Elan Shudnow’s Blog

Just an FYI for when the time comes that you deploy Exchange 2007 on Server 2008. The Windows Server Backup is not Exchange-aware and cannot be used for streaming backups or restores on Server 2008. Thanks goes out to Scott Schnol from Microsoft for this information. You must purchase a 3^rd-party (or DPM 2007) VSS capable backup solution. If you do go to Server 2008, you can restore previous backups using the NTBackup Restore Utility available at the following URL:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7DA725E2-8B69-4C65-AFA3-2A53107D54A7&displaylang=en

And just to add some more information for those that haven’t used Windows Server Backup yet, you can’t back up the system state via the GUI. You have to use the CLI. You are also limited to full volume backups only. You cannot back up specific files/folders.

Personally, I think the Windows Server Backup leaves a lot to be desired.

Elan Shudnow :: Feb.07.2008 :: DPM, Exchange, Server 2008, Windows :: No Comments »

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Help:
The Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Help can help you in the day-to-day administration of Exchange. Use this information to guide you through Exchange Server 2007 SP1 features, tasks, and administration procedures.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5eb0f9a0-2c49-4f2a-8a09-b981ed667821&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Shell Help:
The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Exchange Management Shell Help file helps you use cmdlets in the Exchange Management Shell to perform day-to-day administration of Exchange 2007. You can view help in the Exchange Management Shell by using the Get-Help cmdlet. This Help file applies to the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) version of Exchange Server 2007
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0e14dd15-bb52-4b3f-9756-5146179a0809&DisplayLang=e

Elan Shudnow :: Feb.07.2008 :: Exchange :: No Comments »

Server 2008 as well as Vista SP1 have finally RTM’d. You can read more at the following URL:
http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2008/02/04/windows-server-2008-rtm.aspx

Elan Shudnow :: Feb.04.2008 :: Server 2008, Vista, Windows :: No Comments »

This download contains the latest XML and ExBPA.chm files. Use this package to update your existing installation of the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer. NOTE: If Internet connectivity is available, the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer will attempt to automatically update itself from the Internet. Where updates are being applied automatically, there is no need to download the Web Update Pack.

To find out which version of ExBPA.Config.xml is installed on your computer, click the ‘About Exchange Best Practices Analyzer’ link within the tool. The upper version number refers to the core application (e.g. 2.9.7926.0), the lower version is for the configuration XML file.

Visit the following URL to download the Web Update Pack:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4f2f1339-cbcd-4d26-9174-f30c10d7ec4c&DisplayLang=en

Elan Shudnow :: Jan.16.2008 :: Exchange :: No Comments »

A coworker of mine, Matt Wade, has detailed the steps on how to move the WinSxS and SoftwareDistribution (Windows Updates) directory here; thanks to a forum post created by Paul here.

For those who do not know what WinSxS and what issued it has caused, read Aaaron Tiensivu’s (another coworker of mine) blog post here.

In short, WinSxS is a directory which allows you to have distinct versions of the same DLL files. In previous versions of Windows, we all remember the annoying times when we installed a new application only to find it used a shared DLL file that another application needed. The bad part was, that both application used a different version. This could possibly cause the previously installed application to break if you chose to overwrite the DLL file. WinSxS’ existence was to prevent this behavior from occurring in Vista.

The problem here, is systems with smaller C:\ capacity get filled up very fast due to the WinSxS directory taking up a lot of space very fast. Thanks to Matt, we finally have a guide to help free up some of that space on C:\.

Elan Shudnow :: Dec.05.2007 :: Vista, Windows :: No Comments »

Andy Grognan has written up an excellent guide on updating your Exchange 2007 CCR cluster to Service Pack 1. You can find his article at the following URL:
http://telnetport25.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/upgrading-a-two-node-exchange-2007-ccr-cluster-to-service-pack-1/

One of the things the TechNet doc does not state, is you have to make a registry modification to enable streaming backups which are now disabled by default in SP1. CCR uses the streaming backup functionality to do seeding. This is written in the release notes, but not on the TechNet guide for some odd reason.

Elan Shudnow :: Dec.04.2007 :: Exchange :: No Comments »

SP1 is available for download at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2ceb14d4-404b-4d8f-8a21-ebfc71b2e82

View a list of new features at:
http://blogs.technet.com/fss/archive/2007/08/13/forefront-security-for-sharepoint-with-service-pack

Elan Shudnow :: Nov.29.2007 :: Exchange, Forefront :: No Comments »