MSExchange.org Monthly Newsletter of August 2007 Sponsored by: Quest

Welcome to the MSExchange.org newsletter by Henrik Walther, Exchange MVP, 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. Message Priority Queuing with Exchange 2007 SP1

Welcome to the September 2007 edition of the MSExchange.org newsletter!

This month I wanted to write about one of the new Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 features that has not gotten much attention yet, although it's an interesting feature. As the title implies I'm speaking about the new message priority queuing feature, which allows a sending user to influence the priority that a message is processed by an Exchange 2007 SP1 Hub Transport server. As most of you know Outlook and Outlook Web Access (OWA) lets a sending user set a priority for a given message. A message can either be sent with low, normal or high importance. When a message isn't set with a specific importance it's sent with normal priority.

In Exchange Server 2007 all messages sent to external and internal users (even users on the same mailbox server as the sending user) are always routed through a Hub Transport server in the same AD site as the Mailbox server on which the user mailbox is stored. The message priority functionality is a Hub Transport server feature, and is enabled by setting the PriorityQueuingEnable parameter to true in the EdgeTransport.exe.config file.

Figure 1: Hub Transport Configuration File

When enabled, messages that have been set to High importance are transmitted to their destinations before messages set to Normal importance, and messages set to Normal Importance are transmitted before messages set to Low importance.

The new priority queuing feature has been introduced in order to help Enterprise organizations set specific Service Level Agreements (SLA) requirements for message delivery times.

In addition to being able to enable message priority queuing on a Hub Transport server with Exchange Server 2007 SP1 applied, an Exchange administrator can also configure the maximum size of a high priority message as well as the delay notification time-out and maximum number of connections per domain for messages sent with high priority.

For more information about the new Message Priority feature included with Exchange Server 2007 SP1, see this section in the Exchange 2007 Online Documentation.

That was all for this month! Now it's time to get back to preparing for my 5 week trip to Seattle. And no, unfortunately this is not a vacation but diehard work (12 hours a day from Monday to Saturday) as I'm attending the MCA: Messaging (Exchange Ranger) training and tests during this period.

PS If you haven't already done so, you still have the time to participate in the MSExchange.org survey which gives you the possibility of winning a copy of my Exchange 2007 book. You can enter the survey (which just takes a few minutes) by clicking here.

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:

• Implementing Outlook Voice Access with Exchange Server 2007 (Part 1)
• Accessing Exchange 2007 from your Apple Macintosh (Part 1)
• Load Balancing Exchange 2007 Client Access Servers using Windows Network Load-Balancing Technology - Part 3: Creating Certificates and Testing Client Services
• Deploying an Exchange Resource Forest (Part 3)
• Migrating from Domino to Exchange 2007 (Part 2)
• Uncovering the Exchange ActiveSync Enhancements in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
• Configuring Outlook 2007 with Exchange Server 2007

4. KB Articles of the Month

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

• Journaling does not capture all content required for compliance
• Duplicate Global Object IDs may appear in Exchange 2003
• 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
• How to address daylight saving time by using the Exchange Calendar Update Tool
• Event ID: 3091 occurs when public folder hierarchy replication fails on an Exchange Server 2003-based server
• You receive a message that states that your meeting request was declined when you use Entourage for Mac to send a recurring meeting request to an Exchange 2003 resource mailbox
• You experience problems in Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1 after daylight saving time (DST) starts in New Zealand in 2007
• The "From" field in a meeting request displays the wrong user when two Exchange 2003 organizations are connected by using an SMTP connector

5. Exchange Webcasts

TechNet Webcast: Message Security, Active Protection, and Compliance with Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)
Friday, October 05, 2007 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Chris Avis, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032352474&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Introduction to Windows PowerShell Scripting in Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)
Friday, October 19, 2007 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
John Weston, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032352635&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2007 Client Access and Web Services (Level 200)
Friday, October 26, 2007 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Harold Wong, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032352684&Culture=en-US

Momentum Webcast: Early Preview of Exchange Server 2007 SP1 (Level 100)
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Indika Boteju, Mid-Market Solutions Advisor, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032350850&Culture=en-US

6. MSExchange Links of the Month

• The Shortcut Guide to Exchange Server 2007 Storage Systems
• Unified Communications Launch 2007
• Installing and running Windows Mobile 5+MSFP and Windows Mobile 6 standalone emulators
• Video Series: Exchange 2007 SP1 Standby Continuous Replication (SCR)
• More fun with Logparser and Exchange logs
• Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Documentation Updates - September 2007
• Exchange Server Documentation Updates - September 2007
• How Exchange Server 2007 CAS Proxying works for Outlook Web Access (OWA)
• Overview of Exchange Server 2007 CAS Proxying and Redirection

7. Ask Henrik Walther a question

QUESTION: Henrik,

I really liked the 3-part article posted about Transitioning from Exchange 2000/2003 to Exchange 2007.

I have been migrating an Exchange 2000 Standard installation to a new Exchange 2007 Enterprise installation, which is on a Windows 2003 R2 x64 SP2 server. There is something you might want to check out or correct in the third part of the article.

It is mentioned that there is no need to set up the replica for the SCHEDULE+ FREE BUSY folder and that this is automatically done when deploying the Exchange 2007 server into the legacy environment. This did not happen in my case. I had to manually add the replica using the Exchange 2000 ESM, however, replication still did not occur to the new server. I have been working for a week on this without any success. I can see from Google searches that I am not alone in facing this problem. I have been unable to get the user free busy information to replicate and I am going to be forced to move on.

Just thought you might want to know.

Again, great article.

Richard

ANSWER: Hi Rick,

I can assure you that when installing an Exchange 2007 server into a legacy Exchange environment, the default behavior is that a PF database is created, and the respective system folders are replicated automatically. This is mentioned in the following link and is also the behavior I see with the legacy Exchange environments in which I deployed Exchange 2007.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397221.aspx

So what specifically went wrong in your environment is a good question...

Cheers,
Henrik