MicromissionS

As per my earlier article, the public folders database is fully mounted but I found a new problem; the Default Offline Address Book is not updated with any new changes or any new mailbox.

By diagnosing this issue, I found that when manually update the “Default Global Address List” which is the source of OAB content, I found list of warnings as bellow:

WARNING: The recipient “/Microsoft Exchange System Objects/Offline Address Book – \/o=First Organization\/cn=addrlists\/cn=oab” is invalid and could not be updated.

WARNING: The recipient “/Microsoft Exchange System Objects/Offline Address Book – First Administrative Group” is invalid and could not be updated.

WARNING: The recipient “/Microsoft Exchange System Objects/Schedule+ Free Busy Information – First Administrative Group” is invalid and could not be updated.

WARNING: The recipient “/Microsoft Exchange System Objects/OAB Version 2″ is invalid and could not be updated.

WARNING: The recipient “/Microsoft Exchange System Objects/OAB Version 3a” is invalid and could not be updated.

These are system public folders from the Exchange 2003 server and they are mail-enabled in Exchange 2003 system, while in Exchange 2007 the system public folders are not mail-enabled, on other hand these warnnings is because these PFs have incompatible aliases format with Exchange 2007… once changing their aliases format to compatible one with the Exchange 2007 alias format (Only by removing the spaces) OR by mail-disable them; these warnings are disappeared, and the “Default Global Address List” is fully generated.

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In Exchange 2010 all Outlook clients use Client Access Server even the entourage clients need to connect to CAS in order to access mailbox.

In Exchange 2010, MAPI access and directory access has been transferred to the Client Access server. This is to provide all data access through a single, common path.

I like that… Outlook MAPI clients will talk to MAPI on a Middle Tier layer (CAS) which then talk to Mailbox server, same for directory information Outlook talk to NSPI endpoint located on Middle Tier layer (CAS), NSPI talks to Active Directory Driver which talks to Active Directory Service.

Unlike in Exchange 2007; Outlook MAPI clients will talk to RPC proxy which is installed on the CAS then it will talk directly to MAPI RPC component on the Mailbox server and the NSPI endpoint in Active Directory.

Oh… Exchange 2010 require RPC encryption, which means that clients with outlook 2003 will not be able access their mailboxes by default, and to configure Outlook 2003 to use RPC encryption:

1. Click Tools > E-Mail Accounts > View or Change an Existing Account.
2. Select the account and click More Settings.
3. Select the Security Tab.
4. Select Encrypt data between Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server.
5. Click OK.

OR… by disabling RPC encryption requirement on Exchange 2010 Client Access Server:

Set-RpcClientAccess –Server <CAS server> –EncryptionRequired $false

But the recommended solution it configure Outlook 2003 to use ERP encryption.

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Microsoft has just released the Beta version of the new Exchange server 2010 with code name “E14”.

Exchange 2010 comes with new features and improvements:

1. Improved Storage Reliability: E14 has brought new 70% I/O reduction, with new architecture the fail over designed around the mailbox database level instead of Server level “known as DB mobility”; which enable Organizations to run High-Available Exchange environment without dealing with clustering, RAID Disks or Enterprise disks solutions (SAN).

2. MailTips: no more over-quota email message sent accidently.

3. Conversation View.

4. More internet browsers support for OWA.

All of these and will continue…

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I don’t know why I did not find it anywhere as part of the pre-migration process; because if you have it, your installation of mailbox role will keep failing.

While Microsoft keeps saying the LDAP filters are supported in Exchange 2007, but you cannot edit them from Exchange 2007 console, if you try migrating to Exchange 2007 mailbox role, and if you have Recipient Policy or Address List that is configured with LDAP filters you may experience:

Error:

The Exchange server address list service failed to respond. This could be because of an address list or email address policy configuration error.

The service can’t work properly because Email Address Policy ‘CN=NAME,CN=Recipient Policies,CN=First Organization,CN=Microsoft Exchange, CN=Services, CN=Configuration, DC=DOMAIN,DC=COM’ has an invalid filter rule (PurportedSearch). The error is ‘ANR is not supported.’. Use the Exchange Management Console to correct this problem. New users, contacts, and groups won’t be fully provisioned until this is fixed.

That because not all LDAP filters are supported in Exchange 2007. In Exchange 2007 new OPATH filters replace the old LDAP ones, so before migrating the mailbox role it is very important to make sure of the LDAP filters used in the Recipient Policies & Address Lists are compatible with OPATH ones.

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Two days ago my stuff experienced a dead CAS server because of poor hardware. The recovery process is to bring new box install OS with same name of the dead one then install Exchange 2007 CAS role, but when trying to install Exchange 2007 CAS on the new machine it keeps raise

The Exchange Server is in an inconsistent state. Only disaster recovery mode is available.

With some research I found that the Active Directory still contains information about the dead server, so this information must be removed; by mean of Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) Edit (Adsiedit.msc) navigate and delete object of old CAS

CN=Configuration, DC= Domain Name, DC=com, CN=Services, CN=Microsoft Exchange, CN=Organization Name, CN=Administrative Groups, CN= Exchange Administrative Group, CN=Servers, CN=%Server Name%

Then run Exchange 2007 CAS installation and it completed smoothly.

It is very important for us when we plan to deploy any sensitive service such Exchange 2007 roles we must put the hardware quality and performance into consideration to avoid such a disaster.

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