There are two common password scenarios that occur:

1. When a users password has expired and they attempt to logon to OWA the user fails to logon and receive a generic error message.

2. When a new user account is created and an administrator wants to force the user to change their password at next logon, however the user will not be able to logon to OWA

Exchange 2007 SP3 and Exchange 2010 SP1 have remedied the two issues above by creating a new module in IIS that detects a user has an expired password or the user account is set to “user must change password at next logon”. 

You may ask what do I need to do?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607232(EXCHG.80).aspx

1. Log on to the Exchange server that is running the CAS role by using an account that has local administrator rights

2. Start Registry Editor, and then locate the following registry subkey:

3. HLKM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchange OWA

4. Create the following DWORD value if it does not already exist:

5. Value name: ChangeExpiredPasswordEnabledValue type: REG_DWORDValue data: 1

6. Exit Registry Editor

7.  From a command window perform an IISReset

Let walk through some tests:

1. Create a new user called PwdTest

a. Open EMC

b.  Expand Recipient Configuration and select Mailbox

c. From the actions pane select New Mailbox

d. On the new Mailbox wizard select “User Mailbox” and click Next

e. Select New User and click Next

f.  Input PwdTest for the userId information and validate the check box “User must change password at next logon”

g. On the Mailbox Settings page leave the default and click Next

h. On the Archive Settings check the radius button “don’t create an archive” and click Next

i. On the New Mailbox page click New

j.  Click Finish to complete the mailbox creation

2. Now that we have created our new mailbox and have the account set to force a password change for our user we need to attempt to logon to OWA

a.  Open the OWA logon Page and attempt to logon with our new user PwdTest

b.  Notice we receive a generic password error message

3.  As we see the logon fails until we modify the Registry of our CAS server

a. Start the Registry editor : Start – Run –RegEdit
b. Expand to  HLKM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchange OWA

c. Create the following DWORD Value: ChangeExpiredPasswordEnabled

d.  Set the value to 1

e. Exit Registry Editor

f.  From a command window perform an IISReset

4.  Now that we have created the appropriate Registry key we can attempt to logon to OWA again

a.  Open the OWA logon page and attempt to logon with the PwdTest user

b. We are now presented a change password form

c. After completing the form you will receive and successful change message

d. You are now presented the OWA logon form again. Attempt to logon with the newly created password

e. you now have a successful OWA logon

Get-MailboxDatabase -Status | fl name,databasesizes

Name         : DB001

DatabaseSize : 141.8 GB (152,220,270,592 bytes)

 Name         : DB002

DatabaseSize : 98.17 GB (105,412,362,240 bytes)

Today in Exchange 2010 when a user logs onto OWA and selects the options button they are taken into what is now called the Exchange Control Panel or ECP which has added some functionality for users.  One problem that I have found is that Microsoft has provided users with some nice links telling them how to configure their mobile device or Outlook anywhere but those links directt users to Outlook.Com configuration which tends to generate support calls.

Those links are controlled by a file located here  C:\Exchange\ClientAccess\ecp\PersonalSettings\QuickLinks.ascx , this file can be copied and modified with company faq settings to direct users to the appropriate place. I must note that every RollUp applied or Service Pack will overwrite your custome file and you must recopy the file back to this directory.  The 2nd point I need to make is that every build of Exchange (after rollup or service pack) you need to copy the new file and modify that file because Microsoft could have made changes in security or configuration, reusing the same old file could cause issues.  You will also have to copy this file to each CAS server.

Lets logon to OWA and take a look at the default settings:

You can see when I hover over Connect  Outlook to this account the url is set to http://help.Outlook.com

Close OWA

1. On your CAS server browse to the following file C:\Exchange\ClientAccess\ecp\PersonalSettings\QuickLinks.ascx copy this file to your desktop so we can edit it

2.  Open the QuickLinks file with Notepad

3.  I have highlighted the section we are going to work on which is the Mobile section

4.  We are going to remove this line <div><asp:Literal ID=”ltlMobileDevices” runat=”server” Text=”<%$ Strings:QLPushEmail %>” /></div>

5.  Insert and href like this : <ecp:<P><A HREF=http://www.exchange-genie.com target=”_blank”> Configure your mobile device with Active Sync for Beta Mail </A></P>

6. Save our file

7. Rename the origianl file to .old or some other extension

8. copy and paste our new file into the following location C:\Exchange\ClientAccess\ecp\PersonalSettings\QuickLinks.ascx

9. Logon to OWA into ECP

10. Hover over the Mobile link and you will see the url now points to http://exchange-genie.com

The only 2 items you should modify in this file are related to Mobile and Outlook connections

As you will discover later in this blog a common issue that user experience if they are running Outlook 2003 is related to the default configuration requiring encryption to be enabled on the Outlook client or connections will fail. I will go into more detail later on this topic.

When a user opens Outlook today a number of items occur but the main one I am going to talk about is the connection from the client directly to the mailbox server to retrieve their mail via mapi-rpc. 

How clients connected pre Exchange 2010

Some of the issues with this configuration even when using an SCC or CCR cluster is during a failover the client connection point will be disrupted even if only for a few moments. This also means that clients are making a direct connection to the server which is limited to 60k connections to the information store. This does not mean 60k users, as client makes a number of connections to the system.

As the Exchange team looked at how they can better scale Exchange 2010 one of the new techniques was to move the client connection endpoint to the CAS server instead of the mailbox server. This allows for a number of things to happen.

1. During a database move/failover the client end point does not go down and makes the move seamless to the user
2. If you reach the 60k port limit you just add an additional CAS server to the rpc array

Let’s take a look at our Exchange settings….

How do I know what my mapi end point is?

At first thought you may think this is configured per user however that is not the case. To find out what your rpc client end point is you need to run the following command get-mailboxdatabase “yourdatabase” | fl  name,rpc* the output of this command will show you each  RpcClientAccessServer associated with each database.

By default there is no rpc array configured, the name of a random CAS server in the same AD site will be directly associated with each database.

Let’s run our command and see what settings we have  get-mailboxdatabase | fl  name,rpc*

You can see that our  RpcClientAccessServer points to my CAS server

Let’s create a new mailbox database in EMC:

Open EMC -> Organization Configuration -> mailbox

Right click and select New Mailbox database

I am going to call my database rpcservercheck and specify the server as E14Ex1

Specify the logs and database path

C:\db\db and c:\db\logs

**note I dont recommend these location but this is just a lab **

Click New to complete the database

Now that we create the new database lets run our command again:

You can see the new database also shows the CAS server, since I only have one CAS in this environment they are configured the same.

Outlook Profile

After setting up an Outlook profile let’s take a look at see that our mapi end point is now the CAS server

With Outlook 2007 click Tools – Accounts Settings

Select the profile and click Change

We can see that our Microsoft Exchange Server information points to the CAS  fqdn and not our mailbox server

If we hold down CTR and right click the Outlook system tray icon we can bring up our connection status

You can see that all Directory and mail connections are now going to the CAS server with 1 exception, public folders. Yes, public folders calls are still direct connections from the client to the mailbox server hosting the public folder.

WireShark

If we use a network sniffer  to capture traffic from our client 192.168.1.59 we can see that NSPI and MAPI requests from Outlook are all directed to the CAS

How does this work?

On each CAS server there is a new service that runs called the MSExchangeRPC which runs as  Microsoft.Exchange.RpcClientAccess.Service.exe and listens on port 6001 for HTTP connection and uses dynamic ports by default for tcp/ip connections

By default when you install Exchange 2010 the files that makeup this service will be located in  C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Bin

When connections are made to the CAS server by the mapi client, the CAS server then creates a channel to the mailbox server to retrieve the mailbox data.  The CAS server will create a maximum of 100 Rpc connections to the mailbox server

Encryption

As I briefly mentioned in the introduction by default Exchange requires the client to connect with encryption enabled.  This is not set on each database but on each rpc server and can be found with the following command  Get-RpcClientAccess | fl server,encrypt*

 [PS] C:\>Get-RpcClientAccess | fl server,encrypt*

Server             : E14-EX1

EncryptionRequired : True

Server             : E14-EX2

EncryptionRequired : True

 Server             : E14CAS1

EncryptionRequired : True

After running the command you can see that each CAS and Mailbox server has this configuration. You may ask why would the mailbox server require this is all the client connections are direct to the CAS? You may recall that I stated above that the clients still connects direct to the mailbox server  for public folder access.

How do I know if my Outlook client is setup to use encryption?

Let’s look in our Outlook client to see this setting:

Using the same steps as before open your Outlook settings -> click More Settings

Select the Security Tab

We can see that Outlook 2007+ defaults to having encryption enabled however Outlook 2003 does not

 If you have a large number of Outlook 2003 users you have a few options:

1. Use Group Policy to enable this setting
2. Disable this settings on the Exchange Server with the  Get-RpcClientAccess | Set-RpcClientAccess -EncryptionRequired:$false

**Recommended configuration is to keep encryption enabled**

1. Have users manually enable this setting
2. script

**Note this will also affect Outlook Anywhere users (formerly Rpc.https) **

Configuring an Rpc Array

Now that we have a basic understanding of how MOMT is used lets configure our first Rpc Array. You can use NLB or a hardware Load Balancer like F5 for the rpc array as either is supported however you cannot use NLB if your server is multi roled and a member of a DAG.

The dns entry for the array should not use a public dns name and only needs to be resolvable to the internal network.

Lets start with the Get-ClientAccessArray command just to show that we do not currently have an array

1. Create a DNS entry for your array name (I am going to use Site1Array.ExchangeGenie.local)

a. Open the DNS administration tool

b. Select the appropriate DNS Zone (for me .ExchangeGenie.local)

c. Right click and create a new host record (a cname would work as well)

d. Input the name and Ip for the record

e. Click Add Host

F. Click Done

G. Validate the record had been created

 H. Lets use Nslookup to validate the record is seen

Create an RPC Array

From an EMS window we will use the new-clientaccessarray command if you use the help …. get-help new-clientaccessarray, we can see the command takes in 2 require parameters FQDN and Site

If you dont know your AD site information you can use the get-ADSite command to get that information

As you can see I have renamed my default site to GenieSite1

New-ClientAccessArray -Name Site1Array.ExchangeGenie.Local -fqdn Site1Array.ExchangeGenie.Local -Site GenieSite1

As you can see we now have a new array called Site1Array.ExchangeGenie.Local

**Note the memeber paramenter will show every Exchange 2010 CAS in the AD site of the Array, which CAS server actually participate are based on the NLB nodes **

Does this mean you are done?

No,  creating an array but its self does nothing we have 2 additional steps 1. create the NLB for the Array and 2. associate the array to our database.

Creating an NLB for our Array

I am going to use WNLB for this blog which is a viable option however for large organization a hardware load balancer is advised.

If NLB is not installed on your CAS server you will need to do that first.

1. Open Server Manager

2.  Select Features

3.  Select Network Load Balancing

4. Click Next

5. Click Install

 6. Click close after the installation completes successfully

7. Launch NLB Manager

8.  From the file menu click Cluster -> New

9. Input the IP address or hostname of the CAS server and click Connect

10.  Select Next

11. Select Next unless you need to add an additional dedicated ip to the server

12. Click Add to add the VIP for the cluster ** this should match the ip that we used to create our dns record for the array**

13.  Enter the IP asscociated with the array and click OK

14.  Click Next

15.  Enter an FQDN that will be associated with the NLB, I have selected Mulicast for my cluster mode however please select the method that best fits your environment.

16.  Click Next

17. Click Remove to delete the default listening ports

 You can choose to listen on all ports however lets use the minimum required for the array which we will later scope down even lower. The minimum ports required will be 135, 1024-65535

a.   Click Add

b.  Remove the check box “All” so that we can scope which IP the ports listens on

c.  Add port 135 – 135 TCP and click OK

d. Report for port 1024 -65535 TCP and click OK

18.  Click Finish to complete building the NLB

Validate the NLB has been created properly

 Associating the Array with databases

 The final step for us is to associate the client array with our existing databases.  Any new databases will be automatically associated with the array in that site.

Lets open our Outlook client so we can see our current settings

Let’s use the following command to set our new array on all the current databases we have created 

Get-MailboxDatabase | Set-MailboxDatabase -RpcClientAccessServer site1array.exchangegenie.local

**Please note the above command would do all databases you can use the –server switch to scope the databases returned you can use something like this to scope the site

C:\>Get-ExchangeServer | where {$_.isMailboxServer -eq $true -and $_.Site -eq ‘ExchangeGenie.Local/Configuration/Sites/GenieSite1′} | Get-MailboxDatabase **

We can validate the array association with the following command  Get-MailboxDatabase | fl rp*

***Please note it could take a few minute for this information to get updated for clients do to the store cache**

If we look at our client setting, they will get updated with autodiscover if the client is Outlook 2007+, for Outlook 2003 the client should be redirected after connecting to the current configured server.

You can see that all communication (except pf) is now connecting to our new client array

Scoping the Mapi Ports

By default when you open your Outlook client it attempts to make a connection to the rpc port ( 135) on the server andnegotiate a dynamic port above 1024 for usage.  If there are no firewalls between the clients and servers then you dont mind all the traffic however in many scenarios there are firewalls between the client network and servers.  To keep from the requirement of open port 135 and 1024 – 65535 you can make a few simple modifications to your CAS server to reduce the number of ports that are required to be open on the firewall.

There are 3 modifications you must make 1. Mapi which is a registry key change 2. Addres Book (NSPI) which is modifed in the config file and 3. Referral Service (RFR) modified in the config file.

We can restrict Rpc Client Access Array to a single port for each of the following settings Mapi,Address Book, and Referral Service let’s take a look at the default configuration below:

Key:HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeRPC\ParametersSystem

Value:TCP/IP Port

Type:DWORD

*Note you will need to modify the same registry key on mailbox servers that host the public folder role

Earlier you saw the network wireshark data with the server making connections to the CAS on radom high number ports, in this section we are going to scope the port range down to 3 ports of our choosing.  Please note the client will still need access to port 135 for the initial connection.

Scoping the CAS server ports

1. Open the regsitry editor (start -> run -> regedit

2. browse to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeRPC

3. Create a new key ParametersSystem (Right click new-> key)

4. Create a new Dword TCP/IP Port

5. Input a port I have selected 50000

6. Restart the Microsoft Exchange RPC Client Access Service

7.  Open a command window and run NetStat -na

We can see that we are connecting the CAS server on port 50,000 and 135

**You will need to repeat these steps for any mailbox server this is hosting a public folder database**

8.  Open Microsoft.Exchange.AddressBook.Service.Exe.config  with notepad (default location is C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Bin)

9.  Modify the section “RpcTcpPort” to the port you desire, I am going to use 50,001 since I used 50,000 for the mapi port

10. Restart the Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology Service (note this will stop all the Exchange services)

11. Open a command window and run NetStat -na

You can see we are now listeing on port 50,000 for map and port 50,001 for Address Book

If we open Outlook again and run a netstat -na from our client we can see that we are connecting to the CAS server on port 50,001 and 50,001 and to our mailbox on port 50,000

CAS IP 192.168.1.60 and Mailbox 192.168.1.57 and CAS Array 192.168.1.61

When a user accesses the  ECP directory https://mailurl.com/ecp or clicks the options button in the top right of OWA the below view is what the users will see.

one item I would like to point out, is the links “shortcuts to things you can do“. Most of these links take the user to other sections of the ECP however if you click “connect Outlook to this account” they will be directed to http://help.outlook.com .  In the current builds its unsupported to attempt to modify this information to point to internal faq’s

Accounts

The default page a users lands on is the Account sections, which by default will allow a user to update a number of their AD properties like Address, Phone Number, etc..

1. click edit at to bottom of the page

2. Modify attribute and click SAVE

Organize E-Mail

The next section Organize E-mail has 3 features that we can use 1. inbox rules, 2. automatic replies, and 3. delivery reports.

Inbox Rules

This is similar to the rules we had in Exchange 2007 however there are some new features available to us.

1. click New

2. Select create a new rule for arriving messages

3. On the menu select the drop down under the  section “When the message arrives, and:”

4. I am going to select apply to all messages

5. Under the “Do the following:” sections  I am going to pick “Redirect the message to”

6. When the address picker windows open I am going to select Jodie (if you want to redirect to an address not in the GAL just type the address in)

7. click OK

8.Click  More Options

9. Select move,copy, or delete and then Delete the message

10.  If you want to add an exceptions, select the Add Exception button

.

11. Select the exception that applies

12. Now that we have created the rule we want click the save button

Now we can see we have a rule that will redirect all messages to Jodie

Automatic Replies

The Automatic Replies section does not bring any new feature from Exchange 2007 but is the section that we use to set an Out Of Office message or for the old school exchange advocates OOF (Out of Facility)

The first section is set to internal away messages, this is determined by the Accepted Domains that are configured in your Exchange Org.

1. Click the button to Send automatic replies

2. Specify the date range you want to use

3. Enter the message

4. If you wish to set a message for external senders repeat steps 1.-3 for the External Senders section

5. Click the Save button

Delivery Reports

One of my personal favorite features is Delivery Reports which allows a users to perform self message tracking on messages to them or send by them. If enabled the user will also see that the message has been read even if a read reciept was not sent with the message.

* to enable the read tracking use Set-OrganizationConfig -ReadTrackingEnabled $true more can be found at   http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/06/25/451680.aspx

Unfortunately you must use the user picker feature and cannot just type in either  of the first two fields

Lets search for the 2 test messages that I sent out

1.  Click the radius button “Search for messages I have receieved from”

2.  When the address picker opens select the user (or just type in the address) and click OK

3. Click the Search button

4.  You can see I have 2 messages in the report, you can either double click the message or highlight it and click the details button

5. You can see in this report the date and time the message was submitted , that is was delivered and marked as read

Groups

A nice feature that was been made available is the ability for users to join groups that have been created. If you also choose to enable another feature users have the ability to create distribution groups from ECP as well.

1. Clikc the Join button

*I have created 3 groups Demo-Open, Demo-closed,Demo-ManagerApproval *

2.  A windows will open showing all the available groups that can be joined

3. Lets select the first group which is set to be closed and attempt to join it

You see we get a message stating we cannot join this group because its closed

4.  Lets select the next group which requires manager approval

You see we get a message back stating that we have to wait for the manager approval

As the group Owner you will get a message to approve the user

5.  Lets select the remain group which is open to everyone can join

You can see what receieved a message stating we have joined the group

6. Lets now leave the open group that we have joined, select the group Demo-OpenMember and click the Leave button

7. You are now presented with a validation that you want to leave the group, click Yes

Settings

Mail

The first section under the settings tab is Mail,  which is broken up into 5 subsections – 1. E-Mail Signature 2.Read Receipts 3.Reading Pane 4. Conversations 5.Message Format and 6. Message Options

                 Read Receipts

The Read Receipts section provide us 3 options on how to hande Read Receipts on messages

1. Ask me before snding a response <Default>

2. Always send a response

3. Never send a response

            Reading Pane

The next section is the Reading Pane section, which allows a user to configure how to handle a message that is viewed in the reading pane and provides us 3 options

1. Mark the item displayed in the Reading Pane as Read

2. Mark the item as Read when the selection changes <Default>

3.  Do not automatically mark the item as Read

  Conversations

By default in the OWA UI messages are placed into the new conversation view which does take a bit of getting user too.  This section controls how the conversation view is displayed

This section is broken up into 2 parts

1. Sort messages in the conversation Reading Pane in this order:

Choose how to sort the messages in List View in an expanded conversation.

E-Mail Signature

There is nothing really new in this section but provides a user a location to input an email signature, if you want this signature added to each out going message you need to select the check box at the bottom Automatically include my signature on messages I send

 Message Format

 The Message Format section allows us to modify the following

1. Always show Bcc

2. Always show From

If either of the above are selected when creating a new message you will see the from and BCC fields on each message

3.  Compose messages in this format allows us to set the default message type of HTML or Plaint Text

4. We can configure the default font type and size of messages 

6. Empty the Deleted Items folder when I sign out

Spelling

The spelling section allows us to configure a number of options for spell checking.  The ability to configure a custom dictionary is still not there however we do have the same options as Exchange 2007.

 Calendar

General

The General section allows us to configure two options

1. E-Mail name resolution

2. Accessibilty

Once common issue I have found over the years is a user enabling the accessibility options when they first logon to thier mailbx which will then force OWA Light.

Regional

Reginal settings allow a user to configure the following

1. Language

2. Date format

3. Time format

4.  Current time zone

Password

The password section allows a user to change thier current password however you must know the old password when using this feature.

S/MIME

The S/MIME button will only be avaiabled with IE7+ and is not a feature that is supposed with Firefox or Safari since this uses an active X control. When attempting to install this control you will need to have local Admin rights to the machine.

The S/MIME control allows a user to be able to digitally sign or encrypt a message

*Note : currently the control requires the user to have thier certificate published to the directory however there is no feature in the web UI that allows a user to publish thier certificate and there for an Outlook profile or automatic provisioning will be required to use send digitally signe or encrypted messages.

Phone

The phone section is broken down into 3 sub sections Voice Mail (only if your account has been UM enabled), Mobile Phones and Text Messaging.

Voice Mail

Exchange 2007 introduced a new server role called Unified Messaging which intergrates Exchange into systems like OCS and telephony devices.  The OWA web UI now allows a users the ablity to managed settings.

There are 4 sections that can be managed

1. Call Answering Rules

2. Outlook Voice Access

3. Notifications

4. Voice Mail Preview

Mobile Phones

Text Messaging

Another new feature of  Exchange 2010 is the ability to use text messages to send notification to your phone. If you are already using a phone like Windows Mobile, Iphone, Palm Pre etc.. that can sync with Exchange this is most likely not a feature that you would be using however for those users who do not have a phone that is capable of syncing with the system this feature provides you notification for email, calendar, and voicemail.  By default this feature is disabled.

Enabling Notifications

Click “Turn on Notifications”

Next we will be ask to select our country and cell phone provider

You may note if you carrier is not listed there is a link that will take you to the following information page http://help.outlook.com/en-us/beta/ms.exch.ecp.configureregionandmobileoperator.aspx?r=ia&l=0

Click Next

Now you are ask to input your cell phone number

Click Next

A text message will now be sent to your cell phone with a  pin code that will be used to complete the next section

Input the pin that was sent to you phone and click Finish

Once this process has been completed you will find a new rule that has been created to send copies of information to your phone.

Block or Allow

 Exchange provides users with a simple interface to allow user to configure junk filters for thier mailbox.

The first section that we come across is the ability to turn off or on the junk mail filtering

By enabling this feature you  allow the system to move messages into our junk email folder that meet your configuration. Please note that the system can be configured to move messages to the junk folder as well.

Under the Safe Senders and Recipients section we can add users to our safe list to these users to not get placed into our junk mail foler

We also have the option of trusting anyone in our contact list

After the allow section we find the Blcoked Senders information. If a user is added to this section it will not block email from them but tag this message to be listed as junk and move the message to the junk folder.

We can also specify to that all email is considered junk unless the users is explicity listed in our safe list.

If you attempt to add a user that is apart of  your email organization you will receive an error stating you cannot perform this action

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/08/17/451974.aspx

A users can directly log into the ECP by hitting https://yoururl.com/ecp or after they logon to OWA by selecting the options button in to top right.

What you see in the graphic above is the default view that a standard user will receieve in ECP, but I want us to understand how this is controlled. I am not going to go into much detail in this article but users that have been delegated the appropriate rights have the ability to create mailboxes, groups, contacts, and other tasks via ECP

Exchange 2007 brought somthing new called Exchange Management Shell (EMS) and  Exchange has been based upon the shell since Exchange 2007. In Exchange 2010 we now have modifed how permissioning will be done, with Role Based Authentication Control (RBAC).  RBAC as we will see says which commands a user or Admin can execute.

Lets use an example:

 users now have the ability to modify certain directory properties like thier phone number through the  ECP.

When a user adds a city to thier properties they are executing the set-user command to be able to edit that AD property.

In the graphic above you notice that Las tName, First Name, Email Address, and Display Name are grayed out. This is because by default the users do not have the ability to execute those commands…..

How do I know what users can run?

Lets open a EMS windows and use the command get-mailbox brian.tirch  | fl role*

From this you can see that my mailbox is receiving the default policy.

Now lets take a look at this  policy  with the following commands Get-RoleAssignmentPolicy “default role assignment policy”

[PS] C:\>Get-RoleAssignmentPolicy “default role assignment policy”
IsDefault         : True
Description       : This policy grants end users permissions to set their Outlook Web App options and perform other se
                    f-administration tasks.
AdminDisplayName  :
ExchangeVersion   : 0.11 (14.0.509.0)
Name              : Default Role Assignment Policy
Identity          : Default Role Assignment Policy
RBAC-Policy

IsValid           : True

We do not get to much data from that command but we can see that this policy is set to be the default for all users

Now lets run the following command

 Get-ManagementRoleAssignment

The get-managementroleassignment will show us all the roles that have been assigned, through this we will see there are a number of roles that are assigned to the Default Role Assignment Policy

Lets narrow our scope with the following command (Get-ManagementRoleAssignment | where {$_.roleassigneename -eq ‘Default role assignment policy’}) | ft Name,RoleassigneeName

Name                                                                                    Role                                                                    RoleAssigneeName
—-                                                                                              —-                                                                    —————-
MyBaseOptions-Default Role Assignmen…          MyBaseOptions                                               Default Role Assignment Policy
MyContactInformation-Default Role As…           MyContactInformation                                Default Role Assignment Policy
MyVoiceMail-Default Role Assignment …           MyVoiceMail                                                    Default Role Assignment Policy
MyTextMessaging-Default Role Assignm…         MyTextMessaging                                            Default Role Assignment Policy
MyDistributionGroupMembership-Defaul…      MyDistributionGroupMembership           Default Role Assignment Policy

Wow…. now that we know there are 5 roles that combine to provide us with the Default Role Assignment Policy, but we still do not know what each one allows us to do.

We are now 1 step closer to finding out what allow a users to perform certain tasks….  We can use the get-mangementrole command to break things down….

PS] C:\>Get-ManagementRole  my*

name                                                                             RoleType
—                                                                                      ——–
myBaseOptions                                                        MyBaseOptions
myContactInformation                                       MyContactInformation
myDiagnostics                                                         MyDiagnostics
myDistributionGroupMembership                MytributionGroupMembership
myDistributionGroups                                       MyDistributionGroups
myProfileInformation                                        MyProfileInformation
myRetentionPolicies                                           MyRetentionPolicies
myTextMessaging                                                 MyTextMessaging
myVoiceMail                                                          MyVoiceMail

As you can see there are some additional roles that are not assigned by default to users but have been created by the Exchange team for us. I am only going to break down 1 of these role since there will be a lot of data to look at.

Lets run the following command: Get-ManagementRole myBaseOptions | fl

I have highliged the Role Entries section below, as this is the section that allows a user to change a number of properites 

RoleEntries                 : {(Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-MailboxSpellingConfiguration -Check
                              BeforeSend -Confirm -DictionaryLanguage -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -IgnoreMixe
                              dDigits -IgnoreUppercase -OutBuffer -OutVariable -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf,
                               (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-MailboxRegionalConfiguration -Confi
                              rm -DateFormat -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -Language -LocalizeDefaultFolderName
                               -OutBuffer -OutVariable -TimeFormat -TimeZone -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (
                              Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-MailboxMessageConfiguration -AfterMov
                              eOrDeleteBehavior -AlwaysShowBcc -AlwaysShowFrom -AutoAddSignature -Confirm -Conversation
                              SortOrder -DefaultFontColor -DefaultFontFlags -DefaultFontName -DefaultFontSize -DefaultF
                              ormat -EmptyDeletedItemsOnLogoff -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -HideDeletedItems -Identity
                              -IgnoreDefaultScope -NewItemNotification -OutBuffer -OutVariable -PreviewMarkAsReadBehavi
                              or -PreviewMarkAsReadDelaytime -ReadReceiptResponse -ShowConversationAsTree -SignatureHtm
                              l -SignatureText -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.
                              PowerShell.E2010) Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -BlockedSendersAndDomains -ContactsTr
                              usted -Enabled -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -IgnoreDefaultScope -OutBuffer -OutV
                              ariable -TrustedListsOnly -TrustedSendersAndDomains -WarningAction -WarningVariable, (Mic
                              rosoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-MailboxCalendarFolder -Confirm -DetailLe
                              vel -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -OutBuffer -OutVariable -PublishDateRangeFrom -
                              PublishDateRangeTo -PublishedCalendarUrl -PublishEnabled -SearchableUrlEnabled -WarningAc
                              tion -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-Mailb
                              oxCalendarConfiguration -Confirm -DefaultReminderTime -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identi
                              ty -OutBuffer -OutVariable -RemindersEnabled -ReminderSoundEnabled -ShowWeekNumbers -Time
                              Increment -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WeekStartDay -WhatIf -WorkDays -WorkingHoursEn
                              dTime -WorkingHoursStartTime -WorkingHoursTimeZone, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerS
                              hell.E2010) Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -AutoReplyState -Confirm -EndTime -ErrorAct
                              ion -ErrorVariable -ExternalAudience -ExternalMessage -Identity -IgnoreDefaultScope -Inte
                              rnalMessage -OutBuffer -OutVariable -StartTime -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (
                              Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-Mailbox -AcceptMessagesOnlyFrom -Acce
                              ptMessagesOnlyFromDLMembers -AcceptMessagesOnlyFromSendersOrMembers -DeliverToMailboxAndF
                              orward -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -ExternalOofOptions -ForwardingAddress -GrantSendOnBeh
                              alfTo -Identity -Languages -MailTip -MailTipTranslations -OutBuffer -OutVariable -RejectM
                              essagesFrom -RejectMessagesFromDLMembers -RejectMessagesFromSendersOrMembers -RequireSend
                              erAuthenticationEnabled -UserCertificate -UserSMimeCertificate -WarningAction -WarningVar
                              iable, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-MailUser -ErrorAction -ErrorV
                              ariable -Identity -MailTip -MailTipTranslations -OutBuffer -OutVariable, (Microsoft.Excha
                              nge.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-InboxRule -ApplyCategory -BodyContainsWords -Confirm
                               -CopyToFolder -Debug -DeleteMessage -DomainController -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Excep
                              tIfBodyContainsWords -ExceptIfFlaggedForAction -ExceptIfFrom -ExceptIfFromAddressContains
                              Words -ExceptIfHasAttachment -ExceptIfHasClassification -ExceptIfHeaderContainsWords -Exc
                              eptIfMessageTypeMatches -ExceptIfMyNameInCcBox -ExceptIfMyNameInToBox -ExceptIfMyNameInTo
                              OrCcBox -ExceptIfMyNameNotInToBox -ExceptIfReceivedAfterDate -ExceptIfReceivedBeforeDate
                              -ExceptIfRecipientAddressContainsWords -ExceptIfSentOnlyToMe -ExceptIfSentTo -ExceptIfSub
                              jectContainsWords -ExceptIfSubjectOrBodyContainsWords -ExceptIfWithImportance -ExceptIfWi
                              thinSizeRangeMaximum -ExceptIfWithinSizeRangeMinimum -ExceptIfWithSensitivity -FlaggedFor
                              Action -Force -ForwardAsAttachmentTo -ForwardTo -From -FromAddressContainsWords -HasAttac
                              hment -HasClassification -HeaderContainsWords -Identity -MarkAsRead -MarkImportance -Mess
                              ageTypeMatches -MoveToFolder -MyNameInCcBox -MyNameInToBox -MyNameInToOrCcBox -MyNameNotI
                              nToBox -Name -OutBuffer -OutVariable -Priority -ReceivedAfterDate -ReceivedBeforeDate -Re
                              cipientAddressContainsWords -RedirectTo -SentOnlyToMe -SentTo -StopProcessingRules -Subje
                              ctContainsWords -SubjectOrBodyContainsWords -Verbose -WarningAction -WarningVariable -Wha
                              tIf -WithImportance -WithinSizeRangeMaximum -WithinSizeRangeMinimum -WithSensitivity, (Mi
                              crosoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-CalendarProcessing -AddAdditionalRespon
                              se -AdditionalResponse -AddNewRequestsTentatively -AddOrganizerToSubject -AllBookInPolicy
                               -AllowConflicts -AllowRecurringMeetings -AllRequestInPolicy -AllRequestOutOfPolicy -Auto
                              mateProcessing -BookingWindowInDays -BookInPolicy -Confirm -ConflictPercentageAllowed -De
                              leteAttachments -DeleteComments -DeleteNonCalendarItems -DeleteSubject -EnableResponseDet
                              ails -EnforceSchedulingHorizon -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -ForwardRequestsToDelegates -I
                              dentity -IgnoreDefaultScope -MaximumConflictInstances -MaximumDurationInMinutes -Organize
                              rInfo -OutBuffer -OutVariable -ProcessExternalMeetingMessages -RemoveForwardedMeetingNoti
                              fications -RemoveOldMeetingMessages -RemovePrivateProperty -RequestInPolicy -RequestOutOf
                              Policy -ResourceDelegates -ScheduleOnlyDuringWorkHours -TentativePendingApproval -Warning
                              Action -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Set-CAS
                              Mailbox -ActiveSyncDebugLogging -Confirm -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -ImapMessa
                              gesRetrievalMimeFormat -ImapProtocolLoggingEnabled -ImapUseProtocolDefaults -OutBuffer -O
                              utVariable -PopMessagesRetrievalMimeFormat -PopProtocolLoggingEnabled -PopUseProtocolDefa
                              ults -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E
                              2010) Search-MessageTrackingReport -Confirm -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -Messag
                              eEntryId -MessageId -OutBuffer -OutVariable -Recipients -ResultSize -Sender -Subject -War
                              ningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Rem
                              ove-MailboxFolderPermission -AccessRights -Confirm -Debug -DomainController -ErrorAction
                              -ErrorVariable -Identity -OutBuffer -OutVariable -User -Verbose -WarningAction -WarningVa
                              riable -WhatIf, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010) Remove-InboxRule -Confir
                              m -Debug -DomainController -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Force -Identity -OutBuffer -OutVa
                              riable -Verbose -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf, (Microsoft.Exchange.Management.P
                              owerShell.E2010) Remove-ActiveSyncDevice -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -OutBuffer
                               -OutVariable -WarningAction -WarningVariable…}
RoleType                    : MyBaseOptions
ImplicitRecipientReadScope  : Self
ImplicitRecipientWriteScope : Self
ImplicitConfigReadScope     : OrganizationConfig
ImplicitConfigWriteScope    : OrganizationConfig
IsRootRole                  : True
IsEndUserRole               : True
MailboxPlanIndex            :
Description                 : This role enables individual users to view and modify the basic configuration of their ow
                              n mailbox and associated settings.
IsDeprecated                : False
AdminDisplayName            :
ExchangeVersion             : 0.12 (14.0.451.0)
Name                        : MyBaseOptions

IsValid                     : True

Since the above is a lot of information to take in  let break down a few of the role entries :

Set-MailboxSpellingConfiguration -CheckBeforeSend -Confirm -DictionaryLanguage -ErrorAction -ErrorVariable -Identity -IgnoreMixe
                              dDigits -IgnoreUppercase -OutBuffer -OutVariable -WarningAction -WarningVariable -WhatIf,

Here we have a shell command called Set-MailboxSpellingConfiguration cmdlet which allows a users to modify Microsoft Office Outlook Web App spell checking options for a specified user. For example, you can set the dictionary language and configure the spelling checker to ignore mixed digits or words in all uppercase.

Since the users has the ability to run this command, when they are logged into ECP the user will be able to change the follwoing settings.

If we modify the allowed role entries, we can make it so a user cannot ignore words in upper case , this is done by removing the  switch  -IgnoreUppercase or we could even make it so that a user cannot change any of the spelling settings by removing Set-MailboxSpellingConfiguration and all the extentions.

You should not be able to see that everything in Exchange 2010 is now based on a shell command, those commands even for Admins are controled through RBAC.

One of the major product enhancements is the ability to share ones calendar from the new OWA UI and easily consume a calendar in a side by side view.

 Open Shared Calendar

As we know in the past you could open a shared calendar with a url string however  there is a nice easy to use user interface now the provides simple access to another shared calendar.

Share Calendar

One of the exciting scenarios about this feature is if you have enabled federation calendaring you will be able to share your calendar with users on your mail system or other users who are located on Exchange 2010.

1. From the Calendar page select – Share – Share Calendar-Calendar

2. A new message page appears and you can select from 3 options to share your calendar

 A. Free/Busy info  B. Free/Busy with Subject and Location and C. All information

I have selected Free/Busy with Subject and Location

3. You can see that Jodie now gets an email with sharing invite

4. Jodie then clicks the Add this calendar  

5. Now when we go to Jodies calendar there in side by side view she can see Brian’s calendar

Change Permission on calendar

Another new feautre allows a users to remove permission(s) from thier calendar

1. From the Calendar page select – Share – Change Sharing Permissions -Calendar

2. In this view you can see who has what permission to the calendar and delete them if you choose

side by side view

Another nice feature that we have had in Outlook since 2007 is the ability to have side by side calendar views, this feature has now been exposed to the OWA UI allowing users to view shared calendars togethor.