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Thursday, December 17, 2009 2:42 PM

New Feature : Multiple Exchange Accounts in Outlook 2010

For everyone using the Outlook 2010 Technical Preview, there are a number of improvements for working with multiple Exchange accounts. My name is Andrew Sullivan, I’m a Program Manager working on Outlook and it’s my pleasure to highlight some of these improvements.

Connect to more than one Microsoft Exchange account simultaneously. If you’ve worked with more than one Exchange account in Outlook 2007 or earlier, you may have resorted to using multiple Outlook profiles to access your additional accounts. No more, as Outlook 2010 supports connecting to as many as three Exchange accounts from a single profile.

navpane

How do I get another Exchange account into Outlook?

In the Technical Preview, Outlook requires you to use the Mail Applet in the Control Panel to add additional Exchange accounts. In Windows Vista or Windows 7, type “Mail” into the search box in the control panel to find the Mail Applet. In Windows XP the applet is shown in the default Control Panel view.

MailApplett

Once you’ve launched the Mail Applet choose “E-mail Accounts…” and then “New…” From there, the wizard will allow you to add another Exchange account.

What’s the catch?

Your additional Exchange accounts function just like your first Exchange account in almost every way. Some things, however, are different. For example, the To-Do Bar shows appointments only from your default store, not those from additional Exchange account calendars. To view which store is your default click the Office button, then Account Setting, then, choose the Data Files tab.

What else is improved about Multiple Accounts?

The Ribbon in Outlook 2010 is specific to the account at which you are looking. If you click New E-mail in the ribbon while looking at the Inbox of your second Exchange account, your new message will be sent from your second Exchange account.

Who are you sending From?

When you add a second account of any type to Outlook 2010, the new From Picker will show up on new mail messages. This allows you to easily see which account you’re sending from, and just as easily change it.

frompicker

If you have havy new features you'd like to see or use in the new Outlook version do not hesitate to provide feedback.

This was published by Andrew Sullivan in :

http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook/archive/2009/08/25/multiple-exchange-accounts-in-outlook-2010.aspx

 

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
Friday, December 11, 2009 5:28 PM

Now available : Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 - KB976573 -

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 has been released.

 This update brings several improvements for BlackBerry but also some crash fixes, as the list below shows :

Issues that the update rollup fixes

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 fixes the issues that are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

977439  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977439/ ) Exchange Server 2010 users cannot open certain attachments when they access their mailboxes by using Outlook Web App
977551  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977551/ ) Meeting requests that are sent to a room mailbox are not processed in Exchange Server 2010
977552  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977552/ ) Exchange RPC Client Access service crashes in the Handler.dll that is located on an Exchange 2010 Client Access service server
977553  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977553/ ) Exchange RPC Client Access service crashes in Parser.dll on the Exchange Server 2010 CAS server
977554  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977554/ ) The subject or body of a message that is hosted in an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox is not set as expected
977555  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977555/ ) The message body is inaccessible when the property conversion from PR_BODY_HTML to PR_BODY fails
977556  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977556/ ) The body text of an e-mail message is invisible after you create exceptions for a recurring appointment or for a recurring meeting by using a CDO application together with Exchange Server 2010
977557  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977557/ ) An E_FAIL error occurs when you create an exception to a meeting request by using a CDO application for a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 mailbox
977558  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977558/ ) A folder name is not changed when you try to move and then rename the folder in an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox by using the CopyFolder method of the IMAPIFolder interface
977559  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977559/ ) The location of a meeting or an appointment is not updated on an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox
977560  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977560/ ) Update fails when you use a CDO application to update a recurrence task on Exchange Server 2010
977561  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977561/ ) VSS backup process stops responding when you try to perform a Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) backup for Exchange Server 2010 databases

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 (KB976573)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=371add31-d7a0-4c8b-8325-a6fced2d05e6&displaylang=en

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
Friday, December 11, 2009 5:09 PM

BlackBerry Enterprise Server fully supported on Exchange 2010

 

I'd like to share with everyone some good news today— BlackBerry® Enterprise Server (BES) is now fully supported on Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010 and BlackBerry® Technical Support Services are readily available.

This is the earliest customers have been able to deploy BlackBerry smartphones with a new Exchange release - ever. Customers who rely on BES as an important part of their messaging and collaboration infrastructure have told us that more rapid support for RIM's solution is critical to them. So we partnered with RIM earlier in the development cycle to ensure organizations moving to the new release experience no user downtime.

In order to enable full support, three updates are required:

All three of these updates are available to customers of Exchange Server 2010 and BlackBerry Enterprise Server v.5.0 with Service Pack 1 at no cost. BlackBerry Enterprise Server v5.0 Service Pack 1 and Maintenance Release 1 can be found here: http://www.blackberry.com/support/downloads

Additional information on the solution requirements, preparing the BlackBerry environment for Microsoft Exchange Server2010, can be found on the BlackBerry site here.

Today's roll up also includes other minor updates to areas including calendaring, OWA, and transport. You can read more about Exchange Server 2010 RU1 here.

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
Friday, December 11, 2009 5:06 PM

Upgrading Exchange ActiveSync to Exchange 2010

 

Many of you have been asking how you can upgrade your existing Exchange environment to Exchange 2010 from a client access perspective. For most of you, this will also mean coexisting with legacy Exchange and Exchange 2010 for a period of time.  My first blog article in this series discussed the overall steps in how to upgrade your environment from a client access perspective.  This article, the third in the series, discusses how Exchange ActiveSync will function in an Exchange 2003 or 2007 environment that has Exchange 2010 deployed.

Upgrading EAS in an Exchange 2003 Environment to Exchange 2010

Some of you may have environments that have Internet facing AD sites and non-Internet facing AD sites.  As part of our upgrade process, you will be following a model where:

  1. Ensure all Exchange 2003 servers are at Service Pack 2.
  2. Deploy Exchange 2010 CAS, Hub Transport, and Mailbox in the "Internet Facing AD Site".
  3. Have legacy Exchange servers in the "Non-Internet facing AD site" (if they exist).

In other words, it would look something like this for an Exchange 2003 upgrade/co-existence:

With this configuration there are typically a few questions that are asked:

  1. What are the configuration changes I must make on the Exchange 2003 Front-End servers to support ActiveSync?
  2. What are the configuration changes I must make on the Exchange 2003 mailbox servers?
  3. What scenarios involve proxying and what scenarios involve redirection for Exchange ActiveSync (Exchange 2003)?

What are the configuration changes I must make on the Exchange 2003 Front-End servers to support ActiveSync?

In order to introduce Exchange 2010 into your "Internet Facing AD Site" and support your Exchange 2003 mailboxes, you will move the primary EAS namespace that is associated with the Exchange 2003 Front-End servers and associate it with the Exchange 2010 CAS array.  For more information on the detailed steps required to support coexistence process see my first blog article in the series, TechNet, or within the Deployment Assistant.

What are the configuration changes I must make on the Exchange 2003 mailbox servers?

Users with mailboxes on an Exchange 2003 server who try to use Exchange ActiveSync through an Exchange 2010 Client Access server will receive an error and be unable to synchronize unless Integrated Windows authentication is enabled on the Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync virtual directory on the Exchange 2003 server. This allows the Exchange 2010 Client Access server and the Exchange 2003 back end server to communicate using Kerberos authentication.

To enable this authentication change on Exchange 2003 you need to either:

  1. Install http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=937031 and then use the Exchange System Manager to adjust the authentication settings of the ActiveSync virtual directory.
  2. Or, set the msExchAuthenticationFlags attribute to a value of 6 on the Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync object within the configuration container on each Exchange 2003 mailbox server.  An example script is provided at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc785437.aspx.

Note: It is important that you do not use IIS Manager to change the authentication setting on the ActiveSync virtual directory as the DS2MB process within the System Attendant will overwrite the settings that are stored in Active Directory.

What scenarios involve proxying and what scenarios involve redirection for Exchange ActiveSync (Exchange 2003)?

Hopefully the Exchange 2003 coexistence diagram is self-explanatory, but if it is not, the key thing here is that regardless of the location of the Exchange 2003 mailbox (remember Exchange 2003 is not site aware), CAS2010 will always proxy the request to the Exchange 2003 mailbox server.  Also, since Exchange 2003 does not support Autodiscover, the device version does not matter.

  1. User's device is already configured to use the namespace mail.contoso.com.
  2. User's device attempts to synchronize.
  3. CAS2010 will authenticate the user, determine the mailbox version is Exchange 2003 by performing a service discovery lookup in Active Directory, and retrieve the Exchange 2003 mailbox server FQDN.
  4. CAS2010 will proxy the connection to the Exchange 2003 mailbox server's Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync virtual directory.  In the IIS logs, you will see a response similar to:

    POST /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync/default.eas User=user5&DeviceId=foo&DeviceType=PocketPC&Cmd=FolderSync&Log=PrxTo:mail.contoso.com_LdapC2_ 443 contoso\user5 10.20.100.117 MSFT-PPC/5.1.2301 200 0 0 189

  5. The mailbox server will authenticate the user and retrieve and render the mailbox data and will provide the rendered data back to the CAS2010 server.
  6. CAS2010 will expose the data to the end user.

Upgrading EAS in an Exchange 2007 Environment to Exchange 2010

Some of you may have environments that have Internet facing AD sites and non-Internet facing AD sites.  As part of our upgrade process, you will be following a model where:

  1. You upgrade all CAS servers in the organization to Exchange 2007 SP2.
  2. Upgrade all Exchange 2007 servers in "Internet Facing AD Site" to Exchange 2007 SP2.
  3. Deploy Exchange 2010 CAS, Hub Transport, and Mailbox in the "Internet Facing AD Site".
  4. Have legacy Exchange servers in the "Non-Internet facing AD site" (if they exist).

In other words, it would look something like this for an Exchange 2007 upgrade/co-existence:

With this configuration there are typically a few questions that are asked:

  1. Are there any configuration changes I must make on my Exchange 2007 Client Access servers?
  2. What are the configuration changes I must make on the Exchange 2003 mailbox servers, if they exist in the environment?
  3. What scenarios involve proxying and what scenarios involve redirection for Exchange ActiveSync (Exchange 2007)?
  4. What scenarios involve proxying and what scenarios involve redirection for Exchange ActiveSync (Exchange 2003)?

Are there any configuration changes I must make on my Exchange 2007 Client Access servers?

In order to introduce Exchange 2010 into your "Internet Facing AD Site" and support your Exchange 2007 (and possibly 2003) mailboxes, you will move the primary EAS namespace that is associated with the Exchange 2007 CAS array and associate it with the Exchange 2010 CAS array. In addition, you will create a new namespace for legacy access, legacy.contoso.com (note that the name can be anything you want) and associate it with your Exchange 2007 CAS array.

For CAS2007 within the "Internet Facing AD Site" you will want to configure the EAS ExternalURL to utilize the legacy.contoso.com namespace to allow for redirection of devices that support Autodiscover by using the following cmdlet:

Set-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory <CAS2007>\Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync* -ExternalURL https://legacy.contoso.com/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync

On the CAS2010, you will set the ExternalURL to be https://mail.contoso.com using the following cmdlet:

Set-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory <CAS2010>\Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync* -ExternalURL https://mail.contoso.com/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync

Unlike Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007 does not require any authentication changes, but let's understand why.

In Exchange 2007, for EAS proxy communication to work between CAS2007 in the "Internet Facing AD Site" and CAS2007 in the "Non-Internet Facing Site", you had to enable Windows Integrated Authentication on the CAS2007 ActiveSync virtual directories in the "Non-Internet Facing Site". If you didn't, you could not proxy EAS traffic.

With Exchange 2007 SP2 (and Exchange 2010), setup creates a new sub-virtual directory under \Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync, called proxy. This proxy virtual directory has Windows Integrated Authentication enabled. When CAS2010 has to proxy EAS traffic to CAS2007 (or to another CAS2010), the \Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync\proxy virtual directory will be used for the proxy traffic.

Note: This behavior is only for CAS2010 to CAS2007/CAS2010 EAS proxy. CAS2007 to CAS2007 EAS proxy still requires Windows Integrated Authentication to be set on the ActiveSync virtual directory.

For more information on the detailed steps required to support coexistence process see my first blog article in the series, TechNet, or within the Deployment Assistant.

What are the configuration changes I must make on the Exchange 2003 mailbox servers, if they exist in the environment?

If your Exchange 2007 environment contains Exchange 2003 mailbox servers, then users with mailboxes on an Exchange 2003 server who try to use Exchange ActiveSync through an Exchange 2010 Client Access server will receive an error and be unable to synchronize unless Integrated Windows authentication is enabled on the Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync virtual directory on the Exchange 2003 server. This allows the Exchange 2010 Client Access server and the Exchange 2003 back end server to communicate using Kerberos authentication.

To enable this authentication change on Exchange 2003 you need to either:

  1. Install http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=937031 and then use the Exchange System Manager to adjust the authentication settings of the ActiveSync virtual directory.
  2. Or, set the msExchAuthenticationFlags attribute to a value of 6 on the Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync object within the configuration container on each Exchange 2003 mailbox server.  An example script is provided at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc785437.aspx.

Note: It is important that you do not use IIS Manager to change the authentication setting on the ActiveSync virtual directory as the DS2MB process within the System Attendant will overwrite the settings that are stored in Active Directory.

What scenarios involve proxying and what scenarios involve redirection for Exchange ActiveSync (Exchange 2007)?

Note: It is assumed that Autodiscover is associated with CAS2010 in the "Internet Facing AD site".

Hopefully the Exchange 2007 coexistence diagram is self-explanatory, but if it is not:

For the first scenario, let's consider the behavior for User1.  Since User1 is located in the same AD site as the Internet facing CAS2010 and CAS2007 is also Internet-facing (ExternalURL is populated) User1's experience will depend on whether the device supports Autodiscover.

For the legacy device scenario (i.e., the device does not support Autodiscover or protocol version 12.1 or later):

  1. User1's device is already configured to use the namespace mail.contoso.com.
  2. User1's device attempts to synchronize.
  3. CAS2010 will authenticate the user and access Active Directory and retrieve the following information:
    1. User's mailbox version
    2. User's mailbox location (AD Site)
    3. The ExternalURL of Exchange 2007 Client Access Server(s) EAS virtual directory located within the mailbox's AD site (if it exists)
    4. The InternalURL of the Exchange 2007 Client Access Servers(s) EAS virtual directory located within the mailbox's AD site (if it exists)
  4. While the user's mailbox does reside in the "Internet Facing AD Site" and the ExternalURL is populated on CAS2007 in that site, because the device does not support redirection via Autodiscover, CAS2010 will proxy the connection to the Exchange 2007 CAS infrastructure in the "Internet Facing AD Site". Specifically the request is proxied to CAS2007 (InternalURL value) \Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync\Proxy virtual directory.
  5. CAS2007 will authenticate the user and retrieve and render the mailbox data from the Exchange 2007 mailbox server and will provide the rendered data back to the CAS2010 server.
  6. CAS2010 will expose the data to the end user.

For the Autodiscover-supported device scenario (e.g., Windows Mobile 6.1 or later):

  1. User3's device is already configured to use the namespace mail.contoso.com.
  2. User3's device attempts to synchronize.
  3. CAS2010 will authenticate the user and access Active Directory and retrieve the following information:
    1. User's mailbox version
    2. User's mailbox location (AD Site)
    3. The ExternalURL of Exchange 2007 Client Access Server(s) EAS virtual directory located within the mailbox's AD site (if it exists)
    4. The InternalURL of the Exchange 2007 Client Access Servers(s) EAS virtual directory located within the mailbox's AD site (if it exists)
  4. Since the user's mailbox does reside in the "Internet Facing AD Site", the ExternalURL is populated on CAS2007 in that site, and the device does support redirection via Autodiscover (this is determined by the protocol version of ActiveSync when establishing a synchronization; it must be version 12.1 or later), CAS2010 will return a response (HTTP error code 451) indicating that the device should use legacy.contoso.com namespace for all synchronization events.  You can see the response in the IIS logs:

    POST /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync/default.eas User=user3&DeviceId=foo&DeviceType=PocketPC&Cmd=Settings&Log=RdirTo:https%3a%2f%2flegacy.contoso.com%2fMicrosoft-Server-ActiveSync_Error:MisconfiguredDevice_ 443 contoso\user3 10.20.100.117 MSFT-PPC/5.2.5082 451 0 0 17

  5. The device updates its profile to use legacy.contoso.com and attempts to synchronize with legacy.contoso.com.
  6. CAS2007 will authenticate the user and retrieve and render the mailbox data from the Exchange 2007 mailbox server and will provide the rendered data back to the device.

Important: Some third-party ActiveSync devices advertise support for protocol version 12.1 or later; however, they do not correctly process the 451 error response by updating the device profile.  For these devices you will have to manually update the namespace in the device ActiveSync profile once CAS2010 has been deployed with the mail.contoso.com namespace.  Please contact your device manufacturer to determine when they will provide support for redirection.

Now let's consider User2 from the Exchange 2007 coexistence diagram.  User2 could be utilizing a third-party ActiveSync device or a Windows Mobile device.  For Windows Mobile support, the device is either 5.0, 6.0, or 6.1+ or later.  Note that 6.1+ supports Autodiscover, but since User2 is located in the "Non-Internet Facing AD Site", the redirect functionality does not come into play here.

  1. User2's device is already configured to use the namespace mail.contoso.com.
  2. User2's device attempts to synchronize.
  3. CAS2010 will authenticate the user and access Active Directory and retrieve the following information:
    1. User's mailbox version
    2. User's mailbox location (AD Site)
    3. The ExternalURL of Exchange 2007 Client Access Server(s) EAS virtual directory located within the mailbox's AD site (if it exists)
    4. The InternalURL of the Exchange 2007 Client Access Servers(s) EAS virtual directory located within the mailbox's AD site (if it exists)
  4. Since the user's mailbox resides in the "Non-Internet Facing AD Site" and the ExternalURL is not populated on any  Client Access server(s) in that site, CAS2010 will proxy the connection to the Exchange 2007 CAS infrastructure in the "Non-Internet Facing AD Site". Specifically the request is proxied to CAS2007 (InternalURL value) \Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync\Proxy virtual directory
  5. CAS2007 will authenticate the user and retrieve and render the mailbox data from the Exchange 2007 mailbox server and will provide the rendered data back to the CAS2010 server.
  6. CAS2010 will expose the data to the end user.

What happens when the user's mailbox is moved to Exchange 2010?

For this scenario, the important thing to understand is how is the device currently configured? Either the device is utilizing the legacy.contoso.com namespace (due to Autodiscover during device setup or due to the redirect), or the device is utilizing the mail.contoso.com namespace (and thus CAS2010 is proxying to the legacy CAS or Exchange 2003 mailbox server).

For the Autodiscover-supported device scenario case:

  1. User3's device is already configured to use the namespace legacy.contoso.com.
  2. User3's device attempts to synchronize.
  3. CAS2007 will authenticate the user and access Active Directory and retrieve the following information:
    1. User's mailbox version
    2. User's mailbox location (AD Site)
    3. The EAS virtual directory ExternalURL of the Client Access Server(s) that matches the mailbox version, located within the mailbox's AD site
  4. Since the user's mailbox version is now greater than the CAS2007 version, CAS2007 must either respond with a 403 or 451 response code. Since the ActiveSync protocol version of User3's device is 12.1 or later, the device supports Autodiscover. Therefore, CAS2007 will return a response (HTTP error code 451) indicating that the device should use mail.contoso.com namespace for all synchronization events.
  5. The device updates its profile to use mail.contoso.com and attempts to synchronize with mail.contoso.com.
  6. CAS2010 will authenticate the user and retrieve and render the mailbox data from the Exchange 2010 mailbox server and will provide the rendered data back to the device.

For the legacy device case:

  1. User1's device is already configured to use the namespace mail.contoso.com.
  2. User1's device attempts to synchronize.
  3. CAS2010 will authenticate the user and access Active Directory and retrieve the following information:
    1. User's mailbox version
    2. User's mailbox location (AD Site)
    3. The EAS virtual directory ExternalURL of the Client Access Server(s) that matches the mailbox version, located within the mailbox's AD site
    4. The EAS virtual directory InternalURL of the Client Access Server(s) that matches the mailbox version, located within the mailbox's AD site
  4. Because the device does not support Autodiscover (protocol version is less than 12.1), prior to the mailbox move, CAS2010 simply proxied the ActiveSync traffic to CAS2007. Now that the mailbox is moved, CAS2010 simply retrieves and renders the mailbox data from the Exchange 2010 mailbox server.
  5. CAS2010 will expose the data to the end user.

Conclusion

Hopefully this information dispels some of the myths around proxying and redirection logic for Exchange ActiveSync in Exchange Server 2010 when upgrading either from Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2003.  Please let us know if you have any questions.

Credits kept :

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/12/08/453472.aspx

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
Wednesday, December 02, 2009 2:18 PM

Updates to the Exchange Supportability Matrix

With the release of Exchange 2007 SP2 we provided a Supportability Matrix which outlined the supported configurations for Exchange 2000 SP3, Exchange 2003 SP2, and Exchange 2007 (RTM, SP1, and SP2).   But as many are aware, with the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 there have been a variety of questions raised about our support policies and a multitude of feedback.  Two pieces of feedback occurred numerous times -  the need to support Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2 and the need to support Exchange 2003 against Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory servers. 

In response to this feedback we will be making several updates to the supportability matrix.

  • As I recently blogged about, we will be adding support for Exchange 2007 on the Windows Server 2008 R2 platform.   While we had hoped to add this application/operating system combination quickly, unfortunately adding this support requires code changes to setup in Exchange 2007.  Therefore, our vehicle for adding this support will be via a third Service Pack for Exchange 2007 in the second half of calendar year 2010.
  • Exchange 2003 SP2 will now be supported against writeable Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory Servers.  Additionally, with the General Availability of Exchange Server 2010, and those looking to standardize on Windows Server 2008 R2 we have enhanced the supportability of forest and domain functional levels up to Windows Server 2008 R2.  This change is effective immediately on Exchange 2003 SP2.
  • Exchange 2007 is now supported on servers running .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 provided that the .NET platform was upgraded from .NET Framework 2.0.  This change is also effective immediately on Exchange 2007 SP2.

Each of these changes are being made to provide the flexibility you requested - to change your operating system architecture without changing your messaging architecture.  In addition to the existing combinations, we will be adding supportability guidance for Exchange 2010 to the matrix.    Note that all of these changes may not immediately appear on the supportability matrix, but be assured that any documentation update lag will not affect your supportability with Microsoft Support.

Finally I do want to update all on one other piece of feedback we have received - allowing the in place upgrade of the operating system under Exchange.  Technically the work required to provide this capability is consistent with the work we would need to do to support an in-place upgrade of Exchange itself.  As such the amount of work needed is outside the scope and complexity of what we can do in a post release product update.  Still we do understand the demand and desire and it is something we will continue to look at for future versions of the product.

While we hope these changes are welcome news and address questions you may have had, we also understand we have areas to improve in.  Our desire is to simplify and improve the support experience with Exchange.

Credits :

You Had Me At EHLO... : Updates to the Exchange Supportability Matrix
http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/11/30/453327.aspx

 

 

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 26, 2009 3:56 PM

Transitioning from an Exchange 2007 environment to Exchange 2010

Transitioning an Exchange 2007 environment to Exchange 2010

When you are ready to begin transitioning your organization to Exchange 2010, you must transition the "Internet Facing AD Site" that is associated with your external Autodiscover record, then regional Internet facing AD Sites, and then transition your internal Active Directory sites. It is not supported to transition an internal Active Directory site before all your Internet-accessible sites have been transitioned.

The steps for introducing Exchange 2010 into the environment are:

Note: These steps do not discuss how to set up your CAS2010 servers in a load balancing array. Please review your load balancing solution's instructions for how to properly create and join your CAS2010 servers in a load balancing array.

1. In order to support external client coexistence with CAS2010 and legacy Exchange in your "Internet Facing AD Site", you will (potentially) need to acquire a new commercial certificate.  As a best practice, Microsoft recommends utilizing a certificate that supports Subject Alternative Names; however, you can utilize a wildcard certificate as well.

This commercial certificate that will be leveraged by external clients will contain at a minimum three SAN values (note that other scenarios may require you to add additional values):

  1. mail.contoso.com (your primary OWA/EAS/OA access URL)
  2. autodiscover.contoso.com
  3. legacy.contoso.com (your OWA/EAS namespace for legacy mailbox access)

Prior to Windows Vista SP1, the Windows RPC/HTTP client-side component required that the Subject Name (aka Common Name) on the certificate match the "Certificate Principal Name" configured for the Outlook Anywhere connection in the Outlook profile. Therefore, as a best practice, you should ensure that mail.contoso.com is listed as the Subject Name in your certificate unless you plan on changing the configuration which can be achieved by using the Set-OutlookProvider cmdlet with the -EXPR parameter as described in http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/09/29/449921.aspx.

2. Ensure all Exchange 2007 CAS within the organization are at Service Pack 2, all Exchange 2003 servers (if they exist) are at Service Pack 2, and that all Exchange 2007 Mailbox, Hub Transport, and Unified Messaging servers are at Service Pack 2 in the "Internet Facing AD Site". Also, ensure you meet all the forest/domain pre-requisites.

3. Install CAS2010 and configure it accordingly:

  • During the installation of CAS2010 you have the option to enter the external namespace that will be used for the virtual directories. You can enter this value in both the graphical user interface or the command-line setup:
    • For the graphical user interface setup experience of CAS2010 you are asked to configure a Client Access external domain. At this point you canter the domain name of mail.contoso.com.
    • If installing via the command line, you can utilize the setup property /ExternalCASServerDomain and specify mail.contoso.com
  • If you haven't already done so, install the RPC over HTTP proxy component.  You can do this utilizing the ServerManagerCmd tool: ServerManagerCmd.exe -i RPC-over-HTTP-proxy
  • Configure your OWA settings appropriately (e.g. forms based authentication vs. basic authentication). For the purpose of this document, the default OWA settings are assumed.
  • Configure your EAS authentication settings appropriately (e.g. Basic vs. certificate authentication). For the purposes of this document, the default authentication mechanism, basic authentication, is assumed.
  • Enable Outlook Anywhere (for the purposes of this document, the default authentication settings are assumed): Enable-OutlookAnywhere -Server: -ExternalHostName:mail.contoso.com -SSLOffloading $false

4. If you chose to not specify the external domain name for CAS during setup, you will need to enable the following ExternalURLs to ensure that clients that leverage Autodiscover function correctly:

5. To ensure that Outlook Web Access functions correctly, you will need to enable the following URLs:

6. If you have Exchange 2007 deployed in "Non-Internet Facing AD Sites" then you must copy the Exchange 2007 OWA binaries to CAS2010:

  • On the CAS2010 server(s), establish a connection to the CAS2007 server's drive that contains the Exchange binaries and navigate to the \Client Access\OWA directory (e.g. \\cas2007\c$\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Client Access\Owa).
  • Copy the highest version folder (e.g. 8.2.140.0) from the CAS2007 to CAS2010 Exchange binaries \Client Access\OWA directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ClientAccess\Owa).
  • Execute IISReset on all the CAS2010 machines.

7. For your Outlook clients, you can configure CAS2010 to participate in an RPC Client Access Service array:

  • Create a load balancing array for CAS2010, if one has not already been created.
  • Create a DNS entry in your internal DNS infrastructure that resolves to the Virtual IP Address (VIP) of the CAS load balancing array. The DNS entry, for example, could be outlook.contoso.com.
  • Configure your load balancing array to load balance the MAPI RPC ports:
    • TCP 135
    • UDP/TCP 1024-65535
  • Run the following cmdlet to create the Client Access Service array: New-ClientAccessArray -Name outlook.contoso.com -FQDN outlook.contoso.com -Site "Internet Facing AD Site"

8. Install the HT2010 and MBX2010 server roles into the "Internet Facing AD Site" and configure accordingly.

  • You can change the Offline Address Book generation server and enable web distribution on CAS2010 by performing the following steps:
    • To move the Offline Address Book: Move-OfflineAddressBook "Default Offline Address List" -Server
    • To add CAS2010 as a web distribution point:
      • $OABVDir=Get-OABVirtualDirectory -Server
      • $OAB=Get-OfflineAddressBook "Default Offline Address List"
      • $OAB.VirtualDirectories += $OABVdir.DistinguishedName
      • Set-OfflineAddressBook "Default Offline Address List" -VirtualDirectories $OAB.VirtualDirectories

9. Create legacy host record (legacy.contoso.com) in your external DNS infrastructure and associate it either with the CAS2007 infrastructure (less likely) or your proxy infrastructure (more likely).

10. If utilizing a reverse proxy infrastructure, you will publish the legacy namespace to the CAS2007 infrastructure so that at this point the CAS2007 infrastructure can be accessed either via mail.contoso.com or legacy.contoso.com namespaces.

11. You will then schedule Internet protocol client downtime (please note that this downtime window should be relatively small - enough time for you to make the change and validate that everything works as desired) and perform the following steps:

  • You will re-configure your CAS2007 URLs in the "Internet Facing AD Site". This ensures that clients that leverage Autodiscover function correctly and that legacy mailboxes can be redirected to Outlook Web Access:
  • If you have Exchange 2003 mailbox servers in your environment, then users with mailboxes on an Exchange 2003 server who try to use Exchange ActiveSync through an Exchange 2010 Client Access server will receive an error and be unable to synchronize unless Integrated Windows authentication is enabled on the Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync virtual directory on the Exchange 2003 server. This allows the Exchange 2010 Client Access Server and the Exchange 2003 back end server to communicate using Kerberos authentication.

To enable this authentication change on Exchange 2003 you need to either:

Note: It is important that you do not use IIS Manager to change the authentication setting on the Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync virtual directory as the DS2MB process within the System Attendant will overwrite the settings that are stored in Active Directory.

  • Disable Outlook Anywhere on your Exchange 2007 CAS infrastructure in the "Internet Facing AD Site" by utilizing the cmdlet, Disable-OutlookAnywhere -Server . Optionally, you can also remove the RPC over HTTP proxy component (refer to your Windows Server documentation for more information).

Important: This requires an up-front investment in CAS2010 architecture as all Outlook Anywhere clients will utilize CAS2010 once you transition the Outlook Anywhere endpoint. Be sure to follow all proper scalability planning documentation when deploying CAS2010 to ensure that you do not create a bottleneck in your CAS infrastructure due to Outlook Anywhere clients.

  • You will reconfigure External DNS and/or your reverse proxy infrastructure's publishing rules to have the autodiscover.contoso.com and mail.contoso.com namespaces point to CAS2010.
  • Test all client scenarios and ensure they function correctly.

12. Complete downtime and enable Internet protocol client usage.

As a result of following these steps, the environment would look similar to this diagram:

So why the additional namespace?

To understand why we are introducing a new namespace for the legacy Exchange environment, it is important to understand what the Internet client behavior will be by introducing Exchange 2010.

  • For Outlook Web Access, Exchange 2010 CAS does not support rendering mailbox data from legacy versions of Exchange.  Exchange 2010 CAS does one of four scenarios depending on the target mailbox's version and/or location:
    • If the Exchange 2007 mailbox is in the same AD Site as CAS2010, CAS2010 will silently redirect the session to the Exchange 2007 CAS.
    • If the Exchange 2007 mailbox is in another Internet facing AD Site, CAS2010 will manually redirect the user to the Exchange 2007 CAS.
    • If the Exchange 2007 mailbox is in a non-Internet facing AD site, CAS2010 will proxy the connection to the Exchange 2007 CAS.
    • If the mailbox is Exchange 2003, CAS2010 will silently redirect the session to a pre-defined URL.
  • For Exchange ActiveSync, Exchange 2010 CAS does not support rendering mailbox data from legacy versions of Exchange.  Exchange 2010 CAS does one of four scenarios depending on the target mailbox's version and/or location, and device capabilities:
    • If the Exchange 2007 mailbox is in the same AD Site as CAS2010 and the device supports Autodiscover, CAS2010 will notify the device to synchronize with CAS2007.
    • If the Exchange 2007 mailbox is in the same AD Site as CAS2010 and the device does not support Autodiscover, CAS2010 will proxy the connection to CAS2007.
    • If the Exchange 2007 mailbox is in a non-Internet facing AD site, CAS2010 will proxy the connection to the Exchange 2007 CAS.
    • If the mailbox is Exchange 2003, CAS2010 will proxy the connection to the Exchange 2003 mailbox server.
  • For Outlook Anywhere, you are going to move the Outlook Anywhere endpoint from the Exchange 2003 Front-End or Exchange 2007 CAS to the Exchange 2010 CAS.  Exchange 2010 CAS will always proxy the Outlook MAPI RPC data that is embedded in the RPC-HTTPS packet to the target legacy mailbox server (regardless of AD site or version) or to the appropriate Exchange 2010 CAS.

Important: This requires an up-front investment in CAS2010 architecture as all Outlook Anywhere clients will utilize CAS2010 once you transition the Outlook Anywhere endpoint. Be sure to follow all proper scalability planning documentation when deploying CAS2010 to ensure that you do not create a bottleneck in your CAS infrastructure due to Outlook Anywhere clients.

This was taken, also, from :

You Had Me At EHLO... : Transitioning Client Access to Exchange Server 2010
http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/11/20/453272.aspx

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 26, 2009 3:38 PM

Transitioning from an Exchange 2003 Environment to Exchange 2010

Now that Exchange Server 2010 is out to market I bring you the Transitioning from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 guide :

Transitioning an Exchange 2003 Environment to Exchange 2010

When you are ready to begin transitioning your organization to Exchange 2010, you must transition the "Internet Facing AD Site(s)" first, and then transition your internal Active Directory sites. It is not supported to transition an internal Active Directory site before all your Internet-accessible sites have been transitioned.

The steps for introducing Exchange 2010 into the environment are:

Note: These steps do not discuss how to set up your CAS2010 servers in a load balancing array. Please review your load balancing solution's instructions for how to properly create and join your CAS2010 servers in a load balancing array.

1. In order to support external client coexistence with CAS2010 and legacy Exchange in your "Internet Facing AD Site", you will (potentially) need to acquire a new commercial certificate.  As a best practice, Microsoft recommends utilizing a certificate that supports Subject Alternative Names; however, you can utilize a wildcard certificate as well.

This commercial certificate that will be leveraged by external clients will contain at a minimum three SAN values (note that other scenarios may require you to add additional values):

  1. mail.contoso.com (your primary OWA/EAS/OA access URL)
  2. autodiscover.contoso.com
  3. legacy.contoso.com (your OWA/EAS namespace for legacy mailbox access)

Prior to Windows Vista SP1, the Windows RPC/HTTP client-side component required that the Subject Name (aka Common Name) on the certificate match the "Certificate Principal Name" configured for the Outlook Anywhere connection in the Outlook profile. Therefore, as a best practice, you should ensure that mail.contoso.com is listed as the Subject Name in your certificate unless you plan on changing the configuration which can be achieved by using the Set-OutlookProvider cmdlet with the EXPR parameter as described in http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/09/29/449921.aspx.

2. Ensure all Exchange 2003 servers are at Service Pack 2 and that you meet all forest/domain pre-requisites.

3. Install CAS2010 and configure it accordingly:

  • During the installation of CAS2010 you have the option to enter the external namespace that will be used for the virtual directories. You can enter this value in both the graphical user interface or the command-line setup:
    • For the graphical user interface setup experience of CAS2010 you are asked to configure a Client Access external domain. At this point you canter the domain name of mail.contoso.com.
    • If installing via the command line, you can utilize the setup property /ExternalCASServerDomain and specify mail.contoso.com
  • If you haven't already done so, install the RPC over HTTP proxy component.  You can do this utilizing the ServerManagerCmd tool: ServerManagerCmd.exe -i RPC-over-HTTP-proxy
  • Configure your OWA settings appropriately (e.g. forms based authentication vs. basic authentication). For the purpose of this document, the default OWA settings are assumed.
  • Configure your EAS authentication settings appropriately (e.g. Basic vs. certificate authentication). For the purposes of this document, the default authentication mechanism, basic authentication, is assumed.
  • Enable Outlook Anywhere (for the purposes of this document, the default authentication settings are assumed): Enable-OutlookAnywhere -Server: -ExternalHostName:mail.contoso.com - SSLOffloading $false

4. If you chose to not specify the external domain name for CAS during setup, you will need to enable the following ExternalURLs to ensure that clients that leverage Autodiscover function correctly:

5. To ensure that Outlook Web Access functions correctly, you will need to enable the following URLs:

6. For your Outlook clients, you can configure CAS2010 to participate in an RPC Client Access Service array:

  • Create a load balancing array for CAS2010, if one has not already been created.
  • Create a DNS entry in your internal DNS infrastructure that resolves to the Virtual IP Address (VIP) of the CAS load balancing array. The DNS entry, for example, could be outlook.contoso.com.
  • Configure your load balancing array to load balance the MAPI RPC ports:
    • TCP 135
    • UDP/TCP 1024-65535
  • Run the following cmdlet to create the Client Access Service array: New-ClientAccessArray -Name outlook.contoso.com -FQDN outlook.contoso.com -Site "Internet Facing AD Site"

7. Install the HT2010 and MBX2010 server roles into the "Internet Facing AD Site" and configure accordingly.

  • You can change the Offline Address Book generation server and enable web distribution on CAS2010 by performing the following steps:
    • To move the Offline Address Book: Move-OfflineAddressBook "Default Offline Address List" -Server
    • To add CAS2010 as a web distribution point:
      • $OABVDir=Get-OABVirtualDirectory -Server
      • $OAB=Get-OfflineAddressBook "Default Offline Address List"
      • $OAB.VirtualDirectories += $OABVdir.DistinguishedName
      • Set-OfflineAddressBook "Default Offline Address List" -VirtualDirectories $OAB.VirtualDirectories

8. Create the legacy host record (legacy.contoso.com) in your external DNS infrastructure and associate it either with the FE2003 infrastructure (less likely) or your proxy infrastructure (more likely).

9. You will configure External DNS and/or your reverse proxy infrastructure's publishing rules to have the autodiscover.contoso.com namespace point to CAS2010.

10. If utilizing a reverse proxy infrastructure, you will publish the legacy namespace to the FE2003 infrastructure so that at this point the FE2003 infrastructure can be accessed either via mail.contoso.com or legacy.contoso.com namespaces.

11. You will then schedule Internet protocol client downtime (please note that this downtime window should be relatively small - enough time for you to make the change and validate that everything works as desired) and perform the following steps:

  • You will reconfigure External DNS and/or your reverse proxy infrastructure's publishing rules to have the mail.contoso.com namespaces point to CAS2010. 
  • Users with mailboxes on an Exchange 2003 server who try to use Exchange ActiveSync through an Exchange 2010 Client Access server will receive an error and be unable to synchronize unless Integrated Windows authentication is enabled on the Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync virtual directory on the Exchange 2003 server. This allows the Exchange 2010 Client Access Server and the Exchange 2003 back end server to communicate using Kerberos authentication.

To enable this authentication change on Exchange 2003 you need to either:

    • Install http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=937031 and then use the Exchange System Manager to adjust the authentication settings of the ActiveSync virtual directory. Repeat this for each Exchange 2003 mailbox server in your organization.
    • Or, set the msExchAuthenticationFlags attribute to a value of 6 on the Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync object within the configuration container on each Exchange 2003 mailbox server.  An example script is provided at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc785437.aspx.

Note: It is important that you do not use IIS Manager to change the authentication setting on the Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync virtual directory as the DS2MB process within the System Attendant will overwrite the settings that are stored in Active Directory.

  • Disable Outlook Anywhere by utilizing the Exchange System Manager and selecting the "Not part of an Exchange managed RPC-HTTP topology" radial button on the RPC-HTTP tab of the Front-End server's properties. Optionally, you can also remove the RPC over HTTP proxy component (refer to your Windows Server documentation for more information).

Important: This requires an up-front investment in CAS2010 architecture as all Outlook Anywhere clients will utilize CAS2010 once you transition the Outlook Anywhere endpoint. Be sure to follow all proper scalability planning documentation when deploying CAS2010 to ensure that you do not create a bottleneck in your CAS infrastructure due to Outlook Anywhere clients.

  • Test all client scenarios and ensure they function correctly.

12. Complete downtime and enable Internet protocol client usage.

As a result of following these steps, the environment would look similar to this diagram:

This text was taken from the MsExchangeTeamBlog :  

You Had Me At EHLO... : Transitioning Client Access to Exchange Server 2010
http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/11/20/453272.aspx

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 19, 2009 11:18 PM

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (KB971534)

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2007 SP2 since the software was released.

This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2007 SP2 customers.

For a list of changes that are included in this update rollup, see KB971534.
This update rollup does not apply to Exchange Server 2007 Release To Manufacturing (RTM) or Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1). For a list of update rollups applicable to Exchange Server 2007 RTM or Exchange Server 2007 SP1, refer to the Knowledge Base article KB937052. 

Download details: Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (KB971534)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=de91f994-6263-47ef-89d7-6d344997459d

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 5:02 PM

Public Office 2010 Downloads

64-bit Client Installation of Office 2010

Describes and illustrates the 64-bit client installation of Office 2010.

Microsoft Office Web Apps (Beta)

Microsoft Office Web Apps are new web-based tools that extend the Microsoft Office 2010 experience to your browser. Office Web Apps enable you to view, do light editing, and share your Office documents from virtually anywhere. With these online companions to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote you’ll always have the tools you need, wherever you are.

Project 2010 Reference: Software Development Kit

The Microsoft Project 2010 (Beta) SDK contains documentation, code samples, "How to" articles, and programming references to help customize and integrate the Project 2010 clients and Project Server 2010 with other applications for enterprise project management.

Download details FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Beta

For organizations looking to help users find information and expertise quickly and easily through a search capability able to address their most challenging needs – includes all the search features and integration capabilities of SharePoint Server 2010, plus a more engaging and conversational search experience, use of context to provide specific search experiences for different needs (such as departments or geographies), advanced content processing capabilities that create metadata and add structure to unstructured content, and deep platform flexibility, scalability, and extensibility. For use with SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition.

Download details FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Internet Sites Beta

For customers looking to offer engaging and conversational search experiences on websites using SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites – this product also adds powerful content processing that enhances the meaning and structure of your information, along with deep platform flexibility and search scalability. For use with SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites, Enterprise Edition.

Download details SharePoint Foundation 2010

This download contains an installable version of Windows SharePoint Services 2010 Beta, that can be used to assess and test the new functionality in this release.

 

Download details Access Database Engine 2010

This download will install a set of components that can be used by non-Microsoft Office applications to read data from and write data to 2010 Office system files such as Microsoft Access 2010 (mdb and accdb) files and Microsoft Excel 2010 (xls, xlsx, and xlsb) files. Connectivity to text files is also supported.
ODBC and OLEDB drivers are installed for application developers to use in developing their applications with connectivity to Office file formats.

Download details Visio 2010 (Beta) Viewer

The Visio 2010 (Beta) Viewer allows anyone to view Visio drawings and diagrams (created with Visio 5.0, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, or 2010) inside their Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 or later Web browser.

Download details Visio 2010 (Beta) Software Development Kit

The Microsoft Office Visio 2010 (Beta) Software Development Kit (SDK) contains the latest documentation, samples, header files, libraries and tools that you need to develop custom solutions for Microsoft Office Visio 2010 (Beta).

Download details Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Beta x64

Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Beta gives you powerful, visually enhanced ways to successfully manage and deliver a wide range of projects. Easier and more intuitive, Project Professional 2010 Beta provides flexible choices to simplify planning, collaboration and resource management.

Download details Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Beta 32 bit

Download details Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2010 Beta

Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2010 provides contact management, sales, marketing and project management for the small business or small team.

Download details Office 2010 (Beta) Administrative Templates and OCT

This download includes updated Group Policy Administrative Template and Office Customization Tool OPA files; an updated Office Customization Tool; and ADMX and ADML versions of the Administrative Template files.

Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack

Volume editions of Microsoft Office 2010 client products require activation. Key Management Service (KMS) is a local volume activation method. To activate your Office 2010 client installations with KMS, you will need to set up a KMS host.

SharePoint 2010 Products Beta MP

A System Center Management Pack for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products Beta (the product are: SharePoint Server 2010, Project Server 2010, Search Server 2010).

SharePoint Foundation 2010 (Beta) MP

A System Center Management Pack for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Beta.

Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2010 Beta

Beta release of Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2010

Microsoft Office 2010 (Beta) Filter Packs

Microsoft Office 2010 (Beta) Filter Packs

Access 2010 Beta Download: Access Runtime

The Microsoft Office Access 2010 Runtime enables you to distribute Access 2010 applications to users who do not have the full version of Access 2010 installed on their computers.

Microsoft Visio 2010 Beta

This download contains the Microsoft Visio 2010 Beta release.

SharePoint Server for Internet Sites Enterprise 2010 Beta

This is a Beta version of SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites, Enterprise that enables extranet and internet sites using the full power of SharePoint Server 2010, the business collaboration platform for the Enterprise and the Web.

Microsoft Visio 2010 Beta

This download contains the Microsoft Visio 2010 Beta release.

SharePoint Server for Internet Sites Enterprise 2010 Beta

This is a Beta version of SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites, Enterprise that enables extranet and internet sites using the full power of SharePoint Server 2010, the business collaboration platform for the Enterprise and the Web.

SharePoint Server 2010 Beta

This is a Beta version of SharePoint Server 2010, the business collaboration platform for the Enterprise and the Web.

SharePoint Server 2010 Beta

This is a Beta version of SharePoint Server 2010, the business collaboration platform for the Enterprise and the Web.

Search Server 2010 Express Beta

This is a Beta version of Search Server 2010 Express.

SharePoint Designer 2010 Beta

This is a Beta version of SharePoint Designer 2010, the tool of choice for the rapid development of SharePoint applications.

SharePoint Designer 2010 Beta

This is a Beta version of SharePoint Designer 2010, the tool of choice for the rapid development of SharePoint applications.

Microsoft Project Server 2010 Beta

Project Server 2010 Beta ensures organizations select and deliver the right projects, while gaining greater visibility and control of resources leading to improved productivity and better business performance.

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
Friday, November 13, 2009 11:54 PM

Exchange Server 2007 Anti-spam myths revealed and compared to Exchange 2010

In Microsoft CSS (Customer Service and Support) we deal with many anti-spam questions.

While the anti-spam features that come out of the box with Exchange 2007 provide a robust level of protection against unwanted garbage in your inbox, there is still a lot of confusion out there as to how all the parts work together.

The purpose of this post is to dispel some misconceptions about the E2007 AS features (where applicable differences introduced in Exchange 2010 will be pointed out as well).

I present you the top 6 SMTP anti-spam myths - revealed! (drum roll)

Please follow this link to get all the myths revealed :

You Had Me At EHLO... : Exchange anti-spam myths revealed
http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/11/13/453205.aspx

Amazing work done on the content, I must say :)

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
Friday, November 13, 2009 12:18 PM

Development Technologies Removed from Exchange 2010

Some development technologies that shipped in earlier versions of Exchange Server are not included in Exchange 2010.

The following technologies were removed from Exchange Server 2007:

•Exchange providers for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

•Collaboration Data Objects for Exchange Management (CDOEXM)

•Collaboration Data Objects for Exchange Workflow (CDOWF)

•Exchange Web Forms

•At Functions

•DAPI.DLL

The following technologies were removed from Exchange Server 2010:

•Exchange OLE DB Provider (ExOLEDB)

•Exchange store Event Sinks

•World Wide Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV)

•CDO 3.0 (CDOEx)

•Item-level permissions

•Exchange Store custom item types

Feel free to browse to the following link, should you want to obtain more information :

Exchange Server 2010 Backup and Restore SDK
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd877010(EXCHG.140).aspx


 

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 12, 2009 1:02 PM

Learn about the Exchange 2010 Developer Story Today!

We've just finished our 6 part series of webcasts on six key topics that developers need to know about as they start planning for moving their applications to Exchange 2010.  Those webcasts are now available as on-demand webcasts below, check them out today!  If you'd like a bit more human contact than these webcasts, then come join us at TechEd in Germany or Exchange Connections in Las Vegas next week; or the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in LA November 17-19th where we'll have great Exchange 2010 Web Services sessions and program managers from the Exchange Web Services team there to answer your questions and get your applications Exchange 2010-ready.

View the webcast now- Exchange Server 2010 Development (Part 1 of 6): Migrating Applications to Exchange Web Services

View the webcast now - Exchange Server 2010 Development (Part 2 of 6): A Deep Dive into Using Autodiscover Service in Exchange Web Services

View the webcast now - Exchange Server 2010 Development (Part 3 of 6): A Deep Dive into Impersonation and Delegation in Exchange Web Services

View the webcase now - Exchange Server 2010 Development (Part 4 of 6): A Deep Dive into Exchange Web Services Notifications (Push/Pull)

View the webcast now - Exchange Server 2010 Development (Part 5 of 6): A Deep Dive into the Exchange Web Services Managed API

View the webcast now - Exchange Server 2010 Development (Part 6 of 6): Best Practices for Building Scalable Exchange Server Applications

Enjoy :)

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 12, 2009 12:33 PM

Announcing the Release of the Exchange Server 2010 Deployment Assistant

We heard concerns from our early adoption Exchange Server 2010 customers regarding transitioning from Exchange Server 2003 and/or Exchange Server 2007 in a few key areas. One of which is the fact that you, Exchange/IT administrators, are burdened with complex migration steps (multiple firewall rules, multiple certificates, multiple external URLs/ports for clients). This complexity means there is opportunity for misconfiguration, which causes deployments to stall-not to mention a lot of frustration.

Based on this feedback and our desire to help streamline the deployment experience, we created Exchange Server 2010 Deployment Assistant which can be accessed at http://technet.microsoft.com/exdeploy2010 

It allows you to create Exchange 2010 on-premises deployment instructions that are customized to your environment. The Assistant asks a small set of questions, and based on a your answers, it provides a finite set of instructions that are designed to get you up and running on Exchange 2010.  The idea is that, instead of wading through the 2000+ topics in the Exchange 2010 library, you can answer a few simple questions, and the Assistant gives you just enough customized content to do the upgrade.

More content is coming:
In this version of the Deployment Assistant, content is available for customers upgrading from Exchange 2003. Additional upgrade scenarios will be available in early 2010 (upgrading from Exchange Server 2007, or a mixed Exchange Server 2003/2007 environment for example). We will also work on the integration of cross-premise scenarios.

Here is a screenshot from the Assistant, after the initial set of questions were answered and instructions generated.


We would love your feedback. Prior to this launch, feedback from Exchange subject matter experts and a group of our Microsoft field consultants and engineers who work with you every day was incorporated.  Feel free to leave a comment here, or send an email to edafdbk AT microsoft DOT com 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!

Credits and texts kept 

Source :

You Had Me At EHLO... : Announcing the Release of the Exchange Server 2010 Deployment Assistant
http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/11/11/453172.aspx 

 

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 05, 2009 8:19 AM

UPDATE - Issues in OCS 2007/ LCS 2005 caused by applying KB974571

As promised, here goes the update to the "Issues in OCS 2007/ LCS 2005 caused by applying KB974571" post.

The KB that contains all the information regarding this issue has been updated and so, please find below the part that will resolve the issue for LCS and OCS.


Resolution for the known issue :
A fix that resolves this issue is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center. To obtain the fix, visit the following Microsoft Web page:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=168248 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=168248)
The fix (OCSASNFix.exe) is governed by the Microsoft Software License Agreement for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Office Communications Server 2007, Live Communications Server 2005, Office Communicator 2007 R2, Office Communicator 2007, and Office Communicator 2005.

This fix works for both clients and servers, and it is applicable to the following roles for all versions of Office Communications Server and Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 and for evaluation versions of Office Communicator:

Standard Edition Server
Director server role
Enterprise Edition Consolidated
Enterprise Edition Distributed – Front End
Edge Server
Proxy server role
Office Communicator 2007 Evaluation version only
Office Communicator 2007 R2 Evaluation version only
Office Communicator 2005 Evaluation version only
To run the fix, type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
ocsasnfix.exe
When you run the command on a computer that is running Office Communication Server 2007, Office Communication Server 2007 R2, or Live Communications server 2005 Service Pack 1, you receive a message that resembles the following:
Checking OCS/LCS Server installation...Fixing registry data
Checking Office Communicator 2007 Eval installation...not installed.
Checking Office Communicator 2005 Eval installation...not installed.

When you run the command on a computer that is running an evaluation version of Office Communication Server 2007, Office Communication Server 2007 R2, or Live Communications server 2005, you receive a message that resembles the following:
Checking OCS/LCS Server installation...not installed.
Checking Office Communicator 2007 Eval installation...Fixing registry data
Checking Office Communicator 2005 Eval installation...not installed.
This fix can be applied either before or after you install security update 974571. If you apply the fix after you install security update 974571, we recommend that you apply the fix before you restart the computer. If you already restarted the computer after you installed security update 974571, this fix can still be applied. However, the Office Communication Services must be started manually.

If all services start without any issues, this indicates that this fix has been applied and is working correctly.

This fix sets the OCSASNFIX DWORD value to 1 for the following registry subkey on the OCS 2007/R2 and LCS 2005-SP1 Server:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\RtcSrv\InstallInfo\OCSASNFIX

Additional known issues with this security update
When you deploy the Standard Edition role on a new installation of any version of Office Communications Server, activation fails if security update 974571 is installed. To resolve this problem, apply this fix, and then run the activation again.

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 05, 2009 8:10 AM

UPDATE - Supporting Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2

As a member of the Exchange Server support team nothing gives me more pleasure than announcing this 

" We always talk about listening to customers and sometimes this is written off by many as 'marketing speak'.

In fact, we do take feedback seriously and no input is more important to our engineering processes than your voice. Earlier this year we made a decision in one direction, and due to the feedback we have received on this blog and elsewhere, we have reconsidered.

In the coming calendar year we will issue an update for Exchange 2007 enabling full support of Windows Server 2008 R2.

We heard from many customers that this was important for streamlining their operations and reducing administrative challenges, so we have changed course and will add R2 support. We are still working through the specifics and will let you know once we have more to share on the timing of this update.

So, keep the feedback coming. We are listening. "

The main idea is " We listen the voice of the customer " 

Source :

You Had Me At EHLO... : Supporting Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2
http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/11/04/453026.aspx

Posted by jribeiro | 0 Comments
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