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Archive for Exchange – Page 3

Installing Exchange 2007 Rollups for SBS 2008

by KW · Comments (0)
Feb 28 2013

There are things that I do in managing my computer systems that I would classify under the category of “trusted habits”. For example, whenever I am updating a server, I always reboot it before installing updates. Or, I generally install any .Net updates separate from other Windows security patches.

Another trusted habit of mine is to install Exchange related rollups or service packs on their own, manually. That is, I don’t use WSUS or WU/MU to automatically install Exchange updates.

As an example, let’s take a quick look at applying Update Rollup 10 for Exchange 2007 SP3, which  was released in February 2013 (see KB2788321).

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Before proceeding, make sure you do my three essential pre-requisites:

  1. Backup your server
  2. Reboot Your Server
  3. Disable any anti-virus software running on your server

Even though WSUS/MU properly informs me that Update Rollup 10 is available, I won’t use WSUS/MU to install it.

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Instead, go to KB2788321 this link, and download and save the 64 bit version of RU10 to your desktop or Download folder.

Right click on the downloaded file, click Apply, then click Open, and wait a few minutes while it computes space requirements.

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Please note: If you get an error message about insufficient permissions or privileges, DON’T PANIC.
Just open up an elevated command prompt, and locate/run the download file from there.

Click Next, when prompted, to begin the installation, and accept the License Terms. Wait while it generates the required .Net files, then click Next. The installation will proceed, and may take 30-40 minutes to complete.

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Once the rollup has been installed, go ahead and reboot your server, and then check and verify that all of the appropriate Exchange services have started, and delete the rollup file you downloaded.

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Categories : Exchange, SBS, Servers
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Swing Migration Updated!

by KW · Comments (0)
Jan 16 2013

Jeff Middleton is founder of IT Pro Experts and creator of the Swing Migration methodology and tool kit. He has just announced new updates to his kits.
http://itproexperts.com/blog/platform-migration-project-solutions-matrix/

I have successfully used Jeff’s Swing Migration for years to upgrade customers from older versions of SBS to the newer Microsoft platforms (SBS 2008, SBS 2011, Windows Server Essentials 2012). His methodology also applies to standard Windows and Exchange server migrations.

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Categories : Exchange, News, SBS, Servers, SMB
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Display Exchange 2010 version

by KW · Comments (0)
Jan 01 2013

Working with Exchange 2010 and SBS 2011, you should expect to become familiar with PowerShell. Here’s a quick easy solution for displaying the version of Exchange 2010 installed on a server:

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  1. Start the Exchange Management Shell (EMS). Give it a few seconds to start up.
  2. From the PowerShell [PS] prompt, type: get-exchangeserver | format-table name, *version*
    Note: the above PS command is NOT case sensitive
  3. Compare your result to the following table (see this Microsoft Technet page):
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 – Build 14.0.639.21 – Date 11/9/2009
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP1 – Build 14.1.218.15 – Date 8/24/2010
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP2 – Build 14.2.247.5 – Date 12/4/2011

In my case (see screenshot above), I have Version 14.2 (Build 247.5) which indicates that I have Exchange 2010 SP2 installed.

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Categories : Exchange, SBS, Servers
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Update Rollup 9 for Exchange Server 2007

by KW · Comments (0)
Dec 17 2012

SBS 2008 runs Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. On December 11, 2012 Microsoft released Update Rollup 9 (UR9/KB 2746157) for the Exchange Server 2007 running Service Pack 3. It’s important to keep your Exchange server up-to-date with service packs and update rollups.

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Before installing this (or any) update, it is strongly suggested that you make sure that you have a recent full backup of your SBS server, and that you plan to reboot your server BEFORE installing this update, as well as AFTER installing it. You want to ensure that you have a properly running server before installing updates.

UR9 can take up to 15 minutes to install. But as there are no intermediate prompts, go ahead and kick it off, and then do something else other than stare at the progress bar!

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After installing the update successfully, reboot your server, open up Services (services.msc) and  verify that all Exchange services that are set to start automatically are indeed running.

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Categories : Exchange, SBS
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WMF 3.0 and Exchange 2010

by KW · Comments (0)
Dec 13 2012

Short and simple: if you are running Exchange 2010 or Sharepoint 201, DO NOT install Windows Management Framework 3.0 (WMF 3.0).

For a slightly more descriptive explanation, check out my good friend Michael Smith’s blog post.

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Categories : Exchange, SBS, WSUS
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GFI MAX Mail 9pm Update

by KW · Comments (0)
Nov 19 2012

I informed my customers that as of 9:00pm EST, I am being advised that “the Dallas, Los Angeles and Seattle data centers are now processing messages at close to normal speed.”

That is good news. Tests that I have been running for the last few hours are indicating that things are slowly improving. Although it may take several more hours for full resolution, I am now hopeful that there will be no need to implement a backup solution to redirect mail delivery.

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Categories : Exchange, News, Servers
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GFI MAX Mail issues

by KW · Comments (0)
Nov 19 2012

Most of my customers are using GFI’s MaxMail solution to provide virus and spam filtering, as well as email continuity and archiving.

Today, a customer called to report issues with sending and receiving emails. I was able to successfully connect to the server remotely, but incoming and outgoing email seemed to be at a stand still, but with no warnings or errors. I rebooted Exchange on this SBS 2008 server, with no improvement.

I then used MXToolBox to check out the status of the domain and test SMTP delivery. Voila! It reported an error in connecting to GFI’s intermediate IP addresses!

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I then called GFI Support, and the pre-recorded message informed me that I was not the only one with this issue. I also learned that GFI does have a specific URL for Blog status monitoring of GFI MAX: http://status.gfimax.com

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And here is what they are reporting:

Our engineers have been systematically assessing all of the centralized components of our service in North America, including our configuration databases, the greylisting service, our various spam and virus filtering engines, network responsiveness between datacenters, and other elements that could be causing the very slow response times of our filters.

The likely culprit from our testing is the centralized asset storage servers, which are responding more slowly than usual by nearly an order of magnitude. The engineers are investigating this in detail to determine what is causing multiple asset stores in multiple datacenters to be so affected.

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Categories : Exchange, Malware, News, SBS, Security, Servers
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Install Exchange 2010 SP2 Update Rollup 4-v2

by KW · Comments (0)
Oct 24 2012

Some things never make sense to me, and one of them is the way one finds out the build number of Exchange that is installed on a server – the method is different depending on which version is installed!

First, here is the link to a list of all the build numbers for the various versions of Exchange:

Exchange Server and Update Rollups Build Numbers

I’m running SBS 2011 Standard in my office, with Exchange 2010 SP2, and I’m preparing to install Update Rollup 4-v2 for Exchange 2010 SP2. I will presume that you have a recent backup of your server!

Step 1: Let’s find out what version of Exchange 2010 I am running.

You do this by opening up the Exchange Management Shell, and then entering this command:

GCM exsetup |%{$_.Fileversioninfo}

Here’s the result on my server:

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Step 2: Install UR4-v2 from the SBS/WSUS console

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Step 3: Reboot your server and confirm version of Exchange

Surprisingly, the UR4-v2 did not require a reboot of the server, but I certainly would suggest doing so!

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Finally, open up Services (services.msc) and do a quick check and verify that all the Exchange-related services that have a startup type-Automatic are indeed running.

Comments (0)
Categories : Exchange, SBS
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Microsoft to change CAL Pricing

by KW · Comments (0)
Oct 17 2012

Client Access Licenses (CALs) are usually purchased as User CALs or Device CALs. Up until now, the pricing for these have been the same. But on December 1, 2012 Microsoft will be increasing the price of User CALs by 15%. And it makes sense, I suppose.

 

Device CALs are primarily useful, in my view, for shift work scenarios, where multiple people will use the same computer. E.g. John uses it from 6a-3pm, Sally uses it from 3pm-11pm, and Dave uses it from 11pm-6am. In these environment, one device CAL is the better (price) choice.

User CALs allow the same user to connect to a server from multiple workstations/devices. The price increase is in response to the “increasing value of user based licensing over the single device licensing model”.

For more information, check out:
http://www.softcat.com/news/industry-news/microsoft-client-access-licensing-rules-to-change

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Categories : Exchange, SBS, Servers
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SBS 2008 Issues with Latest Updates

by KW · Comments (0)
Oct 12 2012

There have been several reports about recent updates taking an extremely long time (4-6 hours) to completely install on SBS 2008 servers. For example, some report that after rebooting the server and it starts to apply updates, it may sit at 0% for more than an hour.

The reaction is to think that something is wrong and to force a reboot.

These issues are being investigated, but the best advice is that if you have already started updating your server, just let it run and do not force a reboot. And expect that it may be down for several hours.

If you have not yet started applying updates, my typical procedure is as follows:

Reboot the server BEFORE installing any updates

Install updates in groups – all security patches first, then .Net patches, then each rollup or service pack individually

After the updates have been applied, some things may still not work, such as some services not starting or Companyweb not available. In these cases, first try rebooting the server again, and checking things out. for companyweb, please remember that you generally need to manually run the psconfig command after installing SharePoint updates.

finally, it is always advisable to make sure you have a full, validated backup of your server before installing any patches, rollups or service packs,

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Categories : Exchange, SBS, WSUS
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