Exchange 2010 Backups - The Details

The Exchange Team has posted a nice series of blog articles about the details of backing up Exchange Server 2010. The articles discuss exactly how VSS backups work, backups of active database copies, and backups of passive database copies.

The articles are here:

• http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2012/06/04/everything-you-need-to-know-about-exchange-backups-part-1.aspx
• http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2012/06/14/everything-you-need-to-know-about-exchange-backups-part-2.aspx
• http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2012/07/09/everything-you-need-to-know-about-exchange-backups-part-3.aspx

Exchange 2010 Mailboxes Quarantined Randomly

If you downloaded the most recent version (14.3.38.2) of the Exchange 2010 Management Pack released in June of 2012, it can cause mailboxes to be randomly quarantined. As of June 27th, the Management Pack has been pulled and will be released again when it is fixed.

If you have already installed this management pack, there are some workarounds to disable the function that is quarantining the mailboxes.

Information about version 14.3.38.2 of the management pack:

• http://blogs.technet.com/b/rmilne/archive/2012/06/19/updated-exchange-2010-scom-management-pack-june-2012.aspx

Information about the problem and workarounds if you've installed it:

• http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2012/06/28/mailboxes-on-a-database-are-quarantined-in-an-environment-with-system-center-operations-manager.aspx

HP LaserJet Pro 400 MFP M425 Scans All Black

One of our guys was on site today installing a new HP M425 for a client. He unpacked the printer and everything worked great except for the scanning. All scanning was 100% black.

He rechecked the whole unit and there was no packing material blocking the scanner. Nothing left to do but call HP support.

HP support had him flash the firmware to the latest version and scanning began to work fine. Very very weird. I would never have guessed in a million years.

User Sending as Multiple Email Addresses

Many organizations want a single user to have multiple email addresses and would like the user to be able to select which email address to send as. In Exchange 2010 (and earlier versions) it's very easy to add multiple email addresses for a user. However, the sending is a problem.

When multiple email addresses have been configured for a user, only one email address can be set as the primary/Reply To address. The primary address is the From address when sending a message. The user cannot select an alternate From address from their list of addresses.

You can buy commercial software that enables this functionality (http://www.ivasoft.biz/choosefrom2007.shtml). However, for the cheap (ahem, cost sensitive) among us there is a workaround.

1. For any secondary address you want to assign to a user, create a distribution group with that address.
2. Make the user the only member of that group.
3. Assign the user Send As permission for the group.

It's not very scalable, but easy to do.

Enable Remote Management for Windows 7

Windows 7 is more secure than Windows XP. That is a good thing. However, it's also annoying when you want to remotely manage a domain joined computer and it's not allowed by default.

Windows Firewall in Windows 7 does not allow remote management even on domain joined computers. You need to create the exceptions that allow remote management of Windows.

You generally want to:

• Allow ping. I'd like to see if the computer is up or not.
• Connect with Remote Desktop. It's nice to fix up desktop computers without going on site.
• Connect with Computer Management. Nice to see event logs remotely without logging on.
• Connect to the registry remotely. Nice to do reg edits without logging on locally and bothering the customer.

In SBS 2011, much of this is done automatically by a Group Policy object created during installation. However, if you are using a normal edition of Windows Server then you need make the Group Policy object yourself.

A blog post (http://skatterbrainz.blogspot.ca/2009/08/enabling-windows-7-remote-management.html) by David Stein provides the details on how to do it. He lists the specific Group Policy settings to enable and configure. And if you are not familiar with the Group Policy Management Console, he also provides some detailed steps on how to use it.

Installing SQL 2005 on Windows 2008 R2

As part of a performance test for an application at a client, we needed to setup a temporary server running Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2005. When you install SQL 2005, it indicates that IIS must be installed. Back in Windows Server 2003 this was easy because IIS was installed as a single lump. Starting in Windows Server 2008, IIS is installed as multiple role services. This makes it difficult to determine which role services are required.

Here is a list of the IIS 7 role services that must be installed for SQL 2005:

• Common HTTP Features
• Static Content - Common HTTP Features
• Default Document
• HTTP Redirection
• Directory Browsing
• Application Development
• ASP.NET
• ISAPI Extension
• ISAPI Filters
• Security
• Windows Authentication
• Management Tools
• IIS Metabase
• IIS 6 WMI

Free E-book about Windows Server 2012

I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but Microsoft has made an e-book about Windows Server 2012 available free for download. You can get it here:

• Free E-Book Offer: Introducing Windows Server 2012