WebRelease 1.1 tools on the web today (including EXBPA and others)

 

Today we see the release of the "Web Release 1.1" tool downloads at: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/downloads/2003.asp

There are a bunch of great new tools and updates to existing tools.  The big release today, of course, is the Exchange "Best Practices Analyzer" tool which can be used to scan your Exchange organization for a bunch of different known-problems and best practice suggestions. The "All Tools" package has also been updated.

Here's the list of changes and brief explanations:

Tool Display Name: ExBPA 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DBAB201F-4BEE-4943-AC22-E2DDBD258DF3

 

Short Description
ExBPA is a tool that allows for getting a snapshot of an Exchange deployment and storing the data in an XML file for further study and analysis. Read JonAv's post about the ExBPA release over at the Exchange Team blog.

 

WR11 New/Update
New 

 

 

Tool Display Name: Jetstress 2004

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=94B9810B-670E-433A-B5EF-B47054595E9C&displaylang=en  

 

Short Description
Jetstress helps to evaluate the hardware storage by simulating the Exchange disk input/output (I/O) load. Specifically, Jetstress simulates the Exchange database and log file loads produced by a specified number of users.

Jetstress enables you to do two types of tests: the Jetstress Disk Performance Test and the Jetstress Disk Subsystem Stress Test. The Disk Performance Test runs for two hours and enables you to verify the performance and sizing of your storage solution. The Disk Subsystem Stress Test runs for 24 hours and enables you to test the server storage reliability over a longer time. Running both tests is the best way to verify the integrity and performance of your disk subsystem.

 

WR11 New/Update
New

 

Usage / Documentation
Launch JetStressUI.exe, select the tests to run, fill in the user profile information and the database and log drives path. Start running the test, and once the test is completed, the result will be displayed in the html format.

 

 

Tool Display Name: MSSearch Admin

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=46FD5644-BD0D-4CFA-95F8-64BA34BDE6A7&displaylang=en

 

Short Description
MSSearch Admin determines which Exchange Stores in the domain have Full-Text Indexes, provides status on indexes and supports administration via command line.

 

WR11 New/Update
New

 

Usage / Documentation
Command line VBS script with several options documented in the accompanying documentation.  Output is directed to an XML file if the Output option is used.  Output goes to the screen if no output file named.

 

  

Tool Display Name: SmtpDiag

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=BC1881C7-925D-4A29-BD42-71E8563C80A9&displaylang=en

 

Short Description
SmtpDiag is a troubleshooting tool designed to work directly on a Windows server with IIS/SMTP service enabled or with Exchange Server installed. It utilizes the same APIs as Windows and Exchange in order to diagnose configuration and connection issues involving SMTP and DNS. 

 

WR11 New/Update
New

 

Usage / Documentation
SMTPDIAG from rcpt [-d external dns] [/v] [/?]

 

from address  
Address of local mail box. Used for verifying "mail from" as well as checking inbound DNS.

 

rcpt address
Email Address of remote mail box you are attempting to send mail to.  Used to verify DNS as well as remote mail box availability.

 

-d external dns       
IP address of External DNS server used by Exchange to determine remote MX records.  This is not an option for IIS SMTP.

 

/?
Displays Help

 

  

Tool Display Name: Auto Accept Agent

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3D0884E6-C603-491D-BF57-ACF03E046BFE&displaylang=en

 

Short Description

A store event sink that automatically processes meeting requests for resource mailboxes. The agent checks the availability of the resource mailbox based on the resource’s schedule (not free/busy), and accepts or declines new or updated meeting requests.

 

WR11 New/Update

Update

 

What’s Different?

• Allows users to customize a response message
• The "Events" perfmon counter was being counted once as the incoming item arrives, and again when we do a save before moving off to the Delete Items folder.
• Addition of performance counter to help them monitor how long the agent is taking to process requests.
• Optionally hide Response Type and Agent Version from responses
• If domain name is missing from credentials provided during setup, use current user's domain.

 

Usage / Documentation

See deployment guide at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=27921

  

  

Tool Display Name: Exchange Server Stress and Performance 2003

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=773AE7FD-860F-4755-B04D-1972E38FA4DB&displaylang=en

 

Short Description

Simulates large numbers of client sessions in a test environment, in order to test server performance. Includes modules that are used to simulate several protocols and loads. 

 

WR11 New/Update

Update

 

What’s Different

Fixed Crash in ESP.exe 6.5.7226.0 during combined DAV, IMAP, and SMTP module load. Crash occurred after about 4 days of activity without other errors.

 

Usage / Documentation

No changes

 

 

Tool Display Name: Load Simulator 2003

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=92EB2EDC-3433-47CA-A5F8-0483C7DDEA85&displaylang=en

 

Short Description

Simulates the performance load of MAPI clients, thereby enabling testing of how a server that is running Exchange Server 2003 responds to e-mail loads.

 

WR11 New/Update

Update

 

What’s Different

• Documentation change to add the remote control feature and the command line interface.  

• Loadsim didn’t report delivery time properly to lsperf.log. Previous version was miscalculating the time it took to deliver a message -- this only affected the output of lslog.exe.  Introduces new warning that will appear in the loadsim window, “Invalid DeliveryTime (%d hours)” - Message was inserted by Initialization routine and will not be included in log file.  This warning will fire whenever Loadsim reads an ‘initialization’ message, of which there are about 1000/user.

 

Usage / Documentation

No changes

 

 

Tool Display Name: Badmail Deletion and Archiving

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=782AAF0F-6239-40AD-ADDA-97863D852FF7&displaylang=en  

 

Short Description
Automatically deletes or archives files in the badmail directory of specified SMTP virtual servers. Ensures that the size of the badmail directory does not exceed specific size limits and eliminates the administrative overhead of manually archiving or deleting these files.

 

WR11 New/Update
Update (documentation only)

 

What’s Different
Documentation of usage changed from showing running the tool from “C:\bamailadmin.wsf” to “C:\Windows\System32\Cscript.exe c:\badmailadmin.wsf”

 

Usage / Documentation
No Change

 

 

Tool Display Name: Domain Rename Fixup (XDR-Fixup)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=24B47D4A-C4B9-4031-B491-29839148A28C&displaylang=en

 

Short Description
Fixes Exchange attributes in Active Directory after using the Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 domain rename tool.

 

WR11 New/Update
Update (documentation only)

 

What’s Different
Documentation change to say that domain rename with multiple routing groups and exchange server(s) with static dns name requires SMTPSVC and RESVC to be restarted on all servers that use the former as bridge-heads

 

Usage / Documentation
No Changes

 

 

Tool Display Name: Exchange Profile Update

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=56F45AC3-448F-4CCC-9BD5-B6B52C13B29C&displaylang=en  

 

Short Description
Updates Outlook profiles after moving mailboxes across Exchange organizations or administrative groups.

 

WR11 New/Update
Update (documentation only)

 

What’s Different
Documentation changed to reflect that the Exchange Profile Update tool is supported when run on the following operating systems and applications:

• Windows 2000 (all editions)
• Windows XP (all editions)
• Windows 2003 (all editions)
• Outlook 98 to Outlook 2003 

 

Tool Display Name: Importer for Lotus cc:Mail Archives

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=460FD995-588C-4F50-8A19-BD77EEC868A6&displaylang=en  

 

Short Description
Imports cc:Mail archive files to folders in an Exchange Server 2003 mailbox store or to one or more personal folder (.pst) files.

 

WR11 New/Update
Update (documentation only)

 

What’s Different
Removed several references to Exchange 2000 from CCMA Help files.

 

 

Tool Display Name: Inter-Organization Replication

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E7A951D7-1559-4F8F-B400-488B0C52430E&displaylang=en  

 

Short Description
Replicates public folder and free/busy information between Exchange organizations.

 

WR11 New/Update
Update (documentation only)

 

What’s Different

Added ini settings to documentation.

 

 

Tool Display Name: Mailbox Merge Wizard (ExMerge)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=429163EC-DCDF-47DC-96DA-1C12D67327D5&displaylang=en  

 

Short Description
Extracts data from mailboxes on one server running Exchange and merges that data into mailboxes on another server that is running Exchange.

 

WR11 New/Update
Update (documentation only)

 

What’s Different
Documented that Exmerge fails if the source mailbox is a Recovery Database and you're in a cross-forest scenario.

 

 

Tool Display Name: Application Analyzer 2003 for Lotus Notes Data Collector 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B6F78D8E-184F-49C4-BB1F-EE9A82B0893B&displaylang=en

 

Short Description
Learn about your Lotus Notes applications with this non-invasive analysis tool. This updated version supports currently available Microsoft product offerings as recommended targets (e.g. Microsoft® Office SharePoint ™ Portal Server 2003 and Microsoft® Office InfoPath(TM) 2003) and Lotus Notes releases up to and including version 6. The tool has two modules:

 

Data Collector.
Use this module to compile raw data about your Lotus Notes applications and to view an executive summary report. The Data Collector does not collect any actual data from within the databases or modify the data or databases in any way. It collects usage and structure information only. This collected information can be used by a Microsoft Certified Partner or Microsoft Consulting Services with the Data Processor to generate in-depth reports about your Notes applications and to help you develop a migration strategy.

 

Data Processor.
This separate module is only available as a service offering from either a Microsoft Certified Partner or through Microsoft Services.

 

WR11 New/Update

Update

 

What’s Different
Updated release to address globalization issues in displaying graphs in the Japanese version of the tool

Related...

[Evan's WebLog]

IMF Archive Manager Version 2 released

 

After 6 months of feedback and contributions by the folks over in the IMFAM workspace, the final release of the 2^nd IMF Archive Manager is available.

 

IMFAM is a C# GUI tool released as shared source on GotDotNet that provides a view of the IMF archive directory and the eml files in it.  It also has a preview pane that displays decoded P2 mail message properties as well as the entire raw message.  There are 5 actions: Refresh, Delete, Resubmit, Copy to Clip, and Report.  Refresh reloads the view as well as the raw message.  Delete deletes the selected message.  Resubmit moves the message to the pickup directory where it is resubmitted to the MTA and delivered.  Copy to Clip copies the entire raw message to the clipboard in case you want to paste it in another window.  Report creates a new message, attaches the selected message as an attachment, and then sends it to the recipient listed in the report settings.  In addition it optionally strips P1 headers, x-SCL header, and deletes the message if so configured in the report settings.  The report feature is useful if you want to send the UCE to reporting organizations such as http://www.spamcop.net.

 

Version 2 adds support for 4 languages; French, German, Spanish (Mexico), and Traditional Chinese (Taiwan).  It also provides a new List View that allows the messages to be previewed similar to a mail client as well as supporting multi-select operations.  Head over to http://workspaces.gotdotnet.com/imfarchive for a full list of features and to download the tool.

- James Webster

SSL Diagnostics Tool

Here's a useful tool to add to your toolbox if you get involved with configuring SSL within your Exchange environment: SSLDiag. The installation also includes an SSL FAQ guide which is really useful if you wish to learn more about SSL.

Overview:
A common problem for administrators of IIS servers is configuring and troubleshooting SSL enabled websites. To assist in administrators efforts, Microsoft has designed a tool - SSL Diagnostics - to aid in quickly identifying configuration problems in the IIS metabase, certificates, or certificate stores.

This tool allows users to review configuration information in a easy to read view mode or to run the tool silently with only the creation of a log file. During use, administrators can simulate the SSL handshake to find errors. They can also quickly "hot swap" certificates for testing purposes.

These packages come in two forms: Express and Full. The express will only give the pertinent tools for administrators to use SSL Diagnostics while full install installs the same files with the appropriate documentation. Included in the full install is a SSL Frequently Asked Questions that can assist in the learning of SSL for administrators.

How to reset the default virtual directories for Outlook Web Access in Exchange Server 2003

MS has recently released a KB article on how to reset the default virtual directories  for OWA 2003. In OWA 2000, if they got damaged or accidentally deleted, the SA would automagically recreate them on restart, but with E2K3, this function does not work the same. 

INTRODUCTION

Sometimes you must re-create the Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) virtual directories when you experience problems with Microsoft Outlook Web Access on your Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 computer. By default, Exchange Server 2003 creates the following six IIS virtual directories: Exadmin, Exchange, ExchWeb, Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync, OMA, and Public.

However, if you delete the IIS virtual directories that are used by Outlook Web Access, the virtual directories are not automatically re-created when you restart the Exchange System Attendant service. This article describes two methods that you can use to delete and to re-create the virtual directories that are used by Outlook Web Access.

Note In Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, after you delete the virtual directories for Outlook Web Access, the virtual directories are re-created when you restart the Exchange System Attendant service.

For additional information about the virtual directories for Outlook Web Access in Exchange Server 2003, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

821898 Virtual Internet Information Services (IIS) directories that are used by Outlook Web Access in Exchange Server 2003

MORE INFORMATION

To delete and to re-create the virtual directories for Outlook Web Access, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Use Metabase Explorer from the IIS 6.0 Resource Kit Tools

1. Install the IIS 6.0 Resource Kit Tools. To obtain the IIS 6.0 Resource Kit Tools, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=56FC92EE-A71A-4C73-B628-ADE629C89499&displaylang=en

   Note If you do not want to install all the IIS tools on your computer, you can install only the Metabase Explorer 1.6 component. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Double-click iis60rkt.exe, and then follow the instructions that are on your screen until you reach the Setup Type page of the IIS 6.0 Resource Kit Tools Setup Wizard.
   2. On the Setup Type page, click Custom, and the click Next.
   3. Click to clear all the IIS Resource Kit Tools and components check boxes except the Metabase Explorer 1.6 check box.
   4. Click Next, and then click Finish.
2. Back up your IIS metabase. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Start IIS Manager.
   2. Right-click Default Web Site, point to All Tasks, and then click Save Configuration to a File.
   3. In the Save Configuration to a File dialog box, type a configuration name in the File name input box, and then click OK.
3. Delete the virtual directories for Outlook Web Access. To do this, expand the Default Web Site in the left pane of IIS Manager, right-click Exadmin, and then click Delete. Click Yes when you are prompted with the question of whether you want to delete this item.
   
   Repeat this step for the following virtual directories:
   • Exchange
   • ExchWeb
   • Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync
   • OMA
   • Public
4. Quit IIS Manager.
5. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to IIS Resources, point to Metabase Explorer, and then click Metabase Explorer.
6. Expand LM, right-click DS2MB, and then click Delete. Click Yes when you are prompted with the question of whether you want to delete this key and all subkeys.
7. Quit IIS Metabase Explorer.
8. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services.
9. Right-click Microsoft Exchange System Attendant, and then click Restart. Click Yes when you are prompted with the question of whether you want to restart these services. The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service will probably be listed as one of the services that restarts.
   
   The virtual directories are re-created. To verify that the virtual directories are re-created, start IIS Manager, and then view the Default Web site folder.
   
   Important If the virtual directories are not re-created after 15 minutes, restart your computer.
10. Reset the access permissions to Anonymous. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. Start IIS Manager, right-click ExchWeb, click Properties, and then click the Directory Security tab.
    2. Under Authentication and access control click Edit, and then verify that the Enable anonymous access check box is turned on.
    3. Click to select the Integrated Windows authentication check box, click OK, and then click Apply.
    4. If you an Inheritance Overrides dialog box appears, click Select All, and then click OK.
    5. Under Authentication and access control, click Edit, and then click to clear the Integrated Windows authentication check box.
    6. Click OK two times, and then quit IIS Manager.

Use your Web browser to verify that you can connect to your Outlook Web Access server.

Method 2: Use Adsutil.exe

1. Back up your IIS Metabase. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Start IIS Manager.
   2. Right-click Default Web Site, point to All Tasks, and then click Save Configuration to a File.
2. Delete the virtual directories for Outlook Web Access. To do this, right-click Exadmin in the left pane of IIS Manager, and then click Delete. Click Yes when you are prompted with the question of whether you want to delete this item.
   
   Repeat this step for the following virtual directories:
   • Exchange
   • ExchWeb
   • Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync
   • OMA
   • Public
3. Quit IIS Manager.
4. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
5. Change to the following folder. In this example, Drive is the hard disk drive where Windows is installed:

   Drive:\inetpub\adminscripts

6. Type adsutil, and then press ENTER.
   
   Important By default, CScript is not the default scripting host for Windows Server 2003. To run the adsutil command, CScript must be configured as the default scripting host. To do this, click Yes if you are prompted to register CScript as you default host for VBscript, and then click OK.
   
   Note If you receive a list of adsutil command options, CScript is already configured as the default scripting host for VBscript.
7. Type adsutil delete ds2mb, and then press ENTER.
   
   Note To set the default scripting host to WScript, type WScript //H:WScript at the command prompt, press ENTER, and then click OK.
8. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services.
9. Right-click Microsoft Exchange System Attendant, and then click Restart. Click Yes if you are prompted with the question of whether you want to the restart other services. The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service will probably be listed as one of the services that restarts.
10. Reset the access permissions to Anonymous. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. Start IIS Manager, right-click ExchWeb, click Properties, and then click the Directory Security tab.
    2. Under Authentication and access control click Edit, and then verify that the Enable anonymous access check box is turned on.
    3. Click to select the Integrated Windows authentication check box, click OK, and then click Apply.
    4. If an Inheritance Overrides dialog box appears, click Select All, and then click OK.
    5. Under Authentication and access control, click Edit, and then click to clear the Integrated Windows authentication check box.
    6. Click OK two times, and then quit IIS Manager.

Use your Web browser to verify that you can connect to your Outlook Web Access server.

IMF on machines with 15 character names

 

If you're running Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) on an Exchange server with a 15 character servername (for instance, if your gateway with IMF installed is called ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO), you may have noticed that IMF doesn't process the inbound messages. This is because IMF does not bind properly to a server where the NetBIOS name is 15 characters in length.

There is now a hotfix available for this issue. Please see KB.873434 for more information on this problem and how to get the hotfix from Microsoft PSS.

MS Whitepaper released on Optimizing Storage for E2K3

As Chris mentioned on his blog - Microsoft has a new paper out that talks about Optimizing Storage for Exchange Server 2003.

Definitely a good read that talks about where Exchange generates most IO, what the best practices are for placing Exchange files on different types of storage and, very importantly, how storage capacity and performance efficiency do not always have to go hand in hand. Seeing that Exchange is very IO intensive, this is a very important point that can cause a lot of performance problems for Exchange clients.

Great read, please go here to get it.

TechNet Virtual Labs

Looking for something to do during your lunch hour? Why not take a look at the Technet Virtual Labs? Each module is allocated a 60 min block of time...

Step into the Exchange Server 2003 Virtual Lab for Free

It's simple—no complex setup or installation is required to try out Exchange Server 2003 running in the full-featured TechNet Virtual Lab. As part of the TechNet Virtual Lab, you will have access full access to Exchange Server 2003 through seven modules:

• 
  Configuring Microsoft Windows Server 2003 RPC Proxy
• Controlling Junk e-mail with Exchange 2003 and the Intelligent Message Filter
• Disaster Recovery with Exchange Server 2003
• Managing Exchange and Active Directory with MOM 2005
• Migrating from Exchange Server 5.5 Windows NT 4 Server to Exchange Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 Part 1
• Migrating from Exchange Server 5.5 Windows NT 4 Server to Exchange Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 Part 2
• Patching Exchange with SMS 2003

There are also Virtual Labs for ISA, MOM, SMS, Security and Windows Server 2003

New Domain Rename (Rendom.exe) tools released

Windows group released an updated set of Domain Rename tools last week -- download here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/downloads/domainrename.mspx. You'll still need to understand and follow the steps for the XDR-FIXUP utility.

Note the required Exchange version information from the website:
Important: The domain rename operation and the use of the domain rename tools is not supported in an Active Directory forest that has any version of Microsoft Exchange Server prior to Exchange Server 2003 SP1 deployed in it. 

 

What's the real difference between Standard and Enterprise Editions of Exchange Server 2003 ?

MS has posted a new KB 822440 that describes the difference between Standard edition and Enterprise edition of Exchange Server 2003. This is a nice short list and helps us remember that Front End servers do not need to be Enterprise Edition...

Common FeaturesBoth editions of Exchange 2003 feature:

• Network compression
• Exchange 2003 Management Pack
• Integrated support for mobile devices
• Volume Shadow Copy service
• Ability to be configured as a front-end server for Microsoft Outlook Web Access, Microsoft Outlook Mobile Access, Microsoft ActiveSync, Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3), Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
• Recovery Storage Group
  

Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition

Exchange 2003 Standard Edition is designed to meet the messaging and collaboration requirements of small and medium corporations and for specific messaging server roles or branch offices.

• 4 storage groups
• 1 private database
• 5 databases per storage group
• 16 gigabyte (GB) database limit
• Exchange clustering is not supported
• X.400 connector is not included
  

Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition

Exchange 2003 Enterprise Edition is designed for large enterprise corporations. With Exchange 2003 Enterprise Edition, you can create multiple storage groups and multiple databases. Exchange 2003 Enterprise Edition provides an unlimited message store that removes the constraints on how much data a single server can manage.

• 4 storage groups
• 5 databases per storage group
• 16 terabyte database limit, limited only by hardware
• Exchange clustering is supported
• X.400 connector is included

Troubleshooting message journaling in Exchange Server 2003 and in Exchange 2000 Server

Microsoft has released a good KB article on what message journaling is, how it works, and how to use it.

Excerpt:

Message journaling terminology

Bifurcation In the bifurcation process, the categorizer generates a copy of an original message to the journal recipient or to the object that is specified in Exchange System Manager to receive copies of the archived message.

XEXCH50 The XEXCH50 extension is an Extension to SMTP (ESMTP) extension that is used for relay of certain properties, such as envelope properties, message properties, and recipient properties. The PR_CONTENT_IDENTIFIER identifier in an XEXCH50 binary large object (BLOB) is set to the ExJournalData string. The ExJournalData string enables journal messages to be recognized as they move from server to server on the delivery path to the journal recipient. If the XEXCH50 binary large object is not propagated between Exchange Server computers, duplicate messages may result.

Journal Recipient The journal recipient is the mailbox or the recipient that all journaled messages are destined for. The journal recipient is the distinguished name (DN) in the msExchMessageJournalRecipient attribute of the journaled stores.

New Hotfix for Store Crashes - Exchange 2003 Post SP1

According to an article released today, after you install Exchange 2003 SP1 you may experience a crash in your Information Store because of malformed email messages.  Should this prevent you from installing SP1?  No.  But you will want to install this fix (after testing this in your test environment) to prevent crashes.  The official Microsoft response is in the article: "Only apply it to systems that are experiencing this specific problem."  But, in an effort to be "Honest and Respectful", no one wants to experience a crash (especially the Information Store), right?  Let me say one more time that you should thoroughly test this hotfix before installing this in your production environment.

This hotfix is not available for download without calling Product Support Services (PSS) for the hotfix and does require a restart of the Information Store.

872963 Information Store crashes periodically after you install Exchange Server 2003 SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=872963

XBox OWA 2003 Theme

Here is an interesting article on how to create new 2003 OWA themes.  This one is an XBOX theme, but the concept could be used to create a company specific theme. As always, discretion is recommended as the next Service Pack will probably overwrite the changes.

The XBox OWA theme has been made public according to Nino Bilic of Microsoft PSS in the Exchange Team Blog.

You can download the theme for Exchange 2003 Outlook Web Access from here.

Thanks, Nino!

Issues with using Outlook Web Access on a Windows XP SP2-based computer

Here is a good KB on the experience I had using 2003 OWA with SP2. 

Description of the known issues with using Outlook Web Access on a Windows XP SP2-based computer

Plan B if you are upgrading XP in large numbers is to create this regvalue:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\New Windows\Allow]
"frontend.company.com"=hex:

The homeMDB attribute is reset after you move mailboxes from Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2000 or to Exchange 2003

I have seen this behavior during large migrations and already set the ADC Connection Agreement to never, but this KB http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;299473 has a good explaination.

MS KB Article describing ways to optimize Outlook 2003 Cache Mode

This is an interesting article from Microsoft that discusses good/bad practices when using cache mode and ways to optimize cahe mode.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;870926

 

RSS Feeds for Exchange Administration

RSS syndication can be applied almost anywhere especially where there are incremental changes to data content.
This is not lost on Glen Scales who, as posted on his Exchange Dev Blog, has been working on a script to generate the necessary XML based on updates to the message tracking log. If message tracking is enabled, Exchange will append to a daily log, message information incrementally. There are several applications that can analyze the message tracking logs and produce reports on the content. But Glen's Exchange Message Tracking Logs RSS Feed Script is a good start toward publishing message tracking log information for people, probably management, to subscribe to down to the user level. Perhaps we will soon see management or administrators getting that information as the tracking log is updated throughout the day.
Glen has been busy applying RSS feeds concepts to Exchange administration, including the basics of an RSS Calendar Feed Event Sink and Public Folder RSS Feed Event Sink. Search his blog for more RSS ideas.
Thanks, Glen!

OWA 2003 FBA and the Default Domain

 

Exchange MVP Henrik Walther has released a new article called Outlook Web Access 2003 Forms-based Authentication and the default domain dilemma.

Summary:
Okay so you have enabled Forms-based Authentication (FBA) and your users can now logon to Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2003 either by typing domain\username or username@domain.com. But ever since you enabled FBA your users have found it annoying they can’t type username anymore.  This is an interesting solution to the problem by modifying the ISS settings a bit and by altering the logon.asp page. 

What do “Latency” and “RPC Calls Succeeded” mean in the ESM?

 

Q:  What do the “Latency” and “RPC Calls Succeeded” mean in the Exchange 2003 ESM?  To see this choose a mailbox store -> Logons -> View -> Add/Remove Columns.

 

A:  These calls are derived from the Client-side data reported by Outlook 2003 if enabled (see Gerod Serafin's previous post for more information on this).  Exchange aggregates this information per LOGON and the Outlook client will aggregate this per connection.  So, if you disconnected from the network, Outlook would include all information from multiple networks, but Exchange would only contain the average of this LOGON.  The ESM measures this latency on Milliseconds and includes the network latency as well as any server processing latency.  With a good LAN and a healthy server this should average less than 100 msecs.  This can be much larger when a client is connecting over large network distances.

 

“RPC Calls Succeeded” is just the raw count of of RPC calls that LOGON has recorded.

Current Recommendations for Memory Optimization in Exchange 2003

 

Q:  What are the current recommendations for memory optimizations in Exchange 2003?

A:  The article 815372 “How to Optimize Memory Usage in Exchange Server 2003” mentions the current recommendations.  There you will find information about the /3GB switch as well as the /USERVA switch.   What you may not have been aware about is the recommended change in the registry having to do with the HeapDeCommitFreeBlockThreshold.  The recommended value to use for HeapDeCommitFreeBlockThreshold is 0x00040000 (in hexadecimal format). For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 315407 “XADM: The 'HeapDecommitFreeBlockThreshold' Registry Key“.

You may have noticed that the Registry key name is mentioned as either HeapDeCommitFreeBlockThreshold or HeapDecommitFreeBlockThreshold (case difference) in some articles.  While some Registry key values are case sensitive, Registry key names are not, so either should work for you.

 

UPDATE:  Changed a broken link to 315407.

/3GB switch confusion

 

Raymond has posted several posts about the /3GB switch and about how it affects the Kernel. This is a frequent topic of discussion for highly scaled Exchange 2003 servers due to the recommendation that most servers with >=1gb RAM have this switch applied (see KB.823440 or KB.810371 or KB.328882 or KB.266096 or... well, that's enough for now; there are a bunch of KBs on the Exchange memory management topic.)

Since Exchange is such a memory intensive app we talk about this a bunch.  I think it's critical to understand the virtualized nature of the way memory is used on modern operating systems, and Raymond hits it on the head here.

Short version: You can run the /3GB switch on a machine with 128mb. You can run a machine with 4gb and not run the /3GB switch. There's absolutely no connection. The /3GB switch controls the allocation of the virtualized memory space provided to each process (which is generally 2gb per process, regardless of how much physical memory is present). All you're doing when you specify /3GB is changing this 2gb virtual space to be 3gb. Will you ever use the full 3gb on a machine with 128mb? Let's hope not! Your pagefile would be going crazy if you did!