Exchange-Genie

Exchange report

Filed in Uncategorized on Jun.21, 2011

I wanted to give a shout out to Steve Goodman who put togethor a little powershell script that you can run to produce a nice little html report of your exchange envrionment.

Generate Exchange Environment Reports using Powershell

Update 20th June – V1.1 – Bug fixes, Exchange 2007-only support in addition to 2010/2010+2007, and new features listed below.

As an Exchange administrator, there’s times when it’s useful to have a visual, straightforward and concise document that gives you a good overview of your environment. Although with tools like Visio and Word you can make such a document, it’s hard to keep these documents up to date or use previous versions to track and check changes.

This script, inspired by the output of an Exchange TAP tool, aims to automatically generate a report that gives you an overview of your environment, Exchange 2007 and 2010 servers and database availability groups – in particular:

Total Servers per Exchange version & service pack
Total Mailboxes per Exchange version & service pack
Totals for Exchange roles across the environment
A site-by-site breakdown for the following:
- Mailboxes per site
- Exchange servers, version, update rollup (new), service level, highlighted installed roles, OS version and service pack
A breakdown of each Database Availability Group including:
- DAG name, member count and member list
- Database information such as
  - Name
  - Mailboxes per database and Average Size
  - Archive mailboxes per database and Average Size (new) – only shown if a DAG DB includes Archive mailboxes
  - Database and whitespace size
  - Last full backup date/time (new) - only shown if at least one DAG DB has had a full backup
  - Circular Logging state (new) – only shown if at least one DAG DB has circular logging enabled
  - Server hosting the active copy
  - List of servers hosting copies and copy count
A breakdown of Non-DAG databases including Exchange 2007 DBs, including the database information above, along with Storage Group name (where applicable). (new)

The script doesn’t support detailed information about Exchange 2007 CCR/SCC clusters, but these are shown as ClusMBX in the output. At the moment, the script doesn’t show Public Folder information but if there is interest I can add extra features; and of course the source is provided should you wish to alter it to your own needs.

To be able to execute the script, you need to use the Exchange Management Shell (the latest version for your environment, with Powershell 2.0) and be able to get information about AD Sites, Exchange Servers, Mailboxes, Database Availability Groups and Databases. It uses WMI to retrieve OS information and detect Exchange 2007 clusters and calculate Exchange 2007 database size and Remote Registy calls to get Update Rollup information. A normal Exchange administrator should be able to perform these tasks.

Executing the script is straightforward – the only setting you need is to specify where to write the HTML file:

.\Get-ExchangeEnvironmentReport -HTMLReport c:\report.html

You can if you like set this up on an automatic schedule and get it emailed daily. If you want to see how, I’ve uploaded a quick video here.

As usual, the script is provided below as-is without any warranties. You can download the script ready to use at the bottom of this post. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Download the script here http://www.stevieg.org/2011/06/exchange-environment-report/

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Exchange 2010 Poster

Filed in Uncategorized on Jun.12, 2011

Download the Exchange 2010 Architecture poster Exchange 2010 Poster

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Microsoft announces next version of Windows Phone update code name “mango”

Filed in Uncategorized on May.27, 2011

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2015138442_windowsphone25.html

Microsoft’s Windows Phone update smooth move

Microsoft brands and products seemed to work together like organs in a body Tuesday in demonstrations of an updated Windows Phone code-named Mango.

By Sharon Pian Chan

Seattle Times technology reporter

Slices of Mango

HERE ARE new features in Mango update for Windows Phone.Integrating conversations. Contacts in the address book will show a history of Facebook chats, tweets, emails and texts.

Twitter and LinkedIn. Info from these networks will be integrated into contacts, which already support Facebook.

Customizable email folders. Gmail and Hotmail, for instance, could be combined in one folder, while work email can go in a different folder.

Poke-free texting. Phone can read texts aloud, while it also converts oral tweets to text.

Multi-tasking. While in a music app, for instance, the phone can receive and read aloud a text message.

Emails and calendar. Meeting requests that arrive via email will automatically scan calendar for conflicts.

Internet Explorer 9. Microsoft’s latest Web browser will be coming to the phone.

3-D apps. A demo of a British Airways app showed a seat chooser that takes a user on a virtual walk through the plane.

Bing Visual Search. Search for a book by snapping a photo of a book cover.

Quick Cards. This Bing feature pulls together relevant information on a restaurant or concert venue and links to relevant apps.

Local Scout. This feature uses Bing to search the Web for nearby restaurants and shops based on the phone’s location.

— Sharon Pian Chan

Microsoft adds new Virtualization support for Exchange 2010 SP1

Filed in Uncategorized on May.18, 2011

The Unified Messaging server role is supported in a virtualized environment. Combining Exchange 2010 high availability solutions (database availability groups (DAGs)) with hypervisor-based clustering, high availability, or migration
solutions that will move or automatically failover mailbox servers that are members of a DAG between clustered root servers, is now supported. Read more here http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2011/05/16/announcing-enhanced-hardware-virtualization-support-for-exchange-2010.aspx

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Free Virtualization training

Filed in Hyper-v on May.15, 2011

Microsoft has recently posted a free training course to assit IT professionals with many virtualization questions https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/Studies/EducationDetails.aspx?id=41&o=42

Tags: hyper-V, Virtualization

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Why does my Virtual Machine show a 10GB Nic

Filed in Uncategorized on Apr.29, 2011

Article by:Jeff Woolsey

Question of the Day

Q: When I go to the network control panel within a virtual machine, the connection speed is displayed as 10.0 Gb/s. I don’t have a 10 Gb/s network adapter in my system. What’s the explanation?

A: We have to label the Hyper-V virtual NIC with some moniker and arbitrarily chose 10GB/s. It’s all in software, so the actual limit is whatever your hardware and processing resources can throw at it. We had the same exact problem with Virtual Server many years ago. In Virtual Server, our NIC reported itself to be a 100 Mb NIC. As a result, we’d receive regular email asking why we didn’t support 1 Gb/E and when we were going to upgrade our virtual NIC. In reality, this NIC could far exceed 100 Mb, but that didn’t matter because the little balloon said 100 Mb.

Now, we’re at Hyper-V and we have to choose a value again:

· If we choose 1 Gb/E, we’re doing ourselves a disservice because Hyper-V easily exceeds 1Gb/E performance.

· If we choose 10Gb/E, we may or may not hit this value depending on a variety of factors

So, you’re probably asking, well, what’s the real number? The answer is <drum roll please>…

It depends. It depends on numerous variables such as:

· CPU, Speed of CPU

· Speed of memory

· How many VMs are running 1, 5, 20, 50?

· Etc.

Bottom line: We had to choose a value, no matter what value we choose no one will be happy, but 10Gb seemed the most appropriate.

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Apple, Google tap phone location data: report

Filed in Uncategorized on Apr.22, 2011

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42717490/ns/technology_and_science-security

By Suzanne Choney and Rosa Golijan

Apple’s iPhones and Google’s Android phones send back data about the locations of the users to the technology companies, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. And at least two members of Congress are pushing for more information about why it’s happening.

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., has asked Apple for more information on data collection, saying he wants to make sure the iPhone, one of the most popular consumer devices, doesn’t become an “iTrack.”

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., sent a two-page, open letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs filled with questions about the data-gathering practice. Among Franken’s questions: “Why were Apple consumers never affirmatively informed of the collection and retention of their location data in this manner? Why did Apple not seek affirmative consent before doing so?”

Apple and Google phones regularly transmit location data to the companies as the two tech giants build databases that could help them tap a market for location-based services, the Journal reported, citing data and documents it had analyzed.

The paper cited a research by security analyst Samy Kamkar that said the HTC Android phone sent such information several times every hour after collecting the data every few seconds.

Google and Apple so far have not issued any statement since the first reports earlier this week about the data collection, based on research findings that show their devices record and store users’ locations in unencrypted files.

The Android phone, using Google’s mobile operating system, also sent information about wireless Internet networks in the area; the iPhone transmits data about the user’s location and Wi-Fi networks to itself every 12 hours, the Journal said.

Location-based data is useful not only for buildiing maps, including traffic data, but also for businesses. The databases could help Google and Apple “tap the $2.9 billion market for location-based services — expected to rise to $8.3 billion in 2014, according to research firm Gartner Inc.,” the Journal said.

Google was collecting such data wirelessly using its Street View cars last year, when it came under fire from authorities in European countries and the U.S. over privacy concerns for scooping up fragments of people’s online activities, including email addresses and passwords.

Kamkar told the Journal that the data being transmitted to Google on Android phones did not include such personal information.

Google initially said the Street View information was limited to “fragments” of unencrypted data because the cars were always moving and because the cars’ wireless equipment automatically changed channels about five times a second. But the company acknowledged in October that the cars actually collected more extensive information, and apologized for doing so.

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission closed an investigation into the Street View issue but the Federal Communications Commission still has one open.

Federal prosecutors in New Jersey, the Journal said, “citing people familiar with the matter,” are “investigating whether smartphone applications illegally obtained or transmitted information such as location without proper disclosures.”

In recent days, security researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden disclosed that iPhones, as well as 3G-enabled iPads running iOS 4 — the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system — constantly record and store their users’ locations in unencrypted files.

The files are basically very long lists of latitude-longitude coordinates and timestamps, and they can be found on the devices themselves as well as within the software backups saved on users’ computers.

Allan and Warden have contacted Apple’s product security team to try to learn more information about the tracking feature. The two developed an open source application, iPhone Tracker, to illustrate their findings.

Msnbc.com reporter Rosa Golijan tested the app and found “an eerily accurate replay of my travels around my home.” Further, “the location markers get unnervingly close to some of my favorite haunts.” (See the detailed report, complete with maps, here.)

Last July, Apple’s general counsel Bruce Sewell wrote a 13-page letter at the request of Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Markey about Apple’s data collection practice.

In the letter, he explained Apple’s location-data-collection techniques and the company’s reasons for collecting any such information:

“Apple must be able to determine quickly and precisely where a device is located,” Sewell said in the company’s letter. “To do this, Apple maintains a secure database containing information regarding known locations of cell towers and Wi-Fi access points.”

On Thursday, Markey sent a follow-up letter to Apple asking additional questions about the customer data being collected, and requesting a response within 15 days.

“Apple needs to safeguard the personal location information of its users to ensure that an iPhone doesn’t become an iTrack,” Markey said in a statement.

“Collecting, storing and disclosing a consumer’s location for commercial purposes without their express permission is unacceptable and would violate current law. That’s why I am requesting responses to these questions to better understand Apple’s data collection and storage policies to make certain sensitive information can’t be left behind for others to follow.”

Meanwhile, new research from The Nielsen Company finds that mobile phone subscribers who use “apps,” or programs that are downloaded to phones, are concerned about privacy issues tied to location-based services such as Foursquare, or Facebook mobile “check ins.”

“Despite the growing popularity of check-in services in the U.S., there are still many who are reticent to share information about their geographic location,” the company said.

Msnbc.com’s Helen A.S. Popkin and Reuters News Service also contributed to this report.

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Exchange 2010 SP1 RU3 re-released

Filed in E14, Exchange, exchange 14, exchange 2010 on Apr.10, 2011

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2011/04/06/announcing-the-re-release-of-exchange-2010-service-pack-1-update-rollup-3-v2.aspx

Announcing the Re-release of Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1
Update Rollup 3 (V3)

On March 14^th Microsoft posted an announcement to the EHLO blog about removing Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2010 SP1 due to an issue related to Blackberry devices.

The Exchange Servicing team has fixed the reported issue with E2010 SP1 RU3 and is making available a new version of RU3 for our customers, version 14.01.289.007, (KB2529939). We strongly
advise all customers install this newly released version of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Update Rollup 3 and to discard any prior version of
RU3 (KB2492690) which you may have.

RU3 Installation Guidance:

Customers with RU3 already installed within your Exchange environment
it is not necessary for you to uninstall the existing RU3 within your environment. The new RU3 package can be installed over the top of the existing package installed on your servers.
Customers with previous SP1 RUs installed within your Exchange environment
You can simply install the new version of the RU3 package.

General RU Installation Guidance

Note for deployments that leverage Forefront Security for Exchange:
For those of you running Forefront Security for Exchange perform these important steps from the command line in the Forefront directory before and after this rollup’s installation. Without these steps, Exchange services for Information Store and Transport will not start back up. You will need to disable Forefront via “fscutility /disable” before installing the patch and then re-enable after the patch by running “fscutility /enable” to start it up again post
installation.

Tags: exchange 2010, Exchange 2010 Rollup 3

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Exchange 2010 System Center Management Pack update released

Filed in Uncategorized on Apr.06, 2011

Today Microsoft released an updated management pack for System Center Operations Manager that can be downloaded from here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=7150bfed-64a4-42a4-97a2-07048cca5d23

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Installing System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta

Filed in System Center Virtual Machine Manager, VMM, VMM 2012 on Apr.01, 2011

Now that Microsoft has released a Beta version of their next virtual machine management software VMM 2012 lets take a look at the installation.

System Requirements/Prerequisites:

Supported Operating Systems:Windows 7 Enterprise;Windows 7 Professional;Windows 7 Ultimate;Windows Server 2008 R2;Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter;Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise

Windows Server 2008 R2 (full installation) Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter x64
Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate x32, x64
Windows Remote Management (WinRM) 2.0
Windows PowerShell 2.0
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=696dd665-9f76-4177-a811-39c26d3b3b34&displaylang=en

SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/get-sql-server/try-it.aspx
Windows Deployment Services (WDS) – (Version on Windows Server 2008 R2) –Optional
Windows Software Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 SP2 64bit -Optional
Download the VMM Beta bits located here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=e0fbb298-8f02-47e7-88be-0614bc44ee32

If you are planning on installing the Web Portal you will need to install the following IIS components

.NET Extensibility
ASP.NET
Default Document
Directory Browsing
HTTP Errors
IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
IIS 6 WMI Compatibility
ISAPI Extensions
ISAPI Filters
Request Filtering
Static Content

For this section of the blog I have already preinstalled SQL Server 2008 SP2 and will start with the VMM installation.

Installing WAIK

1. Launch setup to start the installation of WAIK

2. Select Windows AIK Setup from the left menu

3. Click Next on the welcome menu

4. Select the radius button to Agree to the usage terms and click Next

5. choose the installation path for WAIK and click Next

6. Click Next to confirm the installation

7. Click close on the completion screen

Installing VMM 2012

1. Launch Setup.exe and select Install

2. Check the box stating you have read the EULA which we all read Smile and click Next

3. Select all three check boxes to install the VMM Server, VMM Admin Console, and VMM Web portal

** Note to install the web portal you will need to install the following IIS components

.NET Extensibility
ASP.NET
Default Document
Directory Browsing
HTTP Errors
IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
IIS 6 WMI Compatibility
ISAPI Extensions
ISAPI Filters
Request Filtering
Static Content

4. On the license page click Next

5. Select the installation path for VMM and click Next

6. VMM will now verify that your machine meets the installation requirements

7. Select the name of the SQL server that will host the VMM database and verify that correct SQL instance is selected.

8. On the account configuration screen you need to select either the local system account for the service account that you will use for VMM 2012.

Just note that when you plan to create a VMM server cluster you will be required to utilize a service account and cannot use the local system account.

For this installation will will NOT be creating an HA VMM server however you can see the post located here to assist with that configuration. http://blogs.technet.com/b/scvmm/archive/2011/03/28/scvmm-2012-creating-a-highly-available-vmm-server.aspx

Note: when selecting a service account, the user account select must be in the local Admins group of the VMM Server.

9. Select the ports that you want to utilize for VMM and click Next

10. Input the name of the VMM Server that the Self Service Portal will connect too and Click Next

11. On the library configuration you can have VMM install a new library or select and existing share to host the library and click Next.

12. Verify the information on the summary screen and click Install

13. Click close on the installation screen

14. On the connection screen validate the correct server name is listed and click connect

15. Choose the user role that you want to open the console, since this if the first time the installation user has been added to the Administrators group.