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Congratulations to the Exchange team!

From InfoWorld:

 
Microsoft Exchange 2010 continues Redmond's longstanding market leadership in mail servers and related software. This release shows why the company's once-reviled product continues to be deployed widely in enterprises: it works, it scales, and it continues to gain important new features. In our tests, we saw improved management, administration, and reliability features plus an enhanced experience for users that includes automatic transcription of voicemails, delivery reports for messages, and extensive self-service options. Although light on wholesale changes and heavy on refinements, Exchange 2010 is nevertheless a major step up from Exchange 2007.

Source: Exchange 2010 is Best Mail Server - InfoWorld's 2011 Technology of The Year Award Winner

One year later all I can say is that… Exchange 2010 is without doubt superb product. Congratulations to team!

Just over a year ago, Microsoft launched Exchange 2010, with a tremendous response from the market, partners, and customers. I'm inspired by the momentum in the community of developers and IT administrators who are working with Exchange to delight customers with the best business e-mail on the planet.

We are continuously working to make Exchange even better, too. Over the last year, we released Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1. This release had a number of features you asked for, including archiving enhancements and Outlook Web App improvements, making it even easier to deploy and manage Exchange 2010 and increase productivity.

Also, our research shows that Exchange market share continues to grow. In enterprises with over 500 PC's, Exchange is, by far, the most widely used business email. For example, in the US, UK, and Australia, well over 70% of enterprises primarily use Exchange. In each of the largest G7 countries, in every size organization from small companies with less than 25 PC's to the largest enterprises, Exchange is being used by more businesses than any other email system. And many organizations are quickly moving to Exchange 2010. In the US and Canada, over 12% of large companies have already upgraded. Plus, over 11 million users of Live@Edu are using Exchange 2010 online.

Customers like Paul Smith, a fashion design and retail company in the UK, are already taking advantage of improved capabilities for high availability in Exchange 2010.

"We've gone from a 24- to 48-hour response time down to a five-minute response time. The business was asking for a disaster recovery strategy and plan, and this is what we were able to provide." - Lee Bingham, Head of IT, Paul Smith

What's more, our extensive partner community continues to be the lifeblood of Exchange and we expect the momentum will continue to increase with the growth of the market. For example, our partner Janalent sees great interest in Exchange Server 2010 from customers.

"We are seeing huge interest In Exchange Server 2010 with the improvements in Outlook Web Access and the incredible integration with Office 2010 suite of products."  - Anne Chahal, CEO and President, Janalent

Julia White of the Exchange Product Management team also has a post today on the UC Blog. We look forward to bringing our customers and partners even more Exchange enhancements in 2011!

- Rajesh Jha

Source: The Microsoft Exchange Team Blog

Pozdravljeni!

Microsoft tehnična skupnost mstech.si vas vabi na jesenski piknik v sredo, 15. septembra 2010, ki ga pripravlja skupaj s skupnostmi SloDUG, SloWUG, SloCUG in SBSC.

Na pikniku je poleg družabnih aktivnosti pripravljena tudi vsebina:

16:00 – Prihod, registracije

17:30 – Nastop stand-up komika

18:30 – Predstavitev Internet Exploer 9 Beta

20:00 – Izid IE9 beta - v živo prenos iz San Francisca

Piknik se bo odvijal na Ježici (Gostilna Štern). Zaradi planiranja števila udeležencev se prosimo OBVEZNO PRIJAVITE.

Zadnji dan za prijavo je 10. september.

p.s. V primeru slabega vremena je poskrbljeno za dogajanje v pokritem prostoru.

Matjaž Šircelj

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 helps you achieve new levels of reliability and performance by delivering features that help to simplify your administration, protect your communications, and delight your customers by meeting their demands for greater business mobility.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 helps IT Professionals achieve new levels of reliability with greater flexibility, enhanced user experiences, and increased protection for business communications.

• Flexible and reliable - Exchange Server 2010 gives you the flexibility to tailor your deployment based on your company's unique needs and a simplified way to keep e-mail continuously available for your users.
• Anywhere access - Exchange Server 2010 helps your users get more done by giving them the freedom to securely access all their communications - e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging, and more - from virtually any platform, Web browser, or device.
• Protection and compliance - Exchange Server 2010 delivers integrated information loss prevention, and compliance tools aimed at helping you simplify the process of protecting your company's communications and meeting regulatory requirements.

This pre-release software is intended for evaluation purposes only. You must accept the license terms before you are authorized to use the software. There is no product support for this trial software. You are welcome to participate in the forums to share your trial experiences with others and to ask for advice.

Download: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Beta

Samo še nekaj dni nas loči do letošnje NT konference 2010, ki se bo odvijala od 24. do 27. maja v Portorožu.

Kaj bom predaval?

• Prehod na Exchange Server 2010
  Europa D, torek 10:15 - 11:30
  Sašo Erdeljanov (avtenta.si)
• Delavnica: Disaster recovery: Exchange Server 2010 in Data Protection Manager 2010
  Aurora 2, sreda 13:30 - 16:00
  Sašo Erdeljanov (avtenta.si), Matej Malerič (avtenta.si)
• MVP panel
  MSTech (Pečina), sreda 16:30 - 17:30

Exchange predavanja

• Tips & Tricks: Exchange Server 2010
  Europa B, torek 11:45 - 12:30
  Scott Schnoll (Microsoft Corporation)
• Exchange Server 2010 High Availability Deep Dive
  Europa D, sreda 08:45 - 09:45
  Scott Schnoll (Microsoft Corporation)

Letos bomo na @NTkonferenca uporabljali twitter s temo pogovora #NTK10.

Sooner or later you will migrate yourself to Exchange Server 2010 and will find yourself in need to uninstall Exchange Server 2007 CCR… ;)

Before beginning with uninstall procedure make sure that you moved everything away to new servers (Mailboxes, OAB generation,…)!

Uninstall Exchange Server 2007 from Pasive node

• Login to pasive node and check whether Exchange CMS is located on active node with Get-ClusteredMailboxServerStatus cmdlet from Exchange Management Shell.
• Open a Command Prompt window and change path to %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft\Exchange Server\bin.
• Run Setup /mode:uninstall

Evict pasive node from Windows Cluster

• Open a Command Prompt window.
• Stop the Cluster service by running following command
  
  net stop clussvc
  
• After the Cluster service has been stopped, evict the node by running the following command: Cluster <ClusterName> node <NodeName> /evict.
  
  Cluster CN-WC01 node CN-CCR02 /evict

Remove CMS from Active Node and uninstall Mailbox role

• Login to active node and run command prompt
• Change path to C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin (this is default location)
• Run: Setup.com /mode:uninstall /removeCMS /CMSName:CN-EC01

The last step is to Destroy Windows Cluster (Right click on the cluster name then choose More Actions > Destroy Cluster in Windows Server 2008 or follow KB282227 for Windows Server 2003). :)

KB282227 - How to uninstall the Cluster service on a Windows Server 2003 cluster

In previous parts we looked into necessary procedures for preparing Active Directory and upgrading HUB/CAS/MBX roles (or single Exchange Server with HUB, CAS and Mailbox role installed) to Service Pack 2.

In this part we will go trough necessary steps for successful upgrade of Exchange 2007 Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) Cluster to Service Pack 2.

Installing Service Pack 2

Upgrading CCR Cluster to SP2 is different from upgrading non-clustered Mailbox Role to SP2 in many ways. Notice that in previous parts we were using both GUI and unattended mode but only option for cluster upgrade is using unattended mode.

Required permissions

What are the minimal permissions you need for successful upgrade? Exchange Server Administrator membership and Local Administrator on servers is required.

Demo infrastructure

For the demo purposes we will use Active node named CN-CCR01, passive node named CN-CCR02 and exchange cluster named CN-EC01.

Upgrade steps for Passive Node (CN-CCR02)

Upgrade steps for Active Node (CN-CCR01)

• Set Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service to Manual or Automatic and start it. This service is disabled by default. During upgrade procedure this allows setup to add firewall exceptions for Exchange Server services. You can stop and disable this service after upgrade!
• Stop any services that have open handles to performance counters (for example: Performance Logs and Alerts, MOM agents,...) - performance counters are changed during upgrade procedure.
• Move Windows Cluster "Cluster Group" to Passive Node
  Cluster group "cluster group" /move

Edited on 1.4.2010…

I’m sorry but somehow I managed to “lost” this post and it was not published before… :)

This is the second part of upgrading procedure for Exchange Server 2007 SP2. In the fist part we looked into necessary steps for getting Windows ready and Active Directory ready for Exchange Server 2007 SP2.

Installation order

There is nothing specific in the installation order of Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2. You should stick with standard installation order for Exchange Server 2007:

1. Upgrade all Client Access Servers
2. Upgrade all HUB Transport Servers
3. Upgrade all EDGE Transport Servers (can be upgraded later but not before HUB Transport Servers)
4. Upgrade all Mailbox Servers
5. Upgrade all Unified Messaging Servers

In multi site environment upgrade site by site in the above order (not for example all Client Access Server across multiple sites! and than next role). Upgrade internet facing site(s) first.

Non-Clustered Exchange Servers

Before proceeding with SP2 installation make sure that any 3rd party application is compatible with SP2 (for example: antivirus software, backup software, archive software,…) and upgrade them if necessary.

Run setup.exe from location with extracted SP1 files.

If you know what you are doing, then click Install, otherwise PLEASE click Plan and read about Service Pack 2. After clicking on Install you receive window describing 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.

Note: although screenshots are taken from installation on Edge server all steps are the same if you are installing it on non-clustered servers.

Review installation steps and click Finish, if everything is OK. If there are errors or warnings, review and resolve them.

I have seen some issues in the last month regarding repeated login prompts after installing Hotfix KB973917. Hotfix KB973917 is actually not a security Hotfix but it implements Extended Protection for Authentication in Internet Information Services (IIS).

KB973917 - Description of the update that implements Extended Protection for Authentication in Internet Information Services (IIS)

This article describes a non-security update that implements Extended Protection for Authentication in Internet Information Services (IIS).

When Extended Protection for Authentication is enabled, authentication requests are bound to both the Service Principal Names (SPN) of the server to which the client tries to connect and to the outer Transport Layer Security (TLS) channel over which Integrated Windows Authentication happens.

Link: KB973917

You can find many solutions in the wild – from uninstalling hotfix, enabling Kernel Mode Authentication on IIS Virtual Directories (Autodiscover, EWS, OAB and RPC). The real solution is installing Rollup 9 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1.

Update Rollup 9 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1

Update Rollup 9 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 was released on July 16, 2009. These issues are fixed in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2). So if you are using SP2 you are on a safe side. :)

Links:

• Download Update Rollup 9 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB970162)
• Description of Update Rollup 9 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
• Download Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2
• Issues That Are Fixed in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2

As many of you probably know, Service Pack 2 for Exchange Server 2007 is one of the prerequisites for introducing Exchange Server 2010 into existing Exchange organization.

Beside many fixes, Service Pack 2 for Exchange Server 2007 also includes some cool new features:

• Enhanced Auditing: New Exchange auditing events and audit log repository enable Exchange administrators to more easily audit the activities occurring on their Exchange servers. It allows the right balance of granularity, performance, and easy access to audited events via a dedicated audit log repository. This simplifies the auditing process and makes review of audited events easier by segregating audited events in a dedicated location.
• Exchange Volume Snapshot Backup Functionality: A new backup plug-in has been added to the product that will enable customers to create Exchange backups when a backup is invoked through the Windows Server 2008 Backup tool. Exchange Server 2007 didn't have this capability on Windows Server 2008 and additional solutions were required to perform this task.
• Dynamic Active Directory Schema Update and Validation: The dynamic AD schema update and validation feature allows for future schema updates to be dynamic deployed as well as proactively preventing conflicts whenever a new property is added to the AD schema. Once this capability is deployed it will enable easier management of future schema updates and will prevent support issues when adding properties that don't exist in the AD schema.
• Public Folder Quota Management: SP2 enables a consistent way to manage quotas by improving the current PowerShell cmdlets to perform quota management tasks.
• Centralized Organizational Settings: SP2 introduces new PowerShell option that enable centralized management of many of the Exchange organization settings.
• Named Properties cmdlets: SP2 enables Exchange administrators to monitor their named property usage per database.
• New User Interface for Managing Diagnostic Logging: SP2 enables Exchange administrators to easily configure and manage diagnostic logging from within the Exchange Management Console.

Update your server(s)!

I strongly recommend that you install latest Service Packs and hotfixes for your operating system and installed software. Please note that Exchange Server 2007 (SP2) is only supported on Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2 and on Windows Server 2008. Windows Server 2008 R2 is not supported!

Windows Installer 4.5

You need to deploy Windows Installer 4.5 on all target Exchange Server 2007 servers prior installing Service Pack 2.

Download Windows Installer 4.5 for Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 RTM from Microsoft Download:

Download: Windows Installer 4.5 Redistributable

Please note that Windows Installer 4.5 is already included in Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Vista SP2.

Backup Active Directory and Exchange!

Please backup Active Directory and Exchange (especially Databases) before Active Directory preparation and Exchange Server 2007 SP1 installation. You should consider reading my previous blog post named Importance of good backups.

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 Server 2007 Service Pack 2. The advantage of running steps separately is that you can use account which has minimum permissions necessary for task.

• Run  setup /PrepareSchema – You need to run this with domain account that is member of Schema Admins and Enterprise Admins security groups. Make sure that you run this commands from server that is in the same Active Directory Site as Schema Master DC. (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 - You need to run this with domain account that is member of Enterprise Admins security group. Make sure that you run this commands from server that is in the same Active Directory Site as Schema Master DC. In order to support the new Role Based Access Control (RBAC) model in Exchange Server 2010, a new security group is created inside Microsoft Exchange Security Groups OU named Exchange Trusted Subsystem.
  
  
  
• Run setup /PrepareDomain to prepare local domain, run setup /PrepareDomain:exlab.exchange.pri to prepare specific domain, run setup /PrepareAllDomains to prepare all domains in forest. Please note that /PrepareAD prepares current (local) domain during process. If you have single domain Active Directory forrest, running /PrepareDomain is not needed. PrepareDomain in Exchange Server 2007 SP2 does not include ACEs introduced by Exchange Server 2010.

After you run each command, you should wait for the changes to replicate across your Exchange Organization. It can take a while in large Active Directory site topology. You can always force replication via Active Directory Sites and Services MMC.

How do you verify successful preparation of Active Directory?

Setup.com /PrepareSchema sets value of rangeUpper attribute of ms-Exch-Schema-Version-Pt to 14622 after successful finish.

Setup.com /PrepareAD sets value of objectVersion attribute of <Organization Name> container to 11222 after successful finish.

Installation order

There is nothing specific in the installation order of Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2. You should stick with standard installation order for Exchange Server 2007:

1. Upgrade all Client Access Servers
2. Upgrade all HUB Transport Servers
3. Upgrade all EDGE Transport Servers (can be upgraded later but not before HUB Transport Servers)
4. Upgrade all Mailbox Servers
5. Upgrade all Unified Messaging Servers

In multi site environment upgrade site by site in the above order (not for example all Client Access Server across multiple sites! and than next role). Upgrade internet facing site(s) first.

Links:

• Download Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2