Monthly Archives: March 2010

Exchange 2010 Update Rollup 2

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Today Microsoft released Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. RU2 comes 3 months after the release of RU1. The list of included fixes is not as long as with RU1, but RU2 does contain some important additional fixes over RU1:

  • 977633 Certain third-party IMAP4 clients cannot connect to Exchange Server 2003 mailboxes through an Exchange Server 2010 CAS server
  • 979431 The POP3 service crashes when a user connects to a mailbox through the POP3 protocol and the user is migrated from an Exchange Server 2003 server to an Exchange Server 2010 server
  • 979480 Users cannot receive new messages if they access mailboxes that are moved to another Exchange Server 2010 RU1 server by using IMAP4 clients
  • 979563 Exchange Server 2010 Push Notifications does not work
  • 979566 A 0x85010014 error is generated when linked mailbox users try to synchronize their mailboxes with mobile devices in a CAS-CAS proxying scenario in Exchange Server 2010
  • 980261 This fix introduces the supports for Exchange Server 2010 page patching when a “-1022” disk I/O error is generated
  • 980262 Event ID 2156 is logged on a computer that is running Exchange Server 2010

The related knowledgebase article (KB979611) can be found here. You can download Exchange 2010 Rollup 2 directly from here.

Microsoft Exchange Server Profile Analyzer

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Today Microsoft released version 8.03.0056 of the Microsoft Exchange Server Profile Analyzer (EPA). You can use EPA to collect (statistical) information from Exchange mailbox stores or an Exchange organization. For instance, you can collection information on user activity and profile statistics for sets of subsets of the mailbox population, which can be used as  input when dimensioning (upgraded) Exchange infrastructure using the Exchange Mailbox Role Calculator (being more specific than the default Light, Average, Heavy and Very Heavy user profiles). The analysis of mailbox servers or organization can also provide input for processes like capacity planning.

Usage of EPA is straightforward, check out this older article on how to use EPA here.

You can download the 32-bit version here or the 64-bit version here.

ForeFront Identity Manager 2010 RTM

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By now you’ve probably already heared ForeFront Identity Manager 2010 went RTM on March 2nd. FIM 2010 is the successor to ILM, the Identity Lifecycle Manager. FIM is an solution to manage identities and credentials in heterogeneous environments. It contains functionality for user (de)provisioning, password synchronization, group management, self-service and workflow-like applications. So for instance, FIM can enable organizations to automatically create an Active Directory user with an Exchange mailbox with all the proper settings when a new employee has been entered into the HRM system (or disabled or removed when the employee leaves the organization, depending on requirements).

You can download the trial here. More information on the FIM portal here.

Licensed to DAG

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There is some confusion on the licenses required when implementing Database Availability Groups (DAGs). Most of the times the confusion is caused by mixing up the OS license with the Exchange license. The answer is really quite simple.

DAGs use Windows Fail-Over Clustering. Fail-Over Clustering is only available in Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition (R2 included). So, each Mailbox Server that is DAG member should be W2k8(R2) Enterprise Edition. Stand-alone Mailbox Servers (i.e. non-DAG) can run on W2k8(R2) Standard Edition. Regarding the Exchange license, you can opt for Exchange 2010 Standard or Enterprise Edition. The difference is the number of databases supported running on one Mailbox Server; Standard Edition can host 5 databases, Enterprise Edition 100.

Thus:

  • DAG functionality?
    • Yes: Windows Server 2008 (R2) Enterprise Edition;
    • No: Windows Server 2008 (R2) Standard Edition.
  • 5 databases or less?
    • Yes: Exchange Server 2010 Standard Edition;
    • No: Exchange Server 2010 Enterprise Edition.

Note that you can upgrade your Exchange 2010 Standard to Enterprise Edition when the situation requires. All that is required is the product key; re-installation is not required (see this TechNet article).