Message tracking in Microsoft Exchange 2013….the easy way!

 

In Microsoft Exchange 2010 there was a very easy and powerfull tool, message tracking viewer. With this graphical tool you could track any message within your Exchange organization.

With Exchange 2013, the message tracking is not graphical anymore. So it’s not that easy to track some messages. The new way to go is Windows PowerShell! With the following example, you can easy create a overview of all the messages in your Exchange environment.

Get-MessageTrackingLog -ResultSize Unlimited -Start “Jul 15 2015″ | Out-GridView -Title “Exchange SMTP tracking log”

 

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You can create a search filter based on, for example: EventID, Sender, Recipients or Subject.

 

How to: View configured mailbox quota’s in Exchange 2010/2013 using Out-GridView

When you’ve configured mailbox quota’s within your Exchange 2010/2013 environment, you’ve to check the configuration sometimes. Using Microsoft PowerShell, you can watch the current configuration within a few second, so this is extremely powerfull!! But, when you have to query for some specific user or result, it’s not that easy.

There’s a very usefull command within PowerShell that I’m using almost for all my scripts….Out-GridView. When using the parameter Out-GridView, the results are not showing within the PowerShell screen, but in a separate window! Within this window, you can very easy add some search criteria….for example: specific user, quota or an overview per database.

One requirement is that the Windows Feature “Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE)” is installed on the Exchange servers or mangement server from where you’re running the commands.

1.) Open the Exchange Management Shell (EMS)
2.) For an overview of the current mailbox quota, use the following command.
Get-Mailbox -Identity mswinkels | ft Name, IssueWarningQuota, ProhibitSendQuota, ProhibitSendReceiveQuota
3.) The results of this command is shown within the PowerShell window
4.) Now we’re running the same command, but replace “ft” (format-table) with “select” and add the parameter “Out-GridView”
Get-Mailbox -Identity mswinkels | Select Name, IssueWarningQuota, ProhibitSendQuota, ProhibitSendReceiveQuota | Out-GridView
5.) Now the results are in a separate window! Extreme usefull when you’ve have to search for a specific result or results.

25-06-2015 10-11-47    25-06-2015 10-13-47    25-06-2015 10-15-00

25-06-2015 10-16-22    25-06-2015 10-20-51    25-06-2015 10-21-12

Microsoft Server Posterpedia Windows 8.1 App

Microsoft released an update in the Windows App Store for their Server Posterpedia App, including the new Hyper-V 2012 R2 posters and some design changes.

Server Posterpedia is an interactive app that uses technical posters as a reference for understanding Microsoft technologies. This app includes all the reference posters from different Microsoft Server Technologies such as Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, Exchange or Windows Azure. The great thing about this App, you can not only checkout the different posters and zoom in, if you click on a specific topic for you get directly linked to the right TechNet article. This can help find some TechNet references really easy and fast.

Download the Posterpedia App in the Windows Store.

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Upgraded my homelab!!

Finally my new home lab environment is up and running. After building a copple of hours, my new monster was ready to rock!! I’ve installed Windows Server 2012 with the Hyper-V server role….and WOW, it really rocks!! The next few moths I’m going to build a big environment, with System Center 2012, Exchange 2013, Windows Server 2012 and many, many, many more cool products!! 🙂

* AMD A8 3870K 3.00GHz 4MB FM1 Box
* Asus F1A75-V PRO AMD A75, SATA600 RAID, HDMI
* Corsair 32GB PC3-14900 DDR3 SDRAM Vengeance (4x 8GB, 1866MHz)

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KEMP LoadMaster v7.0-4 firmware is now available with Edge Security Pack

Kemp announced  Firmware release LoadMaster 7.0-4. Now Microsoft has announced that the support for Microsoft TMG will stop, we have to look further for an reverse proxy solution. Ofcource  there is Microsoft UAG, but with the new Edge Security Pack for KEMP Load Master, it is now possible to configure reverse proxy within the load balancers! Here you can view the new announcement from KEMP Technologies!

Figure_01

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New Features and Feature Enhancements:
•Edge Security Pack – A range of new security features has been added to the LoadMaster.
•Sub-VS Support – The LoadMaster now supports the creation and management of sub-VSs.
•Graphical Metrics – There is a new dashboard home screen with the capability to display graphical performance information.
•New License format – A new license format has been introduced
•Oracle VirtualBox VLM – A new VLM package, to support VLM installation within an Oracle VirtualBox environment is available
•MIBS files have been updated
•SID and revision information included in IPS logging
•VLAN Separation per Interface •Support for larger TCP window sizes
•‘Kill switch’ is now supported on all LoadMaster versions
•LM-R320 has its serial number visible on the WUI
•The Netconsole Host interface is configurable via the WUI

Issues Resolved:
•Issue with SMTP STARTTLS when a client sends an EHLO is resolved
•Issue with ACL whitelist allowing other IPs is resolved
•Issue with switching VS types under load is resolved
•Some reboot issues have been resolved
•An issue with caching on Firefox has been resolved
•The “-“ character is now allowed in the DNS Search Domain field
•Issues with the MIBS have been resolved
•A circular routing problem has been resolved
•SNMP trap Source IP has been changed to pre 5.1-48 behaviour
•SSL renegotiation can be toggled on/off
•SSLv2 is no longer used for LoadMaster initiated SSL connections
•An issue with Not Available Redirection XSS has been resolved
•The Default IP is now displayed on the WUI when DHCP fails
•An issue with VS Specific insert X-Clientside header being overwritten by system default has been resolved
•The “-“ character is now allowed in the User Login field
•An issue with the Fail on Match functionality has been resolved
•An issue with Maximum Cache Size has been resolved

Known Issues:
• Quick setup Help appears automatically if no IP address is configured on the LM if a VLAN is configured on eth0 and no IP address is assigned to the underlying interface (eth0)

LoadMaster version v7.0-4 supports the following hardware:
•LM-2000
•LM-2200
•LM-2500
•LM-2600
•LM-3500
•LM-3600
•LM-5300
•LM-5500
•LM-Exchange
•LM-R320
•VLM-100
•VLM-1000
•VLM-Exchange

NOTE – ESP is supported on select LoadMaster models and new VLM installations.

Learn more about LoadMaster 7.0:

Manual
Full Release Notes
Full Documentation

Released: Exchange Server 2013 RTM Cumulative Update 1

Yesterday, the Microsoft Exchange Team has released Cumulative Update 1 for Exchange 2013 RTM. CU1 is the minimum version of Exchange 2013 required for on-premises coexistence with supported legacy Exchange Server versions. The final build number for CU1 is 15.0.620.29.

This is the Exchange 2013 product level required for co-existence with previous versions of Exchange, being Exchange Server 2010 SP3 or Exchange Server 2007 SP3 Rollup 10.

The Exchange Team provided a description of the major changes in CU1. You will find the announcement here;
Here are some of the major changes in CU1:

  • Includes Address Book Policy Routing Agent (info);
  • Allows group memberships to be managed by groups (again, as it was possible in Exchange 2007 but not in );
  • Access to Public Folders you have added as favorites via your favorites menu either in Outlook or Outlook Web App (still no regular Public Folder tree access though);
  • EAC has been enhanced and now includes Unified Messaging management and migration options;
  • Many probes, monitors, and responders have been updated and improved over the RTM release;
  • Get-HealthReport cmdlet has been streamlined and its performance has been optimized;
  • Supports the Exchange Server 2013 Management Pack for SCOM 2007 R2 and SCOM 2012 (due at a later date);
  • High Availability changes

You can download Cumulative Update 1 for Exchange 2013 here.

Be aware, this update requires some preparation first. So be carefull and read the release notes before hitting the install button 😉

The RTM versions of Exchange 2013, Lync 2013 and Office 2013 are now available on MSDN and Technet

The RTM versions of Exchange 2013, Lync 2013 and Office 2013 are now available for download on MSDN and Technet. Cool!!

MSDN Links:
Lync Server 2013 (x64) – DVD (English)
Exchange Server 2013 (x64) – DVD (Multilanguage)
Office Web Apps 2013 (x64) – DVD (English)
Office Professional Plus 2013 (x64) – DVD (English)
Office Professional Plus 2013 (x86) – DVD (English)
SharePoint Server 2013 (x64) – DVD (English)
Visio Professional 2013 (x64) – (English)
Visio Professional 2013 (x86) – (English)
Project Professional 2013 (x64) – (English)
Project Professional 2013 (x86) – (English)