Exchange

Sometimes there are pleasant surprises in the mail.

Yesterday, I received this in the mail:



It was pretty neat to deploy early and offer feedback that could potentially change the end result.
Neat!

The wait is over and native support for Exchange 2010 RTM/SP1's archive mailbox inside Outlook 2007 is here!

Hopefully, you'll soon be able to download the binaries for the December 2010 cumulative update from this link.

Notable limitations about the Outlook update:
1. Working with Archive policies
2. Independent searches of the archive and the primary mailbox

The following Office editions are supported for archival support with this update:
Office Ultimate (retail), ProPlus (volume license), Office Enterprise (volume license), and Outlook Standalone (retail/volume license)

Thanks for the announcement, Ankur Kothari!

Update: You can request the binaries from this link here. It looks like the KB release notes have not hit the web caches yet but you'll be able to view the release notes for the Outlook portion here.

Update 2 - 12/20/2010: Sounds like there are some known issues with this update so I would hold off using it for now. You can read more about the issues here.

If you are migrating mailboxes from Groupwise to on-premise Exchange 2010 SP1, you will want to setup a throttling policy on Exchange 2010 SP1 that is almost identical to the typical throttling settings used for Blackberry and/or Cisco Unity.

I typically recommend not setting any of the throttling values to unlimited. This is a bit more restrictive than the suggestions made by the Blackberry and/or Cisco Unity settings.

The most important throttling value we need to increase for Quest's Groupwise Migrator is the RCAPercentTimeInAD. The telltale sign are throttling event logs on the Exchange server and see-saw network/cpu usage on the migration workstation. The Address Book service seems to receive quite a bit of traffic from the Groupwise migration tools due to user account look ups.

On most of my migrations, I ended up using a value of 200 for RCAPercentTimeInAD. I have yet to encounter a server that required value higher than 200.

Thankfully, you can apply this new policy on the user account that acts as the go-between Exchange and Groupwise. Typically, it is called something like GWMigrate.

Additionally, you can also apply this new policy on the migration workstation's computer account. Typically, it is called something like GWMigrateServer.

Using that server name and user name as an example, this is what you would execute with Powershell on the Exchange server:

New-ThrottlingPolicy "Groupwise Throttling Policy" -RCAPercentTimeInAD 200

$b = Get-ThrottlingPolicy "Groupwise Throttling Policy";
Set-Mailbox GWMigrateServer$ -ThrottlingPolicy $b;
Set-Mailbox GWMigrate -ThrottlingPolicy $b;

After setting those values, you will need to stop and restart the Exchange Throttling services for the updated settings to take effect.

The official Cisco certified version of Exchange 2010 for use with Unity is 2010 RTM RU3, as of today (10-27-2010).
Exchange 2010 RTM RU4, Exchange 2010 SP1 and Exchange 2010 SP1 RU1 have all come out since Exchange 2010 RTM RU3.
Many enterprises have already upgraded to Exchange 2010 SP1 and SP1 RU1.
Cisco is working on getting Exchange 2010 SP1 certified but it hasn’t been yet with no ETA.

Updates on Cisco Unity support will most likely end up here. It contains the most up to date instructions on how to update the Unity servers to interop with Exchange 2010.

On a good note, a new version of the Exchange 2007/2010 MAPI CDO was posted on Microsoft's website here a few days ago, which seems to fix the issues noted here on Cisco's website and noted here on Microsoft's website.

Known gotchas with Exchange 2010 SP1:
By default, the Unity 7.0(2) ES train patches try to use old Exchange 2010 RTM Powershell commands to create the Unity mailboxes if you are trying to partner with the Exchange 2010 server in a brand new Unity install. The workaround is to partner with an Exchange 2003 server during this process or manually create the mailboxes before applying the Unity patch.

If the Unity service mailboxes already live in the Exchange 2003 environment, and/or Unity is already partnered with an Exchange 2003 server, it can modify the accounts it needs, assuming you’ve given those accounts the right permissions.

If they are using Unity 7.0(2) ES36 in a fail-over environment, you need a database fix-up utility from Cisco TAC to prevent failed fail-over of Unity servers, called CiscoUnity_7.02_Patch11e.exe. Telltale sign of the issue: 0x80040e37 - Failed to verify SQL Configuration Table

Fun times on the bleeding edge, right?

Update: Cisco has updated their site and has support for Unity 5, Unity 7, and and Unity 8 with Exchange 2010 SP1.

One stop shop for avoiding the confusing maze of Microsoft support links to get all the required hot fixes and updates to install Exchange 2010 SP1.

I typically download all the updates and divide them into 3 different ZIP files. 2008-R1.zip for all Server 2008 R1 hot fixes. 2008-R2.zip for all Server 2008 R2 hot fixes. Shared.zip for all the updates that are shared on both platforms. Very handy to keep on a USB thumb drive.

Contents of Shared:
FilterPack64bit.exe
UcmaRedist.msp (August 2010 - 3.5.6907.210)

Contents of 2008-R1:
KB 973136 - request
KB 977592 - request
KB 977624-v2 - request
KB 979099 - request
KB 979744 - request
KB 979917 - request
KB 982867-v2 - request

Contents of 2008-R2:
KB 977020-v2 - request
KB 977357 - request
KB 979099 - request
KB 979744 - request
KB 979917 - request
KB 981314 - request
KB 982867-v2 - request
KB 983440 - request

Contents of W7:
KB 977020-v2 - request
KB 982867-v2 - request

The only updates in the list that are not a deployment blocker by the Exchange 2010 SP1 setup program are the Server 2008 R2 WMI memory leak hot fixes - KB 977357 and 981314. If you monitor your Exchange servers with System Center Operations Manager or anything that repeatedly polls the WMI Win32_Service class, this hot fix is recommended.

From time to time, Microsoft updates the hot fixes. You can see that a few of the hot fixes are already on v2.

The upcoming service packs for Windows and .NET Framework will reduce the importance of these updates and will render the collection obsolete.

Exchange 2010 SP1 has been released to the public here.

Assuming you are installing on a server that has all the Exchange roles enabled, these are the hot fixes you need before you can complete installation:

Updates needed for Server 2008 R2:

KB 977020 - .NET Framework 2.0 hotfix
KB 979099 - AD RMS hotfix
KB 979744 - .NET Framework 2.0 hotfix
KB 979917 - ASP.NET 2.0 hotfix
KB 2282949 - UCMA hotfix - August 2010 - 3.5.6907.210
KB 982867 - .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 hotfix
KB 983440 - ASP.NET 2.0 hotfix rollup
Office 2010 Filter Pack

You might wonder why I am pointing out what technology the hot fix is related to. The reason is, the updates are not made by the Exchange team, and cannot be included in the SP1 download binaries.

I will be providing a list of Server 2008 R1 updates required for Exchange 2010 SP1. Since it is based on the older OS, there are more updates needed than the list above.

If you have trouble finding download links for the above, you can always request them with Hotfixr.

Update: Looks like Technet has the full list now for all operating systems.

As a follow-up to my blog entry about the Outlook 2007 update for Exchange 2010, we have an update released for Outlook 2003 for Exchange 2010! I didn't really expect to see this show up but it will help users when the Exchange 2010 SP1 calendar repair agent kicks in.

There is only one fix mentioned in this update for Outlook 2003:

When you use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 in a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 environment, the body of the meeting request may be changed to the following text: One or more problems with your meeting were detected and fixed.

I'm expecting to see an update for Outlook 2007 sometime soon to add support for Exchange 2010's personal mailbox archives. Outlook 2010 supports them out of the box, and Exchange 2010 SP1 allows you to store the archive mailbox in a different information store (i.e. slower SAN or drives).

A hotfix rollup is available for Forefront Protection for Exchange with some noteworthy fixes. This rollup will bring the build version to 11.0.689.0.

The following fixes are issues I've personally seen with the RTM version of FPE:

1. A Forefront Protection for Exchange scan engine update fails and generates Application Log errors
2. Forefront Protection for Exchange replacing legitimate attachments with text files and quarantining legitimate mail
3. The Forefront Protection for Exchange client crashes when adding an IP address, or range, to either the IP Allow/Block List
4. Spam Reports may take an excessive amount of time to retrieve in Forefront Protection for Exchange
5. Forefront Protection for Exchange generates more Realtime Scan Timeout notifications than expected

There are more fixes than what I listed, and you can review them here.

You can request the hotfix rollup here.

I tend to keep an eye on the Office Cumulative Updates site (the link is on the right side of my website) and the June 2010 update for Outlook 2007 caught my eye.

In particular, there seem to be a few Exchange 2010 fixes directly related to Outlook 2007 crashing.

The issues fixed that caught my eye include:

1. This hotfix provides a design change. After you install this hotfix, the Secure Temp folder for Office Outlook 2007 is automatically cleared when you exit Office Outlook 2007.

2. After the Outlook mailboxes are moved a server that is running Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Office Outlook 2007 crashes intermittently.

3. In Office Outlook 2007, all received email messages are stored incorrectly in the Deleted Items folder. (Unfortunately, I've had clients keep very important e-mail in Deleted Items and then wonder where the messages went when they empty the Deleted Items folder.)

4. You may have data loss on meeting update when you use Office Outlook 2007 against Exchange Server 2010. When this issue occurs, the body of the meeting request is replaced by the following text: One or more problems with your meeting were detected and fixed.

5. After you install the Office Live Meeting Add-in for Microsoft Outlook, Office Outlook 2007 crashes during startup.

You can read more about the update here, and as general rule of thumb, it is good to keep the MSO.DLL updated as well, from here.

I always get nervous on the morning of July 1st ever since 2006. Thankfully I received this in email:
"Dear Aaron Tiensivu, Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2010 Microsoft® MVP Award!"

I haven't posted much lately but that will change as some of these newer products get out the door. W7 SP1 and OCS/CS "Wave 14" in particular. Can't neglect Exchange 2010 SP1 either, but the public beta is already out for that.

Woohoo!

It is handy to see what version levels are out there and what devices are in use. You can also use some SQL kung-foo to correlate the device with the user. A more detailed example is available from here.

By default, this is what the MMC shows for connected devices:

Exchange 2010 introduces a Calendar Assistant, which can be handy for automatically marking incoming meeting requests a tentative, and other very handy functions that can execute out side of the client side experience.

In this one particular scenario, embarrassingly, was my own mailbox for a few days.

I had no control over meeting requests. They were getting rejected and accepted without me ever seeing the request come in.
I checked my phone for any strange settings.
I checked over the Calendar Assistant and disabled it completely, from the Outlook Web App control panel and in Powershell just to make sure it was "super disabled".



Calendar items kept auto-answering for me so I had to dig deeper, into a section I rarely go into unless the mailbox is setup as a resource.

Lo and behold, somehow and at some point, all of these items had been clicked on within my Outlook profile.

I don't know if I did this on accident one night or my kids got into my Outlook settings (never underestimate the comedy gold that can come from smart 8 year olds) with that said:



As you can see, these options were what was killing my Calendaring. Very "stupid user" to not check this spot first but it was originally acting like something the Calendar Assistant was doing and I had forgotten about the resource room settings being buried in Outlook 2010.

So, I got to wear the dunce hat for the day. Maybe me posting this will avoid some other dunce hats getting passed out to others. It was definitely a 'palmface-slap' moment when I discovered the root cause.

The Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer performs an overall topology readiness scan of your environment and provides you with a list of decisions that need to be made before you deploy Exchange Server 2010.

The checks performed by ExPDA are similar to the pre-requisite checks implemented (via Exchange Best Practices Analyzer) in the Exchange 2010 Setup program; in fact ExPDA is based off the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer (ExBPA) engine. However, unlike Exchange 2010 setup, this tool focuses only on overall topology readiness and not the ability to run Exchange 2010 on the local computer. The scan also performs a deep analysis of each existing Exchange 2003/2007 server to verify that it has the necessary updates and configuration in-place to support Exchange 2010.

Another good thing to note that hasn't been documented very well, but I have seen happen a few times already:

If you plan on ever deploying Exchange 2007 portions with Exchange 2010, for instance if you are coming from an Exchange 2003 environment and need a few Exchange 2007 servers due to 3rd party applications not catching up to Exchange 2010 yet, make sure you run the schema update for Exchange 2007 before running the schema update for Exchange 2010.

If you run the Exchange 2010 schema update without ever having any Exchange 2007 schema in place, you can no longer install Exchange 2007. You can go back to AD backups and recover, and I have heard of some unsupported/daring changes to schema versions to force it to work, but for pre-deploying, make sure you take this into account.

A common scenario like this is with Cisco Unity or some archival products. Little by little, they are catching up to Exchange 2010 with support.

I now have complete feature parity with a 64-bit OS (Windows 7) running 64-bit Office 2010 with LiveMeeting and Office Communicator, that I had with 32-bit Office 2007 not too long ago.

You can read about the changes for LiveMeeting here and the changes for the Conferencing Add-in here.

You can download the updated LiveMeeting client here and the updated Conferencing Add-in here.

For the add-in, you will have to choose 32-bit or 64-bit which depends on which flavor (32-bit or 64-bit) of Office you are using. The only 64-bit version of Office to date is the Office 2010 Technical Preview/Beta. Any version before that is 32-bit.

Anyone running a 32-bit OS is going to use 32-bit Office and will want the 32-bit version.

You can certainly run 32-bit Office on a 64-bit OS, and in this case, you would want the 32-bit Conferencing Add-in. One reason I can think of is if you want to keep using Xobni until a new version of that application comes out, or you have other 32-bit Office plugins that you use.

I am using 64-bit Office primarily for a relatively strange reason. Sure, running native applications is a good thing, but I am mainly interested in applications not "mucking around" with my Office configuration by adding in things covertly.

The biggest offender I can rattle off the top of my head is the plugin that iTunes installs into Outlook without asking. It has a notorious history of causing problems with delaying Outlook to shut down. I'm not picking on Apple, I just wish it was an optional component of iTunes.

Plus, I'm just a fan of 64-bit applications in general.

Note: One limitation of using Live Meeting on a 64-bit OS still remains - uploading Office documents other than PowerPoint to LiveMeeting and having LiveMeeting dynamically convert/scale the documents to each client's workspace. I generally don't use this feature so it is a non-issue for me.

The technical reason - a 64-bit Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI) print driver does not exist.

Announced today at PDC and Twitter'd by @DrRez - a nice portal/landing page for OCS resources. Hopefully some of my articles will end up on there someday.