The Exchange team has updated the Exchange 2010 Mailbox Server Role requirements calculator. It’s now in the ver. 3.5.
Read Ross Smith’s latest post about the new version here.
Download the calculator here.
Monthly Archive for January, 2010
The Exchange CXP team has released Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2.
In addition to bug fixes reported by customers we have added new rules to the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer to check the health of your system. Starting this rollup, customers who wish to deploy the new BPA health rules to a server with no internet connection can do so by downloading the installing the update rollup on the server. Until Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2, updates to the BPA rules were available only via the web which meant customers wanting to deploy the new health check rules to servers not connected to the internet would have had to copy over the XML files manually. In Exchange 2007 SP2, we implemented a work item which allows us to ship updates to the BPA health check rules via the rollup and as well as via the traditional web based channel. More on this via a blog post in the near future.
KB972076 lists all the fixes included in this rollup, read more at the Exchange Teams blog and download the update here.
When using Security Configuration Wizard (SCW) on Windows Server 2008 SP2 together with Exchange 2007. You could run into an issue trying to register the Exchange 2007 profile for SCW.
Registering the SCW profile can be done using one of the following:
- - Register-ExchangeSCW.ps1 –register
- - scwcmd register /kbname:Ex2007KB /kbfile:”%programfiles%\Microsoft\Exchange Server\scripts\Exchange2007_WinSrv2008.xml”
The error is logged in the MSSCW log file and states something like:
0×80070057
The specified OS version does not match with the version that is defined in the KBRegistration.xml file.
The parameter is incorrect.
The reason for the above error is that the OS level is hardcoded into the SCW XML files used to register the SCW profile.
To correct the error above, open the SCW XML file, it should look like:
<SCWKBRegistrationInfo OSMajorVersion=”6″ OSMinorVersion=”0″ ServicePackMajorVersion=”1″ ServicePackMinorVersion=”0″>
Change the ServicePackMajorVersion to 2, so it looks like:
<SCWKBRegistrationInfo OSMajorVersion=”6″ OSMinorVersion=”0″ ServicePackMajorVersion=”2” ServicePackMinorVersion=”0″>
The Exchange team has released the ExLogAnalyzer, it’s an enhancement of a bunch of VB scripts released earlier for creating reports based on the message tracking logs. It looks like a cool tool, which can come handy in a lot of scenarios.
The main shift in this model, compared to the previous script, is that ExLogAnalyzer is built as a framework that can be used to analyze Exchange as well as possibly any other log format.
ExLogAnalyzer is now released to the community and here’s a few examples of what it can analyze/report:
- Generates the top 1000 senders based on mailbox deliveries. Messages to the internet are not counted.
- Provides an understanding of the message size distribution.
- Discover and summarize recipients for which "Recipient Not Found" error was generated.
- Generates a directed graph showing the server being analyzed and all the inbound / outbound mail flow paths.
- Analyzes the latencies of the different components and determines the latencies experienced by the specified percentiles of messages.
- Analyzes the SMTP receive work load over time while tracking tarpitting, client time outs, etc.
- An analyzer that samples the connections over time. This analyzer generates a CSV file per source (e.g. SMTP or MAPI).
- An analyzer that provides the frequency of sessions, failed and DNS failures per source + destination combination.
Just to name a few, read more at the Exchange team blog and download here.
The Form Based Authentication page for OWA, can be modified on the ISA 2006 (or TMG) server. Fellow Exchange 2007 MCM Kay Sellenrode has made a cool tool to modify the FBA page.
I have created a tool that a lot of ISA/TMG users will like.
It is a Simple tool to edit the Forms Based Authentication page and make it different than what’s default.
Read more at Key’s blog and get the tool here.
HP has released their sizing tool for Exchange 2010. This successor to the Exchange 2007 Sizing tool does recommendations for deployment and sizing of servers and storage and includes a (HP) bill of materials. The tool supports multi-site deployments, Database Availability Groups (DAG), DAS or or SAN-based storage and high availability and client options.
As with the 2007 version it uses a combination of technical and business requirements and projects best practices for high available Exchange configurations (when applicable). The tool can update itself and the product information it uses.
This tool can be used as a good guideline together with Microsoft’s own Exchange 2010 Mailbox Server Role Requirements Calculator.
You can download the HP Sizer for Exchange Server 2010 here.
The OCS team has now made a Remote Connectivity Analyzer, like we know from Exchange. The tool is a great way of verifying that your remote access is configured properly.
The Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer is a great tool for performing testing, troubleshooting, and diagnostics on OCS 2007 & OCS 2007 R2 deployments. The tool will assist you in finding answers to the before mentioned scenarios. You should use the RCA as your initial stop when attempting to troubleshoot an OCS edge server connectivity issue.
The Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer is a web site for IT Administrators to validate and diagnose end-to-end Office Communications Server scenarios. The site simulates multiple Office Communications Server client access scenarios from outside the customer’s infrastructure and reports whether the test was successful. If the test fails, we inform the IT Admin exactly where in the process it failed as well as provide troubleshooting tips on resolving the issue.
The OCS Remote Connectivity Analyzer is found here. Right now the tool is still a BETA release.
