no-brainer option to make things even more obvious.

Open up the calendar in Outlook (BTW did you know the keyboard shortcut Control-2 does this too - I use it all the time), right click above the time column and select Change Time Zone. Provide a label for your current timezone (GMT in my case), and add a second timezone (PST is the most appropriate for me).

Click OK, and Outlook looks like this.

Love it. Sooo simple.

Part 22: Infrastructure essentials Blogcast - RPC/HTTP for Outlook & Exchange - Bounce OWA through Localhost

jhoward — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 14:29:00 GMT

Continuing the blogcast series on infrastructure essentials.

To make the next steps clearer, here's a picture of what we're trying to achieve in combining Forms Based Authentication with RPC/HTTP, and the routes through which traffic will flow. Hopefully a picture speaks a thousand words - the blogcast goes through configuring ISA to bounce OWA traffic through our Localhost listener. As you watch, you'll notice that no-one is infallible (and especially count myself in that list), but it was only a minor mistake :)

Click here to view.

Part 21: Infrastructure essentials Blogcast - RPC/HTTP for Outlook & Exchange - Outlook OK, OWA needs some work

jhoward — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 13:10:00 GMT

Continuing the blogcast series on infrastructure essentials.

With our new rule in place on the ISA Server, this sixth part of configuring TPC over HTTP for Outlook 2003 first takes a quick look at the effects on Outlook Web Access - we now get a basic authentication challenge instead of Forms Basic Authentication. However, we can still log on. We'll come back to that in a few parts time.

Our Outlook profile still has the internal name of our Exchange Server configured for the Exchange Proxy Server, so we alter that to point to the external name, mail.contoso.com. On restarting Outlook with the rpcdiag switch, we see that it connects using RPC over HTTPS through our ISA Server correctly from the Internet. Result!

We put our Outlook profile back to a more "normal" RPC/HTTPS configuration by connecting using TCP/IP on fast networks first, and HTTPS on slow networks first. We then take a look at what happens when we switch our client from internal to external to internal networks. Perfect!

Click here to view.

Improved Generic Exchange Backup Script

jhoward — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 04:36:00 GMT

So after numerous emails about this, and some comments on my previous blog post back in June, I spent a couple of hours this afternoon improving the backup script (which although was written as a generic Exchange backup script, is suitable for file system, system state and more - it just depends entirely what you set the selection criteria as). I've got it running now at home great, so it's worth sharing to the bigger audience now.

The biggest request I had was for email notification if an error occurs. Sending an email is simple (honestly). However, I didn't just want to send any old boring email, I wanted to utilise some of the more advanced features capable in Outlook, and show you how you can use the extended version of CDO for Exchange (CDOEx) rather than CDO. That having been said, to keep it generic and so that this script would run on any Windows Server, I ended up using CDO and SMTP rather than the more advanced capabilities of CDOEx. I've left the CDOEx code in there if you want to go that route, and I have tested it and it does work, so is a good example if you need it. The advanced features are so that the message flag is set to highlight some action is required. It is complicated due to timezone issues, but I think they're pretty well sust, so it should work all the way from Seattle to Sydney.

Here's an example of what I mean by "advanced" - notice that the email is red, and flagged with a follow-up action

Here's the revised script. I have a question though for someone really techy which I just can't find the answer to. I'll post a followup entry shortly. Cut/Paste and save as backup.vbs. Generate your Windows Backup selection file as before, and change the series of constants at the top of the file according to your needs - recipients for error emails, SMTP servers etc. Note that I haven't tested anything except anonymous SMTP drop.

' ************************************************************************************
' * Weekly Backup Script for Exchange
' * John Howard, Microsoft UK. Created 25th June 2005
' * History:
' * 04 Nov 2005 - Added Email Sending on Failure (see inline comments)
' *
' * Feel free to use/modify for your own needs.
' * No guarantees though although it works for me :-)
' * However, if you can do better, contact me through http://blogs.technet.com/jhoward
' ************************************************************************************

Option Explicit
On error resume next
Const NO_ERROR = 0
Const BACKUP_PROGRAM   = "c:\windows\system32\ntbackup.exe "
Const cdoImportance    = "urn:schemas:httpmail:importance"
Const cdoHigh          = 2 ' Importance
Const cdoAnonymous     = 0
Const cdoBasic         = 1
Const cdoNTLM          = 2
Dim   SMTP_AUTH

' TAILOR THESE NEXT CONSTANTS TO YOUR REQUIREMENTS
Const DEFAULT_SENDER   = "Backup Job <servername@contoso.com>"
Const DEFAULT_RECIP    = "user@contoso.com"
Const DEFAULT_SUBJECT = "Backup Failure on Exchange!"
Const SMTP_SERVER      = "exchange.contoso.com"
Const SMTP_PORT        = 25
      SMTP_AUTH        = cdoAnonymous ' Choose one of the above
Const SMTP_TIMEOUT     = 60 ' Seconds to wait for SMTP Server
Const MESSAGE_FLAG     = "URGENT: Backup Job has failed"
Const BACKUP_SHARE     = "\\RemoteServer\ExchangeBackups"
Const BACKUP_SELECTION = "Exchange Backup Selection.bks"

Dim szYYWW                    ' Date in YYYY-WW format (Week of year)
Dim szYYMMDD                  ' Date in YYYY-MM-DD format
Dim szFlagsSelection          ' The backup selection script, prepopulated
Dim szSetDescription          ' The description of the backup set
Dim szDestinationFile         ' The destination file in the destination directory
Dim szFlagsJobName            ' Flags for the name of the job [/j "jobname")
Dim szFlagsVerify             ' Flags for verify the backup    [yes|no]
Dim szFlagsRemoteStorage      ' Flags for remote storage       [/rs:no|yes]
Dim szFlagsHardwareCompress   ' Flags for hardware compression [/hc:off|on]
Dim szFlagsLogging            ' Flags for logging in ntbackup [/l:f|s|n] Full SUmmary None
Dim szFlagsAppend             ' Flags for appending data       [/a] or nothing
Dim szFlagsRestrict           ' Flags for restricting access   [/r:yes|no]
Dim szFlagsType               ' Flags for backup type          [/m normal|Incremental|Differential...]
Dim szFlagsTapeName           ' Flags for name of tape
Dim oFSO                      ' File System Object to see if file already exists
Dim owShell                   ' To execute a shell command
Dim rc                        ' Return code
Dim szError                   ' If we have an error, record it in here
Dim szCommandLine             ' What we are going to run as a backup
Dim szUTC                     ' UTC Date/Time for SMTP Reply-By field

Set oFSO        = Nothing
set owShell     = Nothing
rc              = NO_ERROR ' OK So far
szCommandLine   = ""        ' Not sure what we're running yet
szError         = ""        ' Not had an error yet

' Setup our variables
if (NO_ERROR = rc) Then
    szYYWW                   = year(now()) & " w" & formatNumber(DatePart("WW",now()))
    szYYMMDD                 = year(now()) & "-" & formatNumber(month(now())) & "-" & formatNumber(day(now()))
    szFlagsSelection         = chr(34) & "@" & BACKUP_SHARE & "\" & BACKUP_SELECTION & chr(34)
    szFlagsJobName           = "/j " & chr(34) & "Exchange Backup" & chr(34)
    szFlagsVerify            = "/v:yes"        ' Verify YES|NO
    szFlagsRemoteStorage     = "/rs:no"
    szFlagsHardwareCompress = "/hc:off"       ' Hardware compression off - this is to disk
    szFlagsLogging           = "/l:f"          ' f=full s=summary n=none
    szFlagsAppend            = "/a"            ' /a for Append or leave blank to overwrite
    szFlagsRestrict          = "/r:no"         ' no|yes Restrict access to administrators
    szFlagsTapeName          = "/t:Exchange " & szYYWW
    szDestinationFile        = "Exchange " & szYYWW & ".bkf"
    szSetDescription         = "/d " & chr(34) & "Created " & szYYMMDD & chr(34)
    szUTC                    = GetUTCSMTPDateString()
end if

' Instantiate File System Object
if (NO_ERROR = rc) Then
    err.clear
    Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    if (err.number) or (oFSO is nothing) Then
        rc = -1
        szError = "Failed Creating FSO: " & err.description & " -0x" & hex(err.number)
    end if
end if

' Look to see if the file exists to determine the backup type
if (NO_ERROR = rc) Then
    if not oFSO.FileExists(BACKUP_SHARE & "\" & szDestinationFile) then
        ' Normal | Copy | Differential | Incremental Backup Type
        szFlagsType       = "/m normal "
        szFlagsAppend     = "" ' Don't Append if does not exist
    else
        ' File exists, so incremental backup. We are already in Append mode
        szFlagsType       = "/m incremental "
        szSetDescription = "/d " & chr(34) & "Inc " & szYYMMDD & chr(34)
    end if

' Release File SYstem Object
set oFSO = Nothing
end if

' Create a Shell Object to be able to run the backup executable
if (NO_ERROR = rc) Then
    err.clear
    Set owShell = wscript.createobject("wscript.shell")
    if (err.number) or (owShell is nothing) Then
        rc = -2
        szError = "Failed Creating wscript.shell: " & err.description & " -0x" & hex(err.number)
    end if
end if

' Build the backup command and run it
if (NO_ERROR = rc) Then
    szCommandLine = BACKUP_PROGRAM         & _
                     "backup"         & " " & _
                     szFlagsSelection      & " " & _
                     szSetDescription & " " & _
                     "/f " & chr(34) & BACKUP_SHARE & "\" & szDestinationFile & chr(34) & " " & _
                     szFlagsAppend           & " " & _
                     szFlagsLogging          & " " & _
                     szFlagsVerify           & " " & _
                     szFlagsRestrict         & " " & _
                     szFlagsRemoteStorage    & " " & _
                     szFlagsHardwareCompress & " " & _
                     szFlagsType             & " " & _
                     szFlagsJobName          & " "

rc=owshell.run(szCommandLine,,True)
end if

set owShell = Nothing
if (rc) Then SendErrorEmail
wscript.quit(rc)

Function FormatNumber(szIn)
FormatNumber = szIn
if len(szIn) = 1 then FormatNumber = "0" & szIn
End Function

'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Function Added: JJH 04 Nov 2005
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' For Sending an Email. We have the option to use send using exchange, but
' this can only be done on the Exchange server itself and requires CDOEx which
' is only installed on an Exchange Server. However CDO (CDOSys in old speak) is
' also installed on any Windows 2003 Server, and is a subset of CDOEx, we can
' use SMTP to send from any server pointing towards our Exchange Server.
' HOWEVER: It is nice to be able to get a reminder in Outlook to say that
' we need to do something rather than just an email. This requires an additional
' message header Reply-By which is in the Format (eg) Fri, 4 Nov 2005 15:23:08 -0000.
' Now, rather than mess around with timezones etc, I just use UTC. Seems to work,
' but it probably also helps that I'm in the UK so don't have to worry too much
' about timezones generally :-) However, appreciate many people may use this
' who are outside of UK, so best to make an effort!
'
' Note: We also fail safe to assume no time bias if we can't read registry
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Function GetUTCSMTPDateString()
    Dim dtUTC        ' UTC Date
    Dim szUTC          ' UTC Date string in SMTP RFC Format
    Dim oShell         ' To read registry
    Dim szATBRegKey    ' Registry key for Active Time Bias
    Dim lMinutesOffset ' From UTC
    Dim rc             ' Function return

    On error resume next
    rc = 0
    szATBRegKey = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation\ActiveTimeBias"
    lMinutesOffset = 0
    err.clear

    if (NO_ERROR = rc) Then
        err.clear
        set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
        if (err.number) or (oShell = Nothing) Then rc = -1
    end if

    if (NO_ERROR = rc) Then
        lMinutesOffset = oShell.RegRead(szATBRegKey)
        if (err.number) then
     rc = -1
            lMinutesOffset = 0
        end if
    end if

    ' Regardless of error, we do the formatting (default to zero offset)
    dtUTC = dateadd("n", lMinutesOffset, now())
    szUTC = WeekdayName(Weekday(dtUTC),True) & ", " & _
            Day(dtUTC) & " " & _
            MonthName(Month(dtUTC),True) & " " & _
            Year(dtUTC) & " " & _
            FormatNumber(Hour(dtUTC)) & ":" & _
            FormatNumber(Minute(dtUTC)) & ":" & _
            FormatNumber(Second(dtUTC)) & " " & _
            "-0000"

    set oShell = Nothing
    err.clear ' Don't pass any error back as we will have _something_
    GetUTCSMTPDateString = szUTC

End Function

'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Function Added: JJH 04 Nov 2005
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' There are several solutions to sending email. We _could_ use CDOEx, but we need
' to be running on an Exchange Server to do this. While you might say "But this is
' a generic Exchange backup program, so of course it's running on an Exchange Server",
' remember although I built it for Exchange backups, it's still pretty generic and
' can be used for file system backups or system state etc.
'
' CDOEx is not "remoteable" - it can only be instantiated on the Exchange Server
' itself. Hence, not very generic.
'
' BUT - CDOEx has advantages. You can use "SendUsingExchange" rather than SMTP
' which allows you to relatively easily set a reminder on the message itself.
' You would unfortunately also be limited to not just running on an Exchange
' Server, but who you are sending it _from_ must have their mailbox on that
' local server.
'
' Plan B: Use CDO which is present on all Windows Servers. However, to do this
' has its own problems if you also want the message to flag up if you're using
' a rich Outlook client to read the message.
'
' Plan B and a half is to incorporate elements of both solution (see inline comments,
' with some code commented out) but using SMTP.
'
' Note: I could have done this, but it just would have been _too_ easy :-)
'
'Dim oMsg
'set oMsg = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
'oMsg.To = "user@contoso.com"
'oMsg.From = "Exchange@contoso.com"
'oMsg.Subject = "Backup Status"
'oMsg.TextBody = "Whatever you want"
'oMsg.Send
'set oMsg = Nothing

'-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Function SendErrorEmail()

    Dim oMsg       ' Message we send if failure occurs
    Dim szFrom        ' String
    Dim szBaseFolder ' Base folder for the current users mailbox
    Dim rc

    szFrom = ""
    rc = NO_ERROR
    set oMsg = Nothing

' COMMENTED OUT - COULD USE IF WE KNOW THIS IS RUNNING ON AN EXCHANGE SERVER
' REASON BEING: CDO.Person and IMailbox Interface are only implemented in CDOEx, not CDO
' Following block is to generate a full from email address so that we
' use a better display name if we are sending the email externally from
' the Exchange organisation. Not strictly necessary, but nicer.
' Also, no error checking implemented
'    Dim IMailbox      ' Mailbox Interface to CDO.Person object
'    Dim oADSInfo      ' ActiveDS.ADSystemInfo
'    Dim oPerson       ' CDO.Person
'    set oADSInfo = CreateObject("ADSystemInfo")
'    set oPerson = CreateObject("CDO.Person")
'    oPerson.DataSource.Open("LDAP://" & oADSInfo.DomainDNSName & "/" & oADSInfo.UserName)
'    szFrom = oPerson.FileAs ' May be blank if no description in AD
'    if 0 = len(szFrom) then szFrom = "Exchange Backup Script"
'    szFrom = szFrom & " <" & oPerson.Email & ">"

    ' Need to have a default sender
    if (NO_ERROR = rc) Then
        if 0 = len(szFrom) Then szFrom = DEFAULT_SENDER
    end if

' COMMENTED OUT - AGAIN CDOEX SPECIFIC. Assuming we use code block commented
' above, we need to make sure that the users mailbox we are sending FROM (which
' is the currently logged on user) is homed on the current Exchange Server.
' The base folder will be something like file://./backofficestorage/<domain>/MBX/<User>/
'    set IMailbox = oPerson.GetInterface("IMailbox")
'    szBaseFolder = IMailbox.BaseFolder
'    if (0=len(szBaseFolder)) Then <TRAP ERROR HERE>

    ' Create a message object. Not a lot we can do if we can't - could put further
    ' checking maybe to write to event log. Exercise for the reader though.
    if (NO_ERROR = rc) Then
        err.clear
        set oMsg = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
        if (err.number) or (oMsg is nothing) Then rc = -1
    end if

' Configure the outbound email
if (NO_ERROR = rc) Then

With oMsg.Configuration
'.Fields(cdoSaveSentItems) = False

            ' CDOEX Specific next line
            '.Fields("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing") = cdoSendUsingExchange

            ' SMTP Specific lines instead of above commented out line
            .Fields("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing") = 2 ' SMTP By Port
            .Fields("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver") = SMTP_SERVER
            .Fields("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport") = SMTP_PORT
            .Fields("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpauthenticate") = SMTP_AUTH
            .Fields("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpconnectiontimeout") = SMTP_TIMEOUT
            ' If using BASIC, need to set cdo/configuration/sendusername and sendpassword accordingly

            ' Update fields from the configuration
            .Fields.Update
        end With

        oMsg.To = DEFAULT_RECIP
        oMsg.From = szFrom
        oMsg.Subject = DEFAULT_SUBJECT

        oMsg.TextBody = "Backup Job has failed" & vbcrlf
        oMsg.TextBody = oMsg.TextBody & "Error: " & szError & vbcrlf & vbcrlf
        oMsg.TextBody = oMsg.TextBody & "Backup Job: " & szCommandLine

        ' CDOEX/SendUsingExchange Specific to set the message flag
        'oMsg.Fields("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x10900003")=2
        'oMsg.Fields("urn:schemas:httpmail:messageflag")= MESSAGE_FLAG

        ' SMTP Way of doing this
        oMsg.Fields("urn:schemas:mailheader:Reply-By") = szUTC
        oMsg.Fields("urn:schemas:mailheader:X-Message-Flag") = MESSAGE_FLAG

       oMsg.Fields(cdoImportance) = cdoHigh
       oMsg.Fields.Update
       oMsg.Send
    end if

set oMsg = Nothing

    ' If using CDOEx
    'set oPerson = Nothing
    'set oADSInfo = Nothing

End Function

Someone smart may wonder what's oMsg.Fields("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x10900003")=2 about. If you want to know, and how I went about finding out, it's a long story. Post a comment and I'll put up the details when I get a spare day (it's that long). <GRIPE>Previous to working at Microsoft, obtaining info like this was my day job - I had plenty of support cases lined up at MS and got pretty up tight about some of the decisions made by the Exchange Dev team, and specifically those working on the SDK tools. Seems like even since my gripes a few years ago, the same lack of documentation (or deliberate hiding of this info more specifically is still there)</GRIPE>

(Nov 2008) Updated as I discovered the formatting of the above script was awful in the new blog template. Also adding a link to a direct download of the script (save as a .vbs file rather than .txt). It's here.

Only SMTP, Outlook and Exchange Gurus need read further

jhoward — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 21:04:00 GMT

Iif you don't fit into the subject line category please switch off now - I just know you won't know the answer (no offence, of course). I've been an Exchange dev for years (although a little rusty now) and still don't know. However, read-on if you want to, or have some educated guesses and vaguely understand the problem I'm hastily attempting to explain.... This is the "deep techie" question alluded to in my previous blog post. I'm using CDO from Windows Server 2003, not CDOEx (the superset COM component) supplied on Exchange 2000/2003. I want to send an email using SMTP (rather than Exchange) and have Outlook pop up the email in the reminders window like below:

The above reminder was generated simply sending an email internally from an Exchange account to myself, with the message flag turned on. If you go back to an old "un-crippled" version of the Exchange Explorer from the Exchange SDK (previously known as the WSS/Web Storage System SDK), take a look at the property tags/attributes for this message, you notice a few MAPI related fields are set for reminders. Interestingly they're not MAPI property tags though, so I assume are supported tags. (NB - Don't try this using anything later than a Dec 2001 WSS Explorer as it's crippled and you won't be able to see MAPI tags.)

Property tags such as http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/remindernexttime, reminderset, remindertime. So the question is, what (if you can) do you set in the X- or other bespoke SMTP message header fields to get Exchange/Outlook to recognised these property tags. I just can't work it out (and am guessing it's not possible). Yes, I can do this using native MAPI, but it kind of defeats the point of what I'm trying to achieve. Anyone on the Exchange Dev team listening???

Ta!

Part 20: Infrastructure essentials Blogcast - RPC/HTTP for Outlook & Exchange - Start External Config

jhoward — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 12:44:00 GMT

Continuing the blogcast series on infrastructure essentials.

This fifth part of configuring RPC over HTTP for Outlook 2003 changes direction in getting RPC/HTTPS available from the Internet now that it is working internally. We backtrack on our ISA Server configuration as we can't (easily) have forms based authentication and basic authentication listening externally on port 443. Hence, we delete our old rules for publishing Outlook Web Access and new rules for our first stage in getting RPC/HTTPS available from the internet.

Click here to view.

Part 19: Infrastructure essentials Blogcast - RPC/HTTP for Outlook & Exchange - Completing internal config

jhoward — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 15:07:00 GMT

Continuing the blogcast series on infrastructure essentials.

This fourth part of configuring RPC over HTTP for Outlook 2003 moves us on to ensuring that RPC/HTTP works internally from our Outlook 2003 client to our Exchange 2003 Server. First though, we correct a typo in the registry settings from the previous blogcast part (sorry!). One thing that is critical is to correctly configure our Outlook Profile for RPC/HTTP connectivity. We walk through the settings and change them, take a look at the "/rpcdiag" switch when starting outlook and end up with Outlook talking to our Exchange server through HTTPS internally.

Next week, we'll start tackling the ISA Server configuration to get RPC/HTTPS available from the Internet.

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Part 18: Infrastructure essentials Blogcast - RPC/HTTP for Outlook & Exchange - Initial Setup

jhoward — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 23:09:00 GMT

Continuing the blogcast series on infrastructure essentials.

The third part of configuring RPC over HTTP for Outlook 2003 configures the registry on Exchange 2003 and ensures that IIS is correctly configured on our Exchange server. This is a critical step in ensuring that internal problems are non-existant before continuing on to external publication.

Click here to view.