So been automating some global configuration in Exchange 2007 today and wanted to share this. I need to enable web distribution of the oab and couldn't find the Powershell "check box". But cracked it. You need to just populate the VirtualDirectories entry and it "checks" the Enable Web-bases distribution.
The cheat was this:
$xOABs = Get-ClientAccessServer | Get-OabVirtualDirectory
Set-OfflineAddressBook 'Default Offline Address Book' -VirtualDirectories $xOABs
So we get all the CAS servers and pipe that to get the OAB Virtual Directories and then put that in to a variable ($xOABs)
Then we update the Default Offline Address Book using the $xOABs list of OAB Virtual Directories ;-)
Interesting
Today Microsoft announced some significant changes to its licensing and support policies for applications in hardware virtualization environments. There are two key parts of the announcement worth highlighting for Exchange customers:
Theses are the mutts nuts. Good old Ross Smith IV up's the bar again.
Check them out here http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/08/07/449497.aspx and here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc533547(EXCHG.80).aspx
...The following Exchange Server installation guides can be used as a starting point for formalizing your server build procedures. These guides are generic in nature and must be modified to meet the needs of your organization. Furthermore, it is recommended that every step in the guide you create be tested and validated in a lab environment before using it for production environments.
For Windows Server 2008 systems:
For Windows Server 2003 systems:
For me one of the most important things on this list is the Server Build DVD - Sample Hotfix List Should mention RU3?!
We try and see Jo Caulfield every year, as I love here sense of humour and the shows are great. This year was a new venue at The Stand Comedy Club in York Place, a nice intimate venue that can hold about 170 people!
.. Guaranteed laughs from queen of comedy. Star of Radio 4. Razor-sharp observations and scandalous one-liners. 'Sharp-witted, urban comedy that goes down a treat' (Times). 'Wonderfully bitchy' (Observer). 'Pure comedy gold' (Evening Standard).
The review was right, Jo "picked" on (as usual and why we sat at the back) a few people in the front row and a number of typical subjects that left your sides hurting.
If you have an hour to spare, go see Jo, you wont regret it
So after the races we had a couple of hours to kill before Silent Disco. Now for those trendy festival loving people, you will know what Silent Disco is all about (Silent Disco are due to attend the Reading Festival this year).
Any way this is the most bizarre disco I have ever been to, but was awesome. Basically it has two DJ's at the front, and you are given a set of headphone with two channels (one for each DJ). That's it! You select the music you want to hear and dance you heart out in your own world.
What is strange is that when you take your headphone off, people look really strange just dancing to "no music"
Silent Disco is only at the festival until Sunday 17th so if your up, get ur butt down to Silent Disco, it's just the best thing we have done this year!
So Tuesday night we headed over to Musselburgh Racecourse for the Fringe Racenight. It was a shame it was raining. It was a 6 race event and was quite good fun, despite the rain. The Fringe Racenight is billed as an evening at the races with a difference. Alongside all the fun and excitement of horseracing, you can enjoy a host of Fringe entertainers performing at the racecourse.
This might have been how it was billed but we only saw two acts and they only performed one song/act, so it didn't really have the festival feel, but the racing where good.
We missed the first and last race, and out of the remaining 4 won two of them.It was a nice evening out at the races, but didn't feel like the fringe ..
Boys and Girls, old and young, I wanted to share with you that the "Toy Shop" is back up and running now!
They stock a good range of educational books, have a new craft section for A4 paper/card and A1 paper/card for school projects etc. A new party section with balloons, banners and a helium balloon filling service.
For the Kids they have Ben 10, Pokemon, WWE, Lego, Playmobil, Puppy in my Pocket, Scalextrix, Airfix and much more....
So check it out .. the website ordering isn't up yet, but should be soon.
180 - 182 Alexandra Avenue, South Harrow, Middlesex HA2 9BN Tel: 020 8422 2610 Retail Shop opening hours:
Monday to Saturday 9.30am to 6pm (Except Wednesday) Wednesday - CLOSED Sunday 11am to 3.30pm
http://www.toyshoplondon.com/
Rui does it again, this is a sweet article, read it and weep!
Implementing a complete Exchange 2007 solution requires not only good planning, but also a good understanding of all the technical requirements and a good knowledge of the several Exchange Server roles.
Sizing an Exchange 2007 Organization is not for the faint of the heart, although I consider it much easier than doing it for the previous versions of Exchange Server.
A correctly sized infrastructure will improve the general reliability of the system and the levels of service (meaning happy users), rationalizing the use of hardware (and money).
This article does not intend to be a deep technical dive into the sizing process, instead it will give you some rules of thumb in order to ease the process of planning the different Exchange Server 2007 roles of your messaging infrastructure.
....
Just found this up on the Forefront blog http://blogs.technet.com/fss/archive/2008/08/11/forefront-for-exchange-sp1-rollup-3-has-been-released.aspx
Forefront for Exchange SP1 Rollup3 has been released. The fixes that are included with in Forefront for Exchange SP1 Rollup3 are as follows.
Prior to full publication of Forefront for Exchange SP1 Rollup3 we are making our customers aware that this release of Forefront for Exchange is now available. Please Contact Microsoft support if you would like to install Rollup 3 for Forefront.
Interesting that it is NOT actually released yet!
Well, well, well. We have been trying like mad to get tickets for this, so rang the venue and got two ticket. For £37 you get a three course dinner and the comedy, which leaves your sides aching with laughter.
Basically, you dine with snobbish, manic Basil; his domineering wife, Sybil; and hopelessly confused waiter, Manuel. It last two hours and is very worth while.
My only comment is the food was a bit ropey. You get tomato soup to start with, followed by either Chicken *** and mash (that was really bad) or lamb and potatoes. You finish with a chocolate cake thing. Now if this is an example of the food at B'est, I won't be returning. Also the place has no A/C so it was really hot and uncomfortable.
Talking to the "actors" after the event, this is the first time they have been at the festival and surely no the last. It was just such a laugh
So here are some pictures (but my Nokia phone just the worst in the world for taking picture!)
And this is what they look like our of "character!
If you are the festival, you MUST come and see this!
So while at the Pleasance Courtyard we booked some tickets for Alba Flamenca at the Lot in Grassmarket.
Now a few years ago we ate in the restaurant below the Lot and it was not a pleasant experience and we walked out after our starter. BUT the Lot is what looks like a small church hall about the restaurant and offers a very intimate venue
So Alba Flamenca ... Earthy and stripped of artifice, Alba Flamenca delivers pure passion. The stunning, mainly improvised performance gets right to the passionate soul of flamenco. Virtuoso musicians, powerful dancers and unrestrained passion combine to create the joy and tragedy of flamenco.
It was fantastic. Cost £10 and lasted just over an hour, and we grabbed front row seats. The dancers and musicians where awesome, you could hear every toe scrape of the dancers and the flamenco was stunning.
I would totally recommend this!
So Sunday afternoon we headed out to the Meadows and Fringe Sunday. The buzz in Edinburgh this time of year is just awesome. The sheer amount of extra people is just amazing.
So the Meadows attracted and extra 100,000 people to see the free events. The Meadows is a large park next to what used to be the Edinburgh Infirmary.
Fringe Sunday on the Meadows offers you the opportunity to see the best of the Fringe for free. Showcasing hundreds of Fringe music, theatre, comedy and dance acts. A unique open-air extravaganza for absolutely everyone.
It was a nice afternoon, but the rain put play to enjoying it to full. The farmers market was good, as was some of the music and comedy, but most of the tented events suffered from over crowding, so they where not a very good experience, but you do get a feel for the festival.
After leaving like a drowned rat, we headed up to the Royal Mile, which just felt electric, I just cant explain what it's like .. you just need to be here.
Next stop was up to the underbelly to book tickets from Tuesday night ;-) will let you know later on this one. The off to the Pleasance Courtyard for a beer and chill out.
I know I am a bit late, but on Saturday we took the 0830 train from Kings Cross up to Edinburgh to spend a few days at the festival.
The journey didn't start too well. It usually take about 4 and half hours to get up to Edinburgh, but this time it took an exta hour and a half!
Why, well some enterprising soles stole cabling from the East Coast Mainline at Claypole, near Grantham, which meant that were forced to manually change signals between Grantham and Newark.
Nice .. well this year we are not very organised, so I will post as near as damm to seeing an event
So every day is a school day and today I learnt two thing, which means that is enough for one week ;-)
So first off is BES. If you use Exchange 2007, you MUST have public folders for BES to work?! Yeah!
BlackBerry Enterprise Server obtains free/busy data from the Schedule+Free/Busy Public Folder on the Microsoft Exchange Server. When Microsoft® Outlook® 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 are running in native mode, they use the Availability Service (via Auto Discover) to determine free/busy data, so there is no Public Folder for the BlackBerry Enterprise Server to find.
The Availability Service method of accessing free/busy data will be supported in a future version of BlackBerry Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange but for now you will need to install the Optional Public Folders in your Microsoft Exchange environment and configure the System Public Folder's Schedule+Free/Busy Properties.
Check this out: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123996(EXCHG.80).aspx near the bottom
CCR and public folder replication are two very different forms of replication built into Exchange. Due to interoperability limitations between continuous replication and public folder replication, if more than one Mailbox server in the Exchange organization has a public folder database, public folder replication is enabled and public folder databases should not be hosted in CCR environments.
Update to this script too, basically a change from using Get-ExchangeServer in places to Get-TransportServer. Also add a size column to the message tab.
It will also log data to c:\ps\logs\<datefolder>
Let me know what you think ;-)
So another script .. This is actually a one liner but this is an easy wrapper.
The one liner is:
Get-TransportServer | Get-Queue