TECH

First Day of Tech Ed in Barcelona.

Exchange Multi Forest Migration

Not a very good session this one unfortunately as it was the first one I went to. One of the presenters wasn’t that good and there was no structure to it. I know it was meant to be a chalk and talk but I did feel like there needed to be a bit more structure and good examples. Came away from this one with not a lot learnt. Stuff I did pick up

Exchange 2007 has a cross forest migration tool as standard

If you do build a multiple forest, where one of the forests is for Exchange and another contains the resources then the Exchange forest can’t also have mailboxes in it.

When you use the move mailbox migration tool OST files can be lost when the user logs back into Outlook. Running the tool with the /clone switch will prevent this from happening. Saves a lot of time in deployments with remote users.

There are two version of MIIS. A cut down version which is free will allow you to GAL sync multiple forests. It sounds like very basic functionality is there but anything other than the basics requires some tweaking.

IOREPL is a tool that allows you to sync the free / busy times between exchange organisations.

Exchange 2007 doesn’t use free / busy it uses an availability service if you are in pure 2007 and outlook 2007 mode. If you are using Outlook 2003 then it has to create the free / busy public folders for compatibility. Exchanged 2007 can connect to other Exchange 2007 organisations and read / busy information built in. You create a connector to the URL of the Availability service.

Softgrid

First time I had seen softgrid under the Microsoft banner. The hall was quite packed for this one so obviously a lot of interest. It was a lightning demo, which was basically a 25 minute slot to get through the basics of what softgrid does.

To deliver an application you have to sequence the application first. This gets it ready to be deployed by softgrid. We didn’t actually see this happen but I imagine it’s a bit like any packing software where you install the app and it records the files needed and registry changes and stores them into a sequence file. Applications can be dos / 16 bit or 32 bit

The rights to be able to run the applications are controlled in AD using security groups.

Apps can be published as icons / start menu items. File extensions can also be configured.

It is best practice to NOT deliver office using softgrid. The main version of office should be deployed to the desktop using other means so it is running natively. Other versions of office that are needed to run can be deployed using softgrid to avoid any conflicts.

When a user is added to the security group they get the application icons. Clicking on the icon streams the application down to the PC. Looking in task manager the application appears as a process on the PC and is using resources on the PC. All the files and registry entries needed are stored in the streaming cache.

Because registry entries and files are in the cache this leaves the PC very clean. Applications can be added and removed without disrupting the core build.

Due to the sandbox effect this has then applications don’t need to be tested against each other as inter application conflicts wont happen.

Not all of the application is streamed down. Only the bits that are required to run what is needed are pulled down.

Application settings are stored in the users profile much like in Terminal Server where specific settings are saved into users folders so that as they move from server to server applications retain the user customisation.

Softgrid has an offline mode where applications can be pre cached so that the application is available when off the network

just been out for pizza and Sangria so notes might ramble a bit now

An Introduction to Exchange 2007

Exchange 2007 is expected to go RTM in December 2006

5 Server Roles

Edge Server – Placed in DMZ and no direct AD access. Used for SMTP gateway and Anti Virus and Anti Spam provided by Forefront. Uses a local copy of AD. ADAM. Push sync using LDAP.

Mailbox Server – holds mailboxes

Hub Transport – Replaces MTA. All email flows through these even email between two people on same server.

Client Access – Outlook Web Access / Active Sync / RPC over HTTP / IMAP / POP3

Unified Message Server – Voice server / Fax. Opens up mobile email to anyone that has a mobile phone. No data costs.
Supports Localisation so messages can be read in other languages
Can be used as receptionist greeting callers and putting them through to extensions based on voice prompts and lookups in the GAL.

Continuous replication – Log shipping. Ability to log ship to another disk on server to protect against disk failure or send to another server. Can be clustered

Transport rules can be applied which are like content checking. Outlook rules but on a server level. Can be used to re-route email based on content, bounce it, add headers and footers etc

OWA auto complete addresses is now supported in OWA. Auto complete cache stored on server.

Activesync supports Out of Office setting and ability to search through all email stored on Exchange server and will return a list of results which can be viewed.

2007 can be piloted without a license and then to move to production a license can be added. No need to re-install.

Exchange databases can be moved between servers and easily mounted.

Microsofts deployment of Exchange 2007 is currently
80 mailboxes
All inbound mail is via 2007
All routing is done in 2007

They also have 202 early adopter customers with 35,000 mailboxes.

Exchange 2007 routing

Exchange notes connector still works in Exchange 2007

If clustering Exchange 2007 then the cluster cant run the Hub Role

Hubs auto load balance. Hubs are AD site aware. Load balancing occurs locally in the site.
Inter site communication is hub to hub
AD sites are used for routing. No configuration is needed

Routing will always try and make a direct connection from start to end server rather than hop. If that isn’t possible then will hop. It is possible to force it to use hubs using a command.

If you installed 2007 into Exchange 2003. 2007 appears as another routing group. A connector is auto configured.

If you create multiple 2003 – 2007 connections then you must disable Link State on all 2003 servers first