Archive for Exchange

09.25.09

Cool Utility

Posted in Exchange at 2:22 pm by webmaster

posted a cool online utility useful in parsing email headers..

http://mxtoolbox.com/EmailHeaders.aspx
 

05.05.09

Exchange Server 2007 Content Filter log file

Posted in OS, Exchange, sbs2008 at 11:07 am by webmaster

The default configuration of SBS 2008, will by default reject email based on the SCL rating of a particular email. 

One option is to turn Content Filtering Off and use a cloud based email filtering engine. 

Another option is to tune the Content Filter settings so that it will throw potential junk email into a Junk Mail folder in Outlook.  You can still reject the more obvious Junk Mail.  There is also a SBS Blog post on this topic.  If you are like me though, you want to know what (if any) mail is rejected.  Exchange 2007 has a log file that logs what the Content Filter does with a mail message (not limited to the content filter).

You can peruse the log file located at %programfiles%\Microsoft\Exchange Server\TransportRoles\Logs\AgentLog to see why a message was rejected.

Kudos to the Microsoft Managed Newsgroup team for pointing this out.   Now it would be cool to find the time to write a custom alert for this one.

07.29.08

Using Exmerge with SBS 2003

Posted in OS, SBS2003, Exchange, sbs2008 at 9:16 pm by webmaster

Sometimes you want to perform a migration where you want to manually migrate the mail - in a semi-automatic fashion.   Exmerge is a tool that can be employed to do just that.

Because the domain administrator has explicit deny permissions set by default which restricts the domain administrator from accessing the users mailboxes to perform either exports or imports, additional steps must be used to perform this taks

Preparing a User Account to use Exmerge

Here is a method that I employed to allow Create a user account

  1. Create a regular user account (exmergeusr)
  2. Create a regular security group (exmergegrp)
  3. Add the exmergeusr to exmergegrp
  4. Add the exmerge user account to the local administrators group

There is also a way to enable the security tab of the exchange system manager so you can disable the explcit deny permissions for the domain administrator (temporarily)  http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/Registry/registry_hacks_exchange.htm

Now you are all ready to start using Exmerge.

Preparing to use Exmerge

  1. download exmerge
  2. unzip
  3. copy C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\bin\exchmem.dll to exmerge folder http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297362
  4. Check destination disk space (for export) is 1.5 times store size
  5. Create pst folder to hold the pst files you will be exporting
  6. Run Exmerge to export to pst files on the source server
  7. Repeat the above procedure on the destination server to import from pst files on the destination server

Using Exmerge

Running Exmerge goes something like this 

  1. run exmerge
    next
  2. select 2 step
  3. select 1 for export 2 for import
  4. MSE server name  SERVERNAME
  5. dc   SERVERNAME
  6. Options –> Data first 2
  7. Options –> Import Merge (second option)
  8. Select mbox, select English locale
  9. select the destination for pst files if exporting or the source of pst files for importing

For SBS2008 these methods may work  http://www.exchangeinbox.com/article.aspx?i=88

01.22.07

Default email account being switched from Pop to Exchange

Posted in Exchange at 1:17 am by webmaster

When using clients connected to a SBS2k3 domain do you find that if you try to set the default email account to a pop account the setting will revert back to the exchange account after a reboot?

Its easy to fix just create the following registry entry:

Key: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SmallBusinessServer\Client Setup
Value Name: NoTransportOrder
Value Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1

This will need to be modified on every workstation in your domain that you want this applied to. 

This is great if you are simply trying to test something but I would not recomend this in a production environment.

06.22.06

Exposing SCL to Outlook & OWA

Posted in Exchange at 10:49 pm by webmaster

Use the following steps to expose the SCL to Outlook.  Information gleaned from ehlo from this post and this post.  Also from Vlad’s excellent documentation.

  1. Download and save the following file as C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\FORMS\1033\SCL.CFG(Program Files\\Office 11\Forms\)

    Outlook Configuration file used to expose SCL to Outlook

  2. Install configuration file into your personal forms library
    1. Tools | Options | Other | Advanced Options | Custom Forms | Manage Forms
    2. Install button, and choose SCL.CFG …install into your Personal Forms Library
    3. Hit OK several times to return to the main Outlook screen
  3. Configure Outlook to “show” the SCL
    1. Right-click on the Column headings in your Inbox (other any other folder) and choose “Field Chooser”
    2. Pull-down the scroll-bar and choose “Forms…”
    3. Set focus to your Personal Forms, choose the SCL Extension Form, then click Add
    4. Drag and drop the SCL property into your column headings

  4. Disable Outlook Cached mode
  5. Create a new view in Outlook
    1. View
    2. Arrange by
    3. Current View
    4. Define Views…
    5. Select current view (that exposes SCL)
    6. Copy…
    7. Name it something like SCL View
    8. Select “This folder, visible to everyone”
    9. OK
    10. Make sure SCL is listed in Fields… then click OK
    11. Apply View
    12. Launch OWA
    13. Change view (next to folder name at the top of the page) to SCL View   
  6. Administration of IMF
    1. Get either IMF Companion or IMF Archive Manager
    2. A good testing methodology.  A good overall description of some configuration.
    3. Default IMF Folders
      1. Archive  C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Mailroot\vsi 1\UceArchive
      2. Pickup   C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Mailroot\vsi 1\Pickup

06.13.06

Exchange SP2 installation

Posted in Exchange at 12:24 am by webmaster

The following information was put togeather with two references.  This is quick procedure that I use to ensure Exchange SP2 gets installed corectly.  Thanks to Microsoft Petri and Vlad for helping me to understand this process:

Backup Data, System State and Partition Information

  • Reboot server
  • Ensure no errors in event logs
  • Verify
    1. Exchange SP1 is installed
      Exchange Sytem Manager à servername   –> properties   

       

      1. HF 898060 or 913446 (or 893066 ) is installed

Add/remove programs  

  • Stop Symantec Antivirus
  • Stop Symantec Mail for Exchange
  • Uninstall IMF 1
    • Stop SMTP service
    • Add/remove programsàIMF 1.0
    • Start SMTP service
  • If no previous version of IMF then
    • manually create a container in the Active Directory something like this:  

      Cn=UCE Content Filter,cn=Message Delivery,cn=Global Settings,cn=cn=Microsoft Exchange,cn=Services,cn=configuration,dc= 

       

  • Install SP2
    • Unzip ahead of time
    • Update requires about 30 minutes to install
  • Enable auto Update IMF  http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=907747  
  • Enable virus scanners  
  • Reboot system

  • Ensure no errors in event logs
  • Create the following dword regiatry key and set the value to 1 (ContentFilterState)
    •  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange
  • Tweak the two spam settings for IMF
  • Install IMF companion
  • Change the default folder for the archive folder
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\ContentFilter

    • string value “ArchiveDir” to “d:\monitorspam”