Exchange 2010 SP2 RU1 Change in CAS to CAS Proxy

The Exchange Team did a change in CAS to CAS proxy behavior between servers running Exchange 2010 SP2 RU1 and servers running older versions of Exchange.

The SP2 RU1 package introduced a change to the user context cookie which is used in CAS-to-CAS proxying. An unfortunate side-effect is a temporary incompatibility between SP2 RU1 servers and servers running earlier versions of Exchange. The change is such that earlier versions of Exchange do not understand the newer cookie used by the SP2 RU1 server. As a result, proxying from SP2 RU1 to an earlier version of Exchange will fail with the following error:

Invalid user context cookie found in proxy response

The server might show exceptions in the event log, such as the following:

Event ID: 4999
Log Name: Application
Source: MSExchange Common
Task Category: General
Level: Error
Description: Watson report about to be sent for process id: 744, with parameters: E12, c-RTL-AMD64, 14.02.0283.003, OWA, M.E.Clients.Owa, M.E.C.O.C.ProxyUtilities.UpdateProxyUserContextIdFromResponse, M.E.C.O.Core.OwaAsyncOperationException, 413, 14.02.0283.003.

Not all customers are affected by this. But since we received a few questions about this, we wanted to let you know about the change. Many Exchange customers do not use proxying between Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007 but rather use redirection, which is not affected by the change. However, if you are using CAS-to-CAS proxying, where an Exchange 2010 SP2 RU1 Client Access server is proxying to an earlier version of Exchange 2010 or Exchange 2007 Client Access server, then you are affected by the change.

If you are affected, it is important to note that this issue is temporary and will exist only until all of the CAS involved in the CAS-to-CAS proxy process are updated to Exchange 2010 SP2 RU1. Thus, if you are affected by this problem, simply deploy SP2 RU1 on the relevant Exchange 2010 servers and the issue no longer exists.

If you use CAS-to-CAS proxy between Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007, we will have an interim update (IU) for Exchange 2007. Availability of the IU will be announced on this blog.

Server proxy version
Server being proxied to
Action to take

Exchange 2010 SP2 RU1 –> Any version of Exchange 2010 older than SP2 RU1
Apply Exchange 2010 SP2 RU1 to all servers involved in proxy process

Exchange 2010 SP2 –-> RU1 Exchange 2007
Hold off deployment of Exchange 2010 SP2 RU1 until you deploy the Exchange 2007 interim update (IU)

SOURCE: Exchange 2010 sp2 ru1 and cas to cas proxy incompatibility

VMware Workstation 8

What’s New

This release of VMware Workstation adds the following new features and support.

Installation Changes and Enhanced Keyboards

The hardware requirements to install this version of Workstation have changed. Workstation now requires a relatively modern 64-bit CPU. See Installation Requirements for details.

The keyboard filter driver is no longer installed by default. When the driver is not installed, the enhanced keyboard functionality is unavailable and you must press Ctrl-Alt-Ins instead of Ctrl-Alt-Del to send a Ctrl-Alt-Del keystroke to the guest. To use the enhanced keyboard functionality, you must perform a custom installation and select the component. If you select the component, you must reboot whenever you install or uninstall Workstation.

Virtual Hardware Improvements

This version of Workstation includes many hardware improvements. To try new hardware features, you must upgrade the hardware version of your virtual machine or create a new virtual machine that uses the latest virtual hardware version.

  • The display technology has been changed to provide a better experience for Unity users and users who have multiple monitors. These changes also allow you to add a projector to your laptop without restarting your virtual machine.
  • Virtual machines can now support up to 64GB of memory. The host system should have more than 64GB of memory to use this feature.
  • An HD Audio device is available for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2008, and Windows 2008 R2 guests. The HD Audio device is compatible with the RealTek ALC888 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio Codec.
  • USB 3.0 support is available for Linux guests running kernel version 2.6.35 or later (Ubuntu 10.10) through a new virtual xHCI USB controller. To enable this feature, add the following line to the .vmx file: usb_xhci.present = “true”. Do not enable this feature for Windows guests. Because Windows does not currently have a generic xHCI driver, this feature will not work in Windows.
  • Bluetooth devices on the host can now be shared with Windows guests. With the latest hardware version, Bluetooth devices that are paired to the host system radio are available to Windows guests and can be paired from within the guest. You should not pair Bluetooth audio devices, such as headphones, or Bluetooth input devices, such as keyboards and mice, to a guest.
  • You can now enable Virtual VT-X/EPT or AMD-V/RVI in the processor settings interface. With this feature, applications running in a guest can take advantage of these virtualization technologies. You can also run 64-bit guest operating systems inside of vSphere running inside Workstation.
New User Interface

The Workstation user interface has been updated to include new menus, toolbars, and an improved preferences screen.

  • The favorites sidebar has been replaced with a virtual machine library. Instead of identifying every virtual machine created in Workstation as a favorite, the library is a comprehensive list of all of the virtual machines that Workstation users create, open, or access.
  • A new folder summary page helps you to better manage a group of related virtual machines. Live thumbnails make it easy to see what is happening in running virtual machines.
  • The full screen toolbar has been updated so that you can do more without having to leave full screen mode. Quick switch mode is no longer needed.
What Happened to Teams?

Although at first it might appear that the teams feature has been removed, you can add team attributes to any virtual machine in this version of Workstation.

  • The team structure has been converted to a simple folder of virtual machines.
  • A new advanced settings dialog box has been added for network adapters to let you throttle the bandwidth of incoming and outgoing transmissions and simulate packet loss.
  • You can perform power operations on several virtual machines at the same time by selecting virtual machines on the folder tab and pressing the power button on the toolbar. If all of the virtual machines in a folder are in the same power state, you can select the folder to perform a power operation on all of the virtual machines in the folder.
  • You use a global Workstation preference to configure the delay between powering on virtual machines.
  • To implement LAN segments, you can use traditional VMnets or put all of the virtual machines that you want to communicate on the same custom VMnet.
Shared Virtual Machines and AutoStart

You can share virtual machines with remote users in this version of Workstation. A shared virtual machine can be accessed remotely by other instances of Workstation. Workstation moves virtual machines to the shared virtual machines folder, where the VMware Host Agent service manages them. The VMware Host Agent service is used by other VMware products, including VMware Server and vSphere, and provides additional capabilities required by professional users. An extensive permissions interface lets you control the users who can access and use shared virtual machines.

You can use the new AutoStart feature to configure shared virtual machines to start with the host system. You can also configure AutoStart for shared virtual machines on remote hosts running Workstation and ESX 4.x and later.

Remote Connections

In this version of Workstation, you are no longer constrained to working only with virtual machines that your computer has enough power to run. You can use the new Connect to Server feature to connect to remote hosts running Workstation, ESX 4.x and later, and VMware vCenter Server. After connecting to a remote host, all of the virtual machines that you have permission to access are displayed in the virtual machine library.

Upload to ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server

VMware OVF Tool is now integrated with Workstation so that you can upload a virtual machine from Workstation to a remote server running ESX, ESXi, or vCenter Server. After connecting to a remote server, you drag the virtual machine from the local My Computer section of the virtual machine library to the remote server. A wizard walks you through the process.

Documentation Changes

This version of Workstation includes several important documentation changes.

(NEW) Getting Started with VMware Workstation
Describes how to install and upgrade Workstation, create a typical virtual machine, and perform common virtual machine operations.

Using VMware Workstation
(previously VMware Workstation User’s Guide)
Describes how to create typical, custom, and shared virtual machines, add virtual devices, configure network connections, connect to remote servers and use remote virtual machines, upload virtual machines to remote servers, and perform all virtual machine operations.

Getting Started with VMware Player
(previously VMware Player Getting Started Guide)
Now contains complete information on installing and using Player.

Online help
Has been redesigned to provide context-sensitive help and information on performing common tasks. For complete information on using Workstation and Player, see the guides.

(NEW) Installing and Configuring VMware Tools
Contains comprehensive information on installing, upgrading, and configuring VMware Tools.

Top of Page

Installation Requirements

When you install Workstation, the installer performs checks to make sure the host system has a processor that meets the following requirements. You cannot install Workstation if the host system does not meet these requirements.

  • 64-bit x86 CPU
  • LAHF/SAHF support in long mode

You can use CPU-Z or a similar utility to determine if the host system CPU is 64-bit capable. CPU-Z shows EM64T (Intel) or AMD64 (AMD) if the processor is 64-bit capable.

If you plan to install a 64-bit guest operating system in a virtual machine, the host system must have one of the following processors. Workstation will not allow you to install a 64-bit guest operating system if the host system does not have one of these processors.

  • AMD CPU that has segment-limit support in long mode.
  • Intel CPU that has VT-x support. VT-x support must be enabled in the host system BIOS. The BIOS settings that must be enabled for VT-x support vary depending on the system vendor. See VMware KB article 1003944 for information on how to determine if VT-x support is enabled.

Top of Page

Known Issues

The known issues are grouped as follows:

Remote Connection and Remote Virtual Machine Issues
  • When Workstation is installed on a Linux host, VMware Workstation Server writes the core file to /usr/bin instead of to /var/core or /var/log/vmware.
  • You cannot use Workstation to create a remote virtual machine on an ESX or ESXi 4.1 host if the virtual machine name contains non-ASCII characters.
  • When you upload a virtual machine to a remote server (VM > Manage > Upload), Workstation modifies the MAC address and PCI slot number of the virtual Ethernet device in the newly created remote virtual machine. Network errors can occur in the remote virtual machine if the network settings in the guest operating system require the original network hardware configuration.
    Workaround: Change the network settings in the guest operating system in the remote virtual machine to match the new network hardware configuration.
  • VMware Workstation Server occasionally crashes on a 32-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x host.
Role and Permission Issues
  • On a Windows host, if you edit a permission, assign the Administrator role, and then immediately click Remove to delete the permission, the original permission still exists when you reopen the Permissions dialog box.
Shared Virtual Machine Issues
  • On Windows hosts, if a shared virtual machine has a floppy drive that is configured to connect at power on, and a remote user powers on the virtual machine, a dialog box appears on the host system asking whether to connect the device every time the virtual machine powers on. If you click Yes to close the dialog box on the host system after the virtual machine is completely up and running on the host system, Workstation crashes on the host system.
  • On a 32 or 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 2008 R2, or 32-bit Windows XP Professional SP3 host, if you uninstall Workstation, preserve the configuration, and then reinstall Workstation to a different path, the Shared VMs item is unavailable in the virtual machine library.
  • On a Windows host, if you create a virtual machine with a name that contains non-ASCII characters in the New Virtual Machine wizard, you cannot share the virtual machine with the Move the virtual machine option if the destination path is other than the system operating system location. The sharing process stops with the error message Failed to move VM to destination path.
    Workaround: If you want to share the virtual machine, you must use only ASCII characters in the virtual machine name when you create the virtual machine in the New Virtual Machine wizard.
Display and Input Issues
  • On an Ubuntu 11.04 host, the virtual machine icon does not appear on the system tray when you set the Show tray icon setting (Edit > Preferences > Workspace) to Always or When a virtual machine is powered on.
    Workaround: Whitelist vmware-tray as an application that can show system tray icons in Ubuntu 11.04. Alternatively, enable Notification Area (Systray) for all applications, for example:
    gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['all']"
    After you run the command, log out and log back in. The command can take several minutes to take effect.
  • On a Fedora 15 host, powering on a virtual machine that has DirectX 9 accelerated graphics enabled might fail with the error "Unable to change virtual machine power state: Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to."
    Workaround: Deselect the Accelerate 3D graphics setting (VM > Settings > Hardware > Display) to disable DirectX 9 accelerated graphics in the virtual machine.
  • When you enter Unity mode in an Ubuntu 11.04 guest, application menus do not appear for applications that were opened before entering Unity mode. Application menus do appear for applications that are opened from the Unity launch menu after entering Unity mode.
    Workaround: Disable the APPMENU (Global menu) in the Ubuntu 11.04 guest. See the Ubuntu documentation for more information.
  • After you upload a Windows XP virtual machine from the local host to a remote server, you cannot autofit the guest in full screen mode. This problem occurs because VRAM is reduced to 4 MB when the virtual machine is uploaded to the remote server.
Folder and Team Conversion Issues
  • When you select a newly created folder in the Workstation library, the toolbar power option button is dimmed and you cannot perform batch power operations on the virtual machines in the folder.
    Workaround: If you select a virtual machine in the folder, move the selection off the virtual machine (for example, click anywhere on the folder tab), and then select the folder in the library again, the toolbar power option button becomes available.
Device Issues
  • On Windows hosts, Player crashes if you click Connect or Disconnect in the Removable Devices menu before the console appears.
  • An Ubuntu 11.04 host might crash when you try to connect a USB device to a running virtual machine from the status bar icon’s context menu. This problem typically occurs after Workstation is freshly installed, the host is rebooted, and the first time the device is connected to the virtual machine.
Physical Machine Virtualization Issues
  • When simple file sharing or UAC is enabled on the physical machine, the Virtualize a Physical Machine wizard returns an "incorrect user credentials" error instead of an error message that indicates simple file sharing or UAC must be disabled before virtualizing the physical machine. See the online help or Using VMware Workstation for information on preparing a physical machine for virtualization.
  • You cannot use the Virtualize a Physical Machine wizard if the Workstation installation path contains non-ASCII characters.

Free eBook: Microsoft Office 365: Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime

Microsoft released Microsoft Office 365: Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime (ISBN 9780735656949), by Katherine Murray, as a free eBook.

To download your free PDF eBook, click here or click on the picture. Updates to this eBook, as well as additional eBook formats, will become available in the future, so check this blog for updates.

Introduction

Let’s hear it for freedom. Freedom from your desk. Freedom from those ­boring managers’ meetings. Freedom to work anywhere, with anyone, anytime, on almost any device. Sounds good, right?

Office 365 is Microsoft’s smart and simple answer to cloud computing. Using the various programs in Office 365, you can do all the tasks you’re used to doing in your favorite Office applications—write documents, create presentations, check email, manage your calendar, crunch numbers, and more—and then share what you create in real time on a team site, design and publish a website, and even create and host live online meetings while you’re traveling on the train, sitting in a coffee shop, or dialing in on your phone.

This book shows you how you can use cloud computing—and ­specifically, ­Office 365—to get more done, collaborate more easily, and work more ­flexibly than you ever have before. From the necessary how-tos about ­creating and administering your Office 365 account and working with the various Office 365 programs to sharing files with your team, creating a team site, using Office Web Apps, and holding online meetings, you’ll discover how easy it is to work online and off, accessing and sharing your files whenever you need to. After you learn about each of the core programs, you can try strategies for building successful teams, and get some good ideas on practical ways you can put all this cloud power to work.

Who This Book Is For

Microsoft Office 365: Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime is all about cloud solutions for small businesses, focusing on the core software services (Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Office Web Apps, and Microsoft Lync), and demonstrating ways you can create, manage, and lead teams effectively using the communications and collaborative online tools.

A Quick Roadmap

Microsoft Office 365: Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime is organized in three parts to help you learn about different aspects of setting up and ­working with Office 365.

Part I, “Finding Your Place in the Cloud,” takes a look at the way people are working in the cloud today and introduces you to Office 365. Chapter 1 looks closely at teams, both inside and outside the office environment, and it takes a look at the way Office 365 offers a greener choice for small businesses. Chapter 2 shows you how to create an Office 365 account and set up a profile, and it gives you a big-picture tour of Office 365 so that you can begin planning just what you want to do with the tools. Chapter 3 is for the team manager or person who will be managing the Office 365 site; you’ll learn how to ­customize the site, add mobile devices, and set up and manage Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Lync online.

Part II, “Teamwork in the Cloud,” is your guide to setting up, organizing, ­managing, and helping your team be successful using Office 365. ­Chapter 4 spotlights all the team features you can use to get everybody on the same page, calendar-wise; you’ll also find out how to share files, hold online ­meetings, instant message each other, and broadcast presentations. Chapter 5 walks you through creating, editing, and sharing a team site. Chapter 6 shows you how to create document libraries, share files with team members, and manage the files in SharePoint Online. You’ll also find out about working with file versions, tracking file changes, and comparing and merging files. Chapter 7 shows you how to create and use workflows to keep your team moving in the right direction, and Chapter 8 introduces all things Web App by shining a light on the capabilities of the various tools and showing you how to work with files online, coauthor documents, edit worksheets, broadcast presentations, and share notebooks. Chapter 9 rounds out this part of Office 365 by focusing on mobile technologies: find out how to use the various Office Mobile applications to review, edit, and share the files you develop with your team.

Part III, “Connecting in Real Time,” shows you how to use the ­communication and instant-messaging options in Office 365 to stay in touch with your team in real time. In Chapter 10, “Email and Organize with Office 365,” you learn how to use Outlook Web App to import and manage contacts, set email preferences, organize mail ­folders, work with your calendars and tasks, and more. Chapter 11, “Talking it Over with Microsoft Lync,” shows you how to connect in real time to other online users through instant ­messaging, voice calls, and online chats. You’ll learn how to manage transcripts, invite others to the ­conversation, and host web meetings. Chapter 12, “Designing Your ­Public Website,” shows you how to use the web tools in Office 365 to create a ­website to ­showcase your products and services and give your customers a sense of who you are and what you offer. Chapter 13, “Integrating Office 365,” presents a set of examples that show how you and your team can use the ­various tools in Office 365 together to create and share business projects.

untitled

VMware vSphere 5.0 Documentation

VMware vSphere™ 5.0 (“vSphere”) introduces many improvements and new features to extend the benefits and capabilities of vSphere 4.1. These advancements build on the core capacities in vSphere to provide improved scalability; better performance; and easier provisioning, monitoring and troubleshooting. This paper focuses on the following new features and enhancements:

• Virtual machine enhancements
• Improved SSD handling and optimization
• Command-line enhancements
• VMware® ESXi™ firewall
• vSphere Image Builder
• vSphere Auto Deploy server
• vSphere Host Profiles
• VMware vCenter™ Update Manager

The “Exchange Server 2010 Technical Video Series” on TechCenter

The Microsoft Exchange team has produced a new portfolio of videos designed to give customers a fundamental technical education on Exchange Server 2010.

The objective of the video series is to provide an introductory curriculum for IT professionals to learn more about the benefits of Exchange Server 2010. While TechNet provides great technical documentation at a more granular level, this video series should help bridge the gap for those who are new to Exchange 2010 and still trying to learn about the technical fundamentals of the product.

Each video runs 20-30 minutes long and includes an overview of the workload as well as a technical demonstration of 3-4 core scenarios related to that workload. The “Exchange Server 2010 Technical Video Series” is hosted by Ann Vu and presented by subject matter experts from the Microsoft Exchange team.

The Video’s can you find HERE.

Microsoft Office 365 Deployment Readiness Tool

The Office 365 Deployment Readiness Tool provides analysis of your on-premises environment in preparation for an Office 365 enterprise deployment. The readiness tool is integrated with the guidance provided in the web edition of the Microsoft Office 365 Beta Deployment Guide.

Download HERE

I run the tool in my test environment. See below the results

Microsoft Office 365 Deployment Readiness Tool

Beta

Office 365 Deployment Resource Kit build 01.00.00.00
modgClick here for the Microsoft Office 365 Beta Deployment Guide for Enterprises

Domains

modg Deployment Guide: Adding Your Domain(s) to Office 365
All email domains discovered in your environment:
Total: 3

All primary email domains discovered:
Total: 2

Primary email domain suffixes with greater than 50 users:
wardvissers.local
Total: 1


User Identity and Account Provisioning

Active Directory

Statistics

Total number of domains discovered in your forest: 1
Estimated total number of users: 59
Estimated total number of contacts: 0
Estimated total number of groups: 54
Estimated total number of mailboxes: 53
Estimated total number of objects for Directory Synchronization: 113
note
Note: Filters were applied to obtain the above object counts for an Office 365 deployment.

Forest and Domains

The following domains were discovered in your Active Directory forest:
wardvissers.local
Total: 1

Trusts

No forest trusts found
green
You may deploy AD FS 2.0 and Directory Synchronization without multi-forest constraints

Schema and Forest/Domain Functionality Levels

Active Directory forest schema level: Windows Server 2008 R2
Exchange schema level: Exchange Server 2010 SP1
Domain Functionality:Windows Server 2008 R2
Forest Functionality:Windows Server 2008 R2
Domain Controller Functionality:Windows Server 2008 R2
green
It appears that your Active Directory schema is prepared for Exchange Rich Coexistence
modg Deployment Guide: Exchange Rich Coexistence Requirements


Active Directory Cleanup

modg Deployment Guide: Active Directory Cleanup

samaccountname (user name) Attribute

green
Character length test passed
green
Unsupported character test passed

givenname (first name) Attribute

green
Character length test passed
green
Unsupported character test passed

sn (last name) Attribute

green
Character length test passed
green
Unsupported character test passed

displayname Attribute

green
Character length test passed
green
Unsupported character test passed

mail (email address) Attribute

green
Character length test passed
green
Unsupported character test passed
green
No duplicates found

mailnickname Attribute

green
Character length test passed
green
Unsupported character test passed

proxyaddresses (email addresses) Attribute

green
No duplicates found
green
Unsupported character test passed

Directory Synchronization

Object count assessment:
Estimated number of objects for Directory Synchronization (entire forest): 113
modg Deployment Guide: Object Count Considerations
Enterprise Admin rights:
green
It appears that you are an enterprise admin
Directory Synchronization admin requirement met!
modg Deployment Guide: Directory Synchronization Required Permissions
Active Directory recycle bin:
warning
Active Directory recycle bin is enabled in your forest this may impact your total object count quota for Directory Synchronization.


Office 365 Single Sign On and Identity

AD FS 2.0 Directory Cleanup Check:

UserPrincipalName (logon ID for Office 365) Attribute

fyi
Update values once you have verified your organization does not have any other application dependencies on the UserPrincipalName attribute.
modg Deployment Guide: Active Directory Cleanup
green
Unsupported characters test passed
green
Spaces in logon value test passed
green
Unicode character test passed
note
Note: All Unicode characters will be converted to underscores (_) in the UserPrincipalName field.
green
No UserPrincipalName duplicates found
warning
Discovered users without a user logon name (blank value) for UserPrincipalName
You will need to provide each user a UserPrincipalName in order for these users to sign into Office 365.
fyi
Below is a list of your UserPrincipalName domain suffixes in use:
wardvissers.local
Total: 1
note
Note: During the Office 365 Beta only one namespace (root and child domains) per AD FS 2.0 farm
Example contoso.com and root.contoso.com would require 1 AD FS 2.0 farm and fabrikam.com would require an additional AD FS 2.0 farm

fyi
Password length per domain:

wardvissers.local = 7

Exchange Online

Discovered Exchange Server(s) on-premises:
Estimated total number of Exchange Servers: 1

Statistics:

Estimated total number of users with default mailbox size (True): 53
Estimated total number of users with larger than default mailbox size (False): 0
Estimated total number of objects with Exchange organization level quota: 6


Lync Online

Lync user assessment:
Estimated total number of users leveraging Office Communications/Lync on-premises: 2
Sip domains:
fyi
The following sip domains were discovered:
wardvissers.local
Total: 1

SharePoint Online

User object count assessment:
green
The number of user objects in your forest is supported.
modg Deployment Guide: Object Count Considerations

Client and End User Experience

modg Deployment Guide: Rich Experience Client Requirements

Summary of client computer readiness (Office 365 single sign-on and rich client checks):

warning
Below is an estimate of computer operating systems NOT ready for Office 365 rich client experience:
Total: 0
green
Below is an estimate of computer operating systems ready for Office 365 rich client experience:
Windows XP Service Pack 3: 3
Windows 7 Service Pack 1: 3
Total: 6

Network


fyi
IP Configuration:

IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.150.60
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.150.1
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.150.254

fyi
Trace route to your default gateway:

Tracing route to 192.168.150.254 over a maximum of 30 hops
1 1 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.150.254

fyi
Trace Route test to Exchange Online:

Tracing route to outlook.com [65.55.94.40]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 3 ms 2 ms 1 ms 192.168.150.254
2 * 24 ms 25 ms 82.169.11.254
3 25 ms 26 ms 26 ms 195.69.145.20
4 145 ms 146 ms 144 ms 10.14.234.234
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 10.14.234.234 reports: Destination net unreachable.
Trace complete.
fyi

For additional tests utilize the Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer

Port Query Tests:

modg Deployment Guide: Ports and Protocols
green
portal.microsoft.com
Made a TCP 443 connection to portal.microsoftonline.com
green
Outlook.com
Made a TCP 443 connection to outlook.com
green
Outlook.com IMAP
Made a TCP 993 IMAP connection to outlook.com
green
Outlook.com POP
Made a TCP 995 POP connection to outlook.com
green
Outlook.com SMTP
Made a SMTP TCP 587 connection to outlook.com
green
Active Directory Federation Services End Point
Made a TCP 443 connection to nexus.microsoftonline.com
green
Directory Synchronization End Point
Made a TCP 443 connection to adminwebservice.microsoftonline.com
green
Office 365 PowerShell End Point
Made a TCP 443 connection to ps.microsoftonline.com
green
Outlook.com PowerShell End Point
Made a TCP 443 connection to ps.outlook.com
green
Office 365 Community End Point
Made a TCP 80 connection to community.office365.com
green
Lync Online SIP Connection
Made a TCP 443 connection to sipdir.online.lync.com
green
Lync Online Federation
Made a TCP 5061 connection to sipfed.online.lync.com
Domain Name System (DNS) name records checks:
fyi
Found the following MX DNS record(s):
Server: localhost
Address: 127.0.0.1
wardvissers.local
primary name server = ward-dc01.wardvissers.local
responsible mail addr = hostmaster.wardvissers.local
serial = 761
refresh = 900 (15 mins)
retry = 600 (10 mins)
expire = 86400 (1 day)
default TTL = 3600 (1 hour)
Information Gathered On:
WARD-DC01
Date: za 07-05-2011
Start Time: 18:19
End Time: 18:21

Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals Jump Start

The “Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals” Jump Start is specially tailored for VMware and Microsoft virtualization technology pros. This cutting-edge course features expert instruction and real-world demonstrations of Hyper-V, many components of the System Center Suite, including VMM 2012, and a myriad of VDI solutions. This course is designed for Data Center Managers, IT Professionals, IT Decision Makers, Network Administrators, Storage/Infrastructure Administrators & Architects. Expert IT infrastructure consultant, Corey Hynes, and Microsoft Technical Evangelist, Symon Perriman, leveraged an engaging "team teaching" approach which makes the class as entertaining as it is educational Smile

Virtualization Jump Start (01): Virtualization Overview
Virtualization Jump Start (02): Differentiating Microsoft & VMware
Virtualization Jump Start (03a): Hyper-V Deployment Options & Architecture | Part 1
Virtualization Jump Start (03b): Hyper-V Deployment Options & Architecture | Part 2
Virtualization Jump Start (04): High-Availability & Clustering
Virtualization Jump Start (05): System Center Suite Overview with focus on DPM
Virtualization Jump Start (06): Automation with Opalis, Service Manager & PowerShell
Virtualization Jump Start (07): System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012
Virtualization Jump Start (08): Private Cloud Solutions, Architecture & VMM Self-Service Portal 2.0
Virtualization Jump Start (09): Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Architecture | Part 1
Virtualization Jump Start (10): Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Architecture | Part 2
Virtualization Jump Start (11): v-Alliance Solution Overview
Virtualization Jump Start (12): Application Delivery for VDI

Download all the Video’s:
Video: WMV | WMV (ZIP) | PSP
Audio: WMA | MP3

Now only finding some spare time to watch’s these video’s Winking smile

Exchange 2010 RPC Encryption Requirement

Current Status: Non-issue

Exchange 2010 SP1
With Exchange 2010 RTM, the RPC encryption requirement was an issue with mitigation. However, in Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1, the RPC encryption requirement has been disabled by default. This means that any new Exchange 2010 SP1 Client Access Servers (CAS) deployed in the organization won’t require encryption and Outlook 2003 clients will connect without the need to enable the RPC encryption feature in the Outlook profile.

Important
Having the RPC encryption requirement on an Exchange 2010 CAS server disabled doesn’t lower the security between Outlook 2007/2010 and any Exchange 2010 CAS server. RPC communication for these Outlook versions will remain encrypted as long as the client has the RPC encryption feature enabled. It’s only the requirement itself that is disabled on the Exchange 2010 CAS server.

Exchange 2010 CAS servers deployed prior to Service Pack 1, or upgraded to Service Pack 1, will retain the existing RPC encryption requirement setting.

Exchange 2010 RTM
When upgrading or migrating an organization that fully or partly uses Outlook 2003 to Exchange 2010, we hear there are out of the box problems, when trying to connect an Outlook 2003 client to an Exchange 2010 RTM mailbox? We heard this is because an Exchange 2010 RTM Client Access Server by default requires an Outlook client to support RPC encrypted traffic in order to be able to connect.

While it’s true the default configuration of an Outlook 2003 client doesn’t have support for RPC encryption, this requirement is fully supported with Outlook 2003.

There are two methods that can be used in order to have Outlook 2003 clients connect to an Exchange 2010 RTM mailbox:

Method 1: Enable the RPC encryption support in Outlook 2003

If “Encrypt data between Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server” is enabled under the “Security” tab in the Outlook 2003 profile (see figure 1), the client will be able to connect to an Exchange 2010 RTM mailbox.


Figure 1:
RPC Encryption enabled in Outlook 2003

If you are working with or for a small organization, it may be acceptable the end user enables this feature manually, but if you have thousands of users in the organization, you would want to enable it using a group policy (GPO). The steps necessary to implement a GPO to enable this setting are included in this KB article.


Important

The “EnableRPCEncryption” registry key mentioned in the KB article was originally introduced via a hotfix for Outlook 2003 SP2. This means that clients that either runs Outlook 2003 SP2 or an older version of Outlook 2003 doesn’t respect this registry key. In addition, Outlook 2003 clients not running SP3 are not supported by Microsoft.

Method 2: Disable the RPC Encryption requirement on the Client Access Servers

Instead of enabling support for RPC encryption in the Outlook 2003 profiles, you also have the option of disabling the requirement for RPC encryption on all Exchange 2010 RTM Client Access Servers in the organization.

This can be accomplished using the Set-RpcClientAccess cmdlet:

Set-RpcClientAccess –Server Exchange_server_name –EncryptionRequired $False


Figure 2:
RPC Encryption requirement disabled on Exchange 2010 CAS servers

As mentioned earlier Exchange 2010 SP1 servers that hasn’t been upgraded from Exchange 2010 RTM has the RPC encryption requirement disabled by default.

The following KB article describes the symptoms and remediation in detail:

The core Exchange 2010 TechNet documentation also describes the configuration that can be used to remediate the issue:

Important
Unmanaged client machines cannot be controlled using GPOs or login scripts. If you have unmanaged machines connecting to Exchange 2010 using Outlook 2003, one solution would be to send those users a script or a registry file which they can run manually on their machine to enable the RPC encryption setting.

Special Thanks to Henrik Walther

Removing the Browser Choice option During deployment with MDT 2010

The Deployment Guys created a nice script to remove the Browser Choice option.

If you are in the European Union, you will have seen the installation of the Browser Choice option from Windows Update. This is a good thing if you are a consumer, however if you are managing Volume Licensed (VL) builds and you don’t want the Browser Choice in your deployment image.
But you do want to make use of the MDT 2010 ability to go off to Windows Update or your WSUS Server and install patches automatically during your deployment task sequence.

Check HERE how to config MDT to use your WSUS server

MDT 2010 comes with a number of task sequence templates. The one I used many times is the standard client task sequence template. As part of this template there are two tasks for applying Windows updates (Pre-Application Installation and Post-Application Installation).
These tasks are really useful as part of the deployment of a client machine because you have always an up to date image.

TS

As part of this automated Windows Update process KB976002 will be downloaded and installed giving the options shown below in your core image.

image

Recently KB2019411 has been released which provides information about the Browser Choice update for system administrators who are in managed environments that are under a Volume Licensing program . De Deploymentsguys have created a MDT based script for implementing the suggestions in the article KB2019411. Adding the registry entries to control the display of the Browser Choice screen and to remove the Browser Choice icon from the desktop.

The script (CFG-HideBrowserChoice.wsf) should be placed in the MDT Distribution Share\Scripts folder and then a “Run Command Line” task should be added to your image engineering task sequence (after the last Windows Update task but before the sysprep and image capture tasks). The command you should run is cscript.exe CFG-HideBrowserChoice.wsf.

An example of this is shown below.

ts2

When the task runs, the script will turn off the Browser Choice and removes the icon from the desktop. You will also find a log file that the script generates in the usual MDT log location (MININT\SMSOSD\OSDLOGS\CFG-HideBrowserChoice.log)

You can get the CFG-HideBrowserChoice.wsf script from the Deployment Guys SkyDrive by clicking HERE

Tested and I worked great

Source: blogs.technet.com

Vizioncore release free VMware Management Pack for OpsMgr

Vizioncore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quest have released a free Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 which enables the monitoring of VMware virtual infrastructures.  Now, before I get into the features and capabilities of what the MP gives you, it’s important to point out that this is the first free MP to deliver these capabilities, and may stir things up a little over at both Veeam and Bridgeways, who both have established MP’s for OpsMgr to enable monitoring of VMware environments.  It’s important to say, both Veeam and Bridgeways offer trails of their solutions, so it would be important to compare the different MP’s for yourselves, however looking at a high level, one of the key elements that Veeam seems to have today, is that it’s PRO-enabled, thus provides more automated, dynamic and agile responses within the environment based on changing conditions.  That’s not to say both Bridgeways and Vizioncore won’t evolve their technologies in the future, and bring in PRO capabilities, however today, you would have to classify it as a differentiator for Veeam.  One you have to pay for however.

ScreenshotVizioncore Logo

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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