Internet Explorer 9 Beta is available in many languages. You can download Internet Explorer 9 Beta in the language that matches your version of Windows or choose the English version, which works with all versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. For additional information, see How do I install or uninstall Internet Explorer 9?

If you need help finding out what version of Windows you’re running, see Is my PC running the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows?

Some IE 9 Characteristic’s:

Cross-site scripting filter

Protect against online threats with cross-site scripting filter

Cross-site scripting attacks are a leading online threat. Their aim is to exploit vulnerabilities in the websites you visit. How do they work? By compromising legitimate websites with malicious content that can capture keystrokes and record your login information and password. If your login information and password is captured, your personal data could be compromised.

Internet Explorer 9 includes a cross-site scripting (XSS) filter that can detect these types of attacks. If vulnerabilities are found,Internet Explorer disables the harmful scripts. The cross-site scripting filter is turned on by default to help protect you.

Experience faster and more efficient browsing with Internet Explorer 9

All-around fast

Hardware-accelerated text, video, and graphics

The new graphic capabilities and improved performance inInternet Explorer 9 set the stage for immersive and rich experiences. Hardware-accelerated text, video, and graphics mean your websites perform like the programs that are installed on your computer. High-definition videos are smooth, graphics are clear and responsive, colors are true, and websites are interactive like never before. With sub-system enhancements like Chakra, the new JavaScript engine, websites and applications load faster and are more responsive. Combine Internet Explorer 9 with the powerful graphics capabilities that Windows 7 has to offer, and you’ll get the best web experience onWindows yet. See it in action at beautyoftheweb.com.

Installs faster, starts faster

The shorter, streamlined installation of Internet Explorer 9 is faster than previous versions. It requires fewer decisions on your part, takes less time to load pages, and doesn’t require that you install updates separately. Once it’s installed, you’re ready to start browsing.

Pinned Sites

Get to your favorite sites faster with Pinned Sites

With Pinned Sites, you can get to your favorite sites directly from the Windows taskbar—without having to open Internet Explorer first.

Pinning a site takes seconds: click the icon to the left of the web address in One Box, the tab for the website, or the website’s icon on the New Tab page and drag it to the taskbar. That’s it. Once a site is pinned, it shows up as its own thumbnail, separate from Internet Explorer. Now all it takes is one click to get to your favorite website.

Each site that’s pinned to the taskbar has a Jump List. Some also have thumbnail preview controls like playing or pausing a video, which you’ll see underneath the thumbnail preview. And some sites you pin have icon overlays, which provide information about the status of a website, such as the number of new messages in your inbox.

By pinning a site, the site is at the center of the experience, not the browser. When a pinned site is launched from the taskbar, the browser frame and navigational controls integrate the site’s icon and primary color, providing an experience that’s tailored to the site you’re viewing.

New Tab page

Manage your favorite sites with the New Tab page

Internet Explorer 9 surfaces the websites you love most and puts them one click away. Once you’re in the browser, the New Tab page helps get you started browsing quickly, providing meaningful suggestions and information to help you decide what to do next as you browse.

Each site’s icon and primary color is used on the New Tab page to help your more easily identify each site, which is helpful when you have many sites to choose from. Also, a site indicator shows if the site is one you visit often or not. Your favorite sites are shown with the sites you visit most frequently listed first. And if your taste in favorite sites changes over time, no problem—you can close them to remove them.

From the New Tab page you can also reopen closed tabs, reopen your last browser session, or start InPrivate Browsing. InPrivatesessions won’t track page visits in the New Tab page. You can also pin sites from the New Tab page to the taskbar for quick access to your favorite sites.

Enhanced tabs

Manage multiple websites with enhanced tabs

With Internet Explorer 9, web navigation and multitasking are easier than ever.

Tear-off tabs

Tear-off tabs and Snap make it easy to view two websites at the same time

Tear-off tabs make interacting with multiple sites fast and intuitive. You can rearrange tabs within Internet Explorer 9—just like you can rearrange icons in the taskbar in Windows 7—or you can open any tab in a new browser window by dragging that tab to your desktop. If you need to view more than one webpage at a time to accomplish a task, use Tear-off tabs together with Snap. It’s a great way to show multiple webpages side-by-side on your screen.

Make access to your favorite sites easy. Drag a tab and pin it directly to the taskbar or to the Start menu. Or, drag a tab to the Favorites bar. Whichever you choose, your favorite sites will be right at your fingertips.

Add-on Performance Advisor

Browse uninterrupted with Add-on Performance Advisor

Add-on Performance Advisor is designed to ensure thatInternet Explorer 9 starts fast and stays fast by helping you control the add-ons you install.

Add-on Performance Advisor works by identifying add-ons that may be slowing down your browser and—right from the notification area—giving you the information you need to disable the add-on or fix the problem. Load times for each add-on are shown so you can see how each one impacts your browsing experience. You’re able to make an informed decision to use the add-ons you find valuable and disable those that are less useful or too slow. It all adds up to browsing that’s faster and more efficient for you.

Download Manager

Keep your downloads in order with Download Manager

Internet Explorer 9 has an integrated way for you to access, monitor, and interact with the files you download: Download Manager. It’s a single program that lets you see the status of your downloads, provides information about whether they might be potentially harmful, offers a full range of security checks on the downloaded files, and shows you the final location of your downloads.

Download Manager is integrated with the Windows download folder. It’s an easy way to interact with file downloads, which means you can sort, print, or send your downloads to another location, just as you would with other files. You can also use Download Manager to control your downloads, including everything from running or opening files to pausing or canceling downloads. You can even delete downloads from Download Manager.

Download Manager also works with Smartscreen Filter to help protect you from malicious downloads. Potentially risky downloads are immediately blocked. Download Manager then clearly identifies higher risk programs so that you can make an informed decision to delete, run, or save the download.

Whether downloading a small file or several large files, you can still browse without interruption. And if a download is interrupted, you’ll be able to quickly resume downloading the next time you startInternet Explorer 9. So if you encounter a network connection problem or have to shut down your computer, you can pick up right where you left off.

Tab isolation and recovery

Browse uninterrupted with Internet Explorer 9

If you lose your connection to a website while usingInternet Explorer 9, your entire browsing session won’t be lost. Reliability features like tab isolation, Automatic Crash Recovery, and Hang Recovery keep you browsing without hiccups.

Browse uninterrupted

Website crashes are isolated to individual tabs, not entire browser windows. If a site crashes on one tab, the rest of your browsing session isn’t interrupted. You keep browsing, undisturbed. After the problem is identified, Internet Explorer 9 automatically recovers the tab. If one or more of your tabs closes or crashes unexpectedly, they’re automatically reloaded, and you’re returned to the site you were on before the crash. Internet Explorer 9 also includes new support for hang recovery, so that you will be prompted if the website you’re trying to access is not responding or is timed out for some reason.

Clear messaging

Internet Explorer 9 communicates problems when they arise. Tab or hang recovery messaging, integrated into the Notification Bar, clearly states what the problem is, so you’re able to better understand what, if anything, you need to do to address the issue.

One Box

Surf or search with One Box

Whether you want to navigate to a website or start a search, you have a single place to go in Internet Explorer 9—One Box.

Surfing and searching—all in one place

With One Box, surfing or searching the web is a snap. You can start typing a web address and AutoComplete anticipates what you’re looking for to help you get to your websites quickly. And because search functionality is integrated into One Box, you don’t have to worry about remembering the full web address—type in familiar terms like “news” or “music” and you can get to the sites you love in a flash.

Trying to locate something on the web? Searching from One Box gives you a quick way to find what you’re looking for. Depending on the search providers you use, as you type words, search suggestions, search results—including visual search results—and headline matches or other relevant suggestions are shown in the drop–down list. Click a suggestion to run the search without having to type any more words. And you can add search providers or change the provider you want to use right from the bottom of the drop–down list as well.

Your privacy

The privacy of information that you enter into One Box is an important part of the Internet Explorer promise. You’re in control of what information, if any, gets shared with search providers. From the address bar drop-down list, you can choose to turn on search suggestions or turn them off. If you choose to turn search suggestions on, the text you type is sent to the search provider as you type it rather than being sent after you finish typing and press Enter.

• HTML5, Hardware Accelerated: First IE9 Platform Preview Available for Developers

Kind Regards
Catastrophic Failure “JV”

The primary function of this Add-in is to add a couple of buttons to the Outlook ribbon to prevent people from doing a reply-all to your message, or forwarding it (using a facility built into Outlook & Exchange which is really lightweight compared to using IRM machinery, but which is not exposed in the existing UI).

However, it also includes a check for email goofs such as omitting attachments or subject lines. This works with both Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010, as long as you’re using an Exchange account.

When you install this thing, you’ll see a couple of extra buttons at the end of the ribbon: No Reply All and No Forward. As the names suggest, clicking on these will prevent recipients of your emails from performing those two actions, clicking again toggles the relevant option off again.

Download it from http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/60860f41-88ab-4bb4-8104-765feca9cfed/default.aspx

Unzip to somewhere on your local PC and run setup.exe.

Kind regards,
Catastrophic Failure “JV” 

New Threat items known so far

• Mass mailer Seems to mail via mapi somehow from clients we do not believe it is via Outlook though
• http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/Threat/Encyclopedia/Entry.aspx?Name=Worm%3aWin32%2fVisal.B MSAV Encyclopedia writeup for this threat.

Microsoft Forefront Products

• FCS/FEP/MSE anything that uses the MSAV engine/signatures is currently waiting for new signature set should have signatures that address this in build 1.89.1389.0 and higher.
• 1.89.1390.0 has just been published Out of Band.  (4:10 pm Pacific)
• If you are using any of the Forefront Exchange security products you can set up filtering rules to block messages based on content or subject line. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/worm-win32-vb-wf-email-virus-defending-with-forefront-security-forefront-protection-antigen.aspx
• FOPE is aware of the situation and we are currently blocking this threat
• FOPE should protect most BPOS-S customers who are not infected already.

If you are not a MSAV customer contact your AV vendor and work with them to get samples and definitions!

Action Plan

Exchange Server 2007 / 2010

Transport

Depending on the volume of incoming mail you may need to Pause all transport servers so nothing new is coming in

1. Set a Transport Rule to Delete any incoming messages

GUI – from the EMC

Organization Configuration > Hub Transport > Transport Rules

New Transport Rule

Fill out the rule Name and any necessary comments and leave Enable Rule checked

Next

Conditions: When the Subject field contains specific words "Here You Have"

Actions: silently drop the message

click New to create the rule and restart the Transport service

2. Delete messages in the queues

Get-TransportServer | Get-Queue | get-message | where{$_.MessageSubject -eq "Here you have"} | remove-message

Mailbox Cleanup

1. Export and delete virus messages from mailboxes

Get-Mailbox -Server Server1 | Export-Mailbox -SubjectKeywords "Here you have" -DeleteContent -TargetMailbox VirusMailbox -TargetFolder VirusMsgs -Confirm:$false

** remember to create the target mailbox "VirusMailbox" first **

** hide this target mailbox from the GAL**

2. Preventative Measure – Disable MAPI access

Run syntax to remove MAPI access from all mailboxes in that store:

get-mailboxdatabase <name> | get-mailbox | Get–casmailbox

get-mailboxdatabase <name> | get-mailbox | set-casmailbox -mapienabled $FALSE

Then enable each user as their outbox is cleaned out

Exchange Server 2000/2003

1. Use ExMerge to remove the infected emails from mailboxes

2. Clearing queues

Manual: In E2K3 we can stop the SMTP Service and the do string search in Queue folder for the subject words of virus message, and we can delete it that way.

Automated: We have a Tool to do this in CTS but it is not available externally open a ticket with CTS Exchange Server team to request assistance with this piece.

Some quick and dirty updates.

Export-Mailbox command

You can limit this command by specific folders with the –IncludeFolders option and also if your customer is afraid of deleting legitimate mail you can make use of date restriction to only export mail within a certain date range. Example below

Get-Mailbox -Server Server1 | Export-Mailbox -SubjectKeywords "Here you have" –IncludeFolders “/Inbox” –StartDate “09/08/2010” –EndDate “09/09/2010” -DeleteContent -TargetMailbox VirusMailbox -TargetFolder VirusMsgs -Confirm:$false

Tools

There is a tool that can be used to run reports against mailboxes to determine who has a large number of items in their Outbox. For additional information on this contact Support.

ExMon can be used to determine what user or workstation may be hammering the message store and may need to be taken offline

See the following for instructions on using Exmon to find the offending clients http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Microsoft-Exchange-Server-User-Monitor.html This works with every supported version of Exchange currently available.

Working with Transport – new information

One customer has almost 1.5 million messages so you may need to purge on a queue by queue basis

Get-message -queue "serverqueue" | where{$_.Subject -eq "Here you have"} | suspend-message

Get-message -queue "serverqueue" | where{$_.Subject -eq "Here you have"} | remove-message

This command only processes 1000 messages at a time so you need to change the “ –ResultSize “ to Unlimited.

If there are other transport rules they may need to be temporarily disabled. Remember if you are running exchange 2007 PRE-SP3 they will not be able to remove messages from the submission Queue. Best bet is to pause transport and let the rule do its thing.

Kind Regards
Catastrophic Failure “JV”

Automatic mailbox distribution is a new feature in Exchange Server 2010.

If you don’t provide a mailbox database when you create a new mailbox on an Exchange 2010 server, Exchange picks a mailbox database for you.

Now, you might see this as a really cool feature, or you might think it’s pretty scary.

To find out more about this feature, please read :

Where Did That New Exchange 2010 Mailbox Go?
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff872148.aspx

Kind regards,
Catastrophic Failure “JV”

Do you still remember the time when you had to dismount the stores in order to check it’s integrity, and running "Isinteg -S "servername" -Fix -Test AllTests" at a regular command line, once or twice, depending on the errors/ warnings ???

Well, those days are gone 🙂

In Exchange 2010 SP1, ISInteg is no longer a standalone program.

The functionality provided by the ISInteg tool has been rolled into two new Exchange Management Shell cmdlets:

• New-MailboxRepairRequest
• New-PublicFolderDatabaseRepairRequest

Note: Like other Shell cmdlets, these are subject to Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) scoping restrictions. For details, see Understanding Management Role Scopes.

Cool Features

These new ISInteg cmdlets come with some cool new functionality!

• The cmdlets work with the database mounted. It’s no longer required to unmount the database to perform an integrity check or fix database errors.
• You can repair logical corruption at the mailbox level.
• You can fix corrupt search folders.
• You can fix the Provisional Fid.
• You can fix Aggregate Counts.

ISInteg can now work at the database or mailbox level

How does it do that? Well, the new schema in Exchange 2010 effectively partitions the database by mailbox. So the top problems fixed by ISInteg are now mostly limited to the affected mailboxes only. Previous versions of ISInteg required the database to be offline while validation and fixing are in progress. In Exchange 2010 SP1, the ability to do these checks at the mailbox level removes the need to dismount the database. It is actually required to have ISInteg operate against an online database!

New-MailboxRepairRequest

The New-MailboxRepairRequest cmdlet detects and fixes the following types of mailbox corruptions:

• Search folder corruptions (SearchFolder): Repair tasks now look for all folders named in ptagSearchBacklinks, ptagSearchFIDs, and ptagRecursiveSearchFIDs and verifies that each folder exists. If the folder no longer exists, then it will remove that folder from the list.
• Aggregate counts on folders that aren’t reflecting correct values (AggregateCounts): Repair tasks tally all messages in a folder and keep a running total of various counts and sizes. Once the iteration is complete, it will verify the computed counts against the persisted counts on the Folders table record for the folder. If there is a discrepancy, it will update the persisted counts to reflect the computed counts.
• Views on folders that aren’t returning correct contents (FolderView): Repair tasks will iterate over all views for a folder and for each one, bring the view fully up to date and then reconstruct a temp copy. If there is a discrepancy between the existing view and the contents of the temp table, it will delete the view so it can be rebuilt from scratch the next time it is requested.
• Provisioned folders that are incorrectly pointing into unprovisioned parent folders (ProvisionedFolder): Repair tasks can fix Provisioned folders incorrectly pointing into unprovisioned parents or vice versa.

Syntax

New-MailboxRepairRequest -Mailbox <MailboxIdParameter> -CorruptionType <MailboxStoreCorruptionType[]> [-Archive <SwitchParameter>] [-Confirm [<SwitchParameter>]] [-DetectOnly <SwitchParameter>] [-DomainController <Fqdn>] [-WhatIf [<SwitchParameter>]]

New-MailboxRepairRequest -Database <DatabaseIdParameter> -CorruptionType <MailboxStoreCorruptionType[]> [-Confirm [<SwitchParameter>]] [-DetectOnly <SwitchParameter>] [-DomainController <Fqdn>] [-WhatIf [<SwitchParameter>]]

Parameters

• Database, Mailbox and Archive: You can repair an entire mailbox database or a specified mailbox by specifying either the Database or the Mailbox parameter. You can’t use both. To repair the archive mailbox for the specified user, use the Archive switch.
• CorruptionType: (at least 1 required) you are already familiar with, we discussed them above:
  • SearchFolder
  • AggregateCounts
  • ProvisionedFolder
  • FolderView

  You can run a repair task with multiple parameters if you separate them with a comma (as shown in the Examples section below).

• DetectOnly: (Optional) The DetectOnly switch secifies that you want this command to report errors, but not fix them. You don’t have to specify a value with this switch.
• Other Optional Parameters: This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug, ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable, OutBuffer and OutVariable. For more information, type "get-help about_commonparameters".

  New-PublicFolderDatabaseRepairRequest

  The New-PublicFolderDatabaseRepairRequest cmdlet detects and fixes Public Folder replication state problems.

  Syntax

  New-PublicFolderDatabaseRepairRequest -Database <DatabaseIdParameter> -CorruptionType <PublicFolderDatabaseCorruptionType[]> [-Confirm [<SwitchParameter>]] [-DetectOnly <SwitchParameter>] [-DomainController <Fqdn>] [-WhatIf [<SwitchParameter>]]

  Parameters

  • Database: (required) Specifies the Public Folder database on which you will run this command. You can use one of the following values:
    • GUID of the database
    • Database name
  • CorruptionType: (required) Pretty easy, there’s only one value.
    • ReplState
  • DetectOnly: (optional) Specifies that you want this command to report errors, but not fix them. You don’t have to specify a value with this parameter.
  • Other Optional Parameters: This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug, ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable, OutBuffer and OutVariable. For more information, type "get-help about_commonparameters".

  Examples

  New-MailboxRepairRequest -Mailbox administrator@contoso.com -CorruptionType SearchFolder, AggregateCounts, ProvisionedFolder, FolderView

  New-MailboxRepairRequest -Mailbox administrator -CorruptionType SearchFolder, AggregateCounts, ProvisionedFolder, FolderView -WhatIf

  New-PublicFolderDatabaseRepairRequest -Database PFD01 -CorruptionType ReplState -DetectOnly

  Some additional examples are provided in the cmdlet help. You can retrieve them using the following commands, or refer to New-MailboxRepairRequest and New-PublicFolderDatabaseRepairRequest cmdlet reference:

  Get-help New-MailboxRepairRequest -examples
  Get-help New-PublicFolderDatabaseRepairRequest -examples

  I recommend that you get to know the cmdlets by using the cmdlet reference docs, or by using the following commands to retrieve detailed help from the shell:

  Get-help New-MailboxRepairRequest -detailed (or -full)
  Get-help New-PublicFolderDatabaseRepairRequest -detailed (or -full)

  There are, obviously, some things to remember :

  • Only 1 active repair task is permitted to be running per server if the active task is a database level repair.
  • Only 100 mailbox level active repair tasks are permitted to be running at once per server.
  • There is no -Server parameter to do all databases or mailboxes on a server.
  • The repair task dies on database dismount or store stop/crash.
  • The only way to stop a repair is to stop the store or dismount the database.
  • Mailbox access will be disrupted for the mailbox that is being repaired.
  • Repair for a mailbox will skip a mailbox if it has been quarantined.
  • Repair will cause a move-mailbox operation to be delayed until the repair is completed.

  You can find the whole article at : http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/08/23/455899.aspx

Kind regards,
Catastrophic Failure “JV”

Now that Service Pack 1 is out for over week, it’s time to know a bit more about it’s know issues, as well as work arounds, and the most frequently asked questions, or FAQ.

We can start by reviewing the mother of all questions :

The Upgrade order

The order of upgrade from Exchange 2010 RTM to SP1 hasn’t changed from what was done in Exchange 2007.

So, you should upgrade server roles in the following order:

1. Client Access server
2. Hub Transport server
3. Unified Messaging server
4. Mailbox server

On other question that I was already asked was :

Prerequisite download pages linked from SP1 Setup are unavailable

When installing Exchange Server 2010 SP1 the prereq check may turn up some required hotfixes to install. The message will include a link to click for help.

Clicking this link redirects you to a page saying that the content does not exist.

We’re working to update the linked content 🙂

Meanwhile, please refer to the TechNet article Exchange 2010 Prerequisites to download and install the prerequisites required for your server version (the hotfixes are linked to in the above table, but you’ll still need to install the usual prerequisites such as .Net Framework 3.5 SP1, Windows Remote Management (WinRM) 2.0, and the required OS components).

You can find all the details about SP1 at :

You Had Me At EHLO… : Exchange 2010 SP1 FAQ and Known Issues
http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/09/01/456094.aspx

Kind Regards
Catastrophic Failure “JV”

And yes, here it is the RTM version of the so long waited Service Pack 1 for the Exchange Server 2010 🙂

I know it’s summer time and that we all should be staring at the sea, but there is work to be done so that our customers feel most valued during all year.

The announcement was done by Kevin Allison, General Manager of the Exchange Customer Experience Team and the link is here :

You Had Me At EHLO… : The Future of Exchange Starts Here: Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Is Now Available
http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/08/25/455861.aspx

The download link is also available at :

Download details: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=50b32685-4356-49cc-8b37-d9c9d4ea3f5b&displaylang=en

Kind Regards
Catastrophic Failure “JV”

Introduction

Exchange Server 2007 used the Move-Mailbox cmdlet to move mailboxes between mailbox stores. Move-Mailbox makes a RPC connection to both the source and target mailbox databases and then starts the move process. Exchange Server 2010 uses the Mailbox Replication Service (MRS), a service that runs on all Exchange 2010 Client Access Servers, for mailbox move operations. MRS handles all mailbox moves including offline and online moves.

Exchange 2007 vs. 2010

This is a high level comparison of Exchange Server 2007 vs. Exchange Server 2010. There is a radical change in mailbox moves from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010 environment. In Exchange 2010, we implemented online mailbox moves.

When you move a mailbox in previous versions of Exchange Server, the source mailbox gets locked and then the content is copied to the new mailbox on the target mailbox database. After the content is copied, the new mailbox is unlocked and the old one is deleted. This results in downtime for the user for the duration of the mailbox move operation. As long as you had smaller mailboxes, the downtime is not a big deal since this happens fairly quickly. With larger mailboxes (check out the Large Mailbox Vision whitepaper as well as Astrid’s blog on the Top 10 Exchange Storage Myths), the downtime can be unacceptable.

In Exchange 2010, we implemented online mailbox moves and we also implemented changes to the Store in Exchange 2007 SP2 so that when you move and upgrade from Exchange 2007 to 2010 you will benefit from online mailbox moves.

The following terms are used in Exchange Server 2010 move operation:

• Online mailbox move – Move mailbox operation wherein users are able to access their mailbox almost for the entire time of the operation except for the last part. Exchange Server 2010 uses online mailbox move.
• Offline mailbox move is a move operation wherein users cannot access their mailboxes during the move.
• Local Move is a move operation wherein the source and target mailboxes exist in the same forest and organization.
• Remote Move is a move operation wherein the source and target are in different forests and organization.
• Push is a move operation where the target is either an Exchange Server 2007 or Exchange Server 2003 and the source is an Exchange 2010 server in a local move. A push can also occur between Exchange 2010 where the source and the target are in different forests.
• Pull is a move operation where the target is an Exchange 2010 server.

Which Exchange Versions supports what?

The following table outlines the type of mailbox moves supported by different Exchange Server versions.

Mailbox Moves and Personal Archives

Exchange Server 2010 introduced Personal Archives. An archive mailbox appears as an additional mailbox in Outlook 2010 or OWA. In Exchange 2010 RTM, an archive mailbox is moved along with the mailbox if one exists. Since archive mailboxes exist only in Exchange Server 2010, mailbox moves to legacy Exchange servers will fail if the mailbox being moved has an archive mailbox.

Exchange 2010 CMDlets for move mailbox

Mailbox moves can be performed using the EMC or the Shell (EMS. You can use the following CMDlets from the Shell to manage mailbox move requests. It’s worth noting that suspending and resuming a move request can only be done through the Shell. Just like any other operation in Exchange 2010, you need to have certain permissions to perform the commands. The following table shows the RBAC permissions required for each cmdlet.

Note: RBAC permission can be granted to administrators either by assignment of a management role or membership in a built-in role group.

The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication Service

The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication Service (MRS) is a Windows service and is dependent only on the Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology service and Net.TCP Port Sharing service. There is a pre-requisite in Exchange Server 2010 setup that checks if the Net.TCP Post Sharing service is set to automatic. If it’s not, setup fails on CAS Servers. MRS is built on the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), a part of .Net Framework 3.0 stack. MRS uses a configuration file MSExhangeMailBoxReplication.Exe.Config on every Client Access Server for its configuration information. By default it’s located in C:Program FilesMicrosoft Exchange ServerV14Bin folder. The process associated with the service is MSExchangeMailBoxReplication.exe

How the Mailbox Replication Service works

When a move mailbox request is issued, the command creates a message in the System mailbox of the target database. From there MRS picks up the request and makes a MAPI.net connection to both the source and target databases. After a successful MAPI connection is made, MRS creates a mailbox in the target database and starts incremental synchronization of data. When it reaches to a point where it is about to complete the move, it locks the mailbox, updates Active Directory attributes, unlocks the mailbox and deletes the source mailbox.

Here is the flow of the move operation in detail for online move.

Local Online Mailbox Move:

1. Administrator creates the move request using the New-MoveRequest command.
2. The New-MoveRequest makes the following checks for mailbox being moved.
   • Gets the target and source mailbox server version
   • Checks the database versions to verify they are supported Exchange versions.
   • Determines the push or pull operation by the Exchange version information
   • Checks for an archive mailbox, if one is found, then adds it to the move request. Also checks to make sure you are not moving a mailbox with an archive to legacy Exchange system.
   • Checks the rule limit for legacy exchange servers
   • Checks mailbox quotas
3. The New-MoveRequest command creates a request message in the target database’s System Mailbox as special message.
4. The following attributes are added to a user account for the mailbox in Active Directory. These attributes are used to store information about moving the mailbox and some are updated throughout the move.
   • msExchMailboxMoveBatchName
   • msExchMailboxMoveFlags
   • msExchMailboxMoveRemoteHostName
   • msExchMailboxMoveSourceMDBLink
   • msExchMailboxMoveStatus
   • msExchMailboxMoveTargetMDBLink

   These attributes will not be removed after the move request is completed unless a Remove-MoveRequest is run. If these attributes are not removed then another New-MoveRequest cannot be issued for the same mailbox.

5. The New-MoveRequest command then "tickles" an MRS. A tickle is an operation where the command contacts an MRS directly to alert it to a new move request that is ready for pick up and processing. Which MRS is contacted is chosen at random from the CAS servers in the same AD site as the mailbox server where the target mailbox database is located.
6. Mailbox Replication Service scans the mailbox databases for new interesting events. When it discovers the new interesting event, it then logs into the System Mailbox and gets information from the Move request messages.
7. It then updates the message in the System Mailbox on the Mailbox Server’s MRS that owns the moving of the mailbox.
8. The Mailbox Replication Service will then update the msExchMailboxMoveStatus attribute on the mailbox object in Active Directory.
9. It will then log into the source and target mailboxes using MAPI.Net and start the synchronization of the user data. This type of synchronization is also referred to as a heavy pipe operation.
10. Once the initial synchronization is complete, most all of the mailbox data will be synchronized to the target mailbox. The Mailbox Replication Service will then lock the mailbox.
11. Mailbox Replication Service will then complete the synchronization of the data including any new or changed items. This last synchronization data is typically not a full synchronization; instead it is a moving of changed and new items.
12. The Mailbox Replication Service will then update the following attributes in Active Directory on the mailbox account to point to the new mailbox.
    • HomeMDB
    • HomeMTA
    • HomeServer
    • MSExchangeVersion (Set the appropriate Exchange Version)
    • Proxy Address (Typically changed in Cross forest moves)
13. The move history is then written to the user’s mailbox.

    In the following screenshot, we can see the location of the MailboxMoveHistory using MFCMAPI.

    

    Contents of the MailboxMoveHistory folder:

    

14. The Mailbox Replication Service does not remove a move-mailbox request message from the System Mailbox. The message is removed when the move request is removed by the Remove-MoveRequest cmdlet.
15. The Mailbox Replication Service then removes the source mailbox from the source database. It then changes the move status on msExchMailboxMoveStatus and msExchMailboxMoveFlags attributes to indicate that the move completed on the mailbox in Active Directory.
16. Once the status has been changed to "Completed" the mailbox can be accessed again.

An Offline move works similar to the steps listed above with the exception that it will lock the mailbox database so no one can access the mailbox.

Mailbox Replication Service Queue

Each MRS keeps track of all move requests in its Active Directory site. It does this by scanning all System Mailboxes in the site. As mentioned earlier, each move request command creates a message in the System Mailbox of the target database. These messages are saved in the following folders:

• MailboxReplicationService Move Jobs
• MailboxReplicationService Move Reports
• MailboxReplicationService SyncStates

The messages contain queue information about the move request. This queue information can be accessed using the Get-MoveRequestStatistics command with the MoveRequestQueue parameter.

Below is a screenshot of a System Mailbox opened using MFCMAPI that has move request messages. Shown are the 3 different folders that the MRS uses to store information about move requests.

System Mailbox in MFCMAPI

The MailboxReplicationService Move Jobs and MailboxReplicationService Move Reports folders contain information about the move request stored as messages within the folders. Each message in the folder represents a single mailbox move represented by the msExchMailboxGUID attribute of the mailbox enabled account. The below screenshot shows the contents of the MailboxReplicationService Move Reports folder.

Mailbox moves and database failures

By default Mailbox Replication Service waits 30 seconds before attempting to reconnect to a database if it encounters transient problems during a move operation. It will try to reconnect every 30 seconds until a successful connection or 60 retries. If it cannot connect after 60 retries then it puts the move request into a failed state. The default retry interval and maximum number of retries can be changed by editing the MAXRetries and RetryDelay values in the MsexchangeMailboxReplication.exe.config file.

Mailbox moves and High Availability

Move mailbox operations that involve databases in a DAG environment are different than move mailbox operations on standalone databases.

The active database, the passive database and log shipping are factors that affect move mailbox in a DAG environment. MRS checks with the Active manager component of the Exchange replication service before, during and right before completing a move request to see if the active copy is up, if log shipping is not lagging behind and if the passive copies are keeping up. The action taken depends on a property of the database called DataMoveReplicationConstraint. If this value is not set, then the move operation assumes SecondCopy option if the database has a copy. That is the move operation does not take into consideration log shipping and the passive copies. If this value is set the action depends on what the actual value is.

Possible values for the DataMoveReplicationConstraint property are:

• None – The move operation treats the move just as it treats move mailbox operation on a standalone database. This is the default if the database is not replicated.
• SecondCopy – If the database is replicated then at least one passive mailbox database copy must have the changes synchronized. This is the default value.
• SecondDatacenter – If the database is replicated to two AD sites then at least one passive mailbox database copy in another AD site must have the changes replicated.
• AllDatacenters – If the database is replicated to multiple AD sites then at least one passive mailbox database copy in each AD site must have the changes replicated.
• AllCopies – If the database is replicated then all passive mailbox database copies must have the changes replicated.

The DataMoveReplicationConstraint property can be set by running the Set-MailboxDatabase with DataMoveReplicationConstraint parameter.

Mailbox Replication Service and High Availability Configuration

In addition to the DataMoveReplicationConstraint property of a database, the following two settings in msExchMailboxReplication.exe.config file also control the behavior of move mailbox that involves a DAG.

• DataGuaranteeCheckPeriod – Controls how often the MRS checks with the active manager. The default value is 5 minutes with a minimum value of 30 seconds and maximum of 2 hours.
• EnableDataGuaranteeCheck – When enabled the MRS checks with the active manager on the status of the mailbox databases. The default value is True.

Note: In order for the Mailbox Replication Service to check with active manager to see if the mailbox database is healthy and not behind processing log files both the EnableDataGuaranteeCheck in the MSExchangeMailboxReplication.exe.config and the DataMoveReplicationConstraint on the mailbox database need to be enabled. If they are enabled then the MRS will throttle back on processing the data transfer when the active manager reports database replication is not in a healthy state.

Database Availability Group Failover

During a move operation if the active database becomes unavailable then MRS contacts the active manager to see which copy will take over. MRS then will logon to the mailbox on the new database and will continue the move from where it left off. This is provided that the DataMoveReplicationConstraint property is set to other than none and also the database was not down for longer than 30 minutes. (Or there is another copy satisfying the constraint. If say the database has 3 copies, it’s entirely possible that MRS will just continue working after a failover even if the original server is down). If DataMoveReplicationConstraint is set to none then MRS will try to connect to the same database every 30 seconds for the next 30 minutes. The 30 minute is from the maximum retry of 60 times every 30 seconds. Off course this value can be changed in the in msExchMailboxReplication.exe.config file.

Cross Forest Moves

Exchange 2010 has the ability to move mailboxes between Active Directory forests. The MRS is responsible for moving mailboxes to an Exchange 2010 Mailbox server. When it comes to moving mailboxes from one Exchange forest to an Exchange 2010 forest, there are two move types:

• Remote – An Exchange 2010 Client Access (CAS) server is present in the source forest
• Remote Legacy – There is no Exchange 2010 CAS server in the source forest

When there is no Exchange 2010 CAS server in an Exchange forest that is the source of a mailbox move, the MRS in the Exchange 2010 target forest is designed to process the move request in a manner similar to previous versions of Exchange. In this case the MRS communicates directly to the Active Directory (AD) Directory Service in the source forest, as well as the mailbox server where the source mailbox is located.

When the source forest is also an Exchange 2010 forest, the MRS is designed to move mailboxes between the forests using a new feature that simplifies and improves the process.

In previous versions of Exchange in order to move mailboxes between different Active Directory forests, the administrator would have to allow direct MAPI access to servers and configure trusts and give other administrators full access to each other’s Exchange Organization. This way of moving mailboxes was not going to be effective with moving mailboxes to Exchange Online and between forests in Exchange 2010.

To overcome these issues Exchange 2010 introduces the Mailbox Replication Proxy Service (MRSProxy). The Mailbox Replication Proxy service works in conjunction with the MRS to facilitate the required communication between the source and target servers in each Exchange 2010 forest. Each CAS server that has an instance of the MRS also has an instance of the MRSProxy service as part of the implementation. Essentially, Mailbox Replication Proxy Service is a web service for the Mailbox Replication Service. It is part of the Exchange Web Services (EWS). The Mailbox Replication Proxy service will proxy MAPI, ExRPCAdmin and LDAP requests between local and remote forests when moving mailboxes. These requests will be HTTP requests that the Mailbox Replication Proxy Service will proxy these requests to the Mailbox Replication Service. The Mailbox Replication Service then communicates with the mailbox servers and sends the data back through the Mailbox Replication Proxy Service. The Mailbox Replication Proxy Service then communicates back to the Mailbox Replication Proxy server that initiated the request.

Many thanks to Stephen Gilbert and Jonathan Runyon for providing detailed information on Local Online Mailbox Move and their contributions to this blog. Thanks to Otavio Pereira, Matt Richoux and Nasir Ali for their review.

Regards
Catastrophic Failure “JV”

Source: MSExchangeteam

Wondering what’s new in Exchange Best Practices Analyzer for Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1 (ExBPA E14SP1)? Curious about how updates to the tool are being handled in Exchange 2010? Here’s the answer to some of your questions:

How do I get ExBPA E14SP1?

Since Exchange Server 2007, the Best Practices Analyzer (along with other useful Exchange troubleshooting tools) has been part of the product and installed during Exchange setup. You can find ExBPA and the tools in the Tools node of the EMC. The previous version of ExBPA (v2.8) will not download updates for Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010; instead, you must run the version of the tool in the EMC.

Does the ExBPA E14SP1 Support Exchange 2007?

The Exchange 2010 RTM version of ExBPA does not support scanning Exchange 2007 servers. We heard your requests for Exchange 2007 support and we have responded. To support coexistence (and for ease-of-use), ExBPA E14SP1 will now scan older Exchange versions. Be aware, though, that error and warning rules for Exchange Server 2003 are in extended support and will not be updated unless the change meets the requirements for extended support. You can find more about the extended support phase in Microsoft Support Lifecycle.

What’s new in ExBPA E14SP1?

In this latest release, the BPA team, Customer Support Services and others worked together to identify and create new health checks. Changes include additional health checks for database availability groups, poison mailboxes and mixed environment support. Some other changes include:

• Extended coverage in the “Permissions Check” scan Permissions inheritance checks have been extended and moved. They are now a part of the Permission Check scan rather than the Health Check. Tests now also include validating Role Based Access Control (RBAC) permissions. These tests include ensuring all users are able to access the Exchange Control Panel (ECP), that all out of the box RBAC Roles and Role Groups are properly configured, and that there is at least one administrative account present within the Exchange Organization.

  

• Readiness checks have moved Readiness checks have been removed from ExBPA E14SP1 and incorporated into the new Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer (ExPDA). You can use ExPDA to perform an overall topology readiness scan of your environment. To start planning your upgrade, we recommend you begin with the Exchange Deployment Assistant.

What’s new in our release process?

With Exchange 2007 and 2010, ExBPA has moved to a release process that is in sync with the product release cycle. Updates to ExBPA are now part of Exchange product update rollups and service packs. The easiest way to get the updates is to install the update rollup on the workstation where you are running ExBPA (assuming you are at that service pack level). The ability to update only the configuration XML files during startup of the tool will still be offered, but if an update to the XML file requires an update to the binaries for proper operation, the tool will direct the user to apply the corresponding update rollup which includes both the XML and the binaries. You can expect ExBPA E14SP1 updates with Exchange 2010 SP1, as well as subsequent Service Pack and Update Rollup releases.

Where can I submit feedback?

We love to hear from you! Please send comments, questions, complaints and suggestions via the tool’s submit feedback option (click on the “Send feedback and suggestions about this tool to Microsoft” link on the bottom of the left panel.) I read each and every piece of feedback that you send.

Regards
Catastrophic Failure “JV”

In the recently released Exchange 2007 Service Pack 3, there’s a version mismatch between the Outlook Web Access (OWA) S/MIME Control, an Active X control used to provide S/MIME support in OWA. After you install SP3, users who have the control installed will get prompted to install the latest version of the control.

The way this works – the code compares the “Version” property of the client S/MIME control (MIMECTL.DLL) on the user’s computer with the ProductVersion property of the MSI file (OWASMIME.MSI) on the Client Access Server.

During the released SP3 build, the version of the MSI file was incremented to 8.3.83.2. However, due to an error, the DLL file in the MSI retained its old version number (8.3.83.0). As a result, when Outlook Web Access users using Internet Explorer use S/MIME functionality, they get the same prompt to upgrade the S/MIME control even after they’ve upgraded.

Here are two ways to resolve this issue.

1. If you have the Orca.exe utility, you can change the version number of the MicrosoftExchange ServerClientAccessOwasmimeowasmime.msi file from 8.3.83.2 to 8.3.83.0.
2. Download and run the PatchMSIProductVersion.vbs script which changes the version number. Note, the download is named PatchMSIProductVersion.vbs_txt. Remove the _txt from the file extension before running it.

After you use either of the above methods, restart IIS. (Use the IISReset command.)

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused users.

NOTE: If your users don’t use the S/MIME control, no action is required. Some discussions in community forums include another possible workaround which suppresses the upgrade prompt by using the ForceSMIMEClientUpgrade registry key (see How to Manage S/MIME for Outlook Web Access in Exchange 2007 docs for details). Although this may work under the situation, we do not recommend using this method for this version mismatch issue on an ongoing basis.

Kind regards,

Catastrophic Failure “JV”

Source:
This post was taken from :MSExchange Team