250 Hello - Messaging

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Retrieving Cluster Error 1135 From Servers

Posted on 19th November 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

In some of the recent posts you will have noted that there have been some issues with VMware, and also network cards dropping packets in packets received discarded. One symptom of this is that nodes will be removed from the cluster and EventID 1135 is logged into the System log. EventID 1135 states that the Cluster node was removed from the active failover cluster membership. In Exchange 2010/2… Read the rest “Retrieving Cluster Error 1135 From Servers”

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Critical Schannel Vulnerability – MS14-066

Posted on 13th November 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

In the November 2014 security bulletin there were 14 updates released. The updates resolved security issues in IE, OLE and Schannel. It is the latter that is worth calling out for attention since this is the basis of the Microsoft implementation of SSL. Exchange makes heavy use of SSL, and is typically connected to the Internet.

You can read about the other security details in the security bullet… Read the rest “Critical Schannel Vulnerability – MS14-066”

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Upgrading DirSync To Azure Active Directory Sync (AAD Sync)

Posted on 7th November 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

Update -- Note that DirSync, Azure AD Sync are no longer supported. The below is for legacy reference only.

Installing and maintaining the directory synchronisation tool is a required step in your hybrid environment. The documentation to Install the AADSync Service is available on TechNet.

The installer will check and verify the current version of synchronisation tool if it is already instal… Read the rest “Upgrading DirSync To Azure Active Directory Sync (AAD Sync)”

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Windows 10 Poor Graphics Performance

Posted on 5th November 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

Since there will be a good few folks running Windows 10 who subscribe to the RSS feed, I though it would worthwhile sharing a recent issue I had with my Windows 10 laptop. This is a Lenovo W530 with ample CPU, SSD and video card performance. It should run like a beast, but recently the graphics performance was terrible. Clicking around between windows took seconds, and searching … Read the rest “Windows 10 Poor Graphics Performance”

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Disabling IPv6 And Exchange – Going All The Way

Posted on 29th October 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

When we are performing the Exchange Risk Assessment, one of things PFE love to check is how servers have been configured for IPv6. There have been numerous occasions where we have found servers whose admin has said that they have disabled IPv6, but when you look at the server it is not really disabled.

When we take a look at the Exchange server, the initial clue is that the network card’s TCP/IPv6 … Read the rest “Disabling IPv6 And Exchange – Going All The Way”

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Doh! Windows Update Has Navigation Tabs

Posted on 24th October 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

Windows Update is a very important feature in the newer builds of the OS. If we think back to the NT 3.5/4.0 days the process to obtain updates was very different. Just to obtain a hotfix you needed to call in, provide credit card details and then obtain the update. How times have changed! And for the better!

This post is one of those Homer moments. When you realise fo… Read the rest “Doh! Windows Update Has Navigation Tabs”

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Office 2010 SP2–You Did Upgrade, Right?

Posted on 14th October 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

Six months ago, we discussed that Office 2010 SP1 support was drawing to a close. This means that you now need to have Office 2010 SP2 deployed on all relevant machines as the end of Office 2010 SP1 support is the 14th of October 2014.

The Microsoft support lifecycle site has the above details.

One thing to note here! Since I am focused on messaging, the main thingy in the Office stack that I work on… Read the rest “Office 2010 SP2–You Did Upgrade, Right?”

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How To Check Exchange Autodiscover SRV Record Using Nslookup

Posted on 2nd October 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

Generally the Exchange external Autodiscover DNS entity is configured as a regular A record. Sometimes a service record (SRV) is used instead. Since I have the habit of forgetting the syntax of quickly querying for the SRV record, this is one of those shared bookmark posts!

Nslookup is the tool of choice here! Its documentation can be found on TechNet.

There are two ways to run nslookup – interac… Read the rest “How To Check Exchange Autodiscover SRV Record Using Nslookup”

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How To Run Manual DirSync / Azure Active Directory Sync Updates

Posted on 1st October 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

Depending upon the version of the sync solution that you are using to replicate directory data from on-premises Active Directory to Office 365 there are different commands that you will need to use.

We can see a listing of the DirSync versions on the TechNet wiki. And for AAD Sync, the version listings are on MSDN. This has now been superseded with another article which has version information o… Read the rest “How To Run Manual DirSync / Azure Active Directory Sync Updates”

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Awareness – Is Your Federation Trust Metadata Updated?

Posted on 22nd September 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

Imagine the scenario -- all is working well with your Office 365 hybrid solution until you come into the office tomorrow morning and you get calls saying on-premises users are unable to see the free/busy information for mailboxes in Office 365. While this sounds like a bad dream, this reality could come true tomorrow morning, so let’s to check to make sure that this does not happen!

The background… Read the rest “Awareness – Is Your Federation Trust Metadata Updated?”