I wish all my readers a very Happy Christmas. Have a good one!

(From Google Images).

In the Exchange 2010 Tested Solutions white papers, Microsoft provides examples of well-designed, cost-effective Exchange 2010 solutions deployed on hardware offered by some of the server, storage and network partners. The papers are as follows:

• Single site, 16000 mailboxes 

This white paper provides an example of how to design, test and validate an Exchange Server 2010 solution for customer environments with 16,000 mailboxes in a single site deployed on IBM and Brocade hardware. The step-by-step methodology in this document walks through the important design decision points that help address key challenges while ensuring that the customer’s core business requirements are met.

• Single site, 500 mailboxes 

This white paper provides an example of how to design, test, and validate an Exchange 2010 solution for customer environments with 500 mailboxes or less deployed on Dell server and storage solutions. One of the key challenges with designing smaller Exchange 2010 environments is being able to provide large mailboxes that are highly available at a reasonable price point.

• Two sites, 9000 mailboxes 

This white paper provides an example of how to design, test and validate an Exchange 2010 solution for customer environments with 9,000 mailboxes deployed on Dell server and storage solutions. The step-by-step methodology in this document walks through the important design decision points that help address key challenges while ensuring that core business requirements are met.

Microsoft has released the beta exam for Lync Server 2010 exam (71-664: TS: Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Configuring). If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form.

71-664: TS: Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Configuring counts as credit towards the following certification(s).

• MCTS: Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Configuration
• MCITP: Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Administrator

Beta exam period runs: December 22, 2010 – January 14, 2010. Use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: UCTSJ

The latest cumulative update for Outlook 2007 SP2 provides support for personal archive in Outlook 2007. Note that this update provides support for an on-premise archive with an on-premise mailbox and for an Office 365 mailbox which has an Office 365-based archive. Having an on-premise mailbox with a cloud-based archive is not supported by this update.

With the update, customers will be able to:

Access email messages in their online archive using Outlook 2007.
Move messages into the online archive using Outlook 2007.
Delegates can see their manager’s online archive.

There are some limitations on Outlook’s support of the archive including:

Working with Archive policies
Independent searches of the archive and the primary mailbox

This will light up the Archive for the following SKUs:

Office Ultimate (retail)
Office ProPlus (volume license)
Office Enterprise (volume license)
Outlook Standalone (retail)
Outlook Standalone (volume license)

More info about the CU here

Download the update here

In line with the update rollups for Exchange 2007, Microsoft has released the update rollups for the 2010 installations, rollup 2 for 2010 SP1 and 5 for 2010 RTM.

Update Rollup 2 for 2010 SP1 resolves issues that were found in 2010 Service Pack 1 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all 2010 Service Pack 1 customers.

Download the update rollup 2 here

Update Rollup 5 for 2010 RTM resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2010 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all 2010 customers.

Download the update rollup 5 here

Forefront should be disabled while running the patch (fscutility /disable) and enabled it after the installation (fscutility /enable). Without these steps, Information Store and Transport services will not start back up.

Exchange Team has released the update rollup 2 for Exchange 2007 SP3  and rollup 5 for 2007 SP2 installations.

UR 2 For 2007 SP3

Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2007 SP3 resolves issues that were found in 2007 SP3 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2007 SP3 customers.

Exchange 2007 SP3 must be installed prior to installing this update rollup. This update rollup cannot be installed if you are using Exchange Server 2007 RTM, SP1 or SP2. Any Interim Updates for 2007 must be uninstalled prior to installing this update rollup.

Download the rollup here

UR 5 For 2007 SP2

Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 SP2 resolves issues that were found in 2007 SP2 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all 2007 SP2 customers.

Exchange 2007 SP2 must be installed prior to installing this update rollup. This rollup cannot be installed if you are using Exchange Server 2007 RTM or 2007 SP1. Any interim updates for Exchange Server 2007 must be uninstalled prior to installing this update rollup.

Download the rollup here

You will need to disable ForeFront via "fscutility /disable" before installing the patch and then re-enable after the patch by running "fscutility /enable" if you have Forefront running. Without these steps, Information Store and Transport services will not start back up.

Microsoft had released the Exchange 2010 Deployment Assistant an year ago to help administrators with steps to move to a 2010 platform. Check my previous article for more info. The tool 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 team has updated the tool now and provides three scenarios – on-premises only, co-existence (onsite + cloud) and cloud only.

Check out the updated tool here

Microsoft has shipped Hotfix Rollup 2 for Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange to provide a series of product enhancements and new features. For a complete list of the new features and enhancements included in this rollup, click here

The hotfix has to be requested and downloaded. Request it here

Service restarts may be necessary and hence plan well before applying this hotfix rollup.