Exchange 2013 Tip Of The Day – 51 To 75

The other Exchange 2013 tips of the day posts can be found here:

To obtain the listing below, the following command was used:

$Int = 51;While ($Int -le 75){Get-Tip $Int; Write-Host; $Int+=1}

Tip of the day #51:

Want to know what permissions an Active Directory user account has on a specific mailbox? Use:

Get-Mailbox <Mailbox to Check> | Get-MailboxPermission -User <Active Directory User>

Tip of the day #52:

Want to know which mailboxes a specific Active Directory user has permissions to? Type:

$Mailboxes = Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited
$Mailboxes | Get-MailboxPermission -User <Active Directory User> | Format-Table Identity, AccessRights, Deny

Caution: This command enumerates all the mailboxes in your organization. If you have lots of mailboxes, you may want to target specific mailboxes.

Tip of the day #53:

Want to get a list of the backup status of all mailbox databases in your organization? Type:

Get-MailboxDatabase -Status | Format-Table Name, Server, *Backup*

How about just the mailbox databases on a specific server? Type:

$Databases = Get-MailboxDatabase -Server <Server Name> -Status
$Databases | Format-Table Name, *Backup*

Tip of the day #54:

To retrieve the current status of an Exchange server or database, use the Status parameter. For example:

Get-ExchangeServer -Status | Format-List
Get-MailboxDatabase -Server <Server Name> -Status | Format-List

Tip of the day #55:

Want to view the mounted status of all mailbox databases? Type:

Get-MailboxDatabase -Status | Format-Table Name, Server, Mounted

Tip of the day #56:

What's the difference between server-side filtering and client-side filtering? Server-side filtering is used with the recipient and queue cmdlets, which support the Filter parameter, because these cmdlets can return large result sets. The server filters the results by using the criteria you specify and then sends you the filtered results. Client-side filtering can be used with any cmdlet. The entire result set is sent to the client computer, which then filters the data and provides a filtered result set. Client-side filtering uses the Where-Object cmdlet, which can be shortened to Where.

Tip of the day #57:

With Exchange 2013 Unified Messaging, you can redirect unauthenticated callers to certain telephone extensions to an operator instead of to the extension that was dialed. To list users for whom Unified Messaging transfers unauthenticated callers to the operator, instead of to the user, type:

$Mailboxes = Get-UMMailbox
$Mailboxes | Where-Object { $_.AllowUMCallsFromNonUsers -eq `
[Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Directory.Recipient.AllowUMCallsFromNonUsersFlags] "None" }

Tip of the day #58:

You can use client-side filtering to return only the data that you want to see or work with. The following example retrieves all Active Directory user accounts in the Engineering department and puts the results in a table with two columns, Name and Department. By using the ResultSize parameter, the Get-User cmdlet limits the result set to 2,000 users.

$Users = Get-User -ResultSize 2000
$Users | Where { $_.Department -Eq "Engineering" } | Format-Table Name, Department

Tip of the day #59:

The special variable $_ represents the objects being passed from one cmdlet to another cmdlet in the pipeline. The $_ variable is automatically initiated by the Shell and is bound to the current pipeline object. You can access the properties of the object assigned to the $_ variable as you would any other object. The following example shows how you can view the Name property of each mailbox object that is passed through the pipeline:

Get-Mailbox | ForEach { $_.Name }

Tip of the day #60:

You can import CSV files and treat them as objects by using the Import-Csv cmdlet. Each row in a CSV file becomes an element in an array, and each column becomes a property. You can assign the CSV file to a variable, or you can pipe its contents directly to another cmdlet. In the following example, there are three columns in the CSV file, Name, Alias, and EmailAddress, with several rows that the ForEach cmdlet will cycle through. The data in each row is used to create a new mail contact.

$CSV = Import-Csv
$CSV | ForEach { New-MailContact -Name $_.Name -Alias $_.Alias -ExternalEmailAddress $_.EmailAddress -OrganizationalUnit Users }

Tip of the day #61:

Want to customize your Exchange Management Shell profile? Run the following command to determine the location of your Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 file:

$Profile

You may have to create the PSConfiguration folder and Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 file. After you've done that, you can add your favorite functions and aliases, which will be loaded every time that the Exchange Management Shell is opened.

Tip of the day #62:

Want to see everything that occurs when you run a command? Include the Verbose parameter with the command. This parameter instructs the Exchange Management Shell to display detailed information about each action that the server takes to complete the command. This information can be useful in troubleshooting.

Tip of the day #63:

Any cmdlet that accepts a size value lets you specify whether the integer value is in kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), or terabytes (TB). For example:

Set-Mailbox "Kim Akers" -ProhibitSendQuota 200MB -UseDatabaseQuotaDefaults $False

Tip of the day #64:

Want to create a new role group for your administrators? Use the New-RoleGroup cmdlet. The New-RoleGroup cmdlet lets you add management roles and specify the members to add to the new role group. Those members will be granted the permissions provided by the management roles. Type:

New-RoleGroup <role group name> -Roles <role 1>, <role 2>, <role 3...> -Members <member 1>, <member 2>, <member3...>

Remember, role groups are used to grant permissions to groups of administrators or specialist end users who require special permissions. If you want to manage permissions for end users, use management role assignment policies.

Tip of the day #65:

Do you want to create a new management role assignment policy that's based on an existing policy, but you don't want to include all the management roles? Use the Get-ManagementRoleAssignment cmdlet and pipe the results to the Where cmdlet. The Where cmdlet excludes any role assignments that contain the roles you specify. The remaining role assignments are piped to the New-ManagementRoleAssignment cmdlet. Type:

New-RoleAssignmentPolicy <new role assignment policy name>
Get-ManagementRoleAssignment -RoleAssignee <old role assignment policy name> | Where { ($_.Role -NE "<role name 1>") -And ($_.Role -NE "<role name 2>") } | New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Policy <new role assignment policy name>

The Where statement is case-sensitive.

Then you can apply the new policy to a mailbox using the Set-Mailbox cmdlet:

Set-Mailbox <mailbox name> -RoleAssignmentPolicy <new role assignment policy name>

Tip of the day #66:

Do you want to remove a management role from a role group, role assignment policy, USG, or user but don't know the name of the management role assignment? Just find the role assignment with the Get-ManagementRoleAssignment cmdlet and pipe the results to the Remove-ManagementRoleAssignment cmdlet. Type:

Get-ManagementRoleAssignment -RoleAssignee <role assignee name> -Role <role name> | Remove-ManagementRoleAssignment

Tip of the day #67:

Exchange 2013 uses management role groups and management role assignment policies to manage permissions. Role groups enable you to grant permissions to groups of administrators and specialist end users. These are people who manage your organization or perform special tasks, like mailbox searches for compliance reasons. Role assignment policies enable you to grant permissions to your end users. These permissions include whether users can manage their own distribution groups, edit their own profile information, access voice mail, and more.

Tip of the day #68:

Tip of the day #69:

Tip of the day #70:

Tip of the day #71:

Management role groups enable you to grant permissions to groups of administrators and specialist end users. These are people who manage your organization or perform special tasks, like mailbox searches for compliance reasons. If you want to manage permissions for end users, use management role assignment policies.

Tip of the day #72:

Management role assignment policies enable you to grant permissions to your end users. These permissions include whether users can manage their own distribution groups, edit their own profile information, access voice mail, and more. If you want to manage permissions for administrators and specialist users, use management role groups.

Tip of the day #73:

Management role assignments determine what management roles are associated with management role groups and management role assignment policies. Role assignments also control what objects users who are members of role groups or assignment policies can modify using the cmdlets available on the associated management roles.

Tip of the day #74:

The Get-RoleGroupMember cmdlet lists all the members on a management role group. But if you want to get more details about the members of the role group, use the Get-ManagementRoleAssignment cmdlet. The Get-ManagementRoleAssignment cmdlet enables you to view the members of universal security groups that are members of role groups, view the management scope that applies, and more.

Tip of the day #75:

Do you need to store a value in a variable in a script and make sure it never changes? If so, make the variable a constant using the New-Variable cmdlet. Constants can be set once and don't allow their values to be changed. For example, the following creates the $IPAddress constant with the value 10.0.0.2.

New-Variable -Option Constant -Name IPAddress -Value "10.0.0.2"

Cheers,

Rhoderick