Category: Microsoft

Load Balancing Exchange 2010 Client Access Servers using an Hardware Load Balancer Solution (Kemp)

At first you need to create a casarray on Exchange 2010 Server or Servers.

Configuring Client Access Array for Exchange 2010

If you want more info about Casarray and how it works read: Exploring Exchange 2010 RPC Client Access service & Demystifying the CAS Array Object – Part 1 & Demystifying the CAS Array Object – Part 2

Second: Configure Virtual Directories
Set Exchange 2010 Virtual Directories

Third: You set static RPC ports on your Client Access Server
Exchange 2010: Setting Static RPC ports when using a Kemp LoadMaster

Fourth: you register in DNS your casarray name and autodiscover name on a new “virtual” IP address.

Fifth: You configure the Kemp loadbalacers as descriptind in: LoadMaster Deployment Guide for MS Exchange 2010 with the new “virtual” IP address.

When you are done you have 6 Virtual Services
kemp1

When a hardware load balancer based CAS array has been properly configured, all servers in the array are represented by a single virtual IP (VIP) address and a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). When a client request comes in, it will be sent to an Exchange 2010 CAS server in the CAS array using DNS round robin distribution method.

Set Exchange 2010 Virtual Directories

With the following following powershell commands you set al the Exchange 2010 virtual directories

Set-ClientAccessServer -Identity ward-ex2010 -AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri https://casarray.hyperv.local/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml

Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Identity "ward-ex2010\EWS (Default Web Site)"-ExternalUrl "https://webmail.wardvissers.nl/ews/exchange.asmx" -InternalUrl "https://casarray.hyperv.local/ews/exchange.asmx"

Set-OABVirtualDirectory -Identity "ward-ex2010\oab (Default Web Site)" -InternalUrl http://casarray.hyperv.local/oab -ExternalUrl https://webmail.wardvissers.nl/oab

Enable-OutlookAnywhere -Server ward-ex2010 -ExternalHostname "webmail.wardvissers.nl" -ClientAuthenticationMethod "Basic" -SSLOffloading:$False

Set-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory -Identity "ward-ex2010\Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync (Default Web Site)" -InternalURL https://casarray.hyperv.local/Microsoft-Server-Activesync -ExternalURL https://webmail.wardvissers.nl/Microsoft-Server-Activesync

Set-ECPVirtualDirectory –Identity "ward-ex2010\ecp (default web site)" -InternalURL https://casarray.hyperv.local/ECP -ExternalURL https://webmail.wardvissers.nl/ECP

Set-AutodiscoverVirtualDirectory "ward-ex2010\Autodiscover (Default Web Site)" -InternalUrl http:/casarray.hyperv.local -ExternalUrl https://autodiscover.nifv.nl

HP takes the next step and provides ready-made driver packages for MDT and SCCM

HP takes the next step and provides ready-made driver packages for MDT and SCCM for the business models of notebooks, desktops and workstations. The packages can be obtained via SoftPaq Download Manager (SDM) or from the HP support website. It appears they are primarily for the current generation of products.
To get the download manager, navigate to the HP manageability website: www.hp.com/go/easydeploy or directly to www.hp.com/go/sdm

Here are screenshots from the new packages in SoftPaq Download Manager and from the HP support website.


Special Thanks to: Deploymentresearch

MDT 2012 Feature: Item Sorting

There is a new feature in MDT 2012 RC1. It will keep the list of items (applications, drivers OS packages, task sequences) in alphabetical order.

Now when you first install MDT 2012 RC1, you might notice that the items aren’t sorted right away – you have to change something in the folder first. As soon as you do (e.g. add an item, rename an item), the items in that folder will be sorted.

Keeping the list of folders sorted is a much bigger challenge, so at this point they will still show up in the order that they were added.

Automatically Create Archive Mailbox when user is on specified Mailbox Database

With de following PowerShell command you create automatically archive mailbox for a user in a specified mailbox database

Get-Mailbox -Database MB1 | Enable-Mailbox -Archive  -ArchiveDatabase MB3

This is very when you want to create a lot of archive mailboxes in one time

Set al mailboxes to Mailbox Database Default Quota’s

In Exchange Server 2010 the Exchange Management Console doesn’t provide a way to visually locate mailboxes that have no storage quota, or mailboxes that have a non-standard storage quota configured.  However you can find mailbox storage quota settings quickly using the Exchange Management Shell.
 
To list all Exchange Server 2010 mailboxes that are exempt from the mailbox database storage quota settings use this command in the Exchange Management Shell.

get-mailbox | where {$_.UseDatabaseQuotaDefaults -eq $False}

Exchange Mailbox Quato's

To Set al mailbox to Mailbox Database Default:

get-mailbox | where {$_.UseDatabaseQuotaDefaults -eq $False} | set-mailbox -UseDatabaseQuotaDefaults $true

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 RC1

The Solution Accelerators team released Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 RC1 is available for download on Connect now.

Download the MDT 2012 RC1 release now

New features and enhancements:

Support for Configuration Manager 2012 RC2: This update provides support for Configuration Manager 2012 RC2 releases. MDT 2012 fully leverages the capabilities provided by Configuration Manager 2012 for OS deployment. The latest version of MDT offers new User-Driven Installation components and extensibility for Configuration Manager 2007 and 2012. Users now also have the ability to migrate MDT 2012 task sequences from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012.

Customize deployment questions: For System Center Configuration Manager customers, MDT 2012 provides an improved, extensible wizard and designer for customizing deployment questions.

Ease Lite Touch installation: The Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) is now integrated with Lite Touch Installation, providing remote control and diagnostics. New monitoring capabilities are available to check on the status of currently running deployments. LTI now has an improved deployment wizard user experience. Enhanced partitioning support ensures that deployments work regardless of the current structure.

Secure Deployments: MDT 2012 offers integration with the Microsoft Security Compliance Manager (SCM) tool to ensure a secure Windows deployment from the start.

Reliability and flexibility: Existing MDT users will find more reliability and flexibility with the many small enhancements and bug fixes and a smooth and simple upgrade process.

Support for Windows 8: The RC1 release of MDT 2012 provides support for deploying Windows 8 Consumer Preview in a lab environment.

Key Benefits:

  • Full use of the capabilities provided by System Center Configuration Manager 2012 for OS deployment.
  • Improved Lite Touch user experience and functionality.
  • A smooth and simple upgrade process for all existing MDT users.

New Features:

For System Center Configuration Manager customers:

  • Support for Configuration Manager 2012 (while still supporting Configuration Manager 2007)
  • New User-Driven Installation components for Configuration Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2012
    • Extensible wizard and designer, additional integration with Configuration Manager to deliver a more customized OS experience, support for more imaging scenarios, and an enhanced end-user deployment experience
  • Ability to migrate MDT 2012 task sequences from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012

For Lite Touch Installation:

  • Integration with the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) for remote control and diagnostics
  • New monitoring capabilities to see the progress of currently running deployments
  • Support for deploying Windows to computers using UEFIAbility to deploy Windows 7 so that the computer will start from a new VHD file, "Deploy to VHD"
  • Improved deployment wizard user experience

For all customers:

  • Integration with configuration templates from the Security Compliance Manager Solution Accelerator, ensuring Windows is secure from the start
  • A simple mechanism for running Windows PowerShell scripts during a deployment, with task sequence environment and logging integration
  • Better partitioning support, creating the recommended partitioning structures on new computers and ensuring deployments work regardless of the current structure
  • A smooth and simple upgrade process for all existing MDT users
  • Many small enhancements and bug fixes

The word "Globale Adreslijst" in Dutch is displayed unexpectedly in breadcrumb and navigation pane in OWA in an Exchange Server 2010 SP2 environment

Today Microsoft released a fix (KB2677598) for a small cosmetic imperfection which shows up when using Outlook Web Access in Dutch, after installing Service Pack 2 on Exchange 2010.

Instead of showing up “Mail”, OWA displayed “Globale Adreslijst” (Global Addresslist) which might be confusing to end users.

To need to download the Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP2 Language Pack Bundle  which released on 20 Feb 2012 and install on your Exchange 2010 SP2 Client Access Servers.

You can download the Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP2 Language Pack Bundle (219 MB) here.

Special thanks for Jetze for notice the update

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

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