Craigie's Exchange 2007 Blog

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I have finished up on Public Folders, and to be honest, I found the whole chapter rather boring and repatitive.

I did create some sub folders to my main folders, using the commands as above, but including the -path for example:

new-publicfolder -name "IT Reports" -path "\IT"

Onto Moving Mailboxes and Implementing Bulk Management, it's a shame I squashed my Exchange 2003 Lab as I could have done some 2003 to 2007 upgrades in the same domain.

 

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I have just upgraded to Exchange SP2, whilst doing the initial upgrade, I recieved the following error message

'When the AuthMechanism parameter on a Receive connector is set to the value ExchangeServer, you must set the FQDN parameter on the Receive connector to one of the following values: the FQDN of the transport server "nlsr01.netlab.local", the NetBIOS name of the transport server "NLSR01", or $null'

To get SP2 to install, I just changed all of the Receive Connectors names from mail.arcusit.com to nlsr01.netlab.local.

Just an FYI if it happens to you.

 

I have restored the following servers from when I was doing my MCSE:

- Server01 which has these roles DC, DNS, DHCP, File Server, Application Server, Terminal Server, RRAS
- Server03 which is an Exchange Server

I have created a Two Way Forest Trust Relationship between both Domains and DNS Forwarders for each Domain as well.

I have confirmed that the Trust is working and have used ADMT 3.0 to migrate the Accounts Users from the Contoso.com Forest to Netlab.local Forest.

Updated these users Home Folders, Roaming Profiles and Login Scripts.

The reason I have done all of this is so that I can move mailboxes from one forest to another forest, which I will tackle a bit later.

 

I have just done some Mailbox Migrations from the Contoso.com Forest using Exchange 2003 to the NetLab.local Forest using Exchange 2007.

The syntax I used was as follows:

-SourceForestCredential $c

This command prompts you for a username and password in the source forest which has the permissions to enable the mailbox move. Exchange 2007 remembers this so that the 'c' is the credentials you have entered.

Move-Mailbox -Identity contoso\accounts01 -TargetDatabase "NLSR01\First Storage Group\Mailbox Database" -SourceForestGlobalCatalog "server01.contoso.com" -NTAccountOU "OU=Accounts,OU=Employees,DC=Netlab,DC=local" -SourceForestCredential $c

This command actually moves the mailbox for Accounts01 from the Contoso Domain. You need to specify the Global Catalog Server as this holds the information of the mailboxes on Server03. The NTAccountOU is used to specify the OU in the destination Forest where the user account is created.

 

Haven't had chance to do much studying over the last couple of days.

However, I have had a play with Exchange 2010, we have this installed in a couple of our production environments.

I did some Public Folder Replication between Exchange 2003 and 2010, and applied various permissions to Public Folders.

Have to say that the OWA is sweet, oh and you can get it to synch mailboxes with a BES running below v5.0 by running the following command:

Set-RpcClientAccess –identity servername –EncryptionRequired $false

This will also stop you having to change every Outlook 2003 client setting manually.

 

Well after a busy Christmas, I thought I would do a small amount of studying whilst things had quietened down for an hour or so.
I’m currently working through the SPAM module and a quick command to see what transport agents are enabled and what priority is given to them . The command is:

Get-TransportAgent

Enabled Anti SPAM updates under Server Configuration > Hub Transport > Enabled Anti SPAM Updates

Configured Content Filtering under Organization Configuration > Hub Transport > Anti SPAM for the following:

- 9 SCL Rating Deleted
- 7 > SCL Rating Rejected
- > 5 SCL Rating Quarantine

Checked Sender Reputation so that any IP’s which are spamming are blocked for 24 hours.

 

Just gotten to the end of Chapter 6. Have to say that the Compliance Section has been serioudly hard going, I found it really hard to concentrate on this and my mind wandered onto different subjects all the time.

I did however, put together an Organiztion Transport Rule, for all outgoing messages to have a Legal Disclaimer.

Onwards and upwards to Chapter 7, Connectors & Connectivity.

 

Today, I have done the following:

- Installed a WildCard SSL
- Created a new Internet A record for autodiscover.arcusit.com
- Created a new Internal A record for autodiscover.arcusit.com
- Configured AutoDiscover for Outlook Anywhere and Outlook Active Synch.
- Configured a New Exchange ActiveSynch Mailbox Policy to require passwords and enable password recovery.
- Tested ActiveSync on my mobile.
- Tested that I was able to wipe my Mobile remotely (didn't actually do this, but the option was available)

After the certificate changes, I was recieving issues with Outlook 2007 as the Autodiscover was pointing towards mail.arcusit.com which was invalid. To amend this, I ran the following commands:

Set-ClientAccessServer -Identity NLSR01-AutodiscoverServiceInternalUri https://*.arcusit.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml
Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Identity "NLSR01\EWS (Default Web Site)" -InternalUrl https://*.arcusit.com/ews/exchange.asmx
Set-OABVirtualDirectory -Identity "NLSR01\oab (Default Web Site)" -InternalUrl https://*.arcusit.com/oab
Set-UMVirtualDirectory -Identity "NLSR01\unifiedmessaging (Default Web Site)" -InternalUrl https://*.arcusit.com/unifiedmessaging/service.asmx

 

Just been checking Outlook 2007 and I was recieving some OAB Errors 0x80190194. To resolve this issues, I performed the following:

- Organization Configuration > Offline Address Book > Confirmed that NLSR01 was in the Distribute Web-Based Distribution
- Server Configuration > Mailbox > Checked All Databases pointed to Default Offline Address Book under Client Settings
- Ran Update-OfflineAddressBook "Default Offline Address Book"
- Confirmed that a folder had been created under \\NLSR01\ExchangeOAB
- Ran netstop MSExchangeFDS
- Ran netstart MSEXchangeFDS

I then changed the Event Logging to High on Exchange OAL by using the following command:

set-eventLogLevel "MSExchangeSA\OAL Generator" -level high

Watched the Application Event Log for the next few minutes and did a Tools > Send/Recieve > Offline Address Book > Full Download.

As this threw up no errors, I then changed the logging back to low using the following command:

set-eventLogLevel "MSExchangeSA\OAL Generator" -level low

Edit:

How the Offline Address List works is by copying files located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\ExchangeOAB to C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Client Access\OAB\

 

I have glanced read all of Chapter 8, which covered the following:

- Email Address Policies
- Address Books
- Out Of Office
- Mobile Devices
- Public Folder Replication & Permissions

As I have covered most of this already and have used nearly all at work.

 

Chapter 9, look sat monitoring and performance. One of the areas, which I enjoyed reading more about was the various queues.

Submission Queue this is the 'daddy' queue, all messages that are recieved go into this queue before being moved into a move appropriate queue e.g. Mailbox Delivery or Undeliverable.

Mailbox Delivery Queue does what it says on the tin, delivery messages to peoples mailboxes.

Remote Delivery Queue holds messages being delivered to an external remote server using SMTP. Destinations are outside the Active Directory Site, think of different locations.

Poison Message Queue where the nasty critters go.

Unreachable Queue messages that cannot be routed to a destination.

There is alot of commands to learn, however, in the real world, I have found the GUI much easier to use, especially when filtering.

 

Finishing off, on Chapter 9, now, looking at the Troubleshooters.

Performance Troubleshooter have to say this is 'pants'. It has three questions and doesn't seem to provide many details. Something that I haven't used in a real world scenario.

Mailflow Troubleshooter slightly better than the Performance Troubleshooter, however, in relation to emails flowing, I have not had the need to use this. Typically, you would find out the reason for the NDR and solve this by finding out where a bottleneck is occouring using the Queue's, checking with a Smart Host, SPAM Filtering Service etc.

Database Recovery Management this is something, that I will be spending more time looking at. It has the ability to repair databases, verify databases and transacation logs, so will definately come in handhy.

Message Tracking use this almost daily. It's easier to use and more intuitive than Exchange 2003. A must for any Exchange Administrator.

 

Great blog craigie - keeps me inspired to keep plodding along until I reach the same point as you (some fair few months away yet!)

 

Have to say, that I have done hardly anything at all over the past week, I have just been way to busy at work.

However, I have been working on Exchange 2003 & 2007 alot, recently this has been on an Exchange 2003 Recovery Storage Group that wouldn't mount.

Will try and get some studying done over the weekend. I'm currently trying to export some data out of a 24GB Mailbox, oh the joys

 

That's what I thought...

 

Yep, it has been used for Journaling, where every email gets sent to an Archive Folder.

Long story short, customer had an issue with a now ex employee. So Craigie gets the job of trying to get there Email Archive working.

Tried to mount the Recovery Storage Group, which was an epic fail with loads of errors in the Application. Brick Level backup wasn't enabled.

Eseutil cc actually made the server die when I was working on it remotely!

So we used a bit of software called PC40 to extract the Mailbox from .edb

I have found over 1500 emails they need out of nearly 500,000 so far. Oh and the server continously stops responding.

 

I have just finished Chapter 10, it has taken me over two weeks.

Probably the most boring Chapter so far, I mean why would you use the Exchange Management Shell to look at Event Logs?

Great you can script and look for Event Id's, hell I can do the same in the GUI by Right Clicking without the need to remember a paragraph of commands.

This chapter is going to float out of my head very quickly I think

 

I have been working for a few hours with Microsoft on an issue with Public Folder Replication between SBS2003 and SBS2008.

Thought I would let you know that MS often type the commands incorrectly in Exchange Management Shell