MSExchange.org Monthly Newsletter of October 2007 Sponsored by: 123together

Welcome to the MSExchange.org newsletter by Henrik Walther, Exchange MVP, MCA: Messaging (Exchange Ranger) Apprentice, MCTS/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. Upgrading Exchange 2007 RTM/SP1 Server to Windows Server 2008

Welcome to the October 2007 edition of the MSExchange.org newsletter! I'm enjoying my very last day after five hard weeks, where I have been attending Exchange Ranger rotation 20 at the Microsoft campus. The good thing is that I passed the 4 weekly exams as well as the qualification lab, which means I'm now an Exchange Ranger Apprentice (or MCA Messaging Architect Apprentice which is the new name). I didn't take the review board this time as the project I want to base my presentation on isn't fully completed yet. But now that I'm part of the community, there's really no rush for me. I'm ready when I'm ready ;-)

I must say that I've learned a lot during this rotation and I look forward to use some of the stuff in future projects of mine. But it's been tough! In average, we attended training 10-12 hours a day and besides that we had different lab environments etc., where we needed to reach certain goals. Finally, we had to use weekends to study for the weekly exams, so I definitely had my share and look forward to going back home and enjoying my time with the family.

We were the first rotation where the training focused specifically on Exchange 2007, but I must say all instructors did a great job, although Exchange 2007 still is a relatively new product.

BTW during this rotation the information on the MCA Learning site was updated, please be sure to check it out here.

Okay enough talking about the Exchange Ranger program. This month my plan was to list the options available (or lack thereof), when it comes to upgrading the Exchange 2007 servers in your corporate production environment to Exchange Server 2007 SP1 and/or Windows Server 2008.

Unfortunately the following will neither be possible nor supported by Microsoft:

• In-place upgrade a Windows 2003 server with Exchange 2007 RTM installed to Windows Server 2008
• In-place upgrade a Windows 2003 Server with Exchange 2007 SP1 installed to Windows Server 2008
• Install Exchange 2007 RTM (and any earlier version of Exchange) on a Windows Server 2008 server

This means that you have to deploy new servers with Windows Server 2008 installed in your corporate production environment, and then install Exchange Server 2007 SP1 on these servers. Since it's not supported to install Exchange 2007 in a virtual environment, this means you need to have additional hardware available for this task.

Note:
Some of you might wonder how it's possible to install Exchange 2007 SP1 on a server on which Exchange Server 2007 RTM hasn't already been installed? Good question! The answer is that the Exchange Product group has rolled the Exchange 2007 SP1 updates directly into the bits of the original release of Exchange Server 2007 (aka Exchange 2007 RTM). This is also the reason why Exchange 2007 SP1 is larger in size than the Exchange 2007 RTM version.

My advice is that if you're currently in the initial stage of a transition or migration to Exchange Server 2007, you might want to hold your horses until Q1 2008, so that you don't need to perform two transitions/migrations. This is especially true if you're planning to deploy Exchange 2007 CCR or SCC-based clusters in your messaging environment. Of course, this is not an option if the organization you work for/with requires that SP1 for Windows Server and Exchange Server be released before the transition/migration is allowed to begin; so this is quite a dilemma for some of you.

There are also several other things you must be aware of if you plan to deploy Windows 2008 domain controllers (DCs) and/or read only domain controllers (RODCs) in your corporate production environment. For information about Windows 2008 directory servers as well as additional information about your deployment options when it comes to Exchange 2007 RTM/SP1 on Windows Server 2008, I recommend you read the following blog entries over at the MS Exchange Team blog:

• Exchange Server and Windows Server 2008
• Mission Impossible: In-Place Upgrading Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008

On a final note remember that neither the beta version of Exchange 2007 SP1 nor Windows Server 2008 is supported in a corporate production environment.

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:

• Shared Hosting with Exchange 2007 (Part 2)
• Understanding the Back Pressure Feature in Exchange Server 2007
• Accessing Exchange 2007 from your Apple Macintosh (Part 2)
• Managing E-Mail Address Policies in Exchange Server 2007
• Migrating from Domino to Exchange 2007 (Part 4)
• Shared Hosting with Exchange 2007 (Part 1)
• How Exchange Server 2007 Extends the Active Directory Schema
• Managing Resource Mailboxes in Exchange Server 2007 (Part 1)
• Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1: Managing a CCR Cluster using the Exchange Management Console
• Migrating from Domino to Exchange 2007 (Part 3)
• Implementing Outlook Voice Access with Exchange Server 2007 (Part 1)

4. KB Articles of the Month

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

• Setting "Squeaky Lobster" performance counter settings
• Store.exe deletes system messages before they are returned to public folders on an Exchange Server 2003-based server or on an Exchange 2000 Server-based server
• Appointments are incorrect by one hour when you access the appointments by using the Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) client
• An OWA user may not receive a password-expiration warning in an Exchange Server 2003 organization if the user's display name contains certain DBCS characters
• The nickname of a mail user must be unique in a forest if you use the original release version of Exchange 2007
• You cannot use a Windows Mobile 5.0-based device or a Windows Mobile 6.0-based device to send an e-mail message to Exchange 2003
• Duplicate Global Object IDs may appear in Exchange 2003
• You cannot move a mailbox across forests in an Exchange 2007 organization
• The "From" field in a meeting request displays the wrong user when two Exchange 2003 organizations are connected by using an SMTP connector
• Some provisioning requests do not work, and you receive a "0xc220140b" error message after you install Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 on a server that is running Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration version 4.0
• Event ID 7514 is logged when a custom word list file is larger than 128 KB on an Exchange 2003 server
• A mailbox store in a recovery storage group cannot be dismounted, and the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service cannot be shut down on an Exchange 2003 server
• E-mail messages in the Drafts folder display incorrect sent dates after you use Microsoft Transporter Suite for Lotus Domino to migrate a mailbox to Exchange 2007
• The Exchange 2003 Setup program deletes all empty folders and empty subfolders in the Exchange 2003 installation folder when you remove an Exchange 2003 component
• After you recover the clustered mailbox server in an Exchange Server 2007 single-copy cluster configuration, the expected registry entries are not created
• Microsoft Transporter Suite for Lotus Domino cannot migrate mailboxes from Lotus Domino to Exchange Server 2007 if the mailboxes in Lotus Domino contain a folder that has a blank name

5. Exchange Webcasts

TechNet Webcast: Message Security, Active Protection, and Compliance with Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)
Friday, October 05, 2007 9:30 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Chris Avis, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032352475&CountryCode=US

TechNet Webcast: Introduction to Windows PowerShell Scripting in Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)
Friday, October 19, 2007 9:30 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
John Weston, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032352636&CountryCode=US

Momentum Webcast: Early Preview of Exchange Server 2007 SP1 (Level 100)
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 5:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Indika Boteju, Mid-Market Solutions Advisor, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032350851&CountryCode=US

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2007 Client Access and Web Services (Level 200)
Friday, October 26, 2007 9:30 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Harold Wong, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032352684&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

6. MSExchange Links of the Month

• Exchange Tools vs. Cluster Tools: What's the Deal?
• Using Powershell Scripting to Bulk Modify Active Directory Objects
• How Exchange 2007 CAS Proxying works for ActiveSync
• CCR, Site Resilience and sample decision making processes…
• Mission Impossible: In-Place Upgrading Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008
• Updated White Paper: Exchange 2007 Autodiscover Service
• Exchange Edge Transport Servers at Microsoft
• Exchange Edge Transport Servers at Microsoft: Part 2
• Public Folders get a new pad in Exchange Server 2007 SP1

7. Ask Henrik Walther a question

QUESTION: Hello Henrik,

I just got through your great series of articles on creating a virtual Exchange 2007 A/P SCC cluster. I was hoping I could bother you w/a question on clustering Exchange 2007.

We're looking at migrating to 2007 from our 2003 cluster over the next two months are working on a design that would allow us to break up our massive store (300+GB) into multiple stores of no more than 25GB each. However, this presents the problem of drive letters, so that we would have to use mounted volumes instead of drive letters in order to accommodate the number of physical volumes we are looking at.

Can this be done under Ex. 2007? The number and costs of disks is not an issue for this project - we're using an EMC C3-40 San loaded to the hilt w/fiber channel drives using mult-pathing, etc.

Thanks!
Víctor

ANSWER: Hi Victor,

Yes mount points are fully supported for an Exchange 2007 A/P SCC. In fact Microsoft IT uses mount points for their Exchange 2007 CCR-based clustered mailbox servers.

The following KB article describes the steps required in order to implement mount points on a Windows 2003 Cluster:

How to configure volume mount points on a Microsoft Cluster Server

Cheers,
Henrik