a Single Point of Contact

Overview

This download contains the PBX configuration note (preview) for Microsoft Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging with:

• PBX Vendor: Cisco
• PBX model: Call Manager 5.1
• PBX software: 5.1.0.9921-12
• Protocol: Direct SIP Connection
• Also applicable to Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.0

Click here to download…

If you have McAfee’s GroupShield deployed in your Exchange organization and are considering an Exchange 2007 deployment hosted on Windows Server 2008 then you are in luck.  It looks like with a small hotfix, GroupShield 7.0 is supported to run on Server 2008.

Click here for a complete listing of supported environments for GroupShield…

This is post is my attempt to bring all the materials of importance I could find about installing Exchange 2007 SP1 onto a Windows 2008 platform into one location.  This post will be updated from time to time as new resources are made available. 

Recommended Links:

• Exchange Server and Windows Server 2008
• Exchange Server and Windows Server 2008, Part II
• Mission Impossible: In-place upgrade of Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008
• Release Notes for Exchange Server 2007 SP1
• What’s new in Exchange Server 2007 SP1
• Server Installation and Automation Guides
• Automate the preperation of Server 2008 with XML 
• Exchange 2007 SP1 and Server 2008 Information
• Update Rollup 5 for Exchange 2007 SP1 - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Known Issues:

• Offline Address Book (OAB) Generation Problem (Fixed with Update Rollup 5)
• Endless logon prompts when using NTLM authentication (Fixed with Update Rollup 4)
• Server 2008 backup is not Exchange aware
  • MS is working on a plug-in to remedy this problem.
• An in-place upgrade of Exchange 2007 SP1 on Windows 2003 to Windows 2008 is NOT supported.  You will have to create a brand new server with Windows 2008 and then either use Database Portability or Move-Mailbox to migrate your users.
• Antivirus and Backups: It’s important to note that while most Antivirus and Backup  platforms now support Exchange 2007 not everyone supports Server 2008.  Check with your vendor before committing to a Server 2008 deployment.

Server Software:

Testing

• Trial download of Exchange 2007 SP1 available here.  The trial software is only available is 32-bit.

Production:

• You will need to download a licensed copy of Exchange 2007 SP1 (Std or Ent) 64-bit.

Installation:

Pre-requisites

• Install the Exchange pre-requisites according to the guidelines here.  This can be done autmatically with these handy XML files found here.

 

• For a new Install simply launch the Setup and perform the install in the same manner as you would with Windows Server 2003.

 

• If you are going to migrate your Exchange 2007 services from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008 you’ll want to take a read this.  There are some extra steps that you will need to undertake to ensure all the necessary services are migrated over correctly.

Post-Installation

• Hub Transport Server Role fails when IPv6 is disabled on that server - FIXED - If either of these 2 bullets occur, you need to fully disable IPv6 and not just uncheck it.  This requires the same fix as the next section which discusses broken Outlook Anywhere.
  • If IPv6 is disabled prior to the installation of Exchange Server 2007, when installing the Hub Transport Server role, your Hub Transport Server role will fail to install
  • If IPv6 is disabled after the installation of Exchange Server 2007, you may experience some Exchange services failing to start

•  It appears that for now you will have to disable IP6 on the Exchange Client Access Server.  Read more about this problem here, and here.   For steps on disabling IP6 on Exchange go here.

• (FIXED) Adjust IIS7 authentication to stop endless logon prompts when using Outlook Anywhere with NTLM.  Full details on this issue can be found here.  The command to execute on the Client Access Server:

%Windows%\inetsrvappcmd.exe set config /section:system.webServer/security/authentication/windowsAuthentication /useKernelMode:false

Note: This issue was fixed with Exchange 2007 SP1 Rollup 4. 

That’s about it for now.  I’ll update this post from time to time as new information comes available.

Just announced on the Communications Server Team blog the next revision of OCS will only support Windows Server 2003 x64 AND Windows Server 2008 x64 only.

As a part of the broad initiative across Microsoft to support 64 bit versions across many of its product lines, the next release of OCS will support 64-bit operating systems only. This decision will help meet customer demand and is a natural progression of the product that aligns with the same approach taken by the Exchange team (with Exchange 2007) and the SharePoint team (with SharePoint 2007) to support 64 bit operating systems only.

Click here to read the rest of the announcement…

MS released a new hotfix for Windows Server 2003 to address the ongoing issues surrounding the scalable networking pack feature added by SP2.  They are highly recommending that this update be applied to any server that will need to communicate with Vista or Windows Server 2008.

Read more about the update here and here.

Check out the KB article here…

Download the update: x32 & x64

If you have ever had to change TCP/IP parameters on a set of client (or servers) in mass you usually have to do it one at a time, but what if you have 100+ clients that need changing?  Sure, there are tools out there and I know PowerShell and Vista/Server 2008 has some advanced GPO settings that can “help” in this area.  However if you are like most companies you probably don’t have PowerShell deployed to your clients and aren’t quite fully deployed on Vista or Server 2008.   So now the question, how do I script the changes?  Below you’ll find a great resource on automating TCP/IP networking changes that I’ve used quite successfully on many an occasion published back in 2004.

Overview

Windows scripting technologies enable system administrators to automate many common tasks involved in managing TCP/IP network clients. This paper discusses scripting techniques and shows scripting examples for:

•  Retrieving TCP/IP client settings.
•  Working with remote hosts.
•  Configuring DHCP and static IP addresses.
•  Managing DNS client settings.
•  Working with NetBIOS and WINS.

Also included are scenarios that combine basic techniques to create sample solutions for more complex networking tasks.

Click here to read the article…

Overview

With the Active Directory Topology Diagrammer tool, you can read your Active Directory structure through Microsoft ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO). The Active Directory Topology Diagrammer tool automates Microft Office Visio to draw a diagram of the Active Directory Domain topology, your Active Directory Site topology, your OU structure or your current Exchange 200X Server Organization. With the Active Directory Topology Diagrammer tool, you can also draw partial Information from your Active Directory, like only one Domain or one site. The objects are linked together, and arranged in a reasonable layout that you can later interactively work with the objects in Microsoft Office Visio.

Click here to download the tool…

If you are looking for or are familiar with the now discontinued Exchange Visio Connector tool these features have been rolled up into this tool.

A wonderfully useful tool by Shawn McGrath and Brad Hughes.  With this tool you can test:

• Autodiscover for Outlook and ActiveSync
• RPC over HTTP
• ActiveSync
• Inbound SMTP

Check it out for yourself –> www.testexchangeconnectivity.com

Now formatted for your viewing pleasure in an iPhone friendly format.  You can checkout the Wordpress iPhone plugin for yourself by following the links.

• iPhone Theme for Wordpress
• iPhone web simulator 

Overview

The Edge Planning Tool asks questions about your proposed or current edge server deployment. The tool uses your answers and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 best practices to generate the following reports:

• Settings that you can use to configure your certificates, DNS services, and firewalls
• Custom documentation for configuring your edge servers, reverse proxy, and next hop server
• A comparison of your answers to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 best practices

Click here to get the tool…

Click here to read a bit more about the how this tool came to be…

Update 8/29/2008: The Communications Server Team blog posted some more detail on the OCS Edge Planning Tool.  Check it out here…