1.) Navigate to the file EdgeTransport.exe.config, located in the Bin directory of the Exchange installation folder.
2.) Search for the rules QueueDatabasePath and QueueDatabasesLoggingPath. This is the orrigional location
3.) Open the Exchange Management Shell
4.) Browse to the scripts directory in the Exchange installation folder
5.) Select the script Move-TransportDatabase.PS1
6.) Run the following command
Move-TransportDatabase.PS1 -QueueDatabasePath NEWLOCATION -QueueDatabaseLoggingPath NEWLOCATION
In my example it’s moving to D:\Queue
7.) Now the Hub Transport database and logfiles will be moved to the new location. It’s containing the following files;

Trn.chk – The checkpoint file
Trn.log – The current transaction log file
Trntmp.log – The next provisioned transaction log file that is created in advance
Trnnnn.log – Other transaction log files that are created when Trn.log reaches its maximum size
Trnres00001.jrs – The Reserve log file
Trnres00002.jrs – The Second Reserve log file
Temp.edb – Temp DB used to verify database schema on start-up

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.microsoft.office.lync&hl=en

IMPORTANT: Microsoft Lync 2010 for Android requires a Lync Server or Office365/Lync Online account and will not work without it. If you are unsure about your account status, please contact your IT department.

Lync 2010 for Android extends the power of Lync to your mobile device – including rich presence, instant messaging, audio conferencing, and calling features from a single, easy-to-use interface.
     Key Features:

-  View colleagues’ availability in real time and select the best way to communicate – initiating an instant message (IM), email, or a phone call.
-  Connect to Lync conference calls with a single touch, without requiring long numeric passcodes or conference numbers.
-  Forward or simultaneously ring calls to your Enterprise Voice (Lync ID) number so you’ll never miss a call.
-  Lync 2010 for Android provides transport layer security (TLS) and perimeter/internal network protection without requiring a VPN, so your communications experience is safer no matter where you are or what network you use.

“Content location request for P0100021:1 failed. (Code 0×80040102)”

Package with ID P0100021 are the VMware Tools, and yes this is one step in my task sequense. This error is simple to resolve, just deploy the specific package to a distribution point…

After a succesvol deployment to the distribution point, the task sequence finisched succesfull!

1.) Create a new Registry Item
2.) Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Citrix\Receiver
3.) Create a new REG_DWORD with the value 0 (zero)

Login to your desktop/laptop again and you’ll see that the Citrix Receiver tray icon is gone!

The most common issue is that ExMon crashed while collecting data and the Exchange trace is in progress.  Follow the below given steps to stop the Exmon trace.

1.) Make sure the ExMon.exe process isn’t running.
2.) From CMD, Query running traces
Logman query -ets
3.) Stop Exmon trace
Logman stop “Exchange Event Trace” -ets
5.) Verify trace has stopped or is no longer running
Logman query -ets

If that did not resolve the issue, check the following:
- The Disk did not run out of space. If it did, clear out the old ETL files, make space on the drive or move the install directory to a larger drive.
- Another user is running Exmon already. Ask the other user to stop tracing and exit Exmon. Then restart your Tracing and start saving the Trace files.

You can download it from the Microsoft Download Center now.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP2 helps IT Professionals achieve new levels
of reliability with greater flexibility, enhanced user experiences, and
increased protection for business communications.

• Flexible and reliable – Exchange Server 2010 SP2 gives you the
  flexibility to tailor your deployment based on your company’s unique needs and a
  simplified way to keep e-mail continuously available for your users.
• Anywhere access – Exchange Server 2010 SP2 helps your users get more
  done by giving them the freedom to securely access all their communications -
  e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging, and more – from virtually any platform,
  Web browser, or device.
• Protection and compliance – Exchange Server 2010 SP2 delivers
  integrated information loss prevention, and compliance tools aimed at helping
  you simplify the process of protecting your company’s communications and meeting
  regulatory requirements.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware Tools]
“ShowTray”=dword:00000000

Now the VMware Tools tray icon is gone for all the users!

This update contains a number of customer-reported and internally found issues since the release of SP1. See ‘KB 2608646: Description of Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1′ for more details.

This update contains a number of customer reported and internally found issues since the release of RU5.

The most Important Fixes:

• 2627769 Some time zones in OWA are not synchronized with Windows in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2528854 The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service crashes on a computer that has Exchange Server 2010 SP1 installed
• 2544246 You receive a NRN of a meeting request 120 days later after the recipient accepted the request in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
• 2616127 “0×80041606″ error code when you use Outlook in online mode to search for a keyword against a mailbox in an Exchange Server 2010 environment.
• 2549183 “There are no objects to select” message when you try to use the EMC to specify a server to connect to in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment

Other Fixes:

• 2431609 An update is available that updates the message of a retention policy in OWA for Exchange Server 2010
• 2449266 EWS drops the TCP connection to the EWS client application without any error message in a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2480474 A Users do not receive quota warning messages after applying SP1 for Exchange 2010
• 2514820 An incoming fax message is not delivered to the recipient in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
• 2521927 Disabling the Exchange ActiveSync Integration feature for OWA does not take effect in OWA Premium clients in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2535289 The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service crashes occasionally when you run an antivirus application on an Exchange Server 2010 Mailbox server
• 2536313 Slow message delivery and mailbox access for journaling mailboxes on an Exchange Server 2010 server
• 2548246 The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service crashes occasionally when a folder view is corrupted on an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox server
• 2549289 A RBAC role assignee can unexpectedly run the Add-MailboxPermission command or the Remove-MailboxPermission command on an Exchange Server 2010 server that is outside the role assignment scope
• 2555851 A mailbox does not appear in certain address lists after you run commands on the mailbox in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
• 2559814 A user cannot add or remove delegates from a mailbox by using Outlook in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2561514 Exchange Server 2003 user cannot view the free/busy information of a user in a different federated organization
• 2563860 You cannot create a new mailbox database if you already have 1000 mailbox databases in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2567409 Certain free/busy messages are not replicated from an Exchange Server 2010 server to an Exchange Server 2003 server
• 2571791 Retention policies are applied to Contact items unexpectedly in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2572052 Certain properties of a recurring meeting request from external email accounts are missing in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
• 2575005 You cannot start the EMC or the EMS in an Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 environment
• 2578631 Certain users cannot send email messages to a mail-enabled public folder in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2579172 Items that are deleted or moved still appear in the original folder when you use Office Outlook in online mode to access an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox
• 2579671 No results returned when you use the ExpandGroup method in EWS to retrieve a list of members of a Dynamic Distribution Group in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2582095 The SmtpMaxMessagesPerConnection property of a send connector is not replicated to the subscribed Edge Transport server in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2600835 The RPC Client Access service crashes when you delete an attachment of an item by using Outlook in online mode in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
• 2601701 The memory usage of the MSExchangeRepl.exe process keeps increasing when you perform a VSS backup on Exchange Server 2010 databases
• 2617126 The Store.exe process crashes when you send an email message that has attachments in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment

General Notes

An issue with management of RBAC roles when RU6 is partially deployed in the organization: Due to changes shipped in this update, certain warnings can be displayed when managing RBAC roles, if RU6 is not yet deployed to all servers in the organization. Please see the following KB article for more information:

Managing RBAC roles might display warnings or errors if Exchange 2010 SP1 RU6 is partially deployed in the organization
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2638351

Note for Forefront users: For those of you running Forefront Protection for Exchange, before installing the update, stop all Forefront services.

1.) Mount or extract the Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 DVD in your Windows 2003 server (the RADIUS server)
2.) Browse to the following directory
D:\Sources\dlmanifests\microsoft-windows-iasserver-migplugin
3.) Copy this folder to your C: drive of the Windows 2003 server
4.) Open a command line box
5.) Run the iasmigreader.exe
6.) This tool will read your IAS configuration and exports it to C:\Windows\System32\IAS\IAS.txt
7.) Copy this file to your new Windows 2008 R2 NPS server (In my example C:\_IAS)
8.) Open a command line box on your Windowws 2008 R2 NPS server
9.) Enter the following command
netsh nps import filename=”C:\_IAS\IAS.txt”
10.) The configuration will be imported now
11.) Don’t forget to register your NPS service in AD or configuration settings be damned, NPS will just not work.

5nine V2V Easy Converter performs fast and non-intrusive conversion and fixup of selected VMware Virtual Machines to Microsoft Hyper-V VMs with highest conversion success ratio. 5nine V2V Easy Converter can be used as a standalone tool on different versions of Microsoft Server, including Free Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2/SP1, Server 2008 Core, and does not require any additional software licenses.

5nine V2V Easy Converter can also be used in conjunction with tools such as Vmdk2Vhd or StarWind V2V Converter

• Features and Benefits:
  5nine V2V Easy Converter is a Free standalone tool and doesn’t require any additional software licenses; It runs on a Free Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2/SP1, and VMware guest(s) may be migrated on a free Hyper-V server. It also runs on other Microsoft platforms, including Windows7, ‘Full’ and ‘Core’ editions of Server 2008 R2/SP1.
• 5nine V2V Easy Converter does not require ‘removing’ the guest from the source VMware environment prior to conversion. Thus this version does not perform the ‘online’ conversion, but the downtime is much less than in case you need to store the guest in the library in order to migrate.
• 5nine V2V Conversion process is fast, effective and easy to use.
• 5nine V2V Converter supports migration of the guests with different configurations, including large disk(s) and shared disks – these scenarios are specifically prone to the errors that other tools suffer from.
• 5nine V2V Easy Converter allows to modify the target guest configuration parameters, although the source VM configuration is preserved by default.

Current version of 5nine V2V Converter supports conversion of Windows Server 2008 or higher Guest Windows OS. Subsequent releases will support conversion of Windows Server 2003 and later, simultaneous conversions of multiple VMs, as well as ‘reverse’ Hyper-V – to – VMware VMs conversion and fixup.

Download 5nine V2V Easy Converter here

1.) Login on a Windows 2003 domain controller
2.) Insert the Windows 2008 R2 DVD or attach the ISO
3.) Open a command prompt CMD
4.) Browse to the following map of the Windows 2008 R2 DVD
x:\Support\Adprep
5.) First you’re going to prepare the forest with the new schema extensions
adprep32.exe /forestprep
Note! Because Windows Server 2003 is a 32 bits platform, you’ve to use adprep32.exe. If your’re using adprep.exe, you’ll receive the following error: “The image file adprep.exe is valid, but is for a machine type other than the current machine.” Windows Server 2008 R2 is only available in 64 bits.
6.) Make sure that all the domain controllers are replicated
7.) The next step is to prepare the domain and the GPO’s
adprep32.exe /domainprep /gpprep
Note! When you want to add a Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) to your environment in the future, you’ve have to execute another command.
adprep.exe /rodcprep
8.) Your domain is now ready for installing the new Windows Server 2008 R2 Domain Controllers.
9.) Run the command DCPROMO on the new Windows Server 2008 R2 machines

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum\{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}]=dword:00000001

A nice solution to deploy this registry key to all your desktop computers in your organization, is to use Group Policy Preferences. This is a new feature within Windows Server 2008.

Use can use the following steps to configure this:

1.) Create a new GPO whtin the Group Policy Management Console
2.) Open the new GPO en navigate to the Computer Settings. (It’s a HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE settings)
3.) Navigate to Preferences \ Windows Settings \ Registry
4.) Create a new Registry Item
5.) Actie: Update
6.) Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
7.) Key Path: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
8.) Value name: {F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}
9.) Value type: REG_DWORD
10.) Value data: 1 (Decimal), 00000001 (Hexadecimal)

Hyper-V 3.0 Scalability

The days when Hyper-V lagged behind VMware in terms of scalability are a thing of the past. The new Hyper-V 3.0 meets or exceeds all of the scalability marks that were previously VMware-only territory. Hyper-V 3.0 hosts support up to 160 logical processors (where a logical processor is either a core or a hyperthread) and up to 2 TB RAM. On the VM guest side, Hyper-V 3.0 guests will support up to 32 virtual CPUs with up to 512 GB RAM per VM. More subtle changes include support for guest NUMA where the guest VM has processor and memory affinity with the Hyper-V host resources. NUMA support is important for ensuring scalability increases as the number of available host processors increase.

Multiple Concurrent Live Migration and Storage Live Migration

Perhaps more important than the sheer scalability enhancements are the changes in Live Migration and the introduction of Storage Live Migration. Live Migration was introduced in Hyper-V 2.0 which came out with Windows Server 2008 R2. While it filled an important hole in the Hyper-V feature set it wasn’t up to par with the VMotion capability provided in vSphere. Live Migration was limited to a single Live Migration at a time while ESX Server was capable of performing multiple simultaneous VMotions. In addition, vSphere supported a similar feature called Storage VMotion which allowed a VM’s storage to be moved to new locations without incurring any downtime. Hyper-V 3.0 erases both of these advantages. Hyper-V 3.0 supports multiple concurrent Live Migrations. There are no limits to the number of concurrent Live Migrations that can take place with Hyper-V 3.0. In addition, Hyper-V 3.0 also provides full support for Storage Live Migration where a virtual machine’s files ( the configuration, virtual disk and snapshot files) can be moved to different storage locations without any interruption of end user connectivity to the guest VM.

Microsoft also threw in one additional twist that vSphere has never had. Hyper-V 3.0 has the ability to perform Live Migration and Storage Live Migration without the requirement of a shared storage on the backend. The removal of this requirement really helps bring the availability advantages of Live Migration to small and medium sized businesses that came afford a SAN or don’t want to deal with the complexities of a SAN. The ability to perform Live Migration without requiring shared storage really sets Hyper-V apart from vSphere and will definitely be a big draw – especially for SMBs that haven’t implemented virtualization yet.

VHDX, ODX, Virtual Fiber Channel & Boot from SAN

Another important enhancement with Hyper-V 3.0 was the introduction of a new virtual disk format called VHDX. The new VHDX format breaks the 2TB limit that was present in the older VHD format and pushes the maximum size of the virtual disk up to 16 TB per VHDX. The new format also provides improved performance, support for larger block sizes and is more resilient to corruption.

Hyper-V 3.0 also supports a feature called Offloaded Date Transfer (ODX). ODX enables Hyper-V to take advantage of the storage features of a backend shared storage subsystem. When performing file copies on an ODX enabled SAN the OS hands off all of the data transfer tasks to the SAN providing much high file copy performance with zero to minimal CPU utilization. There is no special ODX button. Instead ODX works in the backend. ODX requires the storage subsystem to support ODX.

Companies that use fiber channel SANs will appreciate the addition of the virtual Fiber Channel support in the Hyper-V guests. Hyper-V 3.0 guests can have up to four virtual fiber channel host bus adapters. The virtual HBAs appear in the VMs as devices very like virtual NICs and other virtual devices. Hyper-V VMs will also be able to boot from both fiber channel and iSCSI SANs.

Extensible Virtual Switch & NIC Teaming

In keeping par with the sweeping changes in Hyper-V’s compute capabilities and storage Microsoft also made a some of significant enhancements to Hyper-V’s networking capabilities. First, they updated the virtual switch that’s built into the Hyper-V hypervisor. The new virtual switch has a number of new capabilities multi-tenant capability as well as the ability to provide minimum and maximum bandwidth guarantees. In addition to these features the new virtual switch is also extensible. Microsoft provides a API that allows capture, filter and forwarding extensions. To ensure the high quality of these virtual switch extensions Microsoft will be initiating a Hyper-V virtual switch logo program.

Another overdue feature that will be a part of Windows Server 8 is the built-in ability to provide NIC teaming natively in the operating system. VMware’s ESX Server has provided NIC teaming for some time. Prior to Windows Server 8 you could only get NIC teaming for Windows via specialized NICs from Broadcom and Intel. The new NIC teaming works across heterogonous vendor NICs and can provide support for load balancing as well as failover.

http://www.hyper-v.nu/archives/hvredevoort/2011/09/windows-server-8-hyper-v-new-features/

The team has updated the tool now and provides three scenarios – on-premises only, co-existence (onsite + cloud) and cloud only.

You can find the Deployment Assistant here

When you’ve created the mandatory profile, there was a default Windows 7 background. There’s a registry key that saves this background setting and there the whole point!

1.) Open the registry editor (regedit)
2.) Select the HKEY_USERS
3.) Click File, Load Hive
4.) Browse to your mandatory profile and select the NTUSER.MAN file
5.) Give it a name and click OK
6.) Browse to HKEY_USERS and select your Hive
7.) Browse to HKEY_Users\YOURHIVE\Control Panel\Desktop
8.) There’s a REG_SZ named Wallpaper
9.) This vallue is the wrong one. It’s located to the template user for creating the mandatory profile.
10.) Let’s chance this location to the new location. In my example it’s the Windows folder, but it can alse be a custom location. C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg
11.) After changing this path, don’t forget to unload the completely Hive from your registry editor
12.) Login again with a user and you’ll see that there’s the wallpaper. It’s a mandatory profile, so all users will get the same wallpaper!

You can follow the steps below to change the legacy NIC interface with a normal NIC interface.

1.) Shutdown the Virtual Machine
2.) Open the Properties of the Virtual Machine
3.) Select the Hardware tab
4.) Select the Network Adapters and click Remove
5.) Click Network Adapter and choose Synthetic network adapter
6.) Apply the changes
7.) Start the Virtual Machine
8.) Open the Network Connections
9.) When you want to rename the NIC interface, you’ll receive the following error:
“Cannot rename this connection. A connection with the name you specified already exists. Specify a different name.”
10.) Open the system properties of your server
11.) Select the Advanced tab and click Environment Variables
12.) Creat a new System Variable
Variable name: Devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
Variable value: 1
13.) Open the Device Manager of your server
14.) Show the hidden devices
15.) As you can see there still is the legacy NIC interface we’ve deleted earlier.
16.) Select that NIC interface and choose Uninstall
17.) Again open the Network Connections and rename it
18.) Don’t forget to give the server a static IP, Subnet, Gateway and DNS

Now your server is using a Synthetic Network Interface (VMbus communication).

Get-VM -VMMServer “FQDN of the SCVMM Server” | where {$_.Owner -eq “Unknown”} | Set-VM -Owner “domain\accountname”
Get-VM -VMMServer “FQDN of the SCVMM Server” | where {$_.Owner -eq “domain\Administrator”} | Set-VM -Owner “domain\accountname”

When the first user logged in, the desktop was completely black! Nice, but there’s a background configured in the Group Policy…..hhhmmm! This is a known bug by Microsoft and there’s a hotfix available, KB977944
After I installed the update, reboot my virtual machines, everything works like a charm

Save the following dates in your calendar! Tech Ed Europe 2012 will be held 25th-29th June at the Amsterdam RAI Exhibition Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

This time no long trip to Germany, but driving with my own car to Amsterdam!

1.) New-RoleGroup “Mailbox Import Export Group” -Roles “Mailbox Import Export”
2.) Add-RoleGroupMember “Mailbox Import Export Group” -Member “Administrator”
3.) New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox mswi -FilePath \\SRV-EXC01\Z$\Export_PST\mswi.PST

When you want to export all the mailboxes in your Exchange environment, you can use the following powershell command.
foreach ($mbx in (Get-Mailbox)) { New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox $mbx -FilePath “\\win2008srv01\c$\PST\$($mbx.Alias).pst” }

You can edit the maximum of two threads within the following file; MSExchangeMailboxReplication.exe.config. This file is located in the installation directory of Microsoft Exchange. In my environment it is D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Bin

Change the following settings:

• MaxActiveMovesPerTargetMDB = “2″

The default value (as of SP1, version 218.15, at least) seems to be 2. Change the 2 to a 5, or an 8, or whatever you’d like it to be.

• MaxActiveMovesPerSourceMDB – 5, 0, 100
• MaxActiveMovesPerTargetMDB – 5, 0, 100

Save the file, and restart the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service. Now you can perform 5 move requests at one time!! Cool…

Requirements:
- 2GB USB memory stick or more
- Download the Hyper-V server 2008 R2 ISO named GRMHVxFRE1_DVD.iso

Clear the USB stick and create a partition on it by using the following command’s:

1.) Open the command prompt
2.) Diskpart (run diskpart as administrator)
3.) List disk
4.) Select disk USB number
5.) Clean
6.) Create partition primary
7.) Active
8.) Format fs=fat32 quick
9.) Assign
10.) Exit

Mount the ISO  and copy all the content o to the USB device. For mounting the ISO I used Deamon Tools Lite.
Now the bootable USB device with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is ready for use.  Boot your server and select the USB device as the boot medium. You’re now able to install  Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Cool!!

1.) Create a new Collection. (In my example it is All Obsolete Computerobjects)
2.) Create a new query. (In my example it is Query All Obsolete Computerobjects)
3.)  Edit the query statement. Use the following query:
select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name,
SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,
SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System where SMS_R_System.Obsolete = 1
4.) Run the “Update Collection Membership”
5.) View the result

The Failover Cluster Validation check faild with status 87 “Failed to prepare storage for testing on node HYPERV01.hyperv.local”. After same troubleshooting I found the following solution! This error results from bit lock creating a partition in the first 100 MB of your primary drive and then not setting a drive letter. Given the command line interface for Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, I had to assign the drive letter by using the command lines.

1.) Open the command prompt CMD.exe
2.) Type diskpart
3.) Type list volume
4.) Type select volume 4 (or 1, 2, 3…)
5.) Type assign

Repeat this step for all the nodes in the cluster. Now your Failover Cluster Validation check will run succesfully!

This is by default. When you place some files in the folders, SCVMM detects this and the folders will show up now! The following file types are indexed during a Library Refresh (default every hour)

- Virtual Hard Disks: .vhd (Hyper-V, Virtual Server), .vmdk (VMware)
- Virtual Floppy disks: .vfd (Virtual Server), .flp (VMware)
- ISO image files: .iso
- Scripts (answer files): .ps1 (Windows PowerShell), .inf or .xml (Answer Files)
- VMware templates: .vmtx (VMware)

When you want to force a Library Refresh, right-click on the SCVMM Library and choose Refresh.

4.00.5135.0000 – SCCM 2007 Beta 1
4.00.5125.0000 – SCCM 2007 Beta 1 Escrow
4.00.5221.0000 – SCCM 2007 Beta 1 Refresh Escrow
4.00.5224.0000 – SCCM 2007 Beta 1 Refresh
4.00.5571.0000 – SCCM 2007 Beta 2 Escrow
4.00.5574.0000 – SCCM 2007 Beta 2 Escrow Update
4.00.5578.0000 – SCCM 2007 Beta 2 with a hotfix
4.00.5578.0002 – SCCM 2007 RC0 Preview
4.00.5790.0000 – SCCM 2007 RC0 Preview
4.00.5815.0000 – SCCM 2007 RC0
4.00.5924.0000 – SCCM 2007 escrow
4.00.5931.0001 – SCCM 2007 RTM                             
4.00.6086.1000 – SCCM 2007 SP1 (prerelease)          
4.00.6221.1000 – SCCM 2007 SP1                              
4.00.6425.2000 – SCCM 2007 SP2 beta                       
4.00.6468.2001 – SCCM 2007 SP2 RC
4.00.6487.2000 – SCCM 2007 SP2 RTM
4.00.6487.2157 – SCCM 2007 SP2 R3

What happy end of this year, 2010!

1.) First upgrade the CAS server(s)
2.) Then upgrade the HUB Transport server(s)
3.) Logon to the passive node
4.) Upgrade the passive node to Service Pack 3
 setup.com /mode:Upgrade
6.) Restart the server after the setup is completed succesfully
7.) Stop the CMS (Clustered Mailbox Server) on the active node (DOWNTIME!!)
 Stop-ClusteredMailboxServer MAILCLUSTER01 –StopReason “SP3 Upgrade”
8.) Move the CMS (Clustered Mailbox Server) to the passive node (DOWNTIME!!)
 Move-ClusteredMailboxServer MAILCLUSTER01 –TargetMachine CCR2 –MoveComment “SP3 Upgrade”
9.) On the passive node upgrade the CMS (Clustered Mailbox Server)
 setup.com /UpgradeCMS
10.) Bring the CCR cluster back online
 Start-ClusteredMailboxServer MAILCLUSTER01
11.) Upgrade the initial active node to Service Pack 3
 setup.com /mode:Upgrade
12.) Restart the server after the setup is completed succesfully
13.) Now you have an Exchange 2007 CCR cluster with Serivce Pack 3

1.) Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 x64
2.) .NET Framework 4.0
3.) Microsoft SQL 2008 Server Service Pack 1
 4.) Database Engine Services
 5.) Reporting Services
 6.) Management Tools Complete
7.) Microsoft SQL 2008 Server Service Pack 1 CU8 CU8 (10.0.2775.0)
8.) Install the schema extension (extadsch.exe)
9.) Install BITS and Remote Differential Compression (RDC)
10.) Install Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) optionally
11.) Install Windows Deployment Services
12.) Give the vNext computerobject “full control” rights within your active directory on the organizational unit “System” (this object and all child objects).
13.) Install the PXE Service Point service role within SCCM vNext. This step is optionally when you’re going to use OSD.

Exchange 2007 SP3 brings this feature to the table. The option is disabled by default and can be turned on with a registry edit on the CAS server.

To enable the password reset feature,

1.) Log on to the CAS server with an admin account.
2.) In registry editor, navigate to HLKM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchange OWA
3.) Create the following DWORD value if it does not already exist. DWORD Name – ChangeExpiredPasswordEnabled, type – REG_DWORD and data set to 1.
4.) If the DWORD already exists, change the value from zero to one.
5.) Reset IIS from command prompt with the command iisreset /noforce

Centralized Power Management
Mobile Device Management
Enhanced Scalability and Performance

Configuration Manager R3 lets IT organizations centrally manage the power settings of Windows 7, Vista and XP computers, helping reduce energy consumption and costs. You can plan and apply a power management policy for high and low PC usage periods, monitor user activity to avoid any productivity interruptions and correct non-compliance. Detailed reports of trends and settings help you make smart power management choices, and also validate Green IT projects with summaries of power, money and CO2 savings.

Configuration Manager R3 includes licenses for the popular System Center Mobile Device Manager, so you can run comprehensive asset inventories, deploy software, manage settings and enforce password policies for Widows phones.

Configuration Manager R3 is more scalable than ever, increasing the number of supported clients to 300,000 per site. R3 is also more efficient in the way it communicates with Active Directory, helping you discover user or machine changes more quickly and allowing custom queries to define user, system or group attributes.

1.) Create a new collection and give it a name
2.) Create a new query and give it a name
3.) Configure the following criteria
     – Criterion Type: Simple value
     - Where: System Resource – Operating System Name and Version
     – Operator: is like
     – Value: Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 6.1
4.) Configure the update schedule
5.) Right-click on your collection and select “Update Collection Membership”
6.) Right-click on your collection and select “Refresh”
7.) Your collection is now ready to use

For the full release notes, you can browse to the following URL

Download Service Pack 3 for Microsoft Exchange 2007 here

In this example, I want the users to see the message “Please send only e-mails with ICT related problems” while they compose an email to the ICT Helpdesk. This can be done in two ways, either from Exchange Control Panel (ECP) or Shell.

Run the following shell command to set this feature.
Set-MailBox -Identity HelpdeskICT -MailTip “Please send only e-mails with ICT related problems”

1.) Make a txt file called users.txt
2.) Make a txt file called contacts.txt
3.) Copy the script LCSAddContacts.wsf and the other two textfiles in one directory
4.) Add the OU path in the users.txt file (in my example all the users in the OU “Gebruikers”)
5.) Add the users you want to puth in the new contact list in the contacts.txt file (in my example there are only two users)
6.) Open the command line
7.) run the following command:
cscript LCSAddContacts.wsf /usersfile:users.txt /contactsfile:contacts.txt /contactsgroup:”ICT Department”
In my example the /contactsgroup is “ICT Department”, but you can make your own choise here!
8.) Open the OCS client and verify the new created contact list!

If you want to delete a user from a contact list, you’ll run the same command again, but with the /delete paramater at the end!
cscript LCSAddContacts.wsf /usersfile:users.txt /contactsfile:contacts.txt /contactsgroup:”ICT Department” /delete

Search for the text “Lite Touche Installation” and replace this with your own text. For example: “Running: Deploy Microsoft Windows 7″. Save the file and update your deploymentshare. Import the new WIM file into Windows Deployment Services (WDS).

An IIS directory entry couldn’t be created. The error message is Access is denied.

Solution: Make sure that the group Exchange Trusted subsystem is member of local administrator group on all the Exchange 2007 servers.

Remove-MailboxDatabase -Identity “Mailbox Database 0075281871″
This mailbox database contains one or more mailboxes or arbitration mailboxes. To get a list of all mailboxes in this databa
se, run the command Get-Mailbox -Database <Database ID>. To get a list of all arbitration mailboxes in this database, run th
e command Get-Mailbox -Database <Database ID> -Arbitration. Before you can remove this mailbox database, you must disable, m
ove, or remove user mailboxes and move arbitration mailboxes.
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (Mailbox Database 0075281871:DatabaseIdParameter) [Remove-MailboxDatabase],
    AssociatedUserMailboxExistException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : 68BDB73C,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.SystemConfigurationTasks.RemoveMailboxDatabase

When I create an overview of all the arbitration mailboxes, they are already succesfully moved to a new created mailboxdatabase. Why I’m getting this error…?? There’s another default created mailbox, called: Discovery Search Mailbox. After moving this mailbox to another mailboxdatabase, I wass able to delete succesfully the default created mailboxdata from my Exchange 2010 environment.

1.) Open the DeploymentWorkbench
2.) Right click the MDT Deployment Share (E:\DeploymentShare in my environment)
3.) Open the second tab Rules
4.) Click Edit Bootstrap.ini
5.) Default the file looks like picture 6
6.) Add the following rules to the textfile:
UserID=Administrator
UserDomain=WIN7.LOCAL (your domain)
UserPassword=Pa$$w0rd (your administrator password)
KeyboardLocale=en-US
SkipBDDWelcome=YES
7.) Don’t forget to update the deployment share
8.) Right click the MDT Deployment Share (E:\DeploymentShare in my environment), and select Update Deployment Share
9.) Assign the boot image (E:\DeploymentShare\Boot\LiteTouchPE_x86.wim) to Windows Deployment Services WDS.

Download details Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 (KB979611)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
“ShowDriveLettersFirst”=dword:00000004

Now you’re sure that the system drive will not be used by SCCM!

Download details Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (KB972076)

The last few mounths Exchange 2010 was my daily thing! Building…..building…..building and again building, this was the best preparing for me! A lot of things I’ve seen in Berlin at the TechEd, so I was ready to rock!

Core Configuration tasks include:

- Product Licensing
- Networking Features
- DCPromo Tool
- ISCSI Settings
- Server Roles and Features
- User and Group Permissions
- Share Creation and Deletion
- Dynamic Firewall settings
- Display | Screensaver Settings
- Add & Remove Drivers
- Proxy settings
- Windows Updates (Including WSUS)
- Multipath I/O
-Hyper-V including virtual machine thumbnails
- JoinDomain and Computer rename
- Add/remove programs
- Services
- WinRM
-Complete logging of all commands executed

You can download the tool here.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\Parameters and select the subkey Schema Version.

13 = Microsoft Windows 2000
30 = Original release version of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
31 = Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2
44 = Windows 2008

To fix this problem, you’ll need to do the following steps:

1.) On the SQL Server, right-click My Computer and select Manage to open the Computer Management console
2.) Expand the Local Users and Groups node and select Groups
3.) Double-click Administrators in the right-hand pane of the Computer Management console
4.) Click the Add… button to open the Select Users, Computers and Groups dialog box
5.) Click the Object Types… button and ensure Computers is selected in the Object Types dialog box. Click OK to return to the Select Users, Computers and Groups dialog box
6.) If the From this location field in the Select Users, Computers and Groups dialog box does not show the domain that the Configuration Manager site server is in, click the Locations… button and select the correct domain
7.) In the field labelled Enter the object names to select, type the computer name of the Configuration Manager site server. Click the Check Names to confirm that the name has been recognised
8.) Click OK

1.) Open the Exchange Management Console
2.) Navigate to Recipient Configuration, Distribution Group
3.) Click New Dynamic Distribution Group
4.) Give up  a Name and Alias
5.) Change the Filter settings. In this example I’m using the Active Directory attribute Department
6.) Give up the Filter Condition. To see a preview of all the effected users, click Preview
7.) Click New to finish the last step

This update rollup does not apply to Exchange Server 2007 Release To Manufacturing (RTM) or Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1). For a list of update rollups applicable to Exchange Server 2007 RTM or Exchange Server 2007 SP1, refer to the Knowledge Base article KB937052.

Download details Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 (KB971534)

This version of Exchange is just really cool stuff!!

For more information, you can read this article on msexchangeteam.com

Robert Beauchemin
David Chappell
John Craddock
Tess Ferrandez
Rafal Lukawiecki
Andy Malone
Mark Minasi
Mark Russinovich
Ilse Van Criekinge
Maciej Pilecki

See you in Berlin…in the new efficiency!

——————————————-
We always talk about listening to customers and sometimes this is written off by many as ‘marketing speak’.  In fact, we do take feedback seriously and no input is more important to our engineering processes than your voice.

Earlier this year we made a decision in one direction, and due to the feedback we have received on this blog and elsewhere, we have reconsidered. In the coming calendar year we will issue an update for Exchange 2007 enabling full support of Windows Server 2008 R2. We heard from many customers that this was important for streamlining their operations and reducing administrative challenges, so we have changed course and will add R2 support.  We are still working through the specifics and will let you know once we have more to share on the timing of this update.

So, keep the feedback coming.  We are listening.

Kevin Allison
GM Exchange Customer Experience
——————————————-

So within a copple of months, there will be proberly full support for Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2! This will be a great start of the new year 2010

Though this feature is good for security reasons it may be annoying for many users who use OWA regularly and they may not want to enter the password several times after the time out. This can settled down with a simple registry tweak on the CAS server that runs your Internet facing OWA site. This can be done by following registry modification:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeOWA
Name: PublicTimeout
Type: DWORD
Value: {value in minutes} (This value is 15 minutes by default)

The above suggestion applies only when the user selects the Public Computer option from the OWA logon screen. For the user who select the Private Computer from the logon screen you might want to modify:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeOWA
Name: PrivateTimeout
Type: DWORD
Value: {value in minutes} (This value is 8 hours by default)

If you don’t see the DWORD values named, PublicTimeout and PrivateTimeout then you have create then manually.

Server 1
Name: SRV-E2K10DC-01
OS: Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 x64
IP: 172.16.1.10
Roles: DC/DNS

Server 2
Name: SRV-E2K7-01
OS: Microsoft Windows 2008 SP2 x64
IP: 172.16.1.11
Roles: Exchange 2007 SP2 HT/CAS/MBX

Server 3
Name: SRV-E2K10-01
OS: Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 x64
IP: 172.16.1.12
Roles: Exchange 2010 HT/CAS/MBX

Domain FQDN: EXCHANGE.LOCAL
Forest Functional Level: Windows Server 2008 R2
Domain Functional Level: Windows Server 2008 R2

1.) First I’ve installed all the prerequisites for Exchange 2007 SP2 on server SRV-E2K7-01
Command: servermanagercmd -ip exchange-typical.xml
2.) Install all the prerequistes for Exchange 2010 on server SRV-E2K10-01
Command: servermanagercmd -ip exchange-typical.xml
3.) After rebooting server SRV-E2K7-01, you can install Exchange 2007 SP2
4.) After succesfully installing Exchange 2007 SP2, you can install Exchange 2010 on server SRV-E2K10-01
5.) Open the Exchange Management Console on server SRV-E2K7-01
6.) I’ve created some user account (100) and all mailbox enabled
7.) Open the Exchange Management Console on server SRV-E2K10-01
8.) As you can see, all the mailboxes are vissible!
9.) The next step is to move the mailboxes from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010
10.) Return to the Exchange 2010 server and open the Exchange Management Console
11.) Navigate to Recipient Configuration, Mailbox
12.) Select the mailboxes you want to migrate and right-click
13.) Choose “New Local Move Request”
14.) Select the new Mailbox Database
15.) Wait until the users are migrated to the new Mailbox Server
16.) Select all the completed move requests and select Clear Move Request

The users are now migrated to the new Exchange 2010 environment. In the next post we are going to de-install the Exchange 2007 environment.

FOR /L %i in (1,1,100) DO dsadd user “cn=User%i,ou=Gebruikers,dc=exchange,dc=local” -samid User%i -upn User%i@Exchange.local -fn User%i -display User%i -pwd P@sswOrd -disabled no

Chapter 1: Introduction to Exchange Server 2010
    1.1 Getting Started
    1.2 What’s been removed from Exchange Server 2010?
    1.3 What’s new in Exchange Server 2010?
    1.4 Exchange Server 2010 and Active Directory
    1.5 Exchange Server coexistence
    1.6 Exchange Server 2010 Server roles
    1.7 Summary
Chapter 2: Installing Exchange Server 2010
Chapter 3: Exchange Server 2010 Coexistence
    3.1 Coexistence with Exchange Server 2003
    3.2 Installing Exchange Server 2010 in an Exchange Server 2003 environment
    3.3 Coexistence with Exchange Server 2007
    3.4 Installing Exchange Server 2010 into an Existing Exchange Server 2007 Environment
    3.5 Summary
Chapter 4: Managing Exchange Server 2010
    4.1 The Exchange Management Shell
    4.2 The Exchange Management Console
    4.3 The Exchange Control Panel (ECP)
    4.4 Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
    4.5 Archiving and Compliancy
    4.6 Summary
Chapter 5: High Availability in Exchange Server 2010
    5.1 High Availability in Exchange Server 2010
    5.2 Exchange Server Database technologies
    5.3 High Availability in Exchange Server
    5.4 High Availability on other Server Roles
    5.5 Summary

This is my Exchange 2010 environment:

Server 1 – SRV-EXDC-01
OS: Microosft Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise x64
IP: 172.16.1.10
Roles: Active Directory, DNS

Server 2 – SRV-EX10HT-01
OS: Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise x64
IP: 172.16.1.11
Roles: Exchange 2010 HT/CAS

Server 3 – SRV-EX10MB-01
OS: Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise x64
IP: 172.16.1.12
Roles: Exchange 2010 MBX

Server 4 – SRV-EX10MB-02
OS: Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise x64
IP: 172.16.1.13
Roles: Exchange 2010 MBX

1.) First I’ve created 2 new mailbox database on each mailbox server.
SRV-EX10MB-01 - MD01, MD02
SRV-EX10MB-02 - MD03, MD04
2.) The next step is to create a new Database Availability Group.
Groupname: DAG01
Witness Server: SRV-EX10HT-01 (Could also be a another server, but not a member of the DAG!!)
Witness Directory: C:\FSW_DAG01
3.) After succesfully creating the DAG, we can added some mailbox servers to it
SRV-EX10MB-01 and SRV-EX10MB-02
4.) The Windows Failover Clustering feature will automatically installed on each Mailbox server
5.) Give the Database Availability Group an IP address. This can be done with the following command:
Set-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup -Identity DAG01 -DatabaseAvailabilityGroupIpAddresses 172.16.1.50
6.) The next step is to add a Mailbox Database Copy
7.) The copy of the Mailbox Database will be copied to the other mailbox server. As you can see, Mailbox Server SRV-EX10MB-02 is now also containing Mailbox Database MD01 and MD02
8.) Login through the Outlook Web App with a user in Mailbox Database MD01
9.) Disable the LAN connection on Mailbox Server SRV-EX10MB-01 (fake a failover!)
10.) You’ll now receive an error in your Outlook Web App, this is normal, because the active mailbox is unavailable!! Wait a copple of seconds and click another e-mail message! As you can see, the passive Mailbox Database copy is now become active!! cool….
11.) After enabling the LAN connection on Mailbox Server SRV-EX10MB-01, the copy status become Healthy again!
12.) You can also test the “Fail Over” manually. Right click on your Mailbox Database, choose Move Active Mailbox Databse, and select the new active Mailbox Server.

So….after all, a copple of seconds downtime for the users!

Change the following rule:

Old Situation:
virtualHW.version = “6″

New Situation: 
virtualHW.version = “7″

After a reboot, everything works fine again!

As you increase the size of mailboxes, you don’t necessarily want all the data stored locally on user machines, because it can lead to very long initial download times when users get a new machine. The data users frequently access is stored in the primary mailbox, which is ideally less than 10GB and is cached locally. Everything else is stored in the archive mailbox and available online, so it can be much larger and contain historical data. Because the archive mailbox is part of the same mailbox database, its availability is the same as the primary mailbox (it will be replicated as part of a DAG, database availability group).

Users will see their mailbox and their archive mailbox. They can drag and drop a PST file into the archive and the PST will be imported into the archive automatically. The viewing and navigation of the primary and archive mailbox is the same. If a user searches all mail items, the archive content is included. Users or administrators can set retention policies so that mail is automatically moved to the archive after a number of days, and different policies can be set on different folders.

Here are some keynotes for the archiving feature in Exchange 2010:

- Archive mailbox gets rid of PST files by giving the user an additional mailbox
- PST files are local to the user’s machine, gets corrupted easily and is hard to include the files in backup.
- Archive mailbox sits in the same mailbox database as the user’s main mailbox and can be included in the backup easily
- Archive Mailbox is available in Outlook as well as Outlook Web App (OWA), which is a huge improvement.
- Users can access their email archive irrespective of where they are
- Archive Mailbox is included as part of the Exchange Enterprise CALs and hence no extra cost is required (for those who have ECALs)
- Retention policies can be set for emails/folders in the archive mailbox
- User has the option to search for emails in archive only or both primary & archive mailbox
- Archive Quota can be set separate to the primary mailbox
- Emails in existing PSTs can be dragged into the archive mailbox very easily
- The archive and primary mailbox share the same user account
- Only one archive mailbox can be configured for a user
- Archive mailbox gets created on the same mailbox database as the primary one, which is a drawback.
- Future service packs might bring the option to create the archive mailbox in a different database
- The default quota warning for the archive mailbox is 10GB, which can be changed

How to configure a archive mailbox for a specific user:

1.) Open the Exchange Management Console
2.) Navigate to Recipient Configuration and select the specific user
3.) On the action pane, select “Enable Archive”
Note: Online archiving requires an Exchange Enterprise Client Access License (CAL)!
4.) The icon of the specific user has changed to an archive  icon.
5.) Login to the Outlook Web App with the specific user and you’ll see the archive mailbox
6.) Drag and drop some e-mail into the online archive
7.) You can change the name of the online archive by navigating to the specific user, Properties, Mailbox Features, Archive
8.) Login again to the Outlook Web App and you’ll see the new name of the archive mailbox

You can fix this issueu to put some permissions on this Address Lists. Let’s have a look on that.

1.) Open the Exchange Management Console
2.) Create a new Address List
3.) Give up the filter settings (in this example it is based on the Active Directory field “Department“)
4.) Open ADSI Edit, adsiedit.msc
5.) Open Configuration,CN=Configuration,DC=E2K10.local,CN=Services,CN=E2K10,CN=Address Lists Container,CN=All Address Lists,<your Address Lists>
6.) Open the Properties, and click the Security tab, Advanced
7.) Disable “Include inheritable permissions from this object’s parent”
8.) Click Copy
9.) Remove the Authenticated Users
10.) Make a new Security Group in your Active Directory called for example “AL_ICT_Department”
11.) Place all the users of the ICT department in this Security Group
12.) Open the security settings again and at the group AL_ICT_Department
13.) Give this group the following permissions Read, Open Address List
14.) Login with a user that is member of the AL_ICT_Department. Make sure you see the Address List
15.) Login with a user that is not a member of the AL_ICT_Department. You didn’t see the Address List now.

When you pass Exam 70-662 TS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Configuring, you complete the requirements for the following certification(s):

• Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): MIcrososft Exchange Server 2010, Configuration

Exam 70-662 TS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Configuring: counts as credit toward the following certification(s):

• Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP): Enterprise Messaging Administrator 2010

     – Exchange-all.xml
     – Exchange-base.xml
     – Exchange-cadb.xml
     – Exchange-cas.xml
     – Exchange-eca.xml
     – Exchange-edge.xml
     – Exchange-hub.xml
     – Exchange-mbx.xml
     – Exchange-typical.xml
     – Exchange-um.xml

In this example we are going to prepare a Microsoft Windows 2008 SP2 server for installing the Exchange 2010 Hub Transport Role, using the XML file Exchange-hub.xml.

1.) Open the command prompt (CMD)
2.) Browse to your installation source directory
3.) Type in ServerManagerCmd -ip Exchange-Hub.xml
4.) All prerequisites will be installed now
5.) After this is finished, you can start the installation of Exchange 2010

Some Enhancements:

• Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 support.
• Building Blocks: import improvements
• Error Log: RES PowerFuse no longer depends on CAPICOM
• Home Directory Maintenance: provide a custom list of printers in PowerPrint
• Instant File Associations: automatic import of file types when adding applications
• Registry: disable removal of run keys
• Registry: fix Microsoft Windows Desktop Search
• Registry: force disconnect of RES PowerFuse session after a certain amount of time
• RES PowerFuse Agents: improved performance of Agent cache when processing changed objects
• Security Management: improved performance when checking logged security events
• Startup: improved performance when starting RES PowerFuse sessions using the Microsoft Windows shell

• Total Databases
• Total Database copies
• Total Exchange 2003 / 2007 / 2010 servers
• How many Exchange server with a specific role installed
• Total user mailboxes, distribution groups, contacts, legacy mailboxes

When you open the Exchange Management Consosle, go to Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Exchange On-Premises. 

In Exchange 2010 Release Candidate (RC), there’s a new command available to move a mailbox to another mailbox database, New-Moverequest.

In this example I’m going to move all the mailboxes, including the default arbitration mailboxes to a new mailbox database, otherwise you can not delete the default mailbox database created by Exchange!

1.) With the following command you can get a list of all the Move Requests. Get-Moverequest | fl
2.) Run the command Get-Mailbox -Database “database name” -Arbitration | ft -wrap -auto for a list of all the hidden arbitration mailboxes in the default mailbox database
3.) To move the arbitration mailbox to the new mailbox database, run the following command New-MoveRequest -Identity “SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9}” -TargetDatabase MD01
4.) After moving all the arbitraion mailboxes to the new mailbox database, run the following command Get-Moverequest | fl
5.) Before we can remove the default mailbox database, you’ve to remove all the move requests associated with the source mailbox database
6.) To get a list off all the associated move requests, run the following command Get-MoveRequest -SourceDatabase “Mailbox Database 1205181900″
7.) To remove the move requests, run the command Remove-Moverequest -<Recipient ID>
Note: For a list off all the Recipient ID’s you can run Get-Mailbox -Database “database name” -Arbitration | ft -wrap -auto
8.) After removing all the remove requests, you’re able to succesfully remove the default mailbox database

The fist step is to prepare the Schema.

1.) Open the root directory of the Exchange 2010 installation files
2.) Run the following command: .\Setup /PrepareSchema
Note: make sure you’ve SchemaAdmin rights

The next step is to prepare the Active Directory.

1.) Run the following command: .\Setup /PrepareAD /OrganizationName:<Your-Organization-Name>

The last step is to prepare the Domain.

1.) Run the following command: .\Setup /PrepareDomain
Note: make sure you’ve DomainAdmin rights

Your environment is now succesfully prepared to install Exchange 2010.

* Microsoft Windows 7
* Microsoft Exchange 2010
* Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

In this example i’ve added a new user with only permissions to read all the Packages.

1.) Open the System Center Management Console
2.) Navigate to the Site Database, Security Rights, Users, Manage ConfigMgr Users
3.) Add a new user, browse and select the new user
4.) Select “Add another right or modify an existing one”
5.) In this example the user has only the permission to read the packages
6.) Select in the Class box “Package”
7.) Select in the Instance box “(All Instances)”
8.) Finish the wizard

For remote connecting to the SCCM Site Server, you’ve to edit the DCOM security, otherwise you’ll receive an error when you try to open the System Center Management Console.

1.) Go to your SCCM Site Server
2.) From the Start menu, click Run and type Dcomcnfg.exe
3.) In Component Services, click Console root, expand Component Services, expand Computers, and then click My Computer. On the Action menu, click Properties
4.) In the My Computer Properties dialog box, on the COM Security tab, in the Launch and Activation Permissions section, click Edit Limits
5.) In the Launch Permissions dialog box, click Add
6.) In the Select User, Computers, or Groups dialog box, in the Enter the object names to select, in this example: markswinkels
7.) In the Permissions for markswinkels, select the check box to allow Remote Activation
8.) Click OK twice, and then close Computer Management

1.) Collection
2.) Package
3.) Program
4.) Distribution Point
5.) Advertisement

Before we are going to deploy Office 2007, we’ve to create a MSP file for customize the Office 2007 installation. You can start the Office Customization Tool using the following command: setup.exe /admin. Save the file in the updates folder on your Office 2007 source directory.

Step 1, creating a collection:
1.) Create a new collection, to specify the computers where Office must be installed.
2.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, New Collection
3.) Give your new collection a name, for example “Office 2007 Enterprise”
4.) On the Membership Rules dialog box, click the computer icon, which opens the Create Direct Membership Rule Wizard. Click Next
5.) On the Search for Resources dialog box, click the Resource class drop-down menu and select System Resource. Then, click the Attribute name drop-down menu and select Name. In the Value field enter %, and then click Next
6.) On the Collection Limiting dialog box, click the Browse button, select All Windows Workstation or Professional Systems, and then click Next
7.) Select the computer(s) you want to deploy Office 2007 and click Next

Step 2, creating a package:
1.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, Software Distribution, Package, New Package
2.) On the General dialog box of the New Package Wizard, enter the Name, Version, Manufacturer, and Language. For example, Office, 2007, Microsoft, English (US)
3.) On the Data Source dialog box, select This package contains source files. Click the Set button, and then enter the path for the location of the source files in the Source directory field. For example E:\Software\Office 2007\, which contains a copy of the 2007 Office Enterprise installation CD.
4.) Click OK, and then continue to click Next and accept the default settings on all of the following dialog boxes: Data Access, Distribution Settings, Reporting, and Security. On the Wizard Completed dialog box

Step 3, creating a Program:
1.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, Software Distribution, Packages, Office 2007, Programs, New, Program
2.) Give the new program a Name
3.) On the Command-line box, type in setup.exe (Because the customization file, CustomOffice.MSP, was placed in the \Updates folder, a command line option is not needed to reference its location)
4.) On the Environment dialog box, click the Program can run drop-down box and select Whether or not a user is logged on. This will enable Run with administrative rights for the Run mode. Leave the default for Drive mode to Runs with UNC name, and then click Next
5.) On the Advanced dialog box, select the check box for Suppress program notifications, and then click Next

Step 4, Copy to Distibution points:
1.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, Software Distribution, Packages, Office 2007, Distribution points
2.) Manage Distribution Points
3.) Select “Copy the package to new distribution points”
4.) Select the distribution points
5.) Click finish and wait a copple of minutes
6.) Check the status changing from Install Pending to Installed

Step 5, creating the advertisement
1.) Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager, Site Database, Computer Management, Software Distribution, Advertisements
2.) New Advertisement
3.) Give the advertisement a Name
4.) Select the package, Program and Collection
5.) Click finish and wait a copple of minutes
6.) On the client wait for the next Machine Policy Retrievel & Evaluation Cycle

After the setup is finished, Office 2007 is deployed to your client(s) and is ready to use!

1.) Open your control panel
2.) Configuration Manager
3.) Action tab
4.) Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle
5.) Initiate Action

The next option is to use the following script.
———————————————————————————————
on error resume next

dim oCPAppletMgr ‘Control Applet manager object.
dim oClientAction ‘Individual client action.
dim oClientActions ‘A collection of client actions.

‘Get the Control Panel manager object.
set  oCPAppletMgr=CreateObject("CPApplet.CPAppletMgr")
if err.number <> 0 then
    Wscript.echo "Couldn’t create control panel application manager"
    WScript.Quit
end if

‘Get a collection of actions.
set oClientActions=oCPAppletMgr.GetClientActions
if err.number<>0 then
    wscript.echo "Couldn’t get the client actions"
    set oCPAppletMgr=nothing
    WScript.Quit
end if

‘Display each client action name and perform it.
For Each oClientAction In oClientActions

    if oClientAction.Name = "Request & Evaluate Machine Policy" then
        wscript.echo "Performing action " + oClientAction.Name
        oClientAction.PerformAction
    end if
next

set oClientActions=nothing
set oCPAppletMgr=nothing
———————————————————————————————

————————————————————————————–
Dim ClientResource
Set ClientResource = CreateObject(“UIResource.UIResourceMgr”)
Set CacheInfo = ClientResource.GetCacheInfo
CacheInfo.TotalSize = 10000
————————————————————————————–

- Microsoft Application Virtualization Sequencer:
The Application Virtualization Sequencer ‘program’ is used to package virtual applications for deployment with Configuration Manager.

- Configuration Manager Site Server:
A part of the Configuration Manager Site hierarchy, the Configuration Manager Site Server manages virtual application distribution through
Configuration Manager Distribution Points to target systems, either as a streaming service, or as a locally delivered package.

- Configuration Manager Distribution Point (Distribution Point):
Configuration Manager Distribution Point site roles provide management services such as hardware and software inventory, operating system deployment, and software updates, as well as software distribution of both physical and virtual applications, to Configuration Manager target systems (often referred to as ‘clients’).

- Configuration Manager / Application Virtualization Clients:
Client devices include desktop/laptop PCs, terminal servers and Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD) clients.  Configuration Manager Clients that receive delivery of virtual applications from a Configuration Manager infrastructure require both the Configuration Manager Advanced Client and Application Virtualization Client software to be installed and configured.  The Configuration Manager and Application Virtualization Client software work together to deliver, interpret and launch virtual application packages.  The Configuration Manager Client manages the delivery of virtual application packages to the Application Virtualization Client. The Application Virtualization Client executes the virtual application on the client PC.

Configuration Manager and Application Virtualization Software Requirements:

- A healthy Configuration Manager infrastructure:
It is critical to ensure that the customer’s Configuration Manager infrastructure is healthy before enabling Configuration Manager’s virtual application management features.

Below you’ll find a list of the minimum Configuration Manager infrastructure components required for virtual application management with System Center Configuration Manager R2.

- Primary Site:
A Configuration Manager Primary Site with Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 + Configuration Manager 2007 R2 installed

- Site Server:
A Configuration Manager Site Server configured with the following site server roles:
     – Site System
     - Site Server
     – Component Server
     – Distribution Point
     – Fallback Status Point
     – Management Point
     – Reporting Point

- Distribution Point Servers:
One or more standard Distribution Point servers or Branch Distribution Point servers.  The use of a Branch Distribution Point requires at least one standard Distribution Point

- Clients:
One or more Configuration Manager Client PCs

Below you’ll find a list of the minimum Application Virtualization 4.5 infrastructure components required for virtual application management with System Center Configuration Manager R2.

- Application Virtualization Sequencer
     – Required to sequence applications
     – 4.5.0.1485 or later

- Application Virtualization Client for Windows Desktops
     – Required to run virtual applications on desktop and laptop PCs
     – 4.5.0.1485 or later

- Application Virtualization Client for Terminal Services
     – Required to run virtual applications on Windows Terminal Servers
     – 4.5.0.1485 or later

Book content:

1.) Microsoft’s Virtualization Solution
2.) Server Virtualization – Hyper-V
3.) Managing Virtualization – VMM 2008
4.) Application Virtualization – App-V
5.) Presentation Virtualization – Terminal Services
6.) Desktop Virtualization – MED-V and VDI
7.) User State Virtualization
8.) Building a Virtualization Infrastructure

Click the image below to optain a copy! 

In this example we are going to enable the Hardware Inventory Client Agent, so we know what hardware is available in our environment.

1.) Go to the Site Management, Your site name, Site Settings, Client Agents, Hardware Inventory Client Agent
2.) Open the properties
3.) Enable the “Enable hardware inventory on clients”
4.) Select a schedule interval
5.) On the client wait for the next “Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle” (to run this action directly, select “Initiate Action”)
6.) You’ll now see an extra action on your client “Hardware Inventory Cycle”
7.) On the client wait for the next “Hardware Inventory Cycle” (to run this action directly, select “Initiate Action”)
8.) Wait a few minutes so that all the collected items are commited into the Site Database
9.) Go to the Computer Management, Collections, All Systems
10.) Select the computer you want to view, right click, Start, Resource Explorer
11.) Now you see all the hardware of this computer

1.) Open your SCCM Management Console
2.) Go to Site Management, your site name, Site Settings, Site Maintenance, Tasks
3.) Here you see “Backup ConfigMgr Site Server”
4.) Open the properties of “Backup ConfigMgr Site Server”
5.) Enable this task, set the backup paths and select the schedule interval
     – Note: when your SCCM Database is on a different server, there’s a folder created on the E:\ drive of that server!
     – For exameple: one folder on server SRV-SCCM01 and one folder on server SRV-SCCM02.
6.) When you want to start the backup manual, you can start the following service on your SCCM Site Server
     – SMS_SITE_BACKUP
7.) Your SCCM environment is now succesfully backuped with exactly the same time stamps.

- Client push
- Software Update point
- Group Policy
- Manual
- Loginscript
- Software Distribution
- Imaging

In this example we are going to push the client to our servers and workstations.

1.) First you need to configure your boundaries. I’ve added a IP range of my workstation DHCP scope. This can also be:
     – IP subnet
     – Active Directory site
     – IPv6 prefix
     – IP address range
2.) Now we can enable the client push installation. Go to Site Management, your site name, Site Settings, Client Installation Methods, Client Push Installation.
     – Enable: “Enable Client Push Installation to assigned resources”
     – System types: Choose the system types where you want to install the SCCM clients
     – Accounts: Type in a account with administrator rights
     – Client: Type in the installation properties. In this example I’m using only the option SMSSITECODE=S01. For an overview of all the options, check the following link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb680980.aspx
3.) Make sure you’ve run an discovery, so the system where you want to install the client is succesfully discovered
4.) In order to successfully use client push to install the Configuration Manager 2007 client, you must add the following as exceptions to the Windows Firewall:
     – File and Printer Sharing
     – Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
5.) Right click on the system where you want to install the SCCM client and select Install Client
6.) After starting the installation, you’ll see the following proccess on your client
     – CCMSETUP.EXE, this is a sign that the installation is running
7.) When the installation is finished, there’s a new proccess CCMEXEC.EXE
8.) Verify that the agent is succesfully installed. Go to your control panel on your client and check the following new icons:
     – Configuration Manager
     – Remote Control
     – Run Advertised Programs

1.) Install the following Role: Webserver IIS
2.) Install the following Role Services of Webserver IIS
     – Web Server
          – Common HTTP Features
          – Static Content
          – Default Document
          – Directory Browsing
          - HTTP Errors
          – HTTP Redirection
     – Application Development
          – ASP.NET
          – .NET Extensibility
          – ASP
          – ISAPI Extensions
          – ISAPI Filters
     – Health and Diagnostics
          – HTTP logging
          – Logging tools
          – Request Monitor
          – Tracing
     – Security
          – Basic Authentication
          – Windows Authentication
          – URL Authorization
          – Request Filtering
          – IP and Domain Restrictions
     – Performance
          – Static Content Compression
     – Management Tools
          – IIS Management Console
          – IIS Management Scripts and Tools
          – Management Service
          – IIS 6 Management Compatibilty
          – IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
          – IIS 6 WMI Compatibility
          – IIS 6 Scripting Tools
          – IIS 6 Management Console
3.) Enable the following feature, BITS Server Extensions
4.) Enable the following feature, Remote Differential Compression
5.) Open the IIS Manager
6.) Open the WebDAV Authoring Rules
7.) Make a new Authoring Rule with:
     – Allow access to: All content
     - Allow access to this content to: All users
     - Permissions: Read
8.) Open the WebDAV Settings and edit the following options:
     – Allow Anonymous Property Queries: True
     – Allow Custom Properties: False
     – Allow Property Queries with Infinite Depth: True
     – Allow Hidden Files to be Listed: True
9.) Apply theses settings
10.) If you need to extend the Active Directory Schema, you’ve to use the LDIFDE tool. You need to install the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT):
     – ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS
11.) After the prerequisites check you can report the following logfile:
     – C:\ConfigMgrPrereq.log
     – C:\ConfigMgrSetup.log

In this example i’m going to enable the Active Directory System Discovery. In the following articles I’ll show you also the other discovery methods.

1.) Go to Site Settings and choose Discovery Methods
2.) Open the properties of Active Directory System Discovery
3.) Click on Enable Active Directory System Discovery
4.) Specify the location in your Active Directory you want to discover (root domain, OU level ect…)
5.) Specify the Polling schedule (when should the discovery proccess run)
6.) Enable Run discovery as soon as possible if the proccess must started directly!
7.) Specify the Active Directory attributes you want to discover
8.) After a copple of minutes go to you Computer Management, Collections, All Systems
9.) You’ll see your computer object from the Active Directory environment

1.) Internet Information Services (IIS)
2.) Enable network COM+ access
3.) Background Intelligent Transfer Services (BITS) Server Extensions
4.) Allow WebDAV Web Service Extensions

Now the environment is ready to start the installation. You can run the prerequisite checker to see if you’ve installed all the nessesary prequisites.

1.) The first site server is always the Primary SCCM server (Central Server)
2.) Choose the Custom settings, to specify your installation path, SQL server etc…
3.) The first server is always a Primary site
4.) Give the site a unique site code. This must be a unique 3 character code with a combination of letters, numbers or a combination of this two. For example S01, S02.
5.) Choose the mode for your SCCM environment. Note: for native mode requires a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
6.) Choose the agents you want to enable
7.) Specify the computername, instance and database name to store the SCCM database Note: Express Editions of SQL are not supported!!
8.) Enter the SMS Provider, used by the Configuration Manager Console to communicate with the site database
9.) Enter the FQDN of you Management Point. SCCM agents communite with the Management Point
10.) Specify the HTTP settings, default port 80 HTTP
11.) Download the latest updates to ensure the highest level of functionality and compatibility
12.) Check the settings summary
13.) Start the installation
14.) After the installation, check the following logfiles on your C:\ drive
     – ComponentSetup.log
     – ConfigMgrPrereq.log
     – ConfigMgrSetup.log

There are two ways to prepare your Active Directory environment.

1.) Running the EXTADSCH.exe from the installation media. This is a next, next, finish action.
2.) Import the schema extensions with LDIFDE. More actions, but a great logging option.

In my example I’ll use the LDIFDE tool, so the error reporting is much better.

1.) Copy the file CONFIGMGR_AD_SCHEMA.LDF to the local hard drive of your server. (you need to add the server name in this file!!)
2.) Open the file CONFIGMGR_AD_SCHEMA.LDF in Notepad
3.) Edit DC= in DC=DomainName. For example DC=SCCM,DC=LOCAL
4.) Open the command prompt
5.) Enter the following command ldifde -i -f .\CONFIGMGR_AD_SCHEMA.LDF -v -j .\log.txt
     * -i = Turn on Import Mode (The default is Export)
     * -f filename = Input or Output filename
     * -v = Turn on Verbose Mode
     * -j path = Log File Location
6.) Check the logfiles for any errors
7.) Give the SCCM Server full control permissions for performing the installation
8.) Open Active Directory Users & Computers
9.) Open the properties of the organizational unit System
10.) Go to the Security tab
11.) Add the new SCCM Server and give it Full Control to This object and all child objects
12.) Your Active Directory environment is now prepared for deploying SCCM 2007

1.) Install ProxyPal on the laptop or computer (you can deploy it with a GPO)
2.) Edit your GPO’s to hide the Connection tab in your Internet Settings. (Optional!!)
3.) The users can enable or disable the proxy server now

The first step is to enable the Recycle Bin feature. Make sure your functional level is Windows Server 2008 R2 and keep in mind that when you enable this feature, you can’t disable this feature anymore!!

1.) Start the  Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell
Import-Module ActiveDirectory

2.) View the actual settings of the Recycle Bin feature 
Get-ADOptionalFeature -Filter { name -like “Recycle*” }

3.) Enable the feature for your Active Directory environment 
Enable-ADOptionalFeature “Recycle Bin Feature” -Scope ForestOrConfigurationSet -Target E2K7SP2.LOCAL

4.) View all the deleted Active Directory objects 
Get-ADObject -SearchScope subtree -SearchBase “cn=Deleted Objects,dc=E2K7SP2,dc=LOCAL” -includeDeletedObjects -filter { name -notlike “Deleted*” }

5.) Restore the user objects you want 
Restore-ADObject -Identity “CN=User01\0ADEL:cc40dfd4-f671-4e90-90cc-3c8a33b18391,CN=Deleted Objects,DC=E2K7SP2,DC=LOCAL”
Restore-ADObject -Identity “CN=User02\0ADEL:394ec482-5bb2-4131-bdb4-7c92d7193987,CN=Deleted Objects,DC=E2K7SP2,DC=LOCAL”
Restore-ADObject -Identity “CN=User03\0ADEL:19f1bf8b-0227-486a-bc8d-ca72a342e116,CN=Deleted Objects,DC=E2K7SP2,DC=LOCAL”
Restore-ADObject -Identity “CN=User04\0ADEL:1b00b1c9-1f1f-4b74-b027-fa88feb4069d,CN=Deleted Objects,DC=E2K7SP2,DC=LOCAL”
Restore-ADObject -Identity “CN=User05\0ADEL:970b2597-4cf3-4971-87ea-9ada827e376d,CN=Deleted Objects,DC=E2K7SP2,DC=LOCAL”

6.) With this command you restore all the deleted items (Not Recommended!!)
Get-ADObject -SearchScope subtree -SearchBase “cn=Deleted Objects,dc=E2K7SP2,dc=LOCAL” -IncludeDeletedObjects -filter { name -notlike “Deleted*” } | Restore-ADObject

7.) All deleted Active Directory objects are restored now. Even the group membership of the users are restored!! Cool

• Exchange Server 2003 is not supported in Active Directory environments whose domain/forest functional levels have been raised beyond Windows Server 2003. However, Exchange Server 2003 SP2 can function against Windows Server 2008 Active Directory servers.
• Exchange Server 2007 is not supported on Windows Server 2008 R2. However, Exchange 2007 SP1 RU9 and SP2 are supported against Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory servers. In addition, Exchange 2007 SP1 RU9 and SP2 are supported in Active Directory environments whose domain/forest functional levels have been raised to Windows Server 2008 R2.
• Exchange 2007 SP2 is supported with PowerShell 2.0.

1.) Make a new Group Policy and link it to the Organizational Unit where the computer objects are placed
2.) Go to Computer Configuration\Policies\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Registry
3.) Add the following registry hives
     HKEY_Localmachine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\PowerCfg\GlobalPowerPolicy
     HKEY_Localmachine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\PowerCfg\PowerPolicies
4.) Edit the permissions for the BUILTIN\Users from Read to Full Control
5.) Reboot your client
6.) Login with an user on that client
7.) The user has now the ability to change the Power Scheme

You can download Exchange 2007 Serivce Pack 2 here.

Once you install the update, you can enable one or more of the following tools from the Control Panel under Programs, Turn Windows features on or off.

You can download RSAT here.

“Stand alone DC/GC can be Windows Server 2008 R2 and it is supported to have Exchange Server 2007 SP2 work against these DC/GCs.
There is NO support for any Exchange Server 2007 SP2 components (any roles, including admin tools) installed on Windows Server 2008 R2. Exchange Server 2007 SP2 will not even install on it – the pre-req check will fail during installation.”

So when you’re planning to upgrade to Microsoft Windows 2008 R2, keep in mind that you not upgrade your Exchange 2007 environment!

1.) First make some new INI file in your Flex_Config\ProfileSettings directory
2.) Edit the INI file and type in the RegisterTree or IndividualRegistryValues
3.) Login to your Terminal Server environment, start Adobe Reader and make some changes
4.) Logoff and check the users home directory if there’s a file called <INIfilename.ZIP> in my example AdobeReader9.ZIP. In this file you see all the registry settings!
5.) Login again and see that the settings are saved
6.) Delete the <INIfilename.ZIP> from the users home directory
7.) Login again to your Terminal Server environment
8.) As you can see, all the settings are gone!
9.) If you want to replace a backup, in the users home directory folder _Settings\Settings_Backup is a backup available automatically

I’m going to install this tool in my Windows 2003 Terminal Server environment.

– First install the Immidio Flex Profile application on your Terminal Server(s). When executing the Immidio Flex Profiles.msi file, no services are installed and no reboots are required. The Flex Profiles MSI file must be executed under an account with administrative privileges, since a small number of registry keys are added to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive.
Note! To install the Framework unattended, just run the following command. msiexec /i “\\Server\Share\Immidio Flex Profiles.msi” /qn

– The Flex Profiles framework includes a compressed file that is used for central configuration purposes: Flex_Config.zip. Extract this file in a central and fault tolerant network share using a Zip program, such as WinZip. The target folder can be a share on a file cluster or the NETLOGON share or SYSVOL folder on a domain controller. The scripts included in Flex_Config.zip help you to centrally configure Flex Profiles.

– Configuring the Flex Profiles in the logon and logoff script is rather simple. The syntax to activate Flex Profiles is as follows.

An example for a logon script may look as follows.
CSCRIPT /NOLOGO “%PROGRAMFILES%\Immidio\Flex Profiles\Flex_Framework.vbs” LOGON \\FLEX.local\NETLOGON\Flex_Config

In the logoff script, specify the LOGOFF option instead:
CSCRIPT /NOLOGO “%PROGRAMFILES%\Immidio\Flex Profiles\Flex_Framework.vbs” LOGOFF \\FLEX.local\NETLOGON\Flex_Config

IMPORTANT: Proper timing is essential when setting up Flex Profiles in a user logon script. It is recommended to run the Flex Framework script in the logon script after the home directories are mapped and before other application settings are configured. Additionally it is recommended to enable the policy Run logon scripts synchronously in order to prevent applications or the desktop from starting while the logon script is still running.

– In order to configure the Flex Profiles Framework the file Framework.ini in the Flex configuration folder needs to be opened and modified with an adequate ANSI editor, such as Notepad.

I’ve edit this setting to [LOCATIONS] STOREROOT, this setting configures the root of the path where the profile archives are stored.
STOREROOT=3 uses the user’s Terminal Server home directory directly from AD (Only supported with Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 in an AD environment). By default the vallue is 1.

– After you login on your Teminal Server environment, and you logoff, you’ll see the following folder in your users home directory _Settings. Here are the user specific settings that will be saved when the users are logoff. As you can see, all the .ZIP file are exactly the same as in your NETLOGON directory, were you can make you settings per application! You  can add new INI files if you want to add some application settings, or even delete some INI files from appliations that are not used in your environment.

SCC (Single copy cluster)
was what I would call a traditional Exchange cluster which used shared storage to host the Exchange database.

CCR (cluster continuous replication)
was used to replicate Exchange database information between 2 Exchange server allowing for hardware and storage redundancy but was limited to 1 Active node and 1 Passive node.

SCR (standby continuous replication)
was introduced in Exchange 2007 SP1 to provide the ability to replicate Exchange databases to an disaster recovery location.

– Enter the productkey:
slmgr.vbs -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

– Activate Windows:
slmgr.vbs -ato

– Rename the computer:
Netdom renamecomputer “%computername%” /newname:SRV-RODC01 /reboot:15

– Show all network interfaces:
Netsh interface ipv4 show interface

– Set a static IP address:
Netsh interface ipv4 set address name=2 source=static address=172.16.1.11 mask=255.255.0.0 gateway=172.16.1.1
(make sure that you’re choosing the right network interface. In this example it’s 2, so name=2 it means interface 2)

– Set a static DNS server:
Netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name=2 address=172.16.1.10 index=1

– Turn Remote Desktop (RDP) on:
Cscript %windir%\system32\SCRegEdit.wsf /ar 0

– Enable Remote Desktop (RDP) in the Windows Firewall:
netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”remote desktop” new enable=yes
(Note: type this rule in by your self, copy past will give an error!)

– Enable Remote Management (RemoteCMD) in the Windows Firewall:
netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”Remote Administration” new enable=yes
(Note: type this rule in by your self, copy past will give an error!)Making the unattended.txt:
Copy and past the following test into the new textfile and save this file on the C: drive of the Core Server.
==================================================
[DCInstall]
InstallDNS=Yes
ConfirmGc=Yes
CriticalReplicationOnly=No
DisableCancelForDnsInstall=No
Password=********
RebootOnCompletion=No
ReplicaDomainDNSName=GPO.local
ReplicaOrNewDomain=ReadOnlyReplica
ReplicationSourceDC=srv-w2k8dc01.gpo.local
SafeModeAdminPassword=********
SiteName=Default-First-Site-Name
UserDomain=GPO.local
UserName=Administrator
==================================================

 – Run the DCPROMO
dcpromo /unattend:c:\unattend.txt15)

– Reboot the Domain Controller
shutdown -r -t 0

As you can see, when you make a connection to the RODC, you’re not be able to make any changes to existing users or groups and the option “New” is hidden when you right-click in your environment.

In the next post i’m going to delete a RODC from the environment. (for example if your server is stolen or something like that).

The first step is to create a fresh Mandatory Profile.

1.) Create a new local user on a Windows 2003 Server machine and make that user member of the Local Administrators Group.
2.) Login with that that user.
3.) Make your changes.
4.) Right-click on your computer, Properties, Advanced, Settings (unther User Profiles).
5.) Select your template user and click Copy To
6.) Browse to your share on your server.
7.) Change Permitted to use to Everyone Full Controll.
8.) The last step is to rename your NTUSER.dat to NTUSER.man, this makes your profile Mandatory (Read-Only).

Now we’re going to publish this mandatory profile to all the RES PowerFuse Agents, so the Mandatory profile is present on each PC with the RES PowerFuse Agent.

1.) Open your RES PowerFuse Management Console.
2.) Click on RES PowerFuse Setup, Datastore, Custom Resources
3.) Click on Add, browse to your Mandatory Profile share

As you can see, there’s now your Mandatory Profile. It will be published to all the RES PowerFuse Agents. The default location is: C:\Program Files\RES PowerFuse\Data\DBCache\Resources\custom-resources

The last step is to edit the profile path from your Active Directory Users.

1.) Open Active Directory Users and Computers on your Domain Controller.
2.) Locate your users
3.) Select one or more users and click Properties
4.) Go to the Terminal Services Profile tab
5.) Type in the path to the local Mandatory Profile
C:\Program Files\RES PowerFuse\Data\DBCache\Resources\custom_resources\Mandatory-2003

Now the users are ready to login on your Terminal Server environment with RES PowerFuse.

For this example I’ve deleted the OU (Organizational Unit) where my computer objects are placed. The consequenses….Yes, the computers are not longer trusted to this domain, OOPS!!

By default the Active Directory markes all the deleted objects as IsDeleted True. The objects are not vissible any more in your Active Directory, but they still there. This calls tombstoned objects. By default tombstoned objects will be available for 60 days in a Windows 2000/2003 Active Directory and 180 days in a Windows 2003 SP1 of 2008 Active Directory.

As you can see, I’ve deleted the OU Omgeving with the sub OU’s Laptop and PC and all the computers objects in this OU’s. Now we’re going to restore everything back! Note: make sure you first restore the highest OU, than the sub OU’s and finally the computer objects.

1.) Start the command prompt (Start, Run, CMD)
2.) Locate ADRESTORE.EXE
3.) Type in ADRESTORE -R Omge* (this will find all deleted object starting with Omge)
4.) Restore the OU Omgeving by pressing Y
5.) Type in ADRESTORE -R Lap* (this will find all deleted object starting with Lap)
6.) Restore the OU Laptop by pressing Y
7.) Type in ADRESTORE -R PC
8.) Restore the OU PC by pressing Y
9.) Type in ADRESTORE -R PC* (this will find all deleted objects starting with PC)
10.) Restore the computer objects PC01 till PC10 by pressing Y
11.) 9.) Type in ADRESTORE -R LT* (this will find all deleted objects starting with LT)
10.) Restore the computer objects LT01 till LT10 by pressing Y

When you’ve restored all the objects, these are disabled by default, so you’ve to enabled them manually!

Well, I’ve done the scouring for you and the default password is wSS2008!

Hopefully that helps someone out!

- Drive Maps
- Environment variables
- Files
- Folders
- Ini files
- Registry keys
- Shortcuts

In my testenvironment I’ve build a custom start menu for the user in my environment. You can do this by using the User Preferences. When you’re using Item-Level targeting, you can manage what users are getting some shortcuts. In this example I’m using Item-Level targeting with Security Groups, so when a user is member of a specific security group, he’ll receive the shortcut in his start menu.

1.) First make a new Group Polciy
2.) Go to User Configuration, Preferences, Windows Settings, Shortcuts
3.) Create a new shortcut
4.) Fill in the right path’s **picture 3**
5.) Go to the Common tab
6.) Enable “Remove this item when it is no longer applied” (note: this will change the “Action” to Replace)
7.) Enable “Item-level targeting” and click “Targeting”
8.) Select the way off targeting (note: in this example I’m using Security Group)
9.) Make the right users members of the security group
10.) Logon to your workstation and check your start menu

As you can see, based on the group membership, User01 get’s his shorcuts to the different applications. This can also be configured on the other User Preferences.

Update Rollup 9 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 fixes the issues that are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

Get-EventLog *
(gives an overview of all the available event sources)

When you put the following commands into a PS1 file and schedule it on a specific server, you’ll receive the event logs in an e-mail!
(in this example you’ll receive an e-mail from eventviewer@e2k10.local with the 10 newest event logs)

—————————————————————————
$body = Get-EventLog -LogName “dns server” -Newest 10 | out-string
$From = “eventviewer@e2k10.local”
$to = “administrator@e2k10.local”
$server = “srv-exc2010.e2k10.local”
$subject = “Event Viewer – srv-exc2010.e2k10.local”
$msg = new-object System.Net.Mail.MailMessage $From, $to, $subject, $body
$client = new-object System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient $Server
$Client.Send($msg)
—————————————————————————

All the userprofiles are still there when the user logoff, included only one directory and one file…hgfs.dat. The file hgfs.dat comes from VMware shared folder feature. The files is created in the profile of the first user that logs on. The file handle is kept open and therefore you might get more profile folders for the same user.

I’ve fixed it with the following VMware (VMware FAQ1317) article.

1.) Open regedit on your Terminal Server
2.) Locate the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider\Order
3.) Edit the key ProviderOrder
4.) Remove vmhgfs
5.) Close regedit
6.) Reboot your Terminal Server

As Edwin says on his blog, “So to the Dutch community I want to say lets go and let us build a real cool CUG together”. Guys, congratulations with this new CUG and let’s hope it will be very succesfull! See you on the forums

1.) Open the RES Wisdom Management Console
2.) Open RES Wisdom, Infrastructure, Agents
3.) Right-click and select Add
4.) Select the target computer
5.) Select agent and click Deploy now…
6.) Enter some admin credentials to perform the installation
7.) On the target computer you’ll see the process WISDeploy.exe
8.) After the installation fished succesfully, there’s a new service running on the target computer. RES Wisdom Agent Service.
9.) Now you see there’s one agents available in your RES Wisdom Management Console.

let’s update the Address Lists!

Set-AddressList “All Users” -IncludedRecipients MailboxUsers

Set-AddressList “All Groups” -IncludedRecipients MailGroups

Set-AddressList “All Contacts” -IncludedRecipients MailContacts

Set-AddressList “Public Folders” -RecipientFilter { RecipientType -eq ‘PublicFolder’ }

“Unable to edit the specified E-mail address policy. E-mail address policies created with legacy versions of Exchange must be upgraded using the ‘Set-EmailAddressPolicy’ task, with the Exchange 2007 Recipient Filter specified.”

Oké, let’s update the recipient policy! With the following command you can see the properties of this recipient policy.

Get-EmailAddressPolicy | fl Name,*RecipientFilter*,ExchangeVersion

Set-EmailAddressPolicy “Default Policy” -IncludedRecipients AllRecipients

After running this commands, you’re able to edit the “Default Policy” again.

For a overview off all the options after the pipe command, you can the following command.

Get-Mailbox -Identity <useralias> | fl

Get-Mailbox | fl UserPrincipalName, ServerName, PrimarySMTPaddress, Emailaddresses

1.) Open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
2.) Navigate to the Web Sites, Default Web Sites
3.) Creat a new Virtual Directory with the alias Iisadmpwd
4.) Browse to the following path: C:\Windows\System32\Inetsrv\Iisadmpwd
5.) Allow the following permissions: Read, Run scripts, Execute
6.) Enable the change password button in OWA by opening regedit and create the following REG_DWORD – DisablePassword with the value 0 (zero)
 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeWEB\OWA
7.) Register the following DLL from the command prompt.
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\inetsrv\iisadmpwd\iispwchg.dll
8.) Restart your IIS Server with the command iisreset /noforce

       

get-mailboxserver Servername | add-adpermission -user svc-backup -accessrights GenericRead, GenericWrite -extendedrights  Send-As, Receive-As, ms-Exch-Store-Admin

1) Backup your SQL 2005 databases
2) Backup your RMS encryption key
3) Backup your IIS metabase
4) Backup your management packs (unsealed)
5) Backup your files
6) Backup your registry

Step 1) Backup your SQL 2005 databases
First off al we are going to backup the SQL 2005 databases.
- OperationsManager
- ReportServer
- ReportServerTempDB
       

Step 2) Backup your RMS encryption key
The next step is to backup the RMS (Root Management Server) encryption key.
We are going to use the tool SecureStorageBackup.exe, located in the installation directory of SCOM 2007.
       

Step 3) Backup your IIS metabase
The next step is to backup the IIS metabase.
       

Step 4) Backup your management packs (unsealed)
Now we are going to backup the unsealed management packs. The sealed management packs can be downloaded from the vendor’s website again.
       

Step 5) Backup your files
The next step is to backup the SCOM 2007 configuration files. Make sure you backup the following directory.(in my example!!)
- C:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager
This can also be different, but this is the installation directory of your SCOM 2007 environment.
- C:\Program Files\System Center Management Packs
This is the defualt location of your sealed management packs.

Step 6) Backup your registry
The last step is to backup some registry keys. Make sure you backup the following registry keys.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Operations Manager
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Operations Manager
   

Update Rollup 8 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 fixes the issues that are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

• 948856  Event ID 9667 occurs when you create a new named property on an Exchange Server 2007 server
• 952935  A software update is available that provides the log tracing feature for the LogTruncator tag in Exchange Server 2007
• 954639  Exchange Information Store service stops responding intermittently on an Exchange 2007 server
• 955480  Meeting requests from external senders are displayed as Busy instead of Tentative in an Exchange 2007 environment
• 956633  User calendar permissions are removed after you run the Set-MailboxCalendarSettings cmdlet in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
• 957640  The “test-*” command fails when you run it on a site that contains only CAS roles in an Exchange 2007 environment
• 958239  Exchange Server 2007 does not generate an event log message for public folder replication messages even though a property validation exception is thrown and the replications do not occur
• 958881  All HTML content in attachment files of messages is run through an HTML filter when you open or save the attachment by using Outlook Web Access (OWA)
• 958938  The importance attribute of a message is lost when an Exchange 2007 user accesses a high-importance message or a low-importance message from Exchange Server 2007 by using a non-Outlook POP3 client or IMAP4 client
• 959510  A meeting request that is sent from OWA causes a “553 5.0.0 Message-Id header line format error” NDR message in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
• 959748  An account with the “Exchange View-Only Administrator” permission can review user mailbox contents by using an administrative application in Exchange Server 2007
• 959861  Some clients cannot connect to back-end Exchange Server 2003 IMAP servers after Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 RU2 is applied
• 959990  An error occurs when you try to update a recurring appointment by using an Outlook client that is connected to an Exchange 2007 server
• 960178  You receive an NDR when you send an e-mail using OWA Premium and the ANR cache if the Exchange organization name has more than one space
• 960354  Edge Attachment Filtering does not honor the ExceptionConnectors value in Exchange Server 2007
• 960367  Error message when you run the Export-Mailbox command on a folder that has more than 5000 items in Exchange 2007: “-1056749164″
• 960495  The Information Store service crashes continuously on an Exchange Server 2007 server
• 960633  The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service crashes on an Exchange Server 2007 that has the mailbox server role installed
• 960703  Extended characters are replaced by question marks when you send an e-mail message that contains extended ASCII characters by using an IMAP4 client in Exchange 2007
• 960775  You receive a “Message too large for this recipient” NDR that has the original message attached after you restrict the Maximum Message Send Size value in Exchange Server 2007
• 960869  A queue that has multiple connections cannot enter a Retry state in Exchange Server 2007
• 961152  The Exchange information store service (Store.exe process) crashes intermittently when you migrate user data from Lotus Notes to Exchange Server 2007
• 961347  Error message when you export an Exchange 2007 mailbox to a .pst file and a filter is defined: “Export-Mailbox : Error was found for &lt;username&gt; (&lt;SMTP address&gt;)”
• 961443  Users cannot use Outlook Web Access for Exchange Server 2007 to open an address book
• 961524  Some journal messages are stuck in the Submission queue in Exchange Server 2007
• 961606  After you apply Rollup Update 5 for Exchange Server 2007 S961606, Outlook Web Access users find the font size of plain text messages is extremely small when they use some third-party Web browsers
• 961693  Japanese (1 byte Kana) characters in the subject and display name are corrupted when you try to reply or forward task requests or calendar items in Outlook client
• 962235  The date and time information for a “Follow Up” flag is missing if an Exchange 2007 user sends a message to an external recipient
• 966535  Duplicate messages are sent to an external recipient if the recipient is included in multiple distribution lists in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
• 967038  Many log entries are generated in Exchange Server 2007 if you turn on the Exchange log to audit the logons that do not use the primary account for shared resource mailboxes
• 967097  Users may receive duplicate calendar items for the updated instance on mobile devices
• 967109  A delegate cannot accept a meeting request for an online meeting in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
• 967255  Only the tracing information of the last user is logged when you configure Exchange Server 2007 to trace multiple users at the same time
• 968310  Many log entries are generated on an Exchange Server 2007 computer when you enable the Exchange log to audit user logons that do not use the primary account for their mailbox
• 968352  The W3wp.exe process crashes when you use the Italian version of the spelling checker on a message in Outlook Web Access in Exchange 2007
• 968589  The managed policy does not work if the ptagProvisionedFid attribute is missing in Exchange Server 2007
• 968673  The EdgeTransport.exe file of Exchange 2007 servers crashes continuously and Event ID 10003 and Event ID 5000 occur
• 968745  Incomplete tasks show in the Complete tasks view in OWA 2007 in an Exchange 2007 environment
• 968966  Many log entries are generated in Exchange Server 2007 if you turn on the Exchange log to audit administrator logons that do not use the primary account for mailboxes
• 969690  Unresolved sender for delivery status notifications after applying update rollup 7 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
• 970687  A search operation in Outlook does not return a correct result if there is a corrupted HTML message in the target folder in an Exchange Server 2007 environment

————————————————————————————
The mailbox database ‘DB01′ cannot be deleted.

DB01
Failed
Error:
This mailbox database contains one or more mailboxes or arbitration mailboxes. To get a list of all mailboxes in this database, run the command Get-Mailbox -Database <Database ID>. To get a list of all arbitration mailboxes in this database, run the command Get-Mailbox -Database <Database ID> -Arbitration. To disable a non-arbitration mailbox so that you can delete the mailbox database, run the command Disable-Mailbox <Mailbox ID>. Arbitration mailboxes should be moved to another server; run the command Move-Mailbox <Mailbox ID> -Arbitration -TargetDatabase <Database ID>.  To remove the arbitration mailbox if this is the last server in the organization, run the command Remove-Mailbox <Mailbox ID> -Arbitration -RemoveLastArbitrationMailboxAllowed.
————————————————————————————

You cannot remove the database, because there are some mailboxes in it. Oké….let’s have look what mailboxes are left in this mailbox database.

Get-Mailbox -Database DB01

As you can see, there are no mailboxes left in de mailbox database, but why we are still receiving this error!! This is the answer…….there are two hidden mailboxes left in de mailbox database, called arbitration mailboxes. With the following command you’re able to see this mailboxes

Get-Mailbox -Database DB01 -Arbitration | ft -wrap -auto

When you move these two mailboxes to another mailbox database, all the error messages are gone! So let’s do that!

Move-Mailbox “SystemMailbox{1f05a927-3be2-4fb9-aa03-b59fe3b56f4c}”  -Arbitration -TargetDatabase DB02
Move-Mailbox “SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9}”  -Arbitration -TargetDatabase DB02

—————————————————————————————————
Get-DistributionGroup | select name , alias ,EmailAddresses | foreach {
  “Name: “+$_.name
  “Alias: “+$_.alias
   $_.EmailAddresses | foreach {
     if($_.SmtpAddress){
     “SmtpAddress: “+$_.SmtpAddress
   }
}
write-host
}
—————————————————————————————————

When you copy and past this code in notepad and save it as Get_Dis.ps1 , you get the following export for example:

Name: Exchange Team
Alias: ExchangeTeam
SmtpAddress: Exchange2003Team@e2k7.local
SmtpAddress: Exchange2007Team@e2k7.local
SmtpAddress: ExchangeTeam@e2k7.local

Name: ICT Helpdesk
Alias: ICTHelpdesk
SmtpAddress: Helpdesk@e2k7.local
SmtpAddress: ICTHelpdesk@e2k7.local

Name: ICT Management
Alias: ICTManagement
SmtpAddress: ICTManagement@e2k7.local

In this example i’ve choosen for the “Automaic Computer Discovery”. With the “Advanced Discovery” you’ve some more options to discover you’re clients and servers, for example with a custom LDAP query on your Active Directory to find a specific client or server in your environment.

First off all install the following prerequisites:

- Windows Powershell 1.0
- .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1
- IIS (Internet Information Services
- ASP.NET 2.0
- COM+ components

After this is all done, we can install Microsoft SQL 2005 server for the SCOM database.*
*(Note! When you have more than ten SCOM agents, it’s recommended that you install a dedicated Microsoft SQL 2005 server)