http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd638121(EXCHG.140).aspx
Exchange 2010 will be generally available soon; It’s time to start reading up on High Availability and Site Resilience through the use of Database Availability Groups. :)
Looks like the release candidate is available for download. I must admit I’m kind of curious why they are supporting it on 2008 RTM, you’ll have a much better experience on 2008 R2. Especially if you plan on doing an in-place upgrade.
I also wanted to point out the part about Exchange 2010 currently being tested as a service as that is the project I’ve been working on since 7/1. Yes, there really are more than 10,000,000 mailboxes deployed. :)
On the services front, Exchange Online is getting a great reception from customers and is now used by more than a million people. With Exchange 2010, we’ve broken new ground again. Exchange 2010 is currently being tested as a service by more than 10M people worldwide in the broadest server beta in Microsoft history. This is a testament to our long-standing commitment to bring rock solid, enterprise-ready products to market.
Link: [MS Exchange Team Blog Post]
Let me know if you see anything obviously wrong with it. Use at your own risk! :)
#################################
#Copyright 2009 Cohesive Logic LLC
#SCR Health Check Script
#Description – Determines if any of the storage groups on the SCR target server are in an unhealthy state.
##################################Options – Specify the following options for the target Enviroment
#################################
#SCR Target Server – Specify the FQDN SCR Target server to be analyzed
$SCRTarget = “Target Server”
#Exchange Mailbox Server – Specify the FQDN for the Exchange Mailbox Server Source for your SCR Target
$MailboxServer = “Source Mailbox Server”
#SMTP Server – Specify FQDN of a local SMTP server that can be used to relay the warning email
$SMTPServer = “SMTP SEERVER NAME by DNS or IP” -
#EmailRecipient – Specify the email address where the warning email shoudl be sent.
$EmailRcpt = “JoeDoe@server.com”
##################################The email function used to transmit email over using an SMTP relay
function Send-Email([string]$rcpt,$smtpServer,$body) {$msg = New-Object net.Mail.MailMessage
$smtp = New-Object net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)$msg.From = “ExchangeSCR@Domain.com”
$msg.To.Add($rcpt)
$msg.Subject = “SCR HEALTH WARNING”$msg.Body = $body
$smtp.Send($msg)
}
#The Check-SCR function determines if replication on any of strorage groups of the SCR target server are in an unhealthy state.
#If any storage groups are found to be unheathy
function Check-SCR($MBX,$SCR,$SMTP,$rcpt) {
$MessageBody = $NULL
$ReplicatedSG = Get-StorageGroup -Server $MBX | where {$_.StandbyMachines -ne $NULL} | Select Identity
foreach($SG in $ReplicatedSG) {
if((Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus $SG.Identity -StandbyMachine $SCR).SummaryCopyStatus -ne “Healthy”){
$MessageBody += Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus $SG.Identity -StandbyMachine $SCR | Select Identity,SummaryCopyStatus,CopyQueueLength,ReplayQueueLength LastInspectedLogTime,ServiceDown,Failed,Suspend
}
}
if($MessageBody -ne $NULL){
Send-Email $rcpt $SMTP $MessageBody
}
}Check-SCR $MailboxServer $SCRTarget $SMTPServer $EmailRcpt
Do you store PSTs on your file server? This is a fairly common issue that most people either aren’t aware of or don’t care about for some reason. If you ask me it’s A Bad Thing that should be avoided at all costs. Microsoft has a KB article on this and I’ve copied and pasted a few choice sections out of it below…
The .pst files are not meant to be a long-term, continuous-use method of storing messages in an enterprise environment.
Other Behaviors of .pst Files over WAN/LAN Links
- All operations take longer.
- Write operations can take approximately four times longer than read operations.
- Outlook has slower performance than the Exchange Client.
When you store .pst files, shares may stop responding. This behavior may cause several client-side problems, such as causing Outlook to stop responding or freezing desktops on client computers. Queuing in the Server service work queues is what causes this temporary condition. The Server service uses work items, such as a request to extend a .pst file, to handle I/O requests that come in over the network. These work items are queued in the Server service work queues. From there, they are handled by the Server service worker threads. The work items are allocated from a kernel resource that is called the nonpaged pool (NPP). The Server service sends these I/O requests to the disk subsystem. If, for reasons that are mentioned above, the disk subsystem does not respond in time, the incoming I/O requests are queued by using work items in the server work queues. Because these work items are allocated from the NPP, this resource eventually runs out. Running out of NPP causes systems to eventually stop responding and to log event ID 2019.
Consider one more scenario that is not specifically called out in the KB: real world file server performance. If you have 400 users with 1GB PST files located on a single file server what happens when they all come in at 8AM and load up Outlook? Outlook is going to try to load the entire PST at once and your file server is going to be asked to deliver 400GB of data to 400 users simultaneously. Yet again, A Bad Thing. These are obviously make believe numbers but hopefully you get the idea.
Microsoft makes a few recommendations in the KB, all of which are feasible, but I would add a big one that is becoming more popular daily – Archiving. I’ll write another post that covers some archiving options in the coming weeks but until then know that it allows you to move your user’s older and less frequently accessed e-mail to slower, cheaper storage with minimal impact to the user experience. It also allows you to provide a “bottomless mailbox” as far as your users are concerned as they will never hit their quotas if your policies are designed properly.
[ LINK ] to Q297019 – Personal folder files are unsupported over a LAN or over a WAN link
With the release of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, a virtualized Exchange 2007 SP1 server is no longer restricted to the realm of the lab; it can be deployed in a production environment and receive full support from Microsoft. This past August, we published our support policies and recommendations for virtualizing Exchange, but many people have asked us to go beyond that guidance and weigh-in on the more philosophical question: is virtualization is a good idea when it comes to Exchange?
Due to the performance and business requirements of Exchange, most deployments would benefit from deployment on physical servers. However, there are some scenarios in which a virtualized Exchange 2007 infrastructure may allow you to realize real benefits in terms of space, power, and deployment flexibility. Presented here are sample scenarios in which virtualization may make sense, as well as checklists to help you evaluate whether the current load on your infrastructure makes it a good candidate for virtualization.
via You Had Me At EHLO… : Should You Virtualize Your Exchange 2007 SP1 Environment?.
1. Start the Exchange Management Console.
2. In the console tree, click the Recipient Configuration node.
3. In the action pane, click New Mailbox. The New Mailbox wizard appears.
4. On the Introduction page, click User Mailbox, and then click Next.
5. On the User Type page, click New User, and then click Next.
6. On the User Information page, complete the following fields:
· Organizational unit By default, the New Mailbox wizard displays the Users container in Active Directory. To change the default organizational unit (OU), click Browse, and then select the OU you want.
· First name Type the first name of the user. This field is optional.
· Initials Type the initials of the user. This field is optional.
· Last name Type the last name of the user. This field is optional.
· Name By default, this field is populated with the user’s first name, initials, and last name. You can modify the name in this field.
· User logon name (User Principal Name) Type the name that the user will use to log on to the mailbox. The user logon name consists of a user name and a suffix. Typically, the suffix is the domain name in which the user account resides.
· User logon name (pre-Windows 2000) Type the user name for the user that is compatible with the legacy versions of Microsoft Windows (prior to the release of Windows 2000 Server). This field is automatically populated based on the User logon name (User Principal Name) field. This field is required.
· Password Type the password that the user must use to log on to his or her mailbox.
· Confirm password Retype the password that you entered in the Password field.
· User must change password at next logon Select this check box if you want the user to reset the password.
7. Click Next.
8. On the Mailbox Settings page, complete the following fields:
· Alias By default, this field is populated based on the User logon name (User Principal Name) of the user. You can modify the alias in this field. If the user logon name contains any characters that are not valid for the alias field, they will be replaced by underscore characters (_). The alias cannot exceed 64 characters and must be unique in the forest.
· Mailbox database Click Browse to open the Select Mailbox Database dialog box. This dialog box lists all the mailbox databases in your Exchange organization. By default, the mailbox databases are sorted by name. You can also click the title of the corresponding column to sort the databases by storage group name or server name. Select the mailbox database you want to use, and then click OK.
· Managed folder mailbox policy To specify a messaging records management (MRM) policy, select this check box, and then click Browse to select the MRM mailbox policy to be associated with this mailbox. For example, use this option if you want this mailbox to adhere to an MRM policy such as the retention period for the mailbox data. To learn more about managed folder mailbox policies, see Understanding Messaging Records Management. This is an optional field.
· Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policy To specify an Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policy, select this check box, and then click Browse to select the Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policy to be associated with this mailbox. To learn more about Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policies, see Understanding Exchange ActiveSync Mailbox Policies. This is an optional field.
9. Click Next.
10. On the New Mailbox page, review the Configuration Summary. To make any configuration changes, click Back. To create the new mailbox, click New.
11. On the Completion page, the Summary states whether the mailbox was successfully created. The summary also displays the Exchange Management Shell command that was used to create the mailbox.
12. Click Finish.
Courtesy of http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998197.aspx
Michael B. Smith posted a good article on VSS and Exchange recently. If you’re an Exchange admin it’s definitely worth the read.
The Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) was originally added to Windows Server 2003. The first version of Exchange Server to support VSS was Exchange Server 2003. The primary reason for the existence of VSS is to improve the performance of backup operations. VSS is only available for NTFS volumes.
I will not cover specific implementation details here, but concepts; some of those concepts will be specific to NTFS and Exchange specific and some will be general to VSS.
via Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) and Exchange – The Basics – Michael’s meanderings….
I’ve decided to take a slightly different approach with my tech consolidation. Instead of Windows Home Server I’m going to consolidate my multiple boxes down to a single SBS 2008 box EDIT: plus whatever else I need for my studies. Not exactly sure of the path I’m going to take yet. My current systems are deployed as (1) DC/File/Print (DIONYSUS), (1) Exchange 2007 (HERMES) & (1) Debian Linux box that doesn’t do anything anymore. For the whole process I’m thinking something along the lines of this;
Let me know anything I’m obviously missing. It’s been a long time since I’ve done much with SBS so I’m sure there is something I’m not thinking of.
I’ve got a large selection of movies from DVDs I’ve ripped (yes, I own them all) that are currently served to the Tivo by DIONYSUS using pyTivo (highly recommended btw). I’m going to leave those movies on BRAVO, install pyTivo there and call it good. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with HERMES but I’ll figure something out eventually.
Interesting tool, sounds like Lucid8 has created a wrapper around eseutil and isinteg — both of which I recommend against. There are some interesting statements in their FAQs, I’ve linked the one that I find the most laughable below. Running eseutil /d is not exactly the most difficult task on the planet…
Has anyone ever used these tools before?
Using Microsoft tools, it is possible to create a manual Exchange Server maintenance process yourself, however, keep in mind that this requires in-depth study of the MS tools and exhaustive testing. More importantly, when manually executed the maintenance process is often incomplete and/or executed improperly which can cause data destruction with devastating results that cuts across the entire organization. To create a manual process you would need to do the following;
via Automated Microsoft Exchange maintenance, repair & recovery from GOexchange.
Definitely a must read for Exchange admins.
The larger the organization the less it seems that the Exchange Administrators talk to or work with the Active Directory Administrators. This is usually a two-way street. This lack of understanding can severely impact your Exchange environment. The purpose of this blog post is to educate YOU the Exchange Administrator on what you need to understand about Active Directory (AD), a few AD basics, and a few tips. Hopefully this knowledge will allow you to proactively talk to your AD Administrator(s). It would be great if you read this before you implemented Exchange Server 2007, but we can’t have it all, can we? Finally, I hope by the end you will understand why we need Active Directory (we already know they need us – everyone needs email right?).
via You Had Me At EHLO… : Why you need Active Directory for Exchange Server 2007.