Step by step installation of Exchange 2010 SP2 and highlighting few things that you should know..

Happy New Year 2012 to everyone….

In this Post, will see the step by step installation of Exchange 2010 SP2 and highlighting few things that you should know before installing Exchange Server 2010 SP2 in your production. First thing is to Test it in lab environment before installing in production environment.

What you must know before installing Exchange 2010 SP2:
SP2 includes schema changes

With certain new features, Exchange 2010 SP2 updates the schema. To understand what changes happen when you run Exchange 2010 SP2 read the Exchange Server Active Directory Schema Changes Reference, November 2011

Since, the installer will be requiring modifications to Schema, user account used for installation of SP2 must be a member of Schema Admins group in active directory. As a best practice, make sure that this user account is removed from the group once the schema extension is complete.

Windows Server Features are required for CAS Role

In Exchange Server 2010 CAS is the primary entry point for clients to any Exchange Server 2010 Environment. With this release, a few more features are added in the CAS server role which makes on premise and Office 365 integration a better experience and also an improvement that makes the silent redirection better within cross site CAS roles. A new feature called Mini Outlook Web App now exists that works on no cookies, no scripts model.

Below are Windows Server Role Features that you need to install before installing SP2 on CAS Role.

• IIS 6 WMI Compatibility
• ASP.NET
• ISAPI Filters
• Client Certificate Mapping Authentication
• Directory Browsing
• HTTP Errors
• HTTP Logging
• HTTP Redirection
• Tracing
• Request Monitor
• Static Content

 

After we finish with adding Windows Server Role Features which required to proceed with SP2 installation we run Setup.

1. Go to the folder which you have download from Microsoft site the Exchange 2010 SP2, unzip the Exchange 2010 SP2 package first, then launch setup program.

 

2. Follow the wizard, start to install SP2, read through the introduction and click Next button

 

3. Read through the license agreement, accept it and click Next button.

 

4. Next step Readiness Checks, Setup wizard finished successfully click Install.

 

5. Completion and final step is completed successfully, choose Finish.

 

6. After the installation is complete, we’ll see the following message, which informs us that we need to reboot the system for changes to take effect.

 

7. After reboot we can see that our Exchange Server was installed successfully SP2, Build number 14.2 (Build 247.5)

Installing Updates on DAG is not a normal exercise

Many of us run DAG because of its proven reliability and ability to make a highly available mailbox database system. Installing updates on a member of a DAG is not a regular installation though, for that reason please visits the link bellow in case you have DAG and you want to upgrade to SP2.

Upgrade Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2010 SP1 or Exchange 2010 SP2
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb629560.aspx

Exchange 2010 Service Pack 2 Released!

Διαθέσιμο για download το SP2 για τον Exchange Server 2010 στο Download Center της Microsoft.
Κατεβάστε το Exchange 2010 SP2 εδώ.

Overview

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

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

Important: The SP2 sets new pre-requirements to Windows, to install and upgrade from SP1. It requires an additional Windows role, which was not part of the SP1 pre-requirements. Which is: IIS 6 WMI Compatibility not being installed.
To install this before starting the SP2 install/upgrade, start a PowerShell and run:

· Import-Module ServerManager

· Add-WindowsFeature Web-WMI

This Windows role is required for Mailbox and CAS roles.

Πώς να εγκαταστήσουμε και να ρυθμίσουμε τον Exchange 2010 Edge Transport Server Role

Στο σημερινό μας post θα δούμε την εγκατάσταση και την ρύθμιση του Exchange 2010 Edge Transport Server ρόλου. O Edge Transport Role στον Exchange Server 2010 παρέχει ένα υψηλό επίπεδο security μεταξύ external και internal επικοινωνίας. Με λίγα λόγια, ο Edge server σαν «φίλτρο» προστασίας της αλληλογραφίας (εσωτερικής και εξωτερικής). Ο Edge role θα πρέπει να εγκατασταθεί σε ξεχωριστό μηχάνημα « server» από τον server που είναι εγκατεστημένοι οι υπόλοιποι ρόλοι του Exchange Server 2010 HT, CAS, ΜΒ.

Τα προαπαιτούμενα «prerequisites» πριν την εγκατάσταση του Edge Transport Role είναι τα ακόλουθα:

· OS: Windows Server 2008 x64 SP 2 or Windows Server 2008 R2

· Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5

· Windows Remote Management 2.0

· Windows PowerShell V2

· Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS)

Προτού προχωρήσουμε με την εγκατάσταση του Edge Transport Role, αφού έχουμε ήδη ρυθμίσει τον Edge Transport σε DMZ (Demilitarized zone ή αλλιώς perimeter network) θα πρέπει να βεβαιωθούμε ότι το DNS suffix έχει προστεθεί για το “domain. Local”, στην περίπτωση μου είναι “emea.com”.

Μετά την ρύθμιση του DNS suffix θα σας ζητηθεί να επανεκκινήσετε «reboot» τον server. Εφόσον ξεκινήση server θα προχωρήσουμε σε εγκατάσταση του Edge Role, επιλέγουμε από το DVD του Exchange Server 2010 setup.com (Run as administrator).

Ο Wizard της εγκατάστασης ξεκινά..

Step1

Step2

Step3

Θα επιλέξουμε Custom εγκατάσταση για να μπορέσουμε να επιλέξουμε τον Edge Role

Step4

Step5

Η εγκατάσταση συνεχίζετε και το Readiness Checks ολοκληρώνετε, επιλέγουμε Install για να συνεχίσουμε.

Step6

Η διαδικασία εγκατάστασης του Edge Role ολοκληρώνεται με επιτυχία και επιλέγουμε Finish για να ολοκληρωθεί.

Step7

Μετά από την ολοκλήρωση της εγκατάστασης θα μα ζητηθεί να κάνουμε Restart για να εφαρμοστούν όλες οι αλλαγές.

Έφτασε η στιγμή να ρυθμίσουμε τον Edge Role να «μιλάει» με τον HUB Role, πάμε λοιπόν να δούμε την διαδικασία. Παραμένουμε στον Edge Server για να μπορέσουμε να δημιουργήσουμε το the Edge Subscription file μέσω της κονσόλας EMS (Exchange Management Shell) Run as administrator.

Πληκτρολογούμε την εντολή:
New-EdgeSubscription –Filename “C:\edge.xml”

Επόμενο βήμα μας είναι να αντιγράψουμε το xml αρχείο που δημιουργήσαμε στον Edge και να το κάνουμε import στον HUB transport server. Στην δική μου περίπτωση έχω έναν Exchange 2010 multi-role server (CAS/HUB/MBX).

Στον HUB transport server μας θα πάμε να ανοίξουμε την κονσόλα EMC àOrganization Configuration à Hub Transport à Edge Subscriptions και πραγματοποιώντας δεξί κλικ επιλέγουμε New EdgeSubscription.

Επιλέγουμε το AD Site όπου ο Edge θα πρέπει να γίνει subscribed και επιλέγουμε browse για να κάνουμε import το xml file που δημιουργήσαμε πρωτύτερα.

Σημείωση: Για να μπορέσουμε με επιτυχία να συγχρονίσουμε τον Edge server «Edgesync» θα πρέπει η πόρτα 50636 (TCP) να είναι ανοιχτεί στον HUB server(s) προς τον Edge server.
Εξ’ ορισμού ο Edge server ακούει στην πόρτα 50389.

Μόλις η διαδικασία του subscription ολοκληρωθεί με επιτυχία θα πρέπει να εμφανίζετε όπως στην ακόλουθη εικόνα.

Είναι ώρα να ξεκινήσουμε τον συγχρονισμό του Edge server Edgesync, την εντολή θα την εκτελέσουμε από τον Hub Server.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Επιπρόσθετες Πληροφορίες:

· Exchange port reference

· Overview of the Edge Transport Server Role

Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (KB2608646)

Microsoft has released Update Rollup 6 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1). This update is dated October 27 2011. This article describes the following information about the update rollup:

• The issues that the update rollup resolves
• How to obtain the update rollup
• The prerequisites to install the update rollup

Issues that the update rollup resolves

Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2010 SP1 resolves the issues that are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles:

• 2431609 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2431609/ ) An update is available that updates the message of a retention policy in OWA for Exchange Server 2010
• 2449266 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2449266/ ) EWS drops the TCP connection to the EWS client application without any error message in a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2480474 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2480474/ ) A Users do not receive quota warning messages after applying SP1 for Exchange 2010
• 2514820 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2514820/ ) An incoming fax message is not delivered to the recipient in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
• 2521927 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2521927/ ) Disabling the Exchange ActiveSync Integration feature for OWA does not take effect in OWA Premium clients in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2528854 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2528854/ ) The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service crashes on a computer that has Exchange Server 2010 SP1 installed
• 2535289 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2535289/ ) The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service crashes occasionally when you run an antivirus application on an Exchange Server 2010 Mailbox server
• 2536313 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2536313/ ) Slow message delivery and mailbox access for journaling mailboxes on an Exchange Server 2010 server
• 2544246 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2544246/ ) You receive a NRN of a meeting request 120 days later after the recipient accepted the request in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
• 2548246 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2548246/ ) The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service crashes occasionally when a folder view is corrupted on an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox server
• 2549183 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2549183/ ) "There are no objects to select" message when you try to use the EMC to specify a server to connect to in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
• 2549289 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2549289/ ) A RBAC role assignee can unexpectedly run the Add-MailboxPermission command or the Remove-MailboxPermission command on an Exchange Server 2010 server that is outside the role assignment scope
• 2555851 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2555851/ ) A mailbox does not appear in certain address lists after you run commands on the mailbox in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
• 2559814 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2559814/ ) A user cannot add or remove delegates from a mailbox by using Outlook in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2561514 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2561514/ ) Exchange Server 2003 user cannot view the free/busy information of a user in a different federated organization
• 2563860 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2563860/ ) You cannot create a new mailbox database if you already have 1000 mailbox databases in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2567409 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2567409/ ) Certain free/busy messages are not replicated from an Exchange Server 2010 server to an Exchange Server 2003 server
• 2571791 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2571791/ ) Retention policies are applied to Contact items unexpectedly in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2572052 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2572052/ ) Certain properties of a recurring meeting request from external email accounts are missing in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
• 2575005 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2575005/ ) You cannot start the EMC or the EMS in an Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 environment
• 2578631 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2578631/ ) Certain users cannot send email messages to a mail-enabled public folder in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2579172 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2579172/ ) Items that are deleted or moved still appear in the original folder when you use Office Outlook in online mode to access an Exchange Server 2010 mailbox
• 2579671 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2579671/ ) No results returned when you use the ExpandGroup method in EWS to retrieve a list of members of a Dynamic Distribution Group in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2582095 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2582095/ ) The SmtpMaxMessagesPerConnection property of a send connector is not replicated to the subscribed Edge Transport server in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2600835 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2600835/ ) The RPC Client Access service crashes when you delete an attachment of an item by using Outlook in online mode in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
• 2601701 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2601701/ ) The memory usage of the MSExchangeRepl.exe process keeps increasing when you perform a VSS backup on Exchange Server 2010 databases
• 2616127 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2616127/ ) "0×80041606" error code when you use Outlook in online mode to search for a keyword against a mailbox in an Exchange Server 2010 environment
• 2617126 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2617126/ ) The Store.exe process crashes when you send an email message that has attachments in an Exchange Server 2010 SP1 environment
• 2627769 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2627769/ ) Some time zones in OWA are not synchronized with Windows in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

(KB2608646)

Local Mailbox Move Request in another Database on Exchange Server 2010 SP1

Στο σημερινό post θα δούμε την διαδικασία μεταφοράς ενός Exchange Server 2010 mailbox σε διαφορετική βάση (Database). Στον Exchange Server 2010 υπάρχουν δύο διαδικασίες μεταφοράς mailbox:

• Local Move – Η διαδικασία Local μας παρέχει την δυνατότητα μεταφοράς ενός mailbox από μια database σε μια άλλη (στον ίδιο ή διαφορετικό server, με την προϋπόθεση ο server να βρίσκετε στο ίδιο exchange organization).
• Remote Move – Η διαδικασία Remote μας παρέχει την δυνατότητα μεταφοράς ενός mailbox από μια database σε μια άλλη σε διαφορετικό forest.

Σημείωση: Δεν υποστηρίζετε η δυνατότητα μεταφοράς ενός mailbox από Exchange 2000 και 2007 SP1 σε 2010.

Για να πραγματοποιήσουμε την μεταφορά ενός mailbox από μια database σε μια άλλη στο ίδιο organization ακολουθούμε τα παρακάτω βήματα:

1. Θα μεταβούμε στην κονσόλα EMC (Exchange Management Console)

2. Επιλέγουμε Recipient Configuration και Mailboxes

3. Κάνουμε δεξί κλικ στο mailbox που θέλουμε να μεταφέρουμε και επιλέγουμε “New Local Move Request”.

Στο επόμενο βήμα θα επιλέξουμε την Database που θέλουμε να μεταφέρουμε το mailbox μας (στο παράδειγμα μας επιλέγουμε την MBDB01).

Επόμενο βήμα είναι να επιλέξουμε εάν θέλουμε να κάνουμε skip την διαδικασία μεταφοράς του mailbox σε περίπτωση που υπάρχουν κατεστραμμένα messages ή συνεχίζουμε την διαδικασία επιλέγοντας Next.

Στο επόμενο μας βήμα θα δούμε μία περίληψη του mailbox που προσπαθούμε να μεταφέρουμε. Επιλέγουμε New για να συνεχίσουμε.

Τελευταίο μας βήμα, η διαδικασία Move Request ολοκληρώνεται και επιλέγουμε Finish.

Ο Exchange δεν έχει ολοκληρώσει την διαδικασία μεταφορά του mailbox, απλά έλαβε μονάχα το request για μεταφορά. Για να επιβραβεύσουμε το status της μεταφοράς του mailbox, θα πάμε να το δούμε μέσα από την κονσόλα EMC (Exchange Management Console) στην επιλογή Move Request όπου εμφανίζετε η λίστα και το status της μεταφοράς του mailboxes. Όπως θα παρατηρήσετε και στην εικόνα μας, η διαδικασία ολοκληρώθηκε και το status μας λέει Completing.

Χρήσιμα Link

Managing Move Requests
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124797.aspx

Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) 2010 Service Pack 2

Microsoft has released Service Pack 2 (SP2) for TMG 2010 Standard and Enterprise editions.

The service pack includes the following new functionality and feature improvements:

New Reports
• The new Site Activity report displays a report showing the data transfer between users and specific websites for any user.

Error Pages
• A new look and feel has been created for error pages.
• Error pages can be more easily customized and can include embedded objects.

Kerberos Authentication
• You can now use Kerberos authentication when you deploy an array using network load balancing (NLB).

To read the release notes, see the Forefront TMG Release Notes (SP2).

Download SP2 here

TechEd Australia 2011 videos about various Exchange 2010 components

Below are the TechEd Australia 2011 videos about various Exchange 2010 components and I would definitely recommend watching them.

• Upgrading to Exchange 2010: Notes from Field – In this session Sofiane and Colin will provide notes from the field as they take you on a journey to upgrading your legacy Exchange environment. They will highlight the best practices you should consider as you plan your upgrade from Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007, as well as touch on migrating from alternative messaging platforms. Sofiane and Colin will cover the gotchas and pitfalls you are likely to encounter, and follow through with tips and tricks that experienced ITPros leveraged on a regular basis. Additionally they will look at some of the recommended tools, such as the Exchange Deployment Assistant, that will ensure you have a smooth upgrade to the latest version of Exchange.
• Converged Exchange: A Blueprint for 2010 deployment – With the myriad of new capabilities in Exchange 2010, organisations are looking to their solutions providers to help them not only deploy the new platform but help them manage it. In this presentation, Tim Jones investigates the challenges faced with moving to 2010, migration options, configuration of Disk Access Groups and archiving solutions. He also discusses how Microsoft and Hitachi Data Systems joint reference architecture delivers Exchange 2010 as a “converged solution in a rack”.
• Exchange Virtualisation – Is it right for you? – Many production Exchange Server deployments are virtualized. This is to achieve better hardware utilisation, provide operational flexibility or align with data centre deployment standards. As a business critical server application, it’s important to understand the implications of virtualising Exchange Server and ensure that deployments are aligned to Microsoft’s best practices and meet the ever changing business demands of a modern messaging service. This breakout session will cover what has been learned about the best ways to deploy Exchange Server in a virtual environment, the various virtualisation technologies that can impact Exchange Server user experience, and scenarios where virtualisation may not be the best choice. Also the differences between Exchange Server native data protection and the high availability and failover features offered by virtualisation stacks will be examined to help you make informed design decisions.
• Load Balancing with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 – Understand the Exchange 2010 requirements for load balancing. Review the pros and cons of current hardware-based load balancing solutions. Discuss the nuances of high-end/high-scale load balancing and the impact to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.
• Exchange Server 2010: High Availability Deep Dive – Go beyond the basics of Exchange High Availability and learn what’s really going on under the hood in an Exchange 2010 database availability group (DAG). This session covers the inner workings of DAGs, including a deep dive discussion on how DAGs rely on quorum and how the DAG witness and witness server are used. You’ll also gain a solid understanding of the inner workings of Active Manager and its best copy selection process.
• Exchange Server 2010: High Availability Concepts – This session covers the basics of the new technologies, concepts, terms and methods used to plan, design, manage and troubleshoot Exchange high availability. Learn how settings like AutoDatabaseMountDial and Activation Preference work. Get an understanding of the basic functions of Active Manager, learn the difference between the Witness Server and the Alternate Witness Server, and more! 
• Microsoft Office 365: From Simple Migration to a Hybrid Environment – Whether you’re looking to migrate all of your mailboxes to the cloud or planning to run a hybrid environment then this is the session for you. This presentation will cover how and when to take advantage of Simple Exchange Migration which supports migrating existing Exchange on-premise customers who want to move all of their mailboxes to the cloud with full data fidelity. You will also learn how rolling out an Exchange 2010 server in your current Exchange environment prepares you for seamless integration with Exchange Online. Whether you are piloting a few users or moving a large part of your workforce to the cloud, we give you the technical details on Exchange-to-cloud integration that you need to be successful.

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Speaking at ITPro |Dev Connection 2011

If you liked the IT Pro | Dev Connections 2010 … get ready to upgrade to version 2011! The technical community of Greek IT professionals, autoexec.gr, in cooperation with the relevant community of developers, dotNETZone.gr, is joining forces once again and will present an event with five parallel catting edge technical tracks!

The event is exclusively focused on professionals and developers who don’t want to lose time in presentations of products with information that can be found on the Internet.

I’m also going to participate in the event with a talk which is going to be titled

“Migration to Office 365”
Let’s make our Hybrid Connection with Exchange On-Premise and Exchange On-Line (Office 365)

Looking forward to seeing you there at the 26th and 27th of November 2011 in the Educational Centre of the National Bank of Greece!

Released: Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 SP3

Earlier today the Exchange CXP team released Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 SP3 to the Download Center.

This update contains a number of customer-reported and internally found issues since the release of RU4. See ‘KB 2602324: Description of Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3‘ for more details.

We would like to specifically call out the following fixes which are included in this release:

• DST: New updates for August DST – Exchange 2007
• 2536695 "Some items cannot be deleted" error message when you try to delete or modify an email message in a public folder in an Exchange Server 2007 environment
• 2292150 A deleted hyperlink remains in the HTML source of an email message if you create the email message by using OWA in an Exchange Server 2007 environment (article not yet live)

General Notes:

• For DST Changes: http://www.microsoft.com/time
• Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3 is currently scheduled to release in April 2012. This will be in rhythm with next DST changes.

Note for Forefront users: For those of you running Forefront Security for Exchange, be sure you perform these important steps from the command line in the Forefront directory before and after this rollup’s installation process. Without these steps, Exchange services for Information Store and Transport will not start after you apply this update. Before installing the update, disable ForeFront by using this command: fscutility /disable. After installing the update, re-enable ForeFront by running fscutility /enable.

 

Source: MSExchange Team