Service pack 2 for Exchange 2010 has now been released
http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2011/05/17/announcing-exchange-2010-service-pack-2.aspx
One feature that has been long overdue is the ability to segment the GAL so that only certain elements of the GAL are visible to specific groups of users (EG: Only let System Administrator’s see Administrative Accounts…..)
I’ll post a full update once I have applied it to my Lab environment…
So I had recently installed Exchange 2010 SP1 on my Lab Domain and was struggling to get OWA working – all I got was a blank page and no Form-Based Authentication logon..
After a lot of suggestions about recreating OWA to redirects in IIS and a Web.Config file, i eventually stumbled across this post..
http://www.msexchangeblog.nl/2010/05/11/blank-page-in-owa-fix-for-exchange-2010/
Which basically says to run a powershell script buried within Exchange to update the CAS
Voila! All now up and running..
Yesterday, I too the plunge and upgraded my Exchange 2010 server from Windows Server 2008 SP2 to Server 2008 R2 SP1
All went well, and everything appeared to be working, it only took a few hours which was good.
However, when I checked my databases, I found that the System Mailbox DB (The one called “Mailbox Database xxxxxxx”) was dismmounted, and was refusing to remount itself..
After about an hour of checking, and failing, I eventually had to do a hard repair with eseutil /p and remove all the log files.
Fortunately, despite the copious warnings about data loss, I eventually got the thing mounted and all is well again.
So, if ever you decide to do this can I make one helpful suggestion to you all..
DISMOUNT ALL YOUR DATABASES FIRST TO ENSURE THEY ARE CLEANLY SHUTDOWN!
Microsoft have again proven that they don’t thoroughly test their updates before releasing them.
Last week as part of the bumper Patch Tuesday, they released KB2449742
So after I deployed this to my servers, imagine my surprise when I rebooted my Exchange 2010 server and discovered that all attempts at connecting to the Management Console resulted in the MMC crashing out, along with the event viewer and a few other MMC’s as well
I couldn’t even connect via a remote EMC either..
Typically, I had a lot of change to make with new mailboxes to create and old one needing removing..
Time to hit Google and fortunately came across this article which pointed me in the direction of the update in question
It suggested that I remove KB2449742 and reboot the server.
Thankfully this has indeed resolved the problem and I can now manage Exchange again!
Ever since I upgraded us to Exchange 2010 I have had numerous complaints from staff who use Blackberry’s and how they are unable to get their emails from the server via IMAP4
I have no idea why as the iPhone works perfectly via IMAP and WiMo’s work fine too.. There are no issues with IMAP4 at all its all configured correctly as it was with Exchange 2007
Anyway i dismissed it for a while, unti a recent post on the EduGeek forums mentioned a free “Express” version of BES suitable for up to 200 users
Perfect I though since we only have about a dozen or so users at most who use Blackberry’s
So I register and download the edition and start to install.
First iassue was that it complained that MAPI and CDO were not present, but it did allow me to continue the installation..
Now for the next, and as yet unresolved, hurdle – connecting to the SRP Address…
I am behind a Forefront TMG 2010 firewall, so I open the required port and try again.. same error (something about the name resolved but there being no data returned).. It will not let me get past this screen… I have googled the error numerous times, but with no solution other than what I have already done – which is to open up Port 3101 on the firewall.
So I am now left with a partly installed service that refuses to work as it is suppose to do…
This is a nice feature for Exchange and Outlook 2010 – add a users mugshot directly to the GAL – so everyone can see it!
Its actually an easy process, but does involve a very minor AD Schema Edit
Details are here -> http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/03/10/454223.aspx
One thing it deosn’t really mention is that the picture must be a set file size (10 Kilobytes or less) or EMS will complain and fail.. To get round this I used Adobe PhotoShop and edited the JPEG file by simply using the “Save for Web” option and then reducing the quality down until the file size was under the 10 Kilobyte limit.
As this only does it for one person at a time, the next step is to create a Bulk upload PS script….
