Exchange Server Pro » News

I’m on the Coalface Tech Podcast

Paul Cunningham — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:31:07 +0000

Just over a week ago I recorded an interview with Mick and Chris from the Coalface Tech podcast, and they’ve now published the first part online.

In this podcast we talk about some of the rumours around the upcoming Exchange 15, going into a bit more detail about the leaks and observations I published in this recent post.

You can listen to the interview here.

Thanks again to Mick and Chris for having me as a guest, it was a lot of fun.

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Update Rollup 2 for Exchange 2010 Service Pack 2

Paul Cunningham — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:59:54 +0000

Microsoft has released Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 SP2.

From the Microsoft Exchange Team blog:

Earlier today the Exchange CXP team released Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 SP2 to the Download Center.

This update contains a number of customer-reported and internally found issues since the release of SP2 RU1. See KB2661854: Description of Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 for more details.

Note: Some of the following KB articles may not be available at the time of publishing this post.

We would like to specifically call out the following fixes which are included in this release:

KB2696913 You cannot log on to Outlook Web App when a proxy is set up in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

KB2688667 High CPU in W3WP when processing recurrence items who fall on DST cutover

KB2592398 PR_INTERNET_MESSAGE_ID is the same on messages resent by Outlook

KB2630808 EwsAllowMacOutlook Setting Not Honored

KB2661277 Android/Iphones stuck with 451 during Cross forest proxy in datacenter

KB2678414 Contact name doesn’t display company if name fields are left blank

Note that this fix will not cause the CAS to CAS OWA proxying incompatibility with Exchange 2007 as discussed here. No additional updates are required on Exchange 2007 for proxying to work once Exchange 2010 SP2 RU2 is installed.

You can download Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 SP2 here.

Deploying Exchange Server 2010 SP2 Update Rollup 2

The standard order of deployment for Exchange Server updates applies.

Client Access servers, starting with the internet-facing ones. See this article for how to patch a CAS array.
Hub Transport and Edge Transport servers
Mailbox servers. See this article for how to patch a Database Availability Group.
Unified Messaging servers

You can also use Exchange MVP Andy Grogan’s RUPS tool to assist with the deployment.

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

Update Rollup 7 for Exchange 2007 Service Pack 3

Paul Cunningham — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:47:50 +0000

Microsoft has announced the release of Update Rollup 7 for Exchange Server 2007 SP3.

From the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog:

Earlier today the Exchange CXP team released Update Rollup 7 for Exchange Server 2007 SP3 to the Download Center.

This update contains a number of customer-reported and internally found issues since the release of SP3 RU6. See KB2655203: Description of Update Rollup 7 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3 for more details.

Note: Some of the following KB articles may not be available at the time of publishing this post.

We would like to specifically call out the following fixes which are included in this release:

KB2617514 Include updated version of Portuguese-Brazil speller.

KB2696649 Exchange 2007sp3/2010 OWA CSRF via Cookie Tossing.

KB2696628 Read Receipt is still duplicated when connecting IMAP.

Of particular note is this fix:

Note that this fix will resolve the CAS to CAS OWA proxying incompatibility with Exchange 2010 SP2 RU1 as discussed here.

Update Rollup 7 can be downloaded from Microsoft here.

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Windows 8 Mail Client and Exchange ActiveSync Policies

Paul Cunningham — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:58:33 +0000

With the release of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview many tech enthusiasts are installing and exploring the latest operating system from Microsoft today.

In his testing of the Windows 8 Mail client fellow Australian and PowerShell expert Chris Brown has discovered that it appears to use ActiveSync for mailbox connectivity, and support Exchange ActiveSync policies in the process.

: Windows 8 Mail client and Exchange ActiveSync policies

The first thing I did was hook up my personal Office365 account, this was completely seamless. I simply entered my username and password, then within 20 seconds I had an inbox full of email! This, of course, is due to the wonders of the AutoDiscover service built in to Exchange 2010. But this isn’t the most exciting bit. When I decided to connect my corporate Exchange account, I was shown this little message…

To me, this looks a lot like the native Mail client will support Exchange ActiveSync policies!

Check out the full post at Chris’ blog here.

Update: Dave Stork has dug a little deeper into the ActiveSync capabilities in Windows 8.

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Coming Soon: The Exchange Server 2010 ActiveSync Guide

Paul Cunningham — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:47:01 +0000

Its time to reveal to you what my next project is. Since late 2011 I’ve been slowly acquiring a few devices and mapping out ideas for the next ebook that I’ve been planning to write.

The working title is the Exchange Server 2010 ActiveSync Guide, and it will be an ebook on the topic of deploying mobile email access for small to mid-sized businesses using Exchange 2010.

We’re moving more and more towards a “bring your own device” world, especially when it comes to business staff who want access to their email when they are away from the office.

With so many people carrying smartphones around these days it makes a lot of sense to just let them use their own device to check their email.

The hard part is doing it efficiently, securely, and knowing what to do when things go bad.

Sure, there are third party solutions out there that solve some of the issues around device provisioning, data encryption, and administrative control. But they come at a price. And a lot of IT departments these days are running on extremely tight budgets already.

This is Where You Come In

I need your help. I could go ahead and write a guide to all the technical bits and pieces of Exchange 2010 ActiveSync. But I also want to solve your real world problems.

So if you have a few minutes to spare, I would appreciate it if you could answer this very brief survey.

>> Click Here to take the Survey <<

Thanks in advance. And I look forward to writing this guide and making it available to all of you.

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Update Rollup 1 for Exchange 2010 Service Pack 2

Paul Cunningham — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:19:22 +0000

Microsoft has released Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 SP2. From the MS Exchange Team blog:

We would like to specifically call out the following fixes which are included in this release:

New updates for Dec DST – Exchange 2010 – SP2 RU1 – Display name for OWA.

2616230 Exchange 2010 CAS server treats UTF-7 encoding NAMESPACE string from CHS Exchange 2003 BE server as ASCII, caused IMAP client fails to login.

2599663 RCA crashes when recipient data is stored in bad format.

2492082 Freebusy publish to Public Folders fails with 8207 event.

2666233 Manage hybrid configuration wizard won’t accept domains starting with a numeral for FOPE outbound connector FQDN.

2557323 ”UseLocalReplicaForFreeBusy” functionality needed in Exchange 2010.

2621266 Exchange 2010 Mailbox Databases not reclaiming space.

2543850 Exchange 2010 GAL based Outlook rule not filtering emails correctly.

Update 2621266 is of particular note for me as I know several customers who have struggled with database growth despite deploying archiving solutions.

You can download Update Rollup 1 for Exchange 2010 SP2 here.

Deploying Exchange Server 2010 SP2 Update Rollup 1

The standard order of deployment for Exchange Server updates applies.

Client Access servers, starting with the internet-facing ones. See this article for how to patch a CAS array.
Hub Transport and Edge Transport servers
Mailbox servers. See this article for how to patch a Database Availability Group.
Unified Messaging servers

You can also use Exchange MVP Andy Grogan’s RUPS tool to assist with the deployment.

Known Issues with Exchange Server 2010 SP2 Update Rollup 1

Microsoft quickly released a follow up blog post to highlight an issue with UR1 and CAS to CAS proxy scenarios.

If you are affected, it is important to note that this issue is temporary and will exist only until all of the CAS involved in the CAS-to-CAS proxy process are updated to Exchange 2010 SP2 RU1. Thus, if you are affected by this problem, simply deploy SP2 RU1 on the relevant Exchange 2010 servers and the issue no longer exists.

If you use CAS-to-CAS proxy between Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007, we will have an interim update (IU) for Exchange 2007. Availability of the IU will be announced on this blog.

Get more Exchange Server tips at ExchangeServerPro.com

Update Rollup 6 for Exchange 2007 SP3 Released

Paul Cunningham — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:36:01 +0000

Microsoft has announced the release of Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3.

From the Microsoft Exchange Team blog:

This update contains a number of customer-reported and internally found issues since the release of RU5. See KB 2608656: Description of Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3′ for more details.

We would like to specifically call out the following fixes which are included in this release:

DST Cadence Release for Dec 2011 – Exchange 2007

22656040 An Exchange Server 2007 Client Access server may respond slowly or stop responding when users try to synchronize the Exchange ActiveSync devices with their mailboxes

2498852 ”0×80041606″ error message when you perform a prefix search by using Outlook in online mode in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

22653334 The reseed process is unsuccessful on the SCR passive node when the circular logging feature is enabled in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

22617784 Journal reports are expired or lost when the Microsoft Exchange Transport service is restarted in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

2289607 The week numbers displayed in OWA do not match the week numbers displayed in Outlook for English users and French users in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

Update Rollup 6 can be downloaded here.

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Google Discontinues Message Continuity

Paul Cunningham — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:29:55 +0000

Google has announced that they are discontinuing Google Message Continuity.

Google Message Continuity (Source: http://www.google.com/postini/continuity.html)

Originally launched as a disaster recovery and business continuity solution for Microsoft Exchange customers it received a lukewarm reception from Exchange admins, and according to a Google blog post did not see significant uptake.

In December 2010 we launched an email disaster recovery product for enterprise customers that use Google’s cloud to back up emails originally sent or received in an on-premise, Microsoft Exchange system. In the time since we launched, we’ve seen hundreds of businesses sign up for it. By comparison, in that same time, we’ve seen millions of businesses move entirely to the cloud with Google Apps, benefitting from disaster recovery capabilities built directly into Apps. Going forward we’ve decided to focus our efforts on Google Apps and end support for GMC.

Exchange 2010 Boot Camp Update

Paul Cunningham — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:32:12 +0000

I wanted to give you an update on how things are going with the Exchange 2010 Boot Camp. Since I last mentioned it here I’ve been overwhelmed by the response. At last count 831 people from all over the world have registered their interest in this online training. To me that is just amazing.

So, here are a few new bits of information about the Exchange 2010 Boot Camp.

I’m going to open up registrations on Thursday 26th at 10:00am AEST (that’s GMT+10:00). An email will be sent out to everyone who registered their interest.
The first set of registrations will be limited to 50 people. Don’t panic if you don’t get in the first time, I’m just limiting it in case of any technical issues with the website or other bits and pieces involved.
If all goes well for a few days I will open up registrations again and send another email to let you know.

In the mean time I’ve created this quick video to show you what the site looks like right now, so you know what to expect.

If you still haven’t registered you can head over to the Exchange 2010 Boot Camp site now and join the waiting list.

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Register Your Interest for the Exchange 2010 Boot Camp

Paul Cunningham — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:00:35 +0000

You can skip the back story and sign up for free here.

Earlier today I tweeted a brief message to see if anybody was interested in an Exchange 2010 online training course that I’m calling the Exchange 2010 Boot Camp.

There was a very strong response with a lot of people immediately expressing their interest.

So I’ve already begun making preparations to create the training, but I need to know a little bit more about the people who are interested in attending so that I can design the right lessons for you. Even if you are a complete beginner I want to try and deliver training that will be useful for you.

The Exchange 2010 Boot Camp will be:

free to attend
delivered 100% online, so you can do the lessons from anywhere in the world at the times that suit you
delivered using videos/webinars, written lessons, and forums for interaction such as Q&A

If that sounds interesting to you and you’d like to know more please enter your email address in the form below to register your interest. You’ll be sent a brief survey to help me understand your training needs, as well as announcements when the boot camp is ready to start.

You can sign up for free here.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments below or get in touch with me using the contact form.

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Exchange Server Pro » News

I’m on the Coalface Tech Podcast

Related posts:

Update Rollup 2 for Exchange 2010 Service Pack 2

Deploying Exchange Server 2010 SP2 Update Rollup 2

Related posts:

Update Rollup 7 for Exchange 2007 Service Pack 3

Related posts:

Windows 8 Mail Client and Exchange ActiveSync Policies

Related posts:

Coming Soon: The Exchange Server 2010 ActiveSync Guide

This is Where You Come In

Related posts:

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange 2010 Service Pack 2

Deploying Exchange Server 2010 SP2 Update Rollup 1

Known Issues with Exchange Server 2010 SP2 Update Rollup 1

Related posts:

Update Rollup 6 for Exchange 2007 SP3 Released

Related posts:

Google Discontinues Message Continuity

Related posts:

Exchange 2010 Boot Camp Update

Related posts:

Register Your Interest for the Exchange 2010 Boot Camp

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