Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 has been released
Posted on 25. Aug, 2010 by Nicolas Blank in News
I’ll spare you the marketing, here are the three links you may be most interested in.
The download link is here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=50b32685-4356-49cc-8b37-d9c9d4ea3f5b&displaylang=en
The release notes are here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff728620(EXCHG.141).aspx
MOST important – what’s new:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff459257(EXCHG.141).aspx
The CAS role has improved even more, with numerous improvements, including the ability to federate with self signed certificates (that’s not a typo), but read on….
I’d like to mention a few more things which I’m excited about:
The multitenancy support is awesome, so is the depreciation of isinteg allowing individual mailbox repairs, so is the installer installing the required dependencies, so is public folder client permission support being added to the ECP, being able to reset a single virtual directory from a cmdlet, faster OWA, etc,etc.
Bit of a ramble but there you go. Have a read, get excited and if you were waiting for SP1 to deploy Exchange 2010 you finally have it!
Outlook 2003 and exchange 2010 – enabling encryption – where was that GPO and other issues
Posted on 17. Aug, 2010 by Nicolas Blank in News
By now you’ve noticed that Outlook 2003 doesn’t do encryption out of the box, and you KNOW there’s a better way of doing this than touching every desktop by hand – here it is:
KB2006508 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2006508 talks you through how to build the GPO for Outlook 2003 and 2007
While were talking about Outlook not connecting – KB924625 mentions a number of issues you may face troubleshooting Outlook connecting to 2007/2010
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924625
While were talking Outlook and Exchange two articles are also super interesting:
Common Client Access Considerations for Outlook 2003 and Exchange 2010 http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/04/23/454711.aspx
and
Understanding RPC Client Access
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee332317.aspx
And while were talking about clients and what they’re doing:
Exchange Server User Monitor
While there’s plenty more material out there, I wanted to put a marker in the ground and start somewhere – I’m hoping I’ll update this post as I dig up more.
Nic
Exchange 2007 SP3 w/support for Windows Server 2008 R2 Now Available
Posted on 22. Jun, 2010 by Nicolas Blank in News
Moving on from news about how great the rollups for Exchange 2007 post SP2 are, SP3 has hit the shelves with the biggest line item being that it adds support for Exchange 2007 running on Server 2008 R2.
That’s not all though, while there are a number of changes I’m going to pick a few:
- Windows 7 support has been added for 2007 management tools along with the capability to co-host with Exchange 2010 admin tools
- Password Reset functionality for IIS7
- Disclaimer character support for Right to left character sets such as Arabic and Hebrew
- all the updates that are included in Update Rollup 4 and earlier for Exchange 2007 SP2
Exchange 2007 is not dead :)
Posted on 21. Jun, 2010 by Nicolas Blank in News
No Exchange 2007 is NOT dead – on the contrary, it’s getting better as is proved by the lasted blog post entitled Overview of Exchange 2007 SP2 Rollup Installation. This post and the previous post announcing the release of the rollup made it quite clear that support for Exchange 2007 is ongoing and quite healthy! Fact is the Exchange 2007 AND Exchange 2010 role requirements calculators saw recent updates, with this in mind if you’re still thinking of moving towards Exchange 2007 or have an existing investment in Exchange 2007, it’s rally helps build piece of mind to see this much activity around both versions. in fact you would have seen a number of posts on exchange 2007 SP2 on the Exchange teams blog as well as the fantastic news of the beta of Exchange 2010 SP1 ready for download.
Released: Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2010
Posted on 21. Jun, 2010 by Nicolas Blank in News
A quick mention and a quote from the original post. I’d like to encourage anyone who is in an architectural or operational capacity to subscribe to the Exchange teams blog.
Quoting from the original blog post:
Exchange CXP team has released Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2010 RTM (KB 982639) to the download center.
KB 982639 lists all the fixes included in this rollup. Here are some of the product improvements and critical bug fixes we’d like to call out starting with 5 improvements we made to prevent crashes in very unique scenarios.
- KB 980852 The RpcClientAccess process on an Exchange Server 2010 server crashes when you access a mailbox by using a MAPI application
- KB 979801 An error message is generated in Exchange Server 2010 when you use Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant
- KB 980364 The Exchange Transport service on an Exchange Server 2010 server crashes when a certain message is processed
- KB 980353 A MAPI application that is used to access Exchange Server 2010 mailboxes crashes when the application accesses an address book
- KB 979790 An IMAP4 client crashes when accessing an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox
We corrected a few replication issues some of you encountered.
- KB 980149 The Add-MailboxDatabaseCopy command fails when it is used to add a database copy to a Database Availability Group in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
- KB 981961 Event ID 4033 is logged and the Free/Busy replication from an Exchange Server 2003 server to an Exchange Server 2010 server fails
- KB 979921 You cannot replicate a public folder from one Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 server to another, and Event ID 3079 is logged on the target server
One unique thing added was an ability for an administrator to adjust filtering of XML attachments so an OWA user can save them. Some customers were facing a compliance versus level of security tradeoff. See more about configuring this option in KB 983200, which discusses adding administrator control over attachment stripping. We also included at least eight other fixes that some of you requested in this release which we already had worked on for a service pack but are able to deliver to you sooner.
KB 982639 has more details about this release and a complete list of all fixes included in this worthwhile rollup.
Forefront users:
For those of you running Forefront, be sure you perform these important steps from the command line in the Forefront directory before and after this rollup’s installation process. Without these steps, Exchange services for Information Store and Transport will not start back up. You will need to disable ForeFront via "fscutility /disable" before installing the patch and then re-enable after the patch by running "fscutility /enable" to start it up again post installation.
Questions / discussions of the Update Rollup and issues
Please go to our Update forum: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/exchangesoftwareupdate
GPO Execution Policy Issue
If you use a GPO to define the Windows PowerShell execution policy, you probably had problems installing previous RUs. We have addressed this problem in this Update.
Availability on Microsoft Update:
We plan to release this update on Microsoft Update in about 2 weeks.
What should we put in our security policy or AUP
Posted on 11. Jun, 2010 by Patrick Assheton-Smith in News
Over the last few years I have people ask me about: “what should we put in our security policy or AUP”…
Check this out… All the samples you’ll need, point them here: http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Security/Policy/
Exam 070-663 – Designing and Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
Posted on 24. May, 2010 by Nicolas Blank in News
Exchange 2010 is the new kid on the block – especially from an exam perspective – studying for a design exam is also difficult since design exams test much more that knowledge of a product, as opposed to measuring the understanding the candidate displays in applying the design principles enabled using the technology at hand. With that in mind I have great pleasure in sharing this news – Andrew Herron managed to pass this exam with FULL MARKS, that’s right 100% pass – a huge achievement. Congratulations Andrew from everyone at Symbiotech. This is the fourth out of five exams that Andrew has passed with full marks.
Andrew is a Senior Engineer at Symbiotech, currently progressing to an Architect role. A client facing role requires a demonstration of both skills and knowledge, and it is with great pride that we celebrate Andrew’s achievements remembering that without smart people our Microsoft Gold Partner status wouldn’t be possible.
May Q&A with the SharePoint MVP Experts Chat
Posted on 21. May, 2010 by Nicolas Blank in News
Do you have tough technical questions regarding SharePoint for which you’re seeking answers? Do you want to tap into the deep knowledge of the talented Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals? The SharePoint MVPs are the same people you see in the technical community as authors, speakers, user group leaders and answerers in the MSDN forums. By popular demand, we have brought these experts together as a collective group to answer your questions live. So please join us and bring on the questions! This chat will cover WSS, MOSS and the SharePoint 2010. Topics include setup and administration, design, development and general questions
Date:
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Time:
7:00pm – 8:00pm CAT (Central African Time – GMT +2)
Location:
MSDN Chat Room http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/chats/default.aspx
Event Link:
Date:
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Time:
12:00pm – 1:00pm CAT (Central African Time – GMT +2)
Location:
MSDN Chat Room http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/chats/default.aspx
Event Link:
Please go along to the Facebook link and RSVP on either one of the two events if you’re planning to attend in order to allow the organisers to get an idea of numbers.
Custom Training
Posted on 06. May, 2010 by Nicolas Blank in News
We’ve had GREAT feedback on the custom training we’ve been doing for customers lately. We’ve successfully trained on Active Directory, PowerShell, Exchange 2010, Quest, Powerman, Burstek and a few more. To clarify were NOT an accredited Microsoft training centre, so we’re not the place to go to to learn how to pass your MCSE, however what we WILL do is boot camps and custom training according to YOUR requirements which will be a lot deeper that what the average training centre may be able to provide.
Previously we’ve successfully built custom courseware based on what each customer needed, allowing us to deliver as technically deep or NOT deep as required. If this is of interest to you, then please contact us using the contact information on our home page.
TEC2010 – Los Angeles – Feedback
Posted on 04. May, 2010 by Nicolas Blank in News
TEC 2010 – The Experts Conference in Los Angeles. What a trip (well over 22 hours flying time) in more ways than one. This truly is an experts conference, by Experts, for Experts. I spoke to people literally from all over the world as far away as Germany and Japan, all looking to get an incredible amount of deep technical information. I can confidently say that the most technical sessions I’m aware of were well over a level 500, and dealt with the innards of the ESE engine. With shouts of “turn of the camera’s” ESE source code was visible in public, being stepped through line by line.
Since I’m Exchange and AD focused, sessions that worked through the benefits of working through RODC’s in DMZ’s, designing Exchange 2010 with site failover in mind and MORE were hugely valuable.
If Active Directory, SharePoint or Exchange are your thing TEC is the right place to go. Most sessions averaged around level 300 or upwards. Most speakers were considered as experts in their field bringing considerable expertise to bear in each session. 3 days of deep dives were enough to exhaust most people, and it was great to be able to mix presentation style sessions, with round tables and ask the experts sessions to break up the conference.
For me it has been an honour and a privilege to speak at the most technical conference of it’s kind where nearly everyone without exception is learning something.
