Exchange Virtual Conference

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Michel de Rooij

On January 1st, 2013 The UC Architects felllow Paul Cunningham asked around to see who wanted to participate in a “virtual conference about Exchange Server, kind of a mini-MEC but purely online, 100% free, essentially a series of webinars/screencasts about Exchange Server 2010/2013”.

This Monday saw the start of the (inaugural) Exchange Virtual Conference. Paul gathered enough well-known people from the Exchange community to have a nice line-up of speakers and interesting sessions. Unfortunately, I couldn’t commit at that time nor find time after that to create a session, so I had to pass.

Here’s an overview of the sessions, which are pre-recorded and are 45-60 minutes (lunch break material):

May 27th – What’s New in Exchange 2013: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (J.Peter Bruzzese)
May 28th – Load Balancing Exchange Server 2010 and 2013 (Johan Veldhuis)
May 29th – Exchange Server 2013 Site Mailboxes (Serkan Varoglu)
May 30th – Upgrading to Exchange Server 2013 (Jaap Wesselius)
May 31st – Identity and Access Management in Office 365 (Michael van Horenbeeck)
June 1st – Exchange Server Tips from the Trenches (Paul Cunningham)

Note: List will be updated with links to sessions as they become available.

Exchange 2010 Server Role Requirements Role Calculator 20.6

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Michel de Rooij

It’s almost a year since the last update, but today the Exchange Team released version 20.6 of the Exchange 2010 Mailbox Role Calculator. The new name is Server Role Requirements, since 20.6 can also dimension Hub Transport or Client Access roles.

Enhancements since version 19.9:

Calculator now supports defining server requirements for dedicated Hub Transport and Client Access servers; specifically CPU and memory sizing.
Calculator will state how many dedicated Hub Transport and Client Access servers should be deployed in a datacenter.
Calculator now includes Hub Transport and Client Access impact on server megacycles and utilization calculations for multi-role deployments.
Global catalog processor core calculations were optimized and simplified.
Calculator has been rebranded as Exchange 2010 Server Role Requirements Calculator.
Fixed column headers in results tables to match Site Resilience scenario

Bug Fixes since version 19.9:

Fixed conditional formatting bug when site resilience is not enabled, yet SDC instance input has greater than 0 copies specified.
Fixed logic error where calculator would calculate storage requirements when there were more database copies (HA+Lagged) than Mailbox servers.
Fixed logic error in calculating remaining active databases during first and second server failures in secondary datacenter for single DAG A/A scenario.
Fixed /environment formula for standalone number of database formula.

You can download the calculator here. For more information please consult the changeblog or usage instructions.

Exchange 2013 KB articles RSS feed

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Michel de Rooij

Like most people I still use RSS feeds to keep track of news and updates from various sources. But not everyone is aware you can keep track of new or updated Microsoft’s knowledgebase articles using RSS feeds, sometimes categorized per product. I already blogged about the availability these feeds about 2,5 years ago.

Now with all the releases since then, it’s time to update this information with current products, especially with the feed for Exchange 2013 related articles becoming available recently:

For a complete list of the knowledgebase articles RSS feeds check here.

“Profiling the best Exchange Server Pros” award

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Michel de Rooij

Somebody must be happy with my recent contributions to the Exchange community.

This week I received an e-mail from Matt Gervais of TechTarget who mentioned I was nominated for their “Profiling the best Exchange Server professionals” award and if I’d like to accept the honor as their February 2013 recipient.

For those who don’t know TechTarget, they provide information aimed at IT professionals. Exchange people might know them from their Exchange-related searchexchange.techtarget.com site. This site publishes articles from Exchange MVPs like The UC Architects’ Steve Goodman, Andry Grogan or J. Peter Bruzzese.

Recognition from the community is always nice and is a great motivator, so to whoever nominated me: a big thank you. As part of the related article, Matt also asked me some quick questions on how I became involved with Exchange and why I love doing my job. You can read the short interview here.

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert: Messaging on Exchange Server 2013

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Michel de Rooij

After several weeks (I took the beta exam in November) and after results were already visible through Prometric yesterday, today I finally received confirmation through e-mail and on the MCP site that I passed both Exchange 2013 related beta exams:

I already took 70-417 Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA Windows Server 2012, which is an upgrade exam much like the previous 70-649 exam (2003->2008) and 70-292/296 (2000->2003). With officially passing 70-341 and 70-342 in conjunction with MCSA: Windows Server 2012, I’m now officially a (deep breath) Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert: Messaging on Exchange Server 2013.

Note that by passing 70-417 you’ll effectively complete the following exams:

If you don’t qualify for the 70-417 exam (details), e.g. you’re new to Microsoft certification or you’re an MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator 2007, you either pass the exams required to qualify (e.g. 70-662 and 70-663, which will expire in 2013 by the way) or you take and pass each of the mentioned Windows Server 2012 exams.

Useful resources when you want to archieve MCSE: Messaging yourself:

Certification planning, courses and preparation guides via MS Learning;
The presentations from TechEd Australia 2012 or TechEd New Zealand 2012;
The available Microsoft Exchange Conferences (MEC) 2012 videos;
The Microsoft Exchange Team blog for some in-depth Exchange 2013 related articles;
And last but not least: Exchange 2013 went Generally Available, so you can download the binaries and install it in a lab environment to get some hands-on experience. Alternatively, when resources are limit, you can use the offline Exchange 2013 Help File or Exchange 2013 Technet site for learning.
For MCSA: Windows Server 2012 related material, check MS Learning or start by watching the 70-417 Windows Server 2013 Upgrade Jump Start videos.

Note that when applying for Microsoft Certified Solutions Master (MCSM): Messaging before end of this year, you need the become an MCSA: Windows Server 2012; Starting January 1st, 2014 you need to become an MCSE: Messaging (which includes MCSA: Windows Server 2012) .