Forefront

Thankfully, the list of hotfixes is currently very small, but it may increase as time goes on. It is a good idea to bookmark this KB article for any future FCS deployments.

I always keep the recommended Windows 2003 SP1/SP2 cluster hotfix list bookmarked for any cluster deployments I do. It is just a good practice to follow. I like being over informed than under informed.

I noticed this post over at the Forefront Client Security blog asking for feedback from customers that use the same management group name for multiple deployments within the same environment.

As a best practice they recommend using different management group names for each deployment. There are many other interesting issues documented within the FCS release notes too.

I am curious why this is a best practice because they don't really explain the reason behind it.
I suspect due to avoiding 'reporting stampedes' from FCS clients to only one management group, but I'm not sure overall.

A unified release fo unified communications.

Exchange 2007 SP1 Beta 2 was released yesterday to MSDN and TechNet Plus. To go along with it, Forefront for Exchange SP1 Beta 2 came out too.

Noteworthy E2K7 SP1 items
1. Standby Continuous Replication
2. Office Communications Server 2007 integration
3. Windows Server 2008 support
4. New and enhanced Exchange ActiveSync Policies
5. Zune and XBox OWA themes

Elan goes into more detail about Exchange 2007 SP1 here.

Noteworthy Forefront for Exchange SP1 item - support for Exchange 2007 SP1!

You can download Forefront for Exchange 2007 SP1 here.

The short list of fixes:

1. Impersonation Fix
2. File Size Fix
3. Manual Scan Fix
4. Crash Fix
5. Non-ASCII Keyword Filtering Fix
6. Added Soft Block for Installing FSSP on a Box that has Exchange
7. STSADM Fix
8. Removed CA InoculateIT Engine due to CA Engine Consolidation

If you want more detail, read about it here.

In the crazy days of June 2007, I took this exam while it was in beta. I like taking exams early to give me an edge and as a personal challenge.

In my never ending quest to find out if I actually passed 70-238 (the last Exchange 2007 exam), I found out by accident that I had passed 70-557, the Forefront Client and Server certification exam.

I am not sure if 70-557 is live yet, but I suspect it will be shortly if the results are posting. I still have no idea if I passed 70-238 or not. I'm getting pretty ticked off at Prometric about this.