MS Exchange 2007 FAQ

This is only some of the Ms Exchange 2007 FAQ

Q.

Why did Microsoft make the decision to offer Exchange 2007 as a 64-bit application?

A.

Exchange has been operating within the same 32-bit architecture for the past 10 years, since Exchange 4.0. The messaging environment has evolved over time into a mission-critical application for most businesses today, and demands placed on messaging systems will continue to grow. We witness this growth through the increase of e-mail traffic and larger attachments that now require larger mailboxes to store these messages. Users are also accessing their e-mail in more ways, such as with mobile devices, through Web browsers using Outlook Web Access, and other applications, including Microsoft Office Communicator, MSN desktop search, and Microsoft Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications. Trends indicate that demands on messaging systems will continue to grow and 64-bit servers provide the system architecture to meet these demands while reducing costs within organizations through server and disk storage consolidations. With a larger addressable space, the Exchange servers can utilize more memory thereby reducing the required input/output per user (IOPS), enabling the use of larger disks as well as low cost storage such as SATA2 drives. Testing at Microsoft has shown an IOPS decrease of approximately 70% with Exchange Server 2007 on 64-bit hardware. Our beta customers have been able to directly translate this into an increased utilization of current drives in their storage area networks (SAN) as well as new direct attached storage (DAS) topologies, thus significantly reducing their storage costs, which make up roughly 80 percent of hardware capital costs today.

Q.

Why isn't Microsoft also delivering a 32-bit version of Exchange Server 2007?

A.

Exchange Server 2007 is designed to be a stable, reliable enterprise messaging platform that delivers the fundamentals of e-mail and calendaring while providing innovative new capabilities. These new capabilities make the messaging system more cost effective and scalable for your organization and at the same time more productive for users accessing the system. Simply put, given the new capabilities of Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft could not guarantee a high-quality 32-bit version.

Q.	Which 64-bit processors will be supported by Exchange Server 2007?
A.	Exchange Server 2007 will support servers with "x64" processors. Most new servers today ship with processors from Intel and AMD that include this x64 support, called Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T) by Intel and AMD64 by AMD. Exchange Server 2007 will not offer support for Itanium (IA-64) processors, which are intended for more processor-intensive database and business applications.

Q.	Will I need Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 to run Exchange Server 2007?
A.	Yes, to deploy Exchange Server 2007, you will need an x64 edition of Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 R2. Volume-licensing customers are free to exchange their 32-bit version of Windows for the 64-bit version at any time, using their media kits.

Q.

How can I upgrade my current Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003 environment to Exchange Server 2007?

A.

When upgrading to Exchange Server 2007, you cannot perform an in-place server upgrade on an existing Exchange server. Instead, you must install a new Exchange Server 2007 system into the existing organization, and then move the required data to the new server–a process known as migration. Exchange Server 2007 will also support mixed environments that include Exchange 2000 Server and/or Exchange Server 2003, allowing for an easier and more gradual transition. You can find more detailed information about planning and deployment on the Exchange Server 2007 TechCenter, which will continue to be updated with more guidance and tools as we get closer to general availability.

Q.

What are server roles?

A.

Exchange Server 2007 is a modular system of five server roles. Server roles add flexibility to Exchange environments, simplify deployment, and improve scalability and manageability. The five server roles in Exchange Server 2007 are: • Hub Transport: The Hub Transport server role (formerly referred to as "bridgehead") handles internal transport and routing and is tightly integrated with Active Directory directory services. The Hub Transport role can also apply policies to messages to enforce compliance requirements. • Client Access: The Client Access server role enables mailbox access through Outlook Web Access, POP3, IMAP4, Outlook Anywhere (formerly known as remote procedure call [RPC] over HTTP), and Exchange Server ActiveSync. • Edge Transport: The Edge Transport server role provides antivirus and anti-spam protection for the Exchange organization at the perimeter of the network. • Mailbox: The Mailbox server role is responsible for hosting mailbox databases. A mailbox database contains users' e-mail, calendar, contact, and task data. • Unified Messaging: The Unified Messaging server role enables users to receive voice mail, e-mail, fax messages, and calendar information in their Exchange inbox; voice access to the inbox from any phone; and speech-enabled Automated Attendant functionality that allow callers to interact through touch tone menus or their voice using speech recognition.

Q.	Can the Exchange Server 2007 server roles be deployed and configured on the same physical hardware?
A.	Yes, all Exchange Server 2007 server roles—except for the Edge Transport server role or, when clustering, the Mailbox server role—can be deployed on a single physical server.

For more just go to Frequently Asked Questions about Exchange Server 2007 Beta 2

How to force update to SUS Server

Simple copy and paste the code below into a text file and name it AUForceUpdate.cmd

====================================================
@echo off
Echo This batch file will Force the Update Detection from the AU client by:
Echo 1. Stops the Automatic Updates Service (wuauserv)
Echo 2. Deletes the LastWaitTimeout registry key (if it exists)
Echo 3. Deletes the DetectionStartTime registry key (if it exists)
Echo 4. Deletes the NextDetectionTime registry key (if it exists)
Echo 5. Restart the Automatic Updates Service (wuauserv)

Pause
@echo on
net stop wuauserv
REG DELETE "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update" /v LastWaitTimeout /f
REG DELETE "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update" /v DetectionStartTime /f
Reg Delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update" /v NextDetectionTime /f
net start wuauserv

@echo off
Echo This AU client will now check for the Updates on the Local SUS Server.
Echo After 10-20 mts Have a look at C:\Window\Windows update.log
Echo For any errors; feel free to post on the forum & I will try to help out.
Pause
====================================================

Or

During normal operations, the Automatic Update client will check-in to the SUS Server every 17 to 22 hours to detect approved updates. It is possible to force the detection process.

Steps
1 Stop the "Automatic Updates" Service
2 Check that the "AUState" registry value, located at:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Updateis set to "2"
3 Delete the "LastWaitTimeout" registry value, located at:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update4 Start the "Automatic Updates" Service.

The Automatic Update client will begin the update detection process in approximately 10 minutes.

If an admin-priv user is logged on they will be presented with the option to install any updates that downloaded, otherwise the computer will wait for the next scheduled install time.

Restore Track-IT 6.5 on new server

There are two reference of documents you should follow to restore Track-IT on new server. The documents are TIA01022 and TIA01631 .

1. Install Track-IT 6.5 on new server.

2. Copy the following folders to new server ..\Track-It! 6.5\Track-It! Server - Enterprise Edition

- WOATTACH
- PROFILES
- CUSTRPTS
- DATA
- COMMON

3. Copy the following files from the root of the original ..\Track-It! 6.5\Track-It! Server - Enterprise (or Professional/Standard) Edition directory to the new server installation directory:

- Trackit.cfg
- Translat.txt
- Translat.def
- Language.txt
- Language.def
- Locale.txt
- Local.def
- Trackit.ddf
- OPHours.xml
- Auditcfg.ini

4. Restore the database TrackIt65 to new server

5. Download following SQL Script

6. On the new SQL Server, run Query Analyzer from Start -> Programs -> Microsoft SQL Server.

7. Specify a period (.) or the name of the SQL Server.

8. Select "SQL Server authentication" and enter in the credentials of the SA account or any SQL account that has System Administration rights.

9. Click Ok to Login.

10. Copy the information from the script into the Query Analyzer window

11. When the script is ready to run press the F5 key to execute the script.

Delegate Email or Send on Behalf in MS Exchange 2003

1. Open user account properties --> select Exchange General tab --> select Delivery Option button.
2. Add other user in Send on Behalf.

Using EXMERGE to restore certain item from the user mailbox

1. Go to System Manager --> righ click on Exchange Server --> Choose New --> Recovery Storage Group.
2. Right click on Recovery Storage Group --> add database to recover.
3. Open Backup Utility and choose Restore. Select the mailbox store and click on Start Restore. Choose only Last Restore Set as an option.
4. Go to System Manager --> Recovery Storage Group --> Mount Store
5. Open Active Directory User & Computer --> Open properties of user account --> Select Exchange Advanced tab --> Open Mailbox Right --> clcik on Advanced button --> Add Domain Admins & Allow Full Mailbox Access.
7. Copy EXMERGE application to "bin" folder under exchange folder.
8. Open Run --> browse to Exmerge.exe --> click Next --> choose one step procedure --> put your Exchange server name --> select the Recovery Storage Group --> select user mailbox you want to merge --> next to finish.
9. Check email in user mailbox.

MS Exchange 2003 Front End Server

1. Move all user mailbox from Front End server to Back End server.
2. Go to System Manager --> Front End server --> Go to properties
3. In Server properties, in General tab, choose "Enable Front End Server"
4. In Front End server, disable and stop following services:
- MS Exchange MTA Stack
- MS Exchange Routing Engine
- MS Exchange Management
5. In Front End server, restart following services:
- MS Exchange SA
- MS Exchange Information Store
- World Wide Web Publishing
6. Test by logon to OWA front end server.

Backup & Restore Exchange Server 2003 Database

Backup Exchange 2003 Database

Backup Exchange Database using Backup Utility from Windows Server 2003 (Online backup fro MS Exchange Server).

Restore Exchange 2003 Database

1. Open MS Exchange System Manager, go to mailbox store need to be restore. Dismount Store the mailbox.
2. Go to Mailbox Store properties, select Database tab, then select (checkmark) "This database can be overwritten by a restore". Finally close System Manager.
3. Open Windows Backup utility, then select Restore. Select the mailbox store backup then click "Start Restore"
4. On the opening window, select the proper Exchange Server you want to restore, then put temp folder location.
5. Choose "Last Restore Set" if you are in the last set of tape backup (Say it your mailbox store backup data reside in three tapes).
6. Choose also "automatically mount database"
7. Open System Manager, your Mailbox Store back to online.