december 2007 - Posts
The purpose of this document is to help you plan, deploy, and manage Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging servers. The information and procedures in this document focus specifically on the Unified Messaging features of an Exchange 2007 computer that has the Unified Messaging server role installed. This document provides information about Unified Messaging features and the tasks you must perform to plan, deploy, manage, and configure them.
This document is a compilation of the Unified Messaging white papers that are available in the Exchange Server Technical Articles section of the Exchange Server 2007 Library. Each white paper is a compilation of Unified Messaging Help topics. This document is provided as a convenience for customers who want to view the topics in print format. The content in this document applies to the original release (RTM) version of Exchange Server 2007. To read the most up-to-date Unified Messaging topics, including information about Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1, visit the Exchange Server 2007 Library.
Download: Planning, Deploying, and Managing Unified Messaging with Exchange Server 2007
We just got the scoop from Microsoft on Windows Mobile 7 and Windows Mobile 8, the two upcoming platforms that will fix what is undeniably broken about the Windows Mobile platform to date.
Continue this aticle on Bink.nu
Exchange Server 2007 Design and Architecture at Microsoft
How the Microsoft Information Technology organization designed the corporate Exchange Server 2007 environment
Microsoft Information Technology (Microsoft IT) maintains a complex Microsoft® Exchange Server environment consisting of several geographic locations and multiple Active Directory® forests. There are 16 data centers, four of which host Exchange Mailbox servers, to support more than 515 office locations in 102 countries with 121,000 users, including managers, employees, contractors, business partners, and vendors. Site and server consolidation conducted with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and new deployment features available in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 in combination with proven planning, design, and deployment methodologies enabled Microsoft IT to transition this environment to Exchange Server 2007 in less than eight months. Microsoft IT decommissioned the last Mailbox servers running Exchange Server 2003 in the corporate Active Directory forest shortly after Microsoft released the new Exchange Server release to manufacturing (RTM) version on December 7, 2006.
This technical white paper discusses the Exchange Server 2007 architectures, designs, and technologies that Microsoft IT chose for the corporate environment and the strategies, procedures, successes, and practical experiences that Microsoft IT gained during the planning and design phase. In addition to common planning and design tasks typical for many Exchange Server deployment projects, such as server design, high-availability implementation, and capacity planning, transitioning a complex messaging environment to run on Exchange Server 2007 also entails specific planning considerations regarding directory integration, routing topology, Internet connectivity, client access technologies, and unified messaging (UM).
Download: Technical White Paper | PowerPoint Presentation
Operating a Global Messaging Environment by Using Exchange Server 2007
This white paper is for business decision makers, technical decision makers, and operations managers. It assumes that the reader has a working knowledge of Microsoft Windows Server® 2003, Active Directory, Exchange Server 2007, and Microsoft Operations Manager. Because many of the principles and procedures discussed in this paper are based on standard operations methodologies, a high-level understanding of the MOF, MSF, and ITIL models is also helpful.
Download: Technical White Paper | PowerPoint Presentation
Exchange Server 2007 Deployment Checklists
This technical white paper discusses the deployment checklists that the Exchange Messaging team created based on the Exchange Server 2007 architecture and design specifications for the corporate production environment.
The first two sections briefly reiterate the reasons why the Exchange Messaging team uses checklists, and the sections explain the Microsoft IT server life-cycle management process. These sections also discuss the usefulness of checklists from a decision maker's point of view and highlight the responsibilities of the Exchange Messaging team within the overall Microsoft IT organization.
The third section, "Pre-Installation Deployment Checklists," covers the tasks the Exchange Messaging team performs to prepare servers for later installation of a specific server role. In some cases, a server role requires additional configuration. These tasks are role-specific and are listed in checklist form.
The next sections provide detailed discussions of the various checklists that the Exchange Messaging team created for the individual server roles.
This technical white paper also includes an appendix titled "Deployment Worksheets," which contains a set of worksheet templates that are derived from the Exchange Messaging team checklists. These worksheet templates can serve as a starting point to create custom checklists based on the specific needs of an IT organization.
Download: Technical White Paper
Finally Exchange Server 2007 SP1 is released (See my previous post for more information). In this part we will go through necessary steps for successful upgrade of CAS Servers to SP1.
In this scenario I have only CAS role on server. If you have other roles on the same server (MBX, HUB) wait for upcoming posts for specific roles. If you have Exchange aware antivirus software running on the same machine make sure that it's compatible with SP1. If you are using Microsoft ForeFront Security for Exchange, upgrade it to compatible version prior upgrading Exchange to SP1! RTM version of ForeFront Security for Exchange is not compatible with SP1!
Update your server(s)!
I strongly recommend that you install Windows Server 2003 SP2 and all the latest hotfixes on server prior upgrading to SP1.
It is recommended to upgrade Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 prior upgrading to SP1 due to some performance issues and high memory usage. Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 is currently not published on Microsoft Update. You can download it from here (SP1 x64 version). Note: If you do not want to install Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 on Exchange Server, you can install hotfix which is published under following KB942027.
Prepare Active Directory
Not all steps are necessary in simple Active Directory setup (single domain forest). So here are necessary steps to prepare Active Directory for Exchange 2007 SP1. Make sure that you run this commands from server that is in the same Active Directory Site as Schema Master DC. The advantage of running steps separately is that you can use account which has minimum permissions necessary for task.
- Run setup /PrepareLegacyExchangePermissions (coexistence with Exchange 2000/2003). Note: To successfully complete the PrepareLegacyExchangePermissions step, the domain in which you run this command must be able to contact all domains in the forest.
- Run setup /PrepareSchema (Note: You must not run this command in a forest in which you do not plan to run setup /PrepareAD. If you do, the forest will be configured incorrectly, and you will not be able to read some attributes on user objects.)
- Run setup /PrepareAD
- Run setup /PrepareDomain to prepare local domain, run setup /PrepareDomain:e12.exchange.si to prepare specific domain, run setup /PrepareAllDomains to prepare all domains in forest.
Setup.com /PrepareAD output.
After you run each command, you should wait for the changes to replicate across your Exchange Organisation. It can take a while in large Active Directory site topology. You can always force replication via Active Directory Sites and Services.
Installing Service Pack 1
It's time for Service Pack installation.
Just run setup.exe from location with extracted SP1 files. You will receive beautiful Welcome screen. :)
Note: If you will run setup.exe from the network share, setup will first copy necessary files to local disk.
Welcome Screen
If you know what you are doing, then click Install, otherwise PLEASE click Plan and read about Service Pack 1.
After clicking on Install you receive window describing new features in SP1.
New features in SP1
Click Next and accept License Agreement. If all prerequisites are OK you can click Upgrade. Otherwise read carefully and resolve issues.
Prerequisites check
Review installation steps and click Finish, if everything is OK. If there are errors or warnings, review and resolve them.
Completion screen
It's time to check CAS services. Do you notice anything new on OWA?
Upgrading to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 is pretty simple and straightforward. In following posts we will dive into upgrading HUB and Edge role. Probably the most interesting part will be about upgrading Single Copy Cluster (SCC), Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) and new high availability features in SP1.
Is anyone interested in posts about Exchange 2007 SP1 Unified Messaging with Office Communications Server 2007?
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) has been designed specifically to help meet the challenges of any business and the needs of all the different groups with a stake in the messaging system. Exchange Server 2007 SP1 is a mission-critical communications tool that enables employees to be more productive and access their information anywhere and anytime while providing a messaging system that enables rich, efficient access to e-mail, calendar items, voice mail, and contacts. For the administrator, Exchange Server 2007 SP1 provides advanced protection options against e-mail security threats, such as spam and viruses, as well as the tools to help manage internal compliance and high availability needs.
In Exchange Server 2007 SP1, several new features and improvements will extend the Anywhere Access capabilities of Exchange Server 2007 to help make employees more productive on whatever device they’re using, provide additional Operational Efficiency tools for administrators seeking a streamlined management and deployment experience, and enable advanced Built-in Protection for more robust high availability and compliance scenarios.
Improvements in Exchange Server 2007 SP1 include:
Anywhere Access
• Integrated Exchange Unified Messaging functionality with Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.
• Outlook Web Access additions, including public folder access, S/MIME support, personal distribution lists, and mailbox rules editor.
• Webready document viewer supports Microsoft Office 2007 documents in addition to Microsoft Office 2003 documents.
• Extended language support in Outlook Web Access with Arabic and Korean spell checking.
Operational Efficiency
• Support for Windows Server 2008 deployments, including benefits in flexible clustering, advanced networking, and simplified management.
• Additional tools in the Exchange Management Console, including public folder management and configuration options for clustering and POP/IMAP access.
• Improvements to the Exchange Management Shell syntax and import-export PST in the move-mailbox command.
• Wider variety of web services for application development, including public folder access, delegate management, and folder level permissions.
Built-in Protection
• Addition of Standby Continuous Replication (SCR) for site resilient high availability deployments.
• Extended Exchange ActiveSync policies for mobile policy enforcement.
• Information rights management pre-licensing by the Hub Transport role.
• Secure Real Time Protocol (SRTP) support in the Unified Messaging role.
• Support for IPv6 when using Windows Server 2008.
Source: Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
Links: