MSExchange.org Monthly Newsletter of August 2008 Sponsored by: Red Gate

Welcome to the MSExchange.org newsletter by Henrik Walther, Exchange MVP, MCA: Messaging (Exchange Ranger) Apprentice, MCTS Windows Server 2008, MCITP Exchange 2007, MCSE 2003 Messaging/Security. Each month we will bring you interesting and helpful information on Exchange Server. We want to know what all *you* are interested in hearing about. Please send your suggestions for future newsletter content to: henrik@msexchange.org

1. Exchange Server 2007 and Virtualization - Finally supported!

Welcome to the August 2008 edition of the MSExchange.org newsletter!

Last week or more precisely on August 19, 2008, Microsoft announced that beginning September 1, 2008, customers will be able to move any of 41 Microsoft server applications between servers within a server farm as often as necessary without paying additional licensing fees, and they can take advantage of expanded specialized technical support.

And guess what is included with the 41 Microsoft server applications? Yes, correct! Exchange Server 2007 SP1. Man have we Exchange admins/consultants been waiting for way too long! And it gets even better, because we are not only talking about Exchange 2007 SP1 on a Microsoft Hyper-V based virtual machine, but also on virtual machines based on any of the products listed on the vendor list in the Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP). The vendors listed are:

• Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Citrix Systems, Inc.
• Novell, Inc.
• Sun Microsystems
• Unisys Corp.
• Virtual Iron Software
• VMware, Inc.

The odd thing was that on August 19, 2008, VMware was not included on this vendor list, which surprised a lot of us. No later than the day after, VMware was added to the list as well.

So what type of Exchange 2007 SP1 scenarios are supported in a virtualized environment based on a virtualization solution by one of the above vendors? Well, of course all the Exchange 2007 servers must at least have Exchange 2007 service pack 1 applied. It is also important to stress that all Exchange 2007 SP1 servers must run Windows Server 2008. For all the gory details, I can highly recommend you read this Microsoft white paper on the topic. You may also notice that the infamous KB article describing the support policies for running Exchange Server in non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software has been updated to reflect the new support policy.

What I found a bit surprising was that even clustered mailbox servers based on clustered continuous replication (CCR) or single copy clusters (SCC) are supported in a virtual environment. But as the white paper also mentions, you have to pay close attention if you want to deploy clustered mailbox servers based on CCR or SCC on virtual cluster nodes. This is especially true if you are deploying the mailbox servers on already clustered virtual host machines.

Alright with that, there is not much else to say than "Long live virtualization! Now also in the world of Exchange!"

Cheers,
Henrik Walther

Note:
Should you have any ideas for content in future editions of the MSExchange.org newsletter, you are more than welcome to shoot me an e-mail at Henrik@msexchange.org

2. Order Henrik Walther's Exchange Server 2007 book

3. MSExchange.org Learning Zone Articles of Interest

We have a great group of articles in the Learning Zone that will help you get a handle on your most difficult configuration issues. Here are just a few of the newer and more interesting articles:

• Testing Exchange 2007 With PowerShell (Part 2)
• Managing Unified Messaging Auto Attendant (Part 3)
• GroupWise to Exchange 2007 - Interoperability and Migration (Part 8)
• Exchange 2007 Sizing Cheat Sheet
• Integrating ISA Server 2006 with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: Chapter 3 - Guarding Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook Web Access 
• Managing Unified Messaging Auto Attendant (Part 2)
• Testing Exchange 2007 With PowerShell (Part 1)
• Managing Unified Messaging Auto Attendant (Part 1)

4. KB Articles of the Month

Here are some interesting and useful MSExchange related articles posted by Microsoft in the last month:

Exchange 2007

• Microsoft Outlook autodiscover issues while customer is in co-existence while using the same namespace

Exchange 2003

• August 2008 cumulative daylight saving time (DST) update for Exchange Server 2003 SP2
• CDO time zone tables cannot be automatically updated from the registry values of the Windows operating system on Exchange Server 2003
• After you migrate from Lotus Notes to Exchange Server 2003, junk characters are displayed for the e-mail address in Outlook
• A mailbox server becomes intermittently unresponsive for one or more storage groups, and event ID 623 is logged in Exchange Server 2003
• E-mail senders do not receive an indication that some messages have been held by Exchange Server 2003 until the SMTP service, the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service, or the Exchange server is restarted

5. MSExchange News of the Month

• Tech Ed 2008 Interview with Brent Alinger (Exchange)
• Microsoft Virtualization and Licensing Announcements
• Tech Ed 2008 Interview with Becky Benfield (Exchange)
• September MMMUG meeting

6. Ask Henrik Walther a question

QUESTION:

Is it possible to remove the "Sent by Microsoft Exchange Server 2007" branding sentence from a DSN message in Exchange 2007?

ANSWER:

You asked this question with great timing because Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 includes a new option that lets you do this. You simply open the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) and type:

Set-TransportConfig WritingBrandingInDSNEnabled $false

This will disable the branding sentence instantly. You do not even have to restart the Microsoft Exchange Transport Service or any of the other Exchange services.