Tag: Windows

Exchange 2010 Autodiscovery Issues

Two weeks ago a build my first production Exchange 2010 cluster. The Exchange 2010 web services are causing a lot of issues to people, and my self not any more.

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)

How to Install & Configure Immidio Flex Profiles Advanced Edition

Install Immidio Flex Profiles Advanced Edition with setup.exe. There is one thing you must no.

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.

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Start Immidio FlexProfile Kit
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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I did some settings where to find the ini files and where to save the settings.
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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

Reviewing Least Privilege Security for Windows 7, Vista and XP

I was recently approached to do a book review on “Least Privilege Security for Windows 7,Vista and XP by Russell Smith” published by Packt Publishing. I will review it soon. It show you how to configure your Windows environment so that your users can operate without administrator permissions.

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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Enable Windows 7 Features through Group Policy

I love Windows 7. But there is one thing a hate about Windows 7.
There is no nice way to enable Windows 7 Features trough Group Policy.

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

MDT 2010 Importing automatically the right driver

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:

MDT 2010 - Out-of-Box Drivers

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.

MDT 2010 - Set Task Sequence Variable (Add Task) MDT 2010 - Set Task Sequence Variable (DriverGroup)

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.

MDT 2010 - Set Task Sequence Variable

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:

MDT 2010 - Selection Profiles Overview

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

MDT 2010 - Selection Profiles, select folders

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;

MDT 2010 - Selection Profiles, add 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:

MDT 2010 - Selection Profiles, task sequence MDT 2010 - Selection Profiles, task sequence

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

Enable the Change Password feature with Outlook Web Access on a Windows 2003 Exchange 2007 Server

First Step create the IISADMPWD virtual directory, do the following:

  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. image
  3. In the Virtual Directory Creation wizard, type IISADMPWD in the Alias box, and then click Next.
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  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.
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  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.
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  6. Verify that the IISADMPWD virtual directory has only basic authentication is set
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  7. If you use Windows 2003/IIS 6.0, verify that the application pool is set to MSExchangeOWAAppPool
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  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.
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    Source http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297121

VMware vSphere 4.1 Released

WHAT’S NEW:

Installation and Deployment

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

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

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 Update 1 is RTM

Microsoft has released a new version of MDT 2010 named Update 1.

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 😀

Deploy Office 2010 with Multiple Languages with MDT 2010

I Like Office 2010. For me it is the best Office version i ever worked with.
MDT 2010 it’s great tool that Microsoft created.
Now i will talk about how you deploy Office 2010 with Multilanguage packs with MDT 2010.

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.

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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.
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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

    Exchange 2007 SP3 is released

    What’s New in SP3 for Exchange 2007


    Windows Server 2008 R2 Support

    Exchange Server 2007 SP3 supports all Exchange 2007 roles on the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system.

    Windows 7 Support

    Exchange 2007 SP3 supports the installation of the Exchange 2007 management tools on a computer that is running Windows 7. Additionally, Exchange 2007 SP3 provides support for the installation of the Exchange 2007 Management Tools together with the Exchange Server 2010 Management Tools on the same Windows 7-based computer.

    Improved Password Reset Functionality

    Exchange 2007 SP3 introduces password reset functionality for Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.

    To enable the password reset feature

    1. Log on to the Exchange server that is running the CAS role by using an account that has local administrator rights.

    2. Start Registry Editor, and then locate the following registry subkey:

      HLKM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchange OWA

    3. Create the following DWORD value if it does not already exist:

      Value name: ChangeExpiredPasswordEnabledValue type: REG_DWORDValue data: 1

    4. Exit Registry Editor.

     Updated Search Functionality

    Exchange 2007 SP3 includes updates to the Exchange Search (MSSearch) component. MSSearch provides support for creating full text indexes for Exchange stores. Exchange 2007 SP3 updates the MSSearch binary files to MSSearch 3.1.

    Schema Changes

    Exchange 2007 SP3 includes Active Directory schema changes for certain Unified Messaging (UM) mailbox attributes. For more information, see Active Directory Schema Changes (SP3).

    Support for Right-to-Left Disclaimer Text

    Exchange 2007 SP3 includes support for Right-to-Left text in e-mail message disclaimers in a right-to-left language, such as Arabic. In earlier versions of Exchange, when you use a transport rule to create a disclaimer in a right-to-left language on an Exchange 2007 Hub Transport server, the text appears incorrectly when you view it from Outlook 2007.

    Exchange 2007 SP3 adds functionality to the transport rule setting to fully support right-to-left text in disclaimers.

    Download here SP3 for Exchange 2007

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