Rob Costello : Exchange

Daylight Savings Changes - October 2008

robcost — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:01:07 GMT

It's that time again, when Daylight Savings changes need to be applied. Please read the guidance below and make sure you don't get caught out...

In October this year, we will again be experiencing Daylight Savings changes in Australia. These changes can have a significant impact on business performance if not dealt with proactively. These effects can range from the incorrect time display on the clock, to calendaring problems, to financial and reputation loss if business critical services fail.

Daylight saving now commences on the first Sunday in October and ends on the first Sunday in April in Australia Eastern (New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania) and Central (South Australia). This change affects Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office Outlook and other Microsoft, third party and custom applications. Please find below some of the key things you need to know.

What is the impact of Daylight Savings changes?

Effects can range from the incorrect time display on the clock, to calendaring problems, to financial and reputation loss if business critical services fail.

The 5^th of October commences the second window of time zone harmonisation for this year, however, we expect a greater impact in October as the change is 21 days difference, whereas the adjustment earlier in the year was only 7 days.

What is affected?

- All Microsoft Windows PC, server and mobile devices in the affected time zones must be updated to ensure accuracy of internal time zone tables and correct operation of the system clock.

- Microsoft Office Outlook calendars may need to be adjusted. Client and Server-based tools are available to automate this service.

- Microsoft, third party and custom applications which schedule events at future dates should be reviewed to ensure they will operate correctly during the extended daylight saving period. Previously scheduled events may also need to be adjusted.

- Microsoft recommends that all PC and server systems are updated regardless of location to ensure consistency of operation.

What do I need to do?

Thorough planning and testing for these changes is critical to ensure the change results in minimal user impact, so to help customers prepare Microsoft has developed the Australia 2008 Daylight Saving Planning document which details the nature and impact of the DST changes, along with planning guidance to avoid user impact.

What if the systems have been previously patched?

Where servers, workstations and mobile devices have been added to the infrastructure, organisations will need to audit their environment to ensure all systems are patched according to the organisation’s Daylight Savings Plan.

Where the environment does not have a consistent Daylight Savings Time (DST) patch level, appointments may have been created with a mix of correct and incorrect DST transition dates. Furthermore, Microsoft recommends customers update all systems to ensure consistency of operation, even if none of your systems are in the affected time zones.

Planning for Daylight Savings changes

Microsoft has revised the Australia 2008 Daylight Saving Planning Guide with learnings from the April transition and additional considerations for the October transition. Download the guide and update your daylight savings plan.

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Exchange and Virtualisation

robcost — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:46:45 GMT

A lot of people are talking about the updated support policy on virtualisation support for Exchange 2007. If you missed it check it out here...

Microsoft Support Policies and Recommendations for Exchange Servers in Hardware Virtualization Environments

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Microsoft Unified Communications Launch

robcost — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 02:36:26 GMT

So we've had a couple of really exciting days with the launch of our Unified Communications range of products.

We've had the big launch events happening in the US, with followup events happening all over the world. Bill Gates headlined the launch in San Francisco, if you missed it you can check out the video at 100K | 300K | 750K. Bill also released an executive email to customers which you can read at: Bill Gates’ executive email .

Also some a little older news about Gartner's recent Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications (August 2007), which puts Microsoft in the Leaders quadrant, which is defined as “The Leaders quadrant contains vendors selling comprehensive and integrated UC solutions that directly, or with well-defined partnerships, address the full range of market needs.”

Locally we've also published several Case Studies of companies using the new capabilities in Office Communications Server 2007 and Exchange 2007. For more details on each of these Case Studies you can check out Oscar's post here... Australian case studies on Unified Communications.

Oscar and Mario have also been out there spreading the word, including a new article yesterday on iTWire here... Microsoft's unified communications blitz

With the launch event our partners have also started releasing hardware that is optimized for Office Communicator. For details of these partners check out the UC partner page on microsoft.com at http://www.microsoft.com/uc/partners_hardware.mspx. From here you'll get pointers to handsets and conferencing hardware like the kit provided by Polycom here... http://www.polycom.com/usa/en/products/voice/desktop/cx/cx.html

Technorati Tags: Unified Communications, UC Launch, Gartner Magic Quadrant, UC Case Studies

Unified Communications TechNet Update

robcost — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 06:53:28 GMT

To support the Unified Communications Launch events in Sydney and Melbourne (more details to follow about these events), TechNet will be running a series of Technical Readiness events across the country for IT Professionals wanting to learn more about the technology.
What will be covered?
Office Communications Server 2007 Deployment
This demonstration will walk through deployment of Office Communications Server 2007 starting with the planning & deployment guide, standard edition installation, user provisioning and entitlement, configuration, and finally validation. OCS 2007 will be the main emphasis of this demonstration. This session can be broken down into three parts. In the first part of the demonstration, we show the easy setup of Standard Edition 2007, this allows an organization to provide IM, peer to peer voice call capabilities immediately. The second part of the session will include an overview of complex installation topologies recommended for OCS 2007; this includes considerations for Enterprise Edition deployment, Edge server roles, various MCU roles, Mediation server and the Archiving server role. The third part of the session focuses on federation and public internet connectivity features of OCS 2007. This includes setup of Edge server roles for Public Internet Connectivity and Federation capabilities. It will also cover integration with Exchange 2007 SP1 Unified Messaging which enables an exciting set of features for end-users.
Mobility and Anywhere Access
This presentation will demonstrate the benefits of remote access and mobility features for Communicator and Exchange. The scenario will focus on how users stay connected and can work without interruption while travelling and on the go. Users continue to have access to presence and contact information and choice of communication options including mail, instant messaging, voice and multi-party conferencing. They can view documents and access SharePoint sites remotely. All these features increase productivity for the organization and are easy to set up by IT Pros. We will talk about implicit benefits of cost saving and lower help-desk calls.
VOIP Architecture
This presentation will describe to network managers and administrators the VoIP architecture of Office Communications Server 2007, demonstrate OCS’ superior quality of experience for voice and video, and describe the network requirements for implementing OCS in the data network. We will discuss Microsoft’s user-focused approach to quality with OCS, the core media stack and codecs used for VoIP in Office Communications Server 2007, and network provisioning for enterprise deployments of Office Communications Server 2007. The attendees will leave with knowledge of the advanced media technologies present in Office Communications Server 2007 and how those technologies relate to planning for a deployment in their environment.

Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Overview
This demonstration will walk through the feature enhancements introduced in Exchange Server 2007 SP1. The demo will cover a range of new technologies, from Windows Server 2008, Standby Continuous Replication and OWA 2007, to enhanced functionalities such as Mobility, end user experience and administrator management.

VOIP Topologies and Interoperability
This demonstration will expose administrators to the voice configuration and management experience in Office Communication Server 2007. We will walk through administrative tools, explore RouteHelper, and implement key deployment functionality such as dial plans, new site deployment, and least cost routing. The administrators will leave with knowledge of basic telephony deployment scenarios and options for more complex configurations.
Registration Details
Canberra Friday 16th November
Adelaide Thursday 22nd November
Brisbane Monday 26th November
Perth Wednesday 28th November

Free Exchange 2007 Storage System eBook

robcost — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 02:54:15 GMT

Realtimepublishers.com has published a free eBook written by Jim McBee on Exchange 2007 Storage Systems. Topics covered include:

Choosing an Exchange Server storage platform
Sizing the Exchange storage platform appropriately
Implementing an iSCSI storage system
Basic practices for implementing iSCSI storage

Check out Jim's post on his book at...

http://mostlyexchange.blogspot.com/2007/09/complete-ebook-available-shortcut-guide.html

Or grab it from here...

http://nexus.realtimepublishers.com/sges2k7ss.htm

Technorati Tags: Exchange 2007, Exchange Storage, eBook

64-bit Exchange in Microsoft

robcost — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:34:07 GMT

I just came across this great article called Going 64-bit with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. It's been out for a while, but still has lots of relevant details on how Microsoft deployed Exchange 2007 internally, including hardware sizing and differences between Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2003. If you're planning a large deployment of Exchange 2007 and want to know how we did it, this article is a great read.

Blurb from the article:

Almost two years prior to the Microsoft® Exchange Server product group's decision to support Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 on the 64-bit platform only, the Microsoft Information Technology (Microsoft IT) group began to migrate from 32-bit to 64-bit server hardware. All server computers purchased for messaging purposes after the year 2004 are 64-bit systems and suitable for Exchange Server 2007. By running the new Exchange Server version on the 64-bit platform, Microsoft IT can keep pace with ever-increasing performance expectations, raise mailbox quotas by up to a factor of 10, lower storage costs, and eliminate tape backups to save an additional $5 million U.S. per year.

Technorati Tags: Exchange 2007, 64-bit

Exchange 2007 SP1 Beta 2

robcost — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:53:49 GMT

We've just released Beta 2 of Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1. We are distributing the release through MSDN and TechNet Plus subscriptions.

Some features include:

Standby Continuous Replication – Now Exchange's built-in log file shipping can be used to keep a standby server up-to-date. This is great for organizations who need to quickly recover from datacenter-level failures, such as those caused by power failures or natural disasters.
Office Communications Server 2007 integration - Certain OCS 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 qualified devices will work with Exchange Server 2007 for added functionality like a new message indicator that shows when a user has new voice mail messages waiting in their inbox. Now you can also use your Office Communicator 2007 client to call Outlook Voice Access directly without the need to enter an access number, extension, or pin as it uses your Communicator credentials to authenticate.
Windows Server 2008 support - Exchange now runs on Windows Server 2003 SP2 and Windows Server 2008. The update also allows Exchange Server 2007 management tools to run on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Among other benefits, Windows Server 2008 clustering will make it easier for companies to deploy geographically dispersed Exchange Server clusters.
Exchange ActiveSync Policies - New policies in SP1 build on Exchange Server 2007's security and management features with new policies for synchronization, authentication, and encryption. For more advanced data protection needs, Exchange Server 2007 SP1 also offers device, network, and application controls. These new features allow network administrators to help manage and secure Exchange ActiveSync enabled mobile devices.

Overall, these features should add up to greater security, easier management, and advanced mobility tools for our customers. You can check out a full list of the features included in SP1 Beta 2 here.

There's also some new eye-candy in this beta of SP1, with two new themes added, XBOX360 and ZUNE!!!

Technorati Tags: Exchange, SP1, Beta