Nathan's Exchange Blog

Minasi Conference 2010

Minasi Conference
May 2^nd – May 5^th

Virginia Beach, VA, USA

 

Hi,

 

It’s been a while since I last posted (I seem to say that every time at the moment!)

 

Anyhow, I wanted to let people know about the 5^th annual Minasi Conference which is being held in Virginia Beach, VA, USA.

 

The conference runs from Sunday May 2^nd until Wednesday May 5^th and has some of the worlds top speakers.

The Minasi conference is unlike any other tech conference you’ve attended before due to its intimacy, favourable student:lecturer ratio, variety of topics and quality of instructors. The conference is organized and staffed by volunteers from Mark Minasi’s forum and includes well known veteran lecturers like Mark Minasi, Rhonda Layfield, Todd Lammle, Roger Grimes, Microsoft MVP’s and author’s such as Aidan Finn, Nathan Winters and Eric Rux and forum members who just want to share what they’re doing.

The conference has enjoyed some prestigious special guest lecturers and this year is no exception. The chance to rub elbows and ask questions in such a small environment is found only at the Minasi conference. Previous years special guests have included:

-Cisco Guru and all around nice guy, Todd Lammle
-All things Security (now featuring the Cloud), Steve Riley
-Group Policy Experts Jeremy Moskowitz and Darren Mar-Elia
-Super Scripter, Don Jones
-Internet Fixer, Roger Grimes

We invite you to join us both online and in person.

Take a look at the website for loads more info and to register – www.minasiconference.com

 

Pre-Conference Event

For the 2010 Conference we are pleased to offer our first Pre-Conference session.

The aim is to provide a 4 hour event at a small additional cost which will cover a topic that is closely related to the main conference but just slightly different!

In this case Todd Lammle will lead the session on the morning of Sunday 2nd May from 08:30 until 12:30.

The topic is “Configuring Basic Cisco and Router Configurations”

All students would need is their own laptop and we will provide a free copy of Todd’s latest book as well as very slick router and switch simulator that you get to keep.

We are currently working to flesh out the details of this session and will update with a full agenda shortly.

This pre-con session will cost $85 which includes the Book, The Simulator, a light breakfast, Lunch and of course the 4 hours tuition!

For more information check conference website in the Pre-Conference section.

 

I look forward to seeing you in Virginia!

Cheers

Nathan

MMMUG November 2009 Event - OCS and Exchange Product Group Speakers

Hi,
 
It has been a while since my last post about MMMUG, but on the plus side I do have what I think will be a great event lined up!
 
Given that TechEd is coming up in Berlin in early November, Russ Kirk from the UC User Group and I have managed to hook up with the OCS and Exchange Product Groups to get a couple of TechEd Speakers to stop off in London and speak at this event.
 
The Messaging and UC user groups come together for a special pre-TechEd event on Friday 6th November in London at Microsoft Cardinal Place. The event starts at 6pm and runs until 9pm.
 
Two members of the products groups in Redmond have offered to present to us on their way to Berlin.
 
Astrid McClean is a Senior Technical Product Manager in the Exchange group. With the recent launch of Exchange 2010 Astrid will be speaking about management, new administration capabilities and self-service with a focus on roles based access control (RBAC).
 
Following Astrid we have Yancey Smith who is a Director of Product Management within the OCS group. Yancey will be presenting two slots for us. The first session will providing an overview of OCS 2007 R2, exposing some of the features you may not realise are there and potential for the product within your organisation.
 
Following a break for food, we will start a closed-doors non-disclosure agreement session where you can share with Yancey your wish list and frustrations with OCS and there will be a discussion with his thoughts on how these may be addressed.
 
The NDA to be signed will be available on the evening. If you need to review a copy in advance please email either me.
 
We look forward to seeing you all there, and having a pint or two afterwards!
 
To sign up please use the link below:
 
http://uccommunityuk09oct.eventbrite.com/
 
Note: The email confirming your attendance from Event Brite will ask you to print the ticket and bring it with you. You don't need to, we'll have a list on the night and will check you off against that.
 
Cheers
Nathan
 

"The action could not be completed. The bookmark is not valid."

The error message in the title of this post seems to be a common one!

It occurred on a site I was working on a while ago and I thought I would note down the fix that I used.

Simply; I rebooted the GCs (in fact both DCs as they were both GCs and the only DCs/GCs in the network).

For a little more background, I had been installing a new Exchange 2003 organization from scratch for a company migrating from GW. Everything was going well until we tried to connect an Outlook client to a mailbox. The mailbox worked fine using OWA but not Outlook.

I did a little searching and found that after installing Exchange for the first time certain processes do not complete on the GC until they are rebooted. So having done that, everything worked fine.

Now I am not sure that this will fix everyone's problem with this error message but it is certainly worth a try!

Cheers

Nathan

Useful OCS 2007 R2 information

There is lots of info out there about OCS 2007 R2 so I thought I would list a few sites here:

An overview of some of the key features:

http://www.shudnow.net/2008/10/14/ocs-r2-information/

 

An install guide:

http://www.shudnow.net/2009/01/05/office-communications-server-2007-r2-enterprise-deployment-part-1/

 

Another tips and tricks series about install

http://blogs.technet.com/toml/archive/2009/01/05/ocs-2007-r2-add-enterprise-edition-server.aspx

 

On a slightly different subject here is a bunch of info from Joe Calev about how/where OCS stores it’s config information either in SQL, AD or WMI

http://blogs.msdn.com/jcalev/archive/2008/01/04/where-ocs-finds-data-for-wmi-classes.aspx

 

Further information about all the WMI classes where OCS stores information:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb632112.aspx

SQL Management Tools not available

Hi.

Recently I installed SQL 2005 on a machine as part of a new lab setup for OCS 2007 R2.

Strangely the SQL Management Studio was not installed.

This post below explains why and how to fix it.

http://aspadvice.com/blogs/name/archive/2007/09/24/Installing-SQL-Server-Management-Studio-with-SQL-Server.aspx

 

Essentially, the fix is to open the setup folder and in there is a SqlRun_Tools.msi file. If you run that it should actually install SSMS.

Cheers

Nathan

Updates required for Exchange 2003

Hi,

Although a lot of people have moved on from Exchange 2003, there are still a massive number of mailboxes still on the system.

I thought it would be worth listing the hotfixes needed for Exchange 2003.

Notes

1. Install the hot-fixes in the order listed.  Hot-fixes are ordered based on version numbers beginning with the lower versions and ending with the higher versions.

2. It should be noted that not all the fixes are publicly available as some need to be downloaded via MSFT support.

3. Be sure to install the service packs and/or hot-fixes on the Front-End servers before upgrading the back-end servers.

Service Pack

· Service Pack 2 - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=535bef85-3096-45f8-aa43-60f1f58b3c40&DisplayLang=en

Hot-Fixes

Recommended ADC Hot-Fixes:

· None

Recommended Exchange Hot-Fixes:

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=916160 (PFD Fix)*

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=946111 (ESEUTIL Fix)*

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=911708 (IMAP Fix)

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=924334 (OWA Fix)*+

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=926986 (Management Fix)*

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=922817 (OAB Fix)

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=928187 (ESM Fix)

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=932894 (Categorization Fix)*

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=931832 (MS07-026 Fix)*+

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=937851 (Front-End Fix)*

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=935489 (EAS Fix)*

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=937031 (EAS Authentication ESM Fix)

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=940011 (OWA Spell Check Fix)

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=941060 (ExMIME Fix)

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=947500 (CDO Fix)

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=949792 (ExCDO Fix)

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=953747 (MS08-039 - Store Fix)*

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=951639 (Message Filter Fix)*

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=912584 (DSProxy Fix)

· http://support.microsoft.com/?id=960445 (DST Fix)*

Replacements (denoted by *)

· 911828 and 910035 have been replaced by 916160

· 912480, 899023. 919296 have been replaced by 911708

· 910926 and 911829 have been replaced by 924334

· 910272, 912587 have been replaced by 927478

· 909933, 910268, 916803 (MS06-019), 909068, 912442 (MS06-029) have been replaced by 926666

· 930247 has been replaced by 931832

· 931915 has been replaced by 937653

· 941385, 951619 have been replaced by 953747

· 927478 has been replaced by 951639

· 908259 has  been replaced by 946111

· 914148 has been replaced by 926986

· 941169 has been replaced by 935489

· 909989 has been replaced by 937851

· 915863 has been replaced by 932894

· 926666, 931915, 960445  have been replaced by 943068

Notes (denoted by +)

· 924334 contains the same files as 911829

DST 2007 fixes are now available by installing both 931832 and 941169

A series of articles about Exchange Backup on Server 2008

Hi,

As you may know, and as I have written about in the past, when running Exchange 2007 on Server 2008 there is no way to natively backup the data in Exchange because the built in VSS backup app doesn’t support Exchange.

Well, Michael B Smith has done a lot of work in that area and has a great bunch of articles which talk about some work arounds.

http://theessentialexchange.com/blogs/michael/archive/2009/01/14/volume-shadow-copy-services-vss-and-exchange-the-basics.aspx

Cheers

Nathan

Setting up Blackberry Enterprise server

Hi,

Just a quick tip, this one!

Here is a useful article on how to setup a BES with Exchange.

http://www.itexpertmag.com/telecoms/setting-up-blackberry-enterprise-server-bes-with-exchange-2007

Cheers

Nathan

Checking the last logon dates for a user in Active Directory

A couple of weeks back I did some Active Directory work for the first time in a while.

Well one of the things which came up was how to decide whether accounts which were being migrated across to a new forest were needed or not.

The scripts on the following page really helped!

http://www.rlmueller.net/Last%20Logon.htm

Cheers

Nathan

PowerShell tools for Active Directory

Hi,

Whilst PowerShell is pretty much the universal tool for Exchange administration now, it is still lacking in the Active Directory area! At least until Server 2008 R2 comes out that is!

So in the mean time take a look at these tools from Quest:

The first is a set or cmdlets for AD management

http://www.quest.com/powershell/activeroles-server.aspx

The second is a GUI tool which utilizes the above tools and a bunch of others like the OCS tools below.

http://powergui.org/index.

http://dmitrysotnikov.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/ocs-management-console-on-steroids/

Cheers

Nathan

Redirecting OWA to /Exchange or /OWA

Hi,

I have often found this to be a nice setup for users who have gotten used to using only the HTTP URL for OWA. It also stops users needing to add the /Exchange or /OWA at the end of the URL.

So here are the steps needed to Redirect OWA users from a simple URL;

mail.domain.com,

to their OWA:

First open IIS manager

Then create a new website

Give the website a description (OWA Redirect)

Leave the default port 80 and add a host header for the URL that people use to get to your Exchange server - mail.domain.com

Create a folder as the home path

(C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\redirect)

Enter the path into the wizard, assign only read permissions, Finish the wizard.

Next open the properties of the new website and select the home Directory tab.

Change to "A redirection to a URL" and enter the full path to the exchange virtual server:

https://mail.domain.com/exchange

Also select the check boxes:

The exact URL entered above
A directory below this one

Next ensure that the default web site requires SSL

Apply the changes and Exit

Test whether things are working by opening a web browser and going to http://mail.domain.co.uk

You should be redirected to the secure /exchange site.

General Notes:

To make sure this works, I ensured that the new website I created only had an HTTP port not an HTTPS one. That way when users type the correct path they automatically go to the default site.

Hope this helps a few people make life simpler for users!

Cheers
Nathan

Dealing with Conflicts in Recurring appointments when using Exchange resource mailboxes

Hi,

I recently got asked a question as a follow up to my article on using Exchange 2007 resource mailboxes on the Simple Talk website here:

http://www.simple-talk.com/exchange/exchange-articles/using-exchange-2007-for-resource-booking/

 

The question was as follows:

I have users trying to set up recurring appointments with users and resources. Let’s say UserA wants to create a Monday 10AM meeting with 10 people in ConfRoomB for the next 10 weeks.

Lets also say the room is booked for a Company presentation on the 7^th recurrence. The Room returns a declined for all instances.

How can this be set up to accept the other 9, and what can we do to lets say re-organize the one occurrence that has a conflict.

Right now, the user has to then delete the entire series he just set up, and send out multiple invites working around the conflict. Gets kind of messy for the people receiving these emails every 5 seconds with Invites, Changes and Deletes.

 

Well I believe that the following can help deal with this.

You can use the MaximumConflictInstances parameter of Set-MailboxCalendarSettings cmdlet. The conference room will accept the appointment, but decline for just the dates that conflict. The conflicted dates can then be re-arranged

Cheers

Nathan

CA's Antivirus 8.1 and Exchange 2007 on Server 2008

Hi,

This is a repost of a thread on the Minasi Forum:

I am posing this question and answering it because I searched everywhere on Computer Associate's site, and could not find an answer. A call to tech support resolved it. I hope this saves somebody some time.
For those attempting to install CA's Antivirus 8.1 (formerly eTrust)on a Windows 2008 server with Exchange 2007 SP1, the installation application does not show "Groupware Options" as it normally does. Groupware Options is the location to choose the Exchange agent. CA support emailed me a link to an update that was not found by searching and may not be generally available. I have provided the link below along with details about the update.
https://support.ca.com/phpdocs/0/156/X64102008.zip
* This update is not available on the GA distribution (CD) of the CA Threat Manager r8.1 or CA Anti-Virus r8.1 CD set
* Only supports Mailbox Role, not Exchange Server Roles
* Will now install on Microsoft Windows Server 2008
* Will now install on Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP1
* Added additional process exclusions based on recommendations from Microsoft.
* Fixed bug which caused the Information Store to crash when deselecting all archive types.

MMMUG August 2009 Meeting

Hi,

 

The August 2009 MMMUG Meeting will be on Tuesday the 25th of August in the usual location, the Microsoft offices at Cardinal Place, near London Victoria.

 

This month we have Ewan Tsang-MacKellar from Microsoft who will be diving into all the High Availability options in Exchange 2010.

 

The meeting starts at 18:35 and finishes at 21:00. Food and drinks will be provided!

 

To sign up, or for more information, post at the forum thread below:

http://www.mmmug.co.uk/forums/thread/28465.aspx

 

Look forward to seeing you all there.

Cheers

Nathan

Error importing certificate to Exchange 2010

Hi,

Recently I have been deploying Exchange 2010 into an environment at work and have hit upon an issue with importing certificates.

I created the certificate request using the normal New-ExchangeCertificate command.

Then I sent the request file to Digicert who returned me a certificate.

At this point I tried to import it using Import-Exchange certificate.

Well this is where the fun started!

I got this error:

The source data is corrupted or not properly Base64 encoded.

    + CategoryInfo          : ReadError: (:) [Import-ExchangeCertificate], InvalidOperationException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : 773ECDDB,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.SystemConfigurationTasks.ImportExchangeCertificate

 

So I started digging and opened a PSS call and discovered that Exchange wasn’t handling the header and footer in the certificate correctly.

 

When I opened the cert with Notepad and removed the -----BEGIN PKCS7----- and -----END PKCS7----- lines everything worked fine!

 

Cheers

Nathan