Archive for March, 2009

Mar

2009

Move a Information Store to another Exchange 2007 Server

Mailbox data isn’t specific to any one server. Why should access to this data be? This is the reason behind the Database Portability feature, enabling a mailbox database to be mounted on any server in the same forest. In earlier Exchange versions, such an object could only be mounted in an RSG (Recovery Storage Group). Only mailbox databases are portable. Public Folder data should be moved by replication, not file copy.

Database Portability cuts disaster recovery restore time:

1) Run eseutil /r <Enn> to commit all logs and put database into clean shutdown state.
<Enn> specifies the log file prefix for the storage group that contains the database into which you intend to replay the log files. The log file prefix specified by <Enn> is a required parameter for Eseutil /r. You can run the following Exchange Management Shell command to determine the log file prefix of a storage group:
Get-StorageGroup <Server_Name>\<StorageGroup_Name> | fl LogFilePrefix

2) Select a storage group on the replacement server and create the required database.
(Note: make sure the Storage Group and the Database have the same name as previous configuration on the crashed server).
3) Enable: EMC > Server Configuration > Mailbox > Database Management > Properties > General > This database can be over written by restore. Or: Set-MailboxDatabase <Database Name> -AllowFileRestore:$true.
4) Move database files (edb & log files, Exchange Search catalog) to appropriate location on new server.
5) Mount database.
6) Run Move-Mailbox -ConfigurationOnly — so accounts in AD will point to mailboxes on the replacement machine.
Get-Mailbox -Database <SourceDatabase> |where {$_.ObjectClass -NotMatch ‘(SystemAttendantMailbox|ExOleDbSystemMailbox)’}| Move-Mailbox -ConfigurationOnly -TargetDatabase <TargetDatabase>

After replication completes, when Outlook clients try to connect to their mail, the Autodiscover service will automatically redirect them to its new location.

Posted in Microsoft Exchange 2007 Server | No Comments »

Mar

2009

Performing maintenance on your Exchange 2007 database(s).

When you’ve an up and running Microsoft Exchange 2007 environment, you’ve to perform some maintenance on your databases after some time. You can use the tool ESEUTIL for this job. Let’s have a look on some commands.

1) Open the commandline
2) Type in eseutil /?
3) Choose the right switch

———————————————————————–
Checking your database integrity: (Note: make sure you’ve dismounted your database(s)!! )
eseutil /g “E:\Database\SG01\MD01.edb” /t “E:\TMP\TEMPINTEG.edb”

eseutil /g: tool with the check integrity option
“E:\Database\SG01\MD01.edb”: location of the database(s)
/t “E:\TMP\TEMPINTEG.edb”: location of the temperary database file

———————————————————————–

Repairing a corrupted or damaged database: (Note: make sure you’ve dismounted your database(s)!! )
eseutil /p “E:\Database\SG01\MD01.edb” /t “E:\TMP\TEMPREPAIR.edb”

eseutil /p: tool with the repair option
“E:\Database\SG01\MD01.edb”: location of the database(s)
/t “E:\TMP\TEMPREPAIR.edb”: location of the temperary database file

———————————————————————–

Offline defragmentation of a database: (Note: make sure you’ve dismounted your database(s)!! )
eseutil /d “E:\Database\SG01\MD01.edb” /t “E:\TMP\TEMPDEFRAG.edb”

eseutil /d: tool with the offline defragmentation option
“E:\Database\SG01\MD01.edb”: location of the database(s)
/t “E:\TMP\TEMPDEFRAG.edb”: location of the temperary database file

———————————————————————–

Posted in Microsoft Exchange 2007 Server | 2 Comments »

Mar

2009

How to: Migrate mailboxes from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 using ExMerge and PowerShell

When you have a up and running Exchange 2003 environment, and you want to migrate to an completely new Exchange 2007 environment, also with a new Active Directory, you can use the following tools to migrate the user mailboxes.

First of all we are gonna export the user mailboxes with ExMerge, after the export, we are gonna import the mailboxes with PowerShell. You can follow this article to provide the migration step by step.

I’ve installed an Microsoft Exchange 2003 Enterprise SP2 environment with 10 user mailboxes. I’ve also installed a Microsoft Windows XP workstation with Microsoft Office 2007.

The allias of the user is the same as the User Logon Name.

By default, the Administrators, Domain Admins and Enterprise Admins have deny permissions on the Information Store. Make sure you configure the right permissions, so you have access to the mailboxes for making the export with ExMerge.

1) right-click on your Exchange Server, choose Properties
2) go to the Security tab, hit Administrators (also do this for Domain Admins and Enterprise Admins)
3) Advanced, hit Allow inheritable….Copy
4) hit Administrators, allow Send As and Receive As (also do this for Domain Admins and Enterprise Admins)
5) Restart the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service.

Configure an MAPI profile for a user and generate some e-mail traffic. (e-mail, calendar items, tasks etc..)

Now we’re gonna export the user mailboxes with ExMerge.

In the next post, we’re gonna import the user mailboxes into the new Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP1 environment using PowerShell.

Posted in Microsoft Exchange 2007 Server | 6 Comments »

Mar

2009

Adding drivers into WinPE boot image (WIM-file) for use with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)

WinPE is the preinstallation environment which will mostly be used to load an OS onto a new system. This article will explain how to inject LAN drivers into WinPE, allowing you to deploy OS installations to a larger variety of hardware. You will need to have the Microsoft WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) installed to modify the image. WAIK provides the command line tools for working with WIM images, the image format used by Windows and WinPE.

Open the WinPE Command Prompt by Clicking Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft Windows AIK -> Windows PE Tools Command Prompt.

Create an empty folder which you will use to mount the WinPE image:

mkdir D:\mount

Locate your WinPE boot image. For example:
D:\RemoteInstall\Boot\LiteTouchPE_x86.wim

Mount the image using the following command, substituting your own mount path and WinPE image. (Note: each WIM file can contain multiple images, use the imagex /info command to locate the correct number for your boot image)
imagex /mountrw D:\RemoteInstall\Boot\LiteTouchPE_x86.wim 1 D:\mount

Locate the INF file for your network driver. Use the following command to inject the driver, subsituting your own driver INF and mount path.
peimg /inf=D:\<driverpath>\<driver>.INF /image=D:\mount

Commit the changes to the image.
imagex /unmount /commit D:\mount

Make sure you’ve a copy of the orriginal WIM file, so you can always replace a backup of this file.

Posted in MDT | 2 Comments »

Mar

2009

Exchange 2007 SP1 Rollup 7 is available

Update Roll-up 7 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 has been released. You can download it here.

As noted in previous posts, Exchange 2007 updates are cumulative and release-specific. This roll-up is for Exchange 2007 SP1, and supersedes all previous update roll-ups for Exchange 2007 SP1.

Update Roll-up 7 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 has 50 fixes, including important fixes for SCR and IMAP4 issues.

Fixes for the following issues are included (details in KB960384):
946449 A non-read report message is sent after you perform a “Mark All as Read” operation against unread e-mail messages in Exchange Server 2007

949113 Unexpected modified instances of a recurring meeting may appear when you use Entourage to access a calendar on a computer that is running Exchange Server 2007

949114 Duplicate calendar items may appear when you use Entourage to access a calendar on an Exchange 2007 server

949464 The customized properties are removed in the recipients’ calendars when you send a meeting request that includes customized properties

950115 When a CDO 1.2.1-based application generates a meeting request that includes some European characters in the message body, these characters appear as question marks in Exchange 2007

951341 Users cannot read calendar items when they connect Exchange Server 2007 by using certain IMAP4 or POP3 clients

952778 Event ID 9874 is frequently logged on Exchange Server 2007 with Service Pack 1

953094 The value in the “Messages queued for submission” performance counter on the mailbox role of Exchange Server 2007 increases after a meeting request is delivered

954213 All Test commands that are related to the Client Access Server fail when you run the commands on an Exchange 2007 server in a disjoint namespace

954741 The UseRUSServer parameter does not work if an administrator has specified an RUS server on a target mailbox server

954898 The LegacyExchangeDN attributes for mail-enabled objects are incorrectly set in an environment that contains Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007

955027 The Edgetransport.exe process may crash on a hub transport server that is running Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1

955462 You notice high CPU usage when the IMAP service is running on an Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 server that has the CAS role

955778 You receive a Non-Delivery Report (NDR) message when you send an e-mail message to a non-SMTP address in an Outlook client that is using Cached mode

956069 A Non-Delivery Report (NDR) is generated when an Exchange Server 2007 user tries to send a message to a recipient who has a one-off FAX address that includes any characters that are larger than 0xFF in Unicode

956205 Corrupted characters appear in the Subject field or in the Location field of a recurring calendar item after a user adds DBCS characters to a field in a meeting occurrence by using an Outlook 2002 client

956275 An Exchange 2007 sender’s address is split into two separate addresses when an external recipient replies to the message

956455 The display name appears in a received message even though the property of the user mailbox is set to “Hide from Exchange address lists” in Exchange Server 2007

956687 Messages stay in the submission queue after you enable per-mailbox database journaling in an Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007 coexisting environment

957019 Images cannot be pasted in an Exchange Server 2007 Outlook Web Access message body

957071 The MSExchange Transport service may crash intermittently on the Exchange 2007 server

957124 You do not receive an NDR message even though your meeting request cannot be sent successfully to a recipient

957227 The Exchange Management Console crashes when one or more domain controllers of a top-level domain are not reachable

957485 The Test-OwaConnectivity command returns a warning message in Exchange Server 2007 when there is a disjoint namespace

957504 The IMAP4 service crashes intermittently, and Event ID 4999 is logged on Exchange Server 2007

957683 An IP Gateway can still be used to dial out for a “Play on Phone” request after the IP Gateway is disabled

957834 Network shares are deleted and created intermittently by the replication service on an Exchange SCC cluster when SCR is enabled on the Exchange server

957947 The Exchange Information Store service may crash when an Entourage client synchronizes with an Exchange 2007 server

958091 You cannot update the task complete percentage to any value other than 0 or 100 in Outlook Web Access

958093 Voice mail messages are not stamped with the disclaimer that is defined in the transport rule in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

958128 Replication messages stay in a queue in a retry state after a public folder database is dismounted

958331 The Restore-StorageGroupCopy command may fail in an Exchange Server 2007 SCR environment

958444 Event 522 is logged when replication is resumed on a suspended Storage Group on an Exchange Server 2007 CCR or SCR environment

958472 An unexpected text string appears at the top of the message body when an Exchange Server 2007 user sends an HTML message by using Outlook Web Access

958552 The ByteEncoderTypeFor7BitCharsets setting does not take effect for the US ASCII character set after you install the hotfix that is mentioned in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 946641

958638 Exchange 2007 Server cannot parse X-Priority headers from clients that submit X-Priority headers that contain additional comments

958803 The EdgeTransport.exe process may stop responding in Exchange Server 2007 when the priority queuing feature is enabled

958872 The Map This Address feature in the contact page for an OWA client does not work in Exchange Server 2007

959100 Exchange Server 2007 cannot route e-mail messages to mail enabled Non-MAPI public folders that are hosted on an Exchange Server 2003 server

959135 Event 9673 occurs when the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service crashes on a computer that is running Exchange 2007 with Service Pack 1

959397 An increase in database size is generated unexpectedly when IMAP4 users use a Copy command in Exchange 2007

959434 The last logon time is not updated to reflect the logon times that have occurred after users log on to their mailboxes by using the Entourage client in an Exchange 2007 environment

959545 A redirection message in Outlook Web Access 2007 is incorrect when the message is translated to Korean

959671 The Manage Mobile Devices option is not displayed in Exchange Management Console after a mobile device re-synchronizes with an Exchange 2007 server

959952 The Set-Mailbox command does not change the AutomateProcessing attribute for an Exchange Server 2007 user when a regular user mailbox is converted from a room mailbox

960291 Outlook Web Access or an Exchange Web Service application does not correctly display a monthly or yearly recurring appointment or meeting request

960292 The MSExchangeIMAP4 service may crash intermittently after you apply an update rollup for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1

960349 The Exchange Information Store service may crash after you enable tracing for the logon actions

961281 An error is returned when you enable SCR from any source in a child domain after you install Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Rollup 5

961395 The Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging server does not update the caller information if an external user makes a call

Posted in Microsoft Exchange 2007 Server | No Comments »

Mar

2009

RES Workspace Extender…

Today i’ve installed a Terminal Server 2003 Environment with RES Powerfuse 2008. Some applications are not compatible for your Terminal Server environment, so there’s a nice solution for this applications, RES Workspace Extender.

RES Workspace Extender is a very usefull feature to enable applications not suitable for Server Based Computing (SBC) environments to integrate seamlessly into these environments anyway. You may already be familiar with the concept of Seamless Windows. This was an idea developed by Citrix back in the Metaframe days, to enable the client to spoof an remotely published app, running off a citrix box, to look like it was integrated into the local desktop. What the RES Workspace Extender does, is quite the opposite, hence the reverse reference: It makes a local application look like it’s part of a remote desktop, hence effectively turning a PC into a thin client with fat-client capabilities.

So let’s see the screenshots, so you can see the tool running in a live environment.

In my case the name of the terminal server is SRV-TRM01. As you can see, the application Winrar(for example, you can also use Windows Media Player or a CD/DVD burning application) is not installed on the terminal server. So let’s publish this application with RES Powerfuse using the tool RES Workspace Extender. I’ve installed a workstation called WS-XP01. I’ve installed the RES Workspace Extender and Winrar. You can see the RES Workspace Extender running in the system tray of the workstation.

The next step is to open the RES Powerfuse Management Console. Add a new application.

Make sure you enable the option Run as Workspace Extension (Yellow text). So let’s logon to the Terminal Server and as you can see there is our published application Winrar. When you start the application, and you take a look at the Windows Task Manager on the Terminal Server, you can see that there’s no proccess called winrar.exe, exactly that’s because the application is running local on your workstation!

The same for example Windows Media Player. As you can see, there’s no proccess called wmplayer.exe.

You can also see the difference between running Windows Media Player local or on the Terminal Server…so what is your choice??

Posted in RES Powerfuse | 4 Comments »

Mar

2009

How to: remote creating virtual machine on Hyper-V Server

Today I’ve installed a Microsoft Hyper-V Server. The installation of this server you can find in some other post on my blog, it’s almost a next next next installation. After the installation, there are a few options you must configure before you can manage your Hyper-V Server. The next step is to install a management server. I’ve choosen for a Microsoft Windows 2008 Server x64 for the remote management of my Hyper-V Server.

I’ve configured a second virtual hard disk for the Hyper-V Server, so lets make it available for storing my new virtual machines.

1) Open Management Console on the Management Server. (Start, Run, MMC)
2 ) Add/Remove snap-in, Disk Management
3) The following computer: 172.16.1.200
4) Create a new partition
5) Check if the new disk is succesfully created

Before you’re going to manage the Hyper-V Server, you must install a feature.

1) Open the Server Manager
2 ) Features, Add features
3) Remote Server Administration Tools
4) Role Administration Tools
5) Hyper-V Tools

Now we are going to connect to the Hyper-V Server.1) Open the Hyper-V Manager
2) Right-click on Microsoft Hyper-V Servers
3) Connect to Server
4) Another Computer, 172.16.1.200

After connecting to the Hyper-V Server, I’ve get the following error:
“The Msvm_VirtualSystemManagementService object was not found”The solution for this error is installing the following update:
Hyper-V Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition (KB950050)

For a list of all the available updates for Hyper-V Server, you can browse the following link.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753637.aspx

The next step is to configure the Hyper-V Server Settings.

1) Right-click on your Hyper-V Server
2) Hyper-V Settings
3) Choose a location for Virtual Hard Disks, in my environment the new partition we’ve made E:\VM\VHD
4) Choose a location for Virtual Machines, in my environment the new partition we’ve made E:\VM\VMI’ve copied a Microsoft Windows XP Professional ISO to E:\ISO on the Hyper-V Server. Let’s install a new Virtual Machine

1) Right-click on your Hyper-V Server
2) New, Virtual Machine
3) Give the name for the new VM and the location (default E:\VM\VM)
4) Configure the Memory for the new VM
5) Configure the network connection (you can choose between, External, Internal or Private)
6) Give the name for the VHD file and the size of it.
7) Give the installation source. In my case it’s the ISO file I’ve copied to E:\ISO
Finisch the wizard and start the new VM