Another month has gone by so here’s the digest listing of posts to my “Exchange Unwashed” blog on WindowsITPro.com. After a year or so of posting to WindowsITPro, I’ve settled into a routine of publication every Tuesday and Thursday. Given the imminent arrival of Exchange 2013, I’m trying to split posts between those relating to new technology (Exchange 2013 and Outlook 2013) and everything else. We’ll see how this routine survives during September, especially when attending the Microsoft Exchange Conference (MEC) in Orlando on September 24-26.
Soft or Hard Deletes for Moved Mailboxes (August 30). This post was in my “pending” queue for a while and deals with the small but important change Microsoft made to the Mailbox Replication Service (MRS) in Exchange 2010 SP1. Instead of blowing away a moved mailbox from its source location after a successful move, Exchange now “soft deletes” the mailbox just in case something catastrophic occurs before the newly moved mailbox can be secured with a backup or replication within a DAG.
Exchange 2013 Modern Public Folders (August 28). Some thoughts on the “modern” public folders that will make their debut in Exchange 2013 to replicate the older version that’s been grimly hanging on since Exchange 4.0 (1996). I’m generally positive about the change but some caveats still exist that need to be resolved with knowledge gained during the migration process and then when operating the newer folders. We’ll see in due course.
The Basic Impossibility of Renaming an Exchange Server (August 23). You might know this because you’ve had occasion to need to rename an Exchange server, but basically this is an exercise in futility. It’s not supported and shouldn’t be attempted, unless you really, really like to perform open-heart surgery on the Active Directory. Not something to do on a production server!
Exchange 2013 console (EAC) dumps context-sensitive menus (August 21). There is much to like in Exchange 2013’s new browser-based Exchange Administration Center (EAC). But I don’t like the decision to dump the context-sensitive menus that have been a feature of Exchange management consoles since Exchange 2000. Maybe they’ll reappear in Exchange 2013 SP1.
WSUS, Exchange 2010, and the WebReady fix (August 17). A fair amount of heated commentary arose after it was discovered that WSUS required administrators to deploy Exchange 2010 SP2 RU4 because it contained the fix to the WebReady security issue. There’s nothing wrong in deploying an Exchange roll-up update – unless it changes the way that the product works, which is a small but important detail in RU4.
Automatic clean-out of Calendar and Task items now possible (but carefully) (August 16). Microsoft released Exchange 2010 SP2 RU4 on August 14 and it contains a very important update for the Managed Folder Assistant (MFA) in that MFA is now able to apply retention policies to calendar and task items. Before deploying RU4, you have to be sure that MFA’s new power won’t wreak havoc in user mailboxes. A small, but pressing, concern.
Exchange 2013 focuses on RPC-over-HTTPS (August 14). One of the big changes in Exchange 2013 is the dropping of direct MAPI connections between clients such as Outlook and the Client Access Server (CAS), which serves as the MAPI endpoint in Exchange 2010. All communications are now going to be in the mode of Outlook Anywhere, where HTTP wraps MAPI RPCs en route to the CAS. This should make communications easier, but the devil is likely to be in the detail.
White paper on Microsoft internal deployment of Active Directory Rights Management Services (August 9). Another post that had been in my pending queue for a while, ever since I found the white paper last January! It’s an interesting and worthwhile document to read if you have any interest at all in the deployment or management of ADRMS.
Exchange 2013’s browser-based management console drops EMS learning tools (August 7). Another observation about change in Exchange 2013’s EAC. The problem, at least as I see it, is that EAC drops three valuable PowerShell learning tools that help administrators understand the syntax and use of the extensive cmdlet set supported by Exchange. I think this is a great pity, so start to lobby now for these facilities to be reintroduced in Exchange 2013 SP1.
Self-signed Certificates Lead to Many Problems (August 2). I don’t think many people use self-signed certificates for production Exchange servers. But if you do, you should read about a potential problem that’s lurking in the undergrowth and then break out your checkbook and sign up for some commercial certificates.
Now on to September!
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