Comparing public folder item counts

A question that is often asked of support in regard to legacy Public Folders is whether they are replicating and how much progress they are making.  The most common scenario for asking this question arises when the administrator is adding a new Public Folder database to the organization and replicating a large amount of data to it.  What commonly happens is that the administrator calls support and says "The database on the old server is 300GB, but the new database is only 150GB!  How can I tell what still needs to be replicated?  Is it still progressing??"  The administrator can raise diagnostic logging for public folders, but reading the events to see what folders are replicating is tedious.  Most administrators want a more detailed way of estimating the progress of replication than comparing file sizes.  They also want to avoid checking all the individual replication events.

There are a number of ways to monitor the progress of the replication so that one can make a guess as to how long a particular environment will take to complete an operation.  In this blog I am going to provide a detailed example of one approach to estimating the progress of replication by comparing item counts between different public folder stores.

To get the item counts in an Exchange 2003 Public folder database you can use PFDAVAdmin.  The process is outlined in this previous EHLO blog post.  For what we are doing below you will need the displayname, folderpath and the total number of items in the folder; the rest of the fields are not necessary.

To get the item counts on an Exchange 2007 Server you use (remember there is only one Pub per server):

Get-publicfolderstatistics -server <servername> | export-csv c:\file1.txt

To get the item counts on an Exchange 2010 server you use:

Get-publicfolderstatistics -server <servername> -resultsize unlimited | export-csv c:\file1.txt

There are some very important caveats to this whole procedure.  The things you need to watch out for are:

• We are only checking item counts.  If you delete 10 items and add 10 items between executions of the statistics data gathering this type of query will not reveal whether they have replicated.  Therefore having the same number on both sides is not an assurance that the folders are in sync. 
• If you are comparing folders that contain recurring meetings the item counts can be different on Exchange 2007 and older because of the way WebDAV interacts with those items
• I have seen many administrators try to compare the size of one Public Folder database to the size of another.  Such an approach to checking on replication does not take into account space for deleted items, overhead and unused space.  Checking item counts is more reliable than simply comparing item sizes
• The two databases might be at very different stages of processing replication messages.  It is unlikely that both pubs will present the same numbers of items if the folders are continuously active.  Even if the folders are seeing relatively low activity levels it is not uncommon for the item count to be off by one or two items because the replication cycle (which defaults to every 15 minutes) simply hasn't gotten to the latest post
• If you really want to know if two replicas are in sync try to remove one.  If Exchange lets you remove the instance then you know Exchange believes the folders are in sync.  If Exchange cannot confirm the folders are in sync it will keep the instance until it can complete the backfill from it.  In most cases the administrators I have spoken with are not in a position where they can use this approach.

For the actual comparison you can use any number of products.  For this blog I have chosen Microsoft Access for demonstrating the process of comparing the CSV files from the different servers.  To keep things simple I am going to use the Jet database engine packaged with Access.  There are some limitations to my approach:

• Jet has a maximum file size of 2GB so if your public folder infrastructure is particularly large (i.e.  your CSV files are over 500MB) you may have to switch to using Microsoft SQL.
• I am not going to compare public folders with a Folder path greater than 254 characters because the Jet database engine that ships with Access cannot join memo fields in a query.  Working around the join limitation by splitting the path across multiple text fields is beyond the scope of this blog.
• I am going to look at folders that exist in both CSV files.   If the instance has not been created and its data exported into the CSV file the folder will not be listed.

An outline of the process is:

• Export the item counts from the two servers you wish to compare
• Import the resulting text files
• Clean up the data for the final query
• Run a query to list the item counts for all folders that are in Both files and the difference in the item counts between the originally imported files

Assumptions for the steps below:

• You have exported the public folder statistics with the PowerShell commands presented above
• You have fields named FolderPath, ItemCount and Name in the CSV file

If your file is different than expected you will have to modify the steps as you go along

Here are the steps for conducting the comparison:

1. Create a new blank Microsoft Access database in a location that has more than double the size of your CSV files available as free space.

2. By default export-csv places a line at the top of the text file.  This line will interfere with the import so we need to remove it.  Open each CSV file in notepad (this can take a while for larger files) and remove the line highlighted below.  In this example the line starting with "AdminDisplayName" would become the topmost line of the file.  Once the top line is deleted close and save the file.

 
Figure 1

3. Import the CSV file to a new table:

• Click on the External Data tab as highlighted in Figure 2
• Browse to the CSV file and select it (or type in its path and name directly)
• Make sure the "Import the source data into a new table in the current database' option is selected
• Click OK

 
Figure 2

4. In the wizard that starts specify the file is delimited as shown and then click Next.

 
Figure 3

5. Tell the wizard that the text qualifier is the double quote (character 34 in ASCII), the delimiter is the comma and that the "First Row Contains Field Names" as shown in Figure 4.

Note:  It is possible that you will receive a warning when you click "First Row Contains Field Names".  If any of the field names violate the rules for a field name Access will display a warning.  Don't panic.  Access will replace the non-conforming names with ones it considers appropriate (typically Field1, Field2, etc.).  You can change the names if you wish on the Advanced screen.

 
Figure 4

6. Switch to Advanced view (click the Advanced button highlighted in Figure 4) so that we can change the data type of the FolderPath field.  In Access 2010 and older the data type needs to be changed from Text to Memo.  In Access 2013 it needs to be changed from Short Text to Long Text.  While we are in this window you have the option to exclude columns that are not needed by placing a checkmark in the box from the skip column.  In this blog we are only going to use the FolderPath, name and the item count.  You can also exclude fields earlier in the process by specifying what fields will be exported when you do the export-csv.  The following screenshots show the Advanced properties window.

 
Figure 5a: Access 2010 and older

 
Figure 5b: Access 2013

Note:  If you think you will be doing this frequently you can use the Save As button to save your settings.  The settings will be saved inside the Access database and can then be selected during future imports by clicking on the Specs button.

7. Click OK on the Advanced dialog and then click Finish in the wizard.

8. When prompted to save the Import steps click Close.  If you think you will be repeating this process in the future feel free to explore saving the import steps.

9. Access will import the data into a table.  By default the table will have the same name as the source CSV file.  The files used in creating this blog were called 2007PF_120301 and 2010 PF_120301.  If there are any import errors they will be saved in a separate table.  Take a moment to examine what they are.  The most common is that a field got truncated.  If that field is the folderpath it will affect the comparisons later.  If there are other problems you will have to troubleshoot what is wrong with the highlighted lines (typically there should be no import errors as long as the FolderPath is set as a Memo field).

10. Go back to Step 2 to import the second file that will be used in the comparison. 

11. Now a query must be run to determine if any folderpath exceeds 255 characters.  Fields longer than 255 characters cannot be used for a join in an Access query.  If we have values that exceed 255 characters in this field we will need to exclude them from the comparison.  Additional work to split a long path across multiple fields can be done, but that is being left as an exercise for any Access savvy readers. 

12. To get started select the options highlighted in Yellow in Figure 6:

 
Figure 6

13. Highlight the table where we want to check the length of the folderpath field as shown in Figure 7.  Once you have selected the table click Add and then Close:

 
Figure 7

14. Switch to SQL view as shown in Figure 8:

 
Figure 8

15. Replace the default select statement with one that looks like this (please make sure you substitute your own table name for the one that I have Bolded in the example):

SELECT Len([FolderPath]) AS Expr1, [2007PF_120301].FolderPath 
FROM 2007PF_120301 
WHERE (((Len([FolderPath]))>254));

Note:  Be sure the semi-colon is the last character in the statement.

16. Run the query using the red "!" as shown in Figure 9: 

 
Figure 9

 
Figure 10

17. If the result is a single empty row (as shown in Figure 10) then skip down to step 19.  If the result is at least one row then go back to SQL view (as shown in Figure 8) and change the statement to look like this one (as before please make sure 2007PF_120301 is replaced with the table name actually being used in your database):

SELECT [2007PF_120301].FolderPath, [2007PF_120301].ItemCount, 
[2007PF_120301].Name, [2007PF_120301].Identity INTO 2007PF_120301_trimmed 
FROM 2007PF_120301 
WHERE (((Len([FolderPath]))<255));

18. You will get a prompt like the one in Figure 11 when you run the query.  Select Yes:

 
Figure 11

19. After it is done repeat steps 11-18 for the other CSV file that was imported to be part of the comparison.  If you have done steps 11-18 for both files you will be comparing then advance to step 20.

20. Originally the FolderPath was imported as a memo field (Long Text if using Access 2013).  However we cannot join memo fields in a query.  We need to convert them to a text field with a length of 255. 

If you got a result greater than zero rows in step 16 this step and the subsequent steps will all be carried out on the table specified in the INTO clause of the SQL statement (in this blog that table is named 2007PF_120301_trimmed). 

If you were able to skip steps 17 and 18 this step and the subsequent steps will be carried out on the table you imported (2007PF_120301 in this example).

Open the table in Design view by right-clicking on it and selecting Design View as shown in Figure 12.  If you select the wrong tables for the subsequent steps you will get a lot of unwanted duplicates in your final comparison output.

 
Figure 12

21. Change the folderpath from Memo to Text as shown in Figure 13.  If you are using Access 2013 change it from Long Text to Short Text.

 
Figure13

22. With the FolderPath field highlighted look to the lower part of the Design window where the properties of the currently selected field are displayed.  Change the field size of folderpath to 255 characters as shown in Figure 14.

 
Figure 14

23. Save the table and close its design view.  You will be prompted as shown in Figure 15.  Don't panic.  All the folderpaths should be shorter than the 255 characters specified in the properties of the table.  The dialog is just a standard warning from Access.  No data should be truncated (the earlier queries should have seen to that).  Say Yes and repeat steps 20-23 for the other table being used in this comparison.  If you make a mistake here remember that you will still have your original CSV files and can always fix the mistake by removing the tables and redoing the import.

 
Figure 15

24. We have been on a bit of a journey to make sure we prepared the tables.  Now for the comparison.  Create a new query (as shown in Figure 6) and highlight both tables that have had the FolderPath shortened to 255 characters as shown in Figure 16.  Once they are highlight click Add and then close.

 
Figure 16

25. Drag Folderpath from the table that is the source of your replication to Folderpath on the other database.  The result will look like Figure 17.

 
Figure 17

26.   In the top half of the Query Design window we have the tables with their fields listed.  In the bottom half we have the query grid.  You can make fields appear in the grid in 3 ways:

• Switch the SQL view and add them to the Select statement
• Double-click the field in the top half of the window
• Drag the field from the top half of the window to the grid
• Click in the Field line of the grid and a drop down will appear that you can use to select the fields
• Type the field name you want on the Field in the grid

For this step we need to add:

• One copy of the folderpath field from one table (doesn't matter which one)
• The ItemCount field from each table

27.   Go to an empty column in the grid.  We need to enter the text that will tells us the difference between the two item counts.  Type the following text into the column (be sure to use the table names from your own database and not my example): 

Expr1:  Abs([2007PF_120301_trimmed].[itemcount]-[2010pf_120301_trimmed].[itemcount])

Note:  After steps 25-27 the final result should look like  Figure 18.  The equivalent SQL looks like this:

SELECT [2007PF_120301_trimmed].FolderPath, [2007PF_120301_trimmed].ItemCount, [2010PF_120301_trimmed].ItemCount, Abs([2007PF_120301_TRIMMED].[ItemCount]-[2010PF_120301_TRIMMED].[ItemCount]) AS Expr1 
FROM 2007PF_120301_trimmed INNER JOIN 2010PF_120301_trimmed ON [2007PF_120301_trimmed].FolderPath = [2010PF_120301_trimmed].FolderPath;

 
Figure 18

28. Run the query using the red "!" shown in Figure 9.  The results will show you all the folders that exist in BOTH public folder databases, the itemscount in each database and the difference between them.  I like the difference reported as a positive number, but you might prefer to remove the absolute value function.

There is more that can be done with this.  You can use Access to run a Find Unmatched query to find all items from one table that are not in the other table (thus locating folders that have an instance in one database, but not the other).  You can experiment with different Join types in the query and you can deal with Folderpaths longer than a single text field can accommodate.  These and any other additional functionality you desire are left as an exercise for the reader to tackle.  I hope this provides you with a process that can be used to compare the item counts between two Public Folder stores (just remember the caveats at the top of the article).

Thanks To Bill Long for reviewing my caveats and Oscar Goco for reviewing my steps with Access.

Chris Pollitt

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/05/28/comparing-public-folder-item-counts.aspx

--
Thanks & Regards
G.BalaKrishna
Contact : 9962552505
            : 9841710719

New feature enables Outlook 2007/2010 to use DNS Service Location (SRV) records

This article describes a new feature in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. This new feature enables Outlook 2007 to use DNS Service Location (SRV) records to locate the Exchange Autodiscover service. 

This feature is also available in Outlook 2010.

Back to the top | Give Feedback

MORE INFORMATION

Update Information

A supported feature that modifies the default behavior of the product is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to modify the behavior that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that specifically require it. This feature may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by the lack of this feature, we recommend that you wait for the next Outlook 2007 service pack that contains this feature.

To obtain this feature immediately, download the feature by following the instructions later in this article or contact Microsoft Product Support Services. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

This feature is available as part of the following update rollup for Outlook 2007:

939184 Description of the update rollup for Outlook 2007: June 27, 2007

Background

When Outlook 2007 is not domain-joined, you have to use a predefined URL method or an HTTP redirect method in order to locate the Autodiscover service. The following list contains two predefined URL methods and one HTTP redirect method:

https://<smtpdomain>/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml

https://autodiscover.<smtpdomain>/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml

http://autodiscover.<smtpdomain>/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml

Note The predefined URL method requires that you have a valid SSL certificate for the URL that you are using. This method can be difficult to implement because you generally use one DNS name for the Outlook Anywhere feature for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and a different DNS name for Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access.

Note The HTTP redirect method can be difficult to implement because it requires the following in order to work correctly:

An additional Web site in IIS

Two Public IP addresses

By using the software update that is described in this article, Outlook 2007 will perform an additional check for a DNS SRV record in order to locate the Autodiscover service. This additional check does not require complex configuration or a valid certificate for the Autodiscover service.

How to use the new DNS SRV lookup method to locate the Exchange 2007 Autodiscover service

To use the new DNS SRV lookup method in order to locate the Exchange 2007 Autodiscover service, follow these steps.

Note You must create the Autodiscover SRV record in the external DNS zone that matches the right side of your user's SMTP addresses. For example, if a user's primary SMTP address is user@contoso.com, the record must be created in the contoso.com external DNS zone. If you have multiple primary SMTP address domains in your organization, you must create an Autodiscover SRV record in each zone.

1. In your external DNS zone, remove any HOST (A) or CNAME records for the Autodiscover service.

2. Use the following parameters to create a new SRV record:

Service: _autodiscover

Protocol: _tcp

Port Number: 443

Host: mail.contoso.com

Note For more information about how to create this record, see the "About SRV records" section.

Note In this example, mail.contoso.com is a name for which your certificate is valid. Usually, this is the same DNS name that you use for Outlook Anywhere and for Outlook Web Access.

In this example, the Autodiscover service does the following when the client tries to contact the Autodiscover service:

1. Autodiscover posts to https://contoso.com/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml. This fails.

2. Autodiscover posts to https://autodiscover.contoso.com/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml. This fails.

3. Autodiscover performs the following redirect check:

GET http://autodiscover.contoso.com/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml

This fails.

4. Autodiscover uses DNS SRV lookup for _autodiscover._tcp.contoso.com, and then "mail.contoso.com" is returned.

5. Outlook asks permission from the user to continue with Autodiscover to post to https://mail.contoso.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml.

6. Autodiscover's POST request is successfully posted to https://mail.contoso.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml.

About SRV records

If you are using Windows DNS, the steps to create an SRV Record are as follows:

1. Open the DNS Management MMC snap-in.

2. Expand Forward Lookup Zones.

3. Locate and right-click the external DNS zone, and then click Other New Records.

4. Click Service Location (SRV).

5. Enter the parameters by using the required values.

6. Click OK.

Note Depending on your DNS solution, you may be unable to implement SRV records. Contact your DNS hosting provider or your DNS administrator for guidance.

--
Thanks & Regards
G.BalaKrishna
Contact : 9962552505
            : 9841710719

Exchange 2007 High Availability

High Availability

This part includes all the information about High Availability options  introduced in Exchange Server 2007.

please, Leave your comments on this….

1. What is high availability in Exchange Server 2007?

The basic premise of the Exchange 2007 high availability architecture is to introduce redundancy into the deployment. A failure is recovered using the remaining computing resources to support the Exchange services. As the failures are repaired, computing resources are again available to Exchange and its clients. In this context, the computing resources may be computers or storage for mailbox or other Exchange data.

2. What are the uses of high availability features available in Exchange Server 2007?

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 includes built-in features that can provide quick recovery, high availability, and site resiliency for Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox servers.

3. What are the high availability features available in Exchange Server 2007 for Mailbox server role?

1. Local continuous replication
2. Cluster Continues Replication
3. Standby Continuous Replication
4. Single Copy Cluster

4. What is LCR?

LCR is a single-server solution that uses built-in asynchronous log shipping technology to create and maintain a copy of a storage group on a second set of disks that are connected to the same server as the production storage group. LCR provides log shipping, log replay, and a quick manual switch to a secondary copy of the data.

5. What do you know about LCR?

1. Provides data redundancy without service redundancy·
2. Partition data for performance and recovery·
3. Ensure sufficient disk space,
4. CPU and memory resources should be considered

6. What is SCR?

SCR is a new feature introduced in Exchange 2007 SP1. As its name implies, SCR is designed for scenarios that use or enable the use of standby recovery servers. SCR extends the existing continuous replication features and enables new data availability scenarios for Exchange 2007 Mailbox servers. SCR uses the same log shipping and replay technology used by LCR and CCR to provide added deployment options and configurations. SCR can be used to replicate data from stand-alone Mailbox servers and clustered mailbox servers.

7. What is the function of source server in SCR?

The starting point for SCR is called the source, which is any storage group on any of the following:

• A stand-alone Mailbox server
• A clustered mailbox server in a single copy cluster (SCC)
• A clustered mailbox server in a CCR environment

As with LCR and CCR, SCR-enabled storage groups cannot contain more than one database. You cannot enable SCR for a storage group that contains more than one database, and you cannot add a second or subsequent database to an SCR-enabled storage group

SCR Source Server holds the active copy of Mailbox database

8. What is the function of Target Server in SCR?

The endpoint for SCR is called the target, and the target can be either of the following:

• A stand-alone Mailbox server that does not have LCR enabled for any storage group
• A passive node in a failover cluster where the Mailbox role is installed, but no clustered mailbox server has been installed in the cluster

An SCR target computer must have the Mailbox server role installed, even if it does not host production mailboxes. The Mailbox server role is required because it includes the Microsoft Exchange Replication Service and other components necessary for SCR functionality

The Target Server holds the passive copy of Mailbox database

1. What are the conditions to have target Server?

The Target server may be,

A stand-alone Mailbox server that does not have LCR enabled for any storage group

A passive node in a failover cluster where the Mailbox role is installed, but no clustered mailbox server has been installed in the cluster

10. Explain the functionality of SCR?

SCR is designed for scenarios that use or enable the use of standby recovery servers. SCR extends the existing continuous replication features found in the release to manufacturing (RTM) version of Exchange Server 2007 and enables new data availability scenarios for Mailbox servers running SP1. SCR uses the same log shipping and replay technology used by local continuous replication (LCR) and cluster continuous replication (CCR) to provide added deployment options and configurations

11. What is CCR?

CCR is a clustered solution that uses built-in asynchronous log shipping technology to create and maintain a storage group copy on a second server. CCR is designed to be either a one or two datacenter solution, providing both high availability and site resilience.

12. What is Witness File Share?

It is a new type of Majority Node Set (MNS) quorum in Windows Server 2003. In Exchange Server 2007, cluster continuous replication (CCR) uses the MNS quorum with file share witness instead of the traditional voter node.

This feature lets you use a file share that is external to the cluster as an additional vote to determine the status of the cluster in a two-node MNS quorum cluster deployment.

The file share witness uses a file share on a computer outside the cluster to act as a witness to the activities of the two nodes that are the cluster. The witness is used by the two nodes to track which node is in control of the cluster. The note board is only required when the two nodes cannot communicate with each other

13. What are the advantages of CCR over LCR?

• Has no single point of failure.
• Has no special hardware requirements
• Has no shared storage requirements
• Can be deployed in one or two datacenter configurations
• Can reduce full backup frequency, reduce total backed up data volume, and shorten the service level agreement (SLA) for recovery time from first failure.

14. What is SCC?

SCC is a clustered solution that uses a single copy of a storage group on storage that is shared between the nodes in the cluster. SCC is very similar to clustering in previous versions of Exchange Server, with some significant changes and improvements

15. Explain the high availability options for client Access Server Role?

You can use Network Load Balancing or a third-party hardware-based network load-balancing device for Client Access server high availability. For more information about Network Load Balancing

16. Explain the high availability options for Hub Transport Server Role?

You can deploy multiple Hub Transport servers for internal transport high availability. Resiliency has been designed into the Hub Transport, as well as the Mail Submission Service on Mailbox servers, for deployment of multiple Hub Transport servers. In Exchange 2007 SP1, you can also use NLB for the client connectors on Hub Transport servers.

17. Explain the high availability options for Edge Transport Server Role?

You can deploy multiple Edge Transport servers and use multiple DNS Mail Exchanger (MX) records to load balance activity across those servers

18. Explain the high availability options for Unified Messaging Server Role?

Unified Messaging deployments can be made more resilient by deploying multiple Unified Messaging servers where two or more are in a single dial plan. The VoIP gateways supported by Unified Messaging can be configured to route calls to Unified Messaging servers in a round-robin fashion. In addition these gateways can retrieve the list of servers for a dial plan from DNS. In either case, the VOIP gateways will present a call to a Unified Messaging server and if the call is not accepted, the call will be presented to another server, providing redundancy at the time the call is established.

19. What the requirements to configure SCR?

SCR allows an Exchange Admin to replicate a copy of Storage Group to a number of remote servers. Microsoft recommends a max of 4 target machines.

An SCR Source can be an LCR, CCR, SCC, or Stand alone mailbox server but requires only 1 Database per Storage Group which is already a requirement for LCR and CCR.

The target can be on the same subnet or in a remote datacenter unlike CCR which currently requires both nodes be on the same subnet

1. The paths must be the same for both machines
– If source server is c:\Server1\Data and C:\Server1\Logs then these paths must be available on the target server.

2. There is a hard coded 50 log lag between the Source and Target
– by default there is a 24 hour replay time which is configurable.

3. There can be only 1 database per storage group

4. The target server must have Exchange mailbox role installed, if this is a cluster it will be install as a passive node.

5. The target server must be in the same Active Directory domain

1. What are the requirements to configure LCR?

LCR does not have any special storage requirements. Any type of storage that is supported by Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 can be used with LCR, including direct attached storage, serially attached SCSI, and Internet SCSI (iSCSI)

21. What the requirements to configure CCR?

To setup a CCR-based cluster, the following are required

Software Requirements

• Windows 2003 Active Directory forest with at least one domain controller raised to windows 2003 forest functional level
• Two windows 2003 server R2 Enterprise Edition or windows server 2003 sp1 standard or enterprise edition
• One windows file share witness, which is recommended to be an exchange 2007 Hub transport Server in the existing Exchange organization; note the CCR-based cluster don't use a shared quorum as traditional clusters do
• A cluster Service account in the Active directory forest

Hardware requirements

• Two NIC installed in each node, one for the public and one for the private cluster network
• Extra sets of disks or a DAS, SAN or Serial SCSI solution to hold the database and transactional log files

Other Requirements

• Only one database per storage group
• You cannot create public folder database in a CCR environment if you already have one
• Microsoft recommends the no more 30 storage groups and databases on clustered mailbox server
• The cluster on which Exchange Server 2007 is installed cannot contain Exchange Server 2000/2003 or any version of MS SQL server. Running Exchange Server 2007 in a cluster with any of these other application is simply not supported

22. What the requirements to configure SCC?

Windows 2003 Active Directory forest with at least one domain controller raised to windows 2003 forest functional level

Two windows 2003 server R2 Enterprise Edition or windows server 2003 sp1 standard or enterprise edition

At least one existing HT server, which is recommended to be an exchange 2007 Hub transport Server in the existing Exchange organization

Two machine with two NICS to create a Public and private network

23. Compare SCR with LCR and CCR?

SCR supports multiple replication targets per storage group. LCR and CCR support only one replication target per storage group (the passive copy).

SCR includes a built-in delay for replay activity, and it enables an administrator to specify an additional delay. This is useful in a variety of scenarios. For example, in the event of logical corruption of an active database, the built-in and additional administrator-configured delay could be used to prevent logical corruption of an SCR target database. LCR and CCR have no such delays.

SCR is completely managed using the Exchange Management Shell. The Exchange Management Console can be used to manage many aspects of LCR and CCR, but it cannot be used to enable or manage any aspects of SCR

You cannot back up an SCR target copy. LCR and CCR support backups from both the active and passive copy. SCR supports backups of the SCR source only

24. What is Replaylagtime and TruncationLagTime?

Replaylagtime – Time that the Microsoft Exchange Replication Service should wait before replaying logs. Default is 24 hours and max time is 7 days.

TruncationLagTime – Amount of time Microsoft Exchange Replication Service waits before truncating log files that have been copied to the target

25. What is seeding?

Seeding is the process whereby a database is added to a storage group copy, this can be a blank database or a copy of the database the storage group uses as the production database. When you enable the LCR on a storage group using the EMC, seeding normally takes place automatically.

26. Will seeding happens automatically? Then why should we care about it?

Seeding normally takes place automatically, in some situations manual seeding is required.

• After you have performed an offline defragmentation of the production database belonging to the storage group for which you have enabled LCR
• When exchange detects corrupted log, which the Microsoft Exchange Replication Service cannot replay into the database copy
• After a page scrubbing of a database on the active node in a CCR setup occurs, and you want to propagate these seeding

27. Explain the LCR operation?

The database type Exchange uses is Extensible Storage Engine (ESE). ESE employs transactional log files, which means that every time a modification is made, a transactional log file is generated (instead of the change being committed directly to database). This process is to make exchange always able to recover the lost data, which is in memory by using log files.

Each log file that is generated because of a modification in the database belonging to the active copy of the Storage is replicated from the source log folder to the target log folder associated with the passive copy of the storage group. This is not the entire truth, because each log file is first copied to an inspector log folder located beneath the target folder, where it is inspected to make sure it is correct. If it is not correct it will be re copied. Finally the file is copied to the target log folder and from there replayed into the database belonging to the passive copy of the Storage Group

A new Exchange Server 2007 service called the Microsoft Exchange Replication Service will be installed on any Exchange Server 2007 servers with the mailbox server role installed. These are responsible for replicating the log files to the target log folder

28. What is suspending in LCR? And how to achieve it?

Suspending LCR means that all log file shipping as well as log file replaying is halted.

Suspending LCR is a straight forward process, it is done by selected the respective Storage group in the EMC, and then clicking the Suspend Local Continuous replication in the Action pane.

29. What is log file shipping and log file replaying?

Log File Shipping

Log shipping allows you to automatically send transaction log backups from a primary database on a primary server instance to one or moresecondary databases on separate secondary server instances. The transaction log backups are applied to each of the secondary databases individually. An optional third server instance, known as the monitor server, records the history and status of backup and restores operations and, optionally, raises alerts if these operations fail to occur as scheduled.

Log shipping consists of three operations:

1. Back up the transaction log at the primary server instance.

2. Copy the transaction log file to the secondary server instance.

3. Restore the log backup on the secondary server instance.

Log file replay

The transactional logs are generated on the active node are replicated to the information store on the passive node using log file shipping. These replicated log files are then posted into the databases on the passive node using the log file replay technology, this means that should the active node or a database on this node fails or for some other reason go offline, an automatic failover to the passive node will occur. Hence the passive node becomes the active node, the replication of log file will happen from the new active node to passive node.

30. Explain the CCR operation?

With CCR, the transactional logs are generated on the active node are replicated to the information store on the passive node using log file shipping. These replicated log files are then posted into the databases on the passive node using the log file replay technology, this means that should the active node or a database on this node fails or for some other reason go offline, an automatic failover to the passive node will occur. Hence the passive node becomes the active node, the replication of log file will happen from the new active node to passive node.

31. Explain the SCC operation?

SCC is more or less identical to the traditional active/passive clusters we know from the previous version of Exchange. This means that a SCC-based cluster only provides service failover and still has a single point of failure when it comes to databases, unless a shared storage solution that provides redundancy in other means is used in the environment. An SCC cluster using fault tolerant SAN is much more expensive than a CCR solution

An SCC is basically a clustered mailbox server that consists of two or more servers that share the same storage for database and log files. The shared storage subsystem is basically a SAN

32. What is the advantage of CCR over SCC?

Deploying CCR instead of SCC has several advantages,

• you no longer have a single point of failure regarding database
• Unlike SCC, CCR doesn't require a shared storage subsystem such as SAN, because the nodes in a CCR don't share the same disk
• You have the option of spanning the CCR between two locations

33. How many databases can I have in each storage group when I'm using either LCR or CCR?

You can only have one database in each storage group when using either LCR or CCR. In addition, you cannot have more than one Public Folder database in the organization if you want to replicate a public folder database using CCR technology

34. Explain LCR, CCR and SCR in short?

LCR requires that database replicas are stored locally; CCR lets you store database replicas on a different server that must exist in the same subnet as the primary database server. With this, you can have only one replica.

SCR allows your primary mailbox server (source) to replicate its database to multiple standby servers (targets). These target servers can exist on your LAN, but that isn't necessary. The subnet limitation doesn't apply to SCR.

35. What is a Standby Cluster?

A standby cluster is a Windows cluster that matches a production Exchange cluster in terms of hardware and software configuration, including Windows and Exchange versions and any updates or hot fixes that have been applied. In addition, a standby cluster has the Exchange program files installed but has not yet been configured with any Exchange Virtual Servers (EVS). Lastly, a standby cluster can only be used when all Exchange Virtual Servers on the production cluster are offline.

36. Will the standby cluster works with Exchange Server 2007?

The answer is no, but then it's really not that useful anymore, since Exchange 2007 gives us the ability to recover an Exchange 2007 cluster using the new Exsetup/RecoverCMS switch (which is similar to the /DisasterRecovery switch we know from previous versions of Exchange).

http://viralr.wordpress.com/high-availability/

Enabled Circular Log in CCR Servers

1. Suspend continuous replication by using the Suspend-StorageGroupCopy cmdlet.
2. Enable or disable circular logging. For detailed steps about how to enable or disable circular logging, see How to Enable or Disable Circular Logging for a Storage Group.
3. Dismount and then mount the database in the storage group that is being enabled or disabled for circular logging.
4. Resume continuous replication by using the Resume-StorageGroupCopy cmdlet.

More : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb331951(EXCHG.80).aspx

Export Mails from mail.que Database (Exchange 2007)

Export Email from Mail Queue Database (Exchange 2007)

Note: Suspend the Messages in Queue before executing this command and Exported message will open with Outlook Express


Complete Mail.Que Database Mails
Get-Message -Server "HUB Server" foreach {Export-Message -Identity:$_.Identity -Path:"C:\Test"}

To Get the individual Mail from mail.que database

suspend the Individual mail from queue viewer and get the Message Identity

Steps to get the Message Identity
1, Open Queue viewer
2, Right Click on Domain Name and Select "View Message"
3, Select the Particular Email and go to Properties "Here you can find the Message Identity in first option"

Export-Message -Identity "HUB2\3446420\54310188" -Path "c:\Test.eml"

You can open the message from Outlook Express

For More Details
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997214(EXCHG.80).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998625(EXCHG.80).aspx
http://www.simple-talk.com/sysadmin/exchange/a-deep-dive-into-transport-queues---part-1/

Exchange Server 2007 Availability Service Explained

When planning an Exchange Server 2007 project with customers the question of Public Folders always comes up. One of the scenarios in which Public Folders are discussed is by customers who do not currently use Public Folders, and who want to know whether they need to use them with Exchange Server 2007.

The question relates to the topic of Free/Busy information, which is the data from mailbox users' calendars that lets others see their availability when trying to schedule meetings in Outlook.

Exchange 2003 stores Free/Busy information in the Public Folder database for all mailbox users, whereas Exchange Server 2007 introduced a new feature called the Availability Service to replace that functionality. The Availability Service runs on the Client Access Server role.

The Availability Service does not store Free/Busy data, rather it retrieves it on request directly from the mailbox in question. This is in contrast to Exchange 2003 which stored the data in a special Public Folder. The data was published to the Public Folder by the Outlook client itself, and so it was not always completely up to date.

Some of the advantages of the Availability Service over the Public Folder publishing method are:

• Makes Free/Busy data sharing available in a more granular fashion for end users (e.g., can choose to just show whether they are free or not, or also show details of the meetings they have planned, etc)
• Simplifies cross-Forest sharing of Free/Busy data by making it directly accessible between organizations, instead of the legacy method of synchronizing Free/Busy data with the Inter-Org Replication Tool
• Exposes Free/Busy data via Exchange Web Services so that it can be accessed by other programs via APIs

The main dependency of the Availability Service is that it can only be accessed by Outlook 2007 and later clients. Outlook 2003 and earlier have no ability to query the Availability Service. This leads to some confusion for customers, especially during a migration project when both Exchange 2003 and 2007 co-exist in the organization.Consider an organization that is in the process of migrating to Exchange Server 2007 and so has mailbox users on both 2003 and 2007 mailbox servers. Access to Free/Busy data will be achieved in the following ways:

• Regardless of the Outlook version, any Exchange 2003 mailbox user will publish Free/Busy data to the Public Folders
• Regardless of the server version, any Outlook 2003 or earlier client will publish Free/Busy data to the Public Folders, and read Free/Busy data from the Public Folders
• Outlook 2007 clients on Exchange 2007 mailbox servers will query the Availability Service for Free/Busy data
• The Availability Service retrieves Free/Busy data directly from Exchange 2007 mailboxes, and from Public Folders for Exchange 2003 mailboxes

What this usually boils down to for customers, when planning for the stage that they are running only Exchange 2007 servers, are these simple rules:

• If you have any Outlook 2003 or earlier clients, you will still need Public Folders for Free/Busy information
• If all your clients are Outlook 2007 or later, you do not need to retain Public Folders for Free/Busy information

It may seem a trivial issue, but being able to remove Public Folders completely makes the environment that little bit easier to deploy and administer. At the very least it is one less database to backup on the server.