MS Exchange Blog

Train Signal Exchange Server 2007 Training Video Review

I watched over 20 hours of quality Exchange 2007 training by Train Signal presented by fellow Exchange MVP David Shackelford. It is one of the best selling titles for Train Signal. This training title was actually released months ago.

I did a review of Train Signal's Exchange 2007 Training Videos.

William Lefkovics

Exchange Documentation Updates

A few months ago Microsoft starting listing updates to the Technet Exchange Server Library documentation on a monthly basis. The Documentation Updates site summarizes which articles had content changed over the last month and what topics are new to the library.

For June 2008, for example, there were 5 new articles added and 24 articles updated.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Exchange 2007 Search Basics

Unlike Exchange 2003, Exchange Search is enabled by default in Exchange 2007 and is automatically applied to new databases as they are created. Exchange Search depends on a full-text indexing and each mailbox database in Exchange 2007 has a full-text index associated with it. However, this latest incarnation of Exchange server-side search not the status quo. Search for Microsoft Exchange 2007 has been rewritten. 

Indexing content is now performed as messages arrive at the store and not on a set schedule. Certain attachment types are also indexed, most notably Word, Excel, PDF, PowerPoint and HTML files. To facilitate these changes, indexing is now more integrated with the Information Store Service. The result has been much improved indexing performance in Exchange 2007.

Exchange 2007 Search will show a few processes in Task Manager:

• Microsoft.Exchange.Search.ExSearch.exe (MSSearch)
• Msftefd.exe (filter daemon - similar to SQL Server 2005)
• Msftesql.exe (core indexer)

These Exchange 2007 Search processes will throttle server-side full-text indexing when the Exchange Server needs resources for client access so the user experience is not negatively impacted. Otherwise, new messages get indexed within seconds of arrival. Searches using the server-side Exchange 2007 Search return results expeditiously.

Exchange 2007 Search is not the same as Instant Search in Outlook 2007, which is implemented with Windows Desktop Search (WDS) on the client. Outlook 2007 Instant Search requires either a .pst or Exchange cached mode (.ost). For the desktop client to benefit from Exchange 2007 Search they need to use either Outlook Web Access or a MAPI profile without Exchange cached mode (online mode).

Even though they are index-enabled by default, some databases may not need to be searched efficiently and therefore do not require an index. Full-text indexing is toggled on or off ($true or $false) from the Exchange Management Shell as follows:

>Set-MailboxDatabase <MailboxDatabaseName> -IndexEnabled $false

Also using PowerShell, the Test-ExchangeSearch cmdlet is used to verify the status of Exchange 2007 Search by creating a message and querying for that message and reporting back to the administrator.

William Lefkovics

Office 2007 SP1 Download

Calling all Outlook 2007 users : Office 2007 SP1 is now available for download here.

Exchange 2007 SP1 VHD available

As they did with Exchange 2007 RTM, Microsoft has made available for download a generically configured .vhd file for Virtual PC or Virtual Server with Exchange 2007 SP1 installed. It seems that they removed the Exchange 2007 RTM one in the process.

Having a prepared .vhd file makes server product evaluation easier. For Exchange, you can evaluate almost everything about the product except... the installation process, maybe. The download has Exchange installed on Windows 2003, so it is not insignificant. Microsoft uses WinRAR to separate the .vhd into an archive set of 3 files totalling 1835.1MB.

This is the 32-bit version for evaluation, probably because Microsoft does not have a production virtualization tool that allows for 64-bit guests yet.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Outlook Resources

There are many Outlook specific resources available to those who use or administer the world's most popular Personal Information Manager. I am sure there are many more, but these are some of the ones I try to stay current with.

Ongoing newsgroups that have helped administrators, Outlook users and developers can be found at Yahoogroups.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/outlook-users/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/outlook-dev/

If NNTP newsgroups are your preference, then certainly there is news.microsoft.com groups. Search for "Outlook" to find groups in different languages. The English groups are as follows:
microsoft.public.outlook.*

The Microsoft Outlook Team blog (better late than never, guys)
http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook/

MSDN Outlook Developer Portal
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905455.aspx

Outlook 2007 Office Online Help and How-To
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/FX100647191033.aspx

For developers there is an immaculately presented site by Sue Mosher
http://www.outlookcode.com/

For lots of Outlook tips and how-tos see
http://www.outlook-tips.net/

And of course Slipstick.com, still relevant after 124 years online!
http://www.slipstick.com/

William Lefkovics

Outlook Voice Access Quick Start command sheet

Almost a year ago Microsoft released a page with a lot of the voice commands available to the user when accessing Outlook Voice Access. They call it an Outlook Voice Access - Quick Start for the Outlook voice user interface. I am just finally getting the opportunity to make use of it.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Employee Exchange blogs OPML

Microsoft has a community blog portal to search blogs by employees. I am not sure why they have chosen to list only 5 blogcasts and blogs on the main page, but there are hundreds and hundreds to choose from, as the responses to one rather disappointing effort from a writer at Network World reveal.

Entering the category of Exchange Server returned 82 blogs on Exchange. Many of those are stale where there hasn't been any new posts in a long time, but many are valuable resources as well. At the bottom of the search page for the Exchange Server category is the OPML button to download the list of Exchange-related blogs for import into your chosen RSS aggregator. (I currently use IntraVNews 1.2 on Outlook 2007 because Outlook's new native RSS capability is like reading and answering email for a living when you're stuck with Lotus Notes R5 beta 2 or something. But that's another story.)

In addition, the category Outlook returns 62 employee blogs for your reading enjoyment.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2007 Component Architecture Poster

Microsoft has made available another one of its .pdf posters for Exchange Server. This one is called the Exchange Server 2007 Component Architecture poster.

This poster highlights the high level architecture of Exchange 2007, as well as the different roles and high availability.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2007 Visio Stencil Shapes

Back here we mentioned Microsoft's Visio Stencil with shapes pertaining to Exchange 2007. I was working with it and just thought I would post an image of the objects that are in this stencil.

William Lefkovics

Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 available

Microsoft has released another update rollup for Exchange 2007. This rollup #5 is described in MS KB 941421.

This update is cumulative since RTM. You do not need the previous update rollups listed below to install the 5th one.

1. KB930809 Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB930809)
2. KB935490 Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB935490)
3. KB935999 Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB935999)
4. KB940006 Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB940006)

Obviously, this does not get installed on a server running Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 Beta 2. I will try a little later though.

William Lefkovics

.NET Framework Hotfix for Exchange 2007

Microsoft has released a .NET Framework hotfix that it recommends you apply to ALL Exchange 2007 servers.  It is more urgent that you apply this fix to your CAS servers with multiple protocols, but ultimately you should install it onto all Exchange 2007 servers.

The KB article that you need to reference is http://support.microsoft.com/?id=942027.  You need to call Microsoft PSS to get this hotfix, or you can use the Hotfix Request Web Submission Form at https://support.microsoft.com/contactus2/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1410&WS=hotfix, or you can use the Connect Web site at https://connect.microsoft.com/content/content.aspx?ContentID=3705&wa=wsignin1.0&siteid=210

This fix will eventually make it into a .NET Framework service pack.

Exchange System Manager - 'Customized' Permissions

I saw someone ask today what it meant in Exchange System Manager when you ran the delegation wizard and it listed the role as Exchange Full Administrator (Customized) as seen in the graphic below.

You'll get the 'customized' tag if you've modified the permissions such that they now no longer correspond directly to one of the predefined roles, such as Exchange Full Administrator.  For example, if you were to enable the security page in ESM and then modifiy the permissions of a user manually, perhaps specificially enabling or disabling the Send As and Receive As rights for example, ESM would then show that role as customized.

Exchange & Virtualisation

Nathan has very usefully (as I've been asked about this, this week!) summarised the position regarding virtualising Exchange.

Updated - Microsoft Exchange Calendar Update Configuration Tool

The Exchange Calendar Update Tool enables administrators to update multiple user mailboxes and adjust calendars and meetings for daylight savings times. version: 2.0

Windows 2008 Microsoft eLearning offers

Microsoft eLearning is offering a set of chapters from two MS Press books covering Windows 2008. Currently, there are 12 chapters available for free as follows:

• 9 chapters from Introducing Windows Server 2008 by Mitch Tulloch
• 3 chapters from Microsoft Windows PowerShell Step by Step by Ed Wilson

You will need to register a Passport account with Microsoft Learning to access the chapters.

There is also a collection of Microsoft eLearning courses for free based on Longhorn beta 3.

William Lefkovics

Quest - Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Webcast Series

Pre-assessing your environment before migrating to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Tuesday 11th September 2007, 10:30 - 11:30 BST
Understanding your current environment is a critical piece in preparing for your move to Exchange Server 2007. We will cover some best practices to help you prepare.

Migrating to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Wednesday 12th September 2007, 10:30 - 11:30 BST
Not sure how and when to migrate to Exchange Server 2007? Need to decide whether to do a transition or a migration? Not clear on the advantages each have? Quest will answer these and other questions in this webcast, as well as offer best practices for migrating.

Management of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Thursday 13th September 2007, 10:30 - 11:30 BST
Quest knows that managing this new Exchange Server 2007 platform will be a challenge. Having your platform available at all times will be critical with new unified messaging. You’ll need to know how to troubleshoot and diagnose any problems in this new environment as well as get performance reports and analysis.  In this webcast, Quest will talk about how to manage these processes to maximise your investment and build your understanding of the Exchange Server 2007 platform.

More info..

Exchange Q & A

Useful Exchange Q&A  with KC Lemson and Nino Billic in September's Technet Magazine, covering Setup, Message Journalling, Storage and more..

The Edge of a Hub

A couple of days ago someone on the public Microsoft newsgroups was asking why a process called EdgeTransport.exe was running on their Exchange 2007 server that was configured with only the Client Access and Hub Transport server roles.  If the Edge Transport server role wasn't installed, which it can't be on an Exchange 2007 server with any other role already installed, why was EdgeTransport.exe running?

A fair question I hear you say.  If you read this piece of the Exchange 2007 online documentation, you will find this quote:

"EdgeTransport.exe and MSExchangeTransport.exe are the executable files that are used by the Microsoft Exchange Transport service. This service runs on every Hub Transport server or Edge Transport server."

So fear not if you see EdgeTransport.exe running on your Hub Transport server, as it's normal.

OCS 2007 Mailing List

OK, there are hooks into Exchange so this lands into the 'somewhat relevant' category.  ;)

I see that an OCS 2007 mailing list has been created over at Yahoo! Groups.  You can find the group home page here.

Post message:	OCS2007@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe:	OCS2007-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe:	OCS2007-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner:	OCS2007-owner@yahoogroups.com

Chapter 4 of the Shortcut Guide to Exchange Server 2007 Storage Systems

Jim has released chapter 4 of his Shortcut Guide to Exchange Server 2007 Storage Systems.  This chapter covers best practices for implementing iSCSI storage.

Entourage and missing items...ouch

Here's something that bit me recently.  I was moving mailboxes from one Exchange 2003 server to another.  After the mailbox move, one of the Entourage users reported that although he could initially see all his email after the move, his mailbox was now empty.  At the time, I had Exchange System Manager open and could see a 48MB mailbox for this user.  A quick refresh and boom!  A 96KB mailbox was now shown.

It turns out that this user was using a fairly old version of Entourage, namely 11.2.0.  A search revealed the reason why: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/909574.  Ouch!  Now, I don't do that much work with Entourage but now I've made a mental note to myself : check the version of Entourage before moving any mailboxes - we can't afford to have old dodgy versions out there.

Exchange 2007 Permissions & Roles

A couple of days ago, the 2nd part of a 2-part article on Exchange 2007 Permissions & Roles that I'd written was published over at msexchange.org.  This article is a fairly high level look at the new Exchange 2007 administrator roles, such as Exchange Organization Administrators, Exchange View Only Administrators and so on.  You can check out part 1 here.

Missing File Error During Exchange 2007 Install

Here's something that I've seen mentioned recently in the newsgroups that also happened to a work colleague during an Exchange 2007 installation.  Basically, when installing Exchange 2007 an error can be displayed stating that D:\Setup\ServerRoles\Common\64 is missing.  In this case, D:\ is the DVD drive.  A quick check of the actual DVD contents revelas that the listed folder doesn't even exist.  From what I understand, this error occurs when installing the first Hub Transport server into an existing Exchange 2000/2003 organisation.

So what's the deal here?  Some people have stated that re-starting the installation results in a successful completion but there is evidence out there to suggest that if you do this the routing group connector that's normally created between the Exchange 2000/2003 and Exchange 2007 administrative groups is not actually created.  The answer from Microsoft is that this problem "may be caused by latency between the DVD drive and setup".  The solution is to copy the contents of the DVD drive to the local machine and then run setup.  This solution worked for my colleague, so here's hoping this blog post saves someone else from a bit of hair pulling.

EdgeSync and Product Keys

I don't normally like to blog about other blog posts (circular blogging?) but this time I'll make an exception since I didn't know this.  Mark has blogged about advice from Microsoft stating that you should ensure you enter the product key on an Edge Transport server before you create the EdgeSync subscription.  Read Mark's post to find out why.

Microsoft Certification Updates for Exchange

Microsoft Certification is changing again to remain current and relevant with the new set of Microsoft products.

The Exchange 2007 Certification path has changed certainly. For Exchange 2003, we had MCSA:Messaging and MCSE:Messaging. It seems for Exchange 2007, the names have changed to MCTS:Exchange 2007 Configuration and MCITP:Exchange 2007 Enterprise Messaging Administrator. As of this posting, the Microsoft certification site does not seem to have a description of the MCITP Exchange certification level.

MCTS stands for Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist and is applied to many Microsoft products. The Exchange-specific exam for this certification level is 70-236:Exchange Server 2007, Configuring. This is the basic level for Exchange 2007 covering installation, configuration, monitoring and disaster recovery.

MCITP stands for Microsoft Certified IT Professional and is the next step beyond MCTS. There are two, more challenging (at least 70-238 is more challenging) Exchange-specific exams pertaining to this certification which are 70-237:Designing Messaging Solutions with Exchange Server 2007 and 70-238:Deploying Messaging Solutions with Exchange Server 2007. A key difference between the two is 'designing' versus 'deploying', though the theme for both seems to be 'planning'. These exams cover high availability, security and compliance, co-existence, migration, and enterprise-level maintenance.

Good luck!

William Lefkovics

 

Office Communications Server 2007 Documentation

Somewhat related to Exchange since there are many links between the two products, and LCS/OCS is another of the products that I deal with.  Actually, OCS is a huge gargantuan product of epic proportions!  Are there enough hours in the day to deal with Exchange 2007 and OCS 2007?  Time will tell.  Anyway, Microsoft has released the latest batch of documentation for OCS, with July 2007 publication dates.  Rather than download all individual documents, you can get the rollup here.

Blog Links Page

I've just updated the blogs section of the links page of this blog and added a few more of the common Exchange blogs (and indeed perhaps a few more of the not-so-common Exchange blogs).  I've adjusted a few links for blogs that have moved, too.  If you have an Exchange-related blog and want it listed here, just leave a comment to this post.  Remember the comments are moderated so there may be a short delay before they appear.  Still, that's stopped the spammers getting published comments.

Looks like it's time to overhaul the other links on that page, too.

Notes as Your Inbound SMTP Gateway

Here's something that I'd not seen before but that's probably my fault and I bet everyone else knows this anyway.  A colleague of mine this morning pointed out that there had been an update to the Exchange 2003 Connector for Lotus Notes a while ago to address an issue with inbound Internet email.

Over the years, when migrating from Notes to Exchange I've always designed systems such that Exchange is configured to be the inbound SMTP gateway for all users no matter whether they are still on Notes or have been migrated to Exchange.  The mail is delivered to the Exchange server and then either delivered to an Exchange mailbox or routed across the Connector for Lotus Notes as appropriate.  However, if you did this the other way round where Notes is configured to be the inbound SMTP gateway, addressing got somewhat munged.

A while back, Microsoft released a new build of the Exchange 2003 Connector for Lotus Notes (build 06.05.7926) that you can download to address this issue.  There's a KB article that describes this in detail, including the details of the munging process.  OK, munged/munging probably aren't real words but I still like them.

Of course, everyone is moving to Exchange 2007 and using the new Transporter Suite, so this doesn't matter, right?  :)

Exchange 2003 Move Mailbox Error

I've been migrating mailboxes from one Exchange 2003 server to another recently.  One particular mailbox wouldn't move at all.  In fact, this was the only one that wouldn't.  Examining the mailbox move wizard XML logs revealed the following entry:

The MAPI call failed. MAPI or an unspecified service provider. ID no: 80004005-0000-00000000

Not exactly the most descriptive error I've ever seen.  I tried all sorts of troubleshooting techniques, such as running ISINTEG on the source database and setting the "skip corrupted items" migration setting to the maximum of 100 but none of those worked.  After a bit of research, it turns out that the issue was to do with mailbox sizes.  The mailbox being moved was just over 50MB in size, with the target mailbox store having a 'prohibt send and receive' setting of 50MB.  To prove the size theory, I created a temporary mailbox store without any size limits and successfully moved the mailbox to it.  I then temporarily allowed this mailbox to have an unlimited mailbox size and then successfully moved it to the database with the 50MB limit.

At this point in time I'm not entirely sure if this problem should be fixed in Exchange 2003 SP2, since although the target server is Exchange 2003 SP2, the source server is Exchange 2003 SP1.  I'm therefore not sure if the source server's SP level affects things.

OWA Time Zone and Language

When a user first connects to their mailbox via OWA in Exchange 2007, they are presented with the language and time zone configuration screen shown below.  Although it's possible to alter the language and time zone settings from within the Regional Settings area of OWA's Options page, you can, as an administrator, reset the mailbox settings such that the user is again presented with the language and time zone screen the next time they access OWA.  To do this, you can use the Set-Mailbox Exchange Management Shell cmdlet.  For example, to reset the mailbox belonging to User1, you'd use the following cmdlet:

Set-Mailbox -id User1 -Languages $null

Laying the Groundwork: Exchange Server 2007

"Moving to Exchange Server 2007 is a complex process with stringent requirements. Make sure you have the tools and infrastructure in place before you begin.".. full article..

Microsoft DST 2007 Blog

There is a new and presumably shortlived blog covering the Daylight Savings Time tools, their function, and implementation order at Technet.  It covers a lot of good questions and answers you and I may have.

William Lefkovics

Time Zone Data Update Tool for Microsoft Office Outlook

Brief Description

This tool adjusts Microsoft Office Outlook calendar items when there has been a change in time zone definitions (saved in Microsoft Windows) or if the user is making a permanent move to another time zone.

(If you require information on the DST changes, some very useful and helpful information/resources can be found in Paul Flaherty's comprehensive blog posts... post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4)

Getting Your Exchange 2007 Version

One very popular request on the public newsgroups is how you can determine the version of Exchange that is running.  With Exchange 2000/2003, this involves using the Exchange System Manager application, drilling down to the 'Servers' object and getting the list of servers displayed, along with their build numbers, etc.  Of course, with Exchange 2007 you'd expect to see a Powershell way to do this, and so here is a handy Powershell cmdlet to use:

Get-ExchangeServer | fl name,edition,admindisplayversion

You should see output similar to this:

Name                : SVR-E2K7
Edition             : StandardEvaluation
AdminDisplayVersion : Version 8.0 (Build 685.24)

HP's Exchange 2007 Resources

HP has a good collection of Exchange 2007 technical resources and other useful/relevant information here..

Update for Daylight Saving Time changes in 2007 for Exchange 2003 (KB 926666)

"Update for Daylight Saving Time changes in 2007 for Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2)."

Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging Video

"This video describes the Unified Messaging opportunity for partners in Exchange Server 2007."

Update for Exchange 2003 (KB 922817)

"This update resolves issues which may occur if a server running Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 is used to generate an Offline Address List (also known as Offline Address Book) after Exchange Server 2007 has been deployed."

Update for Publishing Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 for Microsoft® Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006

"This ISA Server 2006 update adds support for publishing Exchange Server 2007 with ISA Server 2006."

SMTP Tarpitting Enabled by Default in Exchange 2007

Bharat Suneja explains that SMTP tarpitting is enabled by default in Exchange 2007.

Update for Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter (KB925534)

"This update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail. This update was released in January 2007."

Outlook E-Mail Signatures Get Started (2003)

Useful PowerPoint deck running through the steps for creating signatures in Outlook 2003... one to pass on to your Helpdesk.

Scott Schnoll: Exchange 2007 - 32-bit v 64-bit, Standard v Enterprise & Eval Limitations

Scott explains all in a must-read blog post.

Outlook 2007 Signatures Location

Allister Frost points out the new location in which Outlook 2007 signatures are stored

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Help - Version 2

Brief Description

This download contains a standalone version of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Help.

Quick Details

File Name:	exchhelp.exe
Version:	2
Date Published:	1/4/2007
Language:	English
Download Size:	9.4 MB

Exchange 2007 Architecture posters

Microsoft has generated a couple of large downloadable PDF files which illustrate the architecture of Exchange Server 2007 transport roles:

• Hub Transport Role Architecture
• Edge Transport Role Architecture

I love these posters and similar ones adorn the walls of my office.  These Exchange 2007 posters complement the Technet Magazine Active Directory Jigsaw poster from before Christmas.

William Lefkovics

"Outlook 2007 grant for Exchange Server 2003 CAL customers"

Just in-case you haven't already read about the fundamental change to the Exchange/Outlook 2007 CAL licensing, it's worth covering here.. unless you were on Exchange Server 2003 with Software Assurance at 30th November 2006 you will not be able to automatically use Outlook 2007 when you upgrade to  Exchange Server 2007. 

"Unlike prior versions, Exchange Server 2007 Standard or Enterprise does not include the right to install Outlook on devices for which CALs are obtained. However, for each Exchange Server CAL, Core CAL Suite or Enterprise CAL Suite with active Software Assurance coverage as of November 30, 2006, customers will be granted one Office Outlook 2007 license. The right to use Outlook under that license expires upon expiration of the corresponding CAL. Use of Outlook under this offering is subject to the customers’ license agreement and the product use rights for that product. If Software Assurance coverage on the corresponding CAL is maintained continuously (i.e., renewed with no lapse in coverage), and one later version of Office Outlook (i.e., N+1, where N=Office Outlook 2007) is made available prior to the expiration of that coverage, customers’ license will be for that version instead. Alternatively, customers are eligible to acquire Software Assurance coverage for that Office Outlook license, provided that coverage is acquired by February 28, 2007. Customers who wish to acquire Software Assurance coverage for Office Outlook after that date must first acquire a new license for the version of Office Outlook that is current at the time coverage is acquired. "

There's more coverage of this here, here and here.

"Preparation Guide for Exam 70-236 - Exchange Server 2007, Configuring"

"Exam News

Exam 70-236 will be in beta January 2–January 16, 2007.

This exam measures your ability to accomplish the following technical tasks by using Exchange Server 2007.

Exchange Webcasts in January

TechNet Webcast: Overview of Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)
Friday, January 05, 2007 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Matt Hester, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032322055&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Introduction to the New Exchange Server 2007 Administrator Interface (Level 200)
Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Blain Barton, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032322057&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Recipient Management, Policies, and Permissions in Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)
Friday, January 12, 2007 - 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time
John Weston, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032322052&Culture=en-US

Momentum Webcast: Windows Vista, Server and Domain Isolation, and ForeFront Client Security (Level 100)
Monday, January 15, 2007 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Ryan McGee, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032321939&Culture=en-US

Momentum Webcast: Discover the Next Generation of Communications with Exchange Server 2007 (Level 100)
Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Ed Omland, Solution Specialist , Microsoft Corporation
Steffo Mitakides, Solutions Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
Regina Tolbert, Solutions Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032320630&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Deploying and Migrating to Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)
Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Bryan Von Axelson, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032322059&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 01 of 24): Integration of Exchange Server 2007 and Active Directory (Level 200)
Friday, January 19, 2007 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Harold Wong, Senior Technology Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032322086&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Mastering the Windows PowerShell Pipeline (Level 200)
Tuesday, January 23, 2007 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Don Jones, Scripting Guru, Author, SAPIEN Technology
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032321615&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 02 of 24): Transport and Routing Architecture (Level 200)
Wednesday, January 24, 2007 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Harold Wong, Senior Technology Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032322088&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 03 of 24): Planning Installation (Level 200)
Friday, January 26, 2007 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Harold Wong, Senior Technology Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032322091&Culture=en-US

Windows Desktop Search: Add-in for Outlook saved mail (.msg file) indexing

"Overview

This iFilter allows you to perform a search on all elements of your MSG (.MSG) files including Message Body; Subject; From; From Name; From Address; To Name; To Address; CC Name; CC Address; Doc Title Prefix; Sent Date; Received Date; Primary Date; Conversation ID; Attachment Names and will indicate if an attachment is present within the .MSG. Additionally, content within attachments are indexed and searched.

By downloading this iFilter, Outlook .MSG files will be indexed by Windows Desktop Search when your PC is idle, or when you select to ‘Index Now’. Once the index is updated you can immediately search your .MSG files."

"Transitioning to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 on HP ProLiant servers and HP StorageWorks"

"Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 represents attractive new capabilities including Built in Protection for Companies, Anywhere Access for Employees, as well as Operational Efficiencies for IT.  This ActiveAnswers white paper describes the transition process associated with upgrading from Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003 to the new Exchange Server 2007.platform"

Exchange Server TechNet Webcasts in December 2006

There are a couple of good Technet live webcasts available in December for Exchange.

TechNet Webcast: Storage Sizing and Testing for Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)

Wednesday, December 20, 2006 1:00 PM Pacific Time

"In this webcast, we look at storage, storage sizing, and testing for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. We provide an overview of storage and discuss the storage design goals in Exchange Server 2007. Join us as we compare and contrast the storage architectures in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007. Learn about the reliability and high availability of Exchange Server 2007 using Single Copy Clustering (SCC), Local Continuous Replication (LCR), and Cluster Continuous Replication. Attend this session to understand the five server roles introduced in Exchange Server 2007, as we illustrate how each role uses storage and examine the issues that affect storage design for each of these roles. We also explore the critical area of backup and recovery in Exchange Server 2007, before concluding with a discussion on monitoring and testing storage."

TechNet Webcast: Mobile Messaging with Exchange Server 2003 SP2 and Windows Mobile 5.0 (Level 200)

Friday, December 22, 2006 11:30 AM Pacific Time

"In this webcast, we examine how Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 provides improved support for the mobile devices already in use in your organization. Join this session to learn the basic steps for administering mobile access, setting security, and enabling mobile messaging on Exchange Server and the mobile device itself. We focus on the simplicity and usability of services like Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile and explore your administrative options when using these mobile devices in the field. We also discuss how to secure your mobile messaging deployment using Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2), Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server, and the Messaging and Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile 5.0."

In addition, there are several archived webcasts for Exchange 2007 available on demand as well, and a couple more upcoming webcasts for January and February.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Windows Powershell Week

Monday, November 6 through Friday, November 10 is Windows Powershell Week at Technet Webcasts. None of these webcasts is specific to Exchange Server, but the Powershell extension known as Exchange Management Shell (EMS) follows the same logic and syntax, of course.

Webcasts:

And Now for Something Completely Different:

Introducing Windows PowerShell

Level 200

What is Windows PowerShell? Find out on Day 1.

Monday November 6, 2006, 11:30 AM Pacific Time

One Cmdlet, Two Cmdlet, Three Cmdlet, Four:

An Introduction to Windows Powershell Commands

Level 200

Learn all about cmdlets and how to use them.

Tuesday November 7, 2006, 11:30 AM Pacific Time

Objects, Objects Everywhere:

Working with Objects in the Windows Powershell

Level 200

Discover the wonderful world of objects and how to access them in Windows PowerShell.

Wednesday November 8, 2006, 11:30 AM Pacific Time

New Kid on the Script Block:

Writing Scripts with Windows PowerShell

Level 200

Day 4 is all about writing scripts.

Thursday November 9, 2006, 11:30 AM Pacific Time

Amazing But True:

Things You Never Dreamt You Could Do With Windows PowerShell

Level 200

Learn about Windows PowerShell and maybe even have a little fun in the process.

Friday November 10, 2006, 11:30 AM Pacific Time

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Office 2007 to be Released on Friday?

According to this blog entry by Matt Stehle, a Support Engineer on the Messaging Developer Support Team, Office 2007 will be released this Friday, October 27.

William Lefkovics

IE7, OWA and S/MIME

Microsoft has just released an update to Exchange 2003 that solves a problem when OWA with the S/MIME control is used in conjunction with IE7.  Essentially, the symptoms are that when you use OWA to open a Compose Message form, the form stops responding.

The KB article is 924334.  The hotfix can be downloaded here.

I've often used the S/MIME control for the additional benefits it can bring, such as the additional fonts and attachment control.  However, I don't use IE7 yet!

MOM OWA Synthetic Logon Error

I've recently been doing some MOM 2005 work which included the need to configure OWA and ActiveSync synthetic logons to take place.  One error popped up that I hadn't seen for a while, and it threw me for a bit.  The error is this:

OWA Logon failed.
URL: undefined
Cannot measure OWA availability. Unexpected error.
No Exchange virtual servers and virtual directory (SSL enabled) can be found on this server to form a valid url. Try providing the url in the custom urls registry key (see Configuration guide for detail)

This event was generated by the script: "Exchange 2003 - OWA logon verification"

What puzzled me for a while was that the front-end server definitely did have SSL enabled.  In actual fact, this error can be caused when the MOM test mailbox that the agent is trying to communicate with has a primary SMTP address domain that is different to the SMTP domain configured within the default recipient policy.

In my case, the default recipient policy SMTP domain was set to @sub.domain.com, whilst the MOM test mailbox had a primary SMTP address of @domain.com.  Modifying the MOM test mailbox's primary SMTP address to match the default recipient policy SMTP domain did the trick.

Hopefully this may help someone, somewhere.

US Technet Event - Exchange 2007 Security and Compliance

In the US this quarter there is a traveling Techet event centered around Active Directory and Exchange 2007 Security and Compliance. The Technet Events are free, but require registration.  There are many cities hosting this event from now until the end of the year. You can register for any event and see the various host cities at this web site.

The two part event covers the following pair of topics:

Harness the Power of Active Directory

In this session, you'll learn:

• How to secure your Active Directory and apply the power and control functions
• Hands-on techniques to strengthen existing security features
• Group policy control features and ADM templates

Message Security, Compliance and Message Protection with Exchange Server 2007

This session will explore:

• How to keep e-mail systems clean with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
• New functionalities that make it easier to secure e-mail while in transit
• Best ways to store e-mail messages and produce them on request

William Lefkovics

Directory Update Application

Fellow Exchange MVP Jim McBee recently let me know that his company is now offering a web-based application to allow users to update their own directory attributes.  Jim writes:

"It is a web-based replacement to GALMOD that lets a user modify their own GAL attributes.  It is simple from the user's perspective but configurable from the administrator's perspective.  It allows the administrator to hide most fields or let them remain visible but prevent the user from modifying it."

You can find more information on the product's website here.

LCS 2005 MOC Courseware

I only noticed this the other day and hadn't seen it before.  For those of you in the Exchange world also interested in LCS, Microsoft has on its download site the LCS 2005 MOC Courseware for course 7034A: Implementing Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 SP1.  The download consists of the actual modules in PDF format, the slide decks, and a Virtual PC setup guide for use with the course.

As Paul mentioned the other day, there's also an LCS 2005 book available now.

Update 4th August : it looks like a preview of the LCS 2005 book is now available from the Microsoft download center here.

E2K3 SP2 Database Size Improvements Not Working?

Steve, one of the members on the Sunbelt Exchange list, recently posted that he'd made use of the E2K3 SP2 database size improvements and set the registry entry to allow his database to grow to a custom database size of 40GB.  However, he'd noticed that event ID 1216 still showed the database limited to 16GB.  The store had been dismounted and remounted after the application of the registry key, something that is required to happen for the changes to take effect.

I suggested that he should take a look at the version information of the file exsetdata.dll, found in the \exchsrvr\bin folder.  True enough, this file was reporting 6.5.6944.4, which as you'll see from KB 158530 is the RTM version of Exchange 2003.  SP2 was re-applied, resulting in an exsetdata.dll version of 6.5.7638.2.  The final result was the event log now showing a configured database size of 40GB.

The moral of the story is that if features of a new service pack aren't working correctly, examining the version information of exsetdata.dll is a good way to determine if a service pack has been successfully applied or not.

Exchange 2007 Help

If you've recently installed Exchange 2007 Beta 2, you're probably building up a list of "How Do I..." questions.  Several community resources are now available to help give you those answers.  They are:

1. TechNet Web Forums for Exchange 2007

2. MSExchange.org Exchange 2007 Forums

3. Exchange MVP Martin Tuip's Yahoo Groups Exchange 2007 Mailing List

Nice MOM 2005 / Exchange Error

Here's a good one that I saw recently.  You might see this if you're monitoring Exchange 2003 with MOM 2005.  The scenario appears to be one where you implement the .NET Framework 2.0 on your front-end servers.  When you've done that, you may see this error during your OWA/EAS synthetic logon:

Description:
Cannot measure OWA availability for the following URL:

0x80131502(-2146233086) Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
Parameter name: index

This event was generated by the script: "Exchange 2003 - OWA logon verification"

I did see some initial advice that the solution was to remove the .NET Framework 2.0.  Apparently, though, a hotfix has been created for this issue which you can obtain by contacting Microsoft Support.  The KB article is 919356 but as I write this the text of that KB still isn't available publicly.  Still, if you contact Microsoft Support and reference this number, you should be ok.  Oh yes, by the way, the hotfix only needs to be applied to the front-end server(s) and doesn't require a reboot.

Exchange 2007 SDK Beta 2 Available

If you're a glutton for punishment or just ambitious or excited about the upcoming version of Exchange Server (what's that smell?  Is it the public beta?!?), Microsoft published a beta 2 of the Exchange 2007 SDK.

Requirements as listed on the download page:

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows XP
• Disk Space 17 MB disk space required to download
• Code Samples The code samples provided with this SDK require Exchange Server 2007 Beta 2. Whether a specific sample must be run on a computer on which Exchange Server 2007 is installed depends on which technology the sample uses.
• Microsoft .NET Framework Some of the code samples require that the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2 or later versions be installed.
• Document Explorer This SDK requires that you install Microsoft Document Explorer 2005, or Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or later versions. The installer for this SDK will determine whether an appropriate document explorer is available.
• Disk Space 17 MB disk space required to download

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Messaging & Mobility User Group UK

Following on from the recent UK-based Microsoft Unified Communications user group that I wrote about recently, another brand new user group has recently been formed.  It's called the Microsoft Messaging & Mobility User Group UK (which makes MM&M UG UK).

I've just been having a chat on the phone with the creator of this user group, Nathan Winters, about the user group's aims and, more importantly, the thoughts around the first meeting to be held somewhere around late September 2006.  If you have any thoughts on what you'd like to see at the first meeting, join the forums and post to this thread.  The idea of the site is to host blogs, articles, links, forums and downloads and members are already beginning to join the site.

I'll post updates to this blog as and when events will be happening, and I aim to post useful articles to the user group website and monitor the forums as often as I can.  See you there!

Marketing, Press Releases, and Recovery

One thing about corporate Press Releases... they are not vendor neutral.

Around the time Mimosa Systems was announcing their Disaster Recovery Option for Mimosa NearPoint for Microsoft Exchange Server, Lucid8 was "correcting and replacing" their press release because of "multiple revisions" announcing their new partner program.

Both companies promise to provide rapid recovery of Exchange Systems (and one the opportunity to overmanage your databases cough*goexchange*cough). They are members of a growing group of products that might well become somewhat obsolete when Exchange 2007 comes through with its logshipping (Local Continuous Replication) solution.

I cringe when I read lines like "the industry's only solution to provide application intelligent recovery..." and "SingleTouch recovery" and "One-Click" restores. Hitachi Data Systems has "SplitSecond Rapid Recovery Solutions". McData, EMC, Cemaphore, Doubletake and Neverfail (what a great software name) all have replication solutions for or including Exchange recovery.

I enjoy reading the press releases for these products (and others) because they make me wonder how anyone could live without them. Maybe they're right.

William Lefkovics

OWA Vista Theme

Outlook MVP Neo has created a black and silver OWA theme for those of you using Vista who like the look of such things.  You can grab the necessary theme files here: Download owa2003_le5.zip.  Thanks to Neo for sharing.

So what does it look like?  Here's a screen shot:

If you've never created an OWA theme before, Lee Derbyshire wrote an article on doing so here.  There is even more comprehensive information at the Microsoft Exchange Server TechCenter.  Enjoy!

Exchange Patch MS06-029

June saw another Exchange Server security patch (MS06-29), but this one doesn't really expose the Exchange Server itself to any potential harm. Outlook Web Access provides the interface through which a script-injected email message when opened could execute and wreak havoc on the client using OWA.

Even though this seems like a web site fix, an update to store.exe is needed. If services stop successfully, then a server restart should not be necessary to complete this patch installation. MS KB912442 outlines the issue.

William Lefkovics

Critical Exchange Patch MS06-19

There is a flaw in the way Collaboration Data Objects for Exchange (CDOEX) and Exchange Collaboration Data Objects (EXCDO) handle iCal/vCal messages.

MS06-19 explains the remote code execution potential and MS KB916803 covers the patch formalities.

This one is critical especially because the system at risk is the Exchange Server and not a client.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2003 SP2 & MSFP Paper

Jason Langridge has, on his blog, a copy of the very latest document on deploying mobile messaging with the Messaging and Security Feature Pack on Exchange 2003 SP2.  This is before the document gets released on Microsoft's download site, so grab a copy here for an early read....

Redmond Mag Article: Message Hygeine

Redmond Magazine, a self-proclaimed independent voice of the Microsoft IT Community, has a great 2 part article on Message Hygeine with Exchange Server 2003 written by Joern Wettern.

The articles appeared in January and February 2006:

• Message Hygeine: Microsoft Style Part 1
• Message Hygeine: Microsoft Style Part 2

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2003 SP2 Database Improvements

I guess most people would state that the main new features of Exchange 2003 SP2 are the improvements to mobility services, although the increase in database storage size up to 75GB has certainly grabbed most people’s attention.  There are many other things to know regarding the database improvements within Exchange 2003 SP2 so I decided to have a closer look.

Goodbye 16GB
As I’m sure you are all aware, prior to Exchange 2003 SP2, the maximum permitted size of a single database on the Standard Edition of Exchange was 16GB.  Furthermore, I’m sure you are all aware that Exchange 2003 SP2 brings with it the ability for the Standard Edition to have databases up to 75GB.  Now that’s twice I’ve written ‘up to 75GB’.  Why?  Well, if you apply Exchange 2003 SP2 to your Standard Edition server, the database size limit is initially increased to 18GB.  Whilst you can go on to change this figure to a value up to 75GB, it’s important to note that 18GB is the default setting.

Controlling the size of the database is set via the registry.  For all the registry settings that I detail below that relate to making changes on a mailbox store, note that we’ll be working in the following registry key:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\{server name}\Private-{GUID}

It therefore follows that for registry settings that relate to making changes on a public store, you’ll need to work in the following registry key:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\{server name}\Public-{GUID}

Obviously in both cases {servername} means the name of your server and {GUID} is, well, the Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) of either the mailbox or public stores.  For example, in Figure 1 below, you can see that my server DCEXCH1 has three mailbox stores and a public folder store.  Obviously this is an Enterprise Edition server since there is more than one mailbox store.  Therefore, any registry changes you make will only affect that specific store.

Figure 1 – Mailbox & Public Store Registry Samples

Now back to controlling the size of a database.  Under the relevant database, create the following registry information:

Value type: REG_DWORD
Value name: Database Size Limit in GB

Set the value data to be the maximum size in gigabytes that the database is allowed to grow to.  For the Standard Edition of Exchange, you can enter numbers between 1 and 75.  For the Enterprise Edition, you can enter numbers between 1 and 8000.  Yes, that’s right, between 1GB and 8000GB or 8TB.  Therefore, even if you are running the Enterprise Edition of Exchange, you can still enforce overall database size limits of, say, 150GB if you so desire.

Let’s assume I set the first mailbox store with a 25GB limit.  To get this mailbox store to recognize the change, you simply need to dismount and remount the store.  When you do this, you’ll see event ID 1216 logged informing you of this fact.  For example, Figure 2 below shows the resulting information.  We will talk about physical database sizes and logical free space later on.  Additionally, it’s interesting to note that you will get event 1216 logged on an Enterprise Edition server for any database that has had a size limit configured.  Previously, all databases on an Enterprise Edition server would have been unlimited and therefore logged the event ID 1217.

Figure 2 – Event 1216 Showing Mailbox Store Limited to 25GB

Why 18GB?
So we’ve said that the default database size for the Standard Edition is 18GB.  Like me, you’ve probably wondered where this 18GB figure came from.  Well, to fully understand this, you have to understand something called the Database Size Buffer.  This is essentially a setting that informs Exchange to log an event in the Application event log if a database nears its maximum size.  However, how near is near?  The answer to that is 10% by default.  Now we can understand the thinking behind the 18GB default limit, since 10% of 18GB is approximately 2GB, which therefore means that the warning event log entry will be logged at about 16GB, the old Standard Edition limit.

Controlling the database size buffer is also achieved via the registry.  In the same manner as previously described above, create the following registry information under the relevant database:

Value type: REG_DWORD
Value name: Database Size Buffer in Percentage

Set the value data to be the desired percentage.  Therefore, if you enter 20 here, you’ll receive the warning event log entry when your database has 20% capacity left before it hits the maximum permitted size.  What event log entry is actually logged?  Well, it’s event ID 9688 as shown below in Figure 3.  In this example, I set a database size limit of 1GB and waited until the database grew to within the specified percentage.

Figure 3 – Event ID 9688 Warning of Database Size

Physical vs. Logical
As I mentioned earlier, we need to take a look at what is meant by the terms physical and logical as they relate to these event logs.  It’s simple really; the physical size of the database refers to the size of the EDB and STM files added together as seen in Explorer.  The logical size of the database is the physical size of the database minus any whitespace.  As I’m sure you all know, whitespace is the term used to describe the areas of the database that are not currently in use and will be re-used before the size of the database is expanded.  The amount of whitespace within a database can be determined by looking for event ID 1221 in the Application event log.

You will see from Figure 2 above that Exchange now calculates the size limit restrictions based on the logical space within a database.  For example, imagine I set my maximum permitted database size to 25GB and my database is now showing in Explorer as being 25GB in size.  However, if I have 2GB of whitespace within the database, my database will not currently hit the size limit since its effective logical size is 23GB.  This is good news.

By default, these limit checks are performed daily at 5am but you can change this via the registry by creating the following information under your chosen database as before:

Value type: REG_DWORD
Value name: Database Size Check Start Time in Hours From Midnight

Set the value data to be the number of hours past midnight to elapse before the size check takes place.  For example, if you want the checks to take place at 6pm (18:00) each day, you’d enter 18 here.

A Helping Hand
In the days before Exchange 2003 SP2, a Standard Edition database that exceeded the 16GB size limit would be dismounted.  Of course, there were several little tricks that you could play, like temporarily increasing the store size to 17GB via a registry tweak.  However, you now have a helping hand in Exchange 2003 SP2.  Now, when the specified database size limit is reached and the first database size check has been performed by Exchange (remember, this is once every 24 hours at 5am by default, unless you’ve used the registry change above) the database is NOT dismounted.  Instead, event ID 9689 will be logged as shown below in Figure 4.

Figure 4 – Event ID 9689 Showing Database Size Exceeded

You then have 24 hours to rectify the problem, otherwise, when the next database check is performed 24 hours later, the database will be dismounted and event ID 9690 will be logged as shown below in Figure 5.

Figure 5 – Event ID 9690 Showing Database Dismounted

But wait!  You can still mount the stores again even after event ID 9690 has been logged.  Unfortunately, it will be dismounted again after the next database size check is performed 24 hours later but at least you now have time to rectify the problem.  Despite this, I’m sure you’ll agree that Microsoft has made life much easier for Exchange administrators. 

Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter update: November 2005

"This update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail."

BL-Monitor

"Every spam filtering software, appliance, or outsourced service uses DNS Black List (DNSBL) servers as a first line of defense, but how effective are the servers you use?

BL-Monitor is a free visual tool analyzing response times and effectiveness of DNSBL servers and returns the answers to these questions:

   How responsive are the DNSBL servers used by my site?
   How complete is the DNSBL IP database for the spam my mail server actually receives?
   Are there more complete and more responsive DNSBL servers than what my site currently uses? 
   Does a paid DNSBL service give better performance than free DNSBL servers?
   Do I need the blacklist IP database on my local DNS server?"

Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.2.1 Update

"This update fixes a synchronization issue in versions of Microsoft Entourage that have been updated with Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Service Pack 2 (11.2.0). The issue might cause data loss when Entourage attempts to synchronize with an Exchange mailbox that was moved to a different server running Microsoft Exchange Server. This update also resolves issues with setting Exchange server permissions and printing calendars. We strongly recommend that all Entourage users who have installed Office 2004 Service Pack 2 (11.2.0) install this update."

Issues that are fixed in Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2

New KB.. "This article contains a current list of Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles that describe the problems that are fixed in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2)"

Webcasts - Exchange 2003 SP2 Week & Exchange 2003 'In Depth'

There are plenty of upcoming webcasts on Exchange 2003.  First, we have 'Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 Week' that consists of 4 webcasts covering SP2's anti-spam features, admin features, mobile device features and finally the importance of your e-mail hygiene strategy.

Then there's a comprehensive 14 part series on 'Exchange 2003 In Depth' covering most topics you can think of.  Check out the full listing of webcasts, together with dates and times, here.  Not to be missed!

PDC 2005 PowerPoint Slidedecks Available

The Professional Developers Conference (PDC2005) was held in Los Angeles from September 11 through September 16, 2005.  The PowerPoint slidedecks from the sessions have been made available for download.

The only notable Exchange Server session is called: DAT316 Future Directions: Developing Custom Applications using the new Exchange 12 API’s

There are lots of slidedecks covering Sharepoint and other related technologies which may also interest an Exchange developer.

William Lefkovics

BlackBerry KB: How To - Integrate an Outlook Web Access account with your BlackBerry account

Interesting (and potentially very useful) BlackBerry KB - "How To - Integrate an Outlook Web Access account with your BlackBerry account" - while the article states that Outlook Web Access 2003 is not supported, a colleague has been using his SBS 2003 server and OWA for the past month or so, to test, with no issues and smooth operation.

Learn to Cluster!

Microsoft Cluster training from ClusterHelp.com and the clustering gurus, Rodney R. Fournier and Russ Kaufmann

BlackBerry Training

"Consilient delivers BlackBerry Training for end-users and system administrators. If you're new to BlackBerry, let Consilient's BlackBerry experts teach you all the tips and tricks of how to operate your handheld. System administrators can also learn advanced administrative tasks of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and how to install and support the server."

Today's Blog Reading

Jim McBee - Problems sending mail when your domain name or host name has an underscore (_) character - and - Is WINS required for Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003?

Harold Wong - Post-Exchange Security Webcast Notes

John Hagel - "The Blackberry or Treo is not conducive to a careful read – it encourages skimming"

Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB902953)

"This update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail. "

Email Discovery and Compliance eBook

Devin Ganger (co-author of the excellent, recently published, Exchange Server Cookbook) has published the first chapter of a new eBook - Email Discovery and Compliance

CIS - Benchmark for Exchange 2003

As Paul has pointed out, the Center for Internet Security (CIS) has published their Benchmark for Exchange 2003 - a comprehensive 163 page (PDF) hardening guide.

E-mail Reputation Score/Ironport

Fancy finding out what your e-mail reputation score is? Send an e-mail to reputation@ironport.com... and you will receive a response along these lines..

"Thank you for inquiring on your email reputation.  Your reputation score is X

Reputation scores are mapped between -10 and +10.  The lowest (most negative) scores are near certain spam and the highest (most positive) scores represent sources of legitimate email.  Using your reputation score above can help identify your email reputation.

To generate your reputation score, we assign a weight based on the historical probabilities that messages from an IP address with certain characteristics are spam.  Then, individual probabilities are aggregated using an advanced algorithm, which produces an overall probability that the message coming from a given IP address is spam."

I have been evaluating Ironport (a C30 and a C600) over the past three weeks or so, and it has been very impressive indeed. Sure, it's most certainly not the easiest product to implement, especially with the many fancy content filtering policies that we are using in our environment, however the technical support and consultancy has been exemplary, and once up and running, the availability and performance of the appliance has been superb - our spam problem has been resolved overnight (excellent spam filter rate, and NO false positives - with 2 million e-mails processed so far) and the need for constant babysitting of our existing (four server) solution is no more. There is a degree of 'newness' to the product, which is reinforced by the considerable number of new features and enhancements due along in the next release, scheduled for Q1 2006, including considerable GUI improvements. That's not to say that the current product version isn't feature rich though - it can already do anything that's required of it, and more. I should be assessing other companies' offerings over the next month or so, although it looks like Ironport will be difficult to beat.

Exchange 2003 SDK June 2005 Update

The quarterly update of the Exchange Server 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK) Documentation and Samples is available for download.

"The documentation and samples assist developers in building applications for Exchange 2003 Server."

William Lefkovics

Exchange Server Error-1018

"Detailed discussion of the conditions that result in error -1018. It also covers the detection mechanisms that Exchange uses to discover and recover from damage to its database files."

New KB Article to Note

"A message that exceeds the configured size limit is sent to a server that is running Exchange Server 2003"

Sender ID Framework SPF Record Wizard

"This four-step wizard will guide you through the process of creating a new SPF record for your DNS domain. "

Holiday Time Reading!...

Here's a new book that you'll want to add to your bookshelf... the Exchange Server Cookbook, authored by Paul Robichaux, Missy Koslosky and Devin Ganger, and just published by O'Reilly. Hopefully it'll make an appearance on the wonderfully useful O'Reilly Safari Bookshelf soon too. Amazon UK and US.

Messaging Webcasts in July

TechNet Webcast: Accessing Exchange Server from Your Mobile Device (Level 300)
Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - 11:30 AM-1:00 PM Pacific Time
Paul Limont, Program Manager, Microsoft
Does your organization have all the mobile access it could in the areas of security, flexibility, and affordability? This webcast will discuss and demonstrate how Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 provides secure and affordable remote and mobile access to e-mail and personal information management software across a range of mobile devices. Come discover how to leverage the mobile capabilities of Exchange Server 2003 and the new mobility features available in SP2.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032276821&Culture=en-US

Momentum Webcast: Fighting Spam the Microsoft Way (Level 100)
Thursday, July 21, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Microsoft Technical Experts, Microsoft Corporation
Sixty percent of all email hitting your network is spam. Last year alone businesses lost $22 billion due to dealing with unsolicited email. Left uncontrolled, spam severely impacts bandwidth on your network, storage space on your mail server, and support time of your information technology (IT) staff. This webcast discusses how Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 coupled with Microsoft Exchange Server can maximize the protection of your company's email while minimizing IT time spent maintaining your network. Join us to learn what you need to combat spam from one end of your network to the other.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032276938&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Implementing Messaging Security for Exchange Server Clients (Level 200)
Monday, July 25, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time
Kai Axford, Security Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
To ensure that messages can be read only by the intended recipients, it is as important to provide security for the clients of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 as it is to secure the server itself. Join this webcast to learn about solutions such as using Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension and Information Rights Management to protect e-mail content. We will also discuss remote procedure call over HTTP to help secure client connections to Exchange Server 2003 via the Internet. The presentation concludes with a discussion about how to control access to e-mail attachments and how to manage and secure Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032276836&Culture=en-US

Configuring Exchange SMTP Gateways at Microsoft

"Description of how Microsoft IT custom configures its SMTP servers to make its mail flow more securely and manageably."

New 5.5 KB - "You experience delays when you try to log on to Exchange Server 5.5"

"Consider the following scenario. You experience delays when you try to log on to Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5. Then, you use the Performance Monitor to view a Thread Count counter. The Thread Count counter is for the Local Security Authentication Server (LSASS) process on the computer that is running Exchange Server 5.5. When you view the Thread Count counter, you may notice that the thread count for the LSASS process continues to increase."... read on...

A 10 Step Migration Survival Guide and Poster

"This ten step migration survival guide helps by providing a clear and concise migration process that can be adapted to any Exchange migration. "

Small IT Solution for Mobility v 1.0

"The Small IT Solution for Mobility uses Windows Mobile-based Pocket PC (Phone Edition) and Windows Mobile-based Smartphone devices. The solution helps Microsoft® partners plan and deploy a mobility solution for small business customers. The solution infrastructure is built using the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 components of Microsoft Windows® Small Business Server 2003."

PC Pro Goodness

As usual there's some good content in this month's PC Pro magazine, including..

palmOne Treo 650 review

Stopping spam from reaching BlackBerry

GoodLink 4 review

Free eBook: The Definitive Guide to Exchange Disaster Recovery and Availability

Realtime Publishers, Content Central, and XOSoft have teamed up with Paul Robichaux to publish a free eBook called The Definitive Guide to Exchange Disaster Recovery and Availability. 

The book is free to download from Content Central, but you will have to register on the site for access.  It seems they will release this chapter by chapter.  Chapter 1 is completed and available now.

William Lefkovics

Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter

"This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail. "

Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2003 Deployment Kit

Microsoft has published a Deployment Kit for Upgrading Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2003 in a Medium-Sized Organization

The kit consists of the following documents:

Exchange5.5 Upgrade Intro Doc.doc

Exchange 2003 - Standard Deployment.doc

Windows 2003 AD - In Place Upgrade.doc

William Lefkovics

Exchange Server 2003 Events and Errors Help

The Exchange section of Microsoft's grandiose burgeoning website seems to continually improve over the years. 

They have taken a page from the guys at EventID.Net and have added an Exchange Event search site.  Simply enter the source of the event as read from the Windows event logs as well as the event ID number and an informative reply or resolution will, hopefully, be returned.  You can enter just a source, such as MSExchangeAL, and get a list of possible Event IDs related to that source. 

William Lefkovics

What You Can Do About Spam

"This brochure describes why and how you get spam, techniques for reducing spam, and what to do if you receive spam"

Update for Exchange 2003 (KB 841561)

"This update resolves problems that were found in Outlook Web Access since Exchange 2003 SP1 was released. Click the More Information About This Download link in the Related Resources section for a list of the fixes that are included in this update."

Notable New/Updated Knowledge Base Articles

You may be redirected to the wrong page when you log off Exchange 2003 and then log on again by opening Outlook Web Access in the same Web browser window

Description of a hotfix that enables Exchange Server 2003 to log an event when a user deletes a public folder

When you use an OWA client to access an Exchange Server 2003 computer, you may receive an "HTTP 403.4" error message

Scripting Exchange Part Two

MSExchange.org - Scripting Exchange Using VBScript and ADSI (Part 2)

"The first part of my scripting series discussed ways of accessing and searching for Exchange objects such as users and contacts in Active Directory. This second part of the series will go over creation of a new object, and over the most important attribute of an Exchange recipient, the e-mail address."

Windows Server 2003 SP1 - Exchange Hotfix Required for Clusters

Gerod Serafin points out that "If you are looking to roll out Windows Server 2003 SP1 on your Exchange servers and you are doing clustering on back-end servers, we have a hotfix that you will need to install."

"Exchange Storage Rules: 15 Ways to Simplify, Solidify and Save"

"Exchange Server 2003 offers IT professionals major advantages. Not only is it far more secure than its predecessors, thanks to Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative, but it also offers advances in scalability, allowing for dramatic server and storage consolidation efforts.

IT departments should plan carefully for Exchange 2003, and create a forward-thinking plan that includes fewer (but higher-powered) servers, a simpler network infrastructure, and a more rational, clear and ultimately more cost- effective approach to storage. Following are 15 configuration tips culled from nearly two dozen white papers, reams of case studies, several books on storage and Exchange, Microsoft's own internal best practices, as well as the author's experience as a former storage analyst for Nucleus Research.".... read on....

Messaging Hygiene at Microsoft

"Detailed discussion on how Microsoft IT manages the large quantities of unwanted e-mail (a.k.a. spam) and malware-infected messages in its inbound Internet e-mail traffic. The paper documents how Microsoft IT uses Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 technologies, Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, and third-party solutions to both reduce the quantity of spam routed through the corporate messaging infrastructure by filtering at the gateway layer and then remove the threats in remaining messages posed by viruses, worms, and their common distribution vectors, such as file attachments."

How to Speed up an Exchange 2000 or 2003 / DC reboot

"Automatic Updates often require a reboot, and if you have a Domain Controller with Exchange installed on it, a reboot can take a very long time indeed. This article discusses why Exchange/DC shutdown takes such a long time, and (more importantly) what you can do about it."

Forward Slash Input – Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone

Ok, so you’ve just purchased an SPV C500 or Audiovox SMT 5600 (why has it taken you so long!?) and you want to use Pocket IE, perhaps to access OMA. One thing that’s not overly obvious though, as a friend realised recently, is how to input a forward slash. Of course it’s easy to do, but for whatever crazy reason, it’s hidden away a bit. So, this is what you need to do… hold down the # key for a second or so, and hey presto… you’ll see a number of different symbols from which the / can be selected!

While on the subject of Smartphones, it’s perhaps worth mentioning that I recently tried using Newsgator again, switching over from Bloglines, which I’ve loved, mainly to see how it’s developed and if there’s any new features. And yes, I did find something useful… Newsgator Mobile Edition… it’s not free but it does very neatly present my RSS feeds for reading on my SPV, which is especially handy on the daily commute 'up toon,' all for a small monthly fee.

ActiveSync Info

There’s a pretty detailed article on the workings and implementation of ActiveSync over at the Geekzone.

Ironport

At work we’re currently looking for a message hygiene/gateway replacement for Clearswift’s Mailsweeper for SMTP (v4.3.17) product that we’re currently using. Over time I’ve really developed a dislike for this product. In a high volume environment it just requires way too much babysitting, it’s one product that you cannot reply upon to just work. At some point in the day, when you have four servers all busy processing mail, one of them will have a moment (Security Service will die) and will require a reboot.  I have absolutely no faith in it anymore. Oh, and don’t get me started on the spam filtering, which is just woeful in today’s climate. It’s a shame really because this product used to be one of the best that you could buy, and it does have a pretty good feature set, but judging by the products that have come to market in recent months it’s just been left way behind. Sure a new version of Mailsweeper has been released, but hey that comes with a new more restrictive and costly licensing model, so at a time when people are looking to move to an alternative solution because the 4.3 product has never excelled, and been reliable enough, they’re not even trying hard to keep you on their books and to remain a customer.

So, my quest for a replacement has begun, and I am shortly going to be evaluating Ironport’s offering in the form of two C30s. Ironport’s appliances do look impressive on paper, and they provide all of the needed functionality. Sure, they’re not cheap, but I think the cost can certainly be justified, and the two boxes could hopefully be shown to pay for themselves over a pretty short period of time, provided they are low maintenance, and the Brightmail spam filtering is as good as is claimed.  I’ll post details of the evaluation in a couple of weeks.

Exchange/Outlook Blogcasts

More and more blogcasts have been created/published recently which is great.

Catalogue of Outlook blogcasts can be found at the Blogcast Repository

Michael Kleef meanwhile has a full list of new Exchange blogcasts

… and Eileen has updated her index

SBS POP Connector Hell

As Neil mentioned a few months back, there’s a fundamental glitch with Small Business Server which can cause serious headaches. Neil has explained the scenario, so I won’t repeat it fully again here, but it is important to add that should someone in your company send out one e-mail to a fairly significant number of recipients to then find that the message is looping and being sent out repeatedly, purporting to be from the original sender i.e. your user(!), there are five things that you need to do…

1. Obtain a copy of one of the duplicate e-mails and establish the originating IP address from the header. It will most likely not be the public IP address of your mail server/gateway. Look for POP3 connector in the header too.

2. You now need to find out who uses the IP address and contact them, ideally by phone. It will likely be used by a company which has an SBS server on which a mailbox is homed for one of the recipients of the original e-mail.

3. If the SBS server concerned is SBS2003, demand that this patch be applied with some urgency. Should an earlier version of SBS be in-place, tell the SBS customer that they need to call Microsoft PSS. This problem does affect earlier editions of SBS, and not just SBS 2003, however there is nothing published on Technet to this effect. They should not try to fire-fight or research the problem themselves, an immediate resolution is required, and Microsoft has some information on this issue which has not been published publicly, for whatever reason, and they will be able to talk the SBS user through the resolution.

4. A number of the recipients will unhelpfully complain by ‘replying all,’ further compounding the problem for everyone. Prepare and send an immediate e-mail to the individuals (one at a time) explaining what is happening i.e. that the problem is out of your hands, that the looping/repeat messages are in fact originating from another company’s system, and that it should all cease soon.

5. Remain patient – the SBS user will likely either not be particularly technical, or will outsource their IT support – be prepared for them to make the assumption that it is a virus that is causing the behaviour.. and be persistent – if you don’t think that the SBS user is taking the matter seriously, despite there being obvious performance problems on their server, keep contacting them and explain in as simple English as possible, until something is done!

This poorly documented problem does have quite a significant short term impact. I have now seen it happen twice during the past year. There is a significant potential loss of business depending on your relationship with the recipients, who could perhaps be your customers. People do not seem to take kindly to having their mailboxes bombarded with the same repeat e-mails. Some of the complaints that I witnessed in the recent case were actually very offensive, and legal action was even threatened by one gentleman. It's not good for business that's for sure.

ExBPA Management Pack for MOM 2005

Microsoft has released the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer Management Pack for MOM 2005.

Overview:

The Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer (ExBPA) Management Pack can be used to deploy the ExBPA tool on computers running Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003. Using a timed event, the tool will run automatically on each server and write any identified performance, scalability and availability issues to the Windows NT Event Log. The ExBPA Management Pack will interpret these events and generate the appropriate alerts on the MOM Management Console.

The ExBPA Management Pack works in tandem with the ExBPA tool:
* Identification of Exchange server configuration issues which could result in poor performance, scalability and unplanned downtime
* Automated analysis and root cause identification
* Support for third-party software and hardware
* Self-updating database and help content
* Links to over 500 articles on the Web
* Works with Exchange Server 2003, Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 5.5 (in mixed mode topologies)

Blackberry MOM 2005 Management Pack

Are you running Exchange and Blackberry?  Looking to implement MOM 2005 or already have it?  iVision has a rather swish looking MOM 2005 management pack for Blackberry Enterprise Server.

Another Outlook 2003 Junk Mail Filter Update

There is yet another junk mail filter update available for Outlook 2003, which of course you'll all get via Office Update.  But here's the link anyway.....

Change in Support Policy for Novell Groupwise 6.x and 6.5x

For those of you who migrate customers from GroupWise to Exchange, or those about to embark on such a migration themselves, note that GroupWise 6.x and 6.5x are now officially supported.  These versions have been tested by the Exchange product group with Exchange 2003 SP1.

The full KB article is here.  Thanks to Steve Antonio of Microsoft for the heads-up.

Exchange 2003 Security Hardening Guide - Update

It looks like there has been an update to the Exchange 2003 Security Hardening Guide.

"Updated February 2005. The download package for this guide includes important security templates. These templates were updated November 2004. This guide walks you through the process of hardening your Exchange 2003 environment, including configuration recommendations and strategies for combating external threats."

Exchange Webcasts in March

Eileen Brown has blogged details of next month's Exchange webcasts.

Special Offers from Microsoft Partners

"If supporting and managing remote or mobile workforces securely and cost effectively is causing you problems, Microsoft, Orange and their partners have come together to offer you a solution that increases your competitive advantage and the productivity of your organisation.

Orange and Microsoft have created a flexible mobile solution for customers. Using Exchange Server 2003, Orange services and the latest Orange SPV C500 SmartPhone. It allows you to create a flexible working environment giving employees secure remote access to email and mission-critical data to help your company maintain its competitive advantage. Orange, Microsoft and their selected partners are running a series of events to showcase the power of flexible working by giving employees the choice to work when and how they want using remote and mobile technologies. Discover how your organisation can achieve increased productivity by coming to an event near you between February and April 2005. To receive details of the events, complete the online form. You will receive a call to tell you more…"

Protocol Repy Codes

Stumbled across this today... a useful table of HTTP, FTP & SMTP protocol reply codes.

Five fast email productivity tips

Merlin Mann offers some productivity advice over on 43 Folders

IMF Managers

MSExchange.org... "An overview of free IMF add-on tools allowing administrator to track which e-mails are blocked, view them, unblock them and more."

German Exchange Blog

If you prefer your Exchange information in German, there is a new Exchange blog by Bernd Kruczek.

William Lefkovics

Update: Being the dynamic guy he is, Bernd has moved his German Language Exchange Blog.

Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool Web Update Pack

"This download contains the latest ExBPA.Config.xml and ExBPA.chm files. Use this package to update your existing installation of the Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer. NOTE: If Internet connectivity is available, the Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer will attempt to automatically update itself from the Internet. Where updates are being applied automatically, there is no need to download the Web Update Pack."

Update for Exchange 2003 (KB 883652)

"This update resolves problems that were found in Exchange 2003 since Exchange 2003 SP1 was released."

(UPDATE - Evan points out... "this is not a big roll-up fix, but rather is a small hotfix that only impacts scripting mailbox moves. See the KB article for more details, as there may not be any need to install it if it doesn't apply to your environment: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883652" Thanks :-)

Get The Best Exchange 2003 Training

HP's excellent Exchange 2003 Academy is taking place again this year, although just in the US from what I can see...

Exchange Server 2003 and Domain Controllers - A Summary

Michael B. Smith explains all you need to know about running Exchange on a domain controller.

Medium Business Solution for Messaging Services v 1.0

"This solution provides guidance that can be used to plan, build, deploy, and operate messaging services in the medium IT environment. The solution recommends using Exchange Server for providing messaging services, which provides advanced messaging capabilities such as scheduling, and task management."

"Common Exchange SAN Misconceptions"

Paul Robichaux... "In the Exchange world, Storage Area Networks (SANs) are sometimes maligned by the people who have them, frequently coveted by the people who don't, and often mysterious to the general population."... read on...

POP3 Connector Fun

The issue I'm about to describe hit one of the organisations I worked with last year.  I noticed last night on one of the Exchange mailing lists that someone else has experienced this problem and the fix below that I posted to them also cured the problem.  It took me a while to find the KB article again, so I'm blogging this for future reference.

Basically, the situation is that company 'A' sent a message externally to a number of other companies, only for some of those external companies to complain that they were receiving the message over and over again.  Of course, company 'A' checked their system which showed that the message was in fact not being repeatedly sent out.

A search through the message headers revealed the dreaded POP3 connector, specifically the POP3 connector belonging to SBS2K3.  One of the recipients of the original message was running this connector, which itself was pumping out the looping message.  There is a hotfix available to fix this exact problem.

In both cases, this did the trick.

Successful Migration Strategies for Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 and 2000 Customers - Seminar

"Join Microsoft, KVS, a division of VERITAS, and Network Appliance for an exclusive seminar and learn how migrating to Exchange Server 2003 can help reduce the burden on IT while increasing productivity and reducing overall costs—quickly and easily." 

Avoid Exchange Hell: Ignore This Article.

Exchange Server is not really a product you can install for the first time and then immediately start composing authoritative articles. But some people do try. While it is not clear how Exchange failed for this author, it does appear that there are administrative and technical deficiencies in the reaction.  Exchange on a domain controller, administrator not knowing where databases are stored, suggesting Exchange is responsible for the location of Active Directory are all symptoms of a greater problem.

"Put the Exchange application and databases on the C drive."

This is of course not the best advice.  Thank Redmond for Small Business Server.

William Lefkovics

New BlackBerry Site

New BlackBerry site - Blackberrycool.com has reported that the number of active BlackBerry wireless subscribers has doubled in less than ten months and now exceeds two million.

Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB890854)

"This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail."

Exchange 2003 Recovery Storage Group BlogCast

Eileen Brown blogs... "The BlogCast topic today is about using the Exchange 2003 Recovery Storage Group (RSG).  The demo includes bringing back the database from a backup, and using the RSG to merge the data back into the store whilst both stores are on line and the user is loggd into their live mailbox.  It's a 4.6mb file and the demo runs for 8 minutes... View it here"

Exchange 2003 /3GB Quick Reference

I've seen questions on the use of the /3GB switch recently in several different places, so I thought it useful to write up a very quick guide on where it should or shouldn't be used.  There are 3 basic rules for Exchange 2003:

*  Implement the /3GB switch on mailbox or public folder servers that have 1GB RAM or more.

*  If Exchange 2003 is running on Windows 2003, implement the /USERVA=3030 switch as well.

*  Do not implement the /3GB switch on front-end or routing servers, even if they have 1GB RAM or more.

Implementing the X.400 Connector - Is It Worth Using with Exchange Server 2003?

MSExchange.org... "Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition still provides a X.400 connector. With Exchange Server 5.5 this was the default protocol and connectivity standard. With the release of Exchange 2000 Server Microsoft implemented SMTP as the default protocol for connectivity. Due to backward compatibility there is still a X.400 based MTA stack available. But it is only a stack and not a protocol implementation. The following article is a drill-down through the basics of X.400 and how to configure the X.400 connector. Afterwards we will then talk about in what cases we still need it."

More RPC over HTTPs Setup Help

Ben Winzenz has published details of another configuration to check if you're experiencing problems getting RPC over HTTPs to work.

Exchange 5.5 -> Exchange 2003 Migration Article

Amit Zinman has released a new article over at msexchange.org titled Preparing Exchange 5.5 Directory for Migration to Exchange 2003.

Summary:

How to make sure your Exchange 5.5 directory database is ready for the upgrade to Active Directory and Exchange 2000/3 based messaging. This article will evaluate the ways of making changes in the Exchange 5.5 directory before installing the Active Directory Connector (ADC) tool that synchronizes Exchange 5.5 with Active Directory to ease matching of users and mailboxes.

The Solution Accelerator for Exchange Consolidation and Migration

Just found out that the Solution Accelerator for Exchange Consolidation and Migration is not only download-able, but can be browsed too...

IMF Thresholds & Outlook User Acceptance

New Exchange & Outlook articles...

Troubleshooter: Using Separate IMF Thresholds for Different Groups...

Increasing Outlook User Acceptance...

Exchange Special Mailboxes... System Attendant and SMTP...

Evan has continued his series of blog posts on Exchange Special Mailboxes, publishing part two on the System Attendant mailbox and part three on the SMTP mailbox.

New Exchange Website

Exchangeserver2003.com

Useful MSN Desktop Search Info

Can't find Outlook messages... article explains the need to set Outlook as the default e-mail program, along with a simple registry change to be made if messages still aren't visible after the indexing has completed (note: e-mail indexing only occurs when Outlook is running!)

Change which files are indexed... by default you can search within the titles of attachments, however it's also possible to search within e-mail attachments, but first you need to select the Index email attachments option as explained here. Also..."e-mail attachments are displayed in the Desktop Search results, and appear as their own file type. For example, a Word document attached to an e-mail message will be categorized in the results view as a document, not as an e-mail message."

More on Exchange ActiveSync

Paul Robichaux's latest article for Exchange & Outlook covers the operation of EAS along with his experiences in using it with three of the popular mobile devices that support it.

Blog Round-up

Evan's written part one of Exchange Special Mailboxes - System Mailbox

Eileen's published details of messaging and mobility webcasts coming up in January.

Gerod meanwhile has published a New and Updated list of Recommended fixes for Exchange 5.5 along with information on the November 2004 Update Rollup for Exchange Server 5.5

Finally, Michael has posted more on Exchange ActiveSync

All good stuff :-)

Anti-Phishing Working Group

Here's an interesting/useful site that I've just discovered... Anti-Phishing Working Group

"The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) is an industry association focused on eliminating the identity theft and fraud that result from the growing problem of phishing and email spoofing. "

Simulating Stress for your Exchange 2003 Hardware using LoadSim 2003

"Microsoft provides a few tools for stressing an Exchange server so you can check beforehand if your server can handle the projected load.

The main tool is Exchange Load Simulator (LoadSim) 2003, now updated to handle new Exchange 2003 features. This tool is intended for testing Exchange servers which mainly serve Outlook MAPI calls including RPC Over HTTP clients."... MSExchange.org article...

W32/Zafi-D for Christmas

It might be appropriate to give your users the annual seasonal warning if you haven't done so already...

"One in every ten emails infected by Christmas card virus"

Top 10 KBs for Exchange Server Mobility

"Got a question about troubleshooting or configuring remote procedure call over HTTP (RPC over HTTP), your mobile devices, Outlook Mobile Access, Exchange ActiveSync, or other mobility features in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003? Explore the ten most popular mobility-related Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles to find the answers."

Bill Boswell on Exchange 2003 Consolidation

Bill Boswell's written another fine article... this time it's for the Redmond Mag....

"Exchange 2003 allows for a more consolidated e-mail architecture. Here's how to pull it off."

Achieving High Availability with Exchange Server at Microsoft

"Overview of how Microsoft IT used a variety of solutions with Exchange Server 2003, including new server and storage technologies, aggressive service level agreements with weekly performance review meetings, and personnel management, to help achieve 99.99 percent user mailbox availability."

Audiovox SMT6500 Reviewed

Paul has written an excellent review of the Audiovox SMT6500 (Orange SPV C500 in the UK) Smartphone.

"In all, this is a very impressive device that delivers on its promises of high functionality in a small package."

Explaining Exchange 2003 Http Access (Part 2)

More useful info over at MSExchange.org...

Explaining Exchange 2003 Http Access (Part 2)

"Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access and Exchange ActiveSync all use HTTP methods to access Exchange 2003. This article describes the mechanisms behind these features and explains why the features can sometimes be so awkward to configure."

QuickLaunch Bar New Mail Message Shotcut

Sean Daniel explains how to create a new mail message shotcut in the QuickLaunch bar

Outlook-QuoteFix

"Put an end to Outlook's messy quotes with this automated fix!

Outlook-QuoteFix can modify MS Outlook's message composition windows on-the-fly to allow for correct quoting and to change the appearance of your plain-text replies and forwards in general: move your signature, use compressed indentation, customize your quote header, etc."

Creating an Active Directory Site for Exchange Server

"Detailed discussion and procedures on how Microsoft IT created a dedicated Active Directory services site to optimize the performance of Exchange Server 2003."

ExchMbx: Swiss Army Knife for Exchange

Paul Robichaux on joeware's excellent Exchmbx tool

Update for Exchange 2003 (KB 883522)

The update's been updated...

"This update resolves problems that were found in the SMTP in Exchange 2003 since Exchange 2003 SP1 was released."

ActiveSync FAQ and AUTD Info

A couple of new articles/pages have been published over on the Exchange TechCenter

Exchange ActiveSync: Frequently Asked Questions

and...

How to Configure Always Up-To-Date Notifications

Exchange Server 2003 Operations Checklists

"The Exchange Server 2003 Operations Checklists provide guidelines for IT professionals to do disaster recovery tasks, and to perform the daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance tasks required to keep your Exchange server performing optimally. Use these checklists as is, or adapt them to suit your company's specific needs."

Offline Address Book Best Practices Guide

"This guide provides recommendations and best practices for deploying and managing offline address books with Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003. Whether you are deploying a new Exchange Server 2003 messaging system or upgrading from a previous Exchange version, this guide gives you best practice recommendations, including recommendations on how to optimize offline address book usage in a variety of scenarios. In addition, this guide addresses the most common issues that you may encounter when using offline address books."

Meeting Room/Resource Bookings

I’m currently doing some work for a customer who wishes to implement a more automated solution for the booking of meeting rooms and other resources. While the ‘out of the box’ features of Exchange/Outlook 2003 go some way to meeting their requirements and automating the process, it seems that they don’t go far enough, and a third party add-on or standalone product is therefore required. I’ve just been searching around and have found these companies/sites all of which contain details of products that can provide many (but not all!) of the features required. Note that some are pure standalone products (which we may have to go for) while others hook-in to Exchange and/or Outlook. If anyone has any recommendations to make, please let me know. Now, to go through them all in detail…

Slipstick Scheduling Resources for Microsoft Outlook 

Exchange Server Auto Accept Agent

Exchange Resource Manager

Meeting Room Manager

Meeting Maker

About:Time

Meeting Point

iiS Fast Track Room Booking

WallCHART

EZbook

Meeting Manager

MeetingPlanner for Outlook

Schedule-Time

Office Tracker

MailDisclaimer for Exchange Server

"MailDisclaimer for Exchange Server provides comprehensive functionality for adding disclaimers for users or groups of users in organizations that use Exchange Server 2000/2003. MailDisclaimer can be used to append legal disclaimers to the footer of relevant messages or provide professional looking signature footers, containing logos, color and formatting."

Blog Round-Up...

Sean Daniel has published some Outlook tips.. "Don't just use Outlook, Conquer it!"... while Brian Desmond has posted details on populating the Exchange 2000/2003 topology diagram in MOM 2005.

Configuring RPC over HTTPs with SP1

New KB article to note...

"How to configure an RPC over HTTP topology on computers that are running Exchange 2003 with Service Pack 1"

IT Forum: Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool

One of the highlights of this week’s IT Forum was Paul Bowden’s presentation on the Exchange Best Practices Analyser (ExBPA) which took place yesterday. It was a very informative session. Given that this tool has been out for almost two months, hopefully by now you will have given it a whirl in your environment. If you haven’t, you’re missing out on something really good, and remember, it’s free! The tool has been downloaded 85000 times, which apparently is some five times the number of downloads of the IMF.

Here are my notes from the session…

Version 1.1 is due to be released in the second week of December, with version 2.0 expected to follow early next year.

Updates are published every two weeks or so. With v1.0 only rules updates are downloaded. Version 1.1 will download both new rules and also updates to the tool itself.

The current issue where it can take up to 5 minutes for the tool to be useable on a machine that doesn’t have internet access as it tries to update itself has been fixed in v1.1. A cancel button has also been added.

A MOM management pack will be included with v2. Additional localised languages will be supported in v2 as well.

Not only does the application review Exchange and some AD configurations and settings, but it also looks for third party configurations/applications from the following companies…

HP and Dell firmware

Anti-virus software

• Trend

• Sybari

• Symantec

• McAfee

IBM has been in touch to express their interest in being included too.

If a server’s BIOS is over a year old it will be flagged.

It is best to sweep the entire Exchange Organisation as it will look for topology problems.

If you are not familiar with an Exchange server’s history the tool will tell you its’ current status of course, and also whether an in-place upgrade has been carried out previously. “The tool can be used to actively document the design and configuration of the Exchange topology. This data can be used to track the history of a deployment, or provide a ‘quick-start’ to administrators and product support staff who need to analyze the history and configuration of an unfamiliar deployment.”

One of the reasons for developing ExBPA was that 60% of the calls to PSS were for mis-configuration problems.

The tool is not designed to be a security tool… the MBSA and others should still be used.

While all versions of Exchange can be scanned, there is a need for at least one Exchange 2000/2003 to exist, and therefore AD to be in-place.

It is recommended that the tool be run from an XP client and for the data will be collected remotely.. There is no requirement for it to be run on the Exchange server itself, or for any components to be installed on the server. The executing workstation should have 256MB of RAM for every 50 Exchange servers in the topology.

GCs and DCs used by Exchange are health-checked. Details of the servers used are obtained from the DSAccess cache.

The data on the wire during the healthcheck varies depending on the OS and Exchange versions, however approx 100Kb of data is sent out, and about 2.5MB comes back.

The Connectivity Test should be used to establish if the remote Exchange servers are reachable, and is most relevant if a firewall is in-between. Attempts are made to hook-up to the registry and WMI on the remote machine via RPC.

Adjusting the network speed configuration adjusts the timeouts.

The output XML file can be opened/imported on another workstation.

It takes about 5 minutes for a single server to be analysed. Likewise, 20 checking 20 servers at the same time also takes about 5 minutes. This is because the tool is multi-threaded. Number of threads is up to 50 on a dual processor client. The execution time is largely dependant on the speed of the network however.

ExBPA can be used as a “reactive troubleshooting step for problem diagnosis and identification.”

Use CTRL/C to copy the rule text to the clipboard for onward pasting. CTRL/E in v1.1 meanwhile will expand the results and helps with printing. An HTML version of the report can be created by printing to file.

More reports are in v1.1. The full report has been broken out.

Clusters can be analysed and configurations compared.

It is safe to run during the day – it won’t cause any performance problems.

Suggestions and wishes (which are strongly encouraged and welcomed) can be sent to exbpafb at microsoft.com

And finally, there’s a friendly URL to access the EXBPA site… it’s www.exbpa.com

What to Do When an Exchange Store Won't Mount

"When one of your Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange 2000 Server stores won’t mount, users cannot access data and mailflow is interrupted. This article will help you investigate a situation where you have an unmounted store that you need to get up and running."

Worksheet: Disaster Recovery Preparation for Exchange Server 2003

"The following checklist helps you to prepare for disaster recovery" ... go print!

Improve NTBACKUP Throughput

I attended a session this morning at the IT Forum on Exchange Best Practices from Microsoft IT, presented by Konstantin Ryvkin, Senior Systems Engineer. This was an interesting presentation which covered Microsoft’s own implementation of Exchange 2003.

There was one point made during the session which I hadn’t heard before, and is worthy of being noted. One of the SLA requirements for the new Exchange 2003 clustered solution was for the nightly backup jobs (disk to disk and then to tape) to take no longer than 4 hours using NTBACKUP. This was so that the Exchange online maintenance had sufficient time to run its course prior to staff coming into work in the early morning and to begin using the system. This target proved to be quite a challenge at first, with throughput of 640MB/min being achieved. This wasn’t sufficient. To rectify this, some registry modifications were required, along with a revised version of NTBACKUP, which included a new switch - the FU switch(!) – which stands for ‘file unbuffered’ in case you were wondering. Throughput was then increased to a more than acceptable 1.2GB/min which enabled the backup job to be completed within the SLA prescribed timeframe.

More details on this can be found over on the Microsoff IT Showcase site, and also in this Knowledge Base article

mGALSync 1.0.0

"Automatically synchronize your Outlook GAL to your Pocket PC!

mGALSync allows you to synchronize your Outlook Global Address List (GAL) to the Contacts folder on your Pocket PC device. Benefits include:

• Contact details include all standard Microsoft Exchange Server fields, including: Name, Job title, Department, Phone numbers, Email address, Notes and many more.

• Contact details are stored in your Pocket Contacts database.

• Email addresses are displayed using SMTP format not X400.

• Distribution Lists and Custom Recipients are also Sync'ed.

• GAL Contacts can either by Sync'ed direct to Pocket Contacts on your Pocket PC, or into your Outlook Contacts folder for Sync'ing via ActiveSync.

• GAL Contacts are added to a new 'GAL' Category, making them easier to manage."

McAfee Blocks Port 25

If you are a McAfee customer, and install their offerings on your Exchange servers, you should take note of the following...

"It appears the new McAfee 8.01 (or 8.0.0) client blocks port 25 from malicious WORM attacks which is great for a client desktop and catastrophic for a server!"

More info at Flaphead.

Update for Exchange 2003 (KB 883543)

The post SP1 Exchange 2003 update has been updated..

This update resolves problems that were found in Exchange 2003 since Exchange 2003 SP1 was released.

Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter Update

I've literally just noticed the following information on the Office 2003 update site:

Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB873362)
This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail. This update was released in November 2004.

It looks like the 'More Information' link to the MS download site and KB article are not yet available, although you can, of course, download the patch via Office update.

(update - it's available here)

Lookout for Outlook - New Version

A new experimental version of Lookout is now available for download

"This version is for those users that really want the latest-and-greatest, bleeding-edge Lookout Software. This version has not yet been released generally, but is ready for general testing. You must uninstall prior versions of Lookout before installing this one."

Exchange 2003 Operations Guide

Well, I've had my head in MOM 2005 work for quite a while now, but things are now getting back to normal on the Exchange front. I've just noticed a post on an Exchange mailing list stating that the Exchange 2003 Operations Guide is available (thanks to Peter Dahl).

Summary:
The Exchange Server 2003 Operations Guide consists of four topics that describe the daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance tasks that, for a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 organization, are required to keep an Information Technology (IT) organization running smoothly and without interruption. Information is provided about tools and best practices, as well as about tasks that can help ensure the availability and reliability of your Exchange Server 2003 organization.

Exchange Server Management Pack Guide for MOM 2005

The Exchange Server Management Pack Guide for MOM 2005 explains how to use the Exchange Management Pack to monitor and maintain messaging resources.

White Paper - Microsoft IT Scalability Experience with Windows Mobile 2003 and Exchange Server 2003 Mobile Messaging

"By designing Exchange Server 2003 mobile messaging and Windows Mobile 2003 devices for scalability, Microsoft has created a mobile messaging solution that meets the requirements of Business Decision Makers as well as IT Professionals. This solution does not require additional server hardware or software, nor does the solution require additional device hardware or software. Thus there is no incremental cost to expand the service to newly-hired employees or to existing employees that obtain Windows Mobile devices, and cost concerns for initial deployments can be minimized. Read the white paper to learn more."

SenderID Framework Downloads

With the recent updates in the effort to standardize SenderID, Microsoft has updated their SenderID Framework information downloads.

The most recent revision is the "Sender ID Framework and Intellectual Property Overview and FAQ" (pdf).

William Lefkovics

Exchange Relay Review

Years ago, Joseph Neubauer, a senior technical consultant for HP, wrote the definitive article on securing your Exchange 5.5 Server from being an open relay.

Through Windows IT Pro, he has updated that very useful, oft-referenced article with an "Exchange Relay Review". Unfortunately, it requires a subscription to access. It may be worth the price of admission.

William Lefkovics

Solution Accelerator for Exchange Consolidation and Migration

"Overview

The Solution Accelerator for Exchange Consolidation and Migration helps you accelerate the design, planning, and deployment of Exchange Server 2003 messaging systems deployed as upgrades to, or replacements for, your existing Exchange Server 5.5 or Exchange 2000 Server messaging systems. Business agility and efficiency depend on messaging systems deployed by organizational IT operations; to deliver the required functionality, IT operations themselves must be able to quickly adapt to changing business requirements, then implement secure, efficient solutions to meet these requirements. These solutions require not only great technologies, but also efficient and effective operations with all application and system services driven by mature processes and delivered to the business at an acceptable cost."

C2C Mail Management Whitepapers

C2C is an international company specializing in solutions for "Email Lifecycle Management" and archiving.

They have several free whitepapers on their site focusing on their specialty, including their recent one on PST files - From Discovery to Archiving.

The whitepapers are at the bottom of their download page and require registration.

William Lefkovics

How to add root certificates to Windows Mobile 2003 and Windows Mobile 2002 Smartphones

Overview
This provides samples on how to add the root certificate for the private issuing authority onto a device.

Exchange Server MSSearch Administration Tool

The Exchange Server MSSearch Administration tool can be used to determine which Exchange Stores in the domain have Full-Text Indexes, provide status on indexes, and provide administration tasks all via the command line.

"Working with Active Directory Permissions in Exchange Server 2003" Guide

"Microsoft has released a guide that provides information about the Active Directory directory service permissions that are required to install and manage Microsoft Exchange Server 2003."

Problems with OMA and Sony Ericsson Phones

New support article that's definitely worth noting...

Issues that may occur when you use Outlook Mobile Access with Sony Ericsson mobile devices in Exchange Server 2003

Outlook & Exchange Resource List

Eric Legault has published his list of Outlook & Exchange resources... it's pretty comprehensive...

Eric's Big List Of Outlook Links

Perhaps our Links page will need to have some additions...

The 12 Commandments of Exchange Deployments

Brien Posey has written another good article over at SearchExchange.com, this one is covering The 12 Commandments of Exchange Deployments

"Rolling out an Exchange Server deployment can be a complicated task. Need some help? I have put together my list of 12 commandments to follow when you find yourself heading an Exchange 2000 or 2003 deployment"

Hosted Exchange 2003 TechNet Support WebCast

There's a Technet WebCast this Thursday covering Hosted Exchange...

Thursday, October 14, 2004: 10:00 AM Pacific time

"This Support WebCast discusses Windows-based Hosting, including Hosted Exchange 2003, a Microsoft solution. Windows-based Hosting, including Hosted Exchange 2003 enables service providers to offer flexible and scalable rich e-mail, messaging, and collaboration services to consumers, and to both small and medium businesses. Hosted Exchange is a tested, pre-engineered solution that is based on standard Microsoft server products. It includes management tools that help make sure that end users have rapid time-to-market and superior service levels. "

"Exchanging Outlook for Ximian? Here's how"...

"If you need to access a Microsoft Exchange mailbox from a Linux/Unix system but prefer not to use Outlook Web Access, then you should consider the Ximian Evolution client with the Ximian Connector for Microsoft Exchange. This solution provides a full-featured Exchange client that attempts to rival Microsoft Outlook on Windows computers. I'm going to provide you with an overview of installing and using Evolution, as well as discuss scenarios when using this client makes sense....."

SMS from Outlook

I've been trying to find an SMS Outlook plug-in this morning, one that works with a standalone Outlook and doesn't need Exchange, and is ideally UK based. I've gone through the some of the offerings listed over at Slipstick and MapiStore and found many of them to be tricky to sign up for, or with websites that just didn't inspire confidence. I was beginning to get frustrated when a Yahoo search threw back PC Messenger, a service provided by Orange.

"From now on you'll be able to send and receive text messages directly from your email account using your personal computer with PC Messenger from Orange. In the same way that you'd send an email to clients and colleagues, you can send important messages and information by text message - plus it's quicker and easier than sending individual text messages from your phone. PC Messenger can be used just like you use email in Microsoft® Outlook® (1998, 2000, Me, XP and 2003), Outlook® Express (v5 and v6) or Lotus Notes (v5 or v6)."

Having just had a bad experience with Orange the other day, I was somewhat reluctant to take the plunge, however I did, and it was a very simple and smooth process, for a change. We'll see how it goes, at least I get 50 free text messages to play with. You do need to be an existing Orange customer to take advantage of this offering though. Vodafone has a similar service called Text Centre. So, are you using an Outlook SMS plug-in that you would recommend? If so, please let me know.

Hosted Exchange Server and the Mobile Professional

jkOnTheRun has written a good post on his experiences, and the benefits of using a hosted Exchange solution, even for his one man business...

"This article has described all the many benefits of the hosted Exchange Server solution. This service gives you the equivalent of having your own hardware and software solution without having to provide either. The different companies offering hosted Exchange Server solutions have varying price schemes but they are competitive and quite reasonably priced for the service received. I pay about $30 per month for the service and all the optional services I've added. That provides me with two mailboxes in addition to my own mailbox. I think that's a bargain for the piece of mind of having secure information, backups that protect all my critical data, and the ability to have access to my email and documents no matter what computer I use. This has been a real boon to using the Sony U-70 ultra-portable computer and keeping it up to date with my main computer."

Blog Round-up

I've just been catching-up with my unread RSS feeds... here are some Exchange posts of interest...

Blackberry 7100t: First Impressions by Werner Vogels.

Greg Keene has a new HP iPaq h6300 series blog and has been using GoodLink on his h6315.

IT Manager Alexander Scoble recently experienced some problems getting RPC/HTTPs to work and has blogged his experience.

Meanwhile, Michael Kleef enabled RPC/HTTPs successfully and detailed the steps that he took with his single server Exchange deployment.

Sean Daniel provides information on how to Prevent a Dictionary attack on your Exchange (SBS) Server

... and finally, here's two general articles/posts worthy of note..

Why you still run Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) and TechRepublic Tutorial: Understanding mixed and native modes in Windows Server 2003

Protecting Microsoft Exchange with ISA Server 2004 Firewalls

Thomas Shinder has written a new article for MSExchange.org...

Protecting Microsoft Exchange with ISA Server 2004 Firewalls - Integrating the ISA Firewall into an Established Network Infrastructure

"Nobody likes to start from scratch. This is especially true if you have a well established network and firewall infrastructure that’s working for you. Why would you want to go and change everything just to add a new application layer intelligent firewall to your setup? Things are working already and you haven’t been successfully attacked for at least 6 weeks. This article shows how you can place an ISA 2004 firewall on your network to protect your Exchange Servers with minimal changes to your current network topology."

Exchange SDK September 2004 Update

The quarterly updates for the Exchange Server Software Development Kits for Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 were added to MSDN and the MSDN Downloads sections of Microsoft.com at the end of September.

William Lefkovics

"Get a Handle on Exchange Server"

Gerry O'Brien has had a play with NetIQ's AppAnalyzer... read his review.

Quest Software Whitepaper on Exchange Storage Management

Quest Software has released a free whitepaper on the Best Practices of Exchange Storage Management.

The publication has been co-Authored by Kieran McCorry of HP and David Sengupta, Product Manager at Quest.

William Lefkovics

SPF Article

Marc Grote has published a new article over at msexchange.org covering an overview of the Sender Policy Framework.

Exchange 5.5 Upgrade Resources Page

Microsoft has released an Exchange 5.5 upgrade resources page which contains links to information you need to migrate from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003 - all in one handy place.

Client Mode Column Values

Something that came up recently in a mailing list discussion was the meaning of the values in the Client Mode column that is shown in Exchange System Manager.

Underneath each mailbox store in Exchange System Manager, there are 3 objects: Logons, Mailboxes and Full-Text Indexing. When viewing the data in the Logons object, you may see the Client Mode column displayed. If you don't, simply right-click Logons, and choose View then Add/Remove Columns. Add the Client Mode option to your list of displayed columns.

You will then see the logon information for your users as normal, plus the Client Mode column. The possible values that I am aware of for this column are 0, 1 and 2. The meanings are as follows:

0 = 'unknown' and seems to indicate pre-Outlook 2003 (version 11) clients.
1 = Online
2 = Cached mode

Exchange MVP Rich Matheisen also informs that Outlook 2003 can show up as a 1 and a 2 for the same user, such as when the connection to the mailbox is cached (2) whilst connections to uncached public folders or additional mailboxes are online (1).

Step-by-Step: Migrating Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2003 Using New Hardware

New MSExchange.org article...

Migrate your mail system from Exchange 2000 Server running on a Windows 2000 Server system to a new server running Exchange Server 2003 on Windows Server 2003. This scenario will take you through all Exchange-related issues from adding your first Windows Server 2003 system to unplugging your old Exchange 2000 system when finished.

Expand/Collapse Outlook Groups with your Wheel

Ben Schorr shares a simple but useful Outlook tip...

Expand/Collapse Outlook Groups with your Wheel

The Outlook ISV Community

Sue Mosher on the Outlook ISV community

New Blog - Bryce Milton

Bryce Milton, a test manager for Microsoft's Enterprise Engineering Center in Redmond is now blogging, and has posted a couple of interesting pieces...

Expanding the envelope of Exchange 2003 scalability

"We had a major government customer on site here in Redmond for a three week engagement to create a test environment that mirrored their own production environment to verify that a fix to Exchange 2003 SP1 had indeed unblocked this customer from deploying Exchange 2003 into production. The customer-based test environment simulated 180 domains in a single AD forest to verify that the previous Exchange 2003 limitation of 100 had been fixed...."

Have you every wondered how geo-clustering works?

"This is super cool stuff! This week, we kicked off a new customer engagement here at the EEC in building 25 on the Redmond campus with a major global customer that came to do a proof of concept for a new geo-clustered Exchange 2003 Messaging system...."

Bryce's RSS Feed

Outlook Logging for Troubleshooting

Here's something that you may have forgotten about, or perhaps not realised - if you're troubleshooting message delivery problems between Outlook and a mail server, you can enable logging in Outlook for troubleshooting purposes. The option is one of those little tick boxes hidden away in Advanced Options under Tools\Options\Other. Once enabled, all communication that occurs between Outlook and the mail server is written to a log file (OPMLOG.LOG). Full details can be found in KBs 300479 and 831053.

Exchange Server 2003 Interoperability and Migration Guide

This guide explains how to connect and migrate non-Exchange messaging systems to Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003. It describes how to design an interoperability and migration strategy, and includes procedures for connecting Exchange 2003 to non-Exchange messaging platforms. Covered components include Connector for Lotus Notes, Connector for Novell GroupWise, Calendar Connector, general SMTP and X.400 connectors, and the Exchange Migration Wizard. Troubleshooting information is also included.

ExBPA Results

Steve Evans has written up his experiences with the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer tool on his EHLO World blog.

Orange 3G Mobile Office Card

For those of you who are interested in remote access options and hardware, my impulsive side kicked-in a month or so ago and I bought one of the new Orange 3G Mobile Office Cards. I took a bit of a gamble with this, especially as my initial choice was to purchase the similar offering from Vodafone, whose GSM signal in the UK always seems to be much stronger, particularly where I live. However, Orange's package was much more competitive at the time with 75MB of inclusive data for £20 per month, compared with Vodafone's 50MB for the same monthly subscription, and also, better 3G coverage was claimed with 66% of the UK catered for, versus 50% with Vodafone. (note – Vodafone currently offers 75MB and Orange 65MB) There's also the issue with Vodafone, where their proxy filters many sites unless you go through the process to say 'hey, I'm 18!' Oh, and the Vodafone unit needs/comes with an external antennae.

I have to say that I've been rather impressed with the Orange card so far. The installation was a breeze from a technical perspective, (install the software, which took about a minute, and fit the card in the PC card slot), but unfortunately there was the usual inefficient Orange call centre experience, with it taking a couple of days to get the card's SIM card activated. Initially their system was down when I first called, and then two days later I had to be bounced around until I landed with someone who knew what the card was! Once up and running, the card is controlled with this small GIU.

Initialisation of the card and network discovery needs to be completed when the PC boots, which takes a minute or two, following which, a new connection can be established in a few seconds.

So, the TC1100 has been completely freed-up and can be net connected pretty much anywhere. When there's no wi-fi, the 3G card is woken-up. The 3G download speed is 384Kbps with web pages loading very quickly as you would expect. In locations where no 3G coverage exists, the card fails-over to GPRS and the pages of course load at a snail's pace. Browsing is almost not worth attempting via GPRS. Also, where I live, 20 miles north of London, the connections do drop quite frequently, but that's not too much of a surprise given the weak signal.

The 'other half' has discovered the tablet's new internet capability and has commandeered it while she is living/working away from home for a month or so... when will I see it again!? I just hope she remembers to keep an eye on the MBs being downloaded, especially with the ability for a couple of meg to be used up/downloaded in a simple e-mail/Bloglines session. This could turn out to be an expensive tool/toy!

It’s an exciting time in the mobile arena, with many new devices from HP, BlackBerry, Motorola and Orange having recently being released, or coming along in the next couple of months. Which device is best for you or your users, will very much depend on what they’re required for, and when they will be used. For example, I’ve found that using the tablet on the train to check e-mails is both a) a focus for everyone’s nosey attention and b) risky – heck, it’s like sitting with a wad of pounds/dollars pinned to your jacket. The Smartphone is much better suited for use in this particular location, as would be a Blackberry or HP iPaq h6315.

(update - I've just spent a few days in Birmingham (UK!)... the card worked really well with long, speedy and stable internet sessions... very impressive... very cool!)

(update 11/10 - ok, so I love this card but unfortunately I'm not a happy Orange customer. I've just had another stressful experience with them. On reviewing my latest monthly bill I discovered that despite taking out a Mobile Office 75 contract, with 75MB of inclusive data per month, I've been put on a Mobile Office 65 package, with 65MB of data, for the same cost, and no notification of this change! The situation has been corrected, but not without a great deal of frustration and wasted time, so much in fact that I've just sent a strongly worded letter of complaint to them (I had to do something to relieve the anger!). This isn't the first time they've played this trick, they also downgraded my mobile phone contract, halving the number of inclusive minutes on that occasion. The morale of the story is this: If you buy anything from Orange's website, scrutinise your monthly bill, and then be prepared to speak to half a dozen folks, and to waste over an hour of your life trying to get any problems corrected!)

New Technet Active Directory Step-by-Step Guides

There are a number of new Active Directory Step-by-Step Guides on the Technet site, including a Step-by-Step Guide to Digitally Signed and Encrypted E-Mail.

Listing Which Exchange Users Have or Are Delegates

When a user assigns delegate access to their mailbox, the delegate information is stored in the directory. This is the same for Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 200x.

To generate a list of all users with delegates and/or all users that are delegates, the directory can be queried for that information.

In Exchange 5.5, the attribute that lists any delegates is public-delegates. In Active Directory for Exchange 200x, the attribute populated when a delegate is assigned is publicDelegates. In Exchange 5.5, the attribute where mailboxes for which delegate access has been granted is public-delegates-bl. In Active Directory, the same attribute is publicDelegatesBL.

To generate a list of all Exchange users that are or have delegates, use header.exe to create a .csv file with the username along with the public-delegates and public-delegates-bl attributes. Then do a directory export from Exchange Administrator to that file.

Generating a similar list of mail-enabled users with delegate access to another mailbox or have delegates assigned to their mailbox for Exchange 2000 or 2003, you need to query Active Directory. LDIFDE can query and export this information to file by executing with specific switches similar to:

c:\>ldifde -f delegates.txt -d "ou=users,dc=domain,dc=com" -l name,publicDelegates,publicDelegatesBL -r "(|(publicDelegates=*)(publicDelegatesBL=*))"

-f - assigns the output to the file named delegates.txt
-d - isolates OU in the directory to query
-l - determines what attributes to list
-r - filters for objects with any value for the attributes mentioned

The resulting query might look something like delegates.txt.

This might be useful in migration preparation or server consolidation planning.

William Lefkovics

Outlook 2003 Junk E-Mail Filter Update

Looks like Microsoft has released a new update to Outlook 2003's Junk E-Mail Filter which you can find here.

"This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail. This update was released in September 2004."

New Exchange Newsgroup

A new Exchange newsgroup is now available: microsoft.public.exchange.tools

New MCSEworld Articles

Daniel Petri's published some new Exchange articles over on his excellent MCSEworld site...

Configure MX Records for Incoming SMTP E-Mail Traffic

Configure Exchange 2000/2003 to Receive E-Mail for other Domains

Configure Specific E-Mail Addresses for Specific Exchange 2000/2003 Users

LDAP Search Samples for Windows Server 2003 and Exchange 2000/2003

Great stuff Daniel!

IMF Hotfix

This is important, so worthy of a mention here. Evan Dodds has posted on his blog details of a new hotfix for the IMF. This is the fix where the IMF didn't process messages correctly on machines with NetBIOS names 15 characters in length. Read the full information here.

Learning Exchange Server 2003 - Chapter Download

There's a free chapter download of Bill Boswell's excellent new book Learning Exchange Server 2003, which is soon to be published, over at SearchExchange.com

TechNet Virtual Labs

Looking for something to do during your lunch hour? Why not take a look at the Technet Virtual Labs? Each module is allocated a 60 min block of time...

"Step into the Exchange Server 2003 Virtual Lab for Free

It's simple—no complex setup or installation is required to try out Exchange Server 2003 running in the full-featured TechNet Virtual Lab. As part of the TechNet Virtual Lab, you will have access full access to Exchange Server 2003 through seven modules:

▪ Configuring Microsoft Windows Server 2003 RPC Proxy
▪ Controlling Junk e-mail with Exchange 2003 and the Intelligent Message Filter
▪ Disaster Recovery with Exchange Server 2003
▪ Managing Exchange and Active Directory with MOM 2005
▪ Migrating from Exchange Server 5.5 Windows NT 4 Server to Exchange Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 Part 1
▪ Migrating from Exchange Server 5.5 Windows NT 4 Server to Exchange Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 Part 2
▪ Patching Exchange with SMS 2003"

There are also VIrtual Labs for ISA, MOM, SMS, Security and Windows Server 2003

Optimizing Storage for Exchange Server 2003

Just discovered this document that was published last week...

Overview
Are you planning to deploy Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003? Are you concerned about availability, fault tolerance and performance? If so, it is critical that you understand how to optimize your storage system for Exchange Server 2003, regardless of the size of your organization. Disk subsystem bottlenecks cause more performance problems than server-side CPU or RAM deficiencies, and a poorly designed disk subsystem can leave your organization vulnerable to hardware malfunctions.... continued...

Back Home!...

I'm back. What do you mean you didn't realise I was away?! Following the redundancy at the beginning of June, and subsequent Windows/Exchange 2003 migration that I then completed in July, I hopped on a plane to Hong Kong and Thailand (without a laptop!). I've had the most amazing time visiting these countries, with the highlight undoubtedly being AoNang in Southern Thailand, and the many nearby beaches and islands, most notably Hong Island - wow... that was complete paradise! I urge you to visit! I've got many pictures to sort through, and notes to type-up of my experiences, which I'll share with you at some later time. But now, it's all over, and it's time for a serious reality check, and to get a new job, oh and for some blog posts... how exciting :-)

Quest Software eBooks - Exchange and Active Directory

Quest Software offers a few free eBooks on Exchange Server and Windows. Access is free, but it does require registration.

They also offer a free eBook called Five Key Lessons to Securing Your Active Directory, available through the IT Whitepaper repository called Bitpipe.com. Again, registration is required.

Quest Software produces Exchange and Windows migration and management software.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2003 CBT

CBT Nuggets has added an Exchange Training CD for the Designing a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Organization exam (M70-285). This is one of the core messaging exams required for the MCSE: Messaging on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification.

CD-Rom Contents: Designing a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Organization

- Exchange 2003 Design Considerations
- The Exchange Server 2003 Administrative Model
- Integrating with Active Directory
- Designing with Other Messaging Systems
- Upgrading from previous Exchange versions
- Designating and Designing Exchange 2003 Servers
- Achieving a fault-tolerant DNS solution
- Forming a Public Folder Infrastructure
- Devising a Strategy for Data Storage
- Achieving Fault Tolerance and Enhanced Performance
- Designing a Backup and Recovery Solution
- Planning the Exchange 2003 Routing Group Topology
- Exchange 2003 Virtual Protocol Server Strategies
- Client strategies for Exchange Server 2003
- Protecting the Organization from Internal Attacks
- Protecting the Exchange Environment from External Threats
- Designing an Authentication and Encryption Methodology

William Lefkovics

RSS Feeds for Exchange Administration

RSS syndication can be applied almost anywhere especially where there are incremental changes to data content.

This is not lost on Glen Scales who, as posted on his Exchange Dev Blog, has been working on a script to generate the necessary XML based on updates to the message tracking log. If message tracking is enabled, Exchange will append to a daily log, message information incrementally. There are several applications that can analyze the message tracking logs and produce reports on the content. But Glen's Exchange Message Tracking Logs RSS Feed Script is a good start toward publishing message tracking log information for people, probably management, to subscribe to down to the user level. Perhaps we will soon see management or administrators getting that information as the tracking log is updated throughout the day.

Glen has been busy applying RSS feeds concepts to Exchange administration, including the basics of an RSS Calendar Feed Event Sink and Public Folder RSS Feed Event Sink. Search his blog for more RSS ideas.

Thanks, Glen!

William Lefkovics

Outlook Icons

Robert Sparnaaij, an Outlook MVP from the Netherlands, isolated about 71 icons that we see in Outlook and posted what they represent in his blog. Most of the graphics are self-explanatory of course, but this is the first legend of its kind that I have seen.

William Lefkovics

Issues with using Outlook Web Access on a Windows XP SP2-based computer

New Microsoft KB article that's worth absorbing...

Description of the known issues with using Outlook Web Access on a Windows XP SP2-based computer

XBox OWA 2003 Theme

The XBox OWA theme has been made public according to Nino Bilic of Microsoft PSS in the Exchange Team Blog.

You can download the theme for Exchange 2003 Outlook Web Access from here.

Thanks, Nino!

William Lefkovics

OWA 2003 FBA Article

Exchange MVP Henrik Walther has released a new article called Outlook Web Access 2003 Forms-based Authentication and the default domain dilemma.

Summary:
Okay so you have enabled Forms-based Authentication (FBA) and your users can now logon to Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2003 either by typing domain\username or username@domain.com. But ever since you enabled FBA your users have found it annoying they can’t type username anymore, the other day even the CEO told you his opinion about it, and he definitely wasn’t satisfied so you better come up with a solution.

PC Magazine Review ISA 2004

Summary

"Pros: Excellent administration console with plenty of wizards means no-hassle, task-based firewall management. Works well protecting Microsoft Exchange traffic. Improved monitoring and reporting.

Cons: Best value realized for shops already running Windows infrastructure.

Bottom Line: A compelling software-based firewall with strong administrative flexibility for most any network running Windows. It can dig in and examine traffic that connects to Exchange (and other Windows servers) for very deep security."

Full Review

Updated: Exchange 2003 MOM Management Pack Configuration Wizard

I've been on holiday lately and therefore catching up with things, so there's a chance you may have already seen this. Anyway, last week Microsoft released a new version of the Exchange 2003 MOM Management Pack Configuration Utility which can be found here.

IMPORTANT: Before installing the new version of the configuration utility (configapp.msi) the user MUST remove the previous version (“Exchange Management Pack Configuration Utility” in Add/Remove Programs).

List of fixed issues:

1 - Failure if there are trusts with NT4 domains (error msg: 'Failed to get basic information about the Active Directory. Error message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.'). This error was noted in several comments to a previous blog entry of mine here.

2 - It stops to load all Exchange servers if one doesn’t have all properties correctly set in the AD – now it gives a better error msg and continues to load the remaining servers. Previous error msg: “Information about Exchange servers cannot be loaded from Active Directory. Error message: Specified argument was out of range of valid values. Parameter name: Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.”

3 - When checking the mailbox access account the applications was binding against the wrong GC (which worked for the majority of the cases but not all, it was binding against CG://.)

Thanks to Paulo Janotti of Microsoft for informing me of this release, and also to Michael Cooper for also informing everyone of this release in his comments to the previous blog entry on this utility.

Boswell Helps With RPC/HTTPS

Bill Boswell has created an excellent document for setting up RPC over HTTPS in a lab.

Microsoft Exchange Assistance Center Launched

There is an updated portal in TechNet on the Microsoft website called the Microsoft Exchange Server Assistance Center.

With a clean look, Exchange-specific RSS feeds, and random profiles of Exchange Server MVPs, it is surely a mandatory bookmark site for every Exchange administrator.

William Lefkovics

Why Migrate to Exchange 2003?

Microsoft Event - Why Migrate to Exchange 2003?
Tuesday, August 24, 2004 1:30 PM - Tuesday, August 24, 2004 4:00 PM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Recommended Audience: Architect, Business Decision Maker, Business PC User, Developer, Education, Government, IT Professional and Technology Decision Maker.

Regardless of intriguing new features, these days of shrinking IT budgets require that new products demonstrate a significant increase in productivity in order to justify their deployment. Come hear why Exchange 2003 is worth the upgrade! This seminar will provide an introduction to features available through Exchange 2003 that will benefit your organization and make Exchange 2003 worth the time and money to upgrade:

Better and easier access for the mobile workforce
Improved administrative and management capabilities
Built-In Tools to assist with migrations

Presented by Allin Consulting.

Webcasts in August

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: How to Protect Your Enterprise from Spam: Solutions for Microsoft Exchange
Wednesday, August 04, 2004 10:00 AM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Description:
The increasing volume of spam and the increasing ingenuity of those who disseminate it have made the battle against spam a priority in the enterprise environment. Current anti-spam weapons must address end users’ needs and concerns without placing excessive demands on company resources or system administrators. Join us online to see the ways that Sunbelt Software's iHateSpam for Exchange can be deployed to easily and effectively protect an enterprise. Spam filtering techniques will be presented along with solutions specifically designed to support Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, 2000 and 2003 environments.

Presenter: Greg Kraus, Chief Technology Officer, Sunbelt-Software

MSDN Webcast: Using Exchange ActiveSync® Server – Level 300
Wednesday, August 04, 2004 11:00 AM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Description:
Exchange Server 2003 now includes the ability to synchronize Windows Mobile™ devices wirelessly using Exchange ActiveSync Server. As more devices running Windows Mobile 2003 enter the market, many users now have an option to enable Always-Up-To-Date sync with the server. This session will: Give an overview of the mechanics of the AUTD system. Describe how to configure devices to use AUTD, Describe the available AUTD administration settings and Give tips and tricks for troubleshooting issues should they arise.

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2003: Technical Overview - Level 200
Friday, August 06, 2004 11:30 AM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Description:
Have you seen all the new features available Exchange Server 2003? Exchange has new security enhancements which include better anti-spam and anti-virus features. Join this webcast for an up-close look at administration improvements to the Mailbox Recovery Center, Error Reporting, Public Folder management and the Exchange System Manager. Also, see the improvements to the Outlook Client side, Outlook Web Access (OWA) and Outlook Mobile Access (OMA).

The Expert's Guide to Exchange 2003 - Chapter Six Now Available

Chapter six of Steve Bryant's eBook 'The Expert's Guide for Exchange 2003: Preparing for, Moving to, and Supporting Exchange Server 2003' is all about Deploying Microsoft Outlook and is now available for download.

Hosted Exchange: Can it Work for You?

Exchange 2003 is much improved when compared to its predecessors for use by hosts or service providers.

There is a good article in MCP Magazine by John Moh that might answer some questions you might have about hosting Exchange yourself or using a hosted Exchange solution.

Microsoft's site also has a separate section covering hosted Exchange with case studies, technical articles and more.

William Lefkovics

How Big is Exchange?

Senior Microsoft VP Eric Rudder said that "Microsoft's Exchange messaging platform is now a $1 billion business. Its seat count this year grew by 30%," as reported by SearchWin2000.com.

Another tidbit, Hewlett Packard has "over 13 million Microsoft Exchange Server 2000/2003 seats under contract through HP Services; plus over 6 million seats through HP authorized business partners."

William Lefkovics

Misc Robichaux...

Paul Robichaux's been busy writing some more great articles....

Cleaning Up After Classified Email

Deploying Exchange Intelligent Message Filter

Exchange Storage-Management Tools

"Testing Exchange's New Spam Filter"

Bill Boswell's been evaluating the IMF

"In spite of its shortcomings, you can't beat the price of IMF. If you're deploying Exchange 2003, you should at least evaluate it before spending additional money on third-party products"

Exchange Server 2003 Technical Reference Guide

Overview

This technical reference guide presents a system architect's view of Exchange Server 2003. It includes a general overview of Exchange Server 2003 messaging system design, together with more specific details, such as services dependencies, Active Directory® directory service integration, Exchange System Manager architecture, routing architecture, SMTP transport architecture, X.400 architecture, Exchange store architecture, and cluster architecture. This information will help you design, maintain, and troubleshoot an Exchange organization and also develop custom solutions for administrators. This detailed reference guide is not for beginning administrators and does not show you how to implement or maintain Exchange Server 2003. Instead, this guide is for Microsoft Certified System Engineers (MSCEs) and Exchange Server experts who want to take their knowledge about Exchange Server 2003 to the next level.

Things to Do When Your Exchange gets Blacklisted

"One day you get a lot of phone calls regarding mail not getting anywhere and your SMTP queue is full of junk. This could easily get you into panic and much calls to outside expensive consultants. Instead, a few steps can rid you of these attacks. This article will deal with how to get your Exchange server out of block lists and stop attacks at the same time."

MSExchange.org article

Office 2003 Service Pack 1 Released

Office 2003 Service Pack 1 provides the latest updates to Microsoft Office 2003.

Update - Issues that are fixed in Outlook 2003 by Office 2003 Service Pack 1

How to Create a Query Based Distribution Group

John Savill explains how to create a QBDG - Query Based Distribution Group.

New MSExchange.org Articles

Two new articles have been published over at MSExchange.org...

Protecting Exchange against Spam

Site Consolidation Tools for Exchange Server 2003

"You Go First: Making the E-Mail Upgrade Decision"

"Many CIOs like to stay a version or two behind their vendor's latest e-mail offering, until the ROI for an upgrade is clear".....

"...But waiting too long to upgrade can increase the cost and complexity of the project. "The longer you wait, the more work you wind up having to do. You may find that the messaging piece is out of date, and the network infrastructure is out of date"

Full article

Publishing OWA with ISA 2004

Just came across this new KB article which should come in handy...

How to publish a Microsoft Exchange server for Outlook Web Access in ISA Server 2004

Email Subscription Spam Risk Audit Whitepaper

Arial Software is in the business of selling email marketing software.

They have completed an assessment of email newsletter practices of over 1,000 companies by subscribing to their newsletters and monitoring the addresses for a period of 6 months. They concluded that "99.6% of the companies we subscribed to held true to their privacy policies and didn’t spam us."

"(The) fear of inviting spam causes many of us to avoid subscribing to email newsletters at all. Yet as this study reveals, the fear is unfounded."

While I would challenge their proclamation that their 2004 E-mail Subscription Spam Risk Audit report is "the most comprehensive audit of business-to-consumer (B2C) email practices ever conducted," it certainly does effectively quantify this aparent non-risk when dealing with legitimate businesses with an online presence.

Good work, guys!

(This is actually an exercise I have wanted to do for some time.)

William Lefkovics

TechEd Presentations Online

Just discovered that a whole bunch of TechEd presentations seem to have been published online yesterday... (note - they can take a while to load-up.. be patient!... Also, if you have problems clicking through i.e. you get a 'page cannot be displayed' when clicking one of these links... grab the URL and paste it into a new browser window instead... that's been working better for me...)

MSG344 - Catastrophic Hardware Failure Recovery with Exchange Server 2003

MSG343 - Exchange Server Sizing

MSG329 - Introduction to Exchange Email Protection, Security and Hygiene

MSG345 - Deploying Exchange Server 2003 on the Internet for Client Access

MSG383 - Leveraging Exchange 2003, SharePoint 2003, Office 2003, and Live Communications Server 2003 in a Business Environment

MSG380 - Supporting Regulatory Compliance with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003

MSG342 - Planning and Implementing Site and Server Consolidation with Exchange Server 2003

MSG372 - Integrate, Extend, and/or Migrate Lotus Notes Applications to Share point, InfoPath, SQL Server, Exchange 2003, and VS

MSG330 - Developing for Exchange Server

MSG351 - Exchange 2003 Outlook Web Access

MSG348 - Exchange Server 2003 Cluster Deployments: Best Practices

MSG385 - Anti-Virus Strategies and Exchange Server

MSG350 - Exchange Server 2003 Mobile Services

MSG300 - Exchange and the Active Directory

MSG347 - Exchange Performance Monitoring and Analysis

MSG200 - General Session: Exchange Server Today and Tomorrow

MSG302 - Introduction to Deploying Exchange Server

MSG328 - Reducing Spam with Exchange Server 2003 and the Intelligent Message Filter

MSG325 - Managing and Administering Exchange Server 2000/2003

MSG321 - Exchange Server Backup and Restore Internals

MSG386 - Advanced Anti-Spam with Exchange 2003: Real-World Examples

MSG388 - Exchange Security Operations Guide

"This Security Certificate Was Issued by a Company that You Have Not Chosen to Trust"

When implementing an SSL solution, say to provide secure access to your OWA server, should you decide put in place your own PKI or certification authority as opposed to just getting the cheque book out and purchasing a certificate from a third party, you'll need to remember that the certificates issued by your CA aren't trusted by your browser, even Internet Explorer, as they've not been issued by a trusted root certification authority. This means that security warnings will be issued whenever you try to access your 'secure' site and to use the issued certificate. For example, when accessing OWA on an environment running Windows 2003 certificate services, you will receive the following warning dialog when accessing the site.

While it's possible just to continually select 'Yes' and to proceed past this warning and to access the OWA served mailbox securely, it's probably not good practice to ask and encourage your users to select 'Yes' to a security warning. Heck, who knows what the next warning might be that they say 'aye' to... some Gator-like malware install perhaps? Instead, it's a much better idea to install your root certificate in your clients' browser certificate store. Doing this will stop the warning from being displayed. This is a simple enough task, although before you begin it's important to note that you are installing your CA's root certificate into the browser, and not the certificate that's been issued to the OWA server and then to your browser. Therefore, it's not possible merely to select the 'View Certificate' option published on the security warning, and to then choose 'Install certificate.' Instead, it is necessary to export the CA's root certificate (.crt) file to a Base64 root certificate (.cer) file and to import this certificate.

To do this...

Find and then double-click the root certificate file.
Click the Details tab and select Copy to file to start the Certificate Manager Export Wizard.
On the second screen of the wizard select Base64, and on the third screen provide a path and file name for the certificate.

Once you have exported the certificate it needs to be imported into the browser...

Double click the .cer file
Choose 'Install certificate' which will start the certificate import wizard.
On the 'Certificate Store page,' do not choose the default 'Automatically select the certificate store,' instead choose 'Place all certificates in the following store.' Hit 'Browse' and then select 'Trusted Root Certification Authorities.'

Then 'OK,' 'Next,' and 'Finish.'

A security warning will be displayed stating that you are installing a certificate that can't be validated.

Choose 'Yes' and you should receive an 'Import was successful' dialog. Now when you access your OWA site, the warning won't be displayed, and you should also notice a considerable improvement in the delivery of the logon page/mailbox.

If you have a large number of users you will want to look at using a Group Policy to rollout the certificate install, or at least to provide secure, but simple access to the file, along with simple to follow instructions for your users to carry out the task themselves.

So now that you have gotten rid of this warning, you're going to make sure that your boss knows that you've saved him a few hundred pounds (or dollars!) and that all is now well. (in reality it may have cost more in time to implement than a third party certificate would have cost to buy). However... if you're also making use of Outlook Mobile Access, not using a third party certificate may come back to bite. Depending on the mobile device being used (Windows powered Smartphones are fine) the browser being used will again throw-up a warning about the certificate not being trusted or verified, and in some cases that'll be the end of the line i.e. the browser won't offer the ability to import your own certificate, and there'll be no way past the error/warning. Therefore, if you want to make life easier for everyone - yourself, and your users, and to ensure that mailboxes will be easily accessible, using whatever method/device, a third party cerificate is probably the way to go.

There is a KB article on importing a root certificate however the Rootinstall.asp file throws-up errors if used with IE 6.

Troubleshooting OWA's "Loading" Message

Paul Robichaux explains how to troubleshoot OWA's "Loading" Message in his latest article for Windows & .NET Magazine

SMTP Connectors Explained

Marc Grote explains how to configure an SMTP connector in his latest article for MSExchange.org

Who's Reading Your Mail?

Top 10 Places Your Email Can Be Intercepted

"How to improve your Outlook"

Rafe Needleman talks about the plug-ins that he uses to improve his Outlook experience.

Office 2000 Mainstream Support Ended June 30, 2004

Over the last few days, we've seen the handover of Iraq, Canada's 137th birthday and the end of mainstream support for Office 2000.

"Office 2000 – Microsoft will continue to offer mainstream hotfix support for Office 2000 through June 30, 2004. The Office 2000 extended support period will last from July 1, 2004, through June 30, 2009. The latest Office 2000 service pack is required for hotfix support."

This includes Outlook 2000, of course.

Thank you to Sue Mosher for reminding us.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 5.5 -> 2003 Migration Article

Bill Boswell has a piece on Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003 migrations over at MCP mag online.

Tony Redmond Talks IMF

In Tony Redmond's latest articles for Exchange & Outlook he explains the workings of IMF, alternatives to IMF, and the dos an don'ts of IMF archiving.

Updated RPC Over HTTP Paper

Microsoft has released an updated paper titled Exchange Server 2003 RPC over HTTP Deployment Scenarios. This guide describes four scenarios for deploying the Windows RPC over HTTP feature in a corporate environment, for both Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1, and Exchange Server 2003.

Several changes have been made - see the Overview section on the link for details.

Troubleshooting Mailbox Manager Policies

This blog post has been removed for a more comprehensive article that I've written here.

Exchange 2003 SP1 Badmail Changes

In case you don't read Evan's weblog (shame on you if you don't!) you might like to know that there have been a couple of changes with the way that Exchange 2003 SP1 handles badmail. It's all detailed here.

IMF Article

Exchange MVP Henrik Walther has written a new article over at msexchange.org titled Using Microsoft Exchange Intelligent Message Filter.

In his article, Henrik discusses installing and using the IMF.

The OWAAdmin Tool

Exchange MVP Lee Derbyshire has written a new article looking at the OWAAdmin tool. Check it out here.

Exchange 2003 Clustering Checklist

If you are looking to deploy an Exchange 2003 cluster, note that Microsoft has released an Exchange 2003 cluster configuration checklist which you can download here.

Overview:
Discussion of the top cluster configuration issues developed through the operational experience of Microsoft IT that can adversely affect the performance and stability of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. By addressing the cluster configuration concerns outlined in this document, IT shops will prevent many of the most common problems that affect Exchange.

Exchange 2003 Site Consolidation

Are you thinking of deploying Exchange 2003 and want to take advantage of the site consolidation features? If so, you might want to grab a copy of Microsoft's document on this subject here.

Overview:
Deploying a Worldwide Site Consolidation Solution for Exchange Server 2003 at Microsoft. Detailed discussion on how Microsoft IT used Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Office System 2003 to enable a consolidation of Exchange sites from 75 to just seven worldwide. To accomplish this task, the IT Messaging team gathered and analyzed detailed wide area network (WAN)-level network measurements on a site-by-site basis to determine if consolidation was viable. It then consolidated its mailbox server infrastructure on Windows server clusters using storage area network (SAN) storage enclosures. Follow-up network measurements were taken after each group of sites was migrated to ensure latency and performance requirements were met.

US TechEd 2004 Slides & Hands-On Lab Manuals

Courtesy of Bink, you might like to know that the messaging hands-on lab manuals from the US TechEd this year are available to the public. You can download them here.

Also, the slides and videos are available here.

Exchange 2003 Status Monitoring

"Exchange 2003 Standard and Enterprise offers the feature to monitor the Server status of the Exchange Servers in your Enterprise. If some of the monitored services and other Resources (RAM, CPU, Services) are in “Warning state” or “Critical State” you receive a status E-Mail or a customized action provided by a script notification. This article explains in detailed steps how to configure Monitoring and E-Mail notification."... full MSExchange.org article.

"Bad, Bad, BadMail"

Bill Boswell's written about the new Microsoft Badmail script over at MCPMag, explaining what it can do, and how to use it.

Business Value of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003

Do you need some help justifying the adoption of Exchange 2003 to 'the management?' If so, the Business Value of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 document might help.

The Expert's Guide for Exchange 2003 - Chapter Four Available

Chapter 4 of Steve Bryant's The Expert's Guide for Exchange 2003 eBook is now available... Installing Exchange Server 2003

IMF, SBS and the POP3 Connector...

Apparently IMF doesn't work on an SBS 2003 server that is configured with a POP3 connector... Tom's corner explains all...

Original Exchange FAQ Site Updated - swinc.com

The same great information at swinc.com, makers of the Exchange Resource Manager, and the most complete Exchange FAQ look even better in the new updated site: swinc.com Exchange Resources.

William Lefkovics

"Help Users Take Command of Email"

Sue Mosher on Office 2003 SP1, and the US Air Force's 22-page "Commander's Guide to Managing E-mail"...

Microsoft ActiveSync 3.7.1 Released

"Microsoft® ActiveSync® 3.7.1 is the latest synchronization software for Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs and Smartphones. ActiveSync 3.7.1 contains fixes making synchronization more trouble free than ever before and includes all the significant improvements brought to you in ActiveSync 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7: it is easy to install and use while offering the best levels of reliability"

Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1 Reviewed

Amit Zinman's reviewed Exchange 2003 SP1 over at MSExchange.org

Schorr & McBee Q&As

Ben Schorr and Jim McBee answer some more Exchange questions on OWA calendar access, Outlook profile rollouts and more, over at Windows System Server Magazine.

Exchange Server 2003 Disaster Recovery Operations Guide

Microsoft has released the Exchange Server 2003 Disaster Recovery Operations Guide.

Overview:
This guide explains how to back up and restore the critical data in your Exchange organization. It covers how to use the backup utility in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Backup), how to back up Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, and how to restore Exchange Server 2003. This guide explains how to perform backup and restore procedures so that you can prepare for (back up) and recover from (restore) a failure that causes some or all of your data to become unavailable. This guide is intended for information technology (IT) professionals who perform backup and restore procedures or who write customized backup and restore procedures for their organization.

Exchange Server 2003 High Availability Guide

Microsoft has released the Exchange Server 2003 High Availability Guide.

Overview:
Messaging systems are mission-critical components for many companies. However, circumstances such as component failure, power outages, operator errors, and natural disasters can affect a messaging system's availability. To help prevent against such circumstances, it is crucial that companies plan and implement reliable strategies for maintaining high availability. As an added benefit, a highly available messaging system can save money by providing consistent messaging functionality to users.

Whether you are deploying a new Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 installation or upgrading from a previous version of Exchange Server, this guide will help you plan and deploy a highly available Exchange Server 2003 messaging system. Many of the high availability recommendations in this guide are related directly to the planning recommendations in Planning an Exchange Server 2003 Messaging System. Before using this guide to implement your high availability strategy, you should first read Planning an Exchange Server 2003 Messaging System

Exchange 2003: Auto Accept Agent

"A store event sink that automatically processes meeting requests for resource mailboxes. The agent checks the availability of the resource mailbox based on the resource’s schedule (not free/busy), and accepts or declines new or updated meeting requests."

Exchange 2003 MOM Management Pack Technical Guide

Here's something useful for those of you using MOM to monitor your Exchange 2003 environment. Microsoft has released a technical reference guide to the Exchange 2003 management pack. You can download it here.

This guide is intended to be a reference of the complete Event Rules, Alert Rules, and Performance Rules of the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Management Pack for MOM 2000 SP1. Because of the large amount of information, this guide has not been packaged as one document, but as seven individual document files that are logically split, based on the user interface in MOM 2000 SP1. There is also an introduction that lists the contents of each volume. Note that the Exchange Event Monitoring Rule Group, again because of the size, is Volume 1, but it comprises three parts.

Upcoming Exchange 2000/2003 FE/BE Paper

Using Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003 Front-End Servers

"Using Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003 Front-End Servers" is an upcoming revision to the "Using Microsoft Exchange 2000 Front-End Servers" online book. This version includes an overview of the back-end and front-end server topology, deployment processes, and configuration information."

Supporting Regulatory Compliance with Exchange Server 2003

"By helping organizations to track and easily retrieve communications sent within their Exchange Server messaging systems, Microsoft and its partners provide a solid platform to help the organizations meet regulations. Exchange Server provides basic journaling and archiving capabilities, and Microsoft’s partners have created out-of-the-box solutions that enhance the capabilities of Exchange Server.

This white paper explains how to create common message archival systems and properly track and maintain data using solutions appropriate for your organization."

Today's Reading...

Here's some new articles for you to read while your SP1 is downloading...

Configuring an Inbound and Outbound SMTP Relay to Complement ISA 2004 Firewall Protection for Exchange Servers - ISAserver.org
"I’m a big proponent of the SMTP relay concept. A properly configured SMTP relay can protect your Exchange Server by preventing untrusted SMTP servers on the Internet from directly communicating with your Exchange server. An SMTP relay doesn’t require a significant amount of system resources and you can install the IIS SMTP service without incurring the resource or security overhead you would have if you installed the IIS W3SVC (World Wide Web service).In this article we'll go over some of the important details you need to consider before rolling out an SMTP relay to complement your ISA 2004 firewall e-mail protection design"

Managing Mobile Access with Exchange Server 2003 - MSExchange.org
"With Exchange Server 2003 we have some integrated mobile access features with the Microsoft messaging solution. In this article we firstly discuss the chances and risks of providing mobile access in Exchange and then describe the best practises configuring these ones"

Diagnosing Exchange Symptoms - MCPmag.com
Bill Boswell helps another reader who's been experiencing some weird behaviours since migrating from 5.5 to 2003.

I'm sure this same news piece is published by the BBC every month Spam messages on the increase

Exchange & Outlook Build Information

There's a comprehensive list of Exchange and Outlook build numbers over on this CDOLive page.

Backing Up Exchange 2003 Clusters

Microsoft has released a paper providing detailed information on how the Microsoft IT group backs up its clustered Exchange 2003 infrastructure. You can download this paper here.

Boswell's Q & A

Bill Boswell's latest column at MCPMag discusses a reader's 5.5 to 2003 upgrade problems, and he also reminds everyone that you should not run the /3GB switch on Windows 2000 Standard Servers.

Exchange Quota Message Service Project

"Exchange Quota Message Service - Generates custom quota messages for users on Exchange server without editing DLLs. The service uses template messages as a basis for the quota messages. Templates can contain inserts that have the mailbox size, warning limit, send limit, and send receive limit, as well as the difference between each." Adam's helping with the documentation.

Slowing and Stopping E-Mail Viruses in an Exchange 2003 Environment

"Overview
This document provides you with recommendations on how to fortify an Exchange environment against e-mail transmitted viruses and worms. Resources for the implementation details related to the recommendations are included. This document includes three main sections:

Recommended Actions and Configurations: Provides the recommendations that you should implement to help minimize the impact of viruses and worms in the e-mail environment.

Optional Configurations: Discusses some lower priority or alternate configuration suggestions that you should implement if you are unable to implement all the recommendations in the first section.

What to Do When a Virus Attack Occurs: Gives a suggested set of recommendations and procedures for handling a virus outbreak. It is critical that you read this section and create a plan before an actual outbreak occurs."

"Understanding the hosted messaging market"

"Industry analysts and outsourcing experts said that even though hosted e-mail services have their pluses and minuses, they can add increased security and productivity to many companies' messaging equations. However, for one user, those assertions don't add up.

The experts, who spoke this week at TechTarget's Enterprise Messaging Decisions conference, said the decision to go with a hosted e-mail provider depends largely on an enterprise's size and e-mail compliance needs.

Large companies usually find it more cost effective to manage e-mail internally, while smaller companies are often better off outsourcing the task and focusing on their core businesses, said Michael Osterman, president and founder of Osterman Research.".. full article

Exchange Server 2003 Performance and Scalability Guide

"This guide provides information about Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 performance and scalability. You will learn about the various factors that affect performance, and it provides recommendations about how to optimize your Exchange 2003 environment. Finally, the guide reviews how Exchange performs under various user loads and provides a method to determine your hardware needs."

Exchange Server 2003 High Availability Guide

"Preview: Chapter 3 - Making Your Exchange 2003 Organization Fault Tolerant

"Exchange Server 2003 High Availability Guide" is an upcoming addition to the Exchange Server 2003 Technical Documentation Library. This preview chapter provides information about how to maximize the fault tolerance of you Exchange 2003 messaging system."

'Seven Myths About Outlook"

Useful piece in the latest Slipstick Exchange Messaging Outlook newsletter... 'Seven Myths About Outlook.'

Expert’s Guide for Exchange 2003 – Chapter 3 Now Available

Chapter 3 of Steve Bryant's 'Expert's Guide for Exchange 2003' eBook has been published. It's available here (registration is required)

"The Real ROI of Exchange"

Paul Robichaux is speaking today at the Enterprise Messaging Decisions event being held in Chicago, and has generously published his presentation.

Exchange Queue Viewer Article

Exchange MVP Henrik Walther has written a new article covering the queue viewer improvements in Exchange 2003, which you can read here.

Summary:
Being an Exchange Administrator involves several different maintenance tasks, one of them is to regularly check if mail messages flows properly through your X.400 and SMTP Virtual Server queues, which is where the Queue Viewer contained in the Exchange System Manager comes into the picture. In this article I will introduce you to the Queue Viewer improvements found in Exchange 2003, as well as give a brief description of the different queue types available.

"Fighting Spam and Viruses at the Server"

"Dee-Ann and Robert LeBlanc conclude their series on weeding out the spam in your users' inboxes with this comprehensive look at the tools and tricks Windows mail administrators can use to get their incoming mail services back under control."

New Hotix for Exchange 2000/2003 Servers With Multiple Processors

Gerod Serafin's highlighted a new KB article/hotfix that's been published... "Information store may stop responding on an Exchange server with several processors"

Upcoming Document Preview

Microsoft has released a preview chapter ("Managing Free/Busy Folders") of the upcoming Working with the Exchange 2003 Store document, part of the Exchange 2003 Technical Documentation Library. The full document is scheduled for release in June 2004.

Overview:
This chapter describes how Microsoft Exchange clients generate and retrieve free/busy data, and how Exchange stores the data. It recommends three basic ways to deploy free/busy servers for maximum efficiency. It describes the behavior of free/busy folders when you replicate free/busy data between Exchange organizations or between an Exchange organization and a messaging system other than Exchange. Finally, this chapter also provides some recommendations for cleaning up free/busy data.

Outlook's Address Book Provider

You may remember a previous blog post of mine on Outlook 2003's Connection Status window that also shows which Global Catalog your Outlook 2003 client is using.

What about previous versions of Outlook? One of the more often overlooked ways of finding out your Outlook address book provider is to do the following:

1. Click the Address Book icon in Outlook.
2. Set the Show Names from the: field to Global Address List.
3. Right-click the words Global Address List where you will see a single context menu entry of Properties.
4. Select the Properties menu option and you will be presented with a screen showing you the address book provider details.

Don't forget that if you do this on really old Outlook clients (Outlook 97 and Outlook 98 pre-SR2) that aren't expecting to communicate with a Global Catalog server, you'll see the Exchange 5.5 server name that is running the Directory Service.

Obviously, the above steps still work with Outlook 2003. However, one thing you will notice is that if you use Outlook 2003 in cached mode, you'll see that your provider is listed as where your Offline Address Book is stored, which makes perfect sense of course.

Active Directory Operations Guide

Here's a great AD bookmark for you... Microsoft's Active Directory Operations Guide... there's a stack of useful step-by-step instructions for achieving various tasks.

Exchange Patches Available

Microsoft has released the following patches for Exchange:

April 2004 Exchange 2000 Server post-Service Pack 3 update rollup

This patch resolves problems that were found in Exchange 2000 since SP3 was released.

Exchange 2003 Post-RTM Store Patch 6980.72

This patch resolves problems that were found in the Exchange 2003 Store since Exchange 2003 was released.

Anti-Spam Product Comparison

Sunbelt Software have created a PDF which compares the features of their own anti-spam product iHateSpam against other companies' offerings.

(Update - the PDF has been pulled from the Sunbelt site - I'll keep an eye on the link, and also check to see if the file makes a reappearance somewhere else. Further update (21/4) it's back...

"Making Outlook do what we want"

"We finally decided to address something that has been bugging us for a while - to wit, figuring out how to launch applications from a Microsoft Outlook appointment or a task list item" ... part one...

Exchange 2000 Server Upgrade Series - Job Aids

"The Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Upgrade Series is specifically created to assist you in the process of planning, deploying, and operating Exchange 2000 Server. Whether you are part of a large multinational organization with branch offices all over the world or a small company based in one location, the information and best practices contained in this guide should save you considerable time and effort."

Public Folder ESM Error

There are quite a few errors that can be reported in Exchange System Manager when expanding the Public Folders object. One such error that I have seen reported in the newsgroups a few times is the following:

The token supplied to the function is invalid. ID no:
80090308 Exchange System Manager

If you get this error, then check out MSKB 324345. Although this KB doesn't currently contain this error text (although hopefully it will in the future), the resolutions covered in this KB should be enough to get rid of this error.

Outlook 2003/2002 Add-in: Notes Connector

Outlook Connector for IBM Lotus Domino enables you to use Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2002 to access your e-mail messages, calendar, address book, and To Do (task) items on an IBM Lotus Domino Release 5.x or Release 6.x server. Download it here.

New Exchange FAQs Site

The world famous Simpler-Webb Exchange FAQs now have their own smart website... exchangefaq.org

Exchange 2003 Message Flow Article

Markus Klein has written a new article over at www.msexchange.org titled Troubleshooting and Monitoring Exchange Server 2003 Message Flow.

Summary:
Nowadays, with the great success of Exchange Server 2003, you have to prepare yourself on what action to take should message flow related problems occur. To ensure that you, as an administrator, become aware and recognize any problems before your users have reported them, you will need to make use of monitoring. This article will describe how to monitor your server queues and how to react if there are any problems.

Exchange 2003 & Native Mode

A few weeks ago I was upgrading a customer's Exchange organisation to Exchange 2003 when I noticed that the organisation was still in mixed mode. They didn't have any Exchange 5.5 servers left, so I asked them why they were still in mixed mode. This prompted the question of what the ramifications and benefits are of switching to mixed mode, so I thought it useful to recap these points since there are a couple of new benefits with Exchange 2003.

Basically, the ramifications of switching to native mode are that it's a one-way switch and your Exchange organisation can no longer support legacy Exchange 5.5 servers. This shouldn't really be a problem considering Exchange 5.5's support lifecycle.

There are a few benefits to switching to native mode Exchange:

Routing & Admin Groups
When coexisting with Exchange 5.5, your routing and admin group topology must obey the Site topology of you existing Exchange 5.5 organisation for backwards compatibility reasons. When in native mode, you have much more flexibility with the two and you can start to design your organisation based on separate routing and admin models. However, there still exists the issue of not being able to move servers between admin groups so think about that one for your deployment. You'll more than likely have to deploy new servers in the correct admin group and move the mailboxes across (covered next).

Mailbox Moves
Following on roughly the same lines as the routing and admin group model comes the ability to move mailboxes between admin groups. Those of you with Exchange 5.5 knowledge will remember that there is no easy (read 'automatic') way to move mailboxes between Sites in Exchange 5.5. Since Exchange 5.5 Sites map to routing and admin groups in mixed mode organisations, it follows that there is currently no easy way to move mailboxes between admin groups when in mixed mode. Once in native mode, however, note that it is possible to move mailboxes between admin groups.

Default Routing Protocol
SMTP becomes the default routing protocol between servers, whereas X.400 is still used in mixed mode for backwards compatibility with Exchange 5.5.

Query-based Distribution Lists (QDGs)
New to Exchange 2003 is the ability to create QDGs, which can only be created when the organisation is in native mode. In case you didn't already know, QDGs are distribution groups that use LDAP filters to dynamically build group membership. A good KB article for explaining more information on QDGs is 822897.

8BITMIME Data Transfers
One often overlooked benefit of switching to native mode when used in conjunction with Exchange 2003 is the concept of 8BITMIME data transfers between bridgehead servers. If you are planning an Exchange 2003 upgrade, be sure to think about upgrading your routing bridgehead pairs first. This will give you a bandwidth saving (the figures I've seen are around the 10% mark) over your routing group connectors. This is because the bridgehead servers will use 8BITMIME data transfers rather than converting down to 7-bit.

Zombie ACEs
Those of you who have migrated from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2000 will no doubt be aware of zombie entries, the name given to inconsistencies in ACLs in Exchange 5.5 which caused trouble in Exchange 2000 installations. The way to eradicate these is to run NTDSNoMatch and the DS/IS consistency adjuster in Exchange 5.5 to ensure no zombie permissions exist before upgrading. One thing to note is that Exchange 2003 servers running in a native mode organisation will automatically ignore these zombie entries.

InetOrgPerson Objects
Exchange 2003, when in a native mode organisation, now supports mail-enabled or mailbox-enabled InetOrgPerson objects. For more information see 822591.

New Whitepaper on Outlook 2003 PRF File

A new Microsoft Whitepaper is available outlining customisation options for the Outlook 2003 PRF file from the Office Resource Kit.

Outlook Deployment Options: Customizing a PRF File (725kb)

The Outlook Profile file is one method for profile creation for Outlook deployments, including MAPI profiles for Exchange Server. There are some changes for Outlook 2003 PRF file outlined in this document.

William Lefkovics

Explanation of NAS Support for Exchange 2003

There is a new kb article discussing Microsoft's policy for using NAS with Exchange Server 2003:

Microsoft support policy on the use of network-attached storage devices with Exchange Server 2003.

Here is a summary:
"Microsoft only supports the use of Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) qualified storage devices with Exchange 2003"

NAS Support for previous versions of Exchange are outlined in the following articles:
KB317172: XADM: Exchange Server 5.5 and Network-Attached Storage
KB317173: XADM: Exchange Server 2000 and Network-Attached Storage

Thank you to Melissa Travers of Microsoft for the information.

William Lefkovics

Key Management Server Migration

Have you been using the Key Management Server in Exchange 2000? Well, if you plan to implement Windows 2003 & Exchange 2003, you might want to consider your options for migration with the KMS involved.

Marc Grote has written an article on this very subject which you can find here.

Summary:
Exchange 2003 uses the Windows Server 2003 PKI architecture to provide secure e-mail services for Exchange users. Exchange 2000 KMS is no longer supported. The Windows 2003 Enterprise CA provides central key archiving and recovery. This article explains in high level steps how to migrate an Exchange 2000 KMS database to a Windows Server 2003 CA.

Junk E-mail Filter Update Analysis

Alexander Gorlach, MAPILab Outlook developer has got a new blog... he's been analysing the recent Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter Update.

Exchange 200x Requires NetBIOS Name Resolution

I think many of us had hoped that the requirement for WINS would have disappeared by now, but it seems very reluctant to leave. "Microsoft tries to make sure all programs work without NetBIOS, but this may only apply to future products."

This is true still with Exchange 2003 as shown in the new KB Article:
Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange 2000 Server require NetBIOS name resolution for full functionality

From the article:
The following Exchange functionality still depends on WINS name resolution:
The Exchange Server 2003 Setup program and the Exchange 2000 Server Setup program, especially on clustered servers.
Exchange Mailbox Merge Wizard (ExMerge) on an Exchange 2003 computer and on an Exchange 2000 computer.
Changing a password for an Exchange 2003 mailbox or an Exchange 2000 mailbox through Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA).
Exchange System Manager on an Exchange 2003 computer and on an Exchange 2000 computer.

William Lefkovics

Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter Update

"This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk. By installing it, you help the filter provide a higher level of protection against junk e-mail."

Fix Available For Exchange 2003 Event 8331

Microsoft has recently been researching the Exchange 2003 error listed below, which quite a few people have been experiencing. A hotfix for this issue has just been released.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeAL
Event Category: Address List Synchronization
Event ID: 8331
Description:
The service threw an unexpected exception which was caught at f:\titanium\dsa\src\lra\abv_dg\abvdgs.cpp(1388)

The fix can be obtained by calling PSS and asking for the fix number 837444. This fix is free of charge. You should also note that this fix will be included as part of Exchange 2003 SP1.

Thanks to Melissa Travers of Microsoft for the information.

Forms-based Authentication Timeouts

When does a timeout not occur when you think the timeout should occur? When it's a forms-based authentication timeout, of course.

You're probably wondering what on earth I am rambling on about. Well, it's the subject of the private and public timeouts when using forms-based authentication. I blogged an article some time ago on the subject of forms-based authentication. Towards the end of the article under the Tweaking Security Options heading, I gave some registry keys where you can adjust the inactivity timeout settings of OWA on Exchange 2003.

By default, these are 15 minutes for public computers and 24 hours for private computers. However, one thing to note is that the cookie doesn't timeout exactly after the value that you have set. In reality, the cookie will timeout at somewhere between the value and value x 1.5.

What Service Pack Am I Running Again?

Something that I found out last year came up again today and I've decided to blog this snippet of information. Some of you probably already know this, but anyway....

Last year the September post-SP3 rollup fix for Exchange 2000 came out. I applied this on several Exchange servers at a customer site, some of which were clustered and some not. After application of the rollup fix, I noticed that two of the servers were now showing as having Exchange 2000 Service Pack 4 applied to them, the others remaining at Service Pack 3 level. This was the first time I realised that application of the rollup fix changed the version information to SP4. I thought that replication simply hadn't yet occurred for the servers still showing as SP3.

However, you should note that only Exchange cluster servers are going to show SP4 in Exchange System Manager after the application of this rollup fix. Basically, on a cluster, the update routine runs much like the normal setup routine and calls exsetdata.dll to set the version information. On non-clustered servers, exsetdata.dll is not called.

I hear this is 'by design'.

(thanks to Rob Wilcox of Microsoft for confirming this information for me)

"Office XP update interferes with spam filters"

"Microsoft's latest set of updates for Office XP is causing headaches for users of two junk mail filtering products. After installing Office XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), users of Sunbelt Software's iHateSpam and Cloudmark's SpamNet are complaining about security warnings popping up with each e-mail message they receive, according to reports on the Windows NTBugtraq mailing list."

There's more info over at Slipstick.

Gimme the Hotfix!

So, you've got a problem, you research it on Technet, and you find that the resolution prescribes a 'hotfix,' which you'll need to obtain from PSS (for free)... How do you go about getting in touch with Microsoft and obtaining this hotfix?... Brandon explains all

Exchange Server 2003 Transport and Routing Guide

Microsoft has released the Exchange Server 2003 Transport and Routing Guide.

Overview:
Microsoft Exchange servers use Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to communicate with each other and to send messages. SMTP is part of the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Server operating system. This guide discusses basic components of transport and routing, explains how SMTP works in Exchange Server 2003, provides information on configuring a routing topology, discusses deployment scenarios, suggests ways to help secure your infrastructure, and offers troubleshooting tips.

Exchange In Maintenance Mode?

I was asked today what it means when an Exchange server appears with a status of In maintenance mode when viewed in Exchange System Manager's Tools / Monitoring and Status / Status node. This is shown below:

At first glance, this can look like there's a server problem. In fact, all it means is that on the properties of the server object in ESM, on the Monitoring tab, the check box Disable all monitoring of this server has been selected.

If you use Exchange's monitoring features and you want to take a particular server down, you can check this box to stop the generation of unwanted notifications and alerts whilst the server is offline.

Exchange Standard and the 16GB Limit

It seems from the number of newsgroup posts that have been continually appearing recently, that the tight 16GB limit that is a feature of Exchange Standard (and applies to all versions - 5.5, 2000, 2003) is coming under pressure for a number of companies. The size of a mail database of course is unlikely to reduce over time, unless there is a corporate messaging archive policy, or solution in place, and occasional offline defrags are performed. In most cases the database just grows and grows as users either haven't got the time to spring clean their mailboxes, or they just want to keep everything for posterity or future reference (or they've heard about PSTs and decided against them)

So, what should you do if your Exchange Standard server is about to hit the 16GB limit?

If it's not too late i.e. you've still got a bit of breathing space, you should do your best to contain the situation and the current size of the database, and to buy yourself some time in which to implement the chosen fix. It's always preferable to carry out maintenance at a time and pace of your choosing, and not when the IT director is standing at your back at three o’clock in the morning continually asking when the e-mail service is going to be restored. If you're not running with storage/mailbox limits in-place, for everyone, including the top brass, now's the time to get tough. It's also the appropriate time to ask the users to help you out by archiving some mail if possible, making sure that the PSTs used are located somewhere that enables them to be backed-up. Remember though, that merely asking users to delete and archive messages will not result in your database reducing in size it will merely create some white space that will be used for subsequent future transactions. An important point to note here too, is that the database size will actually grow if you have deleted item retention configured, and users delete mail items! These actions are of course potentially only necessary for the short term i.e. to ‘get you out of jail.’ You may not like, or particularly want to enforce limits or PSTs, and in the normal course of events these may not be needed or used, but here, right now, you’ve got to stop your Exchange database from hitting its limit.

Next, you have to decide upon one of the following options....

Upgrade the server to Exchange Enterprise
This itself is a relatively straightforward process. A license for the Enterprise Edition will of course need to be purchased.

Offline defragmentation
Event ID 1221 will tell you how much white space there is in the database and the amount of space that is likely to be reclaimed if an offline defrag is run. A server outage will of course be required in order to run this task, and sufficient time (with plenty of lee-way) should be agreed before going ahead. Don’t forget to include obtaining a tried and tested backup in your plans before carrying out the defrag. There is a significant amount of disk I/O during the defrag, and disks have been known to give up at these times. You may want to make sure that you've got a spare disk 'just in case.' The length of time that the defragmentation will take will depend on the amount of white space in the database, as well as the size of the transactions recorded in the database, not forgetting the hardware spec too. The process will essentially be copying all readable data from one database into a new structure in the second new database, and then copying the entire 'new' database back to the original location. Microsoft recommends a conservative 5 - 7 GB per hour for a defrag operation, which will be faster on top of the line hardware and slower on underpowered machines. You should make every effort to run the defrag on the server and not across the network, as it will be much much faster. "Offline defragmentation also requires free hard disk space of at least 110 percent of the database size. For example, Eseutil requires up to 1.10 gigabytes (GB) of free space to defragment a 1-GB Priv.edb database. Eseutil uses this hard disk space to create a temporary database that the defragmentation process uses. By default, Eseutil creates this database in the current working folder of the command prompt session from which Eseutil runs."

Implement an additional Exchange server into your site
This will potentially be the most expensive option, but possibly the best for the long term, especially if some future growth and expansion in your user base is likely. An additional server and Exchange license will be required here. You might be fortunate enough to have a spare server that you can use, in reality though a new box will probably be needed and again, this investment will go some way to future proofing your environment. Once the new server has joined the site or administrative group, a number of mailboxes can be migrated across from the first server. The point to note here, is that the old/existing database will not automatically shrink, i.e. an offline defrag will be needed.

Continue with steps taken to contain the growth
If there’s no money in the pot for new hardware or software, you might just have to make do with storage limits and PSTs. If this route is chosen it will be wise not to just tickle the database and reduce it by one or two GB, instead you need to go ‘the whole hog’ and make a significant reduction to your database size, otherwise you’re just prolonging the problem until it comes back to bite again in a month or two’s time. Remember too, that PST files are not the perfect solution in themselves. You’ve probably heard the phrase "If it's worth keeping, it's worth backing up" and there’s a high probability that PST files stored on local machines won't get backed up. If you store the PST files on a file server too, then you instantly have a box that can stop being a file server and become an Exchange server, since a number of PST files take-up more space than a similar amount of messages stored on an Exchange server would, with no single instance storage.

Some of the above also applies to situations where your physical disks are nearing full capacity. In this case you will need to decide upon whether to run an offline defrag (likely to help, but only for the short term), add additional disks to the existing array, or, depending on the size of the database, the time may have come for you to use some common sense and to implement an additional server. The latter option comes into play when the database totals somewhere between 20GB to 35GB, depending on your environment, backup solution used, and recovery times that are built into the SLA etc.

Some other points worth remembering...
The 16GB limit can be increased to 17GB on Exchange 2000

The limit is per database – i.e. 16GB for the priv.edb and 16GB for the pub.edb

With Exchange 2000 and 2003, the 16GB comprises of the EDB and the STM combined.

You can find out if you're running Standard or Enterprise by looking for either event ID 1216 in the application log, which signifies that the Standard Edition is being used, or 1217 which is written for the Enterprise Edition. These entries are created whenever the Information Store starts-up.

Exchange Tips at MCSEworld

I've added Daniel Petri's Exchange Server Tips and Tricks page to the Links page

Getting A List of Mailbox Sizes

Isn't it amazing in a product like Exchange how some things remain hidden away from people for ages? I responded today to someone on one of the Exchange mailing lists about how you can get a list of Exchange mailboxes and sizes.

Many people remember the File / Save Window Contents feature of the Exchange 5.5 Administrator program, which generated such a file. To do the same thing in Exchange 200x, you can right-click the Mailboxes object in Exchange System Manager and then choose Export List.

No matter how long I've spent with the Exchange product, I still find myself saying 'I never knew that' to things that must seem trivial to other people. I figure that every time something like this happens, when I either learn something new or show someone else something I take for granted, I should blog it for all.

AddressX

"Want all the names, telephone numbers, and email addresses of the people in your company without having to use a separate Address Book? AddressX makes it possible. All the contacts from your company's Exchange Global Address List (GAL) are available directly from the OS X Address Book quickly and easily. All with no need to install additional software on your Exchange server"

KC on RPC/HTTP(s) and Outlook 2003

KC's written a very useful post on the four most common problems that are encountered when enabling RPC over HTTP(s) in Outlook 2003... go and read!

Deleting Corrupt Outlook Items

I have just been having a look around the Exchange newsgroups tonight when I noticed a thread that has cropped up quite a bit recently. I thought it worthy of a blog post.

Basically, someone was asking how they could delete what appeared to be a corrupted item in Outlook. When attempting a delete, they were faced with the error 'The item could not be deleted. It was either moved or already deleted, or access was denied'.

Exchange MVPs Mark Fugatt and Ben Winzenz offered the following series of methods for removing the offending item:

1. Hold down the shift key and then select delete.
2. Try deleting the item using OWA.
3. Use the MDBVU32 utility.
4. Use the old Exchange32 client. I've still got my original Exchange 4.0 and 5.0 CDs and you never know when the client will come in handy!

As it turns out, the first option of holding down the shift key did the trick. It's nice to have the other 3 methods up your sleeve if you come across this issue.

Useful Outlook Tips

Benjamin Zachary has kindly shared a couple of Outlook tips over on the Sunbelt Exchange Newsgroup...

"Running outlook.exe /rpcdiag will bring the RPC connectivity window front and center for testing rpc/http...

If you ever have a problem with an add-in in Outlook and load it in safe mode it will put the extension in disabled. Even if you go back into Options.. Other.. Com Addins or Add in Manager and check the extension it will simply uncheck it when you close the box. When an item in Outlook is disabled you have to go to Help..About Microsoft Outlook..Disabled Items to re-enable it."

Hosted Exchange with Virtual-eMail

Looking for a UK based Hosted Exchange provider? If so, I've just been speaking with Virtual-eMail who have been providing a hosted Exchange solution for a year now, working out of one of the impressive Docklands datacentres. Their set-up sounds pretty impressive, and I would suggest that you give them a call if you're evaluating this type of service.

Motorola News

Very interesting and useful tip over at You Had Me At EHLO for people like me who are using the Motorola MPx200... "when you switch the phone to Automatic, it won’t ring during your meetings! And all because you’ve synched it with your Exchange server."
This is very neat functionality... your phone knows that you've got/are in a meeting as it's been entered into your Outlook calendar and synchronised with your phone, and the phone won't ring during this time... excellent!

While we're on the subject of Smartphones, Motorola are to release a couple of impressive looking new devices in the coming months as I mentioned recently. Scoble has linked to some leaked videos of the MPx. It looks fantastic, I particularly like the hand movement when the chap opens the phone up... is it just me or does it look as though he's doing this?

Exchange 2003 OWA Themes

Want to know more about Exchange 2003 Outlook Web Access themes?

Exchange MVP Lee Derbyshire has written a new article over at www.msexchange.org

Summary: Ever since its first appearance, many Exchange Admins have attempted to customize the Outlook Web Access user interface . In Exchange 2003, the concept of 'themes' makes things a little easier. This article explains some of the theory.

Information on Microsoft's new Caller ID Specification

Here you can download a document on Microsoft's new Caller ID specification.

Overview:
"Caller ID for E-Mail: The Next Step to Deterring Spam" is Microsoft's draft specification to address the widespread problem of domain spoofing. (Domain spoofing refers specifically to the use of someone else's domain name when sending a message, and is part of the larger spoofing problem, the practice of forging the sender's address on e-mail messages.)

Caller-ID for e-mail would verify that each e-mail message originates from the Internet domain it claims to come from. Eliminating domain spoofing will help legitimate senders protect their domain names and reputations, and help receivers more effectively identify and filter junk e-mail.

There are also two other useful documents to download:

Protecting Domain Names from Spoofing: A Guide for E-Mail Senders

The patent license for those interested in implementing the "Caller-ID for E-Mail Technical Specification."

Exchange 2003 and Active Directory

Chapter one of Steve Bryant's free eBook "The Expert's Guide for Exchange 2003: Preparing for, Moving to, and Supporting Exchange Server 2003" has been published over at Windows & .Net Magazine.

"This eBook will educate Exchange administrators and systems managers on how to best approach the migration and overall management of an Exchange 2003 environment. The book will focus on core issues such as configuration management, accounting, and monitoring performance with an eye toward migration, consolidation, security and management."

Exchange Server 2003 Security Hardening Guide

"This guide is designed to provide you with essential information about how to harden your Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 environment. In addition to practical, hands-on configuration recommendations, this guide includes strategies for combating spam, viruses, and other external threats to your Exchange 2003 messaging system"

"Why Email is Better than the Telephone"

Deane doesn't like it when people call him on the phone, preferring to communicate by email instead... this has prompted him to make a list of reasons Why Email is Better than the Telephone

Attachment Security for OWA

“AttachView for Outlook Web Access is a server-based OWA attachment security and document viewing solution that converts email attachments into non-cached HTML files, providing security and enhancing productivity:

Ensure that no documents are left on an unsecured machine for others to view

Quickly and easily view and print over 200 file formats (including Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat PDF) from within OWA—without the need for the originating application

Easily navigate long documents with a hyperlinked “Table of Contents”

Save time by quickly viewing attachments without having to wait for an application to load and open"

Robichaux on Exchange and Software Assurance

Paul Robichaux provides some information and thoughts on Microsoft's Software Assurance (SA) scheme, and why the forthcoming Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) for Exchange 2003 is only going to be provided to SA customers.

MBSA 1.2 Adds Support for Exchange Server 2003

Lost in the patch madness of the ASN vulnerability and the source code leaks, at least in my little part of the world, was the update to the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer.

Of note, the new MBSA 1.2 adds checks for Exchange Server 2003, among other components and applications.
Here is the MBSA 1.2 FAQ.

William Lefkovics

Understanding and Troubleshooting Directory Access

Though this new Microsoft article, which covers the components of Directory Access, is intended for Exchange 2000 Server, there is a lot that applies to Exchange Server 2003 as well.

This paper discusses three Exchange 2000 directory access components:
Directory Service Access (DSAccess)
Directory Service Proxy (DSProxy)
Categorizer

William Lefkovics

Exchange on a DC

One question that often pops up in the Exchange world is whether it's a good idea (or not, as the case may be) to install Exchange on a domain controller. Generally, this has not been recommended in the past, with the two most common reasons being:

An increase in disaster recovery complexity. This was certainly true in an NT4 environment, but it would be fair to say that, since much of Exchange's configuration information is stored in Active Directory (assuming Exchange 200x), this is no longer so much of an issue.

The performance impact of locating these two services on the same machine. Logic dictates that separating these two roles will be best for performance, since the domain controller has plenty of other work to do.

Exchange 2003 running on a domain controller is supported, but you should be aware of the following additional reasons on why this isn't such a good idea:

The old "my Exchange server takes a long time to shut down" issue

When Exchange 2003 is installed on a domain controller, it will take around 10 minutes to shut this server down. The technical reason is because the Active Directory service shuts down before the Exchange services, causing DSAccess to go through several timeouts before terminating. The workaround, as before, is to manually stop the Exchange services before shutting down the server.

Memory management

I've heard it said to not use the /3GB boot.ini switch on the server if Exchange is on a domain controller to prevent Exchange from dominating the memory.

DSAccess will no longer failover

Normally, if Active Directory services are busy or not responding, the Exchange services will failover to use other domain controllers. When Exchange is on a domain controller, this failover will not occur; this is by design.

Security considerations

You can decrease your attack surface area by not installing Exchange on a domain controller. Since all services run under the LocalSystem context, any attacker that gains access to Active Directory will also be able to gain access to Exchange.

More security considerations

Your Exchange administrators will have log on locally rights to the Exchange server. Do you also want them to be logging on locally to your domain controllers?

Installing Exchange on a domain controller is best avoided. However, there are situations when you cannot practically avoid this. I know, as I've been involved in several projects where we've installed Exchange on a domain controller, mainly in the branch-office scenario. Outlook 2003's cached mode will now give us the chance to review this situation on future projects.

Exchange 2003 Server Consolidation

Microsoft has released a new document on achieving server consolidation with Exchange 2003.

Overview:
As e-mail messaging continues to grow in both volume and business importance, organizations are looking for new options to manage future demand in a reliable and cost-effective way. One option is to build a messaging strategy based on advanced technologies available in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. This article discusses strategies for server consolidation using Exchange 2003.

KeySuite - Outlook for Palm

Marc's written a review of KeySuite, which is an Outlook companion program for the Palm platform. He says it's "the best Outlook compatible application I've found yet for the Palm OS."

More Smartphone Talk

PDA Buyer’s Guide has published a review of the Motorola MPx200.

Also, as you know, I bought one of these devices last month and it’s performed really well so far, sure it’s not perfect, but I would miss it now if I didn’t have it (…and I like the Smartphone experience more than Adam :-).. )…. Shame that Orange are apparently about to stop selling it in the UK.

Here are my own thoughts on the phone and mobile experience with Exchange 2003 thus far…

Good points...
ActiveSync saves time and enables you to stay in touch all the time. Pretty obvious, but it’s true! ActiveSync delivers new messages directly to your phone, and you can read/delete/reply to them etc there and then, or when convenient, i.e. when you’re stuck at a railway level crossing as happens to be quite often on the way to work :-) The changes that are made to these items are of course sync’d back to your mailbox, so you don’t need to deal with them a second time - you delete a message on the phone and it’ll be found in your Deleted Items folder when you next log-in with Outlook for example. This has been reliable and works really well in my opinion. The MPx200 unfortunately runs Smartphone 2002 and not 2003 (the MPx220 will run 2003), so up-to-date notifications don’t work, as they do with Smartphone 2003, where the server pings, or send a message to the phone when a new message has been received. Instead, it is necessary to configure the phone to poll your Exchange server at pre-defined intervals, which range from 5 minutes to 4 hours. I’ve found 15 minutes to be perfectly adequate and acceptable. One main consideration here of course is that the more data that is being sent, and sync operations that are being performed, the more expensive it is all going cost. This is course isn’t an issue if an inclusive data plan is being used, or if the phone is company paid :-) (For info, the Smartphone 2003 OS can be found on the SPV E200, or the MPx220 when it launches in the summer)

Having access to all of your Contacts is really great, in fact it’s a tremendous feature. They can all be sync’d too, or alternatively, can just be accessed via OMA. Whichever way you choose to access them, you can view phone numbers, e-mail addresses, notes (extremely handy as I tend to store a lot of information in there) etc, and best of all, you can click the phone number and make a call - simple - no more worrying about potentially losing data/phone numbers stored on the phone’s SIM card too.

It’s not necessary to configure ActiveSync from the phone to the desktop. If you want to keep it simple, and to just use the phone to ActiveSync with the server then that’s ok. This is what I’ve been doing.

ActiveSync was easy to get up and running from the client side. Once everything is set up ‘server side,’ it’s just a case of entering the username, password, Domain and server name into the phone, and making sure that the phone’s date, including year, is set correctly, otherwise there’ll be issues with the SSL certificate, and off you go.

ActiveSync has worked so well that I've hardly used OMA.

Bad Points/Considerations
Security is an issue. In order to use ActiveSync with Smartphone 2002, the domain user account password needs to be saved on the device. This of course means that when you access the mailbox and messages using the device, it is not necessary to enter a password as it has been stored. Therefore, if someone gains access to your phone, they could access your mailbox with ease. Obviously some, if not all, of the phone’s own security features need to be implemented tp prevent unauthorised access/use, most especially including the device lock, which locks the phone after a short period of inactivity, and a PIN is then required to unlock it.

It’s a real pain when the phone alerts you to the receipt of a new message and it’s spam!

Battery life – this is a common complaint – while the battery life is just about acceptable with 3 or 4 days between charges (turned off overnight) it isn’t anywhere near the life expected from say a Nokia phone these days, which can last for well over a week, always on.

Boot-up time – the phone takes a good 30 seconds to get going! Contrast this with standard mobiles which all work pretty much from the moment that you hit the power button.

International roaming. When you set up ActiveSync for the first time you are warned to be careful using this option when roaming. With the high cost of making calls from abroad this is something that MUST be remembered. Otherwise, every sync could potentially cost a pound, or more, or £12 per hour if the sync is set to run every 5 minutes!

Having been using Vodafone in the UK for the past four or five years, Orange’s signal is nowhere near as strong, which results in frustrations due to loss of signal!

The Smartphone is here to stay... it works well now, and will only improve in the months and years ahead. Pierre Bijaoui mentioned last week that there are likely to be more Smartphones than normal phones by 2008 which would be pretty impressive. Also - ISA Server 2004 and Exchange 2003 SP1 are likely to have/add some new OMA features as well in the not too distant future.

Finally, there's an interesting Technet webcast coming up next month - Troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 ActiveSync issues... a date for your diaries...

MyDoom Removal Tool

Ok, so not strictly an Exchange post here, but if you're still suffering from a MyDoom hangover, then you might like to know that Microsoft has released a MyDoom removal tool.

Overview:
This tool will help to remove the Mydoom.A, Mydoom.B, Doomjuice.A (aka "MyDoom.C"), and Doomjuice.B worms from infected systems. Once the tool has run—after the End-User License Agreement (EULA) is accepted—it automatically checks for infection and removes any of the targeted worms that are found. If a machine is infected with the Mydoom.B worm, the tool will also provide the user with the default version of the hosts file and set the "read-only" attribute for that file. This action will allow the user to visit previously-blocked Microsoft and antivirus websites.

Exchange Mailing Lists

Obviously the Microsoft public newsgroups are a good source of asking/answering questions on Exchange. I thought it would be useful to detail some of the mailing lists that you can subscribe to if you wish to participate in further Exchange ramblings with some excellent technical people (including a large slice of Exchange MVPs, of course).

The Swynk Exchange List - if I remember correctly, this was the list that took over from Peter Bowyer's list that I first subscribed to around late 1996. Whatever happened to Peter?

Yahoo Exchange 2000 Mailing List - an excellent list run by Exchange MVP Martin Tuip.

Yahoo Exchange 2003 Mailing List - a lower noise list also run by Martin. He's a busy guy.

Sunbelt Software Exchange List - can be quite noisy but does contain some excellent technical members.

MSExchange.org Mailing List - slipped through my radar screen for a while, but I'm there occasionally these days.

Outlook Users Mailing List - I think it would have been unfair to not include an Outlook list. Try this one.

That should keep you busy for a while. And by the way - if you plan to subscribe to more than one of the above lists, then maybe limit posting your questions to no more than two lists. Some list members subscribe to more than one list, and reading the same posts again and again can be annoying! :-)

Exchange 2003 'Native Mode'

I was just talking with a colleague who was a bit confused over the term native mode and how it applies to Exchange 5.5 / 2000 / 2003. Basically, my colleague was asking why you would be able to install an Exchange 2000 server into an existing 'Exchange 2003 native mode' organisation.

It's worth remembering that there's no concept of an 'Exchange 2003 native mode' organisation. The term native mode refers to the fact that there are no longer any Exchange 5.5 servers within the Exchange organisation. Both Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 servers can coexist in a native mode Exchange organisation.

The Exchange 2000 MAILQ Utility

I was doing some work on a customer's Exchange 2000 installation recently, and seeing the way that Exchange 2000 presents the message queues compared to the improved queue viewer in Exchange 2003 reminded me of ways to improve the queue monitoring in Exchange 2000.

Naturally, the best way of keeping an eye on message queues is via specific monitoring tools. For Microsoft, this is obviously Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), but there are many other products on the market of course. However, implementing MOM to monitor Exchange is typically part of an enterprise monitoring policy. Here I want to cover something a little more lightweight, something that is part of the Exchange 2000 Resource Kit - the MAILQ utility.

The MAILQ utility is located on the Exchange 2000 Resource Kit CD in the tools\admin\mailq folder. Simply put, the MAILQ utility allows an administrator to view the queues on multiple Exchange 2000 servers from a single web page. There are two subfolders under the mailq folder:

crawler - this folder contains a series of VBScripts that run on the Exchange 2000 servers and collect the queue information.
web - this folder contains web pages that display the information collected by the scripts.

Installation is easy. I'm going to assume here that we'll use an Exchange 2000 server to host the web pages, since we'll have Internet Information Services (IIS) installed on this server. Therefore, all you need to do is to copy the mailq folders to suitable locations on the Exchange 2000 server. I've chosen to locate the mailq\web folder files into the c:\inetpub\mailq folder, and the VBScript crawler files into c:\mailq\crawler folder.

Next, we need to create a new virtual directory in IIS Manager for MAILQ. This is really simple - just right-click the Default Web Site in IIS Manager, and choose New / Virtual Directory. The wizard to create a new virtual directory is straightforward - just give the virtual directory a name and tell it where to find the web files. In my case, this is c:\inetpub\mailq. Below is what you should see when you view the properties of the new virtual directory in IIS Manager.

Now we need to tell the VBScript files which servers to monitor. This is achieved by editing the Globals.vbs file that will have been copied into the c:\mailq\crawler folder, which is shown below. First, you'll need to edit the line g_aServers = Array("server1") to reflect the correct server name(s). In my case, it is NHSRV2. Multiple servers should be separated by commas. For example:

g_aServers = Array("NHSRV1" , "NHSRV2")

You will also notice the line a bit further down as follows:

g_strDataFolder = "d:\inetpub\mailqroot\"

This is the default setting supplied with the script. This will need to be changed to suit the location of your mailq data files. In my case, this line reads as follows:

g_strDataFolder = "c:\inetpub\mailq\"

Once that has been done, you are ready to go. Drop to a command prompt and navigate to the c:\mailq\crawler folder. There, just type cscript go.wsf. The script will then jump into action as shown below. Notice that the script re-runs every 60 seconds to update the web page. This value can easily be changed in the go.wsf file.

The result is a nicely formatted web page showing the queues on the monitored server. In your browser window, navigate to http://servername/mailq and you should see something similar to below. Obviously my test server isn't doing a lot, but you get the idea. Of course, if you called your IIS virtual directory something other than mailq, your URL should be changed accordingly.

Although MAILQ isn't a substitute for a full blown monitoring solution, it certainly goes some way to helping if you currently have nothing.

Public Folder Replication Message Size Limit

One of the more misunderstood settings in Exchange System Manager can be found on the properties of the public folder store on the Replication tab. Here you'll see the setting for Replication Message Size Limit (KB). The default for this value is 300KB. What exactly does this mean?

It means that 300KB of different changes will be packed into a single replication message. It does not mean that a 900KB replication message will be chopped up into 3 separate replication messages, which is a common misconception. Here's an example.

If you were to post 40 x 10KB messages into a public folder, the Exchange store will pack 30 updates into a single 300KB replication message. A second replication message of 100KB would then be sent, since the remaining 10 x 10KB messages would be packed into it. If, however, you posted a single 5MB message into a public folder, the store will generate a single 5MB replication message; it will not generate 16 x 300KB replication messages as one might expect.

Therefore, you need to factor in the public folder replication interval if you have public folder replicas that receive frequent large updates - especially if they are across slower links.

Microsoft Exchange Group Launches Blog

The Exchange Server team at Microsoft has launched their own blog entitled You Had Me At EHLO.

I look forward to reading the inside scoop on nuances in the current products and developments leading to the next version of Exchange. They are even bold enough to post some of their Bios.

William Lefkovics

ISYS:email.search & ABF Outlook Backup

There are a couple of useful applications highly recommended in the latest edition of PC Pro magazine.

ISYS:email.search is a $30 application that can help you to find emails in Outlook/Outlook Express "FAST"

Quickly finds key words, names, phrases and dates in your emails
Searches thousands of emails in an instant
Easy to use and install
Highlighted search terms help pinpoint results quickly

Davey Winder has rated it a 'must-have' download, giving it six stars out of six.

Also recommended, is ABF Outlook Backup which is an alternative to Microsoft's free backup add-in, and received five stars out of six.

"How Safe Is The Preview Pane?"

There's some very useful information in the latest Slipstick Newsletter about the security of Outlook's preview pane... the bottom line is that the preview panes for Outlook 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 are considered very secure, provided that some security updates are included for 2000 and 2002, with Outlook 98 meanwhile being the least secure, and consideration needing to be given to using Chilton Preview instead.

Blogging With OneNote and Outlook

Greg Hughes has been creating blog posts using OneNote, making use of the application's integration with Outlook to convert the information written in OneNote into correctly formatted HTML e-mails, which are then sent to his blog publishing application (which supports HTML mail) ... very neat... as others have pointed out, it would be great if OneNote had built-in blog publishing capabilities.

E-mail spam: Is it a Security Issue?

Read Debra Littlejohn Shinder's full article...

Summary:
"Spam is a big problem for everyone from the individual home Internet user to the multi-national corporation that depends on email communications to conduct business. Not only is it a nuisance, it can also present a security threat to your network. There are hundreds of products designed to combat spam, but the most effective anti-spam plan utilizes a multi-layered, “defense in depth” approach. This means intercepting spam at the network perimeter (firewall filtering), at the mail server, and on the client side. In this article, we’ve provided an overview of how such a strategy can help you get a handle on the deluge of spam that threatens your network on a daily basis."

Having Trouble Uninstalling Exchange...

I've seen the problem I'm about to describe on the Exchange newsgroups a few times, and I've just been having an email conversation with someone who's had the same problem, so I thought it about time to blog this snippet.

Basically, you may find yourself in the situation one day where you need to decomission an Exchange server. OK, so you move all the mailboxes and public folders off of this server onto a new server and then run the setup program to remove the installation. However, you're greeted with the error detailed in MSKB 279202:

One or more users currently use this mailbox store. These users must be moved to a different mailbox store or be mail disabled before deleting this store.

ID no: c1034a7f
Exchange System Manager

So where are these users? You've moved all of them off this server. The person I was talking with followed the remaining instructions in 279202, which go on to show you how to use LDP to view the remaining mailboxes on the server. The problem was that the result of the LDP output showed that there were only 2 system mailboxes left on the server, which can be ignored.

A good way to try to find these missing users is to use good old Active Directory Users and Computers. Here's what to do:

1. Run ADUC.
2. Right-click your domain at the top, and choose Find.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then choose User from the Field button.
4. From the list of attributes displayed, choose Exchange Home Server.
5. Set the Condition field to Ends With and then type your Exchange server name into the Value field. Click Add to add this value.
6. Now click the Find button, and hopefully you'll see the troublesome user listed in the results window. You should then be able to remove the Exchange attributes from these user accounts and proceed with the uninstall.

RSS News Aggregator for Pocket PC

PocketFeed is an RSS/RDF news aggregator that runs on the Pocket PC 2002/2003 PDA's... it can be found over at the Furry Goat Experience (honest!)

Exchange Server 2003 RPC over HTTP Deployment Scenarios

Still trying to understand how to implement RPC over HTTPS? There's some more information "in the form of four scenarios about deploying the Windows RPC over HTTP feature" in the Exchange Server 2003 RPC over HTTP Deployment Scenarios Guide.

Sign Up for Windows SharePoint Services Trial

Trying out Sharepoint has been on my to-do list for a while, as it has been on Mary's too... this free trial has just made it easier, and possible! :-)

"Take a test drive free of charge for 30 days through Windows® SharePoint™ Services. A component of Windows Server 2003, Windows SharePoint Services makes it easy to create Web-based workspaces for more effective information sharing and team collaboration.

You can select from two SharePoint trials—both feature a 30-day, no-cost trial of Windows SharePoint Services. One also includes a free trial of Microsoft Office Outlook® Web Access for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. Choose the one that best fits your needs."

Migrate Meeting Maker to Microsoft Exchange!

Would you like to migrate your Meeting Maker scheduling data onto your Exchange server? Sumatra Development have a solution to help you to achieve this...

"Meeting Maker is a legacy group scheduling solution that many users now want to move into their Exchange environment for benefits of cost saving and ease of administration. Our service takes the proprietary Meeting Maker data format from any Meeting Maker server (Windows, Macintosh, or UNIX) and converts it into an intermediate format that we then insert into Exchange. Clients can take any amount of history, keep meetings "live" with full recurrence patterns and attributes, and assure themselves of a smooth transition into Exchange. We'll gladly do a complimentary initial conversion to make sure the client's data can be moved to Exchange." - Zyg Furmaniuk, Sumatra.

Windows 2003 Standard or Enterprise?

I've seen a few questions lately asking why Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition would be used in preference to Windows 2003 Standard Edition when implementing Exchange 2003.

It now looks as though Windows 2003 Standard Edition will suffice for most Exchange 2003 installations. Windows 2003 Standard Edition now supports features that were previously only available in Windows 2000 Advanced Server, such as the /3GB boot.ini switch (not forgetting the new /USERVA switch of course) and the Network Load Balancing (NLB) service. It also supports 4-way symmetric multiprocessing and up to 4GB RAM. On the Exchange 2003 feature side of things, Windows 2003 Standard Edition supports new features such as RPC over HTTPS, OWA compression and the Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) service.

On the face of it, there doesn't look like there's much need to implement Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition. However, there are a few situations where you will need it. First, the most obvious one is that this edition supports up to 8-node clustering and mount point support (in situations where you cannot provide sufficient drive letters). Also, it supports up to 8-way symmetric multiprocessing and 32GB of RAM in the 32-bit versions (not that Exchange can make use of that much memory anyway).

So, unless you're looking at clustering, Windows 2003 Standard Edition should do the trick for your Exchange 2003 installation.

Understanding E-mail Headers

Need some help reading e-mail headers?

My Doom With MyDoom

Very coincidentally, I was clearing out masses of false "your message had a virus" messages in my inbox when I started to read one of KC's latest posts.

One of the more common features of viruses these days is that they spoof the sender's address. With the latest MyDoom virus, perhaps it's now a good time to remind everyone that, if their AV software sends back notifications to the message sender when a message has a virus, perhaps they can consider turning off these notifications?

My doom with MyDoom has been the fact I'm on the receiving end of loads of these "your message had a virus" messages. Of course, I've never sent any messages to these people - I've never heard of any of them. So, please, turn off notifications of this kind. They're pointless given the way viruses work these days. In fact, one has just arrived as I type this. Sigh.

OK, rant over. Back with some technical stuff soon.

Smack Some Spam...

Here's another spam filtering solution for you to try...

"SPAM Smacker: Flexible, rules based technology - Pro Exchange's SPAM Smacker leverages several different technologies to evaluate, identify, filter and monitor incoming junk mail, systematically checking the message with 5 preset levels of tests to determine probability that a particular message is spam.

Pro Exchange SPAM Smacker was tested to provide 92-97% spam capture rates with extremely low false positives. The ability to white list domains and to use the AD to identify mailbox exceptions helps stop false positives common with other solutions."

Download a 10 day fully functional trial version here.

Can I Deal With Virus Threats/Infections Better in the Future?

So the first big virus of 2004 has arrived, didn't take long did it!? This should perhaps serve as a reminder that there might be a few virus-related questions that you haven't asked yourself or the management for a few months, and perhaps need to be discussed over the next couple of days...

Are we blocking all of the most vulnerable file types? Can we block some that we haven't been able to in the past... perhaps .exe (always a sore point!) Martin Blackstone's List of Danger is your assistant here.

Is it acceptable for our internet gateway/relay to be taken offline when there's news of a new virus outbreak, and we're waiting for our anti-virus vendor to publish an update? Some vendors were a bit slow of the mark with this latest attack, and this is quite often the case, do you know what to do in these circumstances? Is it ok to shutdown the gateway, and if so, who do I need to notify? How long can it be out of action for? Will this affect any SLAs?

Are we using anti-virus products from different vendors? If not, what can we do to implement this?

User education - what have I done recently to further educate and remind users what to look out for, and what to do if they receive a suspicious looking message?

If a user's machine becomes infected, is there a documented procedure for dealing with the infection? Should a call be logged with the helpdesk, and what priority should the call be?

Did I know about this latest virus at an early stage? What can I do to be better informed in the future? Which RSS feeds, newsgroups, e-mail alerts can I use/subscribe to?

Isn't it about time that we upgraded from Outlook 97?

Can I use this virus as leverage to extract some more money from the IT director to improve our infrastructure?

I always update the virus IDEs religiously, or it happens automatically, but what about the anti-virus program's engine, is that up-to-date, does it need to be updated manually?

Can we do anything to further automate the updating of the ant-virus products being used?

I'm sure that there are more questions... these are the ones that immediately came to mind... good luck!

Exchange Server 2003 Glossary

"The Exchange Server 2003 Glossary contains important terms and definitions for the Exchange Server 2003 product."

How to configure RPC over HTTP in Exchange Server 2003

Need some help setting up RPC over HTTP(s)? This new KB article should be of some considerable help.

mxClaim, mxORB, mxEvent Sink Manager

Customer Magnetism have some disclaimer, spam and event sink software offerings

Customizing Microsoft Outlook Web Access

"This Exchange Online Book provides an overview of Exchange 2000, the Outlook Web Access architecture, and the individual components that make up Outlook Web Access. It also provides developers with the processes to customize and extend Outlook Web Access for their own solutions."

Find a Microsoft Expert

"Get expert help to develop or deploy your IT solution with a Microsoft® Certified Partner or Gold Certified Partner. You can choose from a list of Microsoft Certified or Gold Certified Partners by using our finder tool, which helps you to locate the expert most appropriate for your requirements."
(Update - Mary McRae has recommended the Microsoft Office System Solutions Directory, which she prefers to use... thanks Mary!)

Mailbox Management in Exchange Server 2003

New and very useful Microsoft page which will help you to "find information on the Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) site and TechNet about managing, configuring, and troubleshooting mailbox stores and public folder stores." with Exchange 2003.

"Catchall vs Check recipients"

David Lemson (Microsoft Exchange Server Program Manager) has written about two relatively new Exchange features that users were asking for and have been provided... 1) The "Catchall" mailbox and 2) The ability to validate recipients before accepting a message... and explains how they are incompatible.

OWA URL Help

Are you fed up typing a long, or possibly unfriendly URL to access your (or someone else's... a hosted provider's?) Outlook Web Access server? I have been, so I've registered a much shorter and easier to remember domain name using the very reasonably priced UKReg.com, and am using their free URL forwarding service to redirect it to OWA... aaah... that's better.
(Update - Andy has kindly pointed out that you could of course use TinyURL.com or SnipURL.com for this as well)

"Don't back up system state and mailboxes at the same time with Exchange 2003/Windows 2003"

"When you use the Backup utility in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 to back up the Exchange Server 2003 information store and the Windows system state data at the same time, the backup operation does not complete successfully"... KC explains all, with the help of 820852...

Exchange 2003 ActiveSync Architecture Paper

If you're thinking of implementing Exchange 2003's ActiveSync capabilities, then you might be interested to know that a couple of weeks ago, Microsoft published a whitepaper titled Exchange Server 2003 ActiveSync Architecture.

Included in this document:

* Exchange 2003 ActiveSync User Experience
* Motorola's Exchange 2003 ActiveSync Implementation
* Infrastructure Changes to Support Exchange 2003 ActiveSync
* Additional Benefits of an Exchange 2003 ActiveSync–Enabled Infrastructure

Taskline Task Scheduler for Outlook

Robert McLaws and Cameron Reilly have both recently discovered, and are raving about Taskline, which is an Outlook plug-in that "adds new power to Outlook by scheduling your tasks automatically"

Query-Based Distribution Groups Article

Marc Grote has written an article over at www.msexchange.org on Query-based Distribution Groups.

Summary: A query-based distribution group is a new additional type of distribution group in Exchange 2003. This new type of distribution group provides the same functionality as a standard distribution group; however, instead of specifying static user memberships, a query-based distribution group allows you to use an LDAP query to dynamically build membership in the distribution group (for example All employees with a special group membership). Using query-based distribution groups we can reduce the administration costs dramatically. However a Query-based Distribution Group needs more Server resources like CPU power and RAM.

Robbie Allen's AD Blog & Outlook Scripts

AD guru and author, Robbie Allen, has set up a new Active Directory blog to go along with his latest book, the Active Directory Cookbook. Robbie has also been busy writing a couple of Outlook scripts.. 'Set View for all Folders'... about which he says... "I really like Outlook 2003, but I couldn't find a way to force all folders to use a particular view, so I wrote a script to do it"... and 'Inbox Watcher'... "with this script, I use the Win32::GUI module to display a small dialog box on the desktop that shows all the UNREAD messages in my inbox."

If you do download any of Robbie's very useful AD scripts, which are also available on his site, do yourself (and him) a favour by buying the book too!

Exchange Server 2003 Message Security Guide

Microsoft has released a new paper, titled Exchange Server 2003 Message Security Guide.

This book discusses how, when using S/MIME, encryption protects the contents of e-mail messages and digital signatures verify the identity of a purported sender of an e-mail message. In addition, this book provides guidance on how to implement S/MIME with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. In addition, this book provides guidance and pointers to other resources where those are necessary.

Microsoft Operations Manager 2000 Managing Exchange: Product Datasheet

"Microsoft® Operations Manager (MOM) 2000 with the Exchange Server 2003 Management Pack delivers enterprise-class operations management for medium and large enterprises by providing comprehensive event management, proactive monitoring and alerting, reporting and trend analysis, and system and application specific knowledge to improve the manageability of Windows® messaging and collaboration environments.

The Management Pack is designed to help e-mail administrators of all experience levels monitor and manage an Exchange Server 2003 deployment. Almost every alert in the Management Pack includes knowledge base solutions that help facilitate rapid issue resolution by providing critical information and links to relevant Microsoft Knowledge Base articles allowing you to take the appropriate corrective action and help prevent your servers from going into distress."

Download the datasheet

Exchange & Outlook Tips

Travis Hamilton has been collecting Exchange and Outlook tips over the past couple of years and they can now be read on his site... there's 120 Exchange tips covering both 5.5 and 2000, and a massive 492 Outlook tips covering 97, 2000 and 2002.

Event 9097 & Error 0x80080005

An Exchange 2000 server recently exhibited the following event log entry every 5 minutes:

Source: MSExchangeSA
Type: Error
Category: Monitoring
Event ID: 9097
Description: The MAD Monitoring thread was unable to connect to WMI, error '0x80080005'

A search through TechNet only revealed a single entry, and this particular KB article referenced a different error code. It went on to explain how to re-register the Exchange namespace with WMI. The error code above, 0x80080005, translates to server execution failed which sounds quite bad at first.

As it turns out, recycling the WMI service should be enough to sort out this problem. For some reason, the System Attendant had become detached from the WMI service. In this case, the server was restarted, which obviously cured the problem.

I've blogged this in the hope that someone searching for '9097 0x80080005' will get a hit. :-)

Top 10 Exchange 2003 downloads at Microsoft

Exchange 2003 Downloads

1. Exchange 2003 Deployment Guide

2. Exchange 2003: All Exchange Tools and Updates

3. Exchange 2003: Management Pack

4. Exchange Server 2003 Administration Guide

5. Exchange 2003: Mailbox Merge Wizard (ExMerge)

6. Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 3

7. Exchange 2003 Deployment Tools

8. Exchange 2000 and 2003 - All Technical Articles and Books / Updated

9. Planning an Exchange 2003 Messaging System

10. What's New in Exchange 2003

I'm not certain why #6 is in there. I guess since Exchange 2000 should be on sp3 to communicate with Exchange 2003 properly, it may be considered an Exchange 2003 download?

(Taken from the Most Popular Exchange Downloads page.)

William Lefkovics

Make OWA the Default Mail Client

Tosh Meston explains how to "Make Outlook Web Access Your Default Mail Agent."

Weekend Reading...

Microsoft have updated their document on Troubleshooting Exchange Server 2003 Performance

"This technical article provides administrators of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 with information on how to isolate performance degradations and how to use existing tools and products, such as Performance, Load Simulator, Exchange Stress and Performance 2003, Network Monitor, and Filemon, for this purpose. The information in this article can also be used to ensure that a server is not degrading over time because of hardware issues or malfunctions."

Dealing With Outlook's Auto-Complete Addressing

Marc's written about a useful tip that's in the latest edition of PC World magazine... it's all about dealing with Outlook 2002/2003's ability to store every address that you've previously entered, and to then helpfully auto-complete the name and corresponding e-mail address when you start to type a name in the 'To:' field of a new e-mail. While this feature is pretty useful (I missed it when I reverted to using Outlook 2000 on one of my machines) it's good to know that you can blow the name cache file away and start afresh.

Security Operations Guides and OWA

Security continues to be a primary focus in all aspects of information technology... at least in my world.

Microsoft has Security Operation Guides, complete with tools and templates to help administrators secure Windows servers, including those running Exchange Server.

An excellent guide was made for Windows 2000, and a supplement for Exchange 2000.

When testing the templates and tools, though, it is best to do so in a lab first. As shown in Microsoft KB article 833001, Outlook Web Access has special needs.

William Lefkovics

Outlook 2003 Search Folders

Henrik Walther's written a new article on Using Search Folders in Outlook 2003

OneNote/Outlook Keyboard Shortcuts

I've been using OneNote, the new note-taking Office application, quite a lot over the past couple of months... it's really good... shame it's not on a Tablet though, which is where it really shines. (I seriously considered buying a Tablet a couple of months ago, and was particularly interested in HP/Compaq's new TC1100, until the pricing was announced - instead of it coming down in price, rather incredibly, you can currently almost buy two of the old TC1000 models for the price of a TC1100... do they not want to sell any of these, or what!!... sorry, that's enough whinging... I changed my mind/requirements and bought one of these instead, and filled it with RAM so that I can run this)... anyway, why am I telling you this, well, there's a couple of useful OneNote keyboard shorcuts that enable new tasks and new e-mails to be created in Outlook...

Ctrl+Shift+E - Sends selected pages as e-mails
Ctrl+Shift+K - Creates task in Outlook 2003

There's a comprehensive list of OneNote shorcuts here... (via Marc!)

Broadband Speed Test Site

I found this useful site earlier today... bandwidthplace.com... it provides both a free basic bandwidth test and also a more comprehensive premium one for a small fee. Best of all, you can configure your location and the type of connection that you want to test.

Configuring the Outlook 2003 RPC over HTTPS Client

Tom Shinder's been busy writing some new guides on RPC over HTTPS publishing . His latest piece explains how to configure Outlook 2003 to use RPC over HTTPS, with the article also containing links to the other four tutorials that he's recently written.

Exchange Storage Article

Here's a link to a new, small article on AME Info, called 'Basics of an efficient storage structure for Microsoft Exchange'.

Outlook's Junk Mail Filter Explained

Simon Jones looks at Outlook 2003's junk mail filter in this month's PC Pro

Outlook Add-Ins

One of the more common Outlook requests that I see is for a product that automatically saves attachments to a folder as the messages arrives.

Sperry Software has such as product amongst its range: Attachment Save Add-In for Outlook

But Sperry Software has a much larger range of Outlook add-ins. For the full range here.

The Recovery Storage Group

In this article, I'm going to have a look at another new feature of Exchange 2003. This time, it's the Recovery Storage Group. Microsoft provides a full whitepaper on this particular feature, which has been posted to this blog quite recently. Here I will cover the key elements of the Recovery Storage Group - be sure to check out the whitepaper for in-depth information.

What is the Recovery Storage Group?

The Recovery Storage Group (RSG) is a new type of storage group in Exchange 2003 that essentially allows you to mount a copy of a mailbox store onto a production Exchange 2003 server. You can then recover data within the restored mailbox store whilst the current store is still running. Use of the RSG on a production server won't interfere with the users as the RSG is logically isolated; users cannot log into it, and mail cannot be delivered to it. As you can probably guess, the main benefit here is that you don't necessarily need a spare disaster recovery server in its own Active Directory forest to recover a single mailbox or single mailbox store, as was required in Exchange 2000.

Also, one other benefit of the RSG is something that is referred to as a "dial tone recovery strategy". The idea here is to create a brand new blank database in the event of problems with the production database. This way, your users are up and running much quicker and can send and receive new messages straight away. The failed production database can then be restored to the RSG, the old data extracted using ExMerge, and then transferred back into the users' mailboxes. Of course, once the production database is available again, it makes sense to put the temporary dial tone database into the RSG and recover the data from this database, since it will be much smaller than the restored production database.

Creating the RSG

This is basically the same as creating a new storage group. One thing to note is that you can still create a RSG even if you currently have the maximum number of 4 storage groups already created. Within Exchange System Manager, navigate to your target server object. Then, right-click the server on which you wish to install the RSG and choose New / Recovery Storage Group. You will then be presented with the following screen:

Give the RSG a suitable name and also enter suitable transaction log and system path locations. Obviously, you will want to ensure that you enter different locations than those of the transaction logs belonging to the original storage group. One useful piece of information here is that, although you don't really need that much disk space for the location of the transaction log and system path locations, the paths specified here become the default location for the restored mailbox store files as well. I'll show you how to make sure you remember to modify the location of where you're going to restore your mailbox store files to a little later on. Click OK, and the RSG will now be created.

Also note that if you now bring up the properties of the newly created RSG, you will notice that the log file prefix field has been filled in with R00; this becomes the prefix used for the transaction logs within the RSG in the same way that the default first storage group uses a prefix of E00 for its transaction logs.

Adding a Mailbox Store

Now we need to add the desired mailbox store to the RSG. To do this, just right-click the RSG in ESM and choose Add Database to Recover. The following screen will be presented:

You'll see from this screen shot that you can add Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2000 SP3 mailbox stores to the RSG. However, note that these stores must be from servers within the same Administrative Group. Nonetheless, the ability to add an Exchange 2000 SP3 mailbox store is a really useful feature. Be warned, though, that once you add an Exchange 2000 SP3 mailbox store to a RSG, the mailbox store is upgraded to the same version as mailbox stores running on the server with the RSG. Therefore, you will not be able to copy this mailbox store back to its original server without upgrading that server to the same Exchange version as was in use on the server with the RSG. The method to extract data is then via ExMerge, which I'll cover later on. Also, you'll see that only mailbox stores are presented as possibilities to add to the RSG - public folder stores cannot be created in the RSG.

Once you've selected your chosen store, just click OK. The properties of that mailbox store are then presented as shown below. If you click the Database tab, you'll notice that the default location for where the store files will be recovered to is the same as that of the RSG you previously created. As I said earlier, this may be a problem, since it is likely that if you accepted the defaults during the creation of the RSG, your chosen location may not have enough disk space to hold the entire restored mailbox store. Now is the time to change the locations if disk space is an issue.

Other important things to note are that, by default, the newly added database should be dismounted. Also, if you bring up the properties of this database in the RSG and click the Database tab, you should notice that the Do not mount this store at start-up check box is automatically checked and is also greyed out. This is a feature of the RSG. Databases cannot be set to automatically mount; they must be mounted manually by the administrator. Also, the This database can be overwritten by a restore check box should be selected.

Restoring The Mailbox Store

This process should be the same as per any normal mailbox store restore process really. I'm not going to go into massive detail here, as restoring a mailbox store can potentially be a large subject, and this article is already large enough! In my example here, I'm going to be using the Windows Backup utility. As you can see, I've elected to restore the logs and mailbox store from my backup. The good thing about performing these online restores is that the RSG should automatically be detected by the backup utility. I also chose to have a hard recovery performed by selecting the Last Backup Set option in the Windows Backup utility.

Once the database has been restored, it will be mounted if you select the option to mount it after the restoration process. I chose not to, and mounted it manually. However, the result is the same. Here's the restored and mounted database. Admittedly, this one doesn't contain much information!

Extracting The Data

The ExMerge utility is used to extract data from the RSG mailbox store. Note though, that the only supported interface for extracting this data is via the Exchange 2003 version of ExMerge. You can find this version of ExMerge at the Exchange 2003 site here. I won't make this article any longer than it needs to be by posting lots of screen dumps of each ExMerge screen that you encounter as you proceed with the utility. The main screen that's of interest here is the Database Selection screen, since it is important that you choose the Recovery Storage Group. After doing this, you will be presented with a list of mailboxes held in the mailbox store in the RSG which you can then export to PST. It's that easy.

The RSG is an excellent utility for recovering single mailboxes or mailbox stores. It isn't a replacement for sound disaster recovery processes though.

Storage Group & Database Memory Requirements

I was having a discussion on one of the Exchange mailing lists the other day about the memory requirements for storage groups and databases, and how the recommendations appear to have changed since Exchange 2000 RTM.

Fellow Exchange MVP David Sapery kindly provided the following information, obtained from Microsoft. When designing your Exchange 2003 server, you should plan on allocating 10MB per mailbox or public store, with negligible overhead for the storage groups.

Of course there are other factors to consider when allocating memory, but at least this is one factor to include in your Exchange 2003 design.

Analyse Badmail?

Would you like to know where all of the items in the Badmail directory have come from?... Miles Atkinson has written a script - parse_BDR.zip which will "collate into a summary file the number of times the individual source addresses occur."... thanks Miles! (As always, you run this script at your own risk - be sure to test it in a non-production environment first)

Outlook Year View

Would you like to be able to display a full year view of a calendar in Outlook? The Outlook Year View from Planet Software should do the trick...

FreeDocs in Exchange 2003

Something that I noticed a while back when upgrading servers to Exchange 2003 is that some messages with attachments could not be opened in OWA 2003. When attempting to open certain messages, a 403 Forbidden error was received. It turns out that this is actually a security feature of Exchange 2003. Let me explain.

You may be aware of the ability to drag and drop files from a folder directly into an Exchange public folder. These files become what are termed FreeDocs. As such, they are different to files that are attached to a message via Outlook and posted to a public folder. In Exchange 2000, browser access to FreeDocs was permitted; in Exchange 2003, this facility has been disabled by default.

If you require this functionality to be enabled, a simple registry key can be enabled on your back-end mailbox server. First, navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeWEB\OWA

Add a DWORD of EnableFreedocs with a value according to the following list:

0 = Freedocs are inaccessible in OWA. This is the default setting.
1 = Freedocs are accessible in OWA but only when accessed by the back-end server.
2 = Freedocs are accessible in OWA but only when accessed by the back-end server or via the front-end server with a host header that matches an entry in the registry value AcceptedAttachmentFrontEnds
3 = Freedocs are accessible everywhere.

Outlook 2003 Spam Filter Update

An update to the Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 SmartScreen filter is being made available available here.

"This update enhances the junk e-mail filter in Outlook to help provide a higher level of protection against junk e-mail."

The details will be outlined in KB832333, and the update should be available through Office Update shortly.

Thank you to Martin Blackstone for pointing this one out.

William Lefkovics

Archiving Exchange for Efficiency

I'm reading about archiving solutions for Microsoft Exchange. I come across this study (it's not free, but displays the 'highlights').

I found that page through this article.

There are different reasons to archive, some for legal support or US HIPAA compliance. But other reasons are just to keep Exchange running smooth with an acceptible backup/restore window.

Presumably that grizzly bear of an Exchange release in 2006ish will run up north in the Yukon (the upcoming SQL Server release). How difficult would it be to make secondary or tertiary databases linked to the primary message stores? Could they build rudimentary archiving into the next release of Exchange? Why not? Please?

William Lefkovics.

Exchange 2000/2003 SDK Downloads

Microsoft has released the Exchange 2000 and 2003 SDK Documentation and Samples for December 2003.

Exchange 2003 SDK Documentation and Samples December 2003

The Exchange 2003 SDK Documentation and Samples assist developers building applications for Exchange 2003. This release of the SDK provides new and updated information and sample code to help you develop collaborative enterprise applications with Exchange. Included in this release are updates to the SDK documentation, a new Technology Evaluation Spreadsheet, an Exchange Task Wizard log file viewer sample application, and more. The README file contains installation instructions and late-breaking information about the Exchange SDK Documentation and Samples.

Exchange 2000 SDK Documentation and Samples December 2003

The Exchange SDK Documentation and Samples assist developers building applications for Exchange 2000. This release of the SDK includes new and updated information and sample code to help you develop collaborative enterprise applications with Exchange. The README file contains installation instructions and late-breaking information about the Exchange SDK Documentation and Samples.

Plenty of Spam to Go Around

In this season of useless, token, elect-me-again antispam legislation and losing battles against an often inaccessible enemy, we must be careful not to go insane. The fine folks on the European side of the pond at least passed legislation requiring opt-in for residential emailings.

Microsoft is adding their SmartScreen filter technology to Exchange Server 2003, but will it make a dent? Do we want spam to be out of the way prior to making it to Exchange? Will this be a primary defense? Do we need alternative filtering outside of the Exchange IMF? For now, there is still plenty of SPAM to go around, at least that's what this article explains:

Spam Battle's Shifting Sands

'Spam-fighting is a booming market. "Everyone seems to have a spam project today," said Peter Schlampp, director of product management for IronPort. IronPort expects that almost 85 percent of e-mail gateways will have been replaced between the beginning of 2003 and the end of 2004.'

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2003 Performance Whitepaper Published

Another new and improved whitepaper in the ever growing Exchange technical library.

Troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Performance

William Lefkovics

Command Line Store Dismount

It's quite common for people to ask how you dismount a mailbox or public folder store from a command line.

There's actually no direct command line utility to do this, but it is extremely easy via a small piece of VBScript that makes use of CDOEXM. Copy and paste the code below into notepad and save it as dismount.vbs or another suitable name. You will need to modify the parts of the code that are in bold, since these parts will be specific to your environment. I will explain what each part is after the code listing.

Set oDB = CreateObject("CDOEXM.MailboxStoreDB")

strDB = "CN=Mailbox Store (E2K3),CN=First Storage Group,CN=InformationStore,CN=E2K3,CN=Servers,CN=First Administrative Group,CN=Administrative Groups,CN=Exchange 2003,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=domain,DC=com"

oDB.DataSource.Open strDB
oDB.Dismount()

The important line of the code is the second line, as this identifies the store that you wish to dismount. Here I list the parts of the example code above that you will need to change to suit your environment. Leave all other parts as per the code above.

CN=Mailbox Store (E2K3)
Change this to reflect the display name of the mailbox or public folder store you wish to dismount. In this example, we're dismounting the default mailbox store created on a server named E2K3.

CN=First Storage Group
Here you'll need to enter the name of the storage group that contains the mailbox or public folder store you wish to dismount.

CN=E2K3
This is the name of the server on which you wish to perform your dismount action.

CN=First Administrative Group
Change this to reflect the name of the administrative group in which the affected server resides.

CN=Exchange 2003
This is the name of the Exchange organisation.

DC=domain,DC=com
Here you'll need to enter your Active Directory domain name.

Of course, once you've dismounted your store you'll need to mount it again at some point, otherwise your users won't be able to log into their mailboxes. For this task, just create another VBScript file using the above code but change the last line to read as follows:

oDB.Mount()

And there you go. It's as easy as that.

William gets KB Articles Published

Microsoft have recently started a new content process or 'Community Solution' for Knowledge Base articles which allows all Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) to write new KB or 'Community Solutions Articles' to be published on the Microsoft site. Our very own William has been quick off the mark to take advantage of this exciting opportunity and has written three articles which you can now read... well done William!

Exchange Server 2003 Setup Does Not Re-Stamp Exchange Organization Permissions
Outlook Web Access - Configure Attachment Blocking
Removing Early Versions of the .Net Framework before installing Exchange Server 2003

Exchange Version Numbers By File

If you ever want to determine the exact version number of your Exchange installation by examining the installation files using Explorer, then be sure to examine the properties of EXSETDATA.DLL in the \exchsrvr\bin folder.

Some files will only show you the major version number, such as 6944 for the RTM version of Exchange 2003. EXSETDATA is one of the few files that will show both the major and minor version numbers when viewed in Explorer, i.e. 6.5.6944.4

Outlook 2003 Powertip

This week's Powertip over at Outlookpower.com is all about Outlook 2003's new calendar functionality.

"Outsourcing e-mail server upkeep a breeze"

Cheryl Currid, president of Currid & Co, a Houston technology research and analysis firm decided that it was too difficult and time consuming to run their own Exchange Server, and decided to use a hosted service instead, using a company called Utopia Systems, and she has apparently been very pleased with the results...

"It feels like I'm in utopia. I've got the same great big business e-mail system, scheduling and address book system, but I don't have to worry about maintaining it." ... read the full news article.

Schorr and McBee Q&A

Ben Schorr and Jim McBee answer a couple of questions on Exchange 2003 performance, and Information Rights Management with Outlook, over at Windows Server System Magazine.

Troubleshooting Message Flow with Outlook Express

New article over at msexchange.org... Testing Mail Flow using Outlook Express

More S/MIME Control Benefits

In a recent article on OWA 2003 and attachments, I explained how downloading the S/MIME control in OWA 2003 allowed you to have better control over adding attachments in OWA.

Installing this control also gives you some other really useful features to enhance your OWA experience:

1. You can now drag and drop existing messages into new messages that you are currently composing. You then see those messages added as .eml attachments.

2. When composing a new message you can drag and drop files from Explorer directly into the new message.

3. All installed fonts on your system are now available rather than the default 5 fonts. This is really cool!

How to Use ISA Server 2000 as a Spam and Attachment Filtering SMTP Relay...

Thomas Shinder's written a two part article on "configuring a spam and attachment filtering SMTP relay on the ISA Server 2000... part one is about "installing and configuring the SMTP services and remote domains" with part two on "configuring the server publishing rules and SMTP filter and message screener"

OWA 2003 & Attachments

Here's a handy tip if you use Exchange 2003's Outlook Web Access (OWA) feature and send a lot of messages containing attachments.

When composing a message in OWA and you need to send an attachment, you'd normally click the Attachments button or use the paper clip toolbar button. In either case, you are presented with the dialog window below that allows you to browse to the file and attach it.

If you prefer to attach files directly and avoid going through this dialog window, then you need to download and install the S/MIME control from within OWA. To do this, click the Options button whilst in OWA. On the Options screen, you'll see an option to download the email security S/MIME control, as shown below:

Click the download button to install the control. You'll be presented with the security warning screen shown below. Obviously click Yes if you wish to install the control.

Once you've installed the control, the Options screen should now reflect this fact:

Now when you compose a new message in OWA and click the paper clip toolbar button, you'll get the following familiar screen:

That's much better!

"There is a special place in hell for pornographic spam"

That is according to a report I found here. (Don't ask.)

This article states what we in the messaging field already know, of course.

"Porn degrades the Internet experience..."

Well, ok, some of it may be subjective.

And I know I shouldn't laugh at what is a serious subject, but I've been through it all before, and some of these quotes ring true... like this one:

"My son, who is not a good speller, was trying to look at the Coke Website..."

Here is the referenced report prepared by the Pew Internet Project.

Happy Thanksgiving to those to whom it applies.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Addresses the Reports Regarding OWA 2003 Flaw

You may have read a few of the articles mentioning what was reported to NTBugtraq regarding a potential Exchange 2003 OWA flaw.

Well Microsoft has responded, albeit briefly for now.
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/support/e2k3owa.asp

Certainly if you have Exchange 2003 OWA you probably do not want to disable Kerberos.
Now I see why I was unable to reproduce what was described.

William Lefkovics

New 'Security at Microsoft' White Paper Published

A new white paper that outlines how Microsoft defends its network is now available

"Dealing with .pst Files"

Sue Mosher explains how to deal with Outlook 2003's new pst files...

SBSFAQ.COM

Using SBS? If so, you'll want to bookmark the excellent SBSFAQ.COM, where you'll find a whole wealth of useful information...

While we're mentioning SBS, it's worth pointing out that issues which affect the 'standalone' / 'big brother' Standard and Enterprise versions of Exchange, also affect the the SBS edition. This includes the SMTP AUTH attack which is becoming increaingly popular these days...

Exchange 2003 Recovery Storage Groups Explained...

Henrik Walther's written another article over at Outlook Exchange... this time he explains how to Recover mailboxes with Exchange 2003 Recovery Storage Groups

Understanding FE/BE

Kieran McCorry's written a good article on Understanding Front-End Servers which clearly explains how to configure a FE/BE environment, how it works, the differences between explicit and implicit logons, authentication, and more...

Windows 2003 Bug Fixes

"If you're planning to deploy Windows Server 2003 for the first time, you can avoid a myriad of documented performance problems if you include the following bug fixes"... Paula Sharick explains all...

You Can't Please Everyone

"You Can't Please Everyone" rings true everytime Microsoft adds functionality to their products.

Each added feature, like defragmenting capabilities, or synchronizing utilities or what have you, potentially takes a bite out of some business trying to leverage the lack of that functionality in Windows.

Well, the same principle applies to the EIMF (Exchange Intelligent Messaging Filter) or Smartscreen or Spam.Net functionality to be available for Exchange Server 2003 in 2004.

Microsoft holds very strong, commendable views on spam. Should their Spam Filter be a competing product to those companies out there or a basic feature addition released in a service pack?

Which would you prefer?

Microsoft Anti-Spam Move May Harm Rivals

Can MS Take Over the Anti-Spam Market?

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2000 / IIS SMTP Utilities

Someone on the Sunbelt Exchange mailing list came across this website offering some Exchange 2000 / IIS SMTP service utilities. The site offers:

mxClaim Basic
Add company wide disclaimers to your emails using the popular mxClaim software

mxClaim Advanced
An advanced version of mxClaim offering multiple disclaimers based on message properties

mxORB
Fight back against junk mail with powerful and affordable mxORB spam filtering software

mxEvent Sink Manager
A free graphical tool for managing your SMTP event sinks

fwDetect
A free tool that enables or disables the Microsoft ISA Server Firewall Client depending on whether or not a LAN connection exists

More IT Forum Session Slides

Erik Ashby, Lead Exchange Server Program Manager at Microsoft was a busy chap at the recent IT Forum running no less than six sessions... here's his excellent Powerpoint slides...

Deploying Exchange Server Overview
Deploying Exchange Server Drilldown (Part 1)
Deploying Exchange Server Drilldown (Part 2)
Deploying Exchange Server Drilldown (Part 3) from External Email Systems
Integrating Active Directory in Exchange
The Active Directory Connector in Exchange 2003

(files are between 1.2MB to 3.4MB each)

Crabby's Top 10 Spam-Fighting Tips

The Crabby Office Lady, who, in spite of what you might of heard, does not resemble Diane Poremsky, has a list of 10 Spam-Fighting Tips

No wonder she's crabby. :o|

William Lefkovics

Server Types & Versions

It has always been easy to indentify the service pack and build numbers of Exchange servers by examining the 'Servers' view in Exchange System Manager.

The Exchange System Manager supplied with Exchange 2003 now includes two more useful columns in this view:

Type - this column will show Basic, Front-end or Clustered.
Edition - this column will show Standard, Standard/Evaluation, Enterprise or Enterprise/Evaluation.

A sample screen shot is shown below. Here you'll see an Exchange 2003 server running the evaluation edition of Exchange 2003 Enterprise coexisting with an Exchange 5.5 server. It's worthwhile to note that Exchange 5.5 servers will always show as Standard even if they are running the Enterprise version of Exchange 5.5. The good news is that the columns are correctly filled in for Exchange 2000 servers.

Forms-based Authentication

Exchange 2003 has a snazzy new feature called Forms-based Authentication, which I'll refer to as FBA. FBA is the new logon security feature for Outlook Web Access (OWA) which is disabled by default in Exchange 2003.

Why use FBA?

There are several security benefits to running FBA:

1. If the session is inactive for a period of time, the session will expire. The only way to gain access again is to re-authenticate. More on this later.
2. Users can no longer click the Remember my password check box in Internet Explorer.
3. Like the session inactivity setting, if you log out, you really log out. The only way to gain access again is to re-authenticate. Previously in Exchange 2000, the user had to complete the logout session by closing the browser window.

Enabling FBA

Enabling FBA is a simple process performed in Exchange System Manager. First, you should note that you need SSL enabled on the target Exchange 2003 server. When you've done that:

1. Drill down to your server object in ESM.
2. Under the server object, expand the Protocols container.
3. Under the Protocols container, expand HTTP.
4. Bring up the properties of the Exchange Virtual Server.
5. Click the Settings tab. Here you will see the option to enable FBA.

Here's what you should see. Note that this option is greyed out on a cluster server because FBA isn't available on a cluster. You'll need a front-end server in this scenario.

You will also note an option for compression. I'll leave that subject for another article. I've recently enabled FBA in a front-end back-end scenario here at my office. Note that FBA only needs to be enabled on the front-end server in this scenario.

If you've done everything correctly, you should get the following new OWA logon screen. Note that one difference is the fact that your users will now need to enter domain\username when logging on, or they can use their UPN if they prefer. There are ways around the domain\username sequence by modifying the logon.asp page, but these changes will be lost when you perform upgrades or re-installations. I think I'm going to leave this as it is for now - it's not much for users to learn, after all.

A Choice of Experience

The first option on the FBA screen is for you to select your choice of client experience: Premium or Basic. The Premium client gives you the full new OWA interface, whereas the Basic client gives you a cut-down version with less features. As you might guess, the Basic client is somewhat faster due to it offering less features. Hopefully that may help those still using dial-up connections to their OWA mailbox. If you've never seen the basic client, here's a quick screen shot.

Tweaking Security Options

Also on the opening logon screen are two options surrounding the security of the session: Public or shared computer and Private computer. The Private computer option assumes you are accessing OWA from a trusted computer, such as a computer within your normal office, your home, or perhaps from a partner site where you trust the other workers! The Public or shared computer option is for those situations where you are accessing OWA from a non-trusted network, such as an Internet cafe or other public area.

The difference between the two options is how long the inactivity timeout will last. With the Public or shared computer option, the timeout is 15 minutes by default. With the Private computer option, the timeout is 24 hours by default. These values can be modified via the following registry keys:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeWEB\OWA\TrustedClientTimeout
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeWEB\OWA\PublicClientTimeout

Both are DWORD values, and are set in minutes. For both, the minimum value is 1 and the maximum value is 43200, which translates to 30 days.

By the way, in case you're curious, I understand that the timeout will not kick in during long message composition!

What About ISA?

What if you are using ISA in your DMZ and you publish OWA?

When I enabled FBA on my front-end server, I had the following message pop up:

This message indicated that I could offload SSL to the ISA server, or so I thought. Great - no need for an SSL certificate on my front-end server. Wrong! It's my understanding that you have to have SSL enabled on both the ISA and the front-end server for FBA to work. I did try without SSL on the front-end, all to no avail.

I'm not saying that this is a bad thing. In fact, bridging SSL across the DMZ has to be a good thing as far as I can see. I just found the above message a little misleading. Or maybe it's just my interpretation, but it's one to watch for, anyway.

FBA is an extremely useful addition to OWA in Exchange 2003. It gets my vote!

Live Communications Server Course

Are you responsible for implementing Live Communications Server as a replacement for Exchange Instant Messaging in your organisation?

If so, you may be interested in the following course, which has links to download, in PDF format, the individual chapters of the course, or the entire course in one download.

Deploying Microsoft Office Live Communication Server 2003

The goal of this course is to educate IT Professionals in the area of deploying Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003, Standard Edition.

The target audience for this course is system integrators and MCSEs who have experience in deploying Exchange or real-time environment technologies.

SMTP Event Sink Article

A new article is available over at www.msexchange.org.

It is titled 'SMTP Event Sinks - A window into Exchange integration (Part 1)' and is by Alex Zammit.

Here's a summary of the article:

If you installed Exchange integrated applications such as anti-virus, anti-spam, or custom disclaimers there is a good chance that you installed an SMTP event sink. As from IIS5 and Exchange2000 event sinks played a key role in a wide variety of applications. IIS6 and Exchange 2003 kept the same interfaces re-enforcing this trend. You may read these articles for a better understanding of event sinks and common troubleshooting techniques

Exchange 2003 Move Mailbox

Over the next few weeks/months, I'll be looking at the new administration features in Exchange 2003. I'll start by looking at how the ability to move mailboxes in Exchange 2003 has been vastly improved.

Moving Mailboxes With ESM

The most obvious new feature is that you can now move mailboxes from within Exchange System Manager (ESM) in addition to the old method of using Active Directory Users & Computers. In ESM, you drill down to the mailbox store that contains the desired mailbox and underneath the mailbox store you'll find the Mailboxes object. Clicking this object reveals a list of mailboxes contained within the mailbox store. If you now right-click the mailbox you wish to move, you'll see the familiar Exchange Tasks menu, as shown below. Don't forget that you can select multiple mailboxes by holding down the CTRL or Shift keys, which is really useful if you need to move multiple mailboxes at the same time.

Multi-threaded Moves

Whilst on the subject of moving multiple mailboxes at the same time, this leads nicely onto one of the major performance benefits of moving mailboxes in Exchange 2003. The move mailbox task is now multi-threaded to the point where four mailboxes can be moved at the same time. Although you could select multiple mailboxes for moving in Exchange 2000, the actual move task occurred one after another; the new move mailbox task will actually move four mailboxes in parallel. If you are about to embark on your Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003 migration project using the move mailbox method, you can already see that you should be able to generate significant savings in time during the move mailbox process.

Scheduling Your Moves

You can now schedule when your mailbox moves will take place, as shown in the figure below. The obvious benefit here is that you can set the move to occur during periods of low activity on your system. You'll also notice an option to cancel the move tasks that are still running after a certain time. The good thing about this is that if a mailbox is currently being moved when the finish time is reached, the messages are rolled back to the source server; all other mailboxes that have been moved will remain in their new location.

Handling Corrupted Items

One of the more annoying features of the Exchange 2000 move mailbox task was that if it failed to move one of a series of mailboxes, the entire process would stop. I bet that there's quite a few administrators out there who, like me, have kicked off the moving of a batch of mailboxes and then gone home, only to find out later on that the move mailbox task failed on mailbox number 2!

The new move mailbox task gets around this issue because it can now handle corrupted items. There are two options available within the task, as shown below.

If you elect to just create a failure report, a report is created for the problematic mailbox and that mailbox is not moved. If you elect to skip the corrupted items, then you should understand that this option assumes that the corrupted items are to be deleted when the mailbox is moved. Also, if the number of corrupt items exceeds your stated threshold, then the messages that have already been moved are moved back to the source server.

Move Mailbox Reporting

A detailed log file of the move mailbox operation is saved in XML format into the \My Documents\Exchange Task Wizard Logs folder. To make these a bit nicer to read, just apply an extensible style sheet to the log files. The Exchange 2003 SDK has XSL/HTA files that show how the format of XML reports can be changed to a more readable format.

And Finally....

Another useful snippet of information for you. If users try to login to their mailbox when it is being moved, the following event log will be generated. This includes access via OWA as well as via MAPI clients.

More RPC over HTTP Info

There's a new article over at Outlook Exchange all about connecting Outlook 2003 and Exchange 2003 using RPC over HTTP

The /USERVA Switch

Those of you that have ever had an Exchange 2000 server with more than 1GB RAM configured in it will no doubt be aware of the /3GB switch that should be placed in boot.ini on that server. This ensures that 3GB of memory is available for user-mode applications and has been well documented in various Microsoft KB articles.

A new boot.ini switch is available in Windows 2003 that is important to Exchange 2003 installations: the /USERVA switch. When Exchange 2003 is installed on a Windows 2003 server that has more than 1GB RAM configured in it, it is important to add the new /USERVA switch as well as the /3GB switch into the boot.ini file. The format for the new /USERVA switch is /USERVA=3030. For example, the relevant portion of the boot.ini file may look like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows Server 2003" /fastdetect /3GB /USERVA=3030

It is important to ensure that the value of 3030 is used for the /USERVA switch. This value ensures that an additional 42MB of memory is allocated to the kernel for page table entries, meaning that you can then host a greater number of users on the server.

Don't forget that this switch should only be used on Windows 2003 servers.

If you need deeper technical information on this subject, try this Microsoft KB article.

Changing Your Organisation/Site Names

I was just reading some questions about upgrading from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 200x and how the Organisation name will be affected during the migration.

It's worth a reminder here that if you've still got to upgrade from Exchange 5.5 (and by the way, what's keeping you?!) then you have the chance to change your Organisation and Site names. The key to this is to ensure that you change them prior to performing the ForestPrep portion of the migration.

Although the underlying directory name of your Organisation and Sites cannot be changed without a reinstallation of Exchange, the display name can be changed. Using the Exchange 5.5 Administrator program, simply change the Organisation and Site display names before you run ForestPrep. Your renamed Organisation name will become your new Exchange 2000 Organisation name, whislt the renamed Site names will become the new names of your Exchange 2000 Adminsitrative Groups.

You'll need to do this particularly if you have certain characters in your Exchange 5.5 Organisation and Site names, since these characters are not valid in Exchange 2000. Valid characters are a-z, A-Z, 0-9, space and dash/hyphen.

When Size Does Matter

There seems to have been quite a few posts on the newsgroups lately where people have noticed that the size of their mailbox as seen in Exchange System Manager doesn't equate to the size shown in Outlook.

You can check the size of your mailbox in Exchange System Manager by drilling down to the mailbox store that contains your mailbox. Click the Mailboxes object and you'll see a list of the mailboxes on that store, along with various columns of information - one of which will be the mailbox size.

In Outlook, the same information can be obtained by right-clicking Outlook Today, choosing Properties, and on the General tab, click the Folder Size button.

But what do you do if the sizes reported are wildly different? It happened to me not long ago. Exchange System Manager reported by mailbox as 16KB (yes, that's KB). Outlook reported it as 26MB if I recall correctly. I trusted Outlook, since I did actually have some data in my mailbox. Of course, you are all now wondering how I manage to keep my mailbox so lean and mean!

The first thing to note is that there is actually a Microsoft KB article that details a bug which can cause this issue. This is worth checking out first.

If that doesn't fix the problem, I've found that moving the mailbox from one mailbox store to another cures the problem. This can be between servers, or between mailbox stores on the same server. Of course, the latter option is only possible if you've got the Enterprise Edition of Exchange.

Two New Exchange Articles

Two new useful articles have been published over at www.msexchange.org.

First, Jakub Synoradzki gives a run-through of the new improvements in Exchange 2003. This article details new features such as the Recovery Storage Group, Query-Based Distribution Lists, etc.

Second, Lee Derbyshire gives the low-down on the useful feature Outlook Web Access Segmentation, which allows you to hide various folders/features from the view given to users in OWA.

Migrating to Exchange?

Are you about to embark on a migration to Exchange? If so, you may know that Microsoft provide standard tools that can migrate from a variety of messaging systems, such as connectors that provide messaging and calendar connectivity and also the migration wizard, which can extract data from the target system and import it into Exchange.

You may also want to check out a series of Migration Tools & Resources CDs that Microsoft provide. These CDs provide case studies, market bulletins, presentations, white papers and other tools that may not be available elsewhere. For example, the last time I performed a migration from Lotus Notes, I used the extremely valuable NABImport tool available on the Exchange Migration Tools and Resources for Lotus CD. This tool allows for the migration of personal contacts from Notes to the Outlook Contacts folder.

Be sure to check these CDs out if you are due to perform a migration.

Exchange 5.5/2000 Config/Security Recommendations

I came across a couple of security pages on the MSFT site this afternoon which detail the steps that you need to take i.e. the service packs, security updates and fixes that you should apply, to ensure that your servers are built with both performance and security in mind. The "Configuration and Security Update Recommendations for Exchange Server 5.5" can be found here, and the same for Exchange 2000 can be found here.

Outlook 2003 and Spam

If you're using Outlook 2003, you've probably noticed by now that it's got some spam filtering functionality built-in. It's worth checking out the options for this feature, as there are a number of settings that you can tweak and customise to your preference, and possibly filter out even more spam... go to Tools\Options\Junk E-mail.

There are four different levels of junk e-mail protection that can be configured namely, No Automatic Filtering (mail from blocked senders will still be quarantined) , Low (most obvious spam is filtered), High (most spam is caught but greater risk of false positives), and Safe Lists Only (only mail from Safe Senders and Safe Recipients Lists are delivered to the inbox). The first thing that you'll probably notice is that the default filter setting is Low. KC Lemson has reported that she has had a very good capture rate with the setting at Low, and an even better false positive rate... she hasn't had a single one!

It's also possible to automatically delete the spam that has been filtered instead of it being moved to the Junk e-mail folder, but I think you'd probably be better off leaving this setting alone and periodically review the contents of the Junk folder 'just in case.'

The Safe Senders and Safe Recipients tabs allow you to specify e-mail addresses and domains which as the names suggest are 'Safe' ie spam for the entries added to each list will not be quarantined. Each list has a useful import and export option which you can use to share or move lists between users/computers.

I'm going to stop using Mailwasher for a couple of weeks and try out the built-in spam filtering with Outlook 2003, using each of the various settings, to see how it performs for me. I'll let you know the results.

Using Exmerge with Exchange 2003

There's a new version of Exmerge for use with Exchange 2003 as Neil has highlighted below, together with a new(ish) KB article which explains how to configure the permissions of the account that you want to use with the program.

Exchange 2003 Tools Descriptions

You should now already be aware that Microsoft provide Exchange 2003 tools all in one handy place on the main Exchange site. After all, it has been mentioned on this blog before, you know!

However, I'd like to share with you a nice description of each tool, along with a direct link to that tool. It's great to have this information all on one link!

Add Root Certificate

Use the Add Root Certificate tool to add your own root certificate onto your Pocket PC device. For security, organizations often wish to use secure connections (SSL) when syncing or accessing a server. A number of Pocket PC 2002 applications use root certificates and SSL. If your organization prefers to use its own root certificate, you must install a custom root certificate on to the device. This tool will help you do so. Please note that this tool is for Pocket PC 2002 devices only. Pocket PC 2003 devices do NOT require a tool to install certificates.

Address Rewrite

Use Address Rewrite to rewrite return e-mail addresses on outgoing messages sent from a third-party mail system to Exchange, and destined for external or Internet addresses. This feature is similar to the Exchange 5.5 tool, ReRouteViaStore. Address Rewrite enables address rewrite on each SMTP virtual server. The intent of this feature is to rewrite addresses only for mail coming from the partner/subsidiary company (externally SMTP submitted) coming into your company’s e-mail servers and then going out to the Internet. Address Rewrite is useful in merger or acquisition scenarios in which you want all e-mail addresses to reflect the parent company’s name.

ArchiveSink

Use Exchange 2003’s enhanced ArchiveSink to log all message and recipient details of an e-mail message for incoming and outgoing messages on an Exchange server. ArchiveSink, a diagnostic tool, is a custom script that enables message archiving. When message logging is enabled, ArchiveSink will create an additional XML file for each message that is archived.

Authoritative Restore

Use the Authoritative Restore tool to force a restored directory database to replicate to other servers after restoring from a backup. This tool allows you to restore one server (the server with the most recent pre-mistake backup) rather than all servers. With the Authoritative Restore tool, object versions and USNs can be advanced on all writable objects held by that directory so that the data held on the backup appears to be more recent than any copy held by other servers. You can receive assistance using this tool from Microsoft Product Support Services.

Importer for Lotus cc:Mail Archives

Use the Importer for Lotus cc:Mail Archives tool to import cc:Mail archive files to folders in an Exchange 2003 mailbox store or to one or more personal folder (.pst) files. After you install the archive importer, you can import all cc:Mail archives yourself or you can distribute the archive importer program (Ccmarch.exe) to users who need to import their own cc:Mail archive files. The archive importer imports cc:Mail archive files containing e-mail messages directly from users' desktops to Exchange folders.

Disable Certificate Verification

Use the Disable Certification Verification tool to allow users with Windows Mobile devices to connect to Exchange servers without verifying the root certificate authority against the certificate trust list on the device. The device still uses SSL to connect to Exchange, but the Exchange Certificate check allows certificates from un-trusted certificate authorities to be used without generating errors.

DNS Resolver

Use the DNS Resolver tool to simulate the SMTP service’s internal code-path and print diagnostic messages that indicate how DNS resolution is proceeding. The tool must be run on the computer where the DNS problems are occurring. DNS Resolver works only on Exchange servers running Windows Server 2003.

Error Code Look-up

Use the Error Code Lookup tool to determine error values from decimal and hexadecimal error codes in Microsoft Windows operating systems. The tool can look up one or more values at a time. All values on the command line will be looked up in Exchange’s internal tables and presented to you. If available, informational data associated with the value or values will also be shown.

Exchange Server Stress and Performance 2003

Use Microsoft Exchange Server Stress and Performance (ESP) 2003, a highly scalable stress and performance tool for Exchange 2003, to simulate large numbers of client sessions by concurrently accessing one or more protocol servers. ESP includes multiple modules that you can use to simulate a wide variety of protocols and loads. You can run modules concurrently from multiple hosts, thereby more realistically simulating physically separate client machines. There is no limit to the number of computers on your network that can host ESP modules.

Inter-Organization Replication

Use the Inter-Organization Replication tool to replicate free and busy information and public folder content between Exchange organizations. The tool allows for the coordination of meeting, appointments, contacts, and public folder information between disjointed Exchange organizations. The tool consists of two programs: the Replication Configuration program (exscfg.exe), and the Replication service (exssrv.exe). The Replication Configuration program creates a configuration file for setting the replication frequency, logging options, folders to be replicated, and accounts to be used. The Replication service continuously updates information from one server (designated as the Publisher) to one or more Exchange servers (designated as Subscribers).

Exchange Deployment Tools

Use Exchange Server Deployment tools and documentation to lead you through the entire Exchange Server 2003 installation or upgrade process. To ensure that all of the required tools and services are installed and running properly, it is recommended that you run Exchange 2003 Setup through the Exchange Server Deployment Tools. When you use Exchange Server Deployment Tools, you can run specific tools and utilities to verify that your organization is ready for the Exchange 2003 installation.

Mailbox Merge Wizard (ExMerge)

Use the Mailbox Merge Program to extract data from mailboxes on a Microsoft Exchange Server and then merge this data into mailboxes on another Microsoft Exchange Server. The program copies data from the source server into Personal Folders (.PST files) and then merges the data, in the Personal Folders, into mailboxes on the destination server. The ability to merge data to and from an Exchange Server makes this program an invaluable tool with a variety of uses- especially during disaster recovery. The program can also replace existing data instead of merging new data if specified by the Administrator. Mailbox Merge has some limitations. Please read the tools documentation before using this program.

GUIDGen

Use the GUID Generator to generate globally unique identifiers, or GUIDs, that you can use to identify your ActiveX classes, objects, and interfaces. The GUID is copied to the Clipboard in one of four different formats for insertion into your application's source code.

Jetstress

Use Jetstress to verify the performance and stability of a disk subsystem prior to putting an Exchange server into production. Jetstress helps verify disk performance by simulating Exchange disk Input/Output (I/O) load. Specifically, Jetstress simulates the Exchange database and log file loads produced by a specific number of users. You use Performance Monitor, Event Viewer, and ESEUTIL in conjunction with Jetstress to verify that your disk subsystem meets or exceeds the performance criteria you establish. After a successful completion of the Jetstress Disk Performance and Stress Tests in a non-production environment, you will have ensured that your Exchange 2003 disk subsystem is adequately sized (in terms of performance criteria you establish) for the user count and user profiles you have established. It is highly recommended that the Jetstress user read through the tool documentation before using the tool.

Load Simulator 2003

Use Microsoft Exchange Server Load Simulator (LoadSim) 2003 as a benchmarking tool to simulate the performance load of MAPI clients. LoadSim allows you to test how a server running Exchange 2003 responds to e-mail loads. To simulate the delivery of these messaging requests, you run LoadSim tests on client computers. These tests send multiple messaging requests to the Exchange server, thereby causing a mail load. LoadSim is a useful tool for administrators who are sizing servers and validating a deployment plan. Specifically, LoadSim helps you determine if each of your servers can handle the load to which they are intended to carry. Another use for LoadSim is to help validate the overall solution.

Information Store Viewer (MDBVU32)

Use Information Store Viewer (also called MDBVu32) to view or set details about a user’s message storage files, which consist of the private information store, the personal folder file (.Pst), the public store and the offline folder file (.Ost). The Information Store Viewer shows the properties available for each message, how you can use them, and in what format they appear.

Management Pack

The Exchange 2003 Management Pack extends the capabilities of Microsoft Operations Manager by providing specialized monitoring for servers running Exchange 2003. This Management Pack includes a definition of health for an Exchange 2003 Server and will raise an alert to the administrator if it detects a state which requires intervention.

MTA Check

Use MTA Check, a command line tool, to check the MTA database consistency of Exchange message transfer agent (MTA) and to repair the MTA database if necessary. MTA Check will analyze and correct problems in the MTA. Run MTA Check if you suspect corruption in the MTA database or see errors written in the Event Log.

SMTP Internet Protocol Restriction and Accept/Deny List Configuration

Use the SMTP Internet Protocol Restriction and Accept/Deny List Configuration to programmatically set or view Internet Protocol (IP) restrictions on an SMTP virtual server and to add or remove IP addresses from your global accept or deny lists. Microsoft Exchange 2003 provides connection and relay control for its Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) virtual servers. Additionally, Exchange 2003 provides connection filtering that allows you to configure IP addresses from which you want to accept connections or from which you want to always deny connections. These settings are configured in global accept and deny lists in Connection Filtering. An administrator can use these controls to limit the computers that can connect to a virtual server or that can relay e-mail to outside the Exchange organization.

Up-To-Date Notifications Troubleshooting

Use the Up-to-Date Notifications troubleshooting tool to solve common notification issues. An administrator can input user and administration information (on the default page of this application). The information page shows the user’s device information (a list of devices the user has, what delivery method and address the device uses) to help an administrator narrow down notification issues that the user might be having. The tool also allows an administrator to send test e-mail to the specified devices.

WinRoute

Use WinRoute to determine the link state routing information as known to the routing master. The WinRoute tool connects to the link state port, TCP port 691, on Exchange 2000 or 2003 server and extracts the link state information for an organization. The information is a series of GUIDs that WinRoute matches to objects in Active Directory, connectors and bridgehead servers, and presents in human-readable format. This tool should be the first step in troubleshooting routing in an Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 mail-handling environment.

Event ID 9548 & System Performance

Have you ever disabled a Windows account when an employee has left your company, only to see the following event ID logged by Exchange 200x?

It can also occur on the disabled Windows accounts that the ADC creates.

Well, if you're like me, you would have merely thought this to be nothing more than annoying. As it happens, there's more to this error than meets the eye. First, let's take a look at why this error is logged. We'll then go on to talk about why this error can cause you problems you might not have expected it to.

Event 9548 is just an indicator but it does tell you what the problem is - the account listed in the event text does not have a master account SID. What does that mean? Well, the method used to grant permissions in Exchange 200x information store Access Control Lists (ACLs) varies depending on whether the Windows account is enabled or disabled.

* Disabled Windows account permissions are calculated by using the msExchMasterAccountSID attribute.

* Enabled Windows account permissions are calculated by using the objectSID or sidHistory attributes.

If a disabled Windows account does not have the msExchMasterAccountSID attribute set, the 9548 event ID may be logged under certain conditions. The logging of this event ID can easily be fixed by granting the SELF account the Associated External Account right to the mailbox. This is fully documented in MSKB 278966.

Merely ensuring that event ID 9548 isn't logged in the application event log for cosmetic purposes isn't the only reason you should set the SELF account with Associated External Account rights. Every time this event is logged (and remember there is one per disabled account) you are contributing to a possible performance problem with your Exchange server. This is because one of the Information Store threads will hang trying to resolve the disabled user account that is more than likely listed somewhere in an ACL on another object. In other words, every time someone tries to access an ACL that contains the disabled user account, there will be a performance hit whilst the Information store tries to determine who the disabled user really is.

This may not be a problem on smaller systems but Microsoft PSS has already seen numerous cases where resolving the 9548 event IDs has resolved system performance problems. The message here is loud and clear: don't let event ID 9548 multiply and go unnoticed on your system, as it will eventually show as reduced system performance.

Outlook 2003 Add-in - Video Email

"Use a Web camera to easily send and reply with a video email to your friends and family with just two clicks on the Video Email for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003." .... sshh!... don't tell your users!

Testing OMA Access

I was enabling Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) on an Exchange 2003 server today when I remembered a handy tip for verifying that OMA is functioning correctly.

The beauty of this verification is that it can be performed using Internet Explorer 6.0 on a desktop machine. All you have to do is point your browser to http://servername/oma and enter the valid login details for a mailbox residing on that server.

You will then be presented with an error indicating that your device is unsupported, to which you can just click OK.

You should then be presented with OMA access to the mailbox via your browser. An extremely useful way to test the functionality before unleashing to the users.

OAB Problems

Came across a strange problem today. A user was reporting that messages which he was creating offline and then subsequently sending were being sent to the wrong recipients. After getting past the initial ‘are you sure?!’ type questioning, it quickly became apparent that the user’s Offline Address Book was in fact out of date and/or incomplete. A quick look on Technet revealed a few relevant articles which confirmed that an e-mail may be sent to the wrong recipient for the following reasons…

“You composed the e-mail message while you were working offline -and- the offline address book (OAB) was updated before you sent the new e-mail message”

or…

“The Outlook MAPI Address Book Provider (emsabp32.dll) does not perform an integrity check on startup. If the OAB download is incomplete, due to network problems for example, the index for the OAB may not match some of the data

or…

“This issue occurs if the complete download of the OAB is not successful.”

or…

“When a name in a message is resolved against the global address list in an Offline Address Book (OAB), that name coincides with an entry ID in the Online global address list. If the message with the resolved name in it is not sent and a modified OAB has been downloaded, the entry ID can point to a different address book entry. For example, if the OAB has 60 entries in it and a message is composed to entry 60 and not sent, then an updated OAB is downloaded with 61 entries, the unsent message will be sent to the new entry 60 instead of the entry ID 61, causing a misrouted message. After the message is sent, the item in the Sent Items folder shows the actual recipient who received the message.”

One to remember…

New Outlook 2003 Command Line Switches

Sue Mosher has kindly pointed out that there are a number of new command line switches that have been added with Outlook 2003... there's a full list here... thanks Sue!

Listing Security Updates

Here’s a tip that’ll come in handy if you need to list and download the security updates for a particular operating system or application. Visit the MS Download page, select the appropriate product and enter the keywords ‘security_patch.’ The list of relevant patches will then be displayed which you can choose to sort by popularity, title or date. Very useful if you’re trying to put together a list of patches that a customer (or you!) should be applying.

The PFDavAdmin Tool

If you've ever had anyone who's mucked with permissions in the M: drive, you'll know that the repercussions can be serious. The most common thing seen is where someone modifies permissions to public folders via the M: drive, which changes the order of permissions from MAPI canonical to NTFS canonical. The result is that if you then try to add someone to the permissions list of the public folder via Exchange System Manager, you get the classic Invalid windows handle ID no: 80040102 error, as documented in MSKB 313333.

In MSKB 313333, you are advised to use PFINFO.EXE to resolve the problem. Well, there's another tool on offer to resolve such problems - PFDavAdmin. This is a fantastic tool which I had to use recently on a customer site, after I couldn't add any permissions to the Organizational Forms library. I've managed to get Microsoft to upload the PFDavAdmin tool to their PSS site. The tool can be found here. However, you should note that this utility is not supported, and that you use it entirely at your own risk.

If you download the tool, you'll find a Word document attached that nicely explains the features of PFDavAdmin. PFDavAdmin must be run on a computer that has the .NET Framework 1.1 installed, running Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows 2003. It must also be a member of the forest in which the target Exchange 2000 server resides. The user running the tool must be logged into Windows as an Exchange Administrator.

This utility lets you do several things:

• Modify folder permissions on folders in the MAPI tree using an interface similar to ESM
• Propagate the addition/replacement or removal of one or more ACEs down the public folder tree without overwriting the entire ACL
• Fix non-canonical and otherwise damaged DACLs on folders in bulk
• Report the DACL state of folders in bulk
• Export and Import folder permissions on both public folders and mailboxes
• Export and Import replica lists
• Propagate changes to the replica list down the tree without overwriting
• Check for and remove item-level permissions in bulk
• Check for event registrations
• Exceed limits imposed by the ESM GUI for values on the Limits tab

This tool accesses the store via webDAV, so you will notice that bulk operations are quite slow and will take a long time to complete against thousands of folders when running against Exchange 2000. If you use this tool against Exchange 2003, it is much faster. Be sure to check out the Known Issues section of the document before using it.

The screen shot below shows you PFDavAdmin looking at the permissions on the Organizational Forms library folder. In the top-right corner, you'll see the DACL state listed as Good. This is what you'll expect to see once the utility has done its magic, assuming of course that you had problems with the folder in the first place. Of course, the utility can work against normal public folders and mailboxes too.

Be sure to check this tool out, as it will make a very good addition to your toolkit. Treat it with the respect it deserves, though.

(Update - Kyle Lewallen from Microsoft PSS has also written about a real world situation where PFDavAdmin came in very handy - CM)

NDRs & Attachments

One of the features of Exchange 2000 that is enabled by default is that if you send a message with an attachment and your message is returned as non-deliverable, then the attachment is included in the NDR. The result is that your mailbox gets even bigger. You just know that your users never clear out their mailboxes, so your database swells even more.

In a number of Exchange systems that I've designed, I've configured the registry key that allows you to specify the maximum size a NDR can be before the attachment is stripped off. I find this a useful feature. There's one major caveat though: the users cannot use the Send Again feature on the NDR if you enable this registry key.

That being said, here's what you need to do to enable this feature:

1. Locate HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\SMTPSVC using your favourite registry editor.
2. Add a new key with the name Queuing.
3. Within the Queuing key, add MaxDSNSize as a DWORD. The value you enter is the size limit in bytes.

Restart the SMTP service for the change to take effect.

Messages larger than this size limit that generate an NDR do not return the attachment. I'll leave you to decide what a suitable size limit should be. Oh yes, and note that this registry key only applies if you're running at least Exchange 2000 SP2 - don't tell me you're running something less than SP3! I haven't personally tested this with Exchange 2003, either.

The MSKB article that references this useful information is here.

When OOF Doesn't Work

I have removed this blog post in favour of a more detailed article, with screenshots, over at the MSExchange.org site here.

Outlook 2003 Books

Now that the new Office System 2003 is formally released, there are lots of new books out there to help us navigate the waters.

Here are three books on Outlook 2003, each written by a different Outlook MVP friend of mine:

Teach Yourself Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours by Diane Poremsky
Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 by Patricia Cardoza
Absolute Beginners Guide to Outlook 2003 by Ken Slovak (who is no beginner!)

Though these are more directed toward the user experience versus Exchange connectivity specifically, they still remain relevant for the Exchange administrator who may be responsible for client installation and user training.

William Lefkovics

Active Directory Connector Whitepaper Published

I know Chris included this in his ISA post of a couple of days ago, but this is a big thing! It should have its own post!

At long last, a comprehensive whitepaper on the dreaded Active Directory Connector has been added to the growing Microsoft Technical Library for Exchange Server.

It references Exchange 2000 Server a lot, but the content does cover Exchange Server 2003, as well.

Download it here.

William Lefkovics

ISA, more ISA, ADC and more...

There's lots of new reading material for this weekend! Thomas Shinder's ISA Server 2000 Exchange Server 2000/2003 Deployment Kit has been published... there's over 50MB worth of Word docs available to download.. the kit contains some thirty-six files packed with everything you need to know about combing ISA and Exchange. If you're 'into ISA' or just want to learn what the product has to offer, and you find Tom's articles useful, don't forget to check out his excellent book. Just in case that isn't enough ISA material for you, Microsoft yesterday published their Using ISA Server with Exchange 2003 document. Also published by Microsoft this week was their guide to Understanding and Deploying Exchange 2000 Active Directory Connector.

and finally, a couple of miscellaneous articles...

"The latest Microsoft messaging platform -- Exchange Server 2003 -- looks like a slam-dunk, except for some foot dragging by firms using Exchange 5.5, the two-versions ago product. So Microsoft is practically campaigning against the older Exchange."

"Microsoft Outlook 2003 Puts Open Rates in Question"

Server Based Antispam Comparison

An article titled "Server Based Antispam Comparison" has been published over at MSExchange.org which details the features available and pricing for 5 different antispam products:

* GFI MailEssentials 9
* McAfee Spamkiller (Small Business)
* SurfControl E-mail Filter
* MailSweeper
* Lyris Mailshield

URLScan and the DOTCOMS

I was recently doing some Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2000 training and everything was going smoothly in the lab setup that I had constructed. I'd just installed an Exchange 2000 server into the existing Exchange 5.5 site and got to the point where I'd check to see that the public folder hierarchy had replicated to the new Exchange 2000 server.

Upon expanding the Public Folders object in Exchange System Manager, I was presented with the following error:

I'd seen this before, but I must admit this error puzzled me for a few seconds. I mean, this was a brand new, clean installation! Then I remembered that I'd just installed IISLockdown with URLScan. I checked the URLScan log file which revealed the problem. Here's an extract of the log file:

[10-22-2003 - 10:49:38] Client at 172.16.1.1: URL contains extension '.com', which is disallowed. Request will be rejected. Site Instance='1', Raw URL='/ExAdmin/Admin/Poole.Silversands.com/Public%20Folders/'

When you access the Public Folders object in ESM, a connection is made to the ExAdmin virtual directory. The URL made during this connection contained .com, which was being blocked by URLScan.

Of course! When I built the Exchange 5.5 server, I used the default site addressing in Exchange 5.5, which consits of sitename.orgname.com. The .com part of the Exchange 5.5 site addressing was present in the URL.

Admittedly, I could have simply changed the site addressing so that .com was no longer present as this was just a test lab. However, you wouldn't be able to do that in a production environment, so I chose the other way out, which was to allow the .com extension within the URLScan configuration.

To do this, just edit the URLScan.ini file found in the \winnt\system32\inetsrv\urlscan folder. Find the [DenyExtensions] setting, and comment out the .com entry by placing a semi-colon in front of it. This is shown below:

[DenyExtensions]
;
; Extensions listed here either run code directly on the server,
; are processed as scripts, or are static files that are
; generally not intended to be served out.
;
; Note that these entries are effective if "UseAllowExtensions=0"
; is set in the [Options] section above.
;
; Deny executables that could run on the server
.exe
.bat
.cmd
;.com

Then find the [AllowExtensions] section, and add the .com entry to it as follows:

[AllowExtensions]
;
; Extensions listed here are commonly used on a typical IIS server.
;
; Note that these entries are effective if "UseAllowExtensions=1"
; is set in the [Options] section above.
;
.com
.asp
.cer
.cdx

Restart the IISAdmin service for the changes to take effect, and away you go. Note that restarting the IISAdmin service restarts a whole load of other Exchange services, though. Of course, although I'd had this problem before, it doesn't happen very often, since I'm invariably dealing with .co.uk addresses!

Exchange 2003 and Mobile Access

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Windows Mobile-Based Devices Fact Sheet

Live Communications Server Downloads

If you're looking to deploy Live Communications Server (LCS) as a replacement for your Exchange 2000 Instant Messaging server, then the following new downloads are for you.

Live Communications Server 2003 Document: Release Notes 1.0a

The Release Notes Update contains new information for Live Communications Server 2003 Standard Edition. It contains all of the information in the release notes that shipped with the product, as well as, a new section containing the most up-to-date information.

Live Communications Server 2003 Document: Reference Guide

The Reference Guide details the client configuration and policies, reference hardware and environment, Active Directory® directory service, and Windows Management Instrumentation extensions that are installed as part of Live Communications Server 2003 Standard Edition, as well as, the Group Policy objects that are used.

Live Communications Server 2003 Document: Migration Guide

The Migration Guide provides a migration guide for organizations making the important move from Microsoft Exchange 2000 Instant Messaging to Live Communications Server 2003 Standard Edition. This document is for operational managers in information technology groups of small, medium, and large organizations. It describes the tools that Live Communications Server 2003 includes to simplify migration and provides example migration scenarios.

Live Communications Server 2003 Document: Deployment Guide

The Deployment Guide explains how to implement the best practices for planning, designing, migrating to, and deploying Live Communications Server 2003 Standard Edition in your enterprise.

Performance Monitoring with Exchange & Outlook 2003

A number of new performance monitor counters have been implemented in Exchange 2003 and Outlook 2003, which should help with monitoring, troubleshooting and baselining client connectivity. They mainly revolve around RPCs and the number of which were attempted/failed/succeeded, and the average time taken for them to complete their travels.

Outlook installs 13 counters under the performance object 'Outlook, ' while Exchange comes with a number a similar counters, which can be used to monitor the client-side performance from the server's perspective, and these can be found under the MSExchangeIS performance object.

These counters should of course be particularly useful when clients are experiencing connectivity problems. Don't forget too, that Outlook 2003 also comes with a useful Connection Status feature as Neil pointed out a couple of months back.

3 Useful Outlook COM Add-Ins

Outlook MVP Ricardo Silva has 3 useful COM Add-ins available for Outlook here.

Outlook Reminders by SMS v1.0 allows Outlook reminders to be sent via SMS.

Outlook Reminders by Email allows Outlook reminders to be sent to an alternative address.

A common request is for the ability to move attachments from a message to a folder, and that's where Outlook Attachments to Folders comes in.

ForestPrep and DomainPrep with Exchange 2003

The process for checking whether ForestPrep and DomainPrep have been completed successfully has changed for Exchange 2003. Instead of running the ADSI Edit snap-in and Policytest.exe utility as is required for Exchange 2000, there's a new tool called OrgPrepCheck for Exchange 2003. This deployment tool can be found on the Exchange 2003 CD, or over on the Exchange 2003 Tools and Updates page. This Technet article explains what you need to do.

Brick Level backups

I've seen a few posts in the newsgroups recently which indicate that Brick Level backups are still being performed. This type of backup is not recommended for a number of reasons, including... reliability, backup time and greater media requirements. Reliability is probably the main issue, as this backup type has proven to be far too unreliable. This article from Charles Villa explains the reasons for not using brick level backups, both clearly and in some detail. Charles also explains what you should be doing instead... ie online backups of your Information Store and Directory using an Exchange aware backup application be-it NTBackup, Backup Exec, Arcserve (both with Exchange Agents) or whichever. Combine this with the Ed Crowley Never Restore Method and if your budget can stretch to it... Ontrack's PowerControls which'll enable you to extract data from an unmounted priv.edb, and you should be able to sleep much better at night... as long as you've got a tried and tested disaster recovery plan of course.

Exchange 2003 Deployment Whitepaper

Aelita are offering a free whitepaper on Deployment Options for Exchange Server 2003. From the website:

"In this white paper, noted Microsoft Exchange expert Kieran McCorry, from HP’s Exchange consulting group, outlines the options for migrating to Microsoft’s newest messaging application, Exchange Server 2003. The paper discusses inter-org migrations, intra-org migrations and how you can benefit from consolidation during your deployment. Moreover, the paper offers tips for helping you decide the best approach for you."

The WINROUTE Tool

Some time ago on this website, I briefly covered a useful utility called ADModify. Last week, I had need to use another useful utility, this time a utility called WINROUTE. Here I describe what this utility does, and how to use it.

Those of you familiar with Exchange 5.5 will remember the Gateway Address Routing Table (GWART), which was used for route selection within your Exchange organisation; the connectors and their address spaces are shown in the GWART. There were issues with the GWART, such as the possibility of message loops, which were solved in Exchange 200x by the introduction of link state routing. Essentially, link state enables an Exchange 200x server to select the most efficient path for a message, based on the current state of the network.

The link state tables are held only in an Exchange 200x server's memory. Since the link state table is only held in memory, it is not easily accessible. That's where WINROUTE comes in. WINROUTE allows you to view the link state table by posing as an Exchange 200x server and thereby receiving the link state information. You can even save the information to file in case Microsoft PSS need it to troubleshoot a problem.

The latest version of WINROUTE can be found on the new Microsoft Tools and Update page and is also available on your Exchange 2000 CD, in the SUPPORT\UTILS\I386 folder.

To run WINROUTE, just double-click the EXE file. To connect to an Exchange 200x server, it's simply a case of choosing File / New Query. Once you've connected to an Exchange 200x server, you'll see three panes, as shown in the picture below.

The top pane, known as the tree view pane, shows your routing groups. If you expand these out, you get a wealth of information, such as the routing group master, version information, routing group addresses and the connectors within the routing group. Expanding out the connectors themselves will also reveal plenty more information, such as the connector type, bridgehead server information, restrictions, address spaces and whether the connector is up or down.

The middle pane, the address space pane, shows and overall view of the connector information, such as address spaces, address types, the connector cost, whether there are any restrictions on the connector, and the admin group that the connector belongs to. It's worth noting that the connector cost column is just the cost associated with that particular connector, and not the total cost to reach that connector. The restrictions on a connector may consist of restricted users, or size limits, for example. This is a very useful pane when troubleshooting message flow.

The bottom pane is the raw data that WINROUTE has received and decoded. This is the sort of stuff that PSS will be interested in, I guess!

It can prove to be an extremely useful tool when troubleshooting message flow within your organisation. Check it out sometime!

ScanMail Passes The EICAR Test

Here's an interesting Trend KB article on why ScanMail 6.2 with pattern 638 actually passes the EICAR test virus. One to watch for.

Disabling Services - Back End Server

I've seen a few queries recently on whether it's a good idea to stop and disable certain services, such as the Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP) service, on an Exchange 2000 server. After all, there are quite a number of services installed with Exchange 2000, but not all of them are required for core functionality. Stopping and disabling these services may not only free up valuable resources for the required services, but it's also good security practice.

Here I list the services that are candidates for disabling on a mailbox server. Remember to evaluate them for your environment.

Microsoft Exchange IMAP4 - Unless you plan on using IMAP4 clients, there's not much point in enabling this service.

Microsoft Exchange POP3 - As per IMAP4.

Microsoft Search - This service isn't required for core functionality, since it is used by the full-text indexing process.

Microsoft Exchange Event Service - Required for backwards compatibility with Exchange 5.5 event scripts. Therefore, if you've never used Exchange 5.5 event scripts, you might as well disable this service.

Microsoft Exchange Site Replication Service - This service will be disabled by default on most servers. It's required when coexisting with Exchange 5.5, and is required on the first server installed into an Exchange 5.5 Site.

Microsoft Exchange MTA Stacks - You'll need this service if you're coexisting with Exchange 5.5 or if you have X.400 Connectors configured on your Exchange 2000 server. It's also used for move-mailbox operations, so if you ever need to move users between servers and storage groups, you'll need this service running.

Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP) - Although this service is required to be installed prior to installing Exchange 2000 itself, it doesn't have to be running for core functionality. Of course, if you require newsgroups to be available within your public folder hierarchy, then that's a different story!

In the not too distant future, I'll look at what Exchange services can safely be disabled on a front-end server.

Active Directory Cookbook

Knowledge of Active Directory remains a very significant aspect of Exchange administration, being the primary (and likely only) directory resource for your Exchange 200x organization.

Well, hot off the presses...

Active Directory Cookbook
for Windows Server 2003 & Windows 2000
By Robbie Allen
September 2003
Series: Cookbooks
0-596-00464-8, Order Number: 4648
622 pages, $44.95 US, $69.95 CA, £31.95 UK

William Lefkovics

While you're in bed...

... Exchange performs a number of daily maintenance tasks.

Message Filtering Limits

If you use the message filtering feature of Exchange 2000, you'll know that you can block certain addresses from sending messages into your system. Ideally, you'll be using 3rd party software to control senders and recipients, but if you are using message filtering, be aware of one limitation of the feature.

There is a limit to the number of addresses that you can add to the filter list. The number is around the 850 mark and if you reach this limit, you'll receive an error message similar to the following:

"The administrative limit for this request was exceeded"

Note that is limit is by design, and is actually an Active Directory limit. The technical details behind this restriction were highlighted by a Microsoft source, who said that there is a limit to the number of non-linked attributes that can be stored in the Active Directory. This has to do with the fact that a nine-byte tag must be put on the record for that database object and database records cannot span multiple database pages which are limited to a size of 8k per page. That implies a theoretical upper limit of 910 values across all non-linked attributes on a single DS object. However, the number is actually lower by approximately 50 because of fixed fields in the database record. Currently, there is no method to increase the total number of the entries.

So now you know. If you hit that limit, you can blind your boss with science.

RPC Over HTTPS Article

Amit Zinman, an author over at MSExchange.org has just published an article on RPC over HTTPS.

Summary: Exchange 2003 allows Outlook to connect using HTTPS and still receive all of the messaging features. This has been a much requested feature since regular RPC/MAPI was sometimes very slow or just timed out on WAN connections. In this article we'll see how one goes about setting this up.

Check out the full article here.

Free Exchange 2000 Admin Introduction Video

CBTNuggets.com produces CD Based Training videos for various products.
They provide some free video content online through their website.

They recently added Exchange 2000 to their list with a 32 minute video accessible online from this page:
Exchange2000 Admin Video

William Lefkovics
Not a specific endorsement of this product.

OWA 2003 Hotkeys

Hotkeys are now available for Outlook Web Access in Exchange 2003. They will only work with Internet Explorer 5.0 or later, though. Here's the list of hotkeys:

CTRL+N - Creates a new mail, or post if you're in public folders.
CTRL+R - Replies to the currently selected message.
CTRL+SHIFT+R - Replies to all for the currently selected message.
CTRL+SHIFT+F - Forwards the currently selected message.
CTRL+U - Marks the currently selected message as unread.
CTRL+Q - Marks the currently selected message as read.

Exchange 2003 & Recipient Policies

I've just been talking with a colleague who was trying to create additional Exchange 2000 recipient policies in a mixed mode Exchange 2000 / Exchange 5.5 environment. Of course, it is not possible to do this, since Exchange 5.5 doesn't understand multiple addresses within its Site Addressing, which is where the recipient policies are derived from when coexisting.

This reminded me of something I read recently regarding Exchange 2003 and creating additional proxy addresses via recipient policies. With Exchange 2003, it is now possible via recipient policies to create additional SMTP addresses for users with mailboxes on Exchange 2000 or 2003, even when coexisting with Exchange 5.5 in the Admin Group/Site.

Yet another useful feature during the migration process.

No M: Drive in Exchange 2003?

So you've upgraded to Exchange 2003, and now you notice that the ExIFS drive, drive M:, is no longer available. That's good! It's also normal, since Microsoft has hidden drive M: by default in Exchange 2003. There were enough cases of corrupt databases after the misuse of drive M: that Microsoft decided to take this action.

If you want to re-enable drive M:, first ask yourself if you really need to. Then ensure that you understand the ramifications of virus scanning this drive, or backing it up, by reading the Microsoft KB article here.

If you then finally convince yourself you still need drive M:, then here's how to re-enable it in Exchange 2003. You need to add a string value called DriveLetter, with a value of M, into the following location:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\ExIFS\Parameters

Obviously, the value M means that drive M: will be used. You can change this to be a different value if you desire.

If you do re-enable the ExIFS drive letter, be careful out there!

Out Of Office Suppression

Those of you who subscribe to mailing lists will no doubt have periodically received a bunch of Out Of Office replies from fellow subscribers when you have posted to the mailing list.

Previously, the best way to handle this has been to subscribe both your normal mailbox address and a public folder to the mailing list. The idea is that you subscribe your normal mailbox address with the 'NOMAIL' option that many lists provide. The mailing list posts are delivered into your public folder, but replies are sent from your mailbox address. The 'NOMAIL' option set on your normal mailbox address prevents the mailing list messages from being delivered to your mailbox. Therefore, no Out Of Office responses are sent back to other list members when set on your normal mailbox.

In Exchange 2003, it is now possible to modify the Out Of Office behaviour to help in these situations. A new registry key exists that prevents the sending of Out Of Office responses unless the recipient is explicitly listed in either the TO: or CC: fields of the message. Since mailing list posts aren't addressed explicitly to list members, the suppression of Out Of Office responses to mailing list members is achieved.

To enable this feature, add the DWORD parameter SuppressOOFsToDistributionLists with a value of 1 into the following registry location:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\ParametersSystem

This key should help some mailing list members from upsetting others!

Cheaper SSL...

Do you need to buy or renew a secure certificate now or at some point in the future... perhaps for OWA, or RPC over HTTP?... The answer will probably be yes... Well, Paul Robichaux decided that he wasn't going to be robbed (as my employer was, not too long ago) and decided to use InstantSSL. The purchase went well, and he's recommending them.

Has anyone else used InstantSSL? Let us know what you think of them.

Additional Outlook 2003 Monitoring Information

In Exchange 2000, there has always been the ability to add extra columns of information into the Logons object of a mailbox or public store in Exchange System Manager. There are many columns available, such as Open Attachments, Open Messages, etc. The method for adding these columns is to simply right-click the Logons object, and choose View / Choose Columns, as shown below.

With Exchange 2003, several new columns are available for client monitoring purposes that will only be populated by the new Outlook 2003 client. They are:

1. Adapter Speed - NIC speed of the client in Kbits/sec

2. Client IP Address - Self explanatory

3. Client Mode - Unknown (0), Online (1) or Cached (2)

4. Client Name - FQDN of the connecting workstation

5. Latency - Round-trip RPC (ms) latency between the client and server

6. MAC Address - Hardware address of the client

7. RPC Calls Succeeded - Self explanatory

Exchange 2003 Recipient Filtering

With Exchange 2003, there's now a Recipient Filtering option to be found in Exchange System Manager, under Global Settings / Message Delivery. This simply allows you to block messages that are sent to specific recipients.

There's also an interesting tick box titled 'Filter recipients who are not in the Directory'. You might wonder why you'd want to filter messages that are addressed to non-existant users - after all, the server will just send a non-delivery report (NDR) back to the sender.

Well, here's what this option actually does.

Let's take a look at an SMTP conversation taking place on a fictitious server called E2K3, which handles the SMTP mail for the domain exchange2003.co.uk. First, here's what we see if we don't have this tick box selected.

250 e2k3.exchange2003.co.uk Hello
250 2.1.0 neil.hobson@silversands.co.uk....Sender OK
250 2.1.5 invalid_address@exchange2003.co.uk

Here, the server has accepted the mail for the user invalid_address@exchange2003.co.uk. The server will process the message, realise that this user doesn't exist in Active Directory, and will therefore return a NDR to the sender.

Now lets enable the tick box in question, and then examine the resulting conversation:

250 e2k3.exchange2003.co.uk Hello
250 2.1.0 neil.hobson@silversands.co.uk....Sender OK
250 2.1.1 User unknown

Here you can see that we immediately issue 'User unknown'. This means that, at the verb level, the transmission is stopped entirely. The benefit of this option is that our server does not generate any NDR.

One may argue, though, that with this option enabled, spammers can now test for valid addresses based on the SMTP responses given. I'll leave you to decide whether you wish to implement this feature!

S/MIME, A/V, OWA, IM and SMTP...

Here's a bit of a 'mixed bag' for you, it's what I've been reading today...

Paul Robichaux's been busy writing about S/MIME and Exchange 2003, and also about how to virus "protect Windows-based clients that are using Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express and connecting to a Microsoft Exchange Server" in chapter two of his Email Protection ebook, that's just been published over on the Sybari site.

Keeping Tabs On OWA... crank up some IIS logging and review your OWA activity.

Set up an instant messaging server with Exchange 2000... neat article which details the steps that you need to take to set up an Instant Messaging server using Exchange 2000.

And finally, if you've been relay testing your Exchange server using the likes of abuse.net and the results seem to show that your server is open for relay, even though you're sure that it isn't, you need to read this useful Technet article which explains the situation in geat detail (thanks Martin!)

Exchange 2003 Deployment Guide Updated

The deployment guide for Exchange Server 2003 has been updated and is available for download from the ever growing Microsoft Exchange site:

Download Exchange Server 2003 Deployment Guide

Or if you prefer:
http://snurl.com/2aov

Exchange 2003 Security Snippets

You've probably heard Microsoft's 'more secure by default' message on their new 2003 suite of products. How does this apply to Exchange 2003? Here's a useful list of 5 specific changes that have been made to Exchange 2003.

1. On a clean Exchange 2003 server installation, you will now notice that the POP3, IMAP4 and NNTP services are disabled by default. Note that, on upgrades and reinstallations, the current state of the service is preserved.

2. Ordinary domain user accounts will not be able to log on locally to an Exchange 2003 server. Note that this will happen on all installations of Exchange 2003, be they new installations, reinstallations or upgrades. Of course, Server Operators, local Administrators and those with higher privileges will still be able to log on locally.

3. The global maximum message size limits will be set to 10MB when the first Exchange 2003 server is installed, even with upgrades from Exchange 2000 if the sizes weren't already set. However, if you already had size limits in your Exchange 2000 organisation, they'll be preserved.

4. The maximum size limit of a public folder posting will be set to 10MB on every Exchange 2003 installation or upgrade if the values weren't already set. However, if you already had public folder size limits configured in your Exchange 2000 organisation, they'll be preserved.

5. The ability to create top-level public folders will be removed for 'Everyone' and 'Anonymous Logon'. This is performed when the Exchange 2003 ForestPrep process is run.

Exchange Server 2003 is FAT-free!

Over the years, I remember weighing the advantages and disadvantages of deploying Exchange Server on partitions formatted with FAT versus NTFS.
Should the transaction logs go on FAT partitions?
Should the databases reside on NTFS partitions?

Well, that decision has been made for you in Exchange Server 2003. The partitions with the following components must be formatted NTFS for installation:

The system partition

The partition that stores the Exchange binaries

Partitions containing transaction log files

Partitions containing database files

Partitions containing other Exchange files

Including installations using only the Exchange Management components.

William Lefkovics on September 8, 2003 at 11:14 AM
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"MTA Journaling Does Not Work on Certain Days"

Here's an interesting problem that someone recently experienced and asked about over on the Microsoft Exchange Newsgroup... If you're using Message Journalling on Exchange 5.5, and a custom recipient is used as the journaling recipient, there is a problem which can result in the journaling not working for one day each month.

Chris Meirick on September 3, 2003 at 06:05 PM
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Understanding NDRs

If you're using Exchange 2000 or 2003, this Technet article will help you to examine an undeliverable mail notification (NDR), and to work out the reason why the message has failed to be delivered successfully.

Chris Meirick on September 3, 2003 at 05:58 PM
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Exchange 2003 Deployment

Microsoft have published an Exchange 2003 Deployment Guide... it's available here.

Chris Meirick on August 27, 2003 at 06:08 PM
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Exchange 2000 ESM with Exchange 2003

In a recent article on using the Exchange 2003 Exchange System Manager, I discussed whether you can use this in an Exchange 2000 environment.

Let's flip this issue round the other way. Should we use the Exchange 2000 Exchange System Manager in an Exchange 2003 environment?

The answer to that is no, this is not really recommended. I'm not saying that this is a totally unsupported configuration, but think about it: the old version of ESM will not understand the new features available in the new version of ESM.

You would run the risk of damaging your environment, so avoid this configuration.

Neil Hobson on August 22, 2003 at 01:44 PM
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MS Exchange Tools

Need to get your hands on some Microsoft Exchange tools...Exmerge, RPCPing, Winroute etc?... they are all there on the MS FTP server.

Chris Meirick on August 21, 2003 at 11:56 PM
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Exchange 2000 Hot Issues...

Exchange 2000 Server Top 50 "Hot Issue" Articles

Chris Meirick on August 20, 2003 at 04:32 PM
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Exchange 2003 ESM

Can you use the Exchange 2003 Exchange System Manager (ESM) in an Exchange 2000 environment? That's a good question, since it is possible that some people may install this newer version onto their workstations to manage their existing Exchange 2000 environment. The theory here is that you can take advantage of some of the new features of Exchange 2003 ESM. So, is it possible?

Well, according to Microsoft, the answer is yes, it is safe to use the new Exchange 2003 ESM in an Exchange 2000 environment. However, you should note that, to be supported, you must have run Exchange 2003's ForestPrep first.

Some of Exchange 2003 ESM's new features will then be available to you, such as:

* The new improved queue viewer.
* The new move-mailbox wizard from within ESM.
* The new Internet Mail Wizard.
* The Mailbox Recovery Center.
* Some of the public folder management enhancements.

Neil Hobson on August 18, 2003 at 02:32 PM
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Event ID Search

Having problems with E2K3?... why not enter the event ID here and find out what the problem is.

Chris Meirick on August 16, 2003 at 03:21 PM
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Exchange & Catch-all Mailboxes

UPDATE:

Michael B. Smith has updated his catch-all script to version 2, which now handles multiple domains amongst other useful changes.  You can read more about this version and download the script directly from his blog here.

==================================================

There are a few options now for creating a catch-all mailbox in Exchange 2000, and here I'm going to cover 3 options. Here, we're talking about catching all unresolved recipients for a domain, and not every message sent to a domain.

First, if you fancy the DIY method, you can create an SMTP event sink via the Microsoft KB article located here.

Fortunately, Michael B. Smith has already created a catch-all mailbox script package, and he has kindly allowed me to upload it to this site. You can download this package here - full instructions are included in the readme. Be sure to provide any feedback to Michael - his email address is included in the readme. Also, be sure to read the warranty before you install.

Finally, there's also an excellent catch-all package called MailBasket over at TurboGeeks, as Chris had already mentioned in his Today's Discoveries post from August 11th 2003.

Neil Hobson on August 14, 2003 at 04:42 PM
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Outlook and Exchange 2003

If you're planning your upgrade to Exchange 2003, you may be wondering if your existing Outlook clients will be able to connect to your new server, or if they too will need to be upgraded. Well according to Microsoft all versions from Outlook 2000 onwards are compatible with E2K3, with Outlook versions 95, 97 and 98 meanwhile having been 'tested for basic interoperability.'

Exchange 2003 when it ships, will be coming with standalone copies of Outlook 2003, and with there being some significant improvements and new features in this latest offering, you will probably want to seriously consider using this version, especially with your CAL allowing you to do so.

Chris Meirick on August 13, 2003 at 06:52 PM
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Prohibit Send & Receive...

I've noticed that there's one limit that some administrators (or their employers) don't like, and are hesitant to put in place - it's the 'Prohibit Send and Receive' storage limit.

The argument for not implementing this restriction can often be along the lines that 'it is not good business practice to prevent an employee from receiving genuine mail, especially as it could be from a customer, just because the user hasn't done some housekeeping of their mailbox.' or similarly.. 'we don't want to restrain our users from receiving mail.'

Well, ok that's fair enough, sure you don't want to be embarrassed, and for your customer to call and smugly enquire if you're having e-mail problems... HOWEVER... bear this in mind...

There are three situations that I can think of which can lead to you effectively being on the receiving end of a form of denial of service attack, with your disks being filled-up and server being pushed offline, albeit, it may be unintentional....

1. Your server and your user's smtp addresses are subjected to a large spam attack. A significant number of messages (000's) are received - perhaps over a weekend - and perhaps they could be larger HTML messages.

2. A user decides that they want to forward a significant volume of mail from their Exchange mailbox to their own private mailbox. This 'Hotmail' or ISP type mailbox subsequently fills up and bounces the messages back to your server, and before you know it, there's some substantial looping taking place.

3. A disgruntled employee works out that he/she can cause some mayhem by bombarding your system and his/her ex-employees with multiple messages, oh, and they have large attachments too.

All three of these situations could in extreme circumstances result in your server potentially going offline as the free disk space would have been used up, and it would therefore then need some TLC.

This is an easy situation to prevent - just configure the limit on the Private Information Store or mailbox on 5.5, and with E2K, you can set the limit either via a mailbox system policy, on a mailbox store, or on an individual mailbox. Setting a particularly high limit is probably the best solution, that way, the users probably won't be affected during normal operations, but if a mail loop did start for example, the mailbox would eventually fill up, the limit would apply, and the loop would be stopped.

If you're running on new-ish hardware, chances are that you'll have more than sufficient free disk space, and are less at risk of your disks filling up, and your server being taken out of action. If you're not so fortunate however, and are running an older box, say a Proliant 3000, with 9Gb or perhaps even 4.3Gb disks, you'd better be careful.

If you've got limits in place already, and they are appropriate and sufficient for your environment and your users, well done!

Chris Meirick on August 13, 2003 at 12:09 AM
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Understanding SMTP in Exchange 2000

Are you:

* Having trouble working out what all those Non-Delivery Report codes mean?
* Trying to understand mail flow in Exchange 2000?
* Wanting to understand all those message queues that are available in Exchange 2000?
* Unsure about the security aspects of SMTP in Exchange 2000, for example, relaying?
* Just wanting to get your head around SMTP in Exchange 2000?

If any of those apply to you, then you really need to download and read this 166 page mammoth document from Microsoft called 'Configuring SMTP in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server'.

Neil Hobson on August 12, 2003 at 03:20 PM
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Checking the Free-Busy System Folder

The following information and accompanying AVI files have been kindly supplied by Dave Howe of Microsoft PSS in the US. Thanks, Dave!

If your Outlook clients are unable to access their site's Free/Busy system folder, the users may receive the following error:

'Unable to update public free/busy data.'

Although this issue can be caused by a variety of reasons, it most commonly occurs after a disaster recovery of an Exchange server.

Using MFCMAPI or MDBVU32 to navigate to the Free/Busy system folder may help you determine whether the system folder should be reset using the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles below.

To help demonstrate how MFCMAPI and MDBVU32 can be used to check whether the Microsoft Exchange Free/Busy folder is accessible by Outlook clients, two small AVI files have been created which can be downloaded here.

Although in the AVI files the Administrator account was used, a normal user account should be used in your own environment to test whether you can access your site folder. This issue can also be caused by insufficient permissions on the Free/Busy folder.

Supporting Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

275171 XADM: How to Reset System Folders on an Exchange 2000 Server

284200 Schedule+ Free/Busy System Folder Is Missing

822444 HOW TO: Reset a Site Folder in Exchange Server 2003

294282 XADM: How to Use Updatefb.exe to Republish Absent Free/BusyData

Neil Hobson on August 12, 2003 at 12:39 PM
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Exchange Support Webcasts

A quick reminder that Microsoft are hosting a 2-part support Webcast called Troubleshooting Common Exchange Administrative and Support Issues, starting next week. A subject dear to our hearts....

Part 1 is on Friday 22nd August, with part 2 on Tuesday 2nd September.

Neil Hobson on August 12, 2003 at 09:13 AM
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Today's discoveries...

Firstly, TurboGeeks make what looks like being a potentially useful application for E2K and E2K3...

"MailBasketMD provides the ability to catch all misaddressed messages that arrive at your Exchange server. These messages, which would otherwise be rejected and generate a nondelivery report (NDR) are instead rerouted to an alternate mailbox. (or can be deleted instead)" ... Has anyone used it?...

And secondly, I have today successfully performed an in-place upgrade of an NT4 SP6a PDC running 5.5 SP4 Enterprise to a W2K DC and E2K Enterprise... and it worked! Heck, I know it was only on a test server, and it would not be the preferred upgrade option in a production environment, but it's nice to know that the process is a relatively simple and straightforward one. Even 5.5 seemed to work quite happily in the middle of the upgrade i.e. after the OS had been upgraded from NT to 2K AD.

Chris Meirick on August 11, 2003 at 05:47 PM
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Exchange Messaging Statistics

Reporting on messaging statistics in an Exchange 200x environment is an important task to perform. The information returned from Exchange is invaluable in determining who your top senders/receivers are, which Internet domains your mail is sent to, etc. Getting statistics out of your Exchange server can be performed in a number of ways, and there are a number of 3rd party packages out there that can help.

First of all, Exchange comes with the ability to generate message tracking log files, which contain the information you need to be able to not only track messages through the system, but to also be able to produce reports. You'll need to turn on message tracking first, which is found on the properties of the server object in Exchange System Manager. Don't forget to tick the box for subject tracking, which is really useful.

Once this has been done, arm yourself with a suitable 3rd party software package which can read in the information in these tracking log files, and produce the reports that you need.

Two packages come to mind, and are routinely recommended within the Exchange community:

1. Promodag Reports
2. MessageStats from Quest

You might like to also consider a software package that can obtain statistics without reading the message tracking log files. This is a product called e-nspect, which is real-time message monitoring and reporting software.

Of course, if you are using Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), then grab the Exchange application management pack. This comes with plenty of ready-made reports, many of which offer the same information as the aforementioned products. However, remember that you'll get a lot more than just messaging statistics with MOM. It's a heavyweight management application and probably not applicable to you if you just want statistics of your messaging traffic.

Finally, should you not desire to purchase 3rd party software, why not use the Performance tool that you already have on your servers? The performance counter data that can be obtained here is somewhat useful, but remember that it is not as comprehensive as using the aforementioned products. I'd suggest starting off with these counters:

* SMTP Server\Message Send Total
* SMTP Server\Message Send/sec
* SMTP Server\Message Received Total
* SMTP Server\Message Received/sec

Neil Hobson on August 8, 2003 at 10:08 AM
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In-Depth Exchange 2000 Books

If you are looking for some more in-depth Exchange 2000 books, then look no further than the range of books by Digital Press.

I have the following 3 books, and I must say that they are worth the read if you are tasked with migrating to a mission-critical, well designed, Exchange 2000 environment.

Microsoft Exchange 2000 Infrastructure Design by Kieran McCorry & Donald Livengood

Scaling Microsoft Exchange 2000 by Pierre Bijaoui

Mission-Critical Microsoft Exchange 2000 by Jerry Cochran

Neil Hobson

Neil Hobson on August 5, 2003 at 10:24 PM
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Today's reading...

Jim McBee, of 24seven fame, has got a website that's worth checking out - there's loads of useful information and links there... the Exchange 2000 Resource page is particularly good.

Did you know that Exchange 2003 comes with two versions of Outlook Web Access?

"Outlook Web Access Premium is designed for Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or later. Outlook Web Access Premium includes all Outlook Web Access features, including the new enhanced features for Exchange 2003. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 is required for some features.

Outlook Web Access Basic is designed to work in browsers that support the HTML 3.2 and the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) script standards. It provides a subset of the features that are available in Outlook Web Access Premium."

Read the full article here.

While we're on the subject of OWA, there's everything that you need to know about customising OWA on Exchange 2000 in this MS white paper.

and finally... a couple of useful E2K3 articles..

Overview of Dependencies and Requirements for Exchange Server 2003 Features

How to Prevent Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail in Exchange 2003

Chris Meirick

Chris Meirick on August 4, 2003 at 06:35 PM
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Outlook 2003 Connection Status

Here's a handy tip for those of you using Outlook 2003.

If you hold down the control key and then right-click the Outlook icon in your status tray, you'll get an extra option called "Connection Status".

Choosing this option reveals which Exchange server and Global Catalog server Outlook is using, together with extremely useful information such as the failure rate of RPCs, and the average response times of communication.

Very useful when troubleshooting connectivity issues.

Neil Hobson

Chris Meirick on August 4, 2003 at 03:58 PM
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Exchange 2003 Planning & Deployment Guides

Microsoft has just released the Exchange 2003 Planning & Deployment Guides.

Neil Hobson

Chris Meirick on August 1, 2003 at 02:38 PM
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Has Outlook Today eaten your email?

A colleague of mine has just accidentally dragged a few messages into his Outlook Today folder. Of course, he could no longer see these messages, and wondered what had happened to them.

To retrieve them is actually easier than you might think. All you have to do is temporarily remove the web page associated with the Outlook Today folder:

1. Right-click Outlook Today, and choose Properties.
2. Click the Home Page tab.
3. Remove the Show home page by default for this folder tick box.
4. Click OK. The Outlook Today folder is now just a normal folder.
5. Go into the Outlook Today folder, and there are your messages. Just copy them back into the relevant folder.

I've seen this issue come up a few times now, and so thought it worthy of a short article!

Neil Hobson

Chris Meirick on July 31, 2003 at 11:33 AM
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Backup Exec & Exchange 2003

Following on from the recent information regarding anti-virus software and Exchange 2003, those of you running Veritas Backup Exec may like to know which version of Backup Exec supports Exchange 2003.

According to information I have seen from Veritas, Exchange 2003 is supported with Backup Exec version 9.0 build 4454.

Neil Hobson

Chris Meirick on July 29, 2003 at 12:20 PM
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Listen up...

Nothing on TV this weekend... why not watch/listen to one of Microsoft's Support Webcasts?... there's quite a few to choose from including..

Troubleshooting Common Exchange Administrative and Support Issues: Part 1

Troubleshooting Common Exchange Administrative and Support Issues: Part 2

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003: Overview of Transport and Mobility Features

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003: An Overview of the New Administration Features

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003: Flexible Mobile Access for Exchange Server 2003

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Deployment Methodologies for Upgrade, Migration, and Coexistence

... and there's many more here

Suggestion... why not record them using Total Recorder, cut the files to CD or put them on your iPod, and listen to them while you're travelling to work?!

Chris Meirick

Chris Meirick on July 25, 2003 at 11:19 PM
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The ADModify Tool

Microsoft PSS provide a tool called ADModify.

This is an excellent tool that has a number of uses:

* Modify existing user attributes in bulk
* Export users from Active Directory
* Export users from Exchange 5.5
* Import users using LDIFDE.EXE

The ability to make bulk changes to Active Directory user attributes is an excellent feature. For example, you can disable HTTP access to many users at once, or perhaps remove unwanted SMTP addresses, tasks that aren't that easy to do without this utility.

This great tool can be found here.

Neil Hobson

Chris Meirick on July 25, 2003 at 02:26 PM
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Dealing with Badmail

Those of you running Exchange 2000 will probably know of the existence of the Badmail folder, which is typically found in the \Program Files\exchsrvr\Mailroot\VSI 1\BadMail folder.

The Badmail folder contains messages that cannot be delivered into your organisation, and also cannot be returned back to the sender. Therefore, the folder typically contains spam, and the files within the folder can usually just be deleted.

However, Exchange doesn't provide a setting to periodically empty the contents of the folder. The danger is that this folder will go un-monitored, and will continue to fill up.

To combat this problem, two different scripts are available here.

First, I've written a script that simply sends a notification message to selected mailboxes, informing the recipients of the number of files in the Badmail folder, along with how much space the files are taking up. Simply schedule the script to run on, say, a weekly basis using the Windows Scheduler. Now you get a weekly reminder to empty the Badmail folder, if it does actually need emptying. You can download this script here. Just make the modifications shown in the script to reflect the settings in your environment.

The beauty of this script is that it doesn't need a mailbox to send the notification message; it just uses the SMTP virtual server. Just make sure the sending address has a valid internal domain name - the remainder of the address can be fictitious.

Call me paranoid, but I don't like scripts that automatically purge files in a folder. But there's a different script available written by Jon Pervan, who has kindly allowed the script to be made available here. This script will automatically purge the contents of the BadMail folder - no questions asked!

As always, you run these scripts at your own risk - be sure to test them in a non-production environment first.

Neil Hobson

(Update - Microsoft have released their own script to assist with the management of Badmail

Chris Meirick on July 25, 2003 at 08:50 AM
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Useful DNS Sites...

You want to bookmark these two DNS sites for when you next suspect that DNS issues are causing problems with message delivery... CheckDNS and DNSreport... they're both really excellent, providing more than enough detailed information, and they can also tell you if something isn't configured correctly.

Chris Meirick

Chris Meirick on July 24, 2003 at 11:42 PM
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Spread the word...

Hey, you already know why you want to move onwards and upwards to Exchange 2003 when it hits the shelves next month don't you? However, does your boss, IT director, project manager et all know what the benefits of the latest release are? According to Microsoft there are 10 reasons (I'm sure there are more)... to upgrade, some of which I'm confident that your IT director will be pleased to hear, such as 'Reduced Cost'... oh and what about "Increased productivity for IT staff" :-)

Chris Meirick

Chris Meirick on July 23, 2003 at 07:25 PM
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What are they?

You've no doubt seen .edb .log .chk .stm .dat files etc on your Exchange server, but what about .stf files? Well, these are temporary files that can be created and occasionally seen in the MDBDATA directory, and are used "during the content conversion process - to hold data for temporary data streams" They are nothing to worry about (I think!) and should be cleared down automatically by the Information Store.

Chris Meirick

Chris Meirick on July 23, 2003 at 07:18 PM
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Setting calendar permissions centrally...

A common requirement in some organisations is to ensure that everyone has read-only access to everyone else's calendars in Outlook. As you no doubt know, this is hard to achieve, since it normally involves asking your users to set the permissions correctly.

Fortunately, help is at hand via Kevin Snook's SetPerm utility. This excellent utility can be used to centrally set the DEFAULT role on the folders within a mailbox. That includes folders other than the Calendar, such as Inbox, Tasks, Contacts, etc.

The download includes a readme file and the actual EXE. You'll also need ACL.DLL which is included for download here.

Don't forget to make sure you test this program on a test system first.

Neil Hobson

No warranty, express or implied, is provided. This code is supplied here "as is".

Chris Meirick on July 21, 2003 at 03:09 PM
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Upgrading to Exchange 2003?

Are you considering upgrading to Exchange 2003? If so, you have to play by the rules, and here are some of those key rules:

1 - Exchange 2003 will run quite happily on Windows 2000 (at least SP3) or Windows 2003, but a couple of the more advanced features, such as snapshot backups, will be unavailable on Windows 2000.

2 - You cannot perform an in-place upgrade of an Exchange 5.5 server to Exchange 2003. Your options are to upgrade to Exchange 2000 first, or, more likely, join an Exchange 2003 server to the Exchange 5.5 site and perform the 'move mailbox' method.

3 - You can quite happily perform an in-place upgrade of Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2003 as long as certain components aren't present on the Exchange 2000 server. These components are not supported in Exchange 2003:

* Mobile Information Server
* Instant Messaging
* Chat
* Conferencing Server
* Key Management Service
* cc:Mail Connector
* MSMail Connector

You will have to remove these components first before performing an in-place upgrade.

4 - Windows 2003 Web Edition cannot be used for Exchange 2003 installations.

5 - The only version of Exchange that is supported on Windows 2003 is Exchange 2003.

If you are after more in-depth information, you need to check out this Microsoft KB article.

Neil Hobson

Chris Meirick on July 21, 2003 at 10:52 AM
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Exchange 2003 Technical Library

Looking for technical documentation on Exchange 2003? There's not that much around at the moment.

That being said, be sure to check out the Exchange 2003 Getting Started Guide here.

And also, there's the mammoth What's New in Exchange 2003 guide here.

Note that Microsoft will be releasing lots of documentation over the coming 12 months. This can be found over at Microsoft's Exchange Server 2003 Technical Library. This site is well worth a bookmark!

Neil Hobson

Chris Meirick on July 18, 2003 at 10:07 AM
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Exchange 2000 / 2003 OWA Compatibility

One common question being asked lately is whether an Exchange 2003 front-end server can be implemented in an existing Exchange 2000 environment, the objective being to see the new OWA 2003 interface.

The technical answer to that question is yes, it is possible to install an Exchange 2003 front-end server into an existing Exchange 2000 environment. However, the new OWA 2003 interface will not be seen. This is because the back-end mailbox server also needs to be running Exchange 2003 in order to see this new interface.

There are four possible deployment scenarios. The list below shows the front-end and back-end versions, and which OWA interface will be seen in those respective deployments.

1 - Exchange 2000 front-end with Exchange 2000 back-end will show the Exchange 2000 OWA interface.

2 - Exchange 2003 front-end with Exchange 2000 back-end will show the Exchange 2000 OWA interface.

3 - Exchange 2000 front-end with Exchange 2003 back-end is not supported.

4 - Exchange 2003 front-end with Exchange 2003 back-end will show the Exchange 2003 OWA interface.

So, when using a front-end back-end scenario, both the front-end and back-end servers need to be running Exchange 2003 to see the OWA 2003 interface.

Neil Hobson

Chris Meirick on July 15, 2003 at 08:25 PM
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Connection problems...

Are you experiencing connectivity problems? Perhaps you are in the process of implementing a new environment and the boxes just won't talk to each other as they should. If so, Portqry or Fport might be of help. These utilities will tell you what the ports are up to, and Fport is particularly useful as it maps the open ports to the applications that are using them.

Chris Meirick on July 15, 2003 at 05:38 PM
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About time...

I've been busy these past few days, enjoying the good weather here in the UK. Long may it continue...although it has meant that my 'geek time' has sufferered...

Here's a couple of 5.5 tips for you...

It is possible to update hidden distribution lists, using Outlook, provided that you have the relevant permissions of course, by performing the following... Create a new Contact... you may want to give it the same name as the distribution list. Enter the native Exchange (X.500 Style) address for the distribution list that is to be modified into the e-mail field of the Contact, ie in the following style...

/o=Organization/ou=Site/cn=RecipientContainer/
cn=Distribution List name

for example..

/o=Acme/ou=NorthAmerica/cn=Recipients/cn=Sales Team

If you now save the Contact that you've created, and then go back into it, the address that you've entered in the e-mail field should have resolved. If it has, select properties of the resolved e-mail address, and update the list to your hearts content. You should find this quite useful if you have a secretary or PA who needs to update a DL that is usually hidden for whatever reason.

You probably already know that GALMOD can be quite a useful resource kit utility which you can use to allow users to update their personal details in the GAL. There are a number of methods that you could use to distribute it, one of which I rather like, and is useful if it needs to be rolled out to a number of different sites, is to create an auto-run CD with GALMOD on it using a product such as Autorun CD Studio (or you could create your own ini file). This allows you to create an HTML page with instructions etc. which the users will hopefully read, and then click on the link to the GALMOD exe which will run, and they can then update their own info. There's also an IIS version of GALMOD, however some care needs to be taken with this, as by default users can update the properties of any mailbox for which they have entered the display name.

You have documented your Exchange servers, haven't you?

Chris Meirick on July 14, 2003 at 06:12 PM
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Sign up...

Have you subscribed to the Slipstick Exchange Messaging Outlook newsletter? You should.

Chris Meirick on July 9, 2003 at 12:52 PM
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20 Tips for Exchange 2000 Migration

It's no easy journey migrating to Exchange 2000...Keiran McCorry has been through the process a number of times apparently, having migrated "many tens of thousands of users"... here are his top 20 tips.

Chris Meirick on July 6, 2003 at 02:08 PM
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OWA Problems?

I've just stumbled across this useful OWA Troubleshooting article on Technet

Chris Meirick on June 28, 2003 at 11:36 PM
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