Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Rollup 7 Released

Ehlo All,

Microsoft released Exchange Server 2007 SP1 rollup 7 on March 18, 2009. I have not installed it yet, but plan to in the next 1-2 days. Windows restart is not necessary, and the update automatically restarts the necessary services. Also, this is ONLY for Exchange 2007 SP1, NOT Exchange 2007 RTM. There is a big difference between the 2 versions.

My blog posting about the difference between RTM and SP1 versions. Each has there own line of updates and there are not applicable to either. You will break your Exchange install if you load the wrong rollup on your version of Exchange. A colleague did that by mistake.

Enjoy,
-Ben

A $100,000 Question. Which Exchange 2007 roll-up is on your system?

Ehlo All,

So, how do you confirm which Exchange 2007 roll-up is on your system when running Windows 2008? Uninstall or change a program (formerly called Add/Remove Programs), nope! Exchange System Console, nope! Windows file version #'s, nope! Windows Update, nope! That'll only show you if an update is available. Microsoft didn't make it easy, but someone did. Answer is a very handy PowerShell script that Paul Flaherty wrote. You literally, just need to run it, and bang, it does it's magic and you have your answer. In 3 simple steps.

1) Download and unzip it here, let me know if it goes offline, and I'll post my copy. Unzip and copy to a directory (e.g. c:\temp)
2) open Exchange Management Shell, and cd to the directory with the script.
3) type the following in bold (inside the quotes and there is no space between the . & \ characters) ".\Get-ExchangeServerPlus.ps1"

Results will say:
[PS] C:\Temp>.\Get-ExchangeServerPlus.ps1
EX [Mailbox, ClientAccess, HubTransport] [Standard] 8.0.535.0
- 20081209: Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB952580)
8.1.311.3
- 20090212: Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB959241)
8.1.340.1
- 20081217: Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB953467)
8.1.336.1

Now you know which rollup you have.

Enjoy,
-Ben

Free Microsoft Internet Tool for Verifying Exchange is setup correctly

Ehlo All,

"Have you ever installed an Exchange server and wanted to verify your Internet facing services were setup and configured properly? Things like Exchange ActiveSync, AutoDiscover, Outlook Anywhere (RPC/HTTP), and inbound email." Well, the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog finally announced an Exchange testing website I used in a presentation months ago. It's a great time saver. It's called Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer (ExRCA) tool which can be accessed at https://www.TestExchangeConnectivity.com.

This is a great free resource. Available for:
- Exchange 2003
- Exchange 2007
- Windows Mobile 5
- Windows Mobile 6.1+

Enjoy,
-Ben

OT - Economics of watching TV with a DVR (aka TiVo Economics)

Ehlo All,

OT = off-topic from Exchange Server.

I am a big believer in efficiency, so when I saw this blog posting about the economics of watching TV with a DVR (e.g. lack of commercial, time shifting, etc), I couldn't help myself. I run a DVR from SnapStream called BeyondTV and it's the adult version of TiVo. Tons of features and runs on Windows. And yes, I have it email me alerts.

Enjoy
-Ben

Why you can't VM your Exchange 2007 UM Server!

Ehlo All,

This brief posting from Windows IT Pro explains why you can't VM (virtualize) your Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging role server. Otherwise, virtualize away assuming you have enough disk I/O for it.

-Ben

Exchange Server 2007 High Availability strategies explained

Ehlo All,

This is a good technical introduction article to Exchange 2007 HA options (SCR, LCR, CCR) and options with SANs written by Mark Arnold. Mark is a rock-star in the Exchange world and you can read more about him at the article link above. That's enough acronyms for one blog posting.

-Ben

SearchExchange Top 10 Tips for 2008

Ehlo All,

SearchExchange (of TechTarget) posts their top 10 tips for 2008 for Microsoft Exchange Server (primarily 2007) article. I would call it 5 tips, but there are 10 listed. :-)

-Ben

Need to copy an .edb/.stm, use eseutil, it's a lot faster!

Ehlo All,

This from msexchange.org, an interesting article about how it's a lot faster to copy .edb/.stm's using the eseutil copy. In their test, 400% faster. No more robocopy/xcopy commands, or copy/paste. How can it do it, it has to do with an I/O buffering technique which eseutil is better at not using it. Yes, not using it.

-Ben

My Grand Plans for the EhloTech Blog....

Ehlo All,

I've decided, that it's more important for me and others to share more of the Exchange Server related news I read about than to create original content. There's too much information already out there, so better I expand it's reach. So, I'm going to start posting shorter and make it more of a clearing house for Exchange Server related news (a la /. style). This should be a win-win for all.

I also changed the layout and many of the fonts. If folks don't like them, let me know.

I'm also considering letting others post Exchange Server related news at some point in the future.

-Ben

Microsoft's Support Policy on VMware Virtualization

Ehlo All,

An attendee at our March NY Exchange User Group meeting asked about Microsoft's support policy on the industry leader of virtualization which is running at 100% of all Fortune 100 companies, VMware. There is a lot of fear, uncertainty, and doubt in this realm. So, let me make it crystal clear! Microsoft WILL SUPPORT VMware's SVVP (explained below) solution which is ESX 3.5 update 2. Microsoft virtualized support is for over 30+ server applications & operating systems as per KB ID 957006. Just to clarify, for Exchange 2003 & 2007 SP1 are supported.

Quoted from MS KB # 897615
Additionally, for vendors with whom Microsoft has established a support relationship that covers virtualization solutions, or for vendors who have Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) validated solutions, Microsoft will support server operating systems subject to the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy for its customers who have support agreements when the operating system runs virtualized on non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. This support will include coordinating with the vendor to jointly investigate support issues. As part of the investigation, Microsoft may still require the issue to be reproduced independently from the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. Where issues are confirmed to be unrelated to the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software, Microsoft will support its software in a manner that is consistent with support provided when that software is not running together with non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software.

VMware's Exchange support information for ISV support.

VMware Press Release about ESX 3.5 update 2 support Exchange, SQL, SharePpint, and more. They even quote a 50k seat install on ESX with Exchange by the University of Plymouth in England.

Just to be clear, make sure your issue is non-virtualization related. e.g. not performance or other, and more a configuration or those types of problems. If you have an I/O issue, it could easily be a VM issue, so make sure those subsystems working well and you're 100% sure it's not VM related.

Now, you know the real story behind Microsoft support for virtualization and you can now rest easy. Or the other solution is to have a very good back process running on non-virtualized hardware. That's what I do. Sleep is over-rated.

-Ben

Microsoft Addresses a MAJOR Issue I have with Exchange 2007's OWA

Ehlo All,

I heard great news last week that addresses the reduced set of functionality in Exchange 2007's Outlook Web Access. Exchange 14's OWA will be support 3 browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. I did a triple-take when I read it the first time. Y-E-S. 3 browsers supported in E14's OWA. No decision on which platform for these browsers since they are dual platform apps.

I actually lost functionality in upgrading to the latest greatest version of Exchange 2007 from 2003. OWA Basic in 2003 supported access to Public Folders, in OWA Lite (aka Basic mode), access disappeared. Thankfully enough people complained that Microsoft is planning according to a Exchange rockstar Paul Robichaux, aka Exchange MVP. You can read the full article by Paul here & his reference to the MS blog that announced this amazing information.

I'll definitely be upgrading to E14 when it's released. And adios to ActiveX for OWA. There won't be a wet eye in my house for this loss.

-Ben

Easy access to .edb/.stm files via Ontrack PowerControls

Ehlo All,

So, I recently upgraded to Exchange 2007, and realized one day I might need access to my old Exchange 2003 data. Even though I performed move mailboxes for most accounts, I didn't did it for all. I figured, I should save the databases, .edb & .stm files "just in case". Well, the "just in case" time came almost one month later after my upgrade.

So, while I run AppAssure's MailRetriever which is designed to mount offline Exchange 2003/2007 databases, it's at my datacenter and I had the .edb/.stm files at my home office. I considered transfering the files, but they are close to 40GBs, so I decided to test out under a virtual machine Ontrack's PowerControls. So, I fired up my handy VMware Workstation 6.5 & XP Pro w/Office 2003 and mounted over a 100Mb network via UNC/drive the folder share containing the files. Once mapping to a drive letter, the .edb/.stm files quickly and easily exported the data (some task items) to a PST. Opening the 23GB .edb w/o logs took about 15 seconds which was mindblowing which was OVER a network connection. I then tested the PST data in Outlook which looked good and compressed it and emailed the 1.3Mb off to the user that needed it. That's it. It was so easy, I was shocked. It literally took me maybe 10 minutes if that long.

Overall, Ontrack's PowerControls software package is very impressive.

-Ben