Category Archives: Exchange 2010

Transition from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010 in Brief

Exchange 2007, Exchange 2010Leave a comment

 

Prerequisites :

All Exchange Servers Exchange 2007 Sp2
AD forest and Domain in Windows 2003 Functional Level
At least one DC should be windows server 2003 Sp2 or higher

Preparing for Exchange Installation

1. Install Windows 2008 x64 Bit Servers as per the standard configuration

2. Prepare Schema, Forest Prep and Domain prep from command lines

3. Install Multiple Client Access Server(CAS) Role servers depending on your requirement. You may need more CAS when compared with Exchange 2007 because in Exchange 2010 all outlook clients connects to CAL Roles severs instead of Mailbox Roles servers

4. Testing CAS servers under LB and configure to access the mailbox of Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2003 mailbox if you have

5. Install Hub Transport Server Role from Exchange 2010 installable on new servers. No of servers depending on your requirement and best parties from Microsoft

6. Install Mailbox Servers roles

7. Check the mailbox between Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 Servers and Test the same

8. Once testing is completed on the mail flow, create new public folder database in one the new Exchange 2010 mailbox role servers and configure replica to replicate the data to new public folder DB

9. Move couple of mailboxes and test calendar, outlook , autodiscovery , outlook anywhere etc

10. Once all the testing is completed configure inbound and outbound mail through Exchange 2010 Servers

11. Change Internet Facing Exchange 2007 CAS servers with Exchange 2010 CAS servers

12. Move all other mailbox from Exchange 2007 mailbox servers to Exchange 2010 servers

13. Once all the mailboxes are moved then transfer public folder replica to Exchange 2010 public folder

14. Rehome Offline  Address book to Exchange 2010 Server

15. Uninstall all the Exchange 2007 one by one

Important Note:

All Exchange 2007 Server roles needs to remain until all uses are migrated to Exchange 2010. Exchange 2010 Hub, CAS and Mailbox is not backward compatible with Exchange 2007

Exchange Database – Dirty Shutdown

Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007, Exchange 20104 Comments

As Exchange Administrator it would be bad day if you have exchagne database in Dirty Shutdown State and you dont have required log files to perform soft recovery. Below link has a steps on how to perform soft recovery if you have al the require log file.

/2009/07/13/disaster-recovery-of-exchange-2007-mailbox-server/

If you dont have the required log files then you have to follow below steps to recover the database

1. Run ESEUTIL /P database_filename.edb (from the BIN folder and repair the edb files)
2. Delete the log and chk files.
3. Run eseutil /d database_filename.edb (Defrag the Database)
4. Run isinteg (isinteg -s servername -fix -test alltests) from the bin folder.
5. Mount the stores

Eseutil and Isinteg would be really long time , depending on the size of the database. Microsoft always recommends to keep the database size less then 100 GB. If you are using CCR environment then it can grow more then 100 GB as you will be multipe copies of the log files for recovery purpose

Diagnostic Logging to find Deletion of Public folder in Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010

Exchange 2007, Exchange 20104 Comments

 

Many users will have access to the Public Folder and Many are the owner of Public folder and have full access to it. Chances are that use accidently deletes the folder or some times intentional. To identify this we have to Enable logging on Public folder.  Below has the steps to enabled the same

1. Open Exchagne Management Console
2. Expand and select Server Configuration
3. On the right you will find all the servers
4. Select the Exchange Server where public Folder Database is residing
5. Right click on the Server and select Manage Diagnostic Logging
5. Expand to reach MSexchangeIS-> 9001 public and click on General and  
6. Select Medium and configure to enable this settings

7. When a Public Folder is deleted Event ID 9682 is logged in the Application log. You can search for the evet Id in the application logs.

New Features of Exchange 2010

Exchange 2010Leave a comment

 

When you Talk about Exchange 2010 we feel Fresh, Yes it has really new fresh Interesting features which you will definitely like to explore. Below has some brief details on new features on Exchange 2010 with new Logo

1. Database Availability Groups :  In short its known as DAG it simple concept which uses windows failover clustering services and new component called Active Manager. This uses Continues replication to keep multiple copies of the database. Each Database copy can be on up to Maximum of 16 servers.  On Failure Exchange 2010 prompts on one of the database to active and once it is active it will service the mailbox in the database

2. Client Access Server New Role : Outlook Clients connects to Mailbox server directory for accessing emails. When There is a mailbox moves and failover then user outlook will be disconnected and connected back. To provide seem less access of email for users now outlook will connect to CAS servers which will be betwen Exchange mailbox Server and outlook 

3. Outlook live Earlier Outlook Web Access: In Earlier verion of Exchange when you access OWA in legacy browsers like Firefox, safari etc it goes into OWA Light mode. Light Mode provides you limited look and feel with limited option. Outlook live provide you the full functionality when accessed throught Legacy browsers

4. Database Changes :  No More Storage Groups, Database page file reduced from 8 KB to 32 KB which will drastically reduce the IOPS may be upto 70%. SIS has also need removed because of this.

5. Powershell: Powershell V2 provide Hundreds of new cmdlets. V2 allows connects to the remote machine shell and manage it. No need to login locall to manage.

6. Role Based Access Control(RBAC): This allows you to give more granular permion to the required users and groups. With this users will be able to see only the required options which they are given throught permission. This applied to Exchange Management also. This provide only limited cmdlets which user has the permission to execute

7. Exchange Control Panel: This allows Adminsitrators to managed Exchange throught browser. Still Exchange Managment Shell and Console is available

8. Archiving: New Welcoming features is Mailbox Archiving. This helps to avoid PST if users wants to archive older emails..

9. Others:
No upgrade option, only fresh installation.
No more LCR, SCR, CCR
Send email to user from Exchange Management console
Certificates options on Exchagne management console no need to use powershell
New Federation Trust Options to share free busy information betwen Exchange orginization