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How To Automate NetMon Captures

When troubleshooting various Exchange issues it can be very beneficial to get a network capture to look at the actual packets going over the wire.  For example when looking at Outlook connectivity issues we can enable Outlook client logging and RPC Client Access Logging on the Exchange Server.  Both are both great troubleshooting tools and while we can solve a lot of issues with that information, … Read the rest “How To Automate NetMon Captures”

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Slow Response To Exchange Virtual Directory Cmdlets

Some folks in the field may have seen this before, but it’s worth bubbling up to make sure everyone is aware of it!

I was sitting with one of my esteemed consulting colleagues today and he remarked that it was talking a long time to run one of his Exchange PowerShell scripts.  The customer in question is a global organisation with hundreds of Exchange servers in all corners of the globe.  My collea… Read the rest “Slow Response To Exchange Virtual Directory Cmdlets”

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Kicking The Tires With Office 365

Office 365 Test Lab Guides

If you are looking for a “How To” guide to assist with getting started with Office 365 then you will want to take a look at the latest Test Lab Guides that are now available to TechNet.  They were published last week and are hot off the virtual press!

The Test lab Guides are intended to be a series of documents that all leverage a common platform so you do not have to spend time creating a lab from… Read the rest “Kicking The Tires With Office 365”

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How To Set Mailbox Quarantine In Exchange

Exchange 2010 added multiple features to improve the resiliency of messaging services.  Notable additions included client throttling to ensure that a single mailbox would not consume excessive resources and mailbox quarantine.

Mailbox quarantine is enabled by default, and the first time a lot of admins discover the feature is when a mailbox gets quarantined and the user loses access to their mailbo… Read the rest “How To Set Mailbox Quarantine In Exchange”

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Welcome To 2014

Happy New year to everyone!

We are all eagerly waiting to see what new and exciting changes are present in the world of messaging this coming year.  Exchange 2013 CU4/SP1 is coming soon and so is the Microsoft Exchange Conference (MEC) in Austin, Texas.  2014 certainly promises to be an interesting year!

In terms of my focus you will start to see more Office 365 content here on the blog, but on-premi… Read the rest “Welcome To 2014”

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How To Add Or Remove Cmdlet Parameter From RBAC Management Role

In the previous posts on RBAC we have looked at customising various roles to ensure that the role contained the minimum amount of cmdlets.  RBAC provides even more granularity, and we can add or remove specific parameters from a cmdlet.  Since some folks asked for examples on this topic here are a couple of quick examples and some considerations….

If you want to use ECP, please read all the way down… Read the rest “How To Add Or Remove Cmdlet Parameter From RBAC Management Role”

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Exchange Security Update Available For MS13-105

To address the security issues present in bulletin MS13-105 all supported versions of Exchange 2007, 2010 and 2013 are receiving updates to allow customers to address the security vulnerabilities.   Depending upon the version of Exchange the delivery method will vary.  Exchange 2007 and 2010 provides updates and security fixes via Rollup Updates (RUs).  Exchange 2013 has a different servicing strat… Read the rest “Exchange Security Update Available For MS13-105”

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Exchange 2013 Support Lifecycle Dates And Status

When Exchange 2013 was released it heralded a different servicing strategy compared to Exchange 2007 and 2010 Rollup Updates (RU).  Exchange 2013 uses Cumulative Updates (CU) to deliver the servicing updates to customers.  As previously discussed, a CU is a different animal when it comes to the update methodology.  CUs are larger, cannot be uninstalled and are a full product installation.  This was… Read the rest “Exchange 2013 Support Lifecycle Dates And Status”

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6 Mistakes To Avoid With Exchange 2013 CU Command Line Installations

The syntax to install Exchange Cumulative Updates (CU) via the command line is pretty straight forward. However there are some common themes that still pop up in the TechNet forums, cases and customers that I speak with.  So I wanted to discuss some of the issues that can and will arise.  There are a range of issues in here from:

  • Setup can't continue with the upgrade because the PowerShell has open
Read the rest “6 Mistakes To Avoid With Exchange 2013 CU Command Line Installations”
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DAC And Should I Enable DAC For DAG In A Single AD Site

Exchange 2010 introduced the concept of Datacentre Activation Coordination  (DAC). DAC is a property found on a Database Availability Group (DAG).  It still remains slightly mysterious to some folks out in the field, so its certainly worth bringing it back up for discussion.

Tim McMichael’s famous paper plate demo with lots of willing participants was one of my MCM 2010 highlights!

Typically we see t… Read the rest “DAC And Should I Enable DAC For DAG In A Single AD Site”