MSExchange.org Monthly Newsletter of February 2009 Sponsored by: Intermedia

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. Explanation of a RecoverCMS Gotha

This month I want to share a little Exchange Server 2007 SP1 RecoverCMS gotcha, I've stumbled into a few months ago. Since it is not documented in any Microsoft KB articles or on TechNet, I thought you would like to know about it before you face it yourself.

Exchange 2007 SP1 introduced an additional continuous replication feature known as Standby Continuous Replication (SCR). SCR allows you to replicate mailbox databases from one or more Exchange 2007 SP1 Mailbox server (referred to as the SCR sources) to one or more Exchange 2007 SP1 Mailbox servers (referred to as SCR targets). The source servers can be stand-alone Mailbox servers, single copy clustered (SCC) or cluster continuous replication (CCR) based Mailbox servers. The SCR target can be a stand-alone Mailbox server or a so called standby cluster, which is a Windows Failover Cluster (WFC) on which only the Passive Clustered Mailbox role is installed. It is important to note that you cannot have a clustered mailbox server running on the standby cluster.

SCR was primarily developed in order to deliver a true site resilience feature natively with Exchange 2007 SP1. And I must say that SCR does a much better job than for instance a CCR-based geographically dispersed cluster (aka geo-CCR) does.

Okay enough talk about SCR, you can find all the details about this feature and how you enable it in the Exchange 2007 TechNet Documentation.

What I will explain in this column is related to having a Clustered Mailbox Server (CMS) running on your primary datacenter to a standby cluster in your backup datacenter by running setup with the RecoverCMS switch. You can find the instructions here. During the process you will get the following error.

You would agree that this is not ideal, especially not in a site-level disaster recovery situation!

So here comes the fix! The reason for this error is because anytime a WFC needs to manipulate the CMS computer account in Active Directory, full permissions are required. So, to resolve the issue you must open the Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) snap-in and navigate to the OU containing the CMS computer account (if you have not moved it you can find it in the Computers OU). Then you should make sure you have Advanced Features checked under View in the menu.

Figure 2

Now, right-click on the CMS computer account and select Properties in the context menu. On the property page click select the Security tab. In Groups or Usernames find the WFC computer account which is the primary WFC for the CMS. Notice the permissions assigned to this computer account. Now click Add and make sure you include computer objects in the Select this object type field. Then type the name of the WFC computer account and click Check Names in order to resolve it.

Now give the computer account full control or if you want to control permissions with more granularity, check the exact same permissions as the primary WFC account has.

Click Ok and let the changes replicate throughout your Active Directory, then re-run Setup with the RecoverCMS switch again and it will complete successfully as shown below.

Figure 4

Much better! :)

Note:
Although I describe this issue in relation to SCR target activation, this step is required in any kind of situation where you need to recover a CMS on another WFC.

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:

• Introduction to Exchange Online - Uncovering BPOS (Part 3)
• Replacing Exchange 2003 Frontend OWA Server with Exchange Server 2007 Client Access Server 
• Customizing Managed Folders in Exchange Server 2007
• A Practical Look at Migrating From Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 (Part 2) 
• Introduction to Exchange Online - Uncovering BPOS (Part 2) 
• Monitoring Forefront Security for Exchange with OpsMgr 2007 (SCOM 2007) 
• Recovering Deleted Items in Exchange Server 2003 (Part 2) 
• Sirana AppAnalyzer for Exchange - Voted MSExchange.org Readers? Choice Award Winner - Exchange Reporting 
• Introduction to Exchange Online - Uncovering BPOS (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

• Event IDs 9567 and 9874 are logged after you install Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 
• Description of Update Rollup 6 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 
• The custom message class of contact object is overwritten by the normal IPM.Contact class when an Exchange 2007 server replicates the contact object to any other public store 
• After you reply to a message, or you forward it, the message is downloaded again to the POP3 client when you reconnect to a mailbox that is hosted by Exchange Server 2007
• A downloaded .xls file attachment is empty when you open the file by using Outlook Web Access on Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 
• The Microsoft Exchange Transport service crashes continuously after you enable journal rule or deploy an antivirus application on an Exchange Server 2007 server
• MS09-003: Vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange could allow remote code execution
• When you move mailboxes from an Exchange Server 2003 computer to a continuous cluster replication (CCR) Exchange Server 2007 environment, all mail for some users may be put in the Deleted Items folder

Exchange 2003

• MS09-003: Description of the security update for Exchange 2000 Server SP3 and Exchange Server 2003 SP2 
• MS09-003: Vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange could allow remote code execution 
• A MAPI application crashes on an Exchange Server 2003 server 
• The spelling checker in Outlook Web Access recommends that the word Tosco be changed to Tesco 
• The Wmiprvse.exe process crashes on an Exchange Server 2003 server 
• A malformed thread-topic field is shown if a message is sent from a mobile device that is using Exchange ActiveSync 
• A meeting request is displayed as a standard e-mail message when a Domino 7.x user sends a meeting request to an Exchange 2003 user 
• Messages stay in the local delivery queue on an Exchange Server 2003 server if the References field of those messages is larger than 8 KB 
• You cannot install the Exchange System Manager in Exchange Server 2003 on a Windows Vista-based computer  

5. MSExchange News of the Month

• Outlook Live Demo 
• Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB959241) Released 
• Exchange Q & A Site Resiliency with SCR, Recommended Root Volume Size, and More 
• MMMUG - Microsoft Community Event 
• New MCM/MCA Team Blog Launched 
• Sonasoft Combines Archiving and Disaster Recovery
• Needs of Businesses in Today’s Difficult Economy Met by New Messageware Plus Pack for OWA 2007 
• February 2009 MMMUG meeting 

6. Ask Henrik Walther a question

QUESTION:

It seems like our organization are hit by self-sending spam these days. Spam where *@mycompany.com is used as the sender address, which means the messages are seen as valid by our anti-spam solution.

Do you have any tips on how to stop these types of spam attacks?

ANSWER:

There are two very good things you can do in order to fight back! The first is to add your own domain to the Sender Filtering agent on an Exchange 2007 Hub or Edge Transport server as shown below.
 

If you use another anti-spam solution, you should just make sure to add the domain to the blacklist.

The second thing to do is to create a SPF record for your domain on the external DNS servers hosting your domain. Microsoft has a web-based wizard that will help you create this record. You can find the wizard here.

With these two simple steps you should see an instant reduction of the number of self-sending spam mails you receive.