Is this thing on?

Download Exchange 2010 RTM!

Scott Schnoll — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:53:00 GMT

Download Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 helps you achieve new levels of reliability and performance by delivering features that simplify your administration, protect your communications, and meet demands for greater business mobility. Download it today from http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9694890.

Exchange Server 2010 Release Candidate Available!

Scott Schnoll — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:19:00 GMT

Today, we announced that the Exchange Server 2010 Release Candidate is feature complete and available for download here. Updated online documentation for this release can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124558(EXCHG.149).aspx.

Make sure your computer and infrastructure meet the Exchange 2010 System Requirements, install the Exchange 2010 Prerequisites, and install the Exchange 2010 RC today!

Enjoy the Release Candidate!

Microsoft Exchange Server Training Portal

Scott Schnoll — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:38:00 GMT

Microsoft Learning has just launched their Exchange Server training portal, which includes training for both Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2010. Visit the portal, take advantage of new Exchange 2010 training resources, and become an expert on Exchange 2010!.

While you're there, be sure to check out the Special Offers, such as the free online clinic for Exchange 2010.

Project Natal - I Can't Wait!

Scott Schnoll — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:44:00 GMT

I'm an avid XBOX 360 gamer, so when something cool like this comes along, I pay close attention! And you should, too. This is some of the coolest technology evar (and I said 'evar' instead of 'ever' so you know it's true).

Exchange Server 2007 SP2 and Backups

Scott Schnoll — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:07:00 GMT

In my Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Tips and Tricks session last year at Microsoft Tech•Ed 2008 in Orlando, Florida, I announced that we would be providing a VSS-based plug-in for Windows Server Backup in Windows Server 2008 that will enable customers to take Exchange-aware, VSS backups on Windows Server 2008. We didn’t have many details to share at that time because we were still formulating our plans, but we wanted everyone to know that we took their feedback on the lack of a built-in backup solution for Exchange very seriously, and that we were going to work to provide a solution for this issue.

Today, at Microsoft Tech•Ed 2009 in Los Angeles, California, and on the Exchange Team blog, we have announced and provided details on Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Exchange Server 2007. Among other features, SP2 includes a VSS plug-in for Windows Server Backup to support Exchange backups. Once SP2 is installed, you can use Windows Server Backup to back up and restore your Exchange 2007 SP2 databases.

The new plug-in is delivered in the form of a single executable called WSBExchange.exe. This plug-in is automatically installed by SP2 on all Exchange 2007 Mailbox servers. The plug-in enables Windows Server Backup to be able to make Exchange-aware VSS backups as described below:

· Backups are VSS-based only. You cannot perform streaming ESE backups using Windows Server Backup with or without the plug-in.

· Backups taken with Windows Server Backup occur at volume level. To back up a storage group and database, you must back up the entire volume containing the storage group and database. You cannot back up any data without backing up the entire volume containing the data.

· The backup must be run locally on the server being backed up, and you cannot use the plug-in to take remote VSS backups. There is no remote administration of Windows Server Backup or the plug-in. You can, however, use Remote Desktop or Terminal Services to remotely manage Windows Server Backup and your backup jobs.

· The backup can be created on a local drive, or on a remote network share.

· Only Full backups can be taken. Log truncation will occur only after a successful completion of a full backup of a volume containing an Exchange storage group and database.

· The plug-in does not support the Exchange Replication VSS Writer; as a result, you cannot perform backups of passive copies of databases in a continuous replication environment.

· When restoring data, it is possible to restore only Exchange data. This data can be restored to its original location, or to an alternate location. If you restore the data to its original location, Windows Server Backup and the plug-in will automatically handle the recovery process, including dismounting any existing databases and replaying logs into the recovered database.

· The restore process does not directly support the Recovery Storage Group (RSG). However, if you restore the data to an alternate location, then you can manually move the restored data from the alternate location into an RSG, if needed.

· When restoring Exchange data, all backed up storage groups must be restored together. You cannot restore a single storage group or database.

Documentation on using Windows Server Backup for backup and recovery of Exchange data will be added to the core content for Exchange 2007 on TechNet once SP2 is available for download.

How to Install Exchange Server 2010 Beta

Scott Schnoll — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:01:00 GMT

Now that Exchange Server 2010 is available to download and try in Beta format, I wanted to provide a quick blog on how to install the Exchange Server 2010 Beta.

Installing Exchange Server 2010 begins with installing and preparing the operating system. Exchange Server 2010 can be installed only on Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition. If you plan on trying out database availability groups and mailbox database copies, you will need to use the Enterprise Edition of Windows Server 2008. For more information about the requirements for Exchange Server 2010, see Exchange 2010 System Requirements.

Once the operating system has been installed, several pre-requisites must be installed. These include:

Operating system components, including RSAT-ADDS (needed on server that will perform schema updates), Web-Server, Web-Metabase, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, Web-ISAPI-Ext, NET-HTTP-Activation, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-Dyn-Compression, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, Web-Net-Ext and Net-Framework. You can install all of these components at one time (e.g., for the Mailbox, Client Access and/or Hub Transport Server roles) by running the following command:

ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS Web-Server Web-Metabase Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console Web-ISAPI-Ext NET-HTTP-Activation Web-Basic-Auth Web-Digest-Auth Web-Windows-Auth Web-Dyn-Compression RPC-over-HTTP-proxy Web-Net-Ext -Restart

For more information about the prerequisites for Exchange 2010, including those for the Edge Transport server role, see Exchange 2010 Prerequisites.

You might have noticed that Failover-Clustering is not listed as a pre-requisite. There is a feature in Exchange Server 2010 called a database availability group that does use Windows failover clustering technologies. However, thanks to another Exchange Server 2010 feature called incremental deployment, you no longer install failover clustering before installing Exchange. If you decide to use a database availability group, you simply create one, and then add Mailbox servers to it. When you add a Mailbox server to a DAG, we install the Windows failover clustering feature and automatically create a cluster for you. So while you do need to have Exchange installed on an operating system that supports Windows failover clustering, you do not install the failover clustering feature manually, or ahead of time, and you don't manually create a cluster. It makes deploying highly available mailbox databases quick and easy.

Exchange Server 2010 also supports installing the above pre-requisites by using an Answer File with ServerManagerCmd, and answer files are included in the Scripts folder. To use them, you run ServerManagerCmd -ip <Name of File>. For example:

ServerManagerCmd -ip Exchange-CAS.XML

I recommend that you don't use the XML Answer Files for Exchange-Typical or Exchange-MBX as is, because in the Beta build it mistakenly includs the Failover-Clustering feature, which does not need to be installed before Exchange is installed. This is a remnant from the Answer Files we had in Exchange 2007 that we've since removed.
Next, are the software pre-requisites, which include:

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
Windows Remote Management (WinRM) 2.0 CTP 3
Windows PowerShell 2.0 CTP 3
Update from KB 951725
Update from KB 950888
Update from KB 951116
Update from KB 952664
Update from KB 953290
Update from KB 958178

See Exchange 2010 Prerequisites for information about and links to other pre-requisites that might apply to your environment (e.g., for Edge Transport and Unified Messaging server roles, and for environments that use System Center Operations Manager).

Once the above pre-requisites have been installed, check Microsoft Update for any additional updates that might be needed. Make sure the system has been rebooted after installing any updates which require a reboot.

Now you're ready to install Exchange 2010. You can perform the installation using the GUI or command-line version of Setup. In this example, I'll use the GUI.

I'll start by launching Setup.exe from the AMD64 folder. This launches the Exchange 2010 splash screen:

As you can see, the Exchange 2010 splash screen is very similar to the one we had in Exchange 2007. Any needed pre-requisites which are detected, are greyed out, indicating they have been installed, and that you can proceed to the next step. In this case, I can proceed directly to Step 4: Install Microsoft Exchange.

I click that link and it launches the GUI version of Exchange Setup, beginning with a file copy process, and the initialization of Setup.

Once Setup is initialized and the file copy process has completed, the Introduction page appears:

I click Next, and the Language Files Location page appears:

I don't have any additional language files, so I'll leave the default setting of Continue setup without language files and click Next. The Language Pack Confirmation page appears:

I click Next, and the License Agreement page appears:

After reading the license agreement, I select I accept the terms in the license agreement and click Next. The Error Reporting page appears:

Error reporting is very helpful to us, which in turn is helpful to our customers, as it enables us to gather a minimal amount of diagnostic data to troubleshoot and resolve errors and crashes more quickly. So I am going to choose Yes (Recommended) and click Next. The Installation Type page appears:

Immediately, you might notice some differences from Exchange Server 2007. First, the Custom Exchange Server Installation option no longer lists any clustered mailbox server roles. That's because clustered mailbox servers don't exist in Exchange Server 2010. Exchange 2010 includes a new feature called Incremental Deployment. This feature enables to you configure high availability and site resilience for your mailbox database after Exchange has been installed.

Second, the default path for the Exchange Server installation is new and different. If I choose Custom Exchange Server Installation, the Server Role Selection page appears:

If I choose Typical Exchange Server Installation instead of Custom Exchange Server Installation and click Next, or once I've completed the Custom Exchange Server Installation choices and clicked Next, the Exchange Organization page appears:

I specify a name for my Exchange Organization, and then I click Next. The Client Settings page appears:

If the Exchange organization uses Outlook 2003 or earlier, or Microsoft Entourage, then a public folder database is needed so that those clients can access system data, such as Free/Busy information. In that case, you would select Yes on this page. Since my organization does not use Outlook 2003 or earlier, or Entourage, I can leave the default setting of No and click Next.

The Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) page appears:

This program helps us improve our software by collecting data about how Exchange Server is used. I'll click Join the Exchange Customer Experience Improvement Program and specify an industry of Computer-Related Products/Services.

I click Next. The Readiness Checks page appears, and Setup automatically performs readiness checks for any installed language packs, as well as the selected server roles to be installed.

As you can see, the readiness checks don't take much time at all. Once all readiness checks have successfully passed, the Readiness Check page will look similar to this:

At this point, the system and server are ready for the installation to begin. I click Install to start the installation of Exchange 2010 Mailbox, Client Access and Hub Transport server roles, as well as the Exchange Management tools (Exchange Management Console and Exchange Management Shell).

While Setup is progressing, a Progress page will be appeared:

Once Setup has completed successfully, the Completion page will appear:

As you can see, installing Exchange 2010 is quick and easy. On my system, Setup took just under 10 minutes to complete.

I prefer to reboot the system before finalizing the installation. Uncheck the Finalize installation using the Exchange Management Console checkbox, and click Finish to complete the Setup process. This returns Setup to the splash screen. Click Close to close the splash screen, and when the Confirm Exit dialog appears:

Click Yes.

Then, reboot the server. OK, technically, you don't need to reboot the server, but I do anyway.

The installation of Exchange Server 2010 is now complete. Check out the Exchange 2010 TechCenter for documentation and other resources for Exchange 2010.

Why You Should Attend Tech·Ed North America 2009

Scott Schnoll — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:13:00 GMT

The Tech·Ed Web site has some great reasons as to why you should attend this year, but I thought I would add a few more:

Sessions, sessions, and more sessions. In case you haven't looked at the Session List, there's 738 technical sessions available.
Of the 738 sessions, 67 of them are Unified Communications sessions.
If you review the 67 UC sessions, you'll see titles like:

UNC204 Introduction to Microsoft Exchange Server "14"
UNC312 Archiving and Retention in Microsoft Exchange Server "14"
UNC313 High Availability in Microsoft Exchange Server "14" (this one is presented by yours truly)
UNC316 Microsoft Exchange Server "14" Architecture
etc., etc. (I think you know where this is going)

You'll also find several Hands On Labs, interactive instructor led sessions, and more!
If you need help convincing your boss that you should attend, we can help with that.
If you need help convincing your friends and co-workers to attend, we can help with that, too.

The future is coming, and you can see it at Tech·Ed North America 2009!

Check out the Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer Beta

Scott Schnoll — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 06:25:00 GMT

Want an easy way to check if AutoDiscover is working? Not sure if Exchange ActiveSync is configured correctly? Need to test your inbound mail flow? For help with these questions, and more, check out the Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer. This newly announced tool, nicknamed ExRCA, is a free Web-based test tool developed internally by Shawn McGrath and Brad Hughes.

Shawn and Brad announced the tool on the Exchange team blog.

You can check out ExRCA, which is currently in Beta, at http://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com. You can also follow ExRCA on Twitter and also join the ExRCA Facebook group.

Microsoft Tech·Ed North America 2009 - Get On the Bus

Scott Schnoll — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:07:00 GMT

Hey MCPeeps,

Are you proud of your MCP status? Want to win a free trip to Tech·Ed North America 2009?

Microsoft Learning has launched an....well, I'm not sure what to call it <g>. Let's just say, they've launched an adventure like nothing you've seen before. It's called Get on the Bus.

Get on the Bus is an 11-day learning odyssey across the United States aboard the Career Express bus. The Career Express will travel from Tampa, Florida to Los Angeles, California, ending at Tech·Ed 2009! Each day of the trip, the Career Express will visit Microsoft Learning partners and IT Academies; meet with individuals, organizations, authors, and user group leaders; and hold Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) meet-ups along the way.

For more information about Get on the Bus, visit http://blogs.technet.com/mslcommunity/archive/2009/03/23/attention-bus-riders-now-boarding.aspx.

Cool Video: Flying with the Space Shuttle

Scott Schnoll — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:21:00 GMT

Check out this cool video which shows a couple folks sky diving with wing suits on during the recent space shuttle lift-off.

Internet Explorer 8 RTM is Released!

Scott Schnoll — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:11:00 GMT

Welcome to the future of Web browsing!

Today at 9:00am PDT, we released Internet Explorer 8 to the web for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server.

Visit http://www.microsoft.com/ie8 for complete details on IE8.

To see some of the very cool new IE8 features in action, check out the IE8 videos at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/videos.aspx.

Like add-ons and accelerators? As of this morning there are over 1,200 Web Slices, Accelerators, and add-ons available worldwide in the IE8 add-on gallery.

Download IE8 now, and enjoy the future of Web browsing!

Update Rollup 7 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Released

Scott Schnoll — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 23:58:00 GMT

UR7 for Exchange 2007 SP1 (Build 08.01.0359.002) is now live. I recommend this update for all Exchange 2007 SP1 servers, especially if you use standby continuous replication. UR7 for Exchange 2007 SP1 includes three critical SCR fixes:

KB 961281 Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 introduced an error when you enable SCR for a storage group in an environment with a parent/child domain structure. See Tim's blog post for more info.
KB 957834 This fixes an issue where network shares are deleted and created intermittently by the Replication service on a CMS in a single copy cluster when the CMS is an SCR source.
KB 958331 This fixes an issue where Restore-StorageGroupCopy can fail in SCR environment.

UR7 for Exchange 2007 SP1 also includes a design change request:

KB 956069 Design change to address encapsulation and the way it is handled by Exchange Server 2007. See Jason’s blog post for more info.

You can find the complete list of fixes in UR7 for Exchange 2007 SP1 at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=960384.

Windows Server Cluster Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007

Scott Schnoll — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:17:00 GMT

The Windows Server Failover Cluster Management Pack provides both proactive and reactive monitoring of your Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 cluster deployments. It monitors Cluster services components—such as nodes, networks, resources, and resource groups—to report issues that can cause downtime or poor performance.

Feature Summary
Some of the conditions monitored by this management pack are as follows:

Configuration or hardware issues that interfere with starting the Cluster service
Connectivity problems that affect communication between cluster nodes or between a node and a domain controller
Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) settings that affect the cluster; for example, permissions needed by the computer account that is used by the cluster
Configuration issues with the network infrastructure needed by the cluster; for example, issues with Domain Name System (DNS)
Issues with the availability of a cluster resource, such as a clustered file share
Issues with the cluster storage

Enjoy!

Webcast: Iron Mountain CloudRecovery for DPM

Scott Schnoll — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:32:00 GMT

Iron Mountain will be hosting a webcast that will describe how CloudRecovery can reduce the costs and risks associated with downtime and data recovery while achieving regulatory compliance by automating the long term retention of data. This webcast will cover how organizations can:

Automatically backup DPM Server data without having to manage off-site storage
Leverage the most secure off-site vaulting facility available
Free up IT staff to focus on more critical projects by automating backup

The webcast will take place on Wednesday, February 25 at 12:00 EST. Click here to register.

Video: HP Direct Attach Storage and Exchange 2007 CCR

Scott Schnoll — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:27:00 GMT

Check out this new video HP, featuring Systems Engineers Evan Morris and Karl Robinson. Evan and Karl show how show how an HP Proliant DL385 server with direct attach(ed) storage (DAS) - using StorageWorks MSA70 storage and SmartArray P800 controller - provides a simple and economical solution for large mailboxes with great Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) for Exchange 2007.