Category: Exchange

These are related to Exchange Server and topics along those lines.

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

STEPS TO DECOMMISSIONING YOUR EXCHANGE 2010 ON-PREMISES ENVIRONMENT

This was a great article released by the Exchange Team Blog today, and as I have been dealing with MANY customers still having Exchange 2010, I wanted to have this available for quick review! It has great links and steps to consider when finally getting off Exchange 2010.

Best practices when decommissioning Exchange 2010

As many of you know from the previous post regarding Exchange On-Premises Best Practices for Migrations from 2010 to 2016 the end of support for Exchange 2010 is quickly approaching. We’ve created this post to cover the best practices for decommissioning an Exchange 2010 environment after the migration has completed.

Uninstalling Exchange 2010 is as easy as running Setup and selecting to remove the server roles, but there are prerequisites to removing the roles and legacy items left over, which should be removed.

This post is intended to provide best practices to plan for and complete the Exchange 2010 decommission. Please note that since there are many different types of deployments and configurations it is difficult to cover all scenarios, but many of the common steps are included here. Please plan the decommission process carefully.

As a general statement, here are some things that we want to caution against:

  • Do not reuse Exchange 2010 server names (until they have been fully decommissioned).
  • Do not reuse Exchange 2010 server IP addresses (until they have been fully decommissioned).

This post assumes that your organization is maintaining some Exchange presence on-premises, whether Exchange 2013 or 2016 (we do not mention Exchange 2019 in this post because it cannot coexist with Exchange 2010). If your organization has moved all mailboxes to Office 365 and is in a Hybrid environment, we are assuming you will maintain an Exchange footprint per Scenario 2 in How and when to decommission your on-premises Exchange servers in a hybrid deployment.

Preparing for Soft Shut Down

Once you’ve completed the migration from Exchange 2010 to, let’s say, Exchange 2016, you should prepare the 2010 environment prior to decommissioning the servers. The following steps to consider are separated into server roles when preparing for a soft shut down and preparing for the removal of server roles.

Client Access (CAS) Role

Check Server FQDNs

Review all namespaces (e.g. DNS records and load balanced virtual IP addresses) used for client connectivity and ensure they are routing to the 2016 environment. These are all the names that are published for Outlook Anywhere, AutoDiscover, and all Exchange Virtual Directories.

Tip: Verify that all clients such as ActiveSync, Outlook, EWS, OWA, OAB, POP3/IMAP, and Autodiscover are no longer connecting to the legacy Exchange servers. Verification of this can be done by reviewing the servers’ IIS Logs with Log Parser Studio (LPS). LPS is a GUI for Log Parser 2.2 and it greatly reduces the complexity of parsing logs. LPS can parse large sets of logs concurrently (we have tested with total log sizes of >60GB). Please refer to the following blog post with tips and information on using LPS.

Check SCPs

Make sure that the Service Connection Point (SCP) is moved to Exchange 2016 as discussed in the Exchange On-Premises Best Practices for Migrations from 2010 to 2016 post under the Configure Autodiscover SCP for Internal Clients section.

If present, ensure that if the AutoDiscoverServiceInternalURI routes to an Exchange 2016 endpoint. You can also remove this value by setting the AutoDiscoverServiceInternalURI to $Null.

Hub Transport Role

Follow the items below to review all mail flow connectors. We will not be removing connectors themselves, simply auditing to ensure that the server is ready to be decommissioned.

Review the Send Connectors

Review the send connectors and ensure that the legacy servers have been removed and Exchange 2016 servers have been added. Most organizations only permit outbound network traffic on port 25 to a small number of IP addresses, so you may also need to review the outbound network configuration.

Review the Receive Connectors

Review the receive connectors on legacy servers and ensure they are recreated on your Exchange 2016 servers (e.g. SMTP relay; anonymous relay; partner, etc.). Review all namespaces (e.g. DNS records and load balanced virtual IP addresses) used for inbound mail routing and ensure they are terminating against the Exchange 2016 environment. If your legacy Exchange servers have any custom, third-party, or foreign connectors installed (for example, with fax services), ensure that they can be reinstalled on 2016 Exchange servers.

Tip: Check the SMTP logs to see if any outside systems are still sending SMTP traffic to the servers via hard coded names or IP addresses. To enable logging, review Configure Protocol Logging. Also, ensure we have “time coverage” for any apps relaying weekly/monthly emails that may not be caught in a small sample size of SMTP Protocol logs. There is a great script available here that can help find any applications that may be relaying off your legacy environment.

In general, the decommissioning process is a great time to audit your mail flow configuration to ensure that all the connectors are properly configured and secured. Maybe it’s time to get rid of any of those Anonymous Relay connectors that may be in use in your environment. Or, if Hybrid, possibly relay against Office 365.

Transport Rules

Exchange 2010 base transport rules are held in a different AD container than Exchange 2013 and newer rules. When installing Exchange 2016 in your environment it will import those Exchange 2010 based rules. However, any changes to Exchange 2010 rules after a later version of Exchange is installed must also be applied to your Exchange 2016 rules. This is further explained here under section Coexistence with Exchange 2010.

Run the following command to get all your Exchange Transport Rules. Must be run on Exchange 2016 to see all rules.

Compare the rules with RuleVersion of 14.X.X.X to those with 15.1.X.X. If any Exchange 2010 rules don’t exist on Exchange 2016, they must be created. Also review all settings of each Exchange 2010 rule and replicate them to Exchange 2016.  

Mailbox Role

Identity and move all Exchange 2010 mailboxes to Exchange 2016

Decommissioning Exchange 2010 cannot be initiated until all mailboxes have been moved to Exchange 2016. As an example, we cannot decommission Exchange 2010 Hub Transport servers completely until all of the mailboxes are moved off the legacy platform, this is due to how Delivery Groups are handled.

We encourage using the newest Exchange platform to process any move requests. If moving to Exchange 2016, move all mailboxes via Exchange 2016. Also, ensure that once all moves are completed, and that all associated Move Requests are removed as well. Any lingering move requests or mailboxes will prevent uninstallation of Exchange 2010.

To move all user mailboxes, run the following command to identify the mailboxes, and then plan to move them to the new platform.

Tip: Ensure that Archives are included with “Get-Mailbox -Archive” if you used Exchange Archives in 2010. Also, do not forget about your Discovery Search mailboxes – these can be found with: Get-Mailbox -Filter { RecipientTypeDetails -eq “DiscoveryMailbox”}. These will need to be moved (if they haven’t yet already), to Exchange 2016 as well.

Identify and Move Arbitration Mailboxes to Exchange 2016

It’s necessary to move the arbitration mailboxes from Exchange 2010 to 2016 for many Exchange Services to work properly, including the Exchange Admin Center (EAC). This is typically executed when Exchange 2016 is first installed, however, if that was missed, we will ensure that is handled now. The process to move is defined at: Move the Exchange 2010 system mailbox to Exchange 2013+. To verify which system mailboxes are located on 2010, use PowerShell on your Exchange 2010 server with the following example:

Note: If any mailboxes are present, move them to an Exchange 2016 database.

OAB Generation

Installing first Exchange Server 2013+ into Exchange 2010 organization creates a new OAB. It also marks the new OAB as default. The Exchange 2010 OAB is not used by Exchange 2013+ servers so moving the OAB is not necessary. Move the OAB to another Exchange 2010 server, if you are removing an Exchange 2010 server that’s currently hosting the OAB, and there are other Exchange 2010 servers in the org. If you are removing the last Exchange 2010 server in the org, remove the OAB.

Migrate All Legacy Public Folders

Verify that all the public folders have been migrated to Exchange Online, Office 365 Groups, or Exchange Modern public folders.

Mail Enabled Public Folders (MEPF) consideration

If the following is true:

  • Exchange Server 2010 public folders are migrated to Exchange Online
  • Exchange Server 2013/2016 was introduced on-premises
  • MEPF’s are still used on-premises to send emails to Exchange Online

In that case, you may need to run the SetMailPublicFolderExternalAddress.ps1 script to ensure Exchange 2013+ servers can continue sending emails to Exchange Online MEPFs.

Decommission the Database Availability Group (DAG)

Assuming best practices were followed for the Exchange 2010 environment, we will have a DAG for HA/DR capabilities. Now that all mailboxes have been removed from the 2010 environment, we are ready to tear down this DAG to move forward with decommissioning Exchange 2010.

Remove Database Availability Group (DAG) Copies

First, we start with the copies. For every mailbox database copy in the environment hosted on Exchange 2010, we will need to remove the Mailbox Database Copy. This can be done via the UI, or via PowerShell:

NOTE: Removing the copy will not remove the actual .edb database file from the Server.

Remove All Nodes from Database Availability Group(s) (DAG)

For each Exchange 2010 server in the environment, we will need to remove the individual server from the DAG. This is evicting the server from the cluster. This can be done via the UI, or through PowerShell.

Remove DAGs

Lastly, once the Database copies are removed, and the servers are evicted from the cluster, the last thing is to finally remove the DAG from the environment. This can be done with the following PowerShell command:

Tip: If you have an even-membered DAG, and leveraged a File Share Witness, don’t forget to decommission the file share witness that was used for the Exchange 2010 DAG.

Unified Messaging Role

Configuration steps are required to move Exchange 2010 UM to Exchange 2016 servers. The following link can be used to guide through removal of UM from Exchange 2010. If moving to a third-party UM solution, remove the UM components to allow un-installation of the UM role.

Edge Role

If you have an Edge server, you will need to install Exchange 2016 Edge and recreate the Edge Subscription on the E2016 server. This is further documented here.

Other

As mentioned in the beginning of the document, due to so many different types of deployments and configurations, it’s difficult to cover all scenarios however it’s recommended to check any other possible scenarios that apply to your environment.

Third Party Applications

Make a list of applications that may be using Exchange 2010 (e.g. EWS, mail transport, database-aware) and make sure to configure these applications to start using Exchange 2016 infrastructure.

Shut-Down Exchange 2010 Servers

Test shutting down the Exchange servers for a few days to a few weeks to see if there are any issues. You are auditing for any applications that are trying to connect to the Exchange 2010 servers or trying to send email through the Exchange 2010 servers.  Enabling protocol logging on the Hub Transport roles prior to shutting down the servers is an option. That way if any mail is processing through these servers, upon restart, the logging will begin immediately.  If applications or servers are trying to connect you can remediate those or power on the Exchange 2010 servers until remediation can happen.

Tip: Check Active Directory DNS Zone settings to see if DNS Scavenging is enabled.  If this is enabled, the DNS record could become stale during the shutdown time frame and cause DNS issues for the Exchange 2010 server.

Preparing for Removal of Server Roles

As you begin the process of removing servers, you should go through the list below and ensure you have everything tested and ready to go.

CAS

Remove CAS Arrays

Remove Any Exchange 2010 Client Access Arrays from Active Directory and DNS. Refer to the following document to remove the Client Access Array object with Shell using the following example:

Be sure to also remove any references in DNS to the CAS Array Name.

Remove Unused 2010 ASAs

If you followed either the Best practices for Migrations blog or the Coexistence with Kerberos blog, we recommend that any old alternate service accounts (ASAs) used for E2010 be removed. If you are using a different namespace than Exchange 2016, please verify old SPNs are also removed.

Remove Exchange 2010 OAB

Use the following command to remove Exchange 2010 OAB:

Remove Mailbox Databases

Now that all mailboxes are migrated from the Exchange 2010 platform, and the DAG is properly removed, we will want to decommission any leftover databases from the Exchange 2010 environment. To remove all Exchange 2010 databases, review the output of the following, and remove individually:

And then remove the database with:

NOTE: If there are any mailboxes currently residing on the database, we will not let you remove the database, it will fail with the following error:

e2010decom1.jpg
Remove Legacy Public Folders

If you chose not to migrate public folders, refer to the following document to remove public folders with either EMC or Shell using the following example:

Remove Legacy Public Folder Databases

Refer to the following document to remove the public folder databases with PowerShell using the following example:

Tip: Remember the .edb files linger after the above is done. Feel free to delete, backup, or do with these as you please.

Uninstall Exchange 2010

It’s recommended to uninstall in the following order: CAS, Hub, UM (if any), then Mailbox.  

Starting the Uninstall Process

When you begin the uninstall process, close EMC, EMS, and any additional programs that could delay uninstall process (i.e. programs using .NET assemblies; antivirus and backup agents are examples). You can either run Exchange 2010 Setup.exe or navigate to Control Panel to modify or remove Exchange 2010 (either server roles or the entire installation). Specific steps are discussed in Modify or Remove Exchange 2010.

Tip: Exchange will protect itself! If you properly uninstall via Add/Remove Programs, it will ensure that it is ready to be uninstalled via Readiness Checks! If all the above prep work is completed before hand, it should uninstall just fine.

After Uninstall of Exchange 2010

After uninstalling Exchange there will be some general “housekeeping” tasks. These may vary depending on the steps taken during your upgrade and depending on your organization’s operational requirements.

Examples include:

  • Removing the legacy Exchange computer accounts from AD (including the DAG’s Cluster Name Object and any Kerberos ASA object).
  • Removing the legacy Exchange name records from DNS (including the DAG’s Cluster Name Object and any Kerberos ASA object).
  • Ensure the folder on the DAG file share witness (FSW) servers were successfully removed, possibly removing Exchange’s rights on the server if it isn’t serving double duty for Exchange 2016.
  • Removing old load balanced IP addresses and routes from your network load balancer.
  • Remove old firewall rules that open ports to Exchange 2010 environment.
  • Removing and disposing of the legacy Exchange environment’s physical equipment.
  • Deleting of the legacy Exchange environment’s virtual machines.

Conclusion

With the uninstall of the last server, hopefully Exchange 2010 treated your organization well. The Exchange product team takes great pride of the success of the platform and hope that you see the same success with Exchange 2016 (or Exchange Online!). Messaging sure has come a long way since it was released way back in 2009.

REFERENCES
Exchange Team Blog article on Decommissioning Exchange 2010 On-Premises

CHECK FOR CONTINUED UPDATES!
THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Exchange Server Quarterly Updates March 2020

Released: March 2020 Quarterly Exchange Updates

Today Microsoft is announcing the availability of quarterly servicing cumulative updates for Exchange Server 2016 and 2019. These updates include fixes for customer reported issues as well as all previously released security updates. 

Personal Note: I was recently involved in a layoff at Microsoft in the Vendor PFE world. I am currently looking for new engagements.

Calculator Updates

This quarterly Exchange release includes an important update to the Exchange 2019 Sizing Calculator.  We’ve made improvements to the logic to detect whether a design is bound by mailbox size (capacity) or throughput (IOPs) which affects the maximum number of mailboxes a database will support.  Previous versions of the calculator produced incorrect results in some situations.

The Exchange team highly recommends using calculator version 10.4, included with the March 2020 quarterly CU release, to size Exchange Server 2019 deployments.

MCDB Configuration Issues

Cumulative Update 5 for Exchange Server 2019 also fixes an issue that can happen when you use the Manage-MetaCacheDatabase.ps1 script to enable MetaCacheDatabase (MCDB).

This issue occurred because of a change in behavior in Windows Server 2019 that caused Get-Disk to return all uninitialized discs within the Database Availability Group (DAG) or cluster. The script then incorrectly tried to format an SSD on another DAG member. We documented a workaround for CU4 here, but we’ve fixed it in CU5.

Online Mode Search Issues

Cumulative Update 5 for Exchange Server 2019 is also required to fix a known issue with partial word searches when the client is using Outlook in online mode.

Release Details

The KB articles that describe the fixes in each release and product downloads are available as follows:

Additional Information

Microsoft recommends all customers test the deployment of any update in their lab environment to determine the proper installation process for your production environment. For information on extending the schema and configuring Active Directory, please review the appropriate documentation.

Also, to prevent installation issues you should ensure that the Windows PowerShell Script Execution Policy is set to “Unrestricted” on the server being upgraded or installed. To verify the policy settings, run the Get-ExecutionPolicy cmdlet from PowerShell on the machine being upgraded. If the policies are NOT set to Unrestricted you should use the resolution steps in KB981474 to adjust the settings.

Reminder: Customers in hybrid deployments where Exchange is deployed on-premises and in the cloud, or who are using Exchange Online Archiving (EOA) with their on-premises Exchange deployment are required to deploy the currently supported cumulative update for the product version in use, e.g.,

2013 Cumulative Update 23
2016 Cumulative Update 16 or 15
2019 Cumulative Update 5 or 4.

For the latest information on Exchange Server and product announcements please see: 
What’s New in Exchange Server and Exchange Server Release Notes.

I AM STILL CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR A NEW PROJECT OR ASSIGNMENT!
THANKS FOR READING!

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Exchange Server Security Update KB4540123 fails with 0x80070643

PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE POST

I had a failure on one of my two Exchange 2019 CU4 servers when installing the Security Update for them:

Exchange Server Security Update KB4540123 fails with 0x80070643

I could not restart the install as it would fail when getting to the services stoppage part of the installation. I saw this error in the ServiceControl.log file in the C:\ExchangeSetupLogs Directory

I had searched around based on the error code 0x80070643 and found these answers that some had used to get the installation to work.

LINK HERE

I downloaded the .msp file to install manually and read the answers on the web-page. It was said that there was an issue with the ServiceControl.ps1 file that is in the Exchange Server BIN directory when running Patch with the Verbose logging enabled:

I kept reading and digging into the fix for the file. It was said to modify a number of lines in the ServiceControl.ps1 script:

Once I made those changes. I renamed the original ServiceContol.ps1 to a .old file and saved this modified file to the BIN directory. I was then able to successfully run the Security Update.

BUT WHY DID THIS SERVER FAIL AND NOT THE OTHER?!?

Both are CU4, but the server that failed had been upgraded from CU1 where the one that did NOT fail was a clean installation of CU4. So, I checked the ServiceConrol.ps1 file on both servers:

Older Exchange Install
Date of ServiceControl.ps1 is 1/1/2020
CU4 Clean Installation
Date of ServiceControl.ps1 is 2/3/2020

I have not tested this, but maybe if I had copied the ServiceControl.ps1 file from the CU4 clean installation to the original install, the script might have worked since the creation dates are different and I have no other version information to go on. I will verify this though. For now, the changes to the script allowed me to successfully install the Security Update Successfully.

NOTE: All the Exchange and IIS Services were in a Startup Mode: Disabled state and I had to reset them ALL to Automatic. Once that was completed and the server rebooted, Exchange was returned to normal state. ****Also, just to be safe, I ran a great script that assures the server is out of maintenance mode. You can get the script HERE. You can also get the script to put the server into maintenance mode. You can get the script HERE. These scripts will work on Exchange 2013 and above servers.

UPDATE / 3/12/2020 2:39 AM EST

Something was still wrong with the server. ActiveSync and PAM started breaking. I started having all sorts of authentication problems. I decided to restore the server from backup from Tuesday. I forgot to backup the ServiceControl.ps1 file that modified, but I moved the one from the successful installation to the restored server and am currently running the update. I will see if it works and send the information to you.

UPDATE / 3/12/2020 3:45 AM EST

The restore worked great and placing the ServiceControl.ps1 file in the BIN directory on the prior failed Exchange Server did allow for the installation to complete successfully. I have tested ActiveSync and Authentication which is now functioning properly. Hooray!

SEND ME YOUR IDEAS/ FOR POSTS!
HAPPY TROUBLESHOOTING!

REFERENCES:
Exchange Server Security Update fails with 0x80070643
Exchange Maintenance Mode Script (Start)
Exchange Maintenance Mode Script (Stop)
Exchange Server 2019 CU4 Security Update

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Exchange 2016 Deployment MUST READ Documentation

In my role as a PFE for Microsoft, I have been going through many deployments of Exchange 2016 from Exchange 2010 due to the end of life deadline for Exchange 2010. I am actually in the middle of three enterprise level deployments this month.

Because of this, I wanted to provide some MUST READ links with consideration to the Exchange 2016 Deployment process. Please click on the links below, and they will take you to the documentation needed when preparing for a Exchange 2016 migration and deployment from Exchange 2010.

IMPORTANT READ:
Exchange On-Premises Best Practices for migration from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016 (Lots of important links and articles within this document!)

Other relevant articles:
Exchange 2016 System Requirements
Exchange Deployment Site Consideration
What changes in AD when Exchange 2016 is installed
Exchange 2016 Schema Changes to AD
Exchange Server Virtualization
Exchange Server Preferred Architecture
Load Balancing in Exchange Server
Load Balancing Exchange 2016 In Depth

Hybrid Considerations:
Decommissioning Exchange 2010 servers in a Hybrid Deployment
How and when to decommission On-Prem Exchange Hybrid Servers
Hybrid Deployment Prerequisites

I will add more articles as they become relevant in my experiences with my customers and feel they could be relevant here as well. If you have a suggestion for a link that should be considered added to this post, feel free to leave a comment!

THANKS AGAIN FOR READING!
SUGGEST A LINK!
GOOD LUCK ON YOUR DEPLOYMENT!

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

How to address Federation Trust issues in Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW)

During my time as a PFE for Microsoft, I have encounted many issues with Federation in a Hybrid Exchange Deployment. Recently, the following support announcement came out and I wanted to share as I hope this can help others that may be having issues out there.

One of the more common causes of HCW failures is the Federation Trust step for the Exchange on-premises organizations in Full hybrid configurations (Classic or Modern topologies).

Federation trust is a mandatory step in the on-premises Exchange organizations when configuring Full hybrid deployments, as this allows us to create organization relationships (for features like hybrid free/busy or OWA/EAS redirection) and sharing policies (1:1 hybrid calendar sharing). In Exchange Online multi-tenant organizations, federation trust is already in place.

Below is an illustration of an Exchange hybrid deployment where both the Exchange on-premises organization and the Exchange Online organization have a trust with Azure Authentication System (formerly called Microsoft Federation Gateway):

Example of Hybrid Federation

Before getting to our subject, let’s quickly go over different hybrid configurations and Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW) – as this is the supported tool to configure hybrid deployments.
There are 2 flavors of hybrid configurations:
• Classic hybrid
• Modern hybrid

At this time, each of those supports the following hybrid modes:

  • Full
  • Minimal (which further breaks down into…)
    • Express (a one-time sync)
    • “Actual minimal”

A quick overview of Full / Minimal / Express options, can be found here. More info on HCW is here.

As mentioned earlier, a federation trust is created by HCW only in Full Hybrid.

HCW logs are located at %appdata%\Microsoft\Exchange Hybrid Configuration on the machine from where HCW was ran. The easiest way to get to them is to press F12 in the HCW window to open the Diagnostic tools and from there you can Open Folder Logging or Open Log File directly.

When you have issues with federation trust, the log will usually show errors when one of the following cmdlets are executed:

Set-FederationOrganizationIdentifier
or
Add-FederatedDomain (but can be other cmdlets as well).

Once you identified the exact cmdlet failing and where (Session=OnPremises – means Exchange Management Shell and Session=Tenant means Exchange Online PowerShell), you should copy-paste the failing command and try to execute it manually and see if that is failing as well (most likely it will). You can also open the shells from F12 Diagnostic tools windows in HCW.

In order to get more details on the error and to rule out this is not an issue with HCW itself, you will need to separately run the same command that threw exception in HCW log and add Verbose switch to get verbose details of the error and the serialized remote exception.

For example, if the Exchange server version is Exchange 2010, you will run the failing command with Verbose switch in Exchange Management Shell (EMS), see if that fails and then get the serialized remote exception.

Example:

If the Exchange Server version is Exchange 2013/2016 and the above commands didn’t show more details on the error, we can also try the following:

  • Open regular Windows PowerShell (blue background) on the Exchange Server 2013/2016
  • Run command: add-pssnapin exchange
  • Run command that gave error in HCW and add a Verbose switch

Example:

Once you’ve gathered the verbose error / serialized exception, try to understand where it is failing (or provide it to Microsoft Support together with the HCW log).

Common Errors with Remediation Steps

  • Federation trust fails with “Object reference not set to an instance of an object”

This is a known old issue on Exchange 2016 CU7 servers, make sure your Exchange servers are updated to the latest CU.

Full error in the HCW log:

Resolution: Install the latest CU for Exchange 2016

  • Federation fails with “Proof of domain ownership has failed”

Full error in the HCW log:

Resolution:

• Check the TXT record for your domain(s) in HCW log or in Exchange Management Shell with command Get-FederatedDomainProof -DomainName
• See if it matches your published TXT record with either nslookup utility or by checking internet websites like https://www.whatsmydns.net/ put your domain in hostnames, type=txt, Nameservers – Authoritative

You would look for errors, missing records or unusual formatting (characters, spaces, quotes, TXT record split in half).

  • Federation fails with “An unexpected error occurred on a receive” or “An unexpected error occurred on a send.”

Full error in the HCW log:

Resolution:

Check outbound access from all your Exchange Servers to Microsoft Federation Gateway by browsing using Internet Explorer with PSEXEC tool (with -s and -i switches) from the Exchange Server (this will use Internet Explorer under System Account / Exchange Server Account).

In this example, “Windows Live” is actually this exact URL: https://domains.live.com/service/managedelegation2.asmx

From on-premises Exchange to Office 365, the Exchange 2010 MBX & CAS or 2013 MBX (backend) or 2016 / 2019 would need outbound Internet access to the Microsoft Federation Gateway in addition to https://outlook.office365.com/ews/exchange.asmx

Verify the machine/system account can access these Microsoft Federation Gateway URLs:

For a complete list of O365 URL & IP addresses, see these articles:

Note: If the Exchange requires a proxy server to access the Internet, specify the proxy server using “Set-ExchangeServer myExchange01 -InternetWebProxy http://myproxy:80”. Notice such proxy can’t require any user authentication for outbound Internet access, and the proxy must start with HTTP: and not HTTPS: (secure SSL).

You can also set the proxy using netsh as well.

set proxy proxy-server=”http=myproxy;https=sproxy:88″ bypass-list=”*.contoso.com” 

In rare instances, you can use the machine/system account to access the URLs from the browser, but Exchange cmdlets still failed with “Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel.” If that happens, make sure the certificate authorities for the urls are installed at the Third-Party Root Certification Authorities of the machine local certificate location.

REFERENCE:
Netsh Commands for Windows Hypertext Transfer Protocol (WINHTTP)
Firewall Considerations for Federated Delegation 

Federated delegation features require that the Mailbox and Client Access servers in your organization have outbound access to the Internet by using HTTPS. You must allow outbound HTTPS access (port 443 for TCP) from all Exchange 2010 Mailbox and Client Access servers in the organization.

  • There is no specific error / exception, in HCW log you would see it stops without any specific error.

Full error in the HCW log:

Resolution:

Look for orphaned federation trust:

Get-FederatedOrganizationIdentifier | FL

or

in HCW log if you see something with “DEL“: “contoso.com/Configuration/Deleted Objects/Microsoft Federation Gateway/DEL: <xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxx>”.

Solution is to remove the orphaned federation trust and re-run HCW.

Reference here.

NOTE: as a first step, you can try to run the command remove-federateddomain with the switch -Force. Also, you don’t need to recreate federation trust manually, just re-run HCW (this will recreate federation trust for us)

  • Federation Trust fails with “InternalError InternalError: Internal error.”.”.””

Full error in the HCW log:

Resolution:

Open request with Microsoft Support or check if any Service Incident is published. Please see this for more information.

  • Federation trust fails with “1007 Access Denied”

Full error in the HCW log:

Resolution:

“1007 Access Denied” error is usually when we have issues with:

  1. Windows Time on the Exchange Server. See this article or this article.
  2. Outdated federation trust (for example, federation trust certificate expired) and in this case you would remove federation trust by following these steps.

If the federation trust certificate is not found on any of the servers, then proceed with resolution from the next error.

As an example, from one HCW log, there seems to be this federation trust certificate expired on 05/13/2019:

  • Federation trust fails with “Federation Certificate cannot be found”

Full error in the HCW log:

Resolution:

Follow the procedure here to manually cleanup the federation trust from AD. Once this is done, re-run the HCW to re-create it automatically.

KEEP TROUBLESHOOTING!
REMAIN VIGILANT USING FOCUSED INTENT, NEVER EMOTIONALIZING (FINE)!

REFERENCE:
How To Address Federation Trust Issues using the Hybrid Configuration Wizard

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Exchange 2019 Setup Prerequisite Check fails for .NET 4.8 Framework in CU4 on Windows builds 1909 and 1903

Symptoms

When you deploy or upgrade to Microsoft Exchange 2019 Cumulative Update 4 (CU4) on Microsoft Windows Server 2019 or Windows 10 (Management Tools only) builds 1909 or 1903, the system prerequisites check fails, and you receive the following error message:

“This computer requires .NET Framework 4.8 (https://support.microsoft.com/kb/4503548).”

By default, Windows builds 1909 and 1903 already have .NET Framework 4.8 installed. When you try to reinstall the software, the installation fails.

Cause

This problem is caused by a prerequisite check that was introduced in Cumulative Update 4. This process checks incorrectly for .NET Framework 4.8. Because the prerequisite check doesn’t recognize that .NET Framework 4.8 is already installed.

Status

Microsoft is researching this problem and will post more information in this article when it becomes available.

Workaround

Important

Follow the steps in this section carefully. Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.

  • Start “regedit.exe” as an administrator.
  • Locate the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4\Full

  • Right-click the subkey, and select Permissions from the shortcut menu.
  • Select Advanced.
  • In the Advanced Security Settings window, locate the Owner attribute at the top of the window.
  • Select Change next to the listed owner.
  • In the Enter the object name to select field, enter the name of the local administrator group. For example, enter <computername>\Administrator. Then, select OK.
  • In the Advanced Security Settings window, select the local administrator group that you changed ownership to, and then select Edit.
  • Change the basic permissions to Full Control.
  • Select OK three times to save the changes and return to the main Registry Editor window.
  • Locate the following key in the path:

Name: Release
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 528040 (decimal)
Change the Data value to 528049 (decimal)

  • Rerun the Exchange system prerequisites check, and deploy or update Exchange Server 2019.
  • Start Registry Editor, locate the subkey that’s mentioned in step 2, repeat the necessary steps to locate the Release key, and then revert the Data value to 528040 (decimal).

This should allow everything to run correctly after the installation.

POSITIVE DAY TO YOU!
FINE = Focused Intent Not Emotionalizing

REFERENCES
Exchange CU4 Prerequisite Check Fails for .NET 4.8 for Windows Server builds 1909 and 1903

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Set-SendConnector cmdlet does not function correctly when updating a Send Connector on an Edge Server in an Exchange Hybrid Deployment

I have run into this issue at a number of my customers that utilize an Exchange Edge Server in their Hybrid Deployment. They’ll need to modify their send connectors for their forced TLS communication with their partners or own mailboxes in Office365. Whenever they want to modify the send connector and save the changes, they get the following error messages:

Symptoms

“PowerShell failed to invoke ‘Set-SendConnector’: Error 0x5 (Access is denied) from cli_GetCertificate”

or

“Error 0x6ba (the RPC server is unavailable) from cli_GetCertificate”

This issue occurs after you install the Cumulative Update 14 for Exchange Server 2016, Cumulative Update 13 for Exchange Server 2016, or Cumulative Update 23 for Exchange Server 2013.

Cause

This issue occurs because the TLS certificate check (in case the TlsCertificateName attribute is populated on the send connector) doesn’t work against the Edge servers as the RPC communication is blocked against the Edge servers.

Workaround

Now the current workaround for this has been to delete the Edge Send Connector and recreate the connector from scratch via PowerShell with all the settings and changes entered. This is not a viable solution especially if your communications with your partners change constantly and changes are made to the secure communications channel between you and them.

Resolution

To fix this issue, install one of the following updates:

For Exchange Server 2019, install the Cumulative Update 4 for Exchange Server 2019 or a later cumulative update for Exchange Server 2019.

For Exchange Server 2016, install the Cumulative Update 15 for Exchange Server 2016 or a later cumulative update for Exchange Server 2016.

For Exchange Server 2013, there is no fix at this time. My personal recommendation is to plan an upgrade to Exchange 2019.

KEEP POSITIVLY MOVING FORWARD!

REFERENCES
Set-SendConnector doesn’t work for Exchange Server in hybrid scenarios with Edge Server installed

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Exchange Server Quarterly Updates

Support Announcement:
Released: December 2019 Quarterly Exchange Updates
Release Date: December 17, 2019

Summary
Today Microsoft is announcing the availability of quarterly servicing cumulative updates for Exchange Server 2016 and 2019. These updates include fixes for customer reported issues as well as all previously released security updates.

Setup Now Requires .NET Framework 4.8
As previously announced .NET 4.8 is now required and enforced by setup with the updates released today.

Calculator Updates
Cumulative Update 4 includes a significant update to the Exchange 2019 sizing calculator. After the initial re-work and optimization for Exchange 2019 previously delivered, we’ve updated some formulas based upon new Big Funnel performance data gathered from the O365 service and real-world customer experiences. Version 10.3 of the calculator includes improvements to calculations and default settings which allow for better and smoother utilization of disk resources. We’ve received feedback from customers that they’d like more information on constraints which impact system design, specifically disk resources. Included in this update, is an indication on the Input worksheet will provide information as to whether the design is constrained by IOPs throughput or disk capacity. 

We’ve added additional explanatory messages when the calculator detects a setting conflict, made additional improvements in input performance and improved support for using manual/override configurations. The Volume Design sheet had a complete re-work to improve the presentation and accuracy of the information being displayed to support these changes. All-in-all, this version of the calculator provides the best possible experience to plan your Exchange 2019 deployment and replaces all previous releases.

Address Book Policy Changes
When organizations deploy Address Book Policies to users they can sometimes hit an issue when a locally logged in user without a mailbox tries to open a mailbox linked to another user account using Outlook. This conflict results in ABP’s being inconsistently applied. The updates released today contain a change detailed in KB4532747 which resolves this issue and ensures the ABP’s assigned to the mailbox being opened are always used.

Release Details
The KB articles that describe the fixes in each release and product downloads are available as follows:

• Exchange Server 2019 Cumulative Update 4 (KB4522149), VLSC Download
• Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 15 (KB4522150), Download

Additional Information
Microsoft recommends all customers test the deployment of any update in their lab environment to determine the proper installation process for your production environment. For information on extending the schema and configuring Active Directory, please review the appropriate documentation. Also, to prevent installation issues you should ensure that the Windows PowerShell Script Execution Policy is set to “Unrestricted” on the server being upgraded or installed.
To verify the policy settings, run the Get-ExecutionPolicy cmdlet from PowerShell on the machine being upgraded. If the policies are NOT set to Unrestricted you should use the resolution steps in KB981474 to adjust the settings.
Reminder: Customers in hybrid deployments where Exchange is deployed on-premises and in the cloud, or who are using Exchange Online Archiving (EOA) with their on-premises Exchange deployment are required to deploy the currently supported cumulative update for the product version in use, e.g., 2013 Cumulative Update 23; 2016 Cumulative Update 15 or 14; 2019 Cumulative Update 4 or 3.

For the latest information on Exchange Server and product announcements please see What’s New in Exchange Server and Exchange Server Release Notes.

Note: Documentation may not be fully available at the time this post is published. Article Link

KEEP POSITIVLY MOVING FORWARD!

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Exchange System Mailboxes not being configured cause Exchange Setup to fail

My continuation of the “Installation from HELL” proceeded onward today with our team attempting to install Exchange on another server in the test environment and having it fail when getting to the Mailbox Role portion of the installation.

The error kept saying that the installation was failing due to a “Database is mandatory on UserMailbox”. We had been having many issues with the Schema and RBAC roles which were resolved in my other post by adding the Role Assignments to the schema. I did mention that the environment started settling down and the system mailboxes (Arbitration) along with the Health Mailboxes started functioning. This was actually not the case for the Arbitration mailboxes. I glanced at the following article to see how to manually recreate the Arbitration mailboxes again.

I performed a “Get-Mailbox -Arbitration | fl Name” in Exchange Powershell (similar to the screenshot below) to see if the mailboxes were in fact created. They in fact were not and were giving the error “Database is mandatory for the UserMailbox.”

Image
Verification of Arbitration System Mailboxes existing

So, I tried to do what the original article said to do and enable the mailboxes one by one. I kept getting errors when trying to create the mailboxes. So I began to search the internet for another way to possibly remediate this without having to get too deep into the system.

I found the following article explaining the exact error I was getting during the installation of Exchange. In the article, it said to look at the attributes of the account associated with the Arbitration mailbox to see if the homeMDB attribute had no value:

Image
homeMDB attribute NOT set on Arbitration Mailbox Account

Now, since I was NOT having good luck with either the Exchange Setup nor PowerShell, I had to figure out a way to place the attribute value so that the mailbox would be visible. What I did was this:

  • I opened a User in ADUC with a working mailbox on the needed database.
  • I went to the Attributes Tab and looked up the homeMDB attribute for that user then chose Edit.
  • I copied the entire value from the screen and closed it.
  • I then went to the Arbitration mailbox in question and opened it’s homeMDB attribute.
  • I pasted the value into the Value box and saved it.
Paste the active database value in the homeMDB attribute for the Arbitration Mailbox account

Once completed with remediating the attribute for all the Arbitration mailbox accounts missing the value, I re-ran the cmdlet to verify that the error was not present for any arbitration maibox:

I then uninstalled and re-installed Exchange using setup on the failing server and the installation completed successfully.

This has been an excellent week in training on the value of the setup process for Exchange and also the value of the system accounts and values in relation to Exchange and it working properly.

A POSITIVE OUTLOOK WILL YIELD POSITIVE RESULTS ULTIMATELY!

REFERENCES:
Exchange Install Error Database is mandatory on UserMailbox
Recreate missing arbitration mailboxes

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

RBAC Role Assignments NOT installed during Exchange Directory Preparation

I had a very interesting installation issue recently when installing Exchange 2019 into a new environment. We ran through all the Exchange Preparation for the root and child domains in the forest as described HERE. The results of those installation procedures showed SUCCESS, but when we started installing Exchange, we ran into issues with the System Mailboxes not being available to complete the Mailbox Role part of the installation. Most of the articles that I found said to re-run the Domain Prep (/preparealldomains) and the AD Prep (/pad). So we did, and managed to get the first server installed somehow.

The reason I said somehow is because when we tried to logon to the EAC, we would get a 400 Bad Request Error and could not logon to the console. Next, we tried PowerShell and was able to load PowerShell, but I noticed that only ~100 cmdlets loaded. I thought that maybe we had to re-create the account mailbox to get it working properly. Problem was, one of the cmdlets that would not load was Disable-Mailbox along with others like Enable-Mailbox and New-Mailbox. It was as if the admin account we were using had no rights to administer Exchange in any way.

Next, we opened the mailbox in OWA. The mailbox came up okay, so I told the admin to change the URL to /ecp to try and get into the admin center. What happened was that the normal user control panel opened instead, showing again that the account did not have permissions.

We checked replication to the child domain and made sure there were not any apparent AD issues present. There were none. I next started reviewing how Exchange uses RBAC (Role Based Access Control) Groups and Role Assignments to grant users access to Exchange Admin Functionality. I read the following article located HERE.

Something told me to go and check the Schema again, so I went to ADSIEdit > Configuration Container > Services > Microsoft Exchange > (Organization Name) > RBAC > Role Assignments

I looked at the list of role assignments in the window as follows:

Small List of RBAC Role Assignments
RBAC Role Assignments Missing Objects

From the picture, you can see that the list is small, which in my experience is not correct. I verified this by going into my own 2019 environment and comparing the number of objects in that folder:

RBAC Assignments Object list with CORRECT Objects Listed

If you notice the list is MUCH longer and has many more objects listed in the container. So, how did Exchange Setup miss this during preparation? That I will find out later, but first I have to remediate this problem.

CAUSE:

If the RBAC roles assignments are not installed to allow an account to have administrative privileges in Exchange, then you cannot administrate Exchange to even make the necessary changes! Especially so if you’ve only installed ONE server in the environment!

REMEDIATION:

Manually repair the installation by running the script that creates these Objects in the Schema during setup.

******DISCLAIMER: Running the following commands in these instructions, running ADSIEdit, and/or making changes to your Schema and Exchange Installation outside the normal setup process is NOT recommended! Microsoft, LDLNET LLC, nor I (Lance Lingerfelt) are responsible for any issues or errors that may arise from using these instructions, period!******

That said, preform the following to regenerate the objects in the Schema:

1) Open Windows PowerShell (not the Exchange Management Shell) on the server that you installed Exchange Server on with the same account you used to install Exchange.

a. If you have UAC enabled, right click Windows PowerShell and click Run as administrator.

2) Run Start-Transcript c:\RBAC.txt and press Enter

a. This will start logging all commands and output you type to a text file.

3) Run Add-PSSnapin *setup and press Enter

a. This adds the setup snap-in which contains the setup cmdlets used by Exchange during install. You may see errors about loading a format data file. You can ignore those errors.
NOTE: DO NOT run any other cmdlets in this snap-in. Doing so could irreparably damage your Exchange installation.

4) Run Install-CannedRbacRoleAssignments -InvocationMode Install -Verbose and press Enter.

a. This cmdlet should create the required role assignments between the role groups and roles that should have been created during setup.

b. Be sure you run with the Verbose switch so we can capture what the cmdlet does.

5) Run Remove-PSSnapin *setup and press Enter

6) Run $Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri http://servername/PowerShell/ -Authentication Kerberos and press Enter

a. Be sure to replace SERVERNAME with the FQDN of your server.

7) Run Import-PSSession $Session and press Enter

a. You should notice that the normal number of cmdlets load (~700)

8) Run Get-ManagementRoleAssignment and press Enter. If you are able to run the cmdlet, then the remedation worked.

9) Run Stop-Transcript and press Enter

The final check is to return to ADSIEdit and check the container and see if all the objects are there. We also were now able to get into EAC as well as saw that the Arbitration mailboxes were populating along with the Health Mailboxes as needed per the installation.
It was very neat to see how running the Add-PSSnapIn cmdlet opened all the scripts from the Exchange Setup and allowed me to manually fix the installation problem by running the cmdlet script that need to perform that task that setup missed or refused to run.

POST MORTEM REVIEW

I am going to look over the installation logs and see where the installation failed and try to find out why it did not run on the subsequent re-installations of the AD Prep and Domain Prep. I will post those finding in this article when I have that available.
Thanks again to my Microsoft and Trimax teammates for your assistance with this. It has helped the customer in more ways than one!

HAPPY TROUBLESHOOTING!
POSITIVE ATTITUDE YIELDS POSITIVE RESULTS!

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Why go to Exchange 2019 from 2016 and 2013?

I get asked this a lot in my travels, “What’s the difference with Exchange 2019 and why should we go to it other than the fact that it is the latest version released. I wanted to post my findings from articles that I found to help explain some of the improvements and differences with running Exchange 2019.

Exchange Server 2019 brings a new set of technologies, features, and services to Exchange Server, the messaging platform that provides email, scheduling, and tools for custom collaboration and messaging service applications.

What is NOT in Exchange 2019…

There are some things that have been discontinued in Exchange 2019 which make the decision to go to it important for some companies.

Architecture

FeatureComments and mitigation
Unified Messaging (UM)Unified Messaging has been removed from Exchange 2019. We recommend that Exchange 2019 organizations transition to Skype for Business Cloud Voice Mail.

This is a big deal for some companies as they rely on Unified Messaging to handle their Voice Messaging. There are some articles available to view to assist in transitioning from UM to the new voicemail features with O365. I will post them as I find them in this blog. Keep tuned in for updates!

Here are some other deprecated features:

Client Access server roleThe Client Access server role has been replaced by Client Access services that run on the Mailbox server role. The Mailbox server role now performs all functionality that was previously included with the Client Access server role. For more information about the new Mailbox server role, see Exchange Server architecture.
MAPI/CDO libraryThe MAPI/CDO library has been replaced by Exchange Web Services (EWS), Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), and Representational State Transfer (REST)* APIs. If an application uses the MAPI/CDO library, it needs to move to EWS, EAS, or the REST APIs to communicate with Exchange 2019.

De-emphasized Features

The following features are being de-emphasized in Exchange 2019 and may not be included in future versions of Exchange.

  • Third-party replication APIs
  • RPC over HTTP
  • Database availability group (DAG) support for failover cluster administrative access points (You can have IPLess DAGs now)

What’s new when upgrading to Exchange 2019?

Security

  • Windows Server Core support: Running Exchange on a Windows deployment with less surface area means less attack surface area and fewer components to service.
  • Block external access to Exchange admin center (EAC) and the Exchange Management Shell: You can use Client Access Rules to only allow administration of Exchange from the internal network instead of using complex network and firewall rules.
  • TLS 1.2 is the only version that’s enabled by default: Exchange Server 2019 includes important changes to improve the security of client and server connections. The default configuration for encryption will enable TLS 1.2 only and disable support for older algorithms (namely, DES, 3DES, RC2, RC4 and MD5). It will also configure elliptic curve key exchange algorithms with priority over non-elliptic curve algorithms. In Exchange Server 2016 and later, all cryptography settings are inherited from the configuration specified in the operating system.

Performance

  • Improved search infrastructure: The completely rebuilt search infrastructure for cloud scale and reliability in Exchange Online is now available in Exchange 2019. This new search infrastructure allows for indexing of bigger files, simpler management, and better search performance.
  • Faster, more reliable failovers: The changes to the search architecture result in significantly faster and more reliable failover over between servers.
  • Metacache database: Improvements at the core of Exchange’s database engine enable better overall performance and take advantage of the latest storage hardware, including larger disks and SSDs.
  • Modern hardware support: Exchange now supports up to 256 GB of memory and 48 CPU cores.
  • Dynamic database cache: The information store process employs dynamic memory cache allocation optimizing memory usage to active database usage.

Clients

  • Calendar – Do Not Forward: This is similar to Information Rights Management (IRM) for calendar items without the IRM deployment requirements. Attendees can’t forward the invitation to other people, and only the organizer can invite additional attendees.
  • Calendar – Better Out of Office: Additional options when you won’t be in the office. Key options include: add an event to your calendar that shows you as Away/Out of Office, and a quick option to cancel/decline meetings that will happen while you’re away.
  • Calendar – Remove-CalendarEvents cmdlet: Enables administrators to cancel meetings that were organized by a user that has left the company. Previously, conference rooms or meeting attendees would have these defunct meetings permanently on their calendars.
  • Assign delegate permission via PowerShell: Updates to the Add-FolderPermissions cmdlet so administrators can assign delegate permissions.
  • Email address internationalization (EAI): Email addresses that contain non-English characters can now be routed and delivered natively.

Exchange 2019 architecture

Today, CPU horsepower is significantly less expensive and is no longer a constraining factor. With that constraint lifted, the primary design goal for Exchange 2019 is for simplicity of scale, hardware utilization, and failure isolation. With Exchange 2019, we reduced the number of server roles to two: the Mailbox and Edge Transport server roles.

Unified Messaging (UM) has been removed from Exchange 2019. Other than that, the Mailbox server in Exchange 2019 includes all of the server components from the Exchange 2013 Mailbox and Client Access server roles:

  • Client Access services provide authentication, limited redirection, and proxy services. Client Access services don’t do any data rendering and offer all the usual client access protocols: HTTP, POP and IMAP, and SMTP.
  • Mailbox services include all the traditional server components found in the Exchange 2013 Mailbox server role except Unified Messaging: the backend client access protocols, Transport service, and Mailbox databases. The Mailbox server handles all activity for the active mailboxes on that server.

The Edge Transport role is typically deployed in your perimeter network, outside your internal Active Directory forest, and is designed to minimize the attack surface of your Exchange deployment. By handling all Internet-facing mail flow, it also adds additional layers of message protection and security against viruses and spam, and can apply mail flow rules (also known as transport rules) to control message flow.

For more information about the Exchange 2019 architecture, see Exchange architecture.

Along with the new Mailbox role, Exchange 2019 now allows you to proxy traffic from Exchange 2013 Client Access servers to Exchange 2019 mailboxes. This new flexibility gives you more control in how you move to Exchange 2019 without having to worry about deploying enough front-end capacity to service new Exchange 2019 servers.

MAPI over HTTP

MAPI over HTTP is now the default protocol that Outlook uses to communicate with Exchange. MAPI over HTTP improves the reliability and stability of the Outlook and Exchange connections by moving the transport layer to the industry-standard HTTP model. This allows a higher level of visibility of transport errors and enhanced recoverability. Additional functionality includes support for an explicit pause-and-resume function, which enables supported clients to change networks or resume from hibernation while maintaining the same server context.

Note: MAPI over HTTP isn’t enabled in organizations where the following conditions are both true:

  • You’re installing Exchange 2019 in an organization that already has Exchange 2013 servers installed.
  • MAPI over HTTP wasn’t enabled in Exchange 2013.

While MAPI over HTTP is now the default communication protocol between Outlook and Exchange, clients that don’t support it will fall back to Outlook Anywhere (RPC over HTTP).

Outlook on the Web
(formerly known as Outlook Web App)

Outlook Web App is now known as Outlook on the web, which continues to let users access their Exchange mailbox from almost any web browser.

NOTE: Supported Web browsers for Outlook on the web in Exchange 2019 are Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer 11, and the most recent versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari.

The former Outlook Web App user interface has been updated and optimized for tablets and smart phones, in addition to desktop and laptop computers. New Exchange 2019 features include:

  • Platform-specific experiences for phones for both iOS and Android.
  • Premium Android experience using Chrome on devices running Android version 4.2 or later.
  • Email improvements, including a new single-line view of the Inbox with an optimized reading pane, archiving, emojis, and the ability to undo mailbox actions like deleting a message or moving a message.
  • Contact linking the ability for users to add contacts from their LinkedIn accounts.
  • Calendar has an updated look and new features, including email reminders for Calendar events, ability to propose a new time in meeting invitations, improved search, and birthday calendars.
  • Search suggestions and refiners for an improved search experience that helps users find the information they want, faster. Search suggestions try to anticipate what the user’s looking for and returns results that might be what the user is looking for. Search refiners will help a user more easily find the information they’re looking for by providing contextually-aware filters. Filters might include date ranges, related senders, and so on.
  • New themes Thirteen new themes with graphic designs.
  • Options for individual mailboxes have been overhauled.
  • Link preview which enables users to paste a link into messages, and Outlook on the web automatically generates a rich preview to give recipients a peek into the contents of the destination. This works with video links as well.
  • Inline video player saves the user time by keeping them in the context of their conversations. An inline preview of a video automatically appears after inserting a video URL.
  • Pins and Flags which allow users to keep essential emails at the top of their inbox (Pins) and mark others for follow-up (Flags). Pins are now folder specific, great for anyone who uses folders to organize their email. Quickly find and manage flagged items with inbox filters or the new Task module, accessible from the app launcher.
  • Performance improvements in a number of areas across Outlook on the web, including creating calendar events, composing, loading messages in the reading pane, popouts, search, startup, and switching folders.
  • New Outlook on the web action pane that allows you to quickly click those actions you most commonly use such as New, Reply all, and Delete. A few new actions have been added as well including Archive, Sweep, and Undo.

Document collaboration
(On-Premises and in O365)

Exchange 2019, along with SharePoint Server 2019 and SharePoint Online, enables Outlook on the web users to link to and share documents that are stored in OneDrive for Business in an on-premises SharePoint server instead of attaching files to messages. Users in an on-premises environment can collaborate on files in the same manner that’s used in Office 365.

When an Exchange 2019 user receives a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file in an email attachment, and the file is stored in OneDrive for Business or on-premises SharePoint, the user will now have the option of viewing and editing that file in Outlook on the web alongside the message. To do this, you’ll need a separate computer in your on-premises organization that’s running Office Online Server.

Exchange 2019 also brings the following improvements to document collaboration:

  • Saving files to OneDrive for Business.
  • Uploading a file to OneDrive for Business.
  • Most Recently Used lists populated with both local and online files.

Office 365 hybrid and the HCW

The Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW) that was included with Exchange 2013 is moving to become a cloud-based application. When you choose to configure a hybrid deployment in Exchange 2019, you’ll be prompted to download and install the wizard as a small app. The wizard will function the same in previous versions of Exchange, with a few new benefits:

  • The wizard can be updated quickly to support changes in the Office 365 service.
  • The wizard can be updated to account for issues detected when customers try to configure a hybrid deployment.
  • Improved troubleshooting and diagnostics to help you resolve issues that you run into when running the wizard.
  • The same wizard will be used by everyone configuring a hybrid deployment who’s running Exchange 2013 or later.

In addition to Hybrid Configuration Wizard improvements, multi-forest hybrid deployments are being simplified with Azure Active Directory Connect (AADConnect). AADConnect introduces management agents that will make it significantly easier to synchronize multiple on-premises Active Directory forests with a single Office 365 tenant.

Exchange ActiveSync clients will be seamlessly redirected to Office 365 when a user’s mailbox is moved to Exchange Online. To support this, ActiveSync clients need to support HTTP 451 redirect. When a client is redirected, the profile on the device is updated with the URL of the Exchange Online service. This means the client will no longer attempt to contact the on-premises Exchange server when trying to find the mailbox.

Secure Messaging, Policy, and Compliance

Data loss prevention

To comply with business standards and industry regulations, organizations need to protect sensitive information and prevent its inadvertent disclosure. Examples of sensitive information that you might want to prevent from leaking outside your organization include credit card numbers, social security numbers, health records, or other personally identifiable information (PII). With a DLP policy and mail flow rules (also known as transport rules) in Exchange 2019, you can now identify, monitor, and protect 80 different types of sensitive information with new conditions and actions:

  • With the new condition Any attachment has these properties, including any of these words, a mail flow rule can match messages where the specified property of the attached Office document contains specified words. This condition makes it easy to integrate your Exchange mail flow rules and DLP policies with SharePoint, Windows Server 2012 R2 File Classification Infrastructure (FCI), or a third-party classification system.
  • With the new action Notify the recipient with a message, a mail flow rule can send a notification to the recipient with the text you specify. For example, you can inform the recipient that the message was rejected by a mail flow rule, or that it was marked as spam and will be delivered to their Junk Email folder.
  • The action Generate incident report and send it to has been updated to enable the notification of multiple recipients by allowing a group address to be configured as the recipient.

In-place Archiving, retention, and eDiscovery

Exchange 2019 includes the following improvements to In-Place Archiving, retention, and eDiscovery to help your organization meet its compliance needs:

  • Public folder support for In-Place eDiscovery and In-Place Hold: Exchange 2019 integrates public folders into the In-Place eDiscovery and Hold workflow. You can use In-Place eDiscovery to search public folders in your organization, and you can put an In-Place Hold on public folders. And similar to placing a mailbox on hold, you can place a query-based and a time-based hold on public folders. Currently, you can only search and place a hold on all public folders. In later releases, you’ll be able to choose specific public folders to search and place on hold. For more information, see Search and place a hold on public folders using In-Place eDiscovery.
  • Compliance Search: Compliance Search is a new eDiscovery search tool in Exchange 2019 with new and improved scaling and performance capabilities. You can use it to search very large numbers of mailboxes in a single search. In fact, there’s no limit on the number of mailboxes that can be included in a single search, so you can search all mailboxes in your organization at once. There’s also no limit on the number of searches that can run at the same time. For In-Place eDiscovery in Exchange 2019, the limits are the same as in Exchange 2013: you can search up to 10,000 mailboxes in a single search and your organization can run a maximum of two In-Place eDiscovery searches at the same time.

Indexing and Search Architecture

In Exchange 2019, the search architecture has been redesigned. It is now based on the same engine as the modern search engines are and is directly on the mailbox in Exchange 2019. There is no content index database attached to the mailbox database as in previous versions of Exchange Server. Previously, search was a synchronous operation that was not very fault-tolerant. The new architecture is asynchronous and decentralized. It distributes the work across multiple servers and keeps retrying if any servers are too busy. This means that we can return results more reliability, and faster.

Another advantage of the new architecture is that search scalability is improved. The number of mailboxes you can search at once using the console has increased from 5k to 10k for both mailboxes and archive mailboxes, allowing you to search a total of 20k mailboxes at the same time.

ENJOY YOUR UPGRADE!
LEARN, DO, LIVE!

REFERENCES:
What is new in Exchange Server
What is discontinued in Exchange Server
Exchange Server TLS Guidance
Exchange Architecture

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Outlook Web App (OWA) HTTP to HTTPS Redirection

For most companies today, we want to make access to OWA easy for the users. Most folks will just type in mail.domain.com/owa or something of the like to get to the OWA page. If you don’t use HTTPS by default though, you will not be able to access OWA and will get an error on the page. We need to be able to redirect the HTTP query to go to SSL or HTTPS so that you get the proper logon page and have the access secured by SSL PKI as per the security standard.
Now, most bigger companies will install a load balancer that will program the redirection to HTTPS when the request is made before it hits the Exchange Server. But, for small companies, like mine, that cannot afford a load balancer, we need a native way in Windows and Exchange to be able to perform the same task and have it redirect to HTTPS so that your users are not confused when typing in the address.

The following shows how to configure IIS so that it natively redirects all HTTP requests for OWA to HTTPS.

By default in Exchange Server, the URL https://<ServerName> redirects users to https://<ServerName>/owa. But, if anyone tries to access Outlook on the web (formerly known as Outlook Web App) by using http://<ServerName> or http://<ServerName>/owa, they’ll get an error.

You can configure http redirection for Outlook on the web so that requests for http://<ServerName> or http://<ServerName>/owa are automatically redirected to https://<ServerName>/owa. This requires the following configuration steps in Internet Information Services (IIS):

  1. Remove the Require SSL setting from the default website.
  2. Restore the Require SSL setting on other virtual directories in the default website that had it enabled by default (except for /owa).
  3. Configure the default website to redirect http requests to the /owa virtual directory.
  4. Remove http redirection from all virtual directories in the default website (including /owa).
  5. Reset IIS for the changes to take effect.

Step 1: Use IIS Manager to remove the Require SSL setting from the default website

  1. Open IIS Manager on the Exchange server. An easy way to do this in Windows Server 2012 or later is to press Windows key + Q, type inetmgr, and select Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager in the results.
  2. Expand the server, and expand Sites.
  3. Select Default Web Site. and verify Features View is selected at the bottom of the page.
  4. In the IIS section, double-click SSL Settings.
    SSL1
  5. On the SSL Settings page, clear the Require SSL check box, and in the Actions pane, click Apply.
    SSL2

Note: To perform this procedure on the command line, open an elevated command prompt on the Exchange server (a Command Prompt window you open by selecting Run as administrator) and run the following command:

Step 2: Use IIS Manager to restore the Require SSL setting on other virtual directories in the default website

When you change the Require SSL setting on a website in IIS, the setting is automatically inherited by all virtual directories in the website. Because we’re only interested in configuring Outlook on the web, you need to restore the Require SSL setting for other virtual directories that had it enabled by default.

Based on the information in the Default Require SSL and HTTP Redirect settings in the default website on an Exchange server section, use the following procedure to restore the setting on the other virtual directories where Require SSL was enabled by default:

  1. In IIS Manager, expand the server, expand Sites, and expand Default Web Site.
  2. Select the virtual directory, and verify Features View is selected at the bottom of the page.
  3. In the IIS section, double-click SSL Settings.
    SSL3
  4. On the SSL Settings page, select the Require SSL check box, and in the Actions pane, click Apply.
    SSL4
  5. Repeat the previous steps on each virtual directory in the default website that had Require SSL enabled by default ***(except for /owa)***. The only virtual directories that don’t have Require SSL enabled by default are /PowerShell and /Rpc.

NOTE: PLEASE REMEMBER TO NOT CHECK THE “Require SSL” FOR THE /OWA DIRECTORY. THIS WILL CAUSE A 403 Access Denied ERROR WHEN TRYING TO REDIRECT.

Note: To perform these procedures on the command line, replace <VirtualDirectory> with the name of the virtual directory, and run the following command in an elevated command prompt:

Step 3: Use IIS Manager to configure the default website to redirect to the /owa virtual directory.

  1. In IIS Manager, expand the server, and expand Sites.
  2. Select Default Web Site. and verify Features View is selected at the bottom of the page.
  3. In the IIS section, double-click HTTP Redirect.

  4. On the HTTP Redirect page, configure the following settings:
  5. Select the Redirect requests to this destination check box, and enter the value /owa.
  6. In the Redirect Behavior section, select the Only redirect requests to content in this directory (not subdirectories) check box.
  7. In the Status code list, verify Found (302) is selected.When you’re finished, click Apply in the Actions pane.

Note: To perform this procedure on the command line, open an elevated command prompt and run the following command:

Step 4: Use IIS Manager to remove http redirection from all virtual directories in the default website

When you enable redirection on a website in IIS, the setting is automatically inherited by all virtual directories in the website. Because we’re only interested in configuring redirection for the default website, you need to remove the redirect setting from all virtual directories. By default, no directories or virtual directories in the default website are enabled for redirection. For more information, see the Default Require SSL and HTTP Redirect settings in the default website on an Exchange server section.

Use the following procedure to remove the redirect setting from all virtual directories in the default website (including /owa):

  1. In IIS Manager, expand the server, expand Sites, and expand Default Web Site.
  2. Select the virtual directory, and verify Features View is selected at the bottom of the page.
  3. In the IIS section, double-click HTTP Redirect.

  4. On the HTTP Redirect page, change the following settings:
  5. Clear the Only redirect requests to content in this directory (not subdirectories) check box.
  6. Clear the Redirect requests to this destination check box.
  7. In the Actions pane, click Apply.

  8. Repeat the previous steps on each virtual directory in the default website.

Note: To perform these procedures on the command line, replace <VirtualDirectory> with the name of the virtual directory, and run the following command in an elevated command prompt:

Step 5: Use IIS Manager to restart IIS

  1. In IIS Manager, select the server.
  2. In the Actions pane, click Restart.

Note: You can also perform an IISRESET from and Elevated PowerShell Prompt.

My biggest take away from this was NOT setting the SSL Requirement Properly in the /owa directory when configuring this. By default, the setting is to Require SSL, but to redirect properly, you have to have that Virtual Directory in IIS set to NOT Require SSL. Having the 403 error was driving me crazy. I had to get someone else to look at it, but they didn’t catch it either! That is why I made a point to write this article with the /owa catch in mind. I hope this helps!

HAPPY CONFIGURATION!
POSITIVE LIFE WILL BRING SUCCESS!

REFERENCES:
Configure http to https redirection for Outlook on the web in Exchange Server
Default Require SSL and HTTP Redirect settings in the default website on an Exchange server

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Exchange 2010 Extended Support will end on October 13th, 2020

I wanted to pass this announcement along to everyone so that they are aware of the support ending for Exchange 2010. I personally have noticed a large number of Exchange 2010 environments starting to show age as the newer Outlook clients are having performance issues with Exchange 2010. If your team has not planned an upgrade to Exchange 2016 (you cannot upgrade directly from Exchange 2010 to 2019), I would advise that your team do so very soon. Exchange 2010 has been a great product for many years, but it is finally time for it to retire and allow the next generation of Messaging Services take the stage.

Formal Announcement:

Exchange 2010 End of Support extended to October 2020

Announced today, and in alignment with Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010, and after investigating and analyzing the deployment state of an extensive number of Exchange customers, Microsoft has decided to move Extended Support date for Exchange Server 2010 from January 14th 2020 to October 13th 2020.
After October 13th 2020, Microsoft will no longer provide technical support for problems that may occur with Exchange 2010 including:

– bug fixes for issues that are discovered and that may impact the stability and usability of the server
– security fixes for vulnerabilities that are discovered and that may make the server vulnerable to security breaches
– and time zone updates

Customer installations of Exchange 2010 will, of course, continue to run after this date; however, due to the changes and potential end of support risks, Microsoft strongly recommends customers migrate from Exchange 2010 as soon as possible.

FAQ’s

  • Can customers upgrade directly to Exchange 2019?
    Customers cannot upgrade directly from Exchange 2010 on-premises to Exchange Server 2019. They may upgrade to Exchange 2013 or 2016 directly from Exchange 2010 and we of course recommend Exchange 2016.
  • Since Exchange 2010 runs on Server 2008 and 2008R2, are those operating systems still supported?
    On January 14, 2020, support for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 will end. That means the end of regular security updates for these Windows customers. Since Exchange Server 2010 runs on top of Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, it’s important for customers to consider how they will obtain security updates for the underlying operating system. Extended Security Updates for Server 2008 and 2008 R2 are now available for purchase and can be ordered from Microsoft or a Microsoft licensing partner. The delivery of Extended Security Updates (ESU) will begin after the End of Support dates, if and when available. 
  • Does Microsoft support Exchange 2010 on any other Server versions?
    Exchange Server 2010 SP3, with Update Rollup 26 or higher, installed on Windows Server 2012 R2 is supported until October 13, 2020.
  • That didn’t quite answer my question. If a customer calls between January 14 and October 13 2020, and is running Exchange 2010 on Server 2008 or 2008 R2, and does not have an ESU for Windows, can they still be assisted?
    Yes. Per the Lifecycle FAQ.
    If I am running a Microsoft product that is currently supported under the Lifecycle Policy, but my operating system is no longer supported, can I still receive support?
    If the problem is specific to the Microsoft product and it is within the Lifecycle Policy, Microsoft will provide support.
    If the problem is a result of the combination of the operating system and the Microsoft product, the problem will not be supported.
    More simply::
    Exchange 2010 on Server 2008 or 2008 R2: Starting January 14, 2020, provide support until a proven issue is found with the OS. This ends in October 2020.
    Exchange 2010 SP3 RU26+ on Server 2012 R2: We support regardless, but Exchange support still ends in October 2020.
  • Will Microsoft be offering Extended Support Updates (ESU’s) for purchase for Exchange 2010 customers?
    No.
  • What resources are available for customers? 
    – An upcoming Exchange Team blog post, titled “Exchange On-Premises Best Practices for Migrations from 2010 to 2016,” will provide great technical guidance for customers and support agents with their on-premises migrations.  
    – If migrating to Office 365 and Exchange Online, customers may be eligible to use the free Microsoft FastTrack service. FastTrack provides best practices, tools, and resources to make migration to Office 365 and Exchange Online as seamless as possible.
    – For customers that run into any problems during their migration to Office 365 and are not eligible for FastTrack, or if migrating to a newer version of Exchange Server, customers can of course utilize Support or the Exchange Technical Community.
    – Customers may also choose to engage a partner to help.  Microsoft has a great number of partners with deep skills in Exchange, and you can browse a list of Exchange partners at     https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/solution-providers/home.

HAPPY UPGRADING!
CONTACT ME FOR QUESTIONS CONCERNING UPGRADING YOUR EXCHANGE ENVIRONMENT!

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Exchange Server Client Access URL Configuration Script

In my career, I have to be able to be efficient as most of my projects are on a time crunch schedule. Being able to quickly configure Exchange when setting up a server environment is crucial to the success of the project.

While still honing my skills in PowerShell, I was attempting to create my own script to help configure all of the Virtual Directories in one shot rather than go to each setting and configure them manually. It did not go very well, so as I do, I research and find great professionals that do great work in scripting so that I may learn from them.

In doing so, I found Paul Cunningham’s script that performs this. I took the following script and modified it to add the PowerShell Virtual Directory to it as I like to configure that as well.

***YOU CAN REM THE LINES OUT SHOULD YOU NOT WANT TO CONFIGURE THAT DIRECTORY***

Here is my version of the script:

NOTES:

  • PowerShell script to configure the Client Access server URLs for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013/2016. All Client Access server URLs will be set to the same namespace.
  • If you are using separate namespaces for each CAS service this script will not handle that.
  • The script sets Outlook Anywhere to use NTLM with SSL required by default.
  • If you have different auth requirements for Outlook Anywhere use the optional parameters to set those.
  • The script sets PowerShell to use Basic with SSL required by default.
  • If you have different authentication requirements for PowerShell use the optional parameters to set those.
  • PowerShell was added to the settings. Please be sure to REM those lines of code should you NOT want to configure the PowerShell Virtual Directory.

USAGE:

HAPPY SCRIPTING!
POSITIVE ENERGY!
PLEASE COMMENT!

REFERENCES:
Exchange Server Client Access URL Configuration Script
PowerShell Script to Configure Exchange Server Client Access URLs

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Installing an ‘IP-less’ Exchange Server 2019 Database Availability Group

Yesterday, I posted on how Exchange now uses the Resilient File System (ReFS) to optimize and protect Exchange critical files. Another layer of protection is using a database availability group (DAG) for redundancy and is a necessary factor when designing an Exchange Enterprise Environment.
In this example, I will walk you through the installation of an Exchange Server 2019 DAG as I configured in my environment. This DAG will contain two Exchange Servers in the same site with a third Windows Server 2019 server being the File Share Witness (FSW).

Two Server Exchange DAG Configuration

For my configuration, I configured two identical Windows Server 2019 VMs (same procs, RAM, vhdx drives, partitions, etc…). I configured the Exchange Data Volume using ReFS and mounted them to the same folder on the C: Drive on each server. This is very important for replication to take place successfully when the databases are added to the DAG.


I next went to the Admin server where the FSW would be hosted and added the Exchange Trusted Subsystem Account to the local Administrators group on that server:

IMPORTANT!
Add the Exchange Trusted Subsystem Account to the Local Administrators Group on the FSW.

NOTE: The reason that this is an ‘IP-less’ DAG is that I’m creating a DAG with no cluster administrative access point (CAAP). The DAG has no IP address of its own, and no computer object in Active Directory. The main implication of this is that backup software that relies on the CAAP or backup operations won’t work. This option of an ‘IP-less’ DAG was first introduced in Exchange Server 2013 SP1/CU4, so by now any decent backup products should support this configuration. But you should always verify this with your backup vendor of choice. Also be aware that this is only supported for DAGs that are running on Windows Server 2012 R2 (or later).

Next, we create the DAG from Exchange PowerShell using the New-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup cmdlet. Now remember that since you are using the ReFS system for your database volumes, you will need to specify the -FileSystem parameter within the cmdlet to assure proper setup and replication of the data files.

Next, we add the Exchange Servers that hold the databases that will be replicated within the DAG:

The DAG will now show the two servers as Operational Member Servers:

The FSW Directory was created on the admin01 server when the DAG was created. We can verify that with the following cmdlet:

Next, we add the databases that we want replicated to the DAG as replicated databases. I want all my Databases on EX01 to replicate to EX02 and vice versa for the EX02 Databases. I want the activation preference to remain on the server that the databases were originally created on so I will use the -ActivationPreference parameter to accomplish that. I will go into more detail on Activation Preference in another post.

Now we verify that the Database Copies are healthy on each replication member using the Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus cmdlet. You will see a Healthy Status on the replicated copies:

POSITIVE ENERGY!
KILL NARCISSISM!
HAPPY TROUBLESHOOTING!

REFERENCES:
Installing an Exchange Server 2016 Database Availability Group

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Using the Resilient File System for Exchange Server

In my ongoing effort for becoming more knowledgeable on Exchange Server, I found that the preferred new file system for Exchange Databases and Log files is the ReFS.
ReFS is not that new. Microsoft’s Resilient File System (ReFS) was introduced with Windows Server 2012. ReFS is not a direct replacement for NTFS, and is missing some underlying NTFS features, but is designed to be (as the name suggests) a more resilient file system for extremely large amounts of data.

Support for ReFS with Exchange Server

From Exchange Server 2013 and upwards (which includes Exchange Server 2019 today) Microsoft supports the use of ReFS for Exchange servers, and in fact they now recommend it as the preferred file system for Exchange Server 2019, within the following guidelines.

For Exchange Server 2013:

  • ReFS is supported for volumes containing Exchange database files, log files, and content index files.
  • ReFS is not supported for volumes containing Exchange binaries (the program files).
  • ReFS is not supported for volumes containing the system partition.
  • ReFS data integrity features must be disabled for the database (.edb) files or the entire volume that hosts database files.
  • Hotfix KB2853418 must be installed.
  • For Windows 2012, the following hotfixes must be installed:

This means that you should continue to use NTFS for your operating system and Exchange Server 2013 installation volume, but you can consider using ReFS for the volumes hosting Exchange databases, log files, and index files.

For Exchange Server 2016:

  • ReFS is supported for volumes containing Exchange database files, log files, and content index files.
  • ReFS is not supported for volumes containing Exchange binaries (the program files).
  • ReFS is not supported for volumes containing the system partition.
  • ReFS data integrity features are recommended to be disabled.
  • For Windows 2012, the following hotfixes must be installed:

This means that you should continue to use NTFS for your operating system and Exchange Server 2016 installation volume, and it is recommended ReFS for the volumes hosting Exchange databases, log files, and index files.

For Exchange Server 2019:

  • ReFS is supported for volumes containing Exchange database files, log files, and content index files.
  • ReFS is not supported for volumes containing Exchange binaries (the program files).
  • ReFS is not supported for volumes containing the system partition.
  • ReFS data integrity features are recommended to be disabled.

This means that you should continue to use NTFS for your operating system and Exchange Server 2019 installation volume, and it is recommended ReFS for the volumes hosting Exchange databases, log files, and index files.

Creating an ReFS Formatted Volume

In Windows Server during the New Volume Wizard when you get to the step for configuring File System Settings change the file system from NTFS to ReFS.

exchange-server-refs

NOTE: Using the New Volume Wizard does not give you the option to disable data integrity at the volume level. To set it at the volume level itself use PowerShell when configuring new volumes. I found this out the hard way and am now re-configuring my volumes to disable the Integrity Streams.

I needed to create the mount point to mount the volume to:

I then got a list of my available disks:

In my case, disk 2 was the one I needed to format and change. I had to create a new partition and then format it:

Once formatted, I mount the volume to the Directory created earlier:

NOTE: Partition 1 on a disk is always reserved for system files on the drive volume. So the active partitions will always start at 2.

Lastly, verify that the partition is online and that the Integrity Streams are turned off:

Additional Considerations

When you are deploying an Exchange 2016 or 2019 DAG and using Autoreseed, the disk reclaimer needs to know which file system to use when formatting spare disks. So when, creating a DAG in Exchange PowerShell, make sure to set the -FileSystem parameter. For Exchange Server 2013 DAGs, manually format the spare volumes with ReFS.

More coming soon. I will post how I setup the “IP-less” DAG for my environment and got replication functional for my Exchange Databases.

REFERENCES:
Exchange 2013 storage configuration options
Exchange 2016 Preferred Architecture
Exchange Storage for Insiders: It’s ESE (Ignite video)
ReFS Exchange Server Volumes
Preparing ReFS Volumes for Exchange

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Importing User Photos to Office 365 in bulk for your company.

In a previous post, I showed how you could update one user’s photo for their Outlook and AD profiles via PowerShell. In this post, we will explore how to do this for your entire organization via PowerShell to Office365.

NOTE: I have not tested the scripts as I do not have enough mailboxes in my O365 tenant along with not using a ‘.’ in my alias. If the scripts are incorrect, please inform me with the correction and I will update accordingly.

Please make sure that your photos are reviewed before posting, and try to keep the file size of the photos to a minimum. In Office 365, there exists a limitation for the user photo not to be more than 10 KB in size, but I will show you how to get around that limitation.

Having a user photo for each of your users is very beneficial as it personalizes each account to a face in the company. The user photos can be viewed in below locations:

  • Outlook Web Access
  • Contact Card
  • Thumbnail in emails
  • Outlook Client
  • Yammer
  • Lync Client
  • SharePoint (People Search / Newsfeed)

Steps to take:

  1. Remove the 10KB photo size limitation in Exchange Online
  2. Prepare a folder with all users photos
  3. Update the profile photos via a PowerShell cmdlet.

Connect to Exchange Online with the RPS Proxy Method to remove the 10K size limitation

NOTE: In the PowerShell cmdlet above, we connected using a different proxy method. This was to overwrite the limitation of uploading the images with size more than 10KB. Using the different proxy method (/?proxyMethod=RPS ) to connect to Office 365 in the above cmdlet accomplishes this.

Prepare a folder locally and place all the photos in that folder

Create a folder named C:/UserPics and make the filename of each photo be the username of that particular user. (i.e. llingerfelt.png)
The below script should be able account for aliases that have a ‘.’ in the id as well. (i.e. lance.lingerfelt)

NOTE: From my research, there is no set photo type that is required for the photo. My suggestion would be to keep the photos .png for size constraints while maintaining picture clarity.

Update the profile pictures via PowerShell

Create the following script and name it Photos-Update.ps1

Run Photos-Update.ps1 and the script should upload the photos to Office 365 and apply each photo to the corresponding user.

NOTE: If you’re still having some issues with the alias having a ‘.’ in the name, you can also configure the Photos-Update.ps1 script in this manner to get that working properly:

HAPPY SCRIPTING!
PLEASE COMMENT!

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REFERENCES:
How to import Office365 User photos over 10KB & without CSV in bulk

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Set the profile pic for a single Exchange user via PowerShell

I wanted to update my picture within my Outlook profile and AD account really quickly without having to go through OWA to do so. I found this cmdlet that will allow for that picture to be changed very quickly via Exchange PowerShell.

NOTE: This can be done with On-Premises Exchange and Exchange Online PowerShell

Old picture within my account

First, download the picture you want to use to the computer that you want to run the cmdlet from. Also, make sure the picture is cropped and centered prior to running the cmdlet. I saved the pic to C:\temp for my scenario. The best format to use would be jpg. I named the file User1_Profile.jpg

Next, open Exchange PowerShell on the computer you saved the pic to and run the following cmdlet to change the photo:

Once completed, the Outlook client should be closed and reopen so that the new picture is visible in the profile.

Picture change completed

I will post how to perform this for multiple users for Exchange and Office365 in a later post.

REFERENCES:
Set User Photo with Exchange PowerShell

Author Lance LingerfeltPosted on

Purging Soft Deleted mailboxes from Exchange Server

If you’re a seasoned administrator, you have knowledge that in Exchange, the database settings will allow you to set the deleted mailbox retention. The default is 30 days, but sometimes you need to purge all those deleted mailboxes to do some ‘spring cleaning’ as it were. Note that doing these cmdlets does not change the ‘Whitespace’ of the database or the size. In my case, I had to purge everything of a toxic individual that was tainting my network much to my disappointment and did the following to complete that task.

The following cmdlet will seek all Soft Deleted mailboxes within the database you select and manually purge them from Exchange.

Now, should you only want to remove one mailbox, you will need to get the GUID of that Soft Deleted mailbox first so that you can enter it for the identity parameter.

You can also preform a similar task for a disabled mailbox:

You can perform the task on all disabled mailboxes for that database as well:

NOTE: I would be very careful when performing either of these cmdlets as they will completely purge the mailboxes from the schema. If these cmdlets assist you with your ‘spring cleaning’, I will have been happy to assist.

HAPPY PURGING!
PLEASE COMMENT!
IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS!

References:
Purging Deleted Mailboxes on Exchange 2013

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