Testing mail server via telnet

I get asked for the steps alot so here you go; specific to Exchange/Windows SMTP (some mail servers have slightly different steps)

1.Telnet exchangeserver.domain.local 25
This will connect to your mail server on port 25
2. Type "EHLO" to open the session
3. type "MAIL FROM: yourname@somedomain.com
4. type "RCPT TO: this is the domain hosted by exchange to which you want to test relay.
5. type "DATA"
6. Type your message
7. Then terminate the message with enter . enter
8. Type "QUIT"

OT: SC DPM 2007

First of all I really like DPM and found it very easy to setup if you can find the right DOCS (don't read the help file, use technet and search the internet). Also, most of the errors I encountered were resolved via newsgroups, blogs etc so it can be a little trying. I'm currently using it to backup Exchange 07 CCR, MOSS 2007, SQL 2000, SQL 2005 and domain controllers. Exchange 07, DC's and SQL 2000 were very easy. SQL 2005 required SP2 and sharepoint took some other steps as well. This is a great doc to get started: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb808827.aspx

One thing I did not find on the internet was a sharepoint problem I was having. I was getting an error stating "this windows sharepoint services farm cannot be protected......". It turns out you cannot backup the SP databases separately from the farm, so I removed the SP db's from the DPM protection group and SP is backing up just fine; now off to test the restore.

Forefront for Exchange re-install for SP1

So the only way I could get exchange 2007 sp1 to install was to uninstall forefront, then re-install it after the sp1 install. This was fine in the lab, but i was very worried about doing this in production because of the customizations I had performed and 30 days of messages in quarantine. It turns out, all custom lists, customizations and quarantines are preserved even with a full uninstall then re-install. Way to go Microsoft!

SP1 and ActiveSync

Make sure you've got an activesync policy defined and applied to your users that have windows mobile devices prior to installing SP1 otherwise they'll get the new 'default' policy which has been shown to break sync is some WM5 devices.

SP1 install woes part II

Uninstalling forefront for exchange, then sp1, then re-installing FF worked, but i'll have to find some other way to work it when i roll production as i've got to many customizations in my production forefront.

Also, i've just started playing with the public folder management GUI, which appears to only let you manipulate the send as permission. I'm guessing MS is expecting us to use outlook or powershell for public folder client permissions (or I just missed an option); a little disappointing.

Well I'll be banging away at SP1 for the next few weeks and post what else I find.

SP1 install woes with forefront

On a test exchange server i've upgraded to the latest version of forefront (at least latest available through MVLS 10.0.0.556), and the pre-req check of SP1 doesn't like it at all. Ive followed MS KB 929080, but to no avail. Still getting this:

Error:Setup cannot continue with the upgrade because Forefront Security for Exchange Server 10.0 was detected. Forefront Security for Exchange Server 10.0 needs to be upgraded to a compatible version of Forefront Security for Exchange Server first and its services need to be disabled to upgrade Exchange Server 2007.Recommended Action: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=30939&l=en&v=ExBPA.3&id=6dfac22b-581a-4e10-938b-5f2498ead01d

I'm thinking i'll uninstall FF on the test box, install SP1 then attempt to reinstall forefront and re-post my findings.

Complete List of Exchange Powershell Cmdlets

I'm often asked "Hey Knightly, how dow you always know about a cmdlet i've not heard of or seen?"...well its easy. They are all listed here, its tedious, but worth spending a couple hours to at least get the high level view of all the cmdlets.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123703.aspx

POP and IMAP on Exchange 07

I get asked this a lot. "I enabled the POP and IMAP services on my CAS server, but POP and IMAP don't work, what's wrong?"

Well, nothing is wrong there are just a few more steps. 1st, you may need to configure your POP/IMAP configuration settings. Mainly most people have to change the authentication type using the command set-popsettings or set-imapsettings ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997154.aspx for set-popsettings...switches are the same for pop-imapsettings)

Also, you have to enable pop or imap for the user mailbox using the set-casmailbox cmdlet. Something like set-casmailbox -identity "new pop user" -popenabled $true . Or, you can get the syntax for that here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125264.aspx

Happy popping and imaping :-)

Installing Certs on your CAS server

If you can, install the certs before you install the CAS role. This way exchange can just pick up and use the pre-installed cert/certs instead of creating self-signed certs which you'll have to go change later to keep owa/activesync/outlook from kicking errors.

4 Great Reasons to License the Enterprise CAL for Exchange 07

1. Exchange Hosted Services. I implemented EHS in August of 07 and since then on average about 90% of my incoming mail is stopped by EHS thereby saving my proccessing time and power of my edge servers. Not to mention an avg of 400mb/day of internet traffic.

2. Forefront Security for Exchange: So i've got EHS scanning with 3 engine types and Forefront scanning with three different engine types. I sleep well at night. Forefront has also been great for attachement blocking and quarantine.

3. Unified Messaging. Gotta get rid of audix ASAP. Can't wait to have voicemail to email implemented. I'm still waiting on our S8700 SIP gateway to start working though :-)

4. Per-User/Per-Distribution List Journaling: The snoops in HR love this feature.

A handy site for recovering deleted items

I, for one, can never remember how to pull PF info from the dumpster. Handy site:
http://www.amset.info/outlook/recoverdeleteditems.asp

ATT Tilt and WM6

Wahuu! Wild Card certificate support in mobile 6 and its working great. I gotta say after 3 days I love the tilt. The built in GPS works well with google maps or there is a turn by turn application you can purchase for 10 bux a month. Now if only i could load my favorite golf courses into it.....

Connections days 2 and 3

I just don't know how to pick the right classes to attend I guess. Overall, pretty dissapointed. The Exchange 07 stuff was all pretty 100-200 level while the Server 08 stuff just wasn't impressive. Well, better luck next year.

Connections day 1

Not as good as last year so far, but picking up usefull info here and there. I think the next 2 days of sessions will be a lot better. I'm very excited for server 2008 terminal services and I did learn some helpful stuff with powershell scripting. I'll post again as I write some nifty scripts.

Exchange Connections

Going to Exchange Connections conference next week. I'm really excited, and can't decide which sessions to attend between windows, exchange and sharepoint. Not to mention some vegas booze sounds like a nice break from the office. Check back and I'll post the cool stuff I learn.

ESMTP and PIX firewalls

If you have a PIX firewall be sure to disable SMTP packet inspection or you'll see some serious mail delays/failures with certain ISPs. For more info, see Cisco's article here:

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/110/mailserver.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/vpndevc/ps2030/products_configuration_example09186a008067cf3b.shtml

Delayed Fan-Out Routing.

A previous post called 'a wierd one' may be solved with the info below, although i'm not entirely sure....the text below comes from a microsoft online course.

A message flow is disrupted if no Hub Transport server is available in the destination site. In such a situation, the message is routed to the closest Hub Transport server along the most optimal route. This is referred to as Queuing Messages at the Point of Failure.
The closest Hub Transport server then delivers the message when a Hub Transport server in the destination site becomes available. If a message has to be delivered to recipients at multiple sites, a copy of the message is delivered directly to the recipients at each site.
However, if destination Hub Transport servers are not available, then the source Hub Transport server delays making copies of the message for each recipient and sends a single message that is queued for delivery at the Hub Transport server that is closest to the destination sites.
When the destination sites become available, the queued message is sent to each site with a recipient. This is referred to as Delayed Fan-Out Routing.

Mailbox move fails if user password is expired

So I attempted moving a user mailbox back from 2003 to 2007 and it kept failing. Turns out, the user’s password was expired so exchange couldn’t open the source mailbox. I wonder if there will be a fix out for that. The same behavior also occurs when the user is set to ‘change password at next logon’

Phoenix Unified Communications User Group

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/phxunifiedcom/

We meet every other month. The yahoo groups site is just being started so check back. We cover OCS and Exchange.

Some Deep thoughts (a funny one I hope; jack handy style)

Sometimes I wonder if Exchange appreciates all the work i give it, or is it like that alchoholic uncle that makes you mow the lawn then do the truffle shuffle and only gives you a beer that you don't like anyway because your 10 :-)

A weird one

I'm currently running mixed Exchange 2003/2007 environment. I have all my DL's set to expand on on the 2007 hub tranport servers. During an Exchange 03 cluster failover, I sent an email to a DL that contained 15 users, all but 1 on Exchange 03. The message was not delivered until the 03 failover had completed.

Expected behaviour would have been that the message was delivered to the 2007 users and put in the RG connector queue for the 2003 user. I'll repost when i find out what the root cause is, assuming I can re-create.

Welcome to my blog

I thought i'd just start off by saying hello and thanks for stopping by. I'm an email admin for a medium sized company and I thought i'd start blogging about the exchange stuff i deal with.