“Virtual” Loadbalancer From F5…

The power of BIG-IP^® Local Traffic Manager^™ (LTM) Virtual Edition (VE) is now available in a 90-day trial version, allowing you to test, demo and develop in a trial environment. The supported virtual platform is VMWare ESX(i) v4 and Workstation 7.

BIG-IP LTM VE gives you the same industry leading advanced application delivery capabilities, the flexibility to control traffic with F5 iRules scripting language and simplified deployments with Application Ready Templates. The 90-day trial gives you the ability to test configurations and use iRules to export them to your other BIG-IP devices to experience the ultimate in flexibility.

More info @ the source

Updated Exchange Profile Analyzer Released…

Microsoft has released an updated version of Exchange Profile Analyzer which can be used in Exchange 2003 & 2007 environments. The output will help in sizing the Exchange 2010 environment, as the data pulled can be leveraged by the storage calculator.

The Exchange Profile Analyzer collects information related to user activity on production mailbox systems and can be used to generate aggregate user profile statistics for sets of Exchange users.

Download the 32-bit analyzer here and 64-bit version here

Update Rollup 3 For Exchange 2007 SP2 Released…

Microsoft has released Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2, which resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2007 SP2 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2007 SP2 customers.

This is a cumulative update and replaces update rollup 1 and 2. This update cannot be installed if you are using Exchange Server 2007 RTM or Exchange Server 2007 SP1. Any interim updates (custom fix from Microsoft Support) for Exchange Server 2007 must be uninstalled prior to installing this update rollup.

The list of fixes are detailed here

Download the rollup here

Exchange 2010 Mailbox Server Role Requirements Calculator v6.1 Released…

The 2010 Mailbox Role Calculator has been updated again! V6.1 out now, the previous one being 4.5

Know more about the updates here

Download the calculator here

Register Filter Pack With Exchange 2010…

Just came across the technet article explaining the steps to register the Microsoft Filter Pack, so that Exchange Search can start indexing the text content in different file formats. The filter pack is a pre-requisite for Exchange 2010 installation. After you install the filter pack, the included IFilters are registered with Windows Search. To enable Exchange Search to index Office 2007 file formats, you must register the installed IFilters for Exchange 2010 by modifying the registry. You must perform this step after you have installed Exchange 2010 on the server.

The registry changes can either be made manually or running a script provided by Microsoft. Check the technet article for steps to modify the registry.

The Microsoft Search (Exchange) service has to be restarted after the registry edit.

Mailbox Moves – 2003, 2007 & 2010 Exchange Servers…

I have seen a number of questions in discussion forums regarding the tools to move mailboxes from different versions of Exchange to 2010 and what the pros & cons are. Below is a snapshot of the points to be considered while thinking about moving mailboxes.

Exchange 2003 to 2010

• You need to use “move request” cmdlets in 2010 shell to move the mailboxes.
• You can’t use 2003 System Manager.
• The mailbox move is offline, which means that the users can’t access the emails while it is moved.
• You can't move mailboxes from Exchange 2003 SP1 or earlier, the source should run 2003 SP2+

Exchange 2007 to 2010

• You can use 2010 console or “move request” cmdlets in 2010 shell to move the mailboxes.
• You can’t use “move-mailbox” cmdlet in 2007 shell.
• The mailbox move is online, which means that the users can be online while the move happens.
• You can’t move mailboxes from 2007 SP1 or earlier, the source should run 2007 SP2+

Exchange 2010 to 2003

• You need to use “move request” cmdlets in 2010 shell to move the mailboxes.
• You can’t use 2003 System Manager.
• The mailbox move is offline, which means that the users can’t access the emails while it is moved.
• If the mailbox on 2010 has an archive mailbox attached, it should be disabled before the mailbox move.

Exchange 2010 to 2007

• You need to use “move request” cmdlets in 2010 shell to move the mailboxes.
• You can’t use “move-mailbox” cmdlet in 2007 shell.
• The mailbox move is offline, which means that the users can’t access the emails while it is moved.
• You can’t move mailboxes to 2007 SP1 or earlier, the target should run 2007 SP2+
• If the mailbox on 2010 has an archive mailbox attached, it should be disabled before the mailbox move.

In short, always use Exchange 2010 tools to move the mailboxes irrespective of the source and target.

Office 2010 RTM In April, Release On 12 May 2010…

Microsoft has confirmed May 12, 2010 to be the release date for both Office and SharePoint 2010 for businesses. Consumers will have to wait until June. RTM version of Office 2010, Visio 2010, Project 2010 & SharePoint 2010 will be released in April.

Starting March 4th, consumers who purchase and activate Office 2007 will be able to download Office 2010 at no additional cost when it becomes available.

All you need to be eligible for this program – Office 2010 Technology Guarantee – is the following:

• Purchase Office 2007, or a new PC with Office 2007, and activate it between March 5, 2010 and September 30, 2010.
• Have, or create a Windows Live ID.
• Redeem your Tech Guarantee before October 31, 2010 by visiting www.office.com/techg.

The Office 2010 Technology Guarantee will be fulfilled online, via download, at no additional cost.

More info @ source

Exchange 2010 Update Rollup 2 Released…

Microsoft has released the Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010. This update resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2010 since the software was released. This rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2010 customers.

This is a cumulative update and replaces rollup 1. Any interim Updates (custom fixes from Microsoft Support, in response to a support call) for Exchange Server 2010 must be uninstalled prior to installing this update rollup. Microsoft Update cannot detect update rollups on Exchange Server 2010 mailbox servers that are part of a database availability group (DAG).

Download the Update Rollup 2 here

Setting Archive Mailbox Quota In Exchange 2010…

I had written an article a while back about archive mailbox which generated a lot of response (comments) from my readers. In this one, I will explain how to configure quotas for archive mailboxes, if anyone is using it. Do understand that an enterprise CAL is needed to use archive mailbox functionality.

Archive mailboxes have unlimited storage by default and no admin wants that. You can configure two settings, archive warning quota and archive quota.

As the name implies, the archive warning quota is a limit set by the admin to warn the user that they are very near to reaching the maximum allowed limit for their archive mailbox. When a user reaches the archive warning quota, exchange logs an event for the administrator and fires an email to the user. You can use both EMC and Shell to configure the setting. Launch EMC, take the user properties, navigate to “Mailbox Settings” tab, select “Archive Quota” and click properties. Set the limit in MB. The option “Archive Quota” in the user properties should ideally be “Archive Quota Warning” in my opinion.

If you are a Powershell guy, run Set-Mailbox –identity “user” –ArchiveWarningQuota” 900MB

Archive Quota is the limit set by the admin as the maximum amount of storage allotted for a user’s archive mailbox. When a user reaches the quota limit, a message is fired to the user and he/she won’t be able to move any more messages into the archive mailbox. This limit can only be set by using the Shell. To set the limit to 1Gb, run Set-Mailbox –identity “user” –ArchiveQuota 1GB.

Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) 2010 RTM’d…

Forefront Identity Manager 2010 (FIM 2010) is the next generation release of Identity Lifecycle Manager (ILM). It delivers an integrated identity management solution with powerful self-service capabilities for Office end-users, rich administrative tools and enhanced automation for IT professionals and .NET and WS-* based extensibility for developers. FIM 2010 provides organizations with unique workflow driven solutions to manage user accounts, passwords, groups and distribution lists as well as certificate-based credentials such as smart cards, using identity-based policies that can span across Windows and heterogeneous environments.

Download an evaluation copy of FIM 2010 here

More about the release on the TeamBlog

Transition From Exchange 2003 To 2010, Part 2…

In part one of this series, we discussed the AD/Exchange requirements for 2003-2010 coexistence. In this part, we will look at preparing the Active Directory, Exchange 2010 pre-requisites and introduction of the first 2010 server into 2003 org.

There are two options for extending the AD schema & preparing AD to accept an Exchange 2010 Server.

• Easiest and my recommendation is to let Exchange 2010 setup extend the schema & prepare the AD/Domain. Run the 2010 setup and as part of the install, all preparation works will be completed. This is ideal for a single domain environment or small company.
• Do all the preparation works manually using Setup.com switches. We go down this route in large companies where an Exchange Administrator doesn’t have Enterprise Admin and Schema Admin rights. Hence, the task has to be passed to the AD Administrator.

Run the following commands as part of the manual preparation.

• Setup.com /PrepareLegacyExchangePermissions, if you have previous versions of Exchange already installed. This is required to have RUS & Email Address Policies coexist in the same AD domain.
• Setup.com /PrepareSchema, extends the schema with 2010 classes and attributes.
• Setup.com /PrepareAD, prepares the AD, upgrades the Exchange Organisation, creates a new Administrative Group.
• Setup.com /PrepareDomain, prepares the domain, creates Exchange 2010 universal security groups.

Now that the active directory has been prepared to accept Exchange 2010, we need to think about the 2010 specific requirements. The following are the pre-requisites for Exchange 2010.

• The base operating system that will run Exchange 2010 has to be either Windows 2008 SP2 or 2008 R2.
• Make sure that the server is fully patched.
• Install .Net Framework 3.5 with SP1 (Already in 2008 R2)
• Install Powershell 2.0 (Already in 2008 R2)
• Install Office Filter Pack on Hub & Mailbox servers.
• The startup mode of NetTcpPortSharing service has to be set to automatic (For CAS role). Run Set-Service NetTcpPortSharing –StartupType Automatic from the Powershell or set the startup type to automatic from the Services Console (services.msc).

The order of introducing 2010 server into the 2003 Org is CAS, HUB, UM, MAILBOX, EDGE. Certain components like IIS, RPC Proxy, Admin tools etc need to be installed before we start the 2010 setup. For that, launch Powershell and run Import-Module ServerManager.

Run the following command for each role.

For CAS Role:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Dyn-Compression,NET-HTTP-Activation,RPC-Over-HTTP-Proxy

For HUB Role:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server

For Mailbox Role:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server

In our environment, we will be installing CAS & HUB roles on the 2008 R2 server named CASHUB. I won’t go through the installation steps one by one, as everyone is familiar with the process. Launch Setup from the DVD and follow the wizard with a custom installation option to install CAS & HUB roles.

Configure the “CAS External Domain” when asked during the setup. Enter the domain name for external client access as webmail.howexchangeworks.com (2010 OWA URL in my example). The only difference here from a standard 2010 installation is the addition of one more option in the setup, when the HUB server is introduced into 2003 org. The setup asks for a 2003 server to be selected to create a routing group connector.

I selected the 2003FE as the bridgehead server for routing.

Proceed with the setup and finish the installation. You now have a 2003 Org with a 2003 Frontend, 2003 Backend & 2010 CAS&HUB combined server.

In the next part of the article, I will explain the changes in 2003 Org after the introduction of 2010 server, installation of 2010 Mailbox server & testing of email flow between 2003 & 2010.

iPowershell in Apple App Store…

iPowerShell is an easy to use reference tool for users of Microsoft’s PowerShell scripting language for use on the iPhone or iPod Touch. It contains full descriptions of each and every core PowerShell Version 2 cmdlet, their syntax, parameters and examples of proper usage. It also contains the complete set of “about item” help topics as well as provider and alias help.

It’s FREE. More info at the source.

Transition From Exchange 2003 To 2010, Part 1…

As many organizations are thinking of skipping Exchange 2007 & moving directly to Exchange 2010 from 2003, I thought it is a good time to go through the process. The entire topic will be covered through multi part posts. I will base the entire series on my environment. Details of my network is listed below.

• Domain HEW.LOCAL (How Exchange Works)
• Domain Controller - 2003DC, running Windows 2003 R2 SP2
• Exch 2003 Back End - 2003BE, Exchange 2003 SP2 running on Windows 2003 R2 SP2
• Exch 2003 Front End - 2003FE, Exchange 2003 SP2 running on Windows 2003 R2 SP2
• Exch 2010 CAS&HUB - CASHUB, Exchange 2010 running on Windows 2008 R2
• Exch 2010 Mailbox - 2010MBX, Exchange 2010 running on Windows 2008 R2
• 2003 OWA URL – mail.howexchangeworks.com/exchange
• 2010 OWA URL – webmail.howexchangeworks.com/owa

In this post, we will discuss the requirements for Exchange 2010 to coexist with 2003 in the same active directory domain. I already have a 2003 domain up and running with Exchange 2003 Front/Back End configuration. I have also installed two member servers with 2008 R2 (CASHUB & 2010MBX). Before we introduce an Exchange 2010 server, the following points have to be checked.

1. The AD forest & domain functional level has to be atleast Windows 2003. Launch AD Domains & Trust, select the domain name, right click & select properties. Make sure the forest & domain functional level reads “Windows 2003” or higher. In my environment, I have both functional level at Windows 2003.

If the functional level is below Windows 2003, raise both forest & domain functional level using the same interface. Right click “AD Domains & Trust” and select “Raise Forest Functional Level” & raise it to Windows 2003 or higher.

To raise domain functional level, right click the domain name and select “Raise Domain Functional Level” & raise it to Windows 2003 or higher.

2. The Global Catalog and Schema Master should be running atleast Windows 2003 SP1 or 2003 R2.

3. The Exchange 2003 Organization should be running in “Native Mode”. To check, launch System Manager & right click the root (Exchange Org name) and select properties. By default, it will be in mixed mode. Click the “change mode” button to change it to native. It is a one way process.

4. Disable link state updates on all Exchange 2003 servers (to make sure that routing loops won’t occur) with a registry edit. Exchange 2010 doesn't use a link state routing table and don’t support relaying of link state information. If you don't suppress minor link state updates, routing loops may occur. Follow the technet article for the registry edit. The first routing group connector is created when the first 2010 Hub server role is installed in the Exchange 2003 organization. The registry edit forces earlier versions of Exchange to use least cost routing and not to calculate an alternative route.

As a final step, use the Exchange 2010 Pre-Deployment Analyzer to make sure that your environment is ready to have an Exchange 2010 deployment.

In the next part, I will discuss the pre-requisites for Exchange 2010 & installation steps for introducing your first 2010 server to the 2003 organisation. Stay tuned!

FREE Blackberry Enterprise Server Express…

In order to compete with Apple iPhones & Windows Mobiles which uses ActiveSync to get the emails, Blackberry has released a free version of its offering, known as Blackberry Enterprise Server Express. It provides advanced BlackBerry features with no additional software or user license fees and works with any internet enabled BlackBerry data plan or a BlackBerry enterprise data plan. It works with both Exchange & SBS. The BES Express runs on both 32 and 64bit of Windows 2003 & 2008 and supports Exchange 2003 SP2, 2007 SP1+ and 2010.

To support Microsoft Exchange 2010, you must install Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI client and CDO 1.2.1 version 6.5.8146.0 or higher.

Download the FREE software here and check the system requirements.