Exchange

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Beta Released

Microsoft released the beta of Microsoft Exchange 2010!
This software is intended for evaluation purposes only. You must accept the license terms before you are authorized to use this software. There is no product support for this trial software. You are welcome to participate in the forums to share your trial experiences with others and to ask for advice.

More info @ http://www.itstuff.ca

I’m MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator :)

Yesterday I passed additional MS exam, PRO: Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 (70-238), this is a last exam in serial MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator.

This one was pretty similar to the previous, 70-237, but with a more details and tricks. It was a lot of questions about CCR, CSR, NLB and RAID’s. It was many question about “How to deal with multi sites organizations…” and questions like “What if..”. It was 50 questions in this exam.

The study resources I used to pass are:
Book “Microsoft Exchange Server 2007″
 http://technet.microsoft.com
 http://www.msexchange.org
 http://msexchangeteam.com
 http://exchangepedia.com
 http://www.exchangeprovip.com
 http://www.exchangeninjas.com
 http://searchexchange.techtarget.com/gen…
 http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutor…
 http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutor…

PRO: Designing Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 (70-237)

I’ve just passed additional MS exam, PRO: Designing Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 (70-237)!  Got 935 on it .

This one was easy that previous, 70-236. I’ve got a lot of questions about clustering, HA and multi-sites design. It was just 37 questions in this exam.

The study resources I used to pass are:

Book “Microsoft Exchange Server 2007″ http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Exchange-Server-2007-Unleashed/dp/0672329204/ref=pd_sim_b_1/191-1807479-9996238 (yes, this book again )

http://www.msexchange.org/

http://msexchangeteam.com/

http://technet.microsoft.com/

http://www.cbtnuggets.com/

TS: Configuring Exchange Server 2007 (70-236)

I’ve just passed my TS: Configuring Exchange Server 2007 (70-236)!  Got 100% on it.

For those of you intending to write this, even do not try to register for it if you do not have good understanding in PowerShell.

I’ve got about 80% of questions about how to do things by using PowerShell. You have to answer a 53 questions in this exam and they give you 150 mins. to write the exam.

The study resources I used to pass are:

Book “Microsoft Exchange Server 2007″  http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Exchange-Server-2007-Unleashed/dp/0672329204/ref=pd_sim_b_1/191-1807479-9996238

http://www.trainsignal.com/Exchange-Server-2007-Training-P22.aspx

http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/

http://msexchangeteam.com/

http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/management-administration/exchange-2007-sp1-mailbox-management-part1.html

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Managing-mailboxes-Exchange-Server-2007-Part1.html

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998579.aspx

http://www.exchangeninjas.com/

http://www.exchangeinbox.com/article.aspx?i=83

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124977.aspx

As I said, make sure you really have good understanding in PowerShell before you write the exam.

Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB953467)

Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2007 SP1 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2007 SP1 customers.

For a list of changes that are included in this update rollup, see KB953467. Download at source: www.microsoft.com

Outlook Web Access (OWA) on Apache in DMZ ;)

Using Apache 2 with Outlook Web Access (OWA) it’s very easy. This solution is even working when Apache installed on Windows XP and this solution can save a lot of money :), not necessary to buy Windows Server, additional Exchange Server licence or ISA Server. First, we need to enable some useful modules:

proxy
headers

Now, we need to edit / create a VirtualHost section (or use Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts. conf, remember to make following changes inside httpd-vhosts. conf ):

ProxyPreserveHost On
</VirtualHost>

NOTE: If you are using Apache on Windows, remember to make changes accordingly.

How to Block Users from Sending Email Outside your Exchange Organisation

We can configure Exchange to prevent users from sending mail to the Internet (and receive mails). The user can only receive e-mail from other Exchange users in the same organization. To set this, follow the following steps:

1. Create a new distribution group (mail-enabled) in Exchange.
2. Add all the users which are not allowed to send mail outside your organisation.
3. Modify (properties) the SMTP connector(s) that are used to send to the internet
4. Under the Delivery Restrictions tab, REJECT MESSAGES FROM, add the distribution group.
5. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
6. Locate and click the following registry key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Resvc/Parameters/
7. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
   Value Name: CheckConnectorRestrictions
   Data Type: REG_DWORD
   Radix: Hexadecimal
   Value: 1
8. Quit Registry Editor.
9. Restart the Microsoft Exchange Routing Engine service and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) services for this change to take effect.

Exchange System Manager (ESM) Crashs If Installed Internet Explorer 7 (IE7)

Over Internet you can find a lot of articles talking about one thing - NOT TO INSTALL IE7 on server machines :).
One of the reasons is a crash of Exchange System Manager (ESM).

Exchange System Manager (ESM) crashes when you press F1, or click on the Help menu option.
As result, inside Event Viewer you will see an Event ID 1000.

I really don’t want to recommend you uninstall IE7. The solution for this “issue” is very simple, remove (rename) the PSAPI.DLL from the Exchsrvr\bin subdirectory:

1. Stop the Exchange System Attendant Service
2. Stop the IIS Admin Service
3. Open a Command Prompt rename the PSAPI.DLL in the exchsrvr\bin directory. to PSAPI.DLL.OLD
4. Restart the Exchange and IIS services.
5. Enjoy

Microsoft Virtualization and Licensing Announcements

Few days ago Microsoft announced some significant changes to its licensing and support policies for applications in hardware virtualization environments. There are two key parts of the announcement worth highlighting for Exchange customers:

1. Microsoft now supports Exchange Server 2007 SP1 running Hyper-V or hypervisors validated under the Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP).
2. Microsoft is waiving its 90-day license reassignment policy to enable customers who virtualize Exchange to move their licenses between servers within a data farm as often as necessary.

As part of the updated support policies, we have published an article called Microsoft Support Policies and Recommendations for Exchange Servers in Hardware Virtualization Environments. This article includes Microsoft’s support policy and recommendations for running Exchange Server 2003 in a Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 environment. It replaces Microsoft Knowledge Base article 320220, which previously detailed the policy and recommendations for this environment. In addition, this article includes Microsoft’s support policy and Microsoft’s recommendations for running Exchange Server 2007 SP1 in a hardware virtualization environment.

Microsoft Support Policies and Recommendations for Exchange Servers in Hardware Virtualization Environments is a must-read for anyone considering a virtualized Exchange environment.

“Outlook Anywhere” and problems with IPv6 in Windows Server 2008

It’s not a secret, that IPv6 has some “issues”. When I’ve been in Seattle, at last MVP summit, a lot of IT professionals said that, and all of them recommended to disable IPv6 on Windows 2008 or / and Vista machines. Kevin Reeuwijk from “Innovative Technology Weblog” posted a very good article; Outlook Anywhere is ‘broken’ on IPv6 in Windows Server 2008.
So, if you run Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 and want to use Outlook Anywhere (aka RPC over HTTP) you probably get a problem. It would not work if the RPC-over-HTTP Proxy and the Exchange Mailbox installed on the same Windows 2008 Server.
To make the long story short, simply unselect IPv6 from the properties of your NIC AND (it’s very important) make a changes to the HOSTS file. Simply open up your hosts file and make the following changes:

• Comment out the line “:::1    localhost”
• Add the following two lines:

         <IPv4 address>    <hostname of the computer>
<IPv4 address>    <FQDN of the computer>

This will resolve all queries for your computer’s name to its IPv4 address, effectively disabling the use of IPv6 for self-communication. You can confirm that this works by doing a “telnet localhost 6004″.