April 29th, 2011
To use Windows Server Backup on Exchange 2010 Mailbox Servers with DAG, you can only back up any copies that are currently active on the server. To accomplish this I created a PowerShell script that creates a new backup policy, locates any active copies on the current mailbox server, adds the db and log paths to the backup and initiates it. One prerequisite is that you have to disable the VSS writer in the MB server’s registry, per Microsoft…
# create a new, blank backup policy to hold the location information and settings
$tempExPolicy = New-WBPolicy
# vss-full backup will handle log rotation
Set-WBVssBackupOptions -Policy $tempExPolicy -VssFullBackup
$dbBackupTarget = New-WBBackupTarget -NetworkPath $args[0] #get target from command line
Add-WBBackupTarget -Policy $tempExPolicy -Target $dbBackupTarget
$local_hostname = Get-Content env:computername;
# get system-wide active Exchange databases
$activeExDbs = Get-MailboxDatabase | Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus | Where-Object { $_.ActiveCopy -eq $true } | Where-Object { $_.MailboxServer -eq $local_hostname }
# loop through and check to see if the active copy is on this machine, if so, add the
# database and log paths to the backup policy
foreach($activeExDb in $activeExDbs) {
$db_edbfilespec = New-WBFileSpec -FileSpec $db.EdbFilePath;
$db_logfilespec = New-WBFileSpec -FileSpec $db.LogFolderPath;
Add-WBFileSpec -Policy $tempExPolicy -FileSpec $db_edbfilespec;
Add-WBFileSpec -Policy $tempExPolicy -FileSpec $db_logfilespec;
}
# start the backup
Start-WBBackup -Policy $tempExPolicy > $rptfile
Posted in Exchange, Microsoft, PowerShell, Windows Server | Comments Off
April 19th, 2011
For whatever reason MS makes viewing e-mail headers ridiculously difficult in Outlook. This add-in places a custom action on each e-mail message in the inbox. Right-Click->Custom Actions->Show Headers. For now, you’ll have to make sure to select the message first.
Show Headers Ad-In Installer
Posted in .NET, Exchange, Microsoft | Comments Off
April 19th, 2011
After running a backup using Windows Server Backup on an Exchange 2010 Mailbox Server, the DAG members holding passive copies of databases started throwing warnings in the event log…
RPC request to the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service for log truncation failed for database xxx. Error: 4294965485.
After running a successful backup on only a signle active copy, the warnings cleared up. This appears to be related to VSS\Backup service attempting to truncate the transaction logs of the passive database copies, which it apparently does not have the capability to do. The re-run of a successful backup must have flushed something from the replication service or information store.
Posted in Exchange, Microsoft, Windows Server | Comments Off
April 17th, 2011
In Exchange 2010, the targetAddress AD attribute is used to specify the external e-mail address of a Mail-User or Mail-Contact object. It’s actually referenced in the PowerShell Mail-User object as “external e-mail address.”
Inadvertently setting this value for an account with an actual Exchange mailbox will cause the system to bypass the Exchange account and attempt to send the mail to the Internet. If the value set in this field is the same as the Exchange e-mail address (or results in routing via MX record back to the local Exchange system) it will result in a “local loop detected” error in the hub transport mail queue. Resetting the AD targetAddress attribute value back to null in fixes the problem.
Posted in Exchange, Microsoft | Comments Off
April 13th, 2011
To fix a corrupted Exchange 2010 mailbox database copy…
Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy db\server -DeleteExistingFiles
Posted in Exchange, Microsoft, PowerShell | Comments Off
March 2nd, 2011
The methods that normally work for connecting the GroupWise API don’t work when using Threading…
Unable to cast COM object of type ‘AdminTypeLibrary.SystemClass’ to interface type ‘AdminTypeLibrary.DIADSystem’.
To get around this you can explicitly cast the object to its interface type…
AdminTypeLibrary.SystemClass gwAdmin = new AdminTypeLibrary.SystemClass();
AdminTypeLibrary.IADSystem gwSystemInterface = (AdminTypeLibrary.IADSystem)gwAdmin;
Posted in Novell | Comments Off
January 20th, 2011
After hours of adjusting and breaking CAS authentication settings, I think I have determined there is a bug with the Microsoft Outlook 2011 Client for Mac. The behavior we were seeing was intermittent prompting (every 10 seconds to 5 minutes) for username and password by the client even when valid credentials were supplied. I came across this discussion which indicates a problem with the way this client stores credentials in the Mac OS keystore.
Using user@domain.com or “\domain\username\” (with an initial slash) appears to be the workaround for this. The @ context worked in two instances, and in one instance the only one that would work was “\domain\username”.
Posted in Apple \ Mac, Exchange, Microsoft | Comments Off
January 18th, 2011
In order to enable web distribution of the offline address book, rather than public folders distribution, make sure the option is checked under Organizational Configuration->Mailbox->Offline Address Book tab->Distribution tab. You will need to add the OAB path for each CAS server in your array to the list of virtual directories.
The offline address book files live in C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange\V14\Client Access\OAB. To force the copy from the Mailbox Server, you can restart the Exchange File Distribution Service on the CAS server and you should begin to see the files being copied into that path.
Also, make sure you have the authentication settings you need for the OAB virtual directory in IIS Manager on the CAS. You may need to enable basic authentication and set a default domain.
Posted in Exchange, Microsoft | Comments Off
December 9th, 2010
If you find yourself with a missing or invalid certificate in Exchange (IIS or EMC), you can rebuild it from the management shell with…
New-ExchangeCertificate -SubjectName “CN=CASSERVERNAME” -DomainName CASSERVERNAME, CASSERVERNAME.domain.com -privatekeyexportable $true -Services IMAP,IIS
Once executed you should then be able to find and manipulate the new certificate in EMC by highlighting Server Configuration and selecting the corresponding CAS. The certificate info will then be displayed in the bottom pane.
Posted in Exchange, Microsoft, PowerShell | Comments Off
August 19th, 2010
When executing New-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup, the following errors might occur…
“…unable to access file shares on witness server…”
“…unable to create the default witness directory…”
“…failed to create file share witness directory…”
This is caused by the Windows Firewall being enabled on the Witness server and\or the WMI Service being disabled.
The solution is to enable WMI in services and add an exception for WMI in the firewall on your designated witness server.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd298065.aspx
Posted in Exchange, Microsoft, PowerShell, Windows Server | Comments Off