MSExchange.org Monthly Newsletter of December 2008 Sponsored by: Red Gate

Welcome to the MSExchange.org newsletter by Henrik Walther, Exchange MVP, MCA: Messaging (Exchange Ranger) Apprentice, MCTS Windows Server 2008, MCITP Exchange 2007, MCSE 2003 Messaging/Security. Each month we will bring you interesting and helpful information on Exchange Server. We want to know what all *you* are interested in hearing about. Please send your suggestions for future newsletter content to: henrik@msexchange.org

1. Cluster Continuous Replication and Public Folder Replication - What are my options?

Welcome to the December issue of the MSE newsletter! Christmas is just around the corner and most of us are busy getting the last work related tasks finished just in time for a hopefully well deserved Christmas holiday with our loved ones. You probably been busy with too much work most of 2008, so remember to show your family that extra attention during these days, so they really feel you care about them.

Alright this month, I wanted to talk about your options in regards to using a combination of cluster continuous replication and public folder replication. As many of you know, CCR and PF replication technology are very different beasts. This means that you should avoid having a PF store hosted on a CCR-based Mailbox server if you have multiple PF stores replicating with each other in your Exchange organization. The reason for this is that in case of a lossy failover between the active and passive node in a CCR occurs, the PF store hosted on the CCR will not mount and you may in worst case need to restore the PF hosted on the CCR-based mailbox server. You can read more about this issue in details here.

If you for instance only have two Mailbox servers in the organization and both of them are based on CCR, the recommendation is to achieve redundancy for public folders via CCR instead of PF replication. But let us say these two CCR-based Mailbox servers are located in different physical sites and you have legacy Outlook clients in both, and that PF functionality only are used for free/busy lookups as well as OAB downloads. Depending on the network bandwidth between the sites, you probably do not want legacy Outlook clients in one site to contact the PF store on the other site.

What are your options in such a scenario? Well many Exchange consultants/architects (including myself) simply install the Mailbox server role on a Hub Transport or Client Access server in each site instead of hosting it on a CCR-based mailbox server (remember that you, in addition to the public folder database must create a mailbox database on this server as well!). As long as they are only used for free/busy lookups and OAB downloads, it would not put a significant performance burden on the server, if it is sized properly that is. With “sized properly”, I’m not speaking about a server with 8 cores, 32 GB RAM and a couple of RAID10 drives, nope, just a server that has been sized according to the Hub Transport or Client Access server recommendations found in the Exchange 2007 Planning and Architecture section in the Exchange 2007 documentation on TechNet. Perhaps just an extra LUN for the databases that’s all.

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That was the last tip I had to share with you this year, but of course I’m already looking forward to 2009 where I will continue to fill up your mailboxes each month :)

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Cheers,
Henrik Walther

Note:
Should you have any ideas for content in future editions of the MSExchange.org newsletter, you are more than welcome to shoot me an e-mail at Henrik@msexchange.org

2. Order Henrik Walther's Exchange Server 2007 book

3. MSExchange.org Learning Zone Articles of Interest

We have a great group of articles in the Learning Zone that will help you get a handle on your most difficult configuration issues. Here are just a few of the newer and more interesting articles:

• Exchange 2007 Install and Configuration from the command line (Part 3)
• Monitoring Exchange 2007 With System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Part 2)
• A Closer Look at Preparing Active Directory for Exchange 2007 (Part 5)
• Using the Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer Tool (Part 1)
• Uncovering the Exchange 2007 Edge Transport Server (Part 5)
• Exchange 2007 Install and Configuration from the command line (Part 2)

4. KB Articles of the Month

Here are some interesting and useful MSExchange related articles posted by Microsoft in the last month:

Exchange 2007

There aren't any Exchange 2007 related KB articles this month.

Exchange 2003

• December 2008 cumulative daylight saving time (DST) update for Exchange Server 2003 SP2
• When you try to access Outlook Web Access, the Store.exe process stops responding, and event IDs 7031 and 1000 are logged in Exchange Server 2003
• E-mail messages are blocked after you set the value of the FIPSAlgorithmPolicy registry entry to "1" on a server that is running Exchange Server 2003
• Event ID 1000 and event ID 9659 messages are logged after you add the AdditinalSafeURLScheme registry entry to an Exchange Server 2003 server
• A POP3 virtual server instance does not come online in an Exchange Server 2003 cluster scenario
• Error message if you use the NON_CONTENT_INDEXED_SEARCH flag in an MAPI-based application: "Error :0x80040106 MAPI_E_UNKNOWN_FLAGS"
• When multiple MAPI processes are running from different Windows sessions on an Exchange Server 2003 computer, some of these processes stop receiving notifications, and event ID 1000 is logged
• A meeting update does not appear in Outlook Web Access after a meeting organizer updates the time of one meeting occurrence in an Exchange Server 2003 environment
• When you use a CDO-based application to manage calendar items in Exchange Server 2003, the application crashes intermittently

5. MSExchange News of the Month

• MSExchange.org Gives AttachView Four and a Half Stars
• OWA Light Calendaring Insufficient Says New Poll
• Do you have what it takes to become a Microsoft Certified Master?

6. Ask Henrik Walther a question

QUESTION:

Hi,

I had read your article about “Transitioning from Exchange 2000/2003 to Exchange Server 2007” and thanks for your efforts.

Anyhow I had noticed that you did not mention anything about upgrading the recipient policy and the address list.

I had read that the legacy recipient policy and the address list cannot be managed from Exchange 2007 and they should be upgraded before removing the last legacy Exchange server.

ANSWER:

Yes this is no problem at all since an Exchange 2007 Edge Transport Server is simply an SMTP gateway that has some extra interesting features in regards to Exchange Server 2007 based organizations.

You are absolutely correct; the recipient policy must be upgrade to Exchange 2007 before you can administer it from the Exchange 2007 Management Console or Shell.
For the proper steps, please see this post.