Pro-Exchange,Lync & Office 365

Kemp Loadmaster now officially supported for Lync (Hardware & Software Load Balancer)

Johan Delimon — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:30:00 GMT

Kemp Official Lync Page
http://www.kemptechnologies.com/us/service/mslyncinfo.html

Kemp Loadmaster is Officially supported for both Hardware and Software Loadbalancing (Virtual Loadbalancer)

Hardware Load Balancers for Lync Server 2010 &
Software Load Balancers for Lync Server 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/lync/gg269419

Roundtable HD is here (Polycom CX5000)

Johan Delimon — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:01:00 GMT

Polycom^® CX5000 HD

Unified Conference Station Optimized for Microsoft® Lync™

Delivers HD active speaker video in an engaging, unique 360-degree group video experience
Brings HD video, voice, and content together into one seamless interactive session
Improves interaction for faster and more effective decision making, and lower costs
Easy to deploy and use

More Info:
http://www.polycom.com/products/voice/conferencing_solutions/microsoft_optimized_conferencing/cx5000.html

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Support for Large Meetings (Up to 1000 participants)

Johan Delimon — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:13:00 GMT

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Support for Large Meetings

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 can support large meetings with up to 1000 participants using audio/video (A/V) conferencing, including sharing PowerPoint presentations. This support requires a dedicated pool configured to support large meetings and managed in a way that ensures hosting of only a single large meeting at a time.

This white paper describes how to support large meetings using a dedicated Lync Server 2010 pool. It describes scalability considerations and the implementation requirements for a dedicated pool, including topology, hardware, software, and configuration requirements. It also provides a set of best practice recommendations for supporting large meetings, a summary of the test methods and results of server scalability testing conducted by the Lync Server engineering team, and the answers to frequently asked questions about support for large meetings.

Supporting Large Meetings Using Lync Server 2010

Large meetings do not follow the test model described in the previous section because they have the following characteristics:

· The meeting format is a one-to-many presentation.

· One or a few users are presenters, and everyone else participates only as attendees.

· PowerPoint presentation sharing is the main data collaboration activity.

· Audio is required and video may also be used.

· A dedicated person, generally either the meeting organizer or an assistant to the organizer sets up the meeting well in advance.

· Dedicated staff (not the presenters) runs the meeting, including connecting to online meeting, verifying that audio, video, and slide sharing work, managing lobby and user roles, muting and unmuting participants, taking questions, and managing recordings, as appropriate.

Download:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28775

Finally the Microsoft PST capture tool has arrived…

Tonino — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:55:00 GMT

As a result of customer feedback Microsoft acquired Red Gate’s solution to import PST files and continued to improve it to provide an enterprise ready PST discovery and importing tool. You can use the tool to import PST directly into your on-premise or cloud based Exchange 2010 environment.

This tool will not only scan the targeted computers for any PST files but also allows you to import PST file’s from NAS filers, although the later requires you to perform the discovery manually and upload the location of the discovered PST files into the tool for further processing. To discover PST files on the targeted computers the “PST Capture Agent” has to be deployed first.

PST Capture is comprised of the following components:

PST Capture Central Service At the heart of PST Capture is the PST Capture Central Service. The Central Service maintains the list of all PST files found in your organization and manages the data as it’s moved to the Exchange servers or Exchange Online.
PST Capture Agent Discovery of the PST files is performed by PST Capture agents that are installed on computers in your organization. The agents also send the PST files they find to the host computer when an import operation is started on the PST Capture Console.
PST Capture Console The PST Capture Console is the interface you use to configure PST searches, specify the target mailboxes for PST files, and track the status of PST import operations and reports. You can also use the console to import PST files stored on network attached storage (NAS) devices, on which you can’t install PST agents.

For optimal operation, you should install the PST Capture Central Service and the PST Capture Console on a dedicated computer, known as the PST Capture host computer.

Screenshot taken from the technical documentation:

For more information:

EHLO Blog Posting: .PST, Time to Walk the Plank

Download the MSI Packages

Technical Documentation

How to automatically avoid running Exchange VMs on the same Hyper-V server after a host failure

Michael Van Horenbeeck — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:27:21 GMT

If you are running Exchange 2010 in a virtualized environment, chances are that you are doing so in a cluster with multiple host servers; whether they are running VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-V or any other’s vendor hypervisor. In this article, we will take a look at how to achieve this for Exchange servers. (Note that this approach is actually valid for any other type of VM)

To minimize the risk that the failure of a single host affects multiple Exchange servers (and thus possibly causing more damage), you’d logically want the Exchange servers to run each on a separate host server – also after a failure. By doing so, you increase the resiliency of your Exchange environment because a single host failure will not be able to take out your entire Exchange environment. The same logic applies to any other application running on multiple servers (e.g. Domain Controllers).

Let’s take the example of a 3-node cluster with 2 Exchange servers:

On the first Hyper-V Host Server, we are running our first Exchange Server along with another VM
The second Hyper-V server is running our second Exchange server and some other VMs
The third Hyper-V host is only running some other VMs

In case our first server would fail, the EX01 VM would – by default – be allocated to one of the other available nodes which is running the lowest amount of VMs. In this case, that would be Hyper-V HOST3 (only running 2 VMs vs. 3 on HOST2). Because EX01 is moved to HOST3, both Exchange servers are still running on a separate host; so there’s no real issue here.

However, consider the following situation:

The third host is now running more VM’s than the second host. In case of a failure of the first Hyper-V server, the EX01 VM would normally be moved to the second Hyper-V host which is already running an Exchange server…
Although this does not necessarily need to be a problem, since it’s very unlikely that you will lose two hosts at once or with little time between failures, it is possible that you somehow also lose your second server and as a result fail both your Exchange servers and therefore your entire messaging environment. A scenario which you – obviously – would want to avoid.

AntiAffinityClassNames

“AntiAffinityClassNames” is a cluster group property which allows you to configure where Hyper-V will attempt to move a VM to (e.g. after a failure). You need to configure each VM (cluster group) with a similar value for the property. When a failure occurs and Hyper-V needs to move the VM from the failed host to another host, it will take the value of this property into consideration and avoid moving a VM to a host which already runs another VM with the same value for that property. Only if there’s no other alternative Hyper-V server available, both VMs will be placed on the same host.

Let’s take the example of above, but this time the AntiAffinityClassNames property has been set to “EXCH” on both Exchange servers:

If the first Hyper-V host would fail, normally the EX01 Virtual Machine would be moved to the second host because that hosts runs less VMs than the third one. However; because of the property we’ve just set, Hyper-V would notice that there is already a similar VM running on the second host and it will move the EX01 VM to the third host anyway:

The second VM that was running on HOST1 would be moved to HOST2 since we haven’t made any change to it’s configuration.

Configuring AntiAffinityClassNames

Unfortunately, there is no GUI where you can simply enter a value for that property. The property can only be set using the cluster.exe command line tool:

cluster group “<name>” /prop AntiAffinityClassNames=”<value>”

If we take the example above, we would need to enter the following:

cluster group “EX01” /prop AntiAffinityClassNames=”EXCH”

cluster group “EX02” /prop AntiAffinityClassNames=”EXCH”

To view if or what value has been set for a specific cluster group (VM), type the following:

cluster group “<name>” /prop (e.g. cluster group “EX01” /prop)

For more information on the AntiAffinityClassNames property, take a look here.

Until later!

Michael

Exchange 2007 SP3 Update-Rollup 6 Released

Michael Van Horenbeeck — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:23:38 GMT

Microsoft just released Update-Rollup 6 for Exchange 2007 Service Pack 3.

The Update-Rollup contains a bunch of hotfixes, of which you can find a complete overview here:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2608656

The update itself, can be downloaded from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=28751

Hybrid Configuration Wizard fails when using a Wildcard certificate

Michael Van Horenbeeck — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:32:32 GMT

With Exchange 2010 Service Pack 2, the Hybrid Configuration Wizard was introduced which helps you hooking up your on-premise Exchange Server with Office 365.

When the Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW) is ran, the following tasks are executed:

Verifies if both your on-premise and cloud environments meet the prerequisites
Provisions the Exchange federation trust
Creates organization relationships between your on-premise and Exchange online organization (both ways)
Modifies e-mail address policies
Configures F/B calendar sharing, message tracking and MailTips between both environments
Configures secure mail flow between your on-premise and Exchange online organization
Enables support for online archives

As part of the tasks above, the HCW tries to create a send and receive connectors (to and from Office 365) using the following cmdlets:

New-SendConnector -Name 'Outbound to Office 365' -AddressSpaces 'System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Microsoft.Exchange.Data.AddressSpace]' -SourceTransportServers 'Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Directory.ADMultiValuedProperty`1[Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Directory.ADObjectId]' -Fqdn '*.exblog.be' -RequireTLS 'True' -TLSAuthLevel 'DomainValidation' -TLSDomain 'outlook.com' -ErrorPolicies 'DowngradeAuthFailures'

the FQDN in the cmdlet above is derived from the SubjectName of the certificate that is configured for the Exchange server. Since we’re using a wildcard certificate, the HCW will try using “*.domain.tld”. Doing so, however, will throw the following error:

Execution of the New-SendConnector cmdlet had thrown an exception. This may indicate invalid parameters in your Hybrid Configuration settings.

Cannot process argument transformation on parameter 'Fqdn'. Cannot convert value "*.exblog.be" to type "Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Fqdn". Error: ""*.exblog.be" isn't a valid SMTP domain."
   at System.Management.Automation.PowerShell.CoreInvoke[TOutput](IEnumerable input, PSDataCollection`1 output, PSInvocationSettings settings)
   at System.Management.Automation.PowerShell.Invoke(IEnumerable input, PSInvocationSettings settings)
   at System.Management.Automation.PowerShell.Invoke()
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Hybrid.RemotePowershellSession.RunCommand(String cmdlet, Dictionary`2 parameters, Boolean ignoreNotFoundErrors)
'.

Additional troubleshooting information is available in the Update-HybridConfiguration log file located at C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Logging\Update-HybridConfiguration\HybridConfiguration_1_24_2012_10_20_1_634629972013461101.log.

The error is thrown because the New-SendConnector cmdlet cannot handle a FQDN which includes a wildcard (“*”).

Microsoft has got a hotfix for this issue, but hasn’t made it publicly available (yet). The hotfix changes the behavior of the HCW so that it is forced to use a valid FQDN as service domain for the hybrid coexistence:

New-SendConnector -Name 'Outbound to Office 365' -AddressSpaces 'System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Microsoft.Exchange.Data.AddressSpace]' -SourceTransportServers 'Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Directory.ADMultiValuedProperty`1[Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Directory.ADObjectId]' -Fqdn 'mail.exblog.be' -RequireTLS 'True' -TLSAuthLevel 'DomainValidation' -TLSDomain 'outlook.com' -ErrorPolicies 'DowngradeAuthFailures'

(Note the value of the FQDN parameter. It appears as the HCW is forced to put “mail.” in front of the domain name.)

In order to get the hotfix, you will have to open a ticket with MSFT support. Note that this is an interim update and you will have to uninstall it before installing regular Update Rollups (!). Actually, there is – to my knowledge – no need to keep the update installed after successfully configuring the hybrid scenario… Since I haven’t seen any official statement about this, please make sure that you follow the guidelines from the Microsoft support engineer.

Until later!

Michael

Presentation Available - Event 18/1/2012 : Lync Mobility Preview Session

Johan Delimon — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:48:00 GMT

Exclusive Preview of Techdays 2012 Session on Lync Mobility.
Discover how Lync works on your iPhone, Android & other smartphones/tablets

Join us for an exclusive preview for our community of the Techdays 2012 Session on Lync Mobility.

More and more information workers are using the mobile phone as their only phone. Mobile Clients for Microsoft® Lync™ 2010 take the power of unified communications mobile—including rich presence, audio conferencing, and access to multiple communication modes from a single, easy-to-use interface. In this session you will find out how Lync mobile works across various platforms (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Nokia and Windows Phone 7) and how to setup the new mobility features.

Download:
http://www.pro-lync.be/media/p/1319.aspx

Livemeeting Recording Available : Lync Coexistence OnPrem & Office 365 (Lync Online)

Johan Delimon — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:25:00 GMT

About This Video

Having the choice of doing a full migration to the Cloud, have all services on your premise or even do a Coexistence Scenario with On-Premise Lync deployment and Office 365 gives you the power to choose how you want to grow your business, cut costs and provide flexibility for your Infrastructure.

View Online:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/Video/hh779635

Download Presentation:
http://www.pro-lync.be/media/p/1318.aspx

Office Communicator 2007 R2 Cummulative Update 11 (Januari 2012)

Johan Delimon — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:32:00 GMT

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 Hotfix KB 2647093 (Version 6907.244)
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=21547

Issue that this hotfix package fixes

This cumulative update fixes the following issue:
2653950 The file name and icon do not display when you send files in Office Communicator 2007 R2

Download:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=21547

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Cummulative Update 11 (Januari 2012)

Johan Delimon — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:27:00 GMT

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Hotfix KB 968802 (Version: 6907.244)
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=19178

Only the Managed API has been updated

Update for Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core Redist 64-bit
2647091 Description of the cumulative update for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core Redist 64-bit: January, 2012

Download:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=19178

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Hotfix KB 2647090
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=12180

Blackberry soon to go live (out of beta) in Office 365!

Michael Van Horenbeeck — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:47:19 GMT

Earlier this week, RIM announced – through an email to existing customers – that their service would go out of beta somewhere in the next few weeks.
There would be no change in support and the service would remain free. However; existing customers would be required to re-accept new terms and conditions.

At the moment, it’s not clear what changes will be made to the terms and conditions. My best guess is that changes will mostly involve service availability and support.
We’ll have to wait and see…

According to RIM, the move to the “general availability” should have no impact to the service. Nonetheless, I’ve had some customers complaining about intermittent connectivity lately…

To be continued!

Hereunder is the original statement by RIM:

Office 365 Beta Exams: my thoughts (and feelings)

Michael Van Horenbeeck — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:46:34 GMT

Hereunder you’ll find some of my thoughts (and feelings) on both Office 365 beta exams that I took earlier today.

I’m a UC guy and mostly busy with Exchange, Lync and Active Directory. Because I have been warned by some colleagues about the difficulty of the exam (http://thecloudmouth.com/2012/01/10/first-impressions-of-the-office-365-beta-exams/), I made sure to go through the SharePoint Online part at least one more time before taking a shot at the exam… And although I have been delivering quite some Office 365-ignite trainings for Microsoft, it did not get me very far…

Honestly said, this was one of the most difficult Microsoft exams that I took to date. But for some reason it doesn’t really surprise me. Not because I’ve been “warned”, but rather because Office 365 is really about more than a single product. It’s about Exchange, about Lync, about SharePoint and about the platform itself and you cannot expect Microsoft to lower their expectations towards certifications, just because more than one product is involved, can you?

I definitely agree with some of comments that I’ve read all over the net: you need at least one year experience with Office 365 in all of its aspects: Exchange, Lync, SharePoint, ADFS, … Just having a theoretical knowledge about it won’t get you there, you’ll need hands-on experience. The depth of some questions is crazy. But perhaps I just say that because I’m not really a SharePoint guy…

I guess that – if luck is on my side – the first exam (“deployment”) will be a PASS. The second one (“managing”) on the other hand, I flunked for sure.

For those out there that still need to take the exam: GOOD LUCK!

If you need some resources on SharePoint Online, I can certainly recommend the following page:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/sharepoint-online-enterprise-help/sharepoint-online-planning-guide-for-office-365-for-enterprises-HA101988931.aspx?WT.mc_id=otc-c-corp-jtc-DPU-MVA_O365LyncSPDeploy

Five sessions you should attend on techdays 2012

Ruben Nauwelaers — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:48:00 GMT

Yep, Techdays 2012 is almost there so everybody is looking at the agenda and make a wishlist of must-see sessions. I decided to post mine.

In case you didn't register yet, be quick before it's sold out. Register here

Below you can find my must-see sessions for this edition:

Discover how Lync works on your iPhone, Android & other smartphones/tablets
Our very own Johan Delimon will turn Lync Mobile inside out, and as a Lync addict there is no way I could pass on this one
Lync Server Notes from the Field: Options for Deployment
Ilse is a great, great speaker and yes, give me some more Lync!
15 Lessons from 5 MIC Boostcamps to create an IT Startup
Belgium is an SMB-rich country and I'm working for an SMB myself, so I'm kinda curious to see what my colleagues have been doing lately.
Discover what's new in Windows 8 Active Directory
Windows 8 is coming so no time to waste to learn the new AD improvements
Windows 8 Hyper-V: Scalability
I use Hyper-V daily and I'm excited that the Windows 8 client will include Hyper-V.
Now it's time to have a look what's new in Hyper-V

What are your favorite sessions?

Assigning Application Impersonation permissions in Exchange Online (Office 365)

Michael Van Horenbeeck — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:46:10 GMT

Some 3rd-party applications require you to provide them with a user account that has got the permission to impersonate other user accounts. This is also the case whenever you use PowerShell e.g. whenever you try to make some changes to another user’s calendar (EWS).
This article will show you how to configure an account with such rights.

IMPORTANT Remember that you will have to connect to your Exchange Online environment first!

$session = New-PSSession –AllowRedirection –Authentication Basic –ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange –ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell –Credential (Get-Credential)

Import-PSSession $session

Granting permissions through Role Based Access Control (RBAC)

just as with Exchange On-Premise, the Application Impersonation permissions are granted through an existing Management Role, cleverly called “ApplicationImpersonation”:

In order to grant the permission, you need to create a new Management Role Assignment which will “bind” the Management Role to an account:

Executing the cmdlet will output a warning. In my experience, this warning can safely be ignored. However; if you experience any issues due to the warning it’s always a good idea to contact MS Online Support. Feel free to keep me posted if you ever encounter an issue.

Note: It is possible that – while executing the cmdlet - you will also get the following error:

This operation is not allowed for the organization with disabled customizations. To enable this operation, you need to execute Enable-OrganizationCustomization task first.

If that is the case, you will need to enable Organization Customization, by running the following cmdlet:

Enable-OrganizationCustomization

Exchange 2010 SP1: MoveRequest fails with “MapiExceptionNoSupport”

Michael Van Horenbeeck — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:55:09 GMT

One of my colleagues, Geert Gijsels, recently came across the following interesting issue.

During the moves of different mailboxes from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 (SP1) there was a mailbox that repeatedly failed at 10% throwing a “MapiExceptionNoSupport”-error.
Together with the error, the following event would show up in the Application log of the Exchange 2010 Server:

The Move Request log contained the following information. I omitted some lines from the information for readability:

1/11/2012 2:38:17 PM [EX2010] 'domain.local/admin' created move request.
1/11/2012 2:38:19 PM [EX2010] The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service 'EX2010.domain.local' (14.1.355.1 caps:07) is examining the request.
1/11/2012 2:38:19 PM [EX2010] Connected to target mailbox 'Primary (a0b7df99-3726-409b-b767-102f078eecca)', database 'Mailbox Database - 01', Mailbox EX2010 'EX2010.domain.local' Version 14.1 (Build 218.0).
1/11/2012 2:38:19 PM [EX2010] Connected to source mailbox 'Primary (a0b7df99-3726-409b-b767-102f078eecca)', database 'EX2003\2nd_Storage_Group\MailBox2', Mailbox EX2010 'EX2003.domain.local' Version 6.0 (Build 7651.0).
1/11/2012 2:38:29 PM [EX2010] Request processing started.
1/11/2012 2:38:29 PM [EX2010] Mailbox signature will not be preserved for mailbox 'Primary (a0b7df99-3726-409b-b767-102f078eecca)'. Outlook clients will need to restart to access the moved mailbox.
1/11/2012 2:38:29 PM [EX2010] Source Mailbox information before the move:
Regular Items: 3166, 272.5 MB (285,690,080 bytes)
Regular Deleted Items: 30, 40.2 MB (42,149,589 bytes)
FAI Items: 150, 0 B (0 bytes)
FAI Deleted Items: 0, 4.871 KB (4,988 bytes)
1/11/2012 2:38:29 PM [EX2010] Initializing folder hierarchy in mailbox 'Primary (a0b7df99-3726-409b-b767-102f078eecca)': 125 folders total.
1/11/2012 2:38:30 PM [EX2010] Fatal error MapiExceptionNoSupport has occurred.
Error details: MapiExceptionNoSupport: IExchangeFastTransferEx.TransferBuffer failed (hr=0x80040102, ec=-2147221246)
Diagnostic context:
     Lid: 55847 EMSMDBPOOL.EcPoolSessionDoRpc called [length=1216]
     Lid: 43559 EMSMDBPOOL.EcPoolSessionDoRpc returned [ec=0x0][length=677][latency=0]
     Lid: 23226 --- ROP Parse Start ---
    …
     …
     Lid: 1750 ---- Remote Context End ----
     Lid: 26849
     Lid: 21817 ROP Failure: 0x80040102
     Lid: 22630
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.AsynchronousTransmitter.WaitUntilDataIsProcessed()
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.AsynchronousTransmitter.Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.IDataImport.ImportBuffer(Int32 opcode, Byte[] data)
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.AsynchronousTransmitter.Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.IDataImport.Flush()
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.ProgressTrackerTransmitter.Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.IDataImport.Flush()
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.FxProxyTransmitter.Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.IFxProxy.Flush()
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.LocalSourceFolder.Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.ISourceFolder.CopyTo(IFxProxy destFolderProxy, PropTag[] excludeTags)
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.SourceFolderWrapper.<>c__DisplayClass1.<Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.ISourceFolder.CopyTo>b__0()
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.ExecutionContext.Execute(GenericCallDelegate operation)
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.SourceFolderWrapper.Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.ISourceFolder.CopyTo(IFxProxy destFolder, PropTag[] excludeTags)
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.MailboxCopierBase.CopyFolderProperties(FolderRecWrapper folderRec, ISourceFolder sourceFolder, IDestinationFolder destFolder, FolderRecDataFlags dataToCopy)
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.MoveBaseJob.<>c__DisplayClass34.<>c__DisplayClass38.<CreateFolderHierarchy>b__31()
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.ExecutionContext.Execute(GenericCallDelegate operation)
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.MoveBaseJob.<>c__DisplayClass34.<CreateFolderHierarchy>b__30(FolderRecWrapper folderRec, EnumFolderContext context)
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.FolderMap.EnumSingleFolder(FolderRecWrapper folderRec, EnumFolderContext ctx, EnumFolderCallback callback, EnumHierarchyFlags flags)
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.FolderMap.EnumSingleFolder(FolderRecWrapper folderRec, EnumFolderContext ctx, EnumFolderCallback callback, EnumHierarchyFlags flags)
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.FolderMap.EnumSingleFolder(FolderRecWrapper folderRec, EnumFolderContext ctx, EnumFolderCallback callback, EnumHierarchyFlags flags)
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.MoveBaseJob.<CreateFolderHierarchy>b__2d(MailboxMover mbxCtx)
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.MoveBaseJob.ForeachMailboxContext(MailboxMoverDelegate del)
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.MoveBaseJob.CreateFolderHierarchy(Object[] wiParams)
at Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService.CommonUtils.CatchKnownExceptions(GenericCallDelegate del, FailureDelegate failureDelegate)
Error context: --------
Operation: IMapiFxProxy.ProcessRequest
OpCode: TransferBuffer
DataLength: 3127
--------
Operation: IMapiFxProxy.ProcessRequest
OperationSide: Target
Primary (a0b7df99-3726-409b-b767-102f078eecca)
OpCode: TransferBuffer
DataLength: 3127
1/11/2012 2:38:30 PM [EX2010] Removing target mailbox 'Primary (a0b7df99-3726-409b-b767-102f078eecca)' due to an offline move failure.
1/11/2012 2:38:30 PM [EX2010] Relinquishing job

At first, there seemed to be a problem with the DACL of the mailbox (different folders had got certains rights for “NT Authority\Anonymous Logon” that were removed). Unfortunately, resetting the rights using PFDAVadmin yielded no solution.
A call was opened at Microsoft which revealed that this was a known issues and a hotfix was already available (KB2579051) but never made it into any Update Rollup:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/hi-IN/exchangesvrmigration/thread/73a385d5-ea2f-47b9-87f0-c481b1f29b35

I’m currently trying to get more information on more information about what exactly could case this error and what the hotfix exactly does. As soon as I get more information, I’ll blog about it here.

Credits: A big thanks to Geert for providing me the information and details for this blog post! Geert will shortly also be publishing his article about this issue on Xylos’ blog.

Office 365 Integration Module for Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials

Johan Delimon — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:13:00 GMT

The Office 365 Integration Module feature add-in for Windows SBS 2011 Essentials allows small businesses to seamlessly combine the cloud-based productivity tools of Microsoft Office 365 with Windows SBS 2011 Essentials. Windows SBS 2011 Essentials is a first-server solution designed and priced especially for small businesses that have limited access to professional IT resources. It provides a cost-effective and easy-to-use solution that helps protect data, organize and access business information from virtually anywhere, and support the applications needed to run a business. The joint technologies provide businesses with a simplified, easy-to-manage, and affordable hybrid solution that helps employees work more efficiently and businesses run more smoothly.

The Office 365 Integration Module for Windows SBS 2011 Essentials extends the features of the server Dashboard by providing seamless integration with Office 365 services. When you integrate Office 365 with the server, you can:

Subscribe to Office 365 or configure the server to use an existing subscription
Perform the following Office 365 account management tasks from the Dashboard:
- Create Office 365 accounts
- Assign new or existing Office 365 accounts to network user accounts
- Activate or deactivate Office 365 accounts
- Link your professional Internet domain to Office 365
- View usage status and other information about your Office 365 subscription
- Access your Office 365 management portal from the Office 365 page of the server Dashboard.

You can install and configure the Office 365 Integration Module at any time after installing Windows SBS 2011 Essentials.

More info & Download
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28566

URL Filter Lync/OCS might block Push notification messages to Lync mobile clients

Johan Delimon — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:41:00 GMT

The Lync Server 2010 Mobility service sends SIP messages that contain active hyperlinks in their Message-Body header that define the XML namespace information for the push notification to the Lync Server Push Notification service.

Lync Server 2010 Front End Pool

Using the URL Filter page in the IM and Presence group in Lync Server Control Panel to enable the Hyperlink prefix option Send warning message, will precede the active hyperlink with a user defined warning message in the SIP packet that contains the push notification message. The Lync Server Push Notification service will reject the modified push notification information and send an error response back to the Lync Server 2010 Mobility service.

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Access Edge server

Using the URL Filter tab of the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Intelligent IM Filter dialog to:

Allow instant messages that contain hyperlinks, but convert the hyperlinks to plain text
Allow instant messages that contain hyperlinks. Enter a warning that you want to insert at the beginning of each containing hyperlinks

Will precede the active hyperlink with a user defined warning message and convert the active hyperlink to text by preceding it with an underscore or precede the active hyperlink with a user defined warning message in the SIP packet that contains the push notification message. The Lync Server Push Notification service will reject the modified push notification information and send an error response back to the Lync Server 2010 Mobility service.

Read the full article
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2664650

Office 365 Service Health Dashboard is now tenant-aware!

Michael Van Horenbeeck — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:56:07 GMT

The Office 365 Health Dashboard can provide you with a quick overview of the overall service health status in Office 365. Until recently, the dashboard was scoped regionally, which meant that the provided health status was relevant for an entire geographical region.
Now, Microsoft rolled out an update to the Dashboard so that it is tenant-aware. This means that you will only see service status notifications if they are relevant to your tenant. In other words: if a server is impacted that has got nothing to do with your tenant, you won’t see any specific service warnings in the dashboard.

The original announcement can be found here: http://community.office365.com/en-us/b/office_365_technical_blog/archive/2012/01/07/the-office-365-service-health-dashboard-now-supports-per-tenant-service-status.aspx

Mail enable Office 365 SharePoint Library - 3rd Party Tool now in beta

Ruben Nauwelaers — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:18:00 GMT

MessageOps released a public beta of their MessageOps SharePoint Bridge - Office 365 Edition

This tool will copy incoming mail in an Office 365 mailbox to a SharePoint Library in Office 365. The tool allows you to create rules based on email addresses and keywords to filter the messages to be copied.

The application is currently in Beta, and free for everyone to try. Once released it will be free to existing MessageOps clients. Non MessageOps clients can purchase the application for a one time fee.

More information and download at the SharePoint Bridge - Office 365 Edition product page.

Source: Twitter (@ivcrieki)

Office 365 certification exams expected in April 2012

Ruben Nauwelaers — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:18:00 GMT

Certifications are a great way to verify and document your skills. To help you certify your Office 365 skills, Microsoft will be releasing two exams soon (expected in april 2012)

Exam 70-323: Administering Office 365 intended for IT professionals who administer Microsoft Office 365 in an environment that may include Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Lync, and/or Microsoft SharePoint - link

Exam 70-321: Deploying Office 365 intended for consultants and IT professionals who plan and implement Office 365. This includes migrations to Office 365 (simple and hybrid deployments) - link

Source: Twitter and http://blogs.technet.com/b/lystavlen/archive/2012/01/11/want-to-get-certified-in-office-365.aspx

Download : Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Multitenant Pack for Partner Hosting Deployment Guide

Johan Delimon — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:26:00 GMT

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Multitenant Pack for Partner Hosting is a unified communications (UC) solution for telecom and hosting providers. Unified communications is a way for telecom and hosting providers to expand their service offering to the present base customers. The Lync Server Multitenant Hosting Pack features include integration with Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Outlook, and other communication technologies. Lync Server Multitenant Hosting Pack enables customers to manage geographically dispersed offices and mobile users in a way that reduces travel expenses, while maintaining highly collaborative team environments. This increased integration of communication channels translates to improved organizational flexibility that is often difficult to find in larger enterprise organizations.

Download Here:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28587

Having fun with Mime types in Exchange 2010

Koen Vermoesen — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:28:00 GMT

When you migrate from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 you may have some problems with xml attachments. Al of a sudden xml attachments are send as application/xml mime type instead of text/xml. In our case the application was specifically looking for text/xml, and thus wouldn’t detect the attachment.

You could solve this problem by creating a transport rule as you can see below.

Select the conditions “from users that are inside or outside the organization” and ‘when the message header contains specific words”.
Select the action '”set header with value”.
Create the new transport rule.

To verify if the transport rule is working, you have to enable pipeline tracking on the HUB transport server. Now you can send a new message with a xml attachment to see if the transport rule changes the Content-Type.

In Exchange 2003 there was interface for editing and sorting these associations:

If you want to view the file type associations in Exchange 2010, you can do this with Exchange PowerShell by the following command:

“Get-OrganizationConfig |fl MimeTypes”

Changing the MimeTypes with EMS\EMC is not possible however. You have to do this with ADSI edit but the attribute is decoded.

You can decode it with the following PowerShell script:

clear
$file = "C:\local\export.txt"
$num1 = ""74 65 78 74 2F 68 74 6D 6C 3B 68…"
$array += $num1.Split() | ForEach{[Convert]::ToInt32($_,16)} | ForEach{[Convert]::ToChar($_)}
foreach ($char in $array)
{
if ($char -eq ';')
{
$out+="`r`n"
}
else
{
$out+=$char
}
}
$out
Add-Content $file $out

Or buy the developer a beer and ask him to change his code, what is what we did in the end.

Note 1: post co-authored by Frederiek Goemaere and Koen Vermoesen, with input from Danny De Haan and Emmanuel Cambier
Note 2: cross-posted on both Pro-exchange and Xylos blogs.

Microsoft to ‘upgrade’ K-plans in Office 365

Michael Van Horenbeeck — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:07:00 GMT

Over on TechNet, Jesper Osgaard (Sr. Partner Technology Advisor @ Microsoft) published a blog post where some changes to Office 365 K-plans are explained. According to the post, the K-Plan will soon also get support for Exchange ActiveSync. Currently the K-Plan is only limited to access via OWA and/or POP3. Furthermore, storage space for the K-plan is to be doubled to 1GB!

Unfortunately, there is no date know when these changes will take affect. I – for one – will be eagerly looking out for them.

The original post can be viewed here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/lystavlen/archive/2012/01/06/the-office-365-k-plan-gets-even-better.aspx

Lync Mobile Push Notifications - Message Timed Out

Ruben Nauwelaers — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 09:46:00 GMT

I successfully deployed Lync Mobility (how to Part 1 & Part 2) and everything is working fine: client sign-in on the internal- and external network and Powershell Test command lets.

I only had some (for me) unexpected behavior with Push Notifications and message time-outs:

Sending one message

When I sent ONE Lync message to a mobile user, the user received a push notification correctly. Lync client on the desktop states "waiting for a response".

After some time, when the mobile user does not open Lync Mobile app on the phone, the "waiting for a response" goes away and I receive the following message:

"This message may not have been delivered to <User> because the server sent the message to this person but it timed out"

Sending Multiple Messages

When I sent multiple subsequent message to the mobile user, Lync client on the desktop states "waiting for a response" and shows a twirling circle next to the second and subsequent messages.

Just as with one message, after some time and the mobile user does not open Lync Mobile app on the phone, you receive the following message:

On the mobile client

- A push notification is only received for the first message when subsequent are sent
- When opening Lync Mobile, only the first message (received with the push notification) is shown in the history

Conclusion

After some research I verified that this is expected behavior, and wanted to create a blog posting since this behavior is not documented in the Mobility Guide.
I understand why Microsoft took this approach as mobile clients often have unreliable network reach/connections and it is very well possible that a message does not get delivered (on time). The message also states that it may not have been received.

I'm not so sure about the implementation though, as I would expect :

the client to give no feedback at all when the push message is successfully sent to the end-user device, but the user does not open Lync on time on the phone.
a warning/error message when the push message was indeed not delivered at all

With the current implementation, I wouldn't use the regular error-message layout for these messages as it might confuse users. A better solution would be an informational message like "this user is mobile, successful and timed delivery is dependent on networking conditions and phone reception" on the information bar (example screenshot below) in the conversation history.

I cannot find any reference why this is implemented like this, it might very well be a limitation of the push notification services of either Apple or Microsoft (or both).

Considering all this, I think the error message on the desktop client may confuse some users and I thought it was worth sharing.