Month: April 2007

Hey Microsoft, sort you documents out ;-).  I have had a hell of time trying to find an idiots guide on how to setup Edge in a perimeter network.

To start with ISA.  Well I found Devin blog on how to setup the ISA Server Rules (http://blogs.3sharp.com/Blog/deving/archive/2007/01/11/2774.aspx)

It seems to work okay.  The best reference I could find for Edge was in “How to Cheat at Configuring Exchange Server 2007: Including Outlook Web, Mobile, and Voice Access” by Henrik Walther

So what I needed now was a step by step guide on how to setup Edge and a related Hub Transport server.  Oh also include what I need to do when I hit an error!

This was a real up hill struggle! On the Edge Transport Machine I ran the following and said Yes
[PS] C:>New-EdgeSubscription -file “c:EdgeSubscriptionFile.xml”

Confirm
Creating an Edge Subscription makes the configuration of this Edge Transport
server ready to be managed via EdgeSync. Any of the following types of objects
that were created manually will be deleted: accepted domains; message
classifications; remote domains; and Send connectors. Also, the
InternalSMTPServers list of the TransportConfig object will be overwritten
during the synchronization process.
The Exchange Management Shell tasks that manage those types of objects will be
locked out on this Edge Transport server. You must manage those objects from
inside the organization and allow EdgeSync to update the Edge Transport server.
 EdgeSync requires that this Edge Transport server is able to resolve the fully
 qualified domain names (FQDN) of the Hub Transport servers in the Active
Directory site to which the Edge Transport server is being subscribed. Those
Hub Transport servers must be able to resolve the FQDN of this Edge Transport
server. You should complete the Edge Subscription inside the organization in
the next “1440” minutes before the bootstrap account expires.
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [N] No  [L] No to All  [S] Suspend  [?] Help
(default is “Y”):y
[PS] C:>

Right I then copied the xml for a hub server and imported it to the Edge Subscriptions Tab for Hub Transport server.

That all worked fine, and when I ran this you can see the nice positive response:

[PS] C:>Test-EdgeSynchronization

Name                        : EdgeServer
ConnectionResult            : Succeeded
FailureDetail               :
LastSynchronized            : 01/01/0001 00:00:00
CredentialStatus            : NotStarted
TransportServerStatus       : NotStarted
TransportConfigStatus       : NotStarted
AcceptedDomainStatus        : NotStarted
SendConnectorStatus         : NotStarted
MessageClassificationStatus : NotStarted
RecipientStatus             : NotStarted

But when I done this it just didn’t work

[PS] C:>Start-EdgeSynchronization
Start-EdgeSynchronization : unable to contact EdgeSync service
At line:1 char:25
+ Start-EdgeSynchronization <<<<

What the hell I thought.  I had network connectivity and have resolution, what the hell is going on?! .. so that was Friday.  I tried again this morning and Start-EdgeSynchronization still said the same.

so hey, lets check out the application event log, that would be novel.  Today I was getting another error:

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    MSExchange EdgeSync
Event Category:    Topology
Event ID:    1036
Date:        30/04/2007
Time:        10:41:33
User:        N/A
Computer:    HubServer
Description:
Microsoft Exchange couldn’t connect to EdgeServer.MyOrg.com using credentials cn=ESRA.EdgeServer.HubServer.0,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,CN={C29865B1-9E5C-4628-861F-599333745CC1}/%3. This may be because of an expired bootstrap account. Please resubscribe and try again.

Ohh.  So I discovered this:
You must complete the Edge Subscription process inside the organization within 24 hours of exporting the Edge Subscription file on the Edge Transport server. If you don’t export the Edge Subscription file on the Edge Transport server within 24 hours, the bootstrap account expires and you must remove the Edge Subscription and start the procedure again.

So I reran this:
[PS] C:>New-EdgeSubscription -file “c:EdgeSubscriptionFile.xml”

Confirm
The Edge Subscription inside the organization should be completed within the
next “1440” minutes before the bootstrap account expires.
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [N] No  [L] No to All  [S] Suspend  [?] Help
(default is “Y”):y
[PS] C:>

An copied the file to the HubServer.  Then removed the Edge subscriptions and added it back.

Again, Test-EdgeSynchronization looked good but Start-EdgeSynchronization still didn’t work.  And nothing in the application event log.

So I found the “Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync” service on the HubServer … Humm what if?  I restarted it and yeah baby it get these in app log:

Event Type:    Information
Event Source:    MSExchange EdgeSync
Event Category:    Initialization
Event ID:    1059
Date:        30/04/2007
Time:        10:56:12
User:        N/A
Computer:    HubServer
Description:
EdgeSync is starting

Event Type:  &nbs
p; Information
Event Source:    MSExchange EdgeSync
Event Category:    Synchronization
Event ID:    1000
Date:        30/04/2007
Time:        10:56:13
User:        N/A
Computer:    HubServer
Description:
Synchronization successfully completed on server: CN=EdgeServer,CN=Servers,CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT),CN=Administrative Groups,CN=MyOrg,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=ExchOrg,DC=local type: Recipients started: 30/04/2007 09:56:13 ended: 30/04/2007 09:56:13 scanned: 3 added: 3 updated: 0 deleted: 0

Event Type:    Information
Event Source:    MSExchange EdgeSync
Event Category:    Synchronization
Event ID:    1000
Date:        30/04/2007
Time:        10:56:14
User:        N/A
Computer:    HubServer
Description:
Synchronization successfully completed on server: CN=EdgeServer,CN=Servers,CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT),CN=Administrative Groups,CN=MyOrg,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=ExchOrg,DC=local type: Configuration started: 30/04/2007 09:56:13 ended: 30/04/2007 09:56:14 scanned: 254 added: 8 updated: 245 deleted: 1

And this sealed it:
[PS] C:>Test-EdgeSynchronization

Name                        : EdgeServer
ConnectionResult            : Succeeded
FailureDetail               :
LastSynchronized            : 30/04/2007 10:56:14
CredentialStatus            : Synchronized
TransportServerStatus       : Synchronized
TransportConfigStatus       : Synchronized
AcceptedDomainStatus        : Synchronized
SendConnectorStatus         : Synchronized
MessageClassificationStatus : Synchronized
RecipientStatus             : Synchronized

So the lesson of the day.  Restart the “Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync” Service on the Hub Transport server of choice to “force” EdgeSync to work

Also if you add a load of users, once it works, you run Start-EdgeSynchronization again

[PS] C:>Start-EdgeSynchronization

Result         : Success
Type           : Configuration
Name           : CN=EdgeServer,CN=Servers,CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FY
                 DIBOHF23SPDLT),CN=Administrative Groups,CN=MyOrg,CN=Micros
                 oft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=ExchOrg,DC=local
FailureDetails :
StartUTC       : 30/04/2007 10:33:41
EndUTC         : 30/04/2007 10:33:41
Added          : 0
Deleted        : 0
Updated        : 253
Scanned        : 254
TargetScanned  : 0

Result         : Success
Type           : Recipients
Name           : CN=EdgeServer,CN=Servers,CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FY
                 DIBOHF23SPDLT),CN=Administrative Groups,CN=MyOrg,CN=Micros
                 oft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=ExchOrg,DC=local
FailureDetails :
StartUTC       : 30/04/2007 10:33:41
EndUTC         : 30/04/2007 10:33:42
Added          : 20
Deleted        : 0
Updated        : 3
Scanned        : 23
TargetScanned  : 0

.. the Application event log shows this

Event Type:    Information
Event Source:    MSExchange EdgeSync
Event Category:    SyncNow
Event ID:    1040
Date:        30/04/2007
Time:        11:33:41
User:        N/A
Computer:    HubServer
Description:
Synchronization started now

with a load of these

Event Type:    Information
Event Source:    MSExchange EdgeSync
Event Category:    Synchronization
Event ID:    1000
Date:        30/04/2007
Time:        11:33:42
User:        N/A
Computer:    SUKMSDHUB02
Description:
Synchronization successfully completed on server: CN=Edgeserver,CN=Servers,CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT),CN=Administrative Groups,CN=MyOrg,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=ExchOrg,DC=local type: Configuration started: 30/04/2007 10:33:42 ended: 30/04/2007 10:33:42 scanned: 254 added: 0 updated: 253 deleted: 0

And ending with this

Event Type:    Information
Event Source:    MSExchange EdgeSync
Event Category:    SyncNow
Event ID:    1041
Date:        30/04/2007
Time:        11:33:55
User:        N/A
Computer:    HubServer
Description:
Completed synchronization now

Hope this helps

It’s a 29.6mb MSP file, that is basically a manual windows update file.  It doesn’t arf take some time to apply. 

Talking to Richard, he said that the Rollup will actually update the exchange install package and cause it to perform a “repair” and applies the new files.

That way if you do need to “repair” the exchange installation it will have this rollup included!

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange 2007 includes the following fixes:
932487 – The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service stops unexpectedly when the Exchange Server 2007-based server replicates the Public folder
929756 – The DoSnapshotSet method may stop responding in the Exchange store, and a backup application stops responding on an Exchange 2007 server

The KB for the fix can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=930809

I cracked the MSP open MSIX (http://blogs.msdn.com/heaths/archive/2006/04/07/571138.aspx) and found 959 files with file versions ranging from 8.0.693.0 to 8.0.708.3.  So it must have more than the two fixes listed above

What is a concern is that the rollup doesn’t actually change the version shown in the Exchange Management Console.  With or without the patch is says Version 8.0 (Build 685.24).  Would be nice is this was updated to you know what servers have patch  But I suppose I understand in a way.  You can see if the patch has been applied by going to Add/Remove programs and Checking the “Show Updates” box.  This will then show:
-Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
— Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 (KB930809)

Hope this help

I have been looking at a design for Exchange 2007 and wondered about Virtualization.  So I have been looking for information about, and here are my finding:

Exchange 2007 and Virtualization

Exchange 2007 is not supported in production in a virtual environment; however, as stated above, Microsoft Virtual Server makes a great environment for training, labs, and demos. Exchange 2007 is supported in production environments using only the 64-bit version of Exchange 2007, and currently neither Microsoft Virtual Server nor Microsoft Virtual PC support 64-bit guest systems. Exchange 2007 is also not supported in production in a virtual environment using non-Microsoft virtualization software. For details about the Microsoft support policy for third-party virtualization software, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 897615, Support policy for Microsoft software running in non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software.

The first 64-bit guest support is expected to be included with Hypervisor, which is an add-on for Windows Server Code Name “Longhorn” from Microsoft that is scheduled to ship within 180 days of Longhorn. Note that this is within 180 days, meaning it could ship the same day as Longhorn, or it could ship 180 days after Longhorn ships. For more information about Microsoft’s virtualization plans, see the Microsoft Machine Virtualization Roadmap Chat-Transcript.

It does make me laugh, what about VmWare they can do 64 bit now …. oh but you won’t support it … check this out why!

Support policy for Microsoft software running in non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software

Microsoft does not test or support Microsoft software running in conjunction with non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. For Microsoft customers who do not have a Premier-level support agreement, Microsoft will require the issue to be reproduced independently from the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. Where the issue is confirmed to be unrelated to the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software, Microsoft will support its software in a manner that is consistent with support provided when that software is not running in conjunction with non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software.

So it all come down to Virtual Server not being able to support a 64-bit, as Exchange 2003 was supported

Support policy for Exchange Server 2003 running on hardware virtualization software

So next in my research was Enterprise Vault.  It would seem that this can be virtualized.  Enterprise Vault 7.0 is okay to run VMWare ESX 3.0 and Virtual Server 2005 (32bit SQL is too)

As for Blackberry Enterprise Server, with BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 Service Pack 2 supports virtualization with VMWare® Datacenter grade ESX v2.5.2 (or later)

So that is it, if you are tight on datacentre a space you could virtualize you Enterprise Vault server and BES using ESX, but you could have performance issues