Microsoft Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer

The Microsoft Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer, lets you run all sorts of tests against your exchange server implementation, released alongside of Microsoft Exchange 2010, it is one of the best utilities I have seen for Exchange so far.

Say if someone is having issues connecting to RPC over HTTPS, you can run the check, if it finds an error, it will tell you how to fix it!

Same goes with outgoing mail, you enter the external IP of the exchange server that smtp is sent out of, an email address from within the domain, and run a quick check, it will flag any errors and suggest fixes. It helped me fix an issue with a client just today.

This is the URL, https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com

I wanted to leave it as such as its from Microsoft and you need to remember the URL

-NS

Exchange 2010 Gotcha

There is currently no third party exchange aware backup software, but using Windows Server Backup, you are able to backup the data store and flush the logs. Over at Exchange.org, Henrik explains how to use Windows Server Backup to perform backups and restores using the new Exchange volume snapshot plug-in included with Exchange 2010. I included an insert to peak your interest.

But what about Exchange 2010? Will a similar plug-in be available with this Exchange Server version, which is nearing RTM? The answer is yes. And in fact this is exactly what I am going to cover in this article. So sit back and grab a nice cup of fresh coffee and carry on reading.

Check out the article here.

-NS

SDXC “Time to Kick it up a Notch!”

The guardians of the SD memory card specification announced version 3.0 of the technology less than a year ago, but that hasn’t stopped them talking up version 4.0 already..

SD 4.0 cards will have ten pins, one of which will handle the serialised data stream that runs at 300MB/s. The remainder will operate in parallel to deliver backwards compatibility. The size and shape of the card will not change.

Wow, with up to 2TB max size, and 300MB/s were talking about a huge step in technology. Toshiba had the first 64GB SDXC card(60MB Read/ 35MB Write), check out the story here. Once SDXC devices start popping up around the globe, well be looking at more storage, better quality video, bigger and better pictures from cameras, the possibilities are endless. Need more storage for that laptop? Does it have an SDXC slot? just pop in an extra 128GB(doesn’t exist at the moment) and your good to go.

I myself might hold onto my 2GB cards for now, until these cards become mainstream, as each new size gets announced, the price drops, and thats good for everyone!

Check out SDcard.org for the SD 3.0 Specs.

-NS

DNS Scavenging

I was rummaging around one of my clients servers when I noticed multiple host records pointing to the same IP address, this can get confusing if left long enough, so Microsoft has DNS Scavenging to help clean up that mess. With Scavenging enabled, when a record becomes a certain age, it gets purged from DNS, if say a good DNS entry gets purges, say someone went on vacation or something for a couple weeks, then next time he logs into the domain the DNS entry for that person will be re-registered. Below are a few tips about DNS Scavenging.

• Verify that DNS Scavenging is enabled in the server Advanced properties. See KB article 932464 (Server 2003) or this link (Server 2008)
• Verify that the zone in question has scavenging/Aging enabled.
• Verify that the record(s) have a timestamp. In the DNS MMC, select View\ Advanced and then right-click the record and select properties.
• Record time stamp must be older than the combination of the No-refresh + Refresh intervals to be subject to scavenging.  Be aware that automatic scavenging of the zone will not occur until the DNS Server service has been running for a period of time equal to the Refresh Interval set on the zone.
• To initiate a scavenge manually, in the DNS MMC, right-click on the DNS server and select “Scavenge stale resource records”.
• If no one updates record between No-refresh + Refresh intervals, record will be marked as stale, and will be removed from DNS MMC but will exist under MicrosoftDNS container. “dNSTombstone” attribute will change to “True” when record become stale.
• If a large number of records do not have a timestamp and are in need of having one set (to be subject to scavenging), the dnscmd utility can be used to accomplish this. Note: using this utility to force the aging of all records in a zone will cause records for hosts that are not dynamically updated to eventually be scavenged from the zone. USE THIS WITH CAUTION: The /ageallrecords will affect all records within DNS, even manually added records.

-NS

vSphere 4.0 Update 1

Okay so vSphere 4 Update one was released late last month, and some people went ahead and downloaded the ISO not knowing that vSphere Host Update Utility would fail to recognize the ISO as useful media. The simple answer is to update the vSphere Host Update Utility to its current version. Once that is done you can use the vSphere 4.0 Update 1 ISO, put the ESX host into Maintenance Mode and update the host from 3.x and up. Good Luck.

Solution : User Fails to Migrate from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010

Hey Everyone I was working on an Exchange 2003 to 2010 migration and came up with an error similar to this…

Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.MailboxReplicationTransientException: Exception details: MailboxReplicationTransientException (80040111): Mailbox database ‘a0dd10be-fa72-47bd-afb4-0bf3ce7175e’ is offline

I went to Exchange System Management on the Exchange 2003 Server and right clicked on the First Storage Group\Mailbox Store; Security Tab; then added a Computer Object(EXG01) and gave it Full Control… I was then able to use Exchange Server 2010 to utilize the “New Local Move Request” to the Exchange 2010 Database…

How did i figure this out? I found this link to Social.Technet.Microsoft.com and based on former user posts, figured out the solution… i also posted the answer there

I was the able to login to OutlookWebApp and check my mail…

Hope this helps out some people!

-NS

Intels 48 Core Processor

Intel’s new processor, each core being an Atom based processor, put 48 of them together and they become one powerful collective.

Pushing several steps farther in the multicore direction, Intel on Wednesday demonstrated a fully programmable 48-core processor it thinks will pave the way for massive data computers powerful enough to do more of what humans can.

The processor was even shown to boot into Windows and Linux Boxes. Check out the full story here.

-NS

vSphere 4 Vmxnet3 Adapter

So you think you know Vmware, you have recently upgraded to vSphere 4.0 and you provision a new virtual machine, using the standard E1000 Nick (basically an Intel Pro 1000 Network Interface Card), you have bound 4 1Gb Nics to the virtual switch that the VM is on, so basically, your OS will only get 1Gb max through-put. Want more? That’s easy, bind a vmxnet3 adapter to the vm and you will now open up that pipe.

Question: What is VMXNET3?
Answer: VMXNET3 builds upon VMXNET and Enhanced VMXNET as the third generation paravirtualized virtual networking NIC for guest operating systems.

The VMXNET3 network adapter is a 10Gb virtual nic, with cards bound to it, you basically give that vm access to 4Gb of through-put, and if you attach more physical nics, you just keep increasing the through-put. With todays technology, server to workstation(1Gb Nic) file transfers are up to 60MB/sec!

Check out this link, to get the full scoop.

-NS

Windows 7 – More Money for Microsoft

Windows 7 ushers a new way for game and movie companies to advertise, how? With customized Windows 7 themes. Some think its a cash grab, but who cares, I mean, if I can download a custom theme from a cool movie, for instance “Avatar” then I will… especially cool is how they can provide multiple backgrounds that keep things interesting. Infiniti also is taking hold of the joint advertising scheme by providing a custom Windows 7 theme.

Advertisers can buy the right to offer various themes that customize the desktop image and that promote various gadgets and even custom sounds for the Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft stressed, however, that users will choose which, if any, of the customizations they want to download.

See the full article here.

-NS

Microsoft Office Starter 2010, is there any point?

Office Starter 2010 is the Microsoft-designated replacement for its Microsoft Works product. Starter will be a low-end, free (but ad-supported) bundle of Word and Excel.

Based on a Microsoft FAQ(see below), Microsoft Office Starter will not support all formats, it will also be ad-supported. So in the end, its not that much better than what they are replacing… I mean I guess if you are used to Word and Excel, everything will look familiar to you. I haven’t seen the product in action, so I cannot tell you if the Ads are obtrusive or subtle, my guess is obtrusive.

Q: There is a file I can open in Excel or Word that I cannot open in Excel Starter or Word Starter, why?

A: Excel Starter and Word Starter do not support exactly the same file sets.  The following file types cannot be opened in Office Starter: .xla, .xlam, .dsn, .mde, .accde, .odc, and .udl.

Also, add-ins and macros are only marginally supported in Office Starter 2010. According to Microsoft, Office Starter does not support add-ins and will not load them. From the FAQ:

Q: Files have macros, but they cannot be run in Excel Starter or Word Starter, why?

A: Office Starter does not support the creation, editing, or running of macros. However, if a document with a macro is opened in Starter, the macro remains as part of the file.

Another often-glossed-over point regarding Office Starter is how it will be made available. It will be an OEM-only product and not available for download. Again, from the Microsoft FAQ:

Q: How will I be able to get the released version of Office Starter?

A: Office Starter will only be available as pre-loaded software on select new PCs pre-loaded with the Office suites.

If you really need the whole suite of Office Products, look into Open Office, it has almost all of the functions of Office 2007 Premium, it just takes some getting used to, but if you can save 600$, time to start downloading and read up on the product.

-NS