Posts Tagged ‘Exchange Server 2010’

Exchange Server 2010: Mobile Messaging

Friday, April 30th, 2010

When Exchange Server 2007 was released, mobile messaging was at best in its adolescence. Most mobile messaging users at that time were signed up with the BlackBerry service as the only viable option for enterprise level mobile messaging (34 million subscribers). Today, as we see so much with modern technology, people seem to be unable to live without getting their e-mail on their phone. So let’s see what Exchange Server 2010 now brings to the table.

One of the things that I like the most is that Exchange now is able to automatically synchronize with mobile devices over the cellular signal. Of course this is expected for messages, but Exchange also syncs up calendar items and contacts to make sure that users always has the most up to date information. Taking this even further, Exchange Server 2010 also gives users access to unified messaging features, allowing them to access their work voice mail from the mail application, and use speech-to-text voice mail preview the voice mail messages. Using Exchange ActiveSync over the air, you can also now see free/busy information in real time when checking a contact’s calendar availability allowing you to schedule meetings on the fly.

The mobile client also now is able to search the user’s entire mailbox for specific messages. This is cool because the typical user will only want to store their most recent few hundred messages at most on the device (so don’t run out of storage space). With Exchange ActiveSync, the search is sent from the mobile device to the server, where the search is performed, and then the results are returned to the phone.

Now to take advantage of all the new mobile messaging features, the users must be using a device running Windows Mobile 6.1 or later. All the features are automatically available to the users without any additional installation or configuration once Exchange 2010 is deployed in the organization.

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Exchange 2010 Server Roles

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Exchange server roles were introduced three years ago with Exchange Server 2007 as a way to group specific Exchange management tasks together often on separate dedicated servers. Think of Exchange Server roles as similar to the Windows Server server roles, you CAN run all the roles on the same server, but generally it is not a good idea in anything other than the smallest deployments. For example, if you download the Hyper-V Evaluation VHD for Exchange 2010 testing, that server has all the roles installed on a single virtual machine.

The server role groups a set of features and components which perform specific functions in the messaging infrastructure. By using server roles you are able to reduce the attack surface of the Exchange Server and allows you to deploy and customize Exchange to fit your business goals and needs.  The Exchange Server 2010 server roles are as follows:

  • Mailbox Server: This is the host server for all mailbox and public folder databases. Address lists and offline address books are also generated and maintained on the Mailbox server. The server indexes all the databases and provides the ability to search across multiple mailboxes and Public folders. The Mailbox server also enforces messaging records management and retention policies for the organization.
  • Client Access Server: The CAS is basically the communication gateway between the messaging client and the mailbox. The server hosts the client protocols for mail access including POP3, IMAP4, HTTPS, Outlook Anywhere, the Availability service, and the Auto-discover service.
  • Unified Messaging Server: Unified Messaging basically refers to the marriage between e-mail and the telephone system. This allows you to access your voice mail through your email client, and allows you to access your e-mail through your telephone (system can read your email to you). Users can also receive faxes through this integration.
  • Hub Transport Server: The Hub Transport server is the router for the Exchange organization. This handles all mail flow inside the organization, applies transport rules, applies journaling policies, and delivers messages to the recipient.
  • Edge Transport Server: This server is your protective layer between the internal messaging environment and the outside world. Anti-spam and Antivirus scanning take place on the Edge Transport server. As such, this server is typically placed on a perimeter network with a firewall on either side of it, meaning a firewall between the Internet and the perimeter and a firewall between the perimeter and the company network.
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Exchange 2010 Deployment Assistant

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

As I’ve been working through some of the new Exchange 2010 material recently, I came across the Exchange 2010 Deployment Assistant. This tool is also called ExDeploy, which if you remember working with Exchange 2003 is the same name as the Deployment Tool from that version. So this is not exactly a new idea, but let’s take a look at what they put together for Exchange 2010.

The Exchange 2010 Deployment Assistant is a web based tool that basically gathers information about your environment and uses that information to create a customized checklist detailing the procedures that will help to simplify your Exchange 2010 deployment.

To access the Exchange 2010 Deployment Assistant, go to the following web site:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exdeploy2010/default.asp

On the home page, you will choose one of four options:

  • Upgrade from Exchange 2003
  • Upgrade from Exchange 2007
  • Upgrade from Exchange 2003 & 2007
  • New installation of Exchange 2010

Just to see how detailed the checklist is, let’s explore the Upgrade from Exchange 2003 & 2007 option. On the first page, we are asked three questions:

  1. Are you running a disjointed namespace?
  2. Are you planning to deploy an Exchange 2010 Edge Transport server role?
  3. Are you planning to deploy an Exchange 2010 Unified Messaging server role?

Now the Assistant doesn’t expect you to be an expert at all things Exchange (though a little knowledge goes a long way) so each question can be expanded to show a full explanation of why the topic is important during the Exchange deployment. So for these questions, I’m answering No, Yes, No.

Surprisingly, the Deployment Assistant is able to create a checklist based on just the answers to these three questions. The checklist include the following steps along with detained explanations on what to do along the way:

  • Confirm prequisties steps are done (stuff like making sure all the installation minimum requirments are satisfied on the existing Exchange Servers and in Active Directory).
  • Install the Client Access server role (insert the disk, run through the installation wizard).
  • Add digital certificates on the Client Access server (to secure external access to Exchange, including an exportable private key in X.509 format).
  • Enable Outlook Anywhare (allowing remote users to access their mail without them needing to VPN into the network).
  • Configure OAB and Web Services virtual directories (allowing Outlook Anywhere clients to discover and automatically connect to Exchange 2010).
  • Configure settings on virtual directories (used for Autodiscover, ActiveSync, OWA, Exchange Control Panel, PowerShell, Exchange Web Services, and public folders).
  • Install the Hub Transport server role (responsible for mail flow).
  • Configure a legacy host name (to allow coexistance with Exchange 2003 and 2007).
  • Install the Mailbox server role (host for mailbox and public folder databases).
  • Change the OAB generation server (for creating and updating the OAB).
  • Install the Edge Transport server role (anti-spam and antivirus filtering, and applies messaging and security policies).
  • Subscribe the Edge Transport server (enables internet mail flow).
  • Move mailboxes from Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010 (self explanatory, but be aware that users cannot send or receive email while the mailbox is being moved so this should only be performed when would otherwise be sleeping).
  • Post-installation tasks (just a list of items to check on each server such as making sure that the servers have been activated with a valid product key).

And that is the complete upgrade path. Seems pretty easy. What I like about this checklists is that it can be used directly because it only lists the step needed for your specific environment. When working through many of the Deployment whitepapers, you need to determine whether many of the steps are relevant to your situation. Using the Exchange Server Deployment Assisstant reduces or removes this problem.

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Exchange 2010: OWA

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Outlook Web Access has gone through many improvements over the years, starting as a very basic web interface and has been building up to a thin client replica of the Microsoft Outlook client. With Exchange Server 2010, OWA appears to be a fully mature edition.

OWA now lets you group messages by conversation, grouping all messages that originated from a single message and all the resulting replies. This is not a big deal if you are just going back and forth between one other person in the organization, but if you are receiving feedback from 10 or 100 people in your organization, you’ll can easily keep those messages together.

To help protect people from sending damaging or embarrassing messages, Exchange Administrators can configure Mail Tips. This feature is implemented similar to how Outlook Rules work and can provide users with a warning when an email is being sent to an external recipient, to a large distribution group, or to someone who is currently Out of Office.

User can now perform more powerful searches from Outlook Web Access, similar to what is available in the full Outlook client. You can search by recipient, whether attachments were included, and many other common search criteria. You can also set your favorite searches so that you can reuse them with a single click of the mouse.

Presence information is now integrated into Outlook Web Access allowing you to immediately know whether a person is available, busy, or not available using a green, yellow, red color coding. Depending on how important your message is and the recipient’s status, you can decide to Instant Message the person, another feature that is integrated directly into OWA when the Microsoft Office Communications Server is also implemented.

Finally, one of my favorite features now is the SMS Sync feature. By using Exchange ActiveSync, you can configure the server to automatically send out SMS text messages to your cell phone. This feature is also configured using rules, so whenever you get an email from a particular client, you can have a notification sent directly to your phone.

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Exchange Server 2010: Personal Archives

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Exchange Server 2010 has several features to help manage the storage and retention of e-mail messages. One of the cool new features is called the Personal Archive, replacing the need for individual users to manage Microsoft Outlook PST files on their local computers. In essence, the Personal Archive feature provides users with a separate archive mailbox stored on the Exchange server and i accessible using Outlook 2010 and OWA.

The Personal Archive mailbox is created on a per user basis and can be enabled for both new mailboxes and for existing mailboxes. For new mailboxes, you will create the user’s mailbox using the New Mailbox wizard. When you get to the Archive Settings page, select Create an archive mailbox for this account. To enable the archive mailbox for an existing mailbox, find the mailbox in the Exchange Management Console (Recipient Configuration | Mailbox), and then click Enable Archive in the Actions pane. Mailbox items will then be moved automatically from the primary user mailbox to the archive based on the retention policy settings.

When you install Exchange Server 2010, it automatically creates a default archive policy and three personal archive policies available to the users. The default policy directs any messages that are more than two years old to be automatically moved to the archive mailbox. After the Exchange Mailbox Assistants run on the user mailbox and processes all messages against this default archive policy, the user can then select one of the other three policies for individual folders in their mailbox structure. These three personal policies allow messages to be archived after 1 year, after 5 years, or marks the folder as to never be archived.

The Personal Archive mailbox is stored in the same database as the user’s primary mailbox and will follow the primary mailbox if it is moved from one database to another.

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Exchange Server 2010: Big or Small?

Monday, March 1st, 2010

With the release of Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft is promising the same list of things for those who upgrade; lowering IT costs, anywhere access to communication, managing risk and ensuring compliance. From what I can remember about Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2003, these were the same benefits for upgrading in their respective generations. So how do the new features make Exchange Server 2010 better? I’ll be exploring the system in depth over the next few months.

However, before we get into that, allow me to direct your attention to a nice cost saving calculator posted on the Exchange Server 2010 web site, http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/Exchange-Calculator.aspx. The calculator requires Silverlight 3, so install that if you haven’t already.

The calculator allows you to figure out the estimated cost savings from upgrading from either Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange Server 2007. Using the default figures, it estimates a savings of $394 per user when upgrading from Exchange 2003 and $348 per user when upgrading from Exchange 2007.

Next, you can enter the number of e-mail users in your organization (1500), the average burdened salary per employee ($75K), number of data centers (2), add-on services used (voice mail, mobility, backup, archiving), current e-mail availability (99%), and how many minutes the users save per day with anytime/anywhere access to e-mail and voice mail (10 minutes).

With these numbers, the calculator estimates annual savings for the organization upgrading from Exchange Server 2007 at $353,418. Running the same numbers for an organization upgrading from Exchange Server 2003, the savings are $437,592 annually.

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Exchange Server 2010 Evaluation

Monday, March 1st, 2010

For several years now, Microsoft has been focused on offering multiple evaluation paths for trying out new software. The traditional software trial is available where you download a timebombed version of the software, install it on your own hardware, and hopefully have no major issues. For this release, there are three additional options which should make software evaluation easier.

First is the Virtual Experience. With the Virtual Experience, you are basically set up with a user account in the Microsoft Unified Communications Virtual Experience. In this trial, you can work with Outlook Web Access and Office Communicator 2007 R2 from the user perspective.

The next option is the Virtual Hard Drive experience (this is my favorite route). The Virtual Hard Drive is a fully configured Exchange Server 2010 server with a populated Active Directory in the Contoso.com domain. The Virtual Hard Drive runs on any Hyper-V capable server.

The third option is to test drive Exchange Server 2010 using Microsoft Online Services. This sets up a 30 trial account for Microsoft Online Services, allowing you to create users and access Exchange, Communications Server, Office Live Meeting, and SharePoint online.

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