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July 2006 Entries
Another reason to evaluate Exchange 2007 on x64 if you can

The first reason, of course, is to get experience on the actual hardware -- being able to load up uber-amounts of RAM and see the performance improvements first-hand. If that doesn't convince you, though, try this.

but if you run the Exchange 2007 beta 2 installers, you'll see that the Setup application links you to specific pre-requisite programs -- the .NET 2.0 framework, MMC 3.0, and the Monad (I mean "Powershell") bits. The MMC link takes you to a web page from which you can download both x86 or x64 versions separately, but the Monad link takes you directly to the downloadable executable (which looks to be a pre-release build of Monad). This is a minor problem for me; because of how often I find myself building out VMs, I like to get all of my pre-requisite software downloaded ahead of time and then combined into a custom ISO image I create. Since I'm not running a 64-bit version of Windows, I can't run the x64 installer, and thus can't get the URL for the 64-bit version of the Monad shell Exchange wants to use.

The truly interesting bit, though, is captured in the following screenshot:

Install Forefront Security for Exchange

If you click that link, it takes you here: the System Requirements page for the "Forefront Security for Exchange Server Beta" product, in essence the next generation of the Antigen product (the message hygiene technology acquired from Sybari). I got really excited for a minute until I noticed the text "Beta version not available" under the "32-bit Trial" heading. Le sigh.

Learn more about the Forefront line of products and services at the Forefront home page. I didn't see a separate announcement through other channels; I'm somewhat surprised.

posted @ Monday, July 24, 2006 2:00 PM | Feedback (1)
First impressions on Exchange 2007 beta 2

I haven't had time to install it yet (the downloads are still running), but I'm reading through the documentation and release notes and wanted to point out a couple of items. Some of these I already knew (or guessed), some were open questions, and some were just new. In no particular order:

  • Support for 32-bit support -- Yes, 32-bit support is included, but is not supported on production environments; it's there for test and training, which often rely on virtual server technology. This implies that it will be this way for the release.
  • Support for management on Windows XP/32-bit Windows -- "You can install the Exchange Management Tools (which include the Exchange Management console, the Exchange Management Shell, and the Exchange Help file) on a computer with a 32-bit processor running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP."

    Huzzah!
  • Free Exchange 2007 e-learning -- for a limited time, Microsoft Learning is offering free e-learning courses..
  • CAS co-exists with other ASP.NET apps -- apparently they're expecting folks to install the CAS role on web servers with other apps, because the release notes tell you how to fix ASP.NET version breakage that might happen (Exchange 2007 uses ASP.NET 2.0).
  • Fiddly bits with CAS install order -- Read the release notes closely for all the caveats on when you need to install/uninstall the CAS role on a machine. Depending on the install order and which other roles are installed, you amy or may not get the right DLLs registered to handle DAV requests and thus break stuff.
  • Incompatiable with the SCW -- Not a huge surprise, since Exchange 2007 architecture is so different than Exchange 2003, but still something to be aware of.
  • x64 hotfixes and issues -- Again, not a huge surprise. In an unrelated project, I've seen some weird glitches with Windows Server 2003 x64, so finding out that it has known problems with CDOEX and ExOLEDB is not shocker to me.
  • English-only speech recognition -- Hey, it's a beta. They've done an damned impressive job of supporting a large variety of other languages (something like 47!! OWA languages), but it's still a beta and you can't have everything included.
  • No PF management in the EMC -- The Exchange Management Console (EMC) is the successor to the ESM. It contains no GUI for PF management; you can use ESM if you still have Excahnge 2003 servers, or you can take the plunge and learn the Monad (ugh, "Powershell") way of doing things.
  • Folder quota issues -- This one is so odd, I'm just going to quote it verbatim.

    "Exchange 2007 allows a quota to be set on individual managed custom folders as part of the messaging records management feature set. Currently, Exchange 2007 prevents a quota from being set on a managed folder that contains content. If you want to set a quota on a managed custom folder before it is deployed or think that you may do so in the future, you must set a quota at the time that the folder is empty.

    You may set this quota to its maximum value (2,097,151 KB) so that it will not interfere with your users' daily work habits. This quota must remain on the folder for that folder to be eligible to have a quota in the future, or until you install a version of Exchange in which this issue has been resolved. If you remove the quota before the fix for this issue is applied, you will never be able to set a quota on this folder even if you upgrade to a build where this issue has been fixed."

    Managed folders are a huge DCAR feature, so this is an interesting issue and yet another reason why the "don't install it in production" warning is such a good one. I really hope this is fixed by RTM, as I suspect it will be.

  • Multi-domain topology weirdness -- Ugh. Good luck using CAS with a multi-domain topology. Specifically, good luck using the Set-CASMailboxPolicy cmdlet. And remember, since the EMC sits on top of the Exchange Management Shell and uses the various cmdlets to do the heavy lifting, this means you can't do it via the GUI either.
  • Lots of other assorted client access issues -- read the release notes. Yup, it's a beta.
  • Check your SMTP settings -- on servers with the Hub role, you can't perform anonymous SMTP by default. I bet this one is going to bite a lot of people.
  • EdgeSync and new Hub servers -- Apparently, once you create an EdgeSync subscription, new Hub servers won't participate in that subscription. The fix? Remove all the subs and redo them. Ugh. I hope this is fixed come RTM.
  • EdgeSync ports hardcoded -- Again, I hope this is fixed by RTM. I can't think of a reason why I'd need to change their default values, but that doesn't mean that someone out there won't have a good one.
  • CCR/LCR guidance -- Lots of guidance here, and since these are new Exchange features, read everything you can about them (including the release notes) before using them. Remember that CCR requires the Microsoft Shared Cluster Services, which means that all of the machines have to be on the same subnet.
  • Turn on the transport dumpster for CCR -- it's off by default. See Set-TransportConfig for more details.
  • MOM strangeness -- Apparently, you have to import the MOM management pack before using it. The release notes contain more info.
  • Keep your help files on the local computer -- the default security settings prevent the display of .chm files on file shares, so you'll get "Page not found" errors when you open up help files across network shares.
  • Mix and match admin consoles -- In short, don't do it, unless they tell you otherwise (public folders). Bad things can happen. In fact, EMC won't administer downlevel servers other than documented tasks.
  • E-mail message attachments cause NDR -- "Currently, messages with e-mail message attachments fail to send with a non-delivery report (NDR). This issue occurs for plain text, RTF, and HTML e-mail messages. There is currently no work around for this issue. This issue will be fixed for RTM.".

    Wow. I can't believe this one survived into Beta.

  • Beta better together -- If you're using Outlook 2007, you need to use Outlook 2007 beta 2, not earlier versions, which are not compatible.
  • CheckInvalidRecipients.msh -- run this script to find and fix invalid recipient objects.
  • Don't rely on the "Change password at next logon" setting in EMC -- although you can create user accounts in EMC, this setting won't work. It doesn't say whether it's a GUI issue or a problem with the underlying cmdlet. I'm going to guess the former, because that's a pretty big issue with managing users in Monad if it's the latter.

Wow. It's a whole new world of Exchange. Even though we still have Active Directory and don't require the ADC to move from Exchange 2000/2003 to 2007, this is going to be (in my mind) as big of a sea change as the move from 5.5 to 2000 was. I'm looking forward to it. As always, if you have thoughts or questions, send 'em on in and I'll see if I can't track down the answers.

posted @ Monday, July 24, 2006 9:14 AM | Feedback (3)
Exchange 2007 beta 2 is now available!

Beta 2 (the first public beta) of Exchange Server 2007 is now available! As usual, the Exchange team blog gives you all the details of where to get it. Note that you are still not encouraged to install it in production (and if you do, you won't be supported by Microsoft unless you have done so at their direction). But if you're at all thinking about Exchange 2007, get the beta and play with it.

posted @ Monday, July 24, 2006 7:02 AM | Feedback (0)
DCAR ebook Chapter 5: Implementation part 2: Hardware and Software

Chapter 5, Implementation part 2: Hardware and Software, of my ebook on DCAR (Discovery, Compliance, Archival, and Retention) is now available for download. This ebook is published online by Windows IT Pro. This was a fun chapter to write, because I finally got to discuss some of the technical issues.

All five chapters are a free download away (registration required) so please go download and enjoy. I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback. By no strange coincidence, I just turned Chapter 6 (the final chapter) into my editor last night, so it won't be too long before the entire ebook is available! For those of you who have been following along since Chapter 1, thanks for your patience.

posted @ Monday, July 17, 2006 5:40 PM | Feedback (0)
Coming Soon

Got a few posts coming up that I wanted to let you know about. I'm coming off a long dry spell, and I've got a nice backlog of material that I need to get busy blogging!

First, I just got my shipment notification for the FastTrack™ CBT Video Labs (USB 2.0 External Hard Drive). One of my goals this year has been to finally get my MCSE certification; when I was doing pure administration, it wasn't as important, but now that I'm doing more writing and speaking I've had a couple of people ask me about it. I guess the perception is that if they're not really that hard, why should you (the reader/audience) take someone as an authority when they haven't bothered to get certified? Good question. I've heard good things about the FastTrack videos and I've really liked the demo clips I've looked at, so I'm going to check these out -- and of course, I'll be blogging about them as I go. Second, I owe Addison-Wesley some reviews of books they sent me back over the holidays. (Sorry, AW!) I'll be getting those coming along soon. Finally, I've got a treasure trove of Exchange tips and tricks bookmarked away. I'll start dribbling these out over the next couple of days.

So brace yourself for a flood of blog goodness!

posted @ Monday, July 17, 2006 5:34 PM | Feedback (0)
Community Server 2.1 Beta 1 is released

Get it here. They've got both .NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0 versions, so whichever flavor of .NET you're using, you can check out the beta.

A note from personal experience: don't install this on a production site unless you're willing to spend a lot of time keeping up with it to get it ugpraded through the rest of the beta versions to the RTM. Play with it, find bugs, get used to it, but wait until the RTM to go live with it.

posted @ Friday, July 14, 2006 11:45 AM | Feedback (0)
Even MORE distraction value!

Things have been somewhat busy around here lately as I've been trying to wrap up a major project (which is why I haven't been blogging much). That is, for the most part, over -- so let's jump back posting as I start clearing out this backlog of things I want to blog!

First up, hot off the presses: Yahoo! and Microsoft Bridge Global Instant Messaging Communities. Two days ago, Microsoft and Yahoo! began beta testing of interop between the MSN/Windows Messenger cloud and the Yahoo! Instant Messenger cloud. It's not available by default -- you have to sign up for the beta, so if you're interested, follow the link and find the signup URLs.

posted @ Friday, July 14, 2006 11:00 AM | Feedback (0)
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