Pro-Exchange

Update : Unified Communications Retired Devices Optimized for Microsoft Office Communicator (March 2010)

Johan Delimon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:54:14 GMT

The powerful communication devices that are listed in this datasheet are optimized to work with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, delivering communications solutions that are easy to deploy, use and manage.
The datasheet provides the following information about each device:

A thumbnail photo of the device
Hardware type
Name of the partner that produces the device
Product name
A brief description of the device
URL for the partner's Unified Communications landing page

Download the full document:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=74bd3ec0-c7dc-4111-a9b7-a9afbdc86aa9

Update : Unified Communications Retired Devices Optimized for Microsoft Office Communicator (March 2010)

Johan Delimon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:41:00 GMT

Devices that are qualified to display the Optimized for Microsoft Office Communicator wordmark are regularly tested and verified for performance as new upgrades and major releases of Communicator are developed.
This document contains a list of products that:

Were previously tested and verified for performance with a previous, major release or upgrade of Microsoft Office Communicator and are still qualified for that release or upgrade.
Are no longer being actively distributed by the partner.
Are no longer tested and verified for performance with the current release or upgrade of Microsoft Office Communicator.

Please refer questions to the partner contact in the document.
The document provides the following information about each device:

Product name
Name of the partner that produces the device
Device type
A suggested replacement device (if available)
Qualification retirement date
A partner contact link

Name	Partner	Device Type	Suggested Replacement (if available)	Qualification Retirement Date
Samsung SyncMaster 225UW	Samsung	UC-enabled LCD monitor	n/a	December 2008
Jabra 9330 OC USB	GN	USB wireless headset	Jabra GN 9330e OC USB	July 2009
Jabra 9350 OC	GN	USB wireless headset	Jabra GN9350e OC	July 2009
QuickCam Pro 9000 for Business	Logitech	Webcam	Webcam Pro 9000 for Business	October 2009
QuickCam Pro for Notebooks for Business	Logitech	Webcam	B905 2 MP Portable Webcam	October 2009
QuickCam Communicate MP (S5500) for Business	Logitech	Webcam	B500 1.3 MP Webcam	October 2009
LifeCam VX-7000	Microsoft	Webcam	LifeCam Cinema	December 31, 2009
LifeCam NX-3000	Microsoft	Webcam	n/a	December 31, 2009
LifeCam NX-6000	Microsoft	Webcam	n/a	December 31, 2009
.Audio 1100M	Plantronics	USB Phone	Calisto 210, P210-M	March 5, 2010
MCD 100-M	Plantronics	USB Phone	Calisto 420, P420-M	March 5, 2010
.Audio 515M	Plantronics	USB Corded Headsets	Blackwire 210, C210-M	March 5, 2010
.Audio 630M	Plantronics	USB Corded Headsets	Blackwire 220, C220-M	March 5, 2010
Entera USB-M Headset; HW111N	Plantronics	USB Corded Headsets	Blackwire 610, C610-M	March 5, 2010

Download the document:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=9852117a-103a-4ecb-a045-bfe4c93f75b7#filelist

Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition

Johan Delimon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:04:14 GMT

Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition uses Exchange Web Services as the primary protocol to communicate with Exchange Server. In addition to several calendaring improvements, this new version of Entourage synchronizes notes, tasks, and categories with Exchange Server. This update also enables logging that can be used for diagnostic purposes. For detailed information about this update, see the IT Pros section of the Microsoft Web site.

Applies to: Office 2008, Entourage 2008, Office 2008 Special Media Edition

Supported Operating Systems: Apple Mac OS X

Operating System Versions: Mac OS X version 10.4.9 (Tiger) or a later version of Mac OS
Note To verify that your computer meets these minimum requirements, on the Apple menu, click About This Mac.
Microsoft Exchange Server: Connectivity to Update Rollup 4 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB952580) or later version. You can download this update for free from the Microsoft Web site.
Note Update Rollup 4 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB952580) must be applied to both the Mailbox server and the Client Access server roles.
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.3 Update: You can download this update for free from the Microsoft Web site.
Note To verify that you have installed this update, you can open any Microsoft Office 2008 application to check the version number. For example, open Word, and then on the Word menu, click About Word. In the dialog box, compare the version number next to Latest Installed Update.

Download:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=540b4901-8cac-481c-936c-e56c60ca79c6

OCS 2007 R2 now officially supported for virtualization of certain roles and features

Cedric Depaepe — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:01:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce official support for server virtualization for Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

We are introducing support for both a fully distributed virtualized topology across several hypervisors and for a single server virtualized topology. These topologies are supported on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and any Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) certified partner solution (http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp.aspx?svvppage=svvp.htm).

Presence, Instant Messaging (including remote access, federation, and Public IM Connectivity) and Group Chat workloads are supported. The following server roles can be deployed:

· Front-End Servers

· Back-End SQL Server 2008 64 bits

· Group Chat Channel Servers

· Group Chat Compliance Servers

· Edge Access Servers

The virtual machines must be running on Windows Server 2008 64 bits. Archiving Server and Monitoring Server (CDR Only) can be connected to a virtualized Enterprise pool, but they must run on a physical server.

The fully virtualized distributed topology has been tested to handle up to 40,000 users, including 10,000 group chat users.

Virtualization of the other workloads is not supported because of possible quality issues with real-time media. Specifically, voice, video, live meeting and desktop sharing workloads cannot be part of the virtualized deployment. Therefore audio/video/web conferencing servers, audio/video/web edge conferencing servers, dial-in conferencing, Communicator Web Access, enterprise voice, or Remote Call Control may not be deployed as part of the virtualized pool. If any one of these workloads is required, a new pool with physical servers must be deployed for those users. For more information about support for client virtualization technologies, please refer to the official support statement at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951152.

In order to plan both their physical and virtualized topologies, customers can use Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Capacity Planning Tool, which can simulate user load for the available workloads. This will help customers validating the hypervisor load and scalability before going to production.

Along with this announcement, a whitepaper detailing the tested architecture, performance, use of the Capacity Planning Tool, and a methodology to select a successful architecture can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0a45d921-3b48-44e4-b42b-19704a2b81b0

Download : Microsoft Exchange Server Profile Analyzer Updated

Johan Delimon — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:54:24 GMT

Microsoft Exchange Server Profile Analyzer (64 bit)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=c009c049-9f4c-4519-a389-69c281b2abda

Microsoft Exchange Server Profile Analyzer (32 bit)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=8f575f60-bd80-44aa-858b-a1f721108fad

Use the Microsoft Exchange Server Profile Analyzer tool to collect estimated statistical information from a single mailbox store or across an Exchange Server organization. The collected data can be used for such tasks as analyzing the performance and health of a server that has mailboxes, improving capacity planning models, and improving testing methodologies and tools.
Prior to upgrading to this version, users should backup the default Profile Analyzer configuration XML file if any customizations have been made.

Important Notice: The Microsoft Exchange Profile Analyzer tool collects information related to user activity on production mailbox systems and can be used to generate aggregate user profile statistics for sets of Exchange users. Before using the tool in a production environment, you may wish to ensure that your collection and use of this information is consistent with the privacy and other laws of your country.

Event recap : IT-Pro Chalk Talk

Johan Delimon — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:29:28 GMT

I want to thank everyone who attended our very interactive Chalk Talk session.
We had some very good interaction & questions :)

Congratulations to Didier D'Joos (ATA Information Technology) he was won our Free ticket for Techdays belgium

Question Raised during the session with lots of discussion

Exchange Backpressure kicks in while the system disk runs out of space, how to solve
Exchange & backoffice applications in Datacenter vs Local, arguments pro & contra
Cross Forest Trusts over NAT
DCs virtual yes or no, one physical required? What is the impact when only virtual
Security token size exceeds limitations because of too many groups, how to solve
How to start with PKI & What are the possibilities for Exchange & PKI
End users none admin credentials need to install an application or have temporary access to the system

We have recorded this session via Live meeting and we will post a link to the recording soon!

Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 (KB979611)

Tonino — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:21:00 GMT

Overview

Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2010 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2010 customers.

For a list of changes that are included in this update rollup, see KB979611.

This is a cumulative update rollup and replaces the following:

KB976573 Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2010 (KB976573)

Issues that the update rollup fixes

Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 fixes the issues that are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles:

977633 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977633/ ) Certain third-party IMAP4 clients cannot connect to Exchange Server 2003 mailboxes through an Exchange Server 2010 CAS server

979431 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979431/ ) The POP3 service crashes when a user connects to a mailbox through the POP3 protocol and the user is migrated from an Exchange Server 2003 server to an Exchange Server 2010 server

979480 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979480/ ) Users cannot receive new messages if they access mailboxes that are moved to another Exchange Server 2010 RU1 server by using IMAP4 clients

979563 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979563/ ) Exchange Server 2010 Push Notifications does not work

979566 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979566/ ) A 0x85010014 error is generated when linked mailbox users try to synchronize their mailboxes with mobile devices in a CAS-CAS proxying scenario in Exchange Server 2010

980261 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980261/ ) This fix introduces the supports for Exchange Server 2010 page patching when a "-1022" disk I/O error is generated

980262 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980262/ ) Event ID 2156 is logged on a computer that is running Exchange Server 2010

NOTE: Review closely the important information to discover issues with servers not connected to the internet or customizations done to the Outlook Web App

Attend our next event “IT-Pro chalk talk” virtually with Live Meeting

Johan Delimon — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:10:17 GMT

This is your last chance to register for our next event this thursday
CLICK TO REGISTER

If you are not able to attend in person you may be able to attend virtually.
This is the information required to join the event virtually

Live Meeting URL : https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=73F7WC&role=attend&pw=N%7BD4%24p%2C-H

Conference Call Dial in number : Tel : +32 (2) 7043888
Conference ID: 95614628

Exchange 2010 SDKs March 2010

Johan Delimon — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:39:16 GMT

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Web Services SDK March 2010
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=155ab218-3cd5-439f-9ce3-5e6983ab6b79

The Exchange 2010 Web Services SDK assists developers who are building Web services–based applications for Exchange 2010. This release of the SDK provides new and updated information and sample code to help you develop collaborative enterprise applications for Exchange 2010. The Readme file contains installation instructions for and late-breaking information about the Exchange 2010 Web Services SDK.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Transport Agents SDK March 2010
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0df5bdff-47e2-4444-8548-1d7b861529dd

The Exchange 2010 Transport Agents SDK assists developers who are building Exchange transport agent applications for Exchange 2010. This release of the SDK provides new and updated information and sample code to help you develop collaborative enterprise applications for Exchange 2010. The Readme file contains installation instructions for and late-breaking information about the Exchange 2010 Transport Agents SDK.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Backup and Restore SDK March 2010
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=6093ae54-525a-4d86-820c-31bc0c63a238

This SDK provides information about how to create applications that back up, restore, and recover Exchange 2010 databases. The SDK download also includes a 64-bit native-code library that can be used to verify the integrity of Exchange 2010 databases that are to be backed up. The Readme file contains installation instructions for and late-breaking information about the Exchange 2010 Backup and Restore SDK.

Real-Time phone conversation translation featuring Office Communication Server

Johan Delimon — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:24:19 GMT

Microsoft Research has been working hard on a project that allows users to translate conversations in almost real-time. The software is designed to translate an actual phone conversation, providing a translation for both users, in this test scenario - German to English.

See it in action @ Neowin : http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-translating-phone

Win a Free ticket for Techdays Belgium

Johan Delimon — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:33:21 GMT

This is your chance to win a ticket for the Techdays Belgium.
http://www.techdays.be/

You will be able to win a ticket if you attend our next Pro-Exchange event “IT-Pro Chalk Talk session” this Thursday @ Microsoft Offices Belgium 19h
http://itprochalktalk.eventbrite.com/?ref=ecount

Who can win a ticket:
First of all you need to be a member of the Pro-Exchange User Group.
Second, you need to attend our next event “IT-Pro Chalk Talk Session”
Third, You are required to ask at least one question / scenario during the session.

We still have some places left so don’t hesitate to join us!

The Pro-Exchange Team

A lot of new very interesting webcasts from the Exchange team....

Cedric Depaepe — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:03:00 GMT

The latest release of Microsoft Exchange can help you achieve better business outcomes while controlling the costs of deployment, administration, and compliance. Exchange 2010 delivers a wide range of deployment options, integrated information leakage protection, and advanced compliance capabilities. Check out our free webcasts and podcasts, and then try Exchange 2010 for yourself by taking one of our virtual labs or labcasts.

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Management and Operations (Level 200)
Thursday, March 11, 2010
11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M. Pacific Time
TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging (Level 300)
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M. Pacific Time
TechNet Webcast: Calendar Sharing and Federation in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 (Level 300)
Thursday, March 18, 2010
11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M. Pacific Time
TechNet Webcast: Deploying and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Transport Servers (Level 200)
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M. Pacific Time
TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Storage Architecture (Level 300)
Thursday, March 25, 2010
11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

View article...

Announcing the Release of the Exchange Server Pre-Deployment Analyzer

Cedric Depaepe — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:15:00 GMT

FROM EXCHANGE TEAM BLOG

Today I am pleased to announce the release of the Exchange Server Pre-Deployment Analyzer (ExPDA).

You can use the Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer to perform an overall topology readiness scan of your environment. When you run the Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer, it provides a detailed report that will alert you if there are any issues within your organization, which could prevent you from deploying Exchange 2010. For example, the Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer will notify you if you haven't deployed the minimum required Exchange service pack on all your existing Exchange servers.

The checks performed by ExPDA are similar to the pre-requisite checks implemented (via Exchange Best Practices Analyzer) in the Exchange 2010 Setup program; in fact ExPDA is based off the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer (ExBPA) engine. However, unlike Exchange 2010 setup, this tool focuses only on overall topology readiness and not the ability to run Exchange 2010 on the local computer. The scan also performs a deep analysis of each existing Exchange 2003/2007 server to verify that it has the necessary updates and configuration in-place to support Exchange 2010. The end report is structured as follows:

Critical - A configuration problem that will prevent Exchange 2010 from being deployed in the organization. For example, the Active Directory Forest is not operating in Windows Server 2003 Forest Functional Mode or higher.
Warning - A configuration item that may prevent customers having the best possible experience with Exchange 2010. A warning may also reflect some functionality that is not available in Exchange 2010.

ExPDA is another component in our vision to provide a seamless upgrade experience that reduces the complexities in deploying Exchange 2010. To start planning your upgrade, please utilize the Exchange Deployment Assistant. The Deployment Assistant allows a customer to create Exchange 2010 on-premises deployment instructions that are customized to their environment. The Assistant asks a small set of questions, and based on the answers, it provides a finite set of instructions that are designed to get a customer up and running on Exchange 2010. Running the Exchange Server Pre-Deployment Analyzer is now a recommended step within the pre-requisites section of the Deployment Assistant.

You can download ExPDA at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=88b304e7-9912-4cb0-8ead-7479dab1abf2&displaylang=en. ExPDA is supported on Windows 7, Windows Vista with Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2.

Q&A

Does this tool replace the Exchange Deployment Assistant?

No, ExPDA is merely an additional tool that can be as a step within the upgrade experience. The Exchange Deployment Assistant will walk you through all aspects of the upgrade, namely how to coexist properly with Exchange 2010 and legacy versions of Exchange, whereas, ExPDA is one step within that process and ensures that the environment is ready to have the first Exchange 2010 server deployed.

I ran the scan and have questions about the results. What should I do?

If you'd like to read more about the requirements of Exchange 2010, please see the Planning for Exchange 2010 section on TechNet.

I ran the scan and received unexpected results. If I think there's a bug, who can I contact?

If you need assistance, please visit the Exchange Server Deployment Forum or you can send mail to exbpafb AT Microsoft DOT com.

Is this new functionality available in all languages?

No. ExPDA is only available as a U.S. English version.

I'd like to know if my organization is capable of running Exchange 2007. Can I use ExPDA to check this?

No, ExPDA only verifies if an organization is ready to have first Exchange 2010 server installed. If you need to determine whether your organization is ready to have Exchange 2007 deployed, you can utilize ExBPA v2.8 and the latest Exchange 2007 ExBPA.Readiness.xml:

1. Install ExBPA 2.8 and the last ExBPA 2.8 Update.
2. Download the latest Exchange 2007 service pack rollup. At the time of this writing this is SP2 RU2.
3. Extract the rollup binaries using this command: msiexec /a filepath to MSI file /qb TARGETDIR=filepath to target folder
4. Copy the ExBPA.Readiness.xml to the <ExBPA install location>\en folder.
5. Launch ExBPA.
Where can I look at the list of checks made in this new scan?

If you're familiar with the BPA XML files, the new check is wholly contained within the ExBPA.Readiness.xml file located within %Program Files%\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\ExPDA\en folder.

- Reporting the number of Active Directory trees, domains, sites, admin groups, routing groups, Exchange 5.5 servers, Exchange 2000 servers, Exchange 2003 servers, total mailboxes, Windows 2000 Active Directory servers, Windows Server Active Directory servers, Windows Server Active Directory servers. Report how many Active Directory domain/sites have Exchange servers installed.
- Verifying that the Schema Master is Windows 2003 SP1 or later.
- Identifying Active Directory domains that are not in native mode.
- Identifying Active Directory sites that do not have a global catalog server running Windows 2003 SP1 or later.
- Verifying that there are zero Active Directory Connector servers in existence.
- Identifying any SMTP site links in existence.
- Verifying that the Exchange organization is in native mode.
- Identifying any non-standard proxy address generators.
- Identifying whether you have any ambiguously defined email addresses in your recipient policies.
- Identifying any non-MAPI public folder hierarchies (a.k.a. AppTLH's) in use.
- Identifying Routing Groups that span Active Directory sites.
- Identifying any Active Directory sites that span Routing Groups.
- Identifying any Routing Group Connectors that have specialized settings (activation, max size, accept/reject lists, restrict message type/priority).
- Identifying any SMTP Connectors that support non-SMTP address spaces.
- Identifying any SMTP Connectors that use inline domain-wildcarding for address spaces (e.g. *foo.com instead of *.foo.com).
- Identifying any X.400 Connectors in the topology.
- Identifying any EDK-based Connectors in the topology (excluding Notes).
- Verifying that any servers running Exchange 2003 have SP2 or later.
- Verifying that any servers running Exchange 2007 have SP2 or later.
- Identifying any SMTP virtual servers that are not using port 25 for incoming/outgoing.
- Verifying that all Exchange 2003 servers have SuppressStateChanges set.
- Identifying any Exchange 2003 servers that have active NNTP newsfeeds.
- Identifying any Exchange 2003 servers that use the Event Scripting service.
- Identifying any Exchange 2003 servers that have the ExIFS (a.k.a. M:) drive enabled.
- Identifying any parts of Active Directory that have Access Control Entry inheritance disabled.

Thanks for your continued support. Feel free to post feedback in comments of this blog post, or visit the Exchange Server Deployment Forum.

- Ross Smith IV

Upcoming TechNet Webcast: Monitoring, Backing Up, and Restoring Exchange Server 2010 with System Center

Cedric Depaepe — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:55:00 GMT

Microsoft System Center helps you get the most from your mission-critical messaging infrastructure with management solutions that enhance the availability features built into Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. In this webcast on March 3, 2010, we look at how System Center can improve the health and availability of your servers running Exchange with the Exchange Server 2010 Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager 2007 and Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007. System Center has application awareness built into its management solutions to help deliver guidance and best practices to Exchange administrators, ensuring service level agreements (SLAs) are met and saving organizations money.

Presenters: Leslie Kitz, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation and Jon LeCroy, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation

Language: English.

Product: Microsoft System Center.

Audience: IT Generalist.

Duration: 60 Minutes

Start Date: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

For all the details and to register see http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032437151&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

View article...

Office Communications Server 14 @ Techdays Belgium

Johan Delimon — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:46:30 GMT

Thanks to Ilse for informing us

There will be two sessions @ Techdays on OCS 14, the next big OCS release, delivered by François Doremieux.
(Techdays is March 30,31 & April 1st)

Who is François Doremieux?

Francois is a Director of Engineering in the Office Communications Product Group. He has spent the past 7 years contributing to drive Microsoft Unified Communications and Voice efforts. His current role consists in closely working with early adopters and leading customers, helping them define their UC strategy and deploying OCS. In turn, he brings these customers requirements into the Product Group product specification and development process. Francois’ primary technical domain is voice interoperability with IP-PBX.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Francois fulfilled leadership roles at Level(3), AT&T and Comcast.

Francois resides in Colorado and uses Microsoft UC tools to telecommute.

He will talk about:

Session 1, Introduction to Microsoft Communications Server “W14”
Positioning and main features for Microsoft Communications Server “W14”, with emphasis on Voice and Collaboration capabilities

Session 2, New voice capabilities and infrastructure in Microsoft Communications Server “W14”
Detailed description of voice features in Microsoft Communications Server “W14”, with discussion of implications on topology and interoperability

OCS integrates with System Center Service Manager

Johan Delimon — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:43:09 GMT

Thanks to Alexander from the System Center User Group for informing me about this interesting article at SCSM Engineering Team Blog

Here is a FAQ and question that comes up on RFPs for Service Manager all the time: “Does Service Manager have an integration with Office Communicator?” Yep. Wherever you see users on forms, Service Manager shows presence and lets you send mail or start an instant messaging conversation with a use directly from the Service Manager console. When you start the instant messaging window you have access to all the tools that Communicator provides – IM, video conferencing, start Live Meeting, share files, etc. All you need to do to enable this feature is to install the Office Communicator client if you don’t already have it. Service Manager will automatically take care of the rest! This should make it really easy for IT Pros to collaborate amongst themselves as well as to engage in rich communications with supported users.

SC DPM 2010 RC is out !!!

Cedric Depaepe — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:04:00 GMT

We are a few weeks of the RTM release now. this version can be downloaded here http://connect.microsoft.com/site840/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=26452

SC DPM 2010 is full of new features and will help you backup more easily new MS products like Exchange 2010, Sharepoint 2010, better SQL backups,....

Download : Exchange Server 2010 & Office Communications Server 2007 R2 VHD

Johan Delimon — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:30:05 GMT

This download comes as a pre-configured VHD. This download enables you evaluate Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 for 60 days

Download this fully configured virtual machine of the latest release of Exchange Server 2010. Evaluate the new capabilities of Exchange Server 2010, which helps you achieve new levels of reliability and performance by delivering features that help to simplify your administration, protect your communications, and delight your users by meeting their demands for greater business mobility.
Note:
1. This trial software is intended for evaluation purposes only.
2. There is no product support for this trial. You are welcome to share your trial experience with others and to ask for advice by participating in the forums.

In order to use this evaluation package you will need to have Microsoft Hyper-V installed on a physical machine.
Hyper-V is available on Windows Server 2008 only and the details on how to install Hyper-V can be found here. Details of how to setup the VHDs are included in the Quick Start Guide available on this download page.
UserName: contoso\Administrator
Password: pass@word1

Download :
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=53f7382a-3664-4de3-8303-31e514d69f02

NOTE : Big download (13GB)

Beta Exam : OCS 2007 R2 Voice Specialization

Johan Delimon — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:05:11 GMT

Microsoft is extending Beta Exam 71-404, OCS 2007 R2 Voice Specialization for another two weeks.

Register for FREE with code OCR2J for BETA Exam 71-404 Prometric sites http://www.prometric.com/Microsoft/default.htm.

Candidates should plan for up to four hours to take the Beta exam and provide feedback on every question (versus the typical two hours to take Released version exams.)

It is highly recommended that candidates for Exam 74-404 (Beta 71-404) have experience with OCS 2007 R2 and have completed the Unified Communications Voice Ignite v 2.0 (R2) Workshop. A preparation guide for the exam is available at http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=74-404&locale=en-us

The exam is available in English only.

Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 Capacity Planning Tool

Tonino — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:22:46 GMT

Microsoft has released a capacity planning tool for TMG 2010

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=01b2f7a5-8165-4ead-9693-994504f66449&displaylang=en

Overview

The hardware requirements for servers running Forefront TMG vary, and are dependent on a number of factors:
• The features you enable.
• The number of concurrent users.
• The maximum available wide area network (WAN) bandwidth.

The Forefront TMG 2010 Capacity Planning Tool, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with built-in workflow, allows you to calculate the WAN bandwidth and number of users a particular a hardware configuration will support, and can recommend server hardware based on the features, bandwidth and users your deployment needs to support.

For additional details, download the tool and see the “Instructions” tab.

Fix for Message Size Issue in Outlook 2010 Beta

Tonino — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:03:00 GMT

There is a bug in the Microsoft Office 2010 Beta that increases the message size of some e-mails messages sent from the Microsoft Outlook 2010 Beta. The Office team has been hard at work building a fix for this issue, which is available for download now...

Download Outlook 2010 Beta fix for 32-bit Office 2010

Download Outlook 2010 Beta fix for 64-bit Office 2010

This fix prevents future messages from consuming unnecessary space, but doesn’t resize existing messages. If you reply or forward an existing message that is affected by this bug, it remains enlarged. To help reduce the impact of large messages on your Inbox and mailbox storage quota, you can also run Conversation Cleanup (new feature in Outlook 2010) on large folders. On the Home tab, in the Delete group, click Clean Up. Also, consider starting new message conversations or threads when possible.

Updated : Exchange Server 2010 Help

Johan Delimon — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:23:03 GMT

This download contains a standalone version of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Help

File Name: Exch2010Help.exe
Version: Feb2010
Date Published: 2/8/2010

Use Exchange Server 2010 Help content to help you plan, deploy and manage your Exchange 2010 organization.
Note: This Help content is also available online from the Exchange 2010 TechCenter.

Download : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=8071c31f-45be-48dc-bfca-e1fb51f544d2

Outlook 2003 and RPC Client Access Array Encryption

Tonino — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:12:00 GMT

Hi,

I came across this piece of information which I believe you should be very aware of during your Exchange 2010 deployment.

During the deployment you will most likely also create a RPC Client Access Array so that your Outlook clients will all be pointing to your Client Access Servers (CAS). This RPC Client Access array is the RPC Endpoint that your Outlook clients will use to connect to their mailbox which, unlike previous versions of exchange, means that your Outlook client will no longer make direct RPC connections to the mailbox server (with the exception of Public Folders) but to the Client Access Servers instead.

However by default on Exchange 2010 the RPC Client Access array has "encryption required" enabled which is fine for Outlook 2007 clients and upwards as they have the RPC Encryption enabled by default but that's not the case for Outlook 2003. Outlook 2003 in this condition will fail to connect to the RPC Client Access service and remain disconnected.

To resolve this problem you have the following options:

Disable RPC Encryption on the RPC Client Access array.
Set-RpcClientAccess –Server Exchange_server_name –EncryptionRequired $False
Deploy a GPO that contains the Outlook 2003 settings to enable RPC Encryption

You can start by disabling the "Encryption Required" on the RPC Client Acces Array and then validate your GPO for Outlook 2003. Once it's fully deployed and enabled for all outlook 2003 clients you can enable "Encryption Required" again.

For more information have a look here:

Outlook connection issues with Exchange 2010 mailboxes due to RPC encryption requirement
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2006508
Henrik Walther's blog posting on this topic
http://blogs.msexchange.org/walther/2009/08/30/exchange-2010-and-outlook-2003-clients-connection-issues/

Greetings,
Tonino Bruno

Prepare Mailboxes for Cross-Forest Moves Using the PrepareMoveRequest.ps1 script in the Shell

Tonino — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:36:00 GMT

The logic to perform cross-forest move mailboxes has changed considerably and you'll need to do a lot of extra steps to prepare for the move mailbox. Microsoft release a script that helps you with these pre-requisites such as synchronizing the msExchMailboxGUID.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee861103(printer).aspx

This sample Windows Powershell script supports the first part by synchronizing mailbox users from an Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 source forest to Exchange 2010 target forests as mail enabled users. This is accomplished by synchronizing Active Directory attributes in the online help and by calling the Update-Recipient cmdlet to turn the target objects into mail enabled users.

You can download the sample Windows Powershell script from the Prepare for Online Mailbox Move [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=177882 ] download page. For more information about using and writing scripts, see Scripting with the Exchange Management Shell [ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123798.aspx ] .

To run this sample script, you need the following:

a source forest running Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010, where the mailbox currently resides
a target forest with Exchange 2010 installed, where the mailbox will be moved to

For more information on cross-forest move mailbox have a look at this technet article:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee633491.aspx

Exchange 2007 and 2010 Address List Segregation changes

Tonino — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:59:00 GMT

Hi,

If you've been following's Dave Goldman's whitepaper to segregate your address lists in Exchange 2007 then you need to be very cautious because you will break segregation when you introduce Exchange 2010..

http://blogs.msdn.com/dgoldman/archive/2010/01/06/exchange-2010-address-list-segregation-as-of-now-is-100-unsupported.aspx