MSExchange.org Monthly Newsletter of November 2010 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 ActiveSync & Windows Phone 7 Observations

Welcome to the November 2010 edition of the MSE Newsletter! So this is the month of Windows Phone 7 (WP7) launch in the US. The launch in Europe happened back in October. Unfortunately though, this didn't mean WP7 devices were available in all European countries. As many of you know, I live in Copenhagen, Denmark and yes Denmark was one of the countries where it was (and still is) relatively difficult to get your hands on a WP7 device. But last week, I finally managed to get my hands on a Samsung Omnia 7. And what a great device this is. Not only from the WP7 OS perspective but surely also seen from the hardware specs perspective. It has a sleek premium design and is super-fast. It has the best screen (4.0" super AMOLED) of all the WP7 devices currently available on the market and the form factor fits my needs/requirements well. In regards to the WP7 OS, Microsoft did many things right and if they manage to keep up by pushing out updates on a frequent basis, I'm of the impression they actually can take a significant portion of the smartphone market back. It won't be easy but with a version 1.0 of this quality, they certainly have a good start.

Since this is an Exchange specific newsletter, I won't talk about all the general WP7 features and functionality, but instead concentrate on the Exchange side of things.

First off, it's important to note that Windows Phone 7 based devices only support a subset of the Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) policies available with Exchange Server. Currently, Windows Phone 7 supports the following EAS policies:

• Password Required
• Minimum Password Length
• Idle Timeout Frequency Value
  
• Device Wipe Threshold
• Allow Simple Password
• Password Expiration
• Password History
• Disable Removable Storage
• Disable IrDA 
• Disable Desktop Sync
• Block Remote Desktop
• Block Internet Sharing

If you want to use EAS policies which are not in the above list and for other mobile devices in the Exchange organization, you have the following options:

• Create a dedicated Windows Phone 7 EAS policy and associate it with mailbox users that use Windows Phone 7 devices.
• Set the AllowNonProvisionableDevices property to true in the default EAS policy already configured.
• Re-configure the default EAS policy within the Exchange organization, so it only has the policies listed above configured.
• Deploy a third party EAS client on the Windows Phone 7 devices.

Note:
When using multiple EAS accounts with policies set, the policies will be merged to a most restrictive resultant set.

Hopefully, Microsoft will push out updates soon, so that all the relevant EAS policies that were supported by Windows Mobile 6.5 are also supported by Windows Phone 7. I've heard from several folks they lack support for the device and storage encryption policies where such policies are quite often required by organizations. But in regards to these two specific policies, I don't believe Microsoft will introduce support because:

1. With a combination of PIN code enforcement and an effective remote wipe device policy, you can protect the data on the device from intruders
2. Although, you cannot encrypt the storage card, this doesn't mean you can take a storage card from one phone and insert it into another and then access the data. There are other built-in security mechanisms that protect against this scenario.

Windows Phone 7 devices can synchronize with Exchange 2003 SP2, Exchange 2007 RTM (and later), and Exchange 2010 RTM (and later). Bear in mind though that although Exchange 2003 SP2 is supported, there's currently an issue with searching the GAL from a Windows Phone 7 device against this Exchange version. Read more about this issue in the following KB article: You Cannot Search the Global Address List with Windows Phone 7 when connecting to Exchange Server 2003.

The following EAS features are supported by WP7 based devices:

• Exchange ActiveSync version 14.0
• DirectPush
• Multiple Exchange ActiveSync accounts
• Multiple Exchange ActiveSync policies
• Exchange Autodiscover Service
• Remote Device Wipe (by user or admin)
• E-mail & calendar feature
   - Coloured calendars for easy overview of appointments (personal/work/etc.) 
   - Pivot All, Unread, urgent or flagged 
   - Multi-message actions (such as moving multiple messages to a folder) 
   - Integrated e-mail and calendar 

Personally, I miss the following options from the above list:

• Conversation view. Please, bring it back as a feature in WP7 and soon. I'm often active in long e-mail threads, and I'm used to using conversation view in Outlook 2010, OWA 2010, and Outlook 2011 for Mac as well as my previous mobile devices (iPhone 4 and Windows Mobile 6.x).
• Collapsed folder view. I have close to 100 Outlook folders and some are level 3 folders, I don't want to see the complete folder view every time I need to move one or more messages to a folder.
• Support for the Exchange 2010 online archive. No other mobile devices support it yet, WP7 should be the first one! Kind of annoying when you need to read an old e-mail and you find out it's located in your online archive mailbox.
• Not something I use much myself, but it seems like a lot of mobile device users like the Universal Inbox which is available with iPhone 4.

So, in my opinion WP7 had a good birth but there?s certainly room for improvement. And it needs to happen soon if Microsoft wants the die-hard e-mail users to switch to Windows Phone 7. For the record, I'm maintaining a TechNet Wiki article on a similar topic. It can be found here.

Until next month,

Henrik Walther
Technology Architect/Writer
MCM: Exchange 2007 | MVP: Exchange Architecture

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:

• Resource Mailboxes in Exchange 2010 (Part 2)
• Managing Internet Calendar Sharing in Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (Part 1)
• Planning, Deploying, and Testing an Exchange 2010 Site-Resilient Solution sized for a Medium Organization (Part 2)
• Disk Performance Testing with JetStress Tool for Exchange Server 2010
• Planning, Deploying, and Testing an Exchange 2010 Site-Resilient Solution sized for a Medium Organization (Part 1)
• Resource Mailboxes in Exchange 2010 (Part 1)
• Using DPM 2010 to protect mail on client machines (Part 2)
• Designing a Site Resilient Exchange 2010 Solution (Part 3)       
  

4. KB Articles of the Month

Below you find the Exchange 2003, 2007, and 2010 related KB articles that were published since the last MSE newsletter.

Exchange Server 2010

• Windows Phone 7 fails to synchronize with error 0x85010013 or 0x8600C2B when connecting to Microsoft Exchange Server
• Error message when Outlook 2003 clients try to open multiple shared calendars in Exchange Server 2010: "The connection to the Microsoft Exchange server in unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action"
• Lync 2010 client cannot place calls to the Exchange Unified Messaging Auto Attendant

Exchange Server 2007

• Windows Phone 7 fails to synchronize with error 0x85010013 or 0x8600C2B when connecting to Microsoft Exchange Server
• Exchange Service Pack upgrade fails with an Unexpected Error in ServiceControl.ps1
• You cannot upgrade the cluster nodes of a clustered mailbox server to Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2
• Cross-Forest Availability for Exchange 2003 and/or 2007
• Lync 2010 client cannot place calls to the Exchange Unified Messaging Auto Attendant

Exchange Server 2003

• It is not recommended to journal to a distribution group with Exchange 2003
• You cannot search the Global Address List with Windows Phone 7 when connecting to Exchange Server 2003
• Cross-Forest Availability for Exchange 2003 and/or 2007

5. MSExchange News of the Month

• Connecting to Exchange Online (Office 365) using the Exchange Control Panel (ECP)
• Connecting to Exchange Online (Office 365) using the Exchange 2010 Management Console
• Exchange ActiveSync Considerations when using Windows Phone 7 Clients
• Exchange 2010 Visio Stencils finally public
• Exchange 2010 and Outlook 2003 Polling Interval delay
  

6. Ask Henrik Walther a question

QUESTION:

When I synchronize my brand new Windows Phone 7 device with my mailbox at work, I receive the following error message:

"Mail.domian.com requires that certain security policies be enforced before you can sync your information. Contact a support person or your service provider. Last tried 7 minutes ago. Error code: 0x85010013"

My old device (iPhone 4) could synchronize just fine. Have you seen this error before?

ANSWER:

Yes actually I did see this one. I've been doing a lot of research and testing around the Exchange ActiveSync client included with Windows Phone 7 lately. And the reason why you get this error message is because an Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policy has been implemented with parameters the WP7 device cannot completely enforce.

To fix this issue the Exchange administrator must do one of the following things:

• Create a dedicated Windows Phone 7 EAS policy and associate it with mailbox users that use Windows Phone 7 devices.
  
• Set the AllowNonProvisionableDevices property to true in the default EAS policy already configured. 
• Re-configure the default EAS policy within the Exchange organization, so it only has the policies listed above configured.
• Deploy a third party EAS client on the Windows Phone 7 devices.

My article at TechNet and this recently published KB article cover the same issue.

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