2008 February | a Single Point of Contact

Update Rollup for Exchange 2007 SP1

Overview

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) resolves issues that were found in Exchange Server 2007 SP1 since the software was released. This update rollup is highly recommended for all Exchange Server 2007 SP1 customers.

For a list of changes that are included in this update rollup, see KB945684.

Download the update here…

Matt :: Feb.28.2008 :: Exchange, Microsoft :: No Comments »

Update: GPO Accelerator

Brief Description

The GPOAccelerator creates all the Group Policy objects (GPOs) that you need to deploy recommended security settings for your environment to save you hours of work that you would otherwise need to configure these settings. This Solution Accelerator includes guidance to assist you with this tool.

Overview

The download for GPOAccelerator includes the following components:

GPOAccelerator. The GPOAccelerator automatically deploys the security recommendations in the Windows Server 2008 Security Guide, 2007 Microsoft Office Security Guide, the Windows Vista Security Guide and the Windows XP Security Guide. These guides recommend Group Policy configurations and, in the case of Windows Vista and Windows XP, Security Template configurations that are enforced via Active Directory® in your environment. Each of these guides contains prescriptive recommendations for two security baselines, Enterprise Client (EC) and Specialized Security – Limited Functionality (SSLF). These baselines have been thoroughly tested and validated. The tool provides you with the recommended EC and SSLF Group Policy objects (GPOs) for Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and the 2007 Office release in this download.
How To Use the GPOAccelerator. This download also includes the How To Use the GPOAccelerator to provide you with step-by-step guidance to set up a test environment, create the GPOs. Then you can link the GPOs in a test or production OU structure, and deploy them.

Click here to download the accelerator…

Matt :: Feb.27.2008 :: Microsoft, Server, Vista, XP :: 1 Comment »

Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions

Overview

Multiple Group Policy Preferences have been added to the Windows Server 2008 Group Policy Management Console (which are also available through the Remote Server Administration Toolset (RSAT) for Windows Vista SP1). Group Policy Preferences enable information technology professionals to configure, deploy, and manage operating system and application settings they previously were not able to manage using Group Policy. After you install this update, your computer will be able to process the new Group Policy Preference extensions.

For more information on the topic of group policies check out this post…

Matt :: Feb.26.2008 :: Microsoft, Server, Vista, XP :: No Comments »

SCOM SP1 RTM and available for download

I’m sure most of you know by now that SP1 for System Center Operations Manager is available for download.

Get it here…

Read all about it here…

However what you may not know yet is a known memory leak occurs on the agents after you install SP1. Check out this KB article and Kevin Holman’s post for more information.

Matt :: Feb.25.2008 :: Microsoft, SCOM :: No Comments »

Using Office Communicator 2007 as a phone

Interested in learning how you can use the new Microsoft Office Communicator as a phone? If you have deployed OCS Voice in your organization you will want to check this article just posted on the Communicator team blog.

Phone Numbers in Microsoft Office Communicator 2007

Excerpt:

Using communicator, phone numbers can be supported in the following ways

User dialing the short extension of another user (such as 12345)
Dialing out to a PSTN phone number (fully or partially, such as 14258828080 or 8828080)
Dialing vanity numbers such as 1800FLOWERS.
Dialing from the Contact list

Matt :: Feb.20.2008 :: Microsoft, OCS :: No Comments »

Planning Group Policy for Server 2008 and Vista?

If you are planning on deploying server 2008 and manage group policies for your company you’ll want to check out this new download from MS.

Planning and Deploying Group Policy v1.0

Here is also a great post on some of the highlights from the new Planning and Deploying Group Policy download.

Matt :: Feb.20.2008 :: Microsoft, Server, Vista :: No Comments »

Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus doesn’t work on Exchange 2007 SP1

Issue

You have deployed Exchange 2007 with CCR in your environment. You upgrade your Exchange 2007 platform to SP1 and now when you run the Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus command you get an RPC error.

Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus : Microsoft Exchange Replication service RPC failed: Microsoft.Exchange.Rpc.RpcException: Error e0434f4d from cli_GetCopyStatusEx at Microsoft.Exchange.Rpc.Cluster.ReplayRpcClient.GetCopyStatusEx(Guid[] sgGuids, RpcStorageGroupCopyStatus[]& sgStatuses)
atMicrosoft.Exchange.Cluster.Replay.ReplayRpcClientWrapper.
InternalGetCopyStatus(String serverName, Guid[] sgGuids, RpcStorageGroupCopyStatus[]&
sgStatuses, Int32 serverVersion) At line:1 char:26+ Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus

Resolution

Add the -standbymachine parameter to your command:

Get-StorageGroupCopyStatus -standbymachine <computername>

Matt :: Feb.19.2008 :: Exchange, Microsoft :: No Comments »

Service and Port list for Microsoft software

Every wonder what ports SQL uses for communication? Or one better, MYSQL? Here is one of my favorite links that shows all the ports used by Microsoft’s software and services. A must have bookmark for anyone in IT.

Service overview and network port requirements for the Windows Server system

Matt :: Feb.19.2008 :: Microsoft :: No Comments »

Looking to secure your OCS deployment?

FaceTime has a nice product out that can do just that. With Forefront for OCS not due out until who knows when it looks like one other company is rushing to fill the void.

"FaceTime Enterprise Edition provides organizations with the tools to standardize their Instant Messaging (IM) infrastructure on the Office Communications Server 2007 unified communications (UC) platform while ensuring compliance and securing their environment against IM-borne malware and spam over IM."

Key benefits:

Standardization on Office Communications Server 2007 by blocking access to unauthorized IM and P2P networks
Built in support for both Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and Office Communications Server 2007
allows for flexible migration
Identity management with policy control at global, group and individual employee levels
Guaranteed TrueCompliance™ to meet corporate policies and government regulations
Interoperability with existing anti-virus solutions
Zero-day blocking of IM-based worm and virus attacks
Anti-SpIM controls protect bandwidth and close security holes
Archival of file transfers over Office Communications Server 2007 into WORM storage
Advanced content filtering and keyword blocking to prevent loss of confidential information
High availability and load-balancing deployment increases security and reliability of existing real-time communications infrastructure
Targeted remediation and inoculation of spy are-infected endpoints without deploying client software
Automatic protection against threats identified by FaceTime Security Labs