So I am very pleased with it. Last month’s I’m working a lot with Exchange 2010. I love the product. Last Friday evening I updated a customer DAG cluster to SP1. Next moth starting moving the 2000 mailboxes from Exchange 2007 tot Exchange 2010.

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Some of the hotfixes would have been rolled up in a Windows update or service pack. Given that the Exchange team released SP1 earlier than what was planned and announced earlier, it did not align with some of the work with the Windows platform. As a result, some hotfixes are available from MSDN/Connect, and some require that you request them online using the links in the corresponding KBs. All these updates may become available on the Download Center, and also through Windows Update.

These hotfixes have been tested extensively as part of Exchange 2010 SP1 deployments within Microsoft and by our TAP customers. They are fully supported by Microsoft.

The TechNet article Exchange 2010 Prerequisites is updated with the hotfixes and install the prerequisites required for your server version (the hotfixes are linked to in the above table).

You can use the Install the Windows Server 2008 SP2 operating system prerequisites on a Windows 2008 R2 server. Only you have to run the following powershell command: Import-Module ServerManager

Installed Exchange 2010 SP1 on a Windows 2008 R2 Server with problems. I feels that the MMC is faster. Tomorrow upgrading a DAG/NLB cluster to Exchange 2010 SP1.

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So What’s New in Exchange SP1:

New Deployment Functionality

During an Exchange 2010 SP1 installation, you can now select a new option to install the required Windows roles and features for each selected Exchange 2010 SP1 server role. For more information, see New Deployment Functionality in Exchange 2010 SP1.

Exchange ActiveSync

In Exchange 2010 SP1, you can manage Exchange ActiveSync devices using the Exchange Control Panel (ECP). Administrators can perform the following tasks:

• Manage the default access level for all mobile phones and devices.
• Set up e-mail alerts when a mobile phone or device is quarantined.
• Personalize the message that users receive when their mobile phone or device is either recognized or quarantined.
• Provide a list of quarantined mobile phones or devices.
• Create and manage Exchange ActiveSync device access rules.
• Allow or block a specific mobile phone or device for a specific user.

For every user, the administrator can perform the following tasks from the user’s property pages:

• List the mobile phones or devices for a specific user.
• Initiate remote wipes on mobile phones or devices.
• Remove old mobile phone or device partnerships.
• Create a rule for all users of a specific mobile phone or device or mobile phone type.
• Allow or block a specific mobile phone or device for the specific user.

SMS Sync

SMS Sync is a new feature in Exchange ActiveSync that works with Windows Mobile 6.1 with the Outlook Mobile Update and with Windows Mobile 6.5. SMS Sync is the ability to synchronize messages between a mobile phone or device and an Exchange 2010 Inbox. When synchronizing a Windows Mobile phone with an Exchange 2010 mailbox, users can choose to synchronize their text messages in addition to their Inbox, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, and Notes. When synchronizing text messages, users will be able to send and receive text messages from their Inbox. This feature is dependent on the user’s mobile phones or devices supporting this feature

Reset Virtual Directory

In Exchange 2010 SP1, you can use the new Reset Client Access Virtual Directory wizard to reset one or more Client Access server virtual directories. The new wizard makes it easier to reset a Client Access server virtual directory. One reason that you might want to reset a Client Access server virtual directory is to resolve an issue related to a damaged file on a virtual directory. In addition to resetting virtual directories, the wizard creates a log file that includes the settings for each virtual directory that you choose to reset. For more information, see Reset Client Access Virtual Directories.

Exchange Store and Mailbox Database Functionality

The following is a list of new store and mailbox database functionality in Exchange 2010 SP1:

• With the New-MailboxRepairRequest cmdlet, you can detect and repair mailbox and database corruption issues.
• Store limits were increased for administrative access.
• The Database Log Growth Troubleshooter (Troubleshoot-DatabaseSpace.ps1) is a new script that allows you to control excessive log growth of mailbox databases.
• Public Folders client permissions support was added to the Exchange Management Console (EMC).

Mailbox and Recipients Functionality

The following is a list of new mailbox and recipient functionality included in Exchange 2010 SP1:

• Calendar Repair Assistant supports more scenarios than were available in Exchange 2010 RTM.
• Mailbox Assistants are now all throttle-based (changed from time-based in Exchange 2010 RTM).
• Internet calendar publishing allows users in your Exchange organization to share their Outlook calendars with a broad Internet audience.
• Importing and exporting .pst files now uses the Mailbox Replication service and doesn’t require Outlook.
• Hierarchical address book support allows you to create and configure your address lists and offline address books in a hierarchical view.
• Distribution group naming policies allow you to configure string text that will be appended or prepended to a distribution group’s name when it’s created.
• Soft-delete of mailboxes after move completion

High Availability and Site Resilience Functionality

The following is a list of new high availability and site resilience functionality included in Exchange 2010 SP1:

• Continuous replication – block mode
• Active mailbox database redistribution
• Enhanced datacenter activation coordination mode support
• New and enhanced management and monitoring scripts
• Exchange Management Console user interface enhancements
• Improvements in failover performance

Messaging Policy and Compliance Functionality

The following is a list of new messaging policy and compliance functionality included in Exchange 2010 SP1:

• Provision personal archive on a different mailbox database
• Import historical mailbox data to personal archive
• Delegate access to personal archive
• New retention policy user interface
• Support for creating retention policy tags for Calendar and Tasks default folders
• Opt-in personal tags
• Multi-Mailbox Search preview
• Annotations in Multi-Mailbox Search
• Multi-Mailbox Search data de-duplication
• WebReady Document Viewing of IRM-protected messages in Outlook Web App
• IRM in Exchange ActiveSync for protocol-level IRM
• IRM logging
• Mailbox audit logging

Technet Exchange 2010 SP1 info
Release Notes for Exchange Server 2010 SP1
What’s New in Exchange 2010 SP1
Downloads:
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Language Pack Bundle
Exchange Server 2010 SP1 UM Language Packs
Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Help

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Eventlog:

Exchange ActiveSync doesn’t have sufficient permissions to create the "CN=ward,OU=Users,DC=wardvissers,DC=local" container under Active Directory user "Active Directory operation failed on DC2008-03.ad.local. This error is not retriable. Additional information: Access is denied.
Active directory response: 00000005: SecErr: DSID-031521D0, problem 4003 (INSUFF_ACCESS_RIGHTS), data 0
".
Make sure the user has inherited permission granted to domain\Exchange Servers to allow List, Create child, Delete child of object type "msExchangeActiveSyncDevices" and doesn’t have any deny permissions that block such operations.

Because my account has domain admins rights the security settings will be reset every hour by
AdminSDHolder

Each Active Directory domain has an object called AdminSDHolder, which resides in the System container of the domain. The Admin-SDHolder object has a unique Access Control List (ACL), which is used to control the permissions of security principals that are members of built-in privileged Active Directory groups (what I like to call “protected” groups). Every hour, a background process called SDPROP runs on the domain controller that holds the PDC Emulator operations master role. It compares the ACL on all security principals (users, groups and computer accounts) that belong to protected groups against the ACL on the AdminSDHolder object. If the ACL lists aren’t the same, the ACL on the security principal is overwritten with the ACL from the Admin–SDHolder object. In addition, inheritance is disabled on the security principal.

Temporally Solution:

1. Active Directory Users and Computers

2. Enable Advanced Features

3. Search the User and go to the Security tab.

4. Advanced

5. Include Inheritable permissions from the Object’s parent

Source: Blog

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To Download: Click on the picture.

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MailTips are work with the Scenarios given below.

1. If one of the recipients is out of office.
2. When the recipient’s mailbox is full
3. Message size exceeds sender’s send limit.
4. If The Message quota exceeds of the recipient.
5. When Sending email to a large number of recipients.
6. When trying to send email to restricted recipients.
7. When a booking a room with exceeded invitees.
8. When sending to External and invalid domains.
9. When trying to send to moderated recipients.
10. Attaching more attachments than allowed.

Configuring MailTips

Gather Organization wide configuration MailTips settings.

Get-OrganizationConfig | fl *mailtips*

Enable or Disable MailTips.

You must use “Set-OrganizationConfig” CmdLet to enable or disable mailTips. Mailtips are enabled by default.

Set-OrganizationConfig -MailTipsAllTipsEnabled $true

Configure the large audience size for MailTips.

You must use “Set-OrganizationConfig” Cmdlet to configure large audience size. With a fresh Exchange Server 2010 installation it would be 25 by default. If we decrease it to 15, then Mailtip would be display to sender if sender add more than 15 recipients. See figure 3.

Set-OrganizationConfig -MailTipsLargeAudienceThreshold 15

Large Audience Threshold MailTip will display after adding more than 15 recipients . See figure 4.

Enable or disable the External Recipients MailTips

We have some embarrassing experiences of sending some internal information to external parties. However company doesn’t want to restrict sending emails to outside domains. With MailTips  at least we can give a alert to the sender before click send button. See figure 5.

Set-OrganizationConfig –MailTipsExternalRecipientsTipsEnabled $True

External Recipients MailTips displays when trying to send to an external domains. See figure 6.

Enable or disable MailTips that rely on mailbox data

Mailbox based MailTips are rely on the mailbox data. There are two Mailbox based Mailtips, The Recipient Out of Office and Mailbox Full MailTips, rely on the mailbox data.

Set-OrganizationConfig -MailTipsMailboxSourcedTipsEnabled $true

The Recipient Out of Office. You can get to know if whether the recipient is out of the office before you send the email. See figure 8.

Mailbox Full. If recipient’s Mailbox is full, you can know that before sending the email. See figure 9.

Configure Group Metrics

MailTIps relies on Group Metrics data to provide information on the the size of distribution groups and dynamic distribution groups. Exchange  server normally query a lot of LDAP requests to the Active Directory to get group membership information for each message.This could affect the the performance experienced by the users. To eliminate these issues Exchange server uses the Group Metric data. Group Metric data can be scheduled to run during office hours. You should use Set-MailboxServer CmdLet to configure Group metric Data. See figure 10.

Set-MailboxServer DAGEK10-01 GroupMetricsGenerationEnabled $true

Used this article as Source for my article.

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- Use de VMXNET 3 Adapter
- Use per Disk a SCSI Controller
- Store the Log & Database files on physical Lun on a SAN
- Use the LSI LOGIC SAS controller for Windows 2008 & 2008 R2
- Use the VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) Controller for Every physical Raw Device Mapping (RDM).

Another TIP.  Exchange 2007 & Exchange 2010 needs a lots of Memory. When choosing the size for the OS partition, swap file need also al lot of space.

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I configured 2 partitions to use the whole disk. See screenshot.

When I deploy the task I get the following error

He wants to format partition D. But partition D is not availably. 
I ended the task and opened the PE window and started Diskpart and listed the volumes.

The strange thing was that the extended partition has the drive letter S had and it was a raw partition.

After studying ZTIDiskpart.log (X:\MININT\SMSOSD\OSDLOGS\ZTIDiskpart_diskpart.log)

I found out that there was no space left to create a 300mb partition for saving Bitlocker information.

So what did ZTIDiskpart.wsf. ZTIDiskpart.wsf gave the last partition that was created the drive letter S. This is the default letter for the Bitlocker partition. So hey wanted to format the file system with fat32. Because in my case the partition size was 200GB he cannot format the disk.

Solution:

Setting the extended partition to use 95%. Then MDT have enough space to create a 300mb hidden partition for Bitlocker.

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Solution is really simple:

1- Browse to "%windir%\system32\" and copy gpedit.msc
2- Browse to "%windir%\syswow64\" and paste gpedit.msc
Now it works again

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Error:
Failed to communicate with the mailbox database.

MapiExceptionLogonFailed: Unable to make connection to the server. (hr=0×80040111, ec=1010)
Diagnostic context:
    Lid: 37053   Win32Error: 0x6A6
    Lid: 23065   EcDoConnectEx called [length=48]
    Lid: 17913   EcDoConnectEx returned [ec=0x0][length=48][latency=31]
    Lid: 18969   EcDoRpcExt2 called [length=313]
    Lid: 27161   EcDoRpcExt2 returned [ec=0x3F2][length=342][latency=46]
    Lid: 41073   StoreEc: 0x3F2    
    Lid: 48243 
    Lid: 50033   StoreEc: 0x3F2    
    Lid: 1494    —- Remote Context Beg —-
    Lid: 1238    Remote Context Overflow
    Lid: 49213   StoreEc: 0x8004010F
    Lid: 48573 
    Lid: 64957   StoreEc: 0x8004010F
    Lid: 56253 
    Lid: 65085   StoreEc: 0x8004010F
    Lid: 40381 
    Lid: 56765   StoreEc: 0x8004010F
    Lid: 31229   Error: 0×0
    Lid: 19149   Error: 0×0
    Lid: 24509   Error: 0×0
    Lid: 1219    StoreEc: 0x8004010F
    Lid: 3225    StoreEc: 0x8004010F
    Lid: 60049   StoreEc: 0x8004010F
    Lid: 49469 
    Lid: 65341   StoreEc: 0x8004010F
    Lid: 56125 
    Lid: 47933   StoreEc: 0x8004010F
    Lid: 32829 
    Lid: 49213   StoreEc: 0x8004010F
    Lid: 48573 
    Lid: 64957   StoreEc: 0x8004010F
    Lid: 31229   Error: 0×0
    Lid: 19149   Error: 0×0
    Lid: 24509   Error: 0×0
    Lid: 1219    StoreEc: 0x8004010F
    Lid: 24041 
    Lid: 13488   StoreEc: 0x3F2    
    Lid: 28780 
    Lid: 20076   StoreEc: 0x3F2    
    Lid: 57713   StoreEc: 0x3F2    
    Lid: 49009   StoreEc: 0x3F2    
    Lid: 1750    —- Remote Context End —-
    Lid: 52465   StoreEc: 0x3F2    
    Lid: 60065 
    Lid: 33777   StoreEc: 0x3F2    
    Lid: 59805 
    Lid: 52209   StoreEc: 0x3F2    
    Lid: 19778 
    Lid: 27970   StoreEc: 0x3F2    
    Lid: 17730 
    Lid: 25922   StoreEc: 0x3F2    

Exchange Management Shell command attempted:
‘wardvissers.local/wardvissers/wardtest2′ | New-MoveRequest -TargetDatabase ‘MailStore II’

Elapsed Time: 00:00:01

Solution:

I backup the AD with Windows Backup for sure.

Then I suspend and dismounted every mailbox database.

I opened ADSIEDIT.MSC to check the value of HomeMDB and homeMTA:

Go to:
CN=Configuration->CN=Services->CN=Microsoft Exchange->CN=wardvissers->CN=Administrative Groups->CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)->CN=Servers->CN=DAGEK10-01->CN=Microsoft System Attendant

The value by my mailbox server looks a bid strange:
HomeMDB: CN=InformationStore,CN=DAGEK10-02,CN=Servers,CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT),CN=Administrative Groups,CN=wardvissers,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=wardvissers,DC=local

HomeMTA: CN=Microsoft MTA,CN=DAGEK10-01,CN=Servers,CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT),CN=Administrative Groups,CN=wardvissers,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=wardvissers,DC=local

Clear the Value bij HomeMDB & HomeMTA like the picture below.

Important:
Clear the value by every mailbox server if you have a dag cluster

Restarted the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant Service on every mailbox server.

Mounted & Resuming the mailbox database. Now the users could login again in OWA .

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Well, let us first list the directories that are used in the Exchange web service:

EWS is used for OOF, Scheduling assistance and free+busy Lookup.
OAB provides offline address book download services for client.
Autodiscover is used to provide users with autodiscover service.
EAS provides ActiveSync services to Windows Mobile based devices.
OWA provides outlook web access for users.
ECP provides Exchange control panel feature for Exchange 2010 users only.

Issues that might be resolved using the troubleshooting steps here:

You cannot set the OOF using outlook client, you receive the server not available error.
You cannot view free/busy information for other users.
You cannot use scheduling assistance, also you might receive not free/busy information data retrieved.
You cannot download Offline Address book errors.
You cannot use autodiscover externally.
Certificate mismatch error in autodiscover, users prompted to trust certificate in outlook 2007/2010.

First let us start by settings the right virtual directory configuration required for Exchange 2010 to work correctly:
Configure External and Internal URLs for OWS, ref: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb310763.aspx

You have to configure the internal URL to be the server name. In case you have multiple cas/hub servers configured in a NLB then can use the nlb cluster name for the internal url. 
External URL will be the URL used by users to access webmail e.g. https://webmail.wardvissers.nl/owa 

Configure the autodiscover internal URL, ref: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb201695.aspx

You will use the powershell cmdlet : Set-ClientAccessServer –Identity <CAS Server Name> -AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri: <Internal URL>, this FQDN must match the URL included in the certificate. If you have NLB cluster then you put the internal name here like nlbek10.wardvissers.local

If you cannot use autodiscover.wardvissers.nl internally (you have a domain name of domain.local and you must use it), you will get a certificate miss match error, you will have to include the internal name in the SAN certificate if you purchase an external SAN certificate. 

You cannot set autodiscover external URL since outlook will try to access https://autodiscover.wardvissers.nl/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml, this behavior is by design and cannot be changed.

Best Practice: Use SAN Certificates

Depending on how you configure the service names in your Exchange deployment, your Exchange server may require a certificate that can represent multiple domain names. Although a wildcard certificate, such as one for *.wardvissers.nl, can resolve this problem, many customers are uncomfortable with the security implications of maintaining a certificate that can be used for any sub-domain. A more secure alternative is to list each of the required domains as SANs in the certificate. By default, this approach is used when certificate requests are generated by Exchange.

Best Practice: Use the Exchange Certificate Wizard to Request Certificates

There are many services in Exchange that use certificates. A common error when requesting certificates is to make the request without including the correct set of service names. The certificate request wizard in the Exchange Management Console will help you include the correct list of names in the certificate request. The wizard lets you specify which services the certificate has to work with and, based on the services selected, includes the names that you must have in the certificate so that it can be used with those services. Run the certificate wizard when you’ve deployed your initial set of Exchange 2010 servers and determined which host names to use for the different services for your deployment.

Which Names you must include when you use a third party SAN certificate, ref http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd351044.aspx:
External:
webmail.wardvissers.nl
autodiscover.wardvissers.nl
legacy.wardvissers.nl (If you migrating from 2003 to 2010)
Internal:
autodiscover.wardvissers.local
legacy.wardvissers.local
nlbek10.wardvissers.local(Internal NLB CAS/HUB Cluster)
casarray.wardvissers.local(I use this address for the casarray. It has the same ip as the nlbek10)

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The Management console is there in to flavors x86 and x64.

The Immidio Flex Profiles Advanced Edition.msi that you need later works both fine on x86 and x64 machines.

Start Immidio FlexProfile Kit


Best Practice is that the ini are placed on a domain controller because If one domain controller fails you have no problems with your flex profile kit.

Import the ini files that you will find in the package
I have al ready some ini files (Word 2007, Outlook 2007, Excel 2007) that i used with a older version of flex profile kit.

Create on a File Server an application install folder. I named it Immidio Flex profiles
Copy the Immidio Flex Profiles Advanced Edition.msi to that folder and the following script.

flexprofilesinstall.cmd

REM Voor Immidio FlexProfiles.
IF EXIST "C:\Program Files\Immidio\Flex Profiles\flexengine.exe" GOTO END
msiexec.exe /i "\\ward-dc01\install\Immidio Flexprofiles\Immidio Flex Profiles Advanced Edition.msi" /qb! LICENSEFILE="\\ward-dc01\Install\Immidio Flexprofiles\wardvissers.lic" /l* c:\InstallFlex.log

:END

Create A New GPO on the computers where you want to install Immidio Flexprofile kit. I named Install Immidio Flexprofiles. Asssign the  flexprofilesinstall.cmd als a startup script. Set the maximum wait time on 3600.
 

Afther that i created a new policy for my domain users witch a named Immidio FlexProfiles Users

Add the Immidio Flex Profiles.adm to the new created GPO Immidio FlexProfiles Users
 
I did some settings where to find the ini files and where to save the settings.

Now you have a working roaming profile based on Immidio Flexprofiles. It’s a great tool a im loving it.

It’s works great when you migrate from XP to Windows 7

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So, what are the key features of the Vizioncore MP?

• Essential alerts from the virtual infrastructure to reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) of problems
• Integration to System Center Operations Manager to centralize and consolidate monitoring efforts
• Low cost and simple to use while allowing administrators to work in their familiar System Center Operations Manager views
• Native management pack delivers alert and event management as well as trending inside the SCOM console
• Agentless architecture for simple deployment and low overhead
• Performance monitoring & availability event monitoring for fast resolution in the virtual environment
• Out-of-the-box reports for host and guest metrics provides flexibility and clear communication between stakeholders

There’s even more features here…

What’s nice from my perspective, is the growth of the ecosystem around the Microsoft virtualisation platform, from Partners that have, in the past, been quite VMware focused.  That’s more Vizioncore than Quest, but still, it’s moving in the right direction.

If you’re interested, you can get all the info, and download the MP, from here.

Source

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Solution:
Restore-StorageGroupCopy won’t work because it is public folder database.

Setting a Vink by Do not Mount this Database at Startup.

En give the active clustered mailbox server a  reboot. Then Cluster service will show that the other node is going online. Then the public folder is back online. After every reboot you must start to check if the public folder online is?

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Here is a list of the just some of technologies that this book talks about to achieve a Least Privilege Security:

• Program Compatibility Wizard
• Applications Compatibility Wizard
• User Account Control
• Group Policy Software Deployment
• Internet Explorer Add-on Management
• Troubleshooting Remote Users
• Configuring Windows Firewall
• Software Restrictions Policies and AppLocker
• Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
• CD Burning
• ActiveX Controls
• Changing system time and time zones
• Power Management
• Managing networks
• Standard Users Analyzer
• Applications Compatibility Toolkit
• Logon Scripts
• Remote Desktop Services
• App-V
• Med-V

I have read already some chapters. I think it is a great book to have on your collection.
You have always not enough time thinking about security. This book does it for you.

As a special offer Packt Publishing are also letting people download preview chapter of this book by download here Chapter No. 3 – Solving Least privilege Problems with the Application Compatibility Toolkit

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When you try to delete the default database you will get this message:

The Database is not empty, even though it does look empty if you do a get-mailbox for the specific database:

get-mailbox -Database “Mailbox Database 1905367170″

There is a switch that you should use if you want to see all mailboxes, even the “hidden” Arbitration mailboxes:

get-mailbox -Database “Mailbox Database 1905367170″ –Arbitration

This gives a different result.

As you can se the database is n’t as empty as we first thought. To move these mailboxes to the new database you can easily pipe the result of the get-mailbox command and create new move requests for all Arbitration mailboxes:

get-mailbox -Database “Mailbox Database 1905367170″ -Arbitration | New-MoveRequest –TargetDatabase “MailboxDatabase1″

Source: msundis.wordpress.com

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So I created a small visual basis script that i used as a startup script.

It checks if adsnapins.txt exist in the program files files. If exsist do nothing if it don’t exsist enable the feature.

Windows7ADSnapIns.vbs

‘Installeerd Windows 7 AD Management Snapins.
’13-07-2010 Ward Vissers

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

If Not (fso.FileExists("C:\Program Files\adsnapins.txt")) Then
    Dim Wsh
    Set wsh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    wsh.run "dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:RemoteServerAdministrationTools", ,1
    wsh.run "dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles", ,1
    wsh.run "dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD", ,1
    wsh.run "dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD-DS", ,1
    wsh.run "dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD-DS-SnapIns", ,1
    fso.CopyFile "\\ad.local\afs\install\Windows7Feature\adsnapins.txt", "C:\Program Files\adsnapins.txt"

End If

Set fso = Nothing

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Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 has some nice improvements to handle drivers. I will describe how I like to manage drivers in MDT 2010.

Some time I wrote i article about how to get the Name & Model from a computer. This is very important when you want to import only the right drivers automatically.

First we have to build the ‘Out-of-Box Drivers’ folder structure and import drivers. I have subdirectories for each architecture, brand and model.  This is what my folder tree looks like:

However, you can build your own structure, as long as you respect the proper model & brand (make) name of the vendors.

Build Out-of-Box Drivers tree

To build up the folder structure you have to know the model name of your hardware. To retrieve the proper computer name execute at powershell command prompt: ‘Get-WmiObject -Class win32_computersystemproduct | fl Name,Model,UUID,Identifyingnumber,Vendor’, to get the exact name WMI queries to determine the computer model. In my case the computer name is “Latitude D830”.

Now that we have drivers imported in our Deployment Share, it’s time to move on.

1. DriverGroups

DriverGroups existed in MDT 2008 already, although the MDT Team added subdirectory support in MDT 2010.

At deployment phase MDT uses WMI to query the proper computer model and only the current model drivers will be injected. In order to get this working properly, you have to use the EXACT model name in your Out-of-Box Driver tree.

Inject the correct drivers in your Task Sequence

Add a new step in your Task Sequence to inject the correct drivers. MDT will query the computer name and inject the drivers which corresponds with the computer name from the Out-of-Box folder structure, right before applying the image at deployment.

I use ‘DriverGroup_001’ as Task Sequence Variable, and Win7×64\%Make%\%Model% as value for my Windows 7 x64. You have to adapt this to your Out-of-Box tree.

As I use a DriverGroup I’ve disabled the ‘Inject Drivers’ task.

Customsettings.ini

As my Task Sequence handles everything, there isn’t anything needed here.

If you don’t like to use a new Task in your TS, you can add DriverGroup variables in customsettings.ini like this:

DriverGroup_001=%Make%\%Model%

DriverGroup_002=Printers

2. Selection Profiles

New in MDT 2010 are DriverSelectionProfiles. These are easy for new MDT admins, very straight forward and easy to use.

Overview:

First you have to create a Profile (or use one of the default profiles):

You can even select Packages and Applications, use it for “bad drivers” aka driver setup packs.

Select what drivers you want to add to the profile;

After making the profiles you can use them in your Task Sequences. The default ‘Inject Drivers’ settings are on the left, the customized one on the right:

You can add  Selection Profiles for drivers/packages or whatever you want. Just add an extra step in your task sequence like above.

Customsettings.ini

As with DriverGroups you can choose to handle the DriverSelectionProfile in customsettings.ini or in your TS.

Example:

DriverSelectionProfile=Dell Latitude D520 x64

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1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Services Manager.  
2. Right-click the default Web site, point to New, and then click Virtual Directory.
3. In the Virtual Directory Creation wizard, type IISADMPWD in the Alias box, and then click Next.
    
4. In the Directory box, type c:\windows\system32\inetsrv\iisadmpwd or the location where your hard disk is your default hard disk, and then click Next.
   
5. Verify that only the Read and Run script check boxes are selected, such as the ASP check box, click Next, and then click Finish.
    
6. Verify that the IISADMPWD virtual directory has only basic authentication is set
   
7. If you use Windows 2003/IIS 6.0, verify that the application pool is set to MSExchangeOWAAppPool
    
8. Register the IISpwchg.dll file in the Iisadmpwd directory:
   Click Start, and then click Run.
   In the Open box, type the following, and then press ENTER:
   regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\inetsrv\iisadmpwd\iispwchg.dll
9. Configure the PasswordChangeFlags property in the metabase to make sure that the Password Change functionality is enabled:
   Click Start, and then click Run.
   In the Open box, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
   Locate the C:\Inetpub\Adminscripts directory.
   Type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   cscript.exe adsutil.vbs set w3svc/passwordchangeflags 1

   0: This is the default value. This value indicates that you must use a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection when you change the password.
   1: This value permits password changes on non-secure ports. This value is useful if SSL is not enabled.
   2: This value disables the Password Change functionality.
   4: This value disables the advance notification of password expiration.

10. Do not forget to enable Active Server Pages.
     
    Source http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297121

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Index:
1) Virtualization is MORE than just VDI
2) Why storage matters
3) 3 Issues to address
4) What is IOPS and why does it matter?
5) The dumbest thing you can do
6) The secret to desktop virtualization savings
7) How the *@&% is it possible for multiple users to share the same disk image?
How Win7 will affect your storage and virtualdesktop environment 
9) Does the storage protocol matter?
10) Multiple classes of storage are okay
11) Ten questions to ask when evaluating your storage vendor
12) "TCO" and "ROI" Confusion
13) Why VDI?
14) 5 sure-fire ways to get canned
15) Which kind of virtualizer are you?
16) Why do people like VDI?
17) The Vicious Cycle of VDI storage
18) Notes for article “Desktop VM sizing & IOPS”

Just Click on the picture to go to the NetApp site where you can download this free eBook

If you click HERE you have the PDF file direct

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Installation and Deployment

• VMware ESX. VMware vSphere 4.1 and its subsequent update and patch releases are the last releases to include both ESX and ESXi hypervisor architectures. Future major releases of VMware vSphere will include only the VMware ESXi architecture.
  • VMware recommends that customers start transitioning to the ESXi architecture when deploying VMware vSphere 4.1.
  • VMware will continue to provide technical support for VMware ESX according to the VMware vSphere support policy.
  • To learn more about the ESXi architecture and how to migrate from ESX to ESXi, go to the VMware ESX to ESXi Upgrade Center.
• Scripted Install for ESXi. Scripted installation of ESXi to local and remote disks allows rapid deployment of ESXi to many machines. You can start the scripted installation with a CD-ROM drive or over the network by using PXE booting. You cannot use scripted installation to install ESXi to a USB device. See the ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide, the ESXi Installable and vCenter Server Setup Guide, and the ESXi Embedded and vCenter Server Setup Guide.
• vSphere Client Removal from ESX/ESXi Builds. For ESX and ESXi, the vSphere Client is available for download from the VMware Web site. It is no longer packaged with builds of ESX and ESXi. After installing ESX and ESXi, users are directed to the download page on the VMware Web site to get the compatible vSphere Client for that release. The vSphere Client is still packaged with builds of vCenter Server. See the ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide, the ESXi Installable and vCenter Server Setup Guide, and the ESXi Embedded and vCenter Server Setup Guide.

Storage

• Boot from SAN. vSphere 4.1 enables ESXi boot from SAN (BFN). iSCSI, FCoE, and Fibre Channel boot are supported. Refer to the Hardware Compatibility Guide for the latest list of NICs and Converged Adapters that are supported with iSCSI boot. See the iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide and the Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide.
• Hardware Acceleration with vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI). ESX can offload specific storage operations to compliant storage hardware. With storage hardware assistance, ESX performs these operations faster and consumes less CPU, memory, and storage fabric bandwidth. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.
• Storage Performance Statistics. vSphere 4.1 offers enhanced visibility into storage throughput and latency of hosts and virtual machines, and aids in troubleshooting storage performance issues. NFS statistics are now available in vCenter Server performance charts, as well as esxtop. New VMDK and datastore statistics are included. All statistics are available through the vSphere SDK. See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.
• Storage I/O Control. This feature provides quality-of-service capabilities for storage I/O in the form of I/O shares and limits that are enforced across all virtual machines accessing a datastore, regardless of which host they are running on. Using Storage I/O Control, vSphere administrators can ensure that the most important virtual machines get adequate I/O resources even in times of congestion. See the vSphere Resource Management Guide.
• iSCSI Hardware Offloads. vSphere 4.1 enables 10Gb iSCSI hardware offloads (Broadcom 57711) and 1Gb iSCSI hardware offloads (Broadcom 5709). See the ESX Configuration Guide, the ESXi Configuration Guide, and the iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide.
• NFS Performance Enhancements. Networking performance for NFS has been optimized to improve throughput and reduce CPU usage. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.

Network

• Network I/O Control. Traffic-management controls allow flexible partitioning of physical NIC bandwidth between different traffic types, including virtual machine, vMotion, FT, and IP storage traffic (vNetwork Distributed Switch only). See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.
• IPv6 Enhancements. IPv6 in ESX supports Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) with manual keying. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.
• Load-Based Teaming. vSphere 4.1 allows dynamic adjustment of the teaming algorithm so that the load is always balanced across a team of physical adapters on a vNetwork Distributed Switch. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.
• E1000 vNIC Enhancements. E1000 vNIC supports jumbo frames in vSphere 4.1. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.

Availability

• Windows Failover Clustering with VMware HA. Clustered Virtual Machines that utilize Windows Failover Clustering/Microsoft Cluster Service are now fully supported in conjunction with VMware HA. See Setup for Failover Clustering and Microsoft Cluster Service.
• VMware HA Scalability Improvements. VMware HA has the same limits for virtual machines per host, hosts per cluster, and virtual machines per cluster as vSphere. See Configuration Maximums for VMware vSphere 4.1 for details about the limitations for this release.
• VMware HA Healthcheck and Operational Status. The VMware HA dashboard in the vSphere Client provides a new detailed window called Cluster Operational Status. This window displays more information about the current VMware HA operational status, including the specific status and errors for each host in the VMware HA cluster. See the vSphere Availability Guide.
• VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) Enhancements. vSphere 4.1 introduces an FT-specific versioning-control mechanism that allows the Primary and Secondary VMs to run on FT-compatible hosts at different but compatible patch levels. vSphere 4.1 differentiates between events that are logged for a Primary VM and those that are logged for its Secondary VM, and reports why a host might not support FT. In addition, you can disable VMware HA when FT-enabled virtual machines are deployed in a cluster, allowing for cluster maintenance operations without turning off FT. See the vSphere Availability Guide.
• DRS Interoperability for VMware HA and Fault Tolerance (FT). FT-enabled virtual machines can take advantage of DRS functionality for load balancing and initial placement. In addition, VMware HA and DRS are tightly integrated, which allows VMware HA to restart virtual machines in more situations. See the vSphere Availability Guide.
• Enhanced Network Logging Performance. Fault Tolerance (FT) network logging performance allows improved throughput and reduced CPU usage. In addition, you can use vmxnet3 vNICs in FT-enabled virtual machines. See the vSphere Availability Guide.
• Concurrent VMware Data Recovery Sessions. vSphere 4.1 provides the ability to concurrently manage multiple VMware Data Recovery appliances. See the VMware Data Recovery Administration Guide.
• vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) Enhancements. VADP now offers VSS quiescing support for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 servers. This enables application-consistent backup and restore operations for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 applications.

Management

• vCLI Enhancements. vCLI adds options for SCSI, VAAI, network, and virtual machine control, including the ability to terminate an unresponsive virtual machine. In addition, vSphere 4.1 provides controls that allow you to log vCLI activity. See the vSphere Command-Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide and the vSphere Command-Line Interface Reference.
• Lockdown Mode Enhancements. VMware ESXi 4.1 lockdown mode allows the administrator to tightly restrict access to the ESXi Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) and Tech Support Mode (TSM). When lockdown mode is enabled, DCUI access is restricted to the root user, while access to Tech Support Mode is completely disabled for all users. With lockdown mode enabled, access to the host for management or monitoring using CIM is possible only through vCenter Server. Direct access to the host using the vSphere Client is not permitted. See the ESXi Configuration Guide.
• Access Virtual Machine Serial Ports Over the Network. You can redirect virtual machine serial ports over a standard network link in vSphere 4.1. This enables solutions such as third-party virtual serial port concentrators for virtual machine serial console management or monitoring. See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide.
• vCenter Converter Hyper-V Import. vCenter Converter allows users to point to a Hyper-V machine. Converter displays the virtual machines running on the Hyper-V system, and users can select a powered-off virtual machine to import to a VMware destination. See the vCenter Converter Installation and Administration Guide.
• Enhancements to Host Profiles. You can use Host Profiles to roll out administrator password changes in vSphere 4.1. Enhancements also include improved Cisco Nexus 1000V support and PCI device ordering configuration. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.
• Unattended Authentication in vSphere Management Assistant (vMA). vMA 4.1 offers improved authentication capability, including integration with Active Directory and commands to configure the connection. See VMware vSphere Management Assistant.
• Updated Deployment Environment in vSphere Management Assistant (vMA). The updated deployment environment in vMA 4.1 is fully compatible with vMA 4.0. A significant change is the transition from RHEL to CentOS. See VMware vSphere Management Assistant.
• vCenter Orchestrator 64-bit Support. vCenter Orchestrator 4.1 provides a client and server for 64-bit installations, with an optional 32-bit client. The performance of the Orchestrator server on 64-bit installations is greatly enhanced, as compared to running the server on a 32-bit machine. See the vCenter Orchestrator Installation and Configuration Guide.
• Improved Support for Handling Recalled Patches in vCenter Update Manager. Update Manager 4.1 immediately sends critical notifications about recalled ESX and related patches. In addition, Update Manager prevents you from installing a recalled patch that you might have already downloaded. This feature also helps you identify hosts where recalled patches might already be installed. See the vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.
• License Reporting Manager. The License Reporting Manager provides a centralized interface for all license keys for vSphere 4.1 products in a virtual IT infrastructure and their respective usage. You can view and generate reports on license keys and usage for different time periods with the License Reporting Manager. A historical record of the utilization per license key is maintained in the vCenter Server database. See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.
• Power Management Improvements. ESX 4.1 takes advantage of deep sleep states to further reduce power consumption during idle periods. The vSphere Client has a simple user interface that allows you to choose one of four host power management policies. In addition, you can view the history of host power consumption and power cap information on the vSphere Client Performance tab on newer platforms with integrated power meters. See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.

Platform Enhancements

• Performance and Scalability Improvements. vSphere 4.1 includes numerous enhancements that increase performance and scalability.
  • vCenter Server 4.1 can support three times more virtual machines and hosts per system, as well as more concurrent instances of the vSphere Client and a larger number of virtual machines per cluster than vCenter Server 4.0. The scalability limits of Linked Mode, vMotion, and vNetwork Distributed Switch have also increased.
  • New optimizations have been implemented for AMD-V and Intel VT-x architectures, while memory utilization efficiency has been improved still further using Memory Compression. Storage enhancements have led to significant performance improvements in NFS environments. VDI operations, virtual machine provisioning and power operations, and vMotion have enhanced performance as well.

  See Configuration Maximums for VMware vSphere 4.1.

• Reduced Overhead Memory. vSphere 4.1 reduces the amount of overhead memory required, especially when running large virtual machines on systems with CPUs that provide hardware MMU support (AMD RVI or Intel EPT).
• DRS Virtual Machine Host Affinity Rules. DRS provides the ability to set constraints that restrict placement of a virtual machine to a subset of hosts in a cluster. This feature is useful for enforcing host-based ISV licensing models, as well as keeping sets of virtual machines on different racks or blade systems for availability reasons. See the vSphere Resource Management Guide.
• Memory Compression. Compressed memory is a new level of the memory hierarchy, between RAM and disk. Slower than memory, but much faster than disk, compressed memory improves the performance of virtual machines when memory is under contention, because less virtual memory is swapped to disk. See the vSphere Resource Management Guide.
• vMotion Enhancements. In vSphere 4.1, vMotion enhancements significantly reduce the overall time for host evacuations, with support for more simultaneous virtual machine migrations and faster individual virtual machine migrations. The result is a performance improvement of up to 8x for an individual virtual machine migration, and support for four to eight simultaneous vMotion migrations per host, depending on the vMotion network adapter (1GbE or 10GbE respectively). See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.
• ESX/ESXi Active Directory Integration. Integration with Microsoft Active Directory allows seamless user authentication for ESX/ESXi. You can maintain users and groups in Active Directory for centralized user management and you can assign privileges to users or groups on ESX/ESXi hosts. In vSphere 4.1, integration with Active Directory allows you to roll out permission rules to hosts by using Host Profiles. See the ESX Configuration Guide and the ESXi Configuration Guide.
• Configuring USB Device Passthrough from an ESX/ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine. You can configure a virtual machine to use USB devices that are connected to an ESX/ESXi host where the virtual machine is running. The connection is maintained even if you migrate the virtual machine using vMotion. See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide.
• Improvements in Enhanced vMotion Compatibility. vSphere 4.1 includes an AMD Opteron Gen. 3 (no 3DNow!™) EVC mode that prepares clusters for vMotion compatibility with future AMD processors. EVC also provides numerous usability improvements, including the display of EVC modes for virtual machines, more timely error detection, better error messages, and the reduced need to restart virtual machines. See the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.

Partner Ecosystem

• vCenter Update Manager Support for Provisioning, Patching, and Upgrading EMC’s ESX PowerPath Module. vCenter Update Manager can provision, patch, and upgrade third-party modules that you can install on ESX, such as EMC’s PowerPath multipathing software. Using the capability of Update Manager to set policies using the Baseline construct and the comprehensive Compliance Dashboard, you can simplify provisioning, patching, and upgrade of the PowerPath module at scale. See the vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.
• User-configurable Number of Virtual CPUs per Virtual Socket. You can configure virtual machines to have multiple virtual CPUs reside in a single virtual socket, with each virtual CPU appearing to the guest operating system as a single core. Previously, virtual machines were restricted to having only one virtual CPU per virtual socket. See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide.
• Expanded List of Supported Processors. The list of supported processors has been expanded for ESX 4.1. To determine which processors are compatible with this release, use the Hardware Compatibility Guide. Among the supported processors is the Intel Xeon 7500 Series processor, code-named Nehalem-EX (up to 8 sockets).

You can download VMware vSphere 4.1 HERE

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It’s a great tool im loving it.

What new:

For System Center Configuration Manager 2007 users:

• New “User Driven Installation” deployment method. An easy-to-use UDI Wizard allows users to initiate and customize an OS deployment on their PCs that’s tailored to their individual needs.

• Support for Configuration Manager R3 “Prestaged Media.” For those deploying Windows 7 and Office 2010 along with new PCs, a custom OS image can easily be loaded in the factory and then customized once deployed.

For Lite Touch Installation:

• Support for Office 2010. Easily configure Office 2010 installation and deployment settings through the Deployment Workbench and integration with the Office Customization Tool.
• Improved driver importing. All drivers are inspected during the import process to accurately determine what platforms they really support, avoiding common inaccuracies that can cause deployment issues.

Bug Fixes and small improvements

• LTI Wizard performance improvement. The LTI Wizard now takes less time to initialize and shows up faster.
• Issue in validating connection to the server fixed. In a few scenarios, MDT 2010 used to report the error message, "A connection to the distribution share could not be made" when a task sequence is run. The Microsoft Support article, “Error message when you use MDT 2010: ‘Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed,’” at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977566 describes this issue in detail. This issue has been fixed in MDT 2010 Update 1.
• Support for installing Windows 7 roles and features. MDT 2010 Update 1 adds support for installation of Windows 7 operating system roles and features.
• Looping issue with x64 custom Windows images fixed. In MDT 2010, ZTI–System Center Configuration Manager deployments could get into an infinite loop when deploying an x64 Windows image captured by LTI. This issue has been fixed in MDT 2010 Update 1
• Error handling improvements in MDT task sequence templates. In MDT 2010, task sequences appear to finish successfully even when they really failed. These issues are fixed in MDT 2010 Update 1.

Download the new version HERE

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Doing some Canyoing, Walking, Moutainbiking, Climbing & Abseiling.

It is was a nice ten day’s.

Next monday it is my first workday after holiday again. Soon I will start blogging again.
First few days rest.

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Step 1: Download the Office 2010 English version booth will be in x86 & x64

Step 2. Download the Office 2010 (language) Multilanguage iso only available from the Microsoft Volume Licensing site. Both in x86 en x64.

Step 3. Add the Office 2010 English version to MDT 2010 here office-2010-uitrollen-met-mdt-2010

Step 4. Extract the Office 2010 (language) Multilanguage iso with 7zip in the same application folder witch you created in Step 3.

Step 5. When you open MDT 2010 management console and you go to the Office 2010 Application that you added in step 3. You wil see that MDT sees more the one language. In my case it was en-us and nl-nl. The Screenshot is from the older MDT 2010 you MDT sees Office 2010 as Office 2007. MDT 2010 beta 1 supports Office 2010. I found till now no issues deploying Office 2010.

Step 6. Check the languages that you want. Check the Screenshot how i did it.

Step 7. Deploy the a Windows XP or Windows 7 client with Office 2010 Multilanguage versions.

Step 8. You can check with Microsoft Office 2010 Language Preferences or the languages that you configured are installed.

Step 9. Use Group Policy to set the language settings for users

1. Download the Office 2010 policy template files to your computer. You will find them HERE

2. Make a new GPO named Office 2010 languages settings it is a user policy.

3. Under User Configuration in the console tree, right-click Administrative Templates.

4. Click Add/Remove Templates, and then click Add.

5. In the Policy Templates dialog box, click the template that you want to add, and then click Open.

6. After you add the Office 2010 templates, click Close.

7. Open the Group Policy object (GPO) for which you want to set policy.

8. Double-click User Configuration and expand the tree under Administrative Templates.

9. Locate language-related policies in the Microsoft Office 2010 \ Language Settings node.

10. Select the languages that you want to use for each setting.

11. Save the GPO.

12. Go Testing

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