250 Hello - Exchange 2013

1

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”

0

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”

3

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”

0

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?”

2

Using ADPropertiesOnly With Exchange Virtual Directory Cmdlet Shows False Positives

Posted on 12th September 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

Previously we discussed an interesting feature of the Exchange virtual directory cmdlets where they check data stored in AD, rather than making a trip to the server and querying its IIS metabase. For the details on this, please read the original post here: Slow Response To Exchange Virtual Directory Cmdlets.

In that article we were using the ADPropertiesOnly switch so that it was very quick to… Read the rest “Using ADPropertiesOnly With Exchange Virtual Directory Cmdlet Shows False Positives”

0

Awareness – Litigation Hold Or In-Place Hold Folder Deletions Not Preserved in Exchange 2013 OWA

Posted on 9th September 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

Please be aware of an emerging issue in Exchange 2013 and Exchange Online. In a delegate scenario it is possible that OWA can be used to delete a folder from the other user’s mailbox and not appear in the Deleted Items section of the recoverable items folder.

This is covered in KB 2996477 -- Folder deletions are not preserved for mailboxes put on litigation or in-place hold in Ex… Read the rest “Awareness – Litigation Hold Or In-Place Hold Folder Deletions Not Preserved in Exchange 2013 OWA”

0

Exchange 2013 CU6 Released

Posted on 26th August 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

Exchange 2013 CU6 has been released to the Microsoft download centre! Exchange 2013 has a different servicing strategy than Exchange 2007/2010 and utilises Cumulative Updates (CUs) rather than the Rollup Updates (RU/UR) which were used previously. CUs are a complete installation of Exchange 2013 and can be used to install a fresh server or to update a previously installed one. Exchange 2013 SP… Read the rest “Exchange 2013 CU6 Released”

0

How To Rename DAG Network Using PowerShell

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

Quick post for a Friday!

A customer had an “interesting” issue where the DAG networks were not being displayed inside the Exchange Management Console. The underlying reason is because the implemented firewalls between Exchange servers, and then restricted network traffic between Exchange and the DCs. This is not a supported situation. For details on the firewall restricting traffic aspect please… Read the rest “How To Rename DAG Network Using PowerShell”

1

Retrieving Packets Received Discarded Perfmon Counter From Multiple Servers

Posted on 18th July 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

Whilst working on a customer’s Exchange 2010 DAG issue, I wrote a quick script to quickly grab some performance monitor counters from all of their Exchange servers. The issue that we were investigating was related to discarded packets when the VM was running on a certain hypervisor host. The customer had moved their Exchange VMs to a new host and after doing so they were experiencing cluster iss… Read the rest “Retrieving Packets Received Discarded Perfmon Counter From Multiple Servers”

1

Exchange and AntiVirus Exclusions – Still A Critical Conversation

Posted on 30th June 2014 by Rhoderick Milne [MSFT]

In a previous post we saw the Microsoft requirements for the exclusions that must be added to file system AV on Exchange servers. In a recent CritSit, basically an uber urgent support request where the customer is down or as good as down, I also got to examine some of the other causes for file system AV not being correctly configured for Exchange.

In the aforementioned post the majority of the… Read the rest “Exchange and AntiVirus Exclusions – Still A Critical Conversation”