Exchange
Installing MSDE on SBS for Blackberry Enterprise Server
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007I’ve got a few customers using Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) now and they are all running this on Small Business Server 2003.
Research in Motion would probably not recommend this configuration, but actually SBS seems to cope quite well. Although I have not tested this out with more than 6 users.
Installing BES onto SBS is not entirely straight forward, mainly down to the way MSDE is installed on SBS. The BES installation cannot find the MSDE database, but it also doesn’t give you the option to automatically install another database instance.
So, in order to get the BES installation working on SBS, you should create a new instance of MSDE before ruining the installation. You can do this as follows:
1. Locate the MSDE files on the SBS 2003 CD 3 or download from Microsoft.
2. Open a command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd -> clickOK).
3. On the Command Prompt, change to the directory where the MSDE files are located e.g. cd D:\SBS\MONITOR\MSDE
4. Enter the following command to create the new instance:
setup INSTANCENAME=”BESMgmt” SAPWD=”AStrongSAPwd” /L*v C:\MSDELog.log
5. Start the service: Start -> Run -> Services.msc -> Click OK. Scroll down to the instance you just created MSSQL$BESMGMT, select and click start service.
6. Check the log file to make sure everything installed correctly at C:\MSDELog.log
Then when you run the BES installation, simply enter BESMgmt as the database name. The installation will then run like a dream.
Make sure you follow the Quick Start Guide for the rest of the installation available here: BES Express 4.1 Getting Started Guide
Installing Exchange 2007 into SBS 2003
Monday, April 23rd, 2007I recently wrote a 2 part series on www.msexchange.org about installing Exchange 2007 into a SBS 2003 domain.
I have been getting some great feedback both by email and on my other blog.
The feedback has certainly raised a few temperatures and stirred a few raw nerves. So I am glad I am encouraging a lively debate about Exchange 2007 and SBS. I look forward to your continued comments on my blogs. Please let me know if you would like to see any particular scenarios tested.
Exchange Server Public Chat - help and advice for Exchange
Wednesday, November 15th, 2006I have created a public chat for Exchange Server on the new Skype 3 Beta. If you need help or assistance with Microsoft Exchange Server, join the public chat and ask for help. I’ll be monitoring this Public Chat, so you’ll get me most of the time (GMT).
Click the chicklet below to join the chat.
Exchange Server hosted by Chris Dalby.
Chat about what’s on your mind. More about public chats.
Migrating from Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2003 Standard Part 1 – Preparing your network
Tuesday, October 24th, 2006My first article for http://www.msexchange.org/ has been published today. This is my first article for msexchange.org and I will be submitting one article per month for them.
Take a look at the article here.
Download World Cup fixtures for Outlook calendar
Thursday, June 15th, 2006MSN have produced this download that allows you to install all the world cup fixtures into Outlook. Thats a sure way to avoid double booking any important games.
Great idea. You can get it here: http://www.bcentral.co.uk/msn/worldcup/default.mspx
Upgrading SBS 2000 to SBS 2003 and Exchange 2000 to 2003
Thursday, April 6th, 2006I recently did a job to
upgrade Windows Small Business Server 2000 to Windows Small Business Server
2003. This server was running on a network of around 30 PCs (XP and 98), 30
users, with numerous different types of printers. The server ran Pervasive and
SQL databases and Exchange 2000.
We did a huge amount of
research for this upgrade. Microsoft Pre-sales Technical Support offered two
routes for doing the upgrade:
“If you have an
existing server in your network, you can upgrade it to Windows Small Business
Server 2003. There are two options for completing an
upgrade:
|
• |
Upgrade the |
|
• |
Install Windows |
“
We
decided to do the inplace upgrade, as the customer had an existing installation
and was not likely to buy a new server box. We tested the upgrade in a test
lab, mirroring the same environment as near as possible. The test upgrade went
through without any problems. In fact, the documentation we found regarding
this upgrade all pointed to be a straight forward upgrade, with no significant
problems. Exchange included.
However, this
was not a straight forward upgrade. When dealing with SBS, you have to be
careful not to annoy it, because it starts stamping its foot and wanting to be
in-charge. The main draw back with SBS is that the SBS server needs to be the
root Domain Controller in the forest. You can’t have more than one SBS server
in a forest at any one time. Disobey these rules at your
peril.
Needless
to say, the upgrade didn’t go as planned. Half an hour before the end of the
upgrade, we got major registry errors and the installation could not
continue.
Having
been through this, I would now only offer ONE route for an SBS upgrade. The SBS
should be decommissioned from the existing domain, be clean installed and then
promoted back into the domain. Again this sounds easy, but do not forget that
SBS is a control freak and wants to be in-charge of the whole forest. So asking
it to take a back seat needs slow and carefull attention. Plus if you throw
exchange into the mix, this makes for quite a complex operation. Do not
experiment on a live system. The slightest error and you loose the whole
domain. In fact, when we did this, we ran a test lab alongside the live system
so we could completley test all steps beofre working on the live sysem.
Microsoft
don’t really have documentaion covering this complete process. We kida figured
this out for ourselvs and worked backwards on a couple of the
tutorials.
The
basic process to remove an SBS server from a domain while keepng all Exchange
and domain settings is:
1.
Join a Windows Server 2003 Stardard to the domain as a member
server.
2.
Install DNS on the new server
3.
DC promo the 2003 Standard server.
4.
Make the 2003 Standard Server a Global Catalog server. Reboot and wait for
event 1119 or 1869 showing the new DC is now a GC - This very important.
Remember no Global Catalog means no one can log on!
5.
Change the IP address of the new DC to point to itself. Change the IP address
of the SBS to point to the new DC.
6.
Transfer the FSMO roles to the new DC
7.
Wait for replication to happen. Give it a good 15 minutes, depending upon the
size of your network.
8.
Install Exchange onto the new DC. Accept defaults.
9.
Transfer mailboxes and public folders from SBS to the new DC Follow KB822931 to
remove the SBS exchange server from your organisation.
10.
Uninstall exchange from SBS. Dcpromo SBS out of the
domain.
After
all these seps, you are now ready to clean install SBS 2003 and then do the
reverse to get it back in the domain.
Follow
KB884453 to install
the new SBS 2003 back into the domain. This gives you all the steps required to
join your new SBS server into the existing domain, including the exchange
steps. Good luck.
Stay
alert till the last moment. Don’t start smoking cigars until everything has
been transferred over and the 2003 Standard Server has had exchange uninstallaed
and it has been dcpromo out of the domain.
——————————————————————————————————
Essential
documents to do the upgrade
KB822931 How to remove the
first Exchange Server 2003 computer from the administrative
group
KB884453 How to install
Small Business Server 2003 in an existing Active Directory
domain
Resources
for doing an inplace upgrade (not recommended without a safety
net)
From
Small Business Server 2000 to Small Business Server 2003
For information
about completing an upgrade, see Chapter
3B of the Getting Started guide.
For step-by-step
instructions to complete a server migration, see Migrating from Small
Business Server 2000 or Windows 2000 Server to Windows Small Business Server
2003.
Note To complete an
upgrade, you must be running Small Business Server 2000 Service Pack 1. If you
are not running Service Pack 1, see Knowledge Base article 326924 on the Microsoft Support site for information
about downloading the service pack.
Windows
Small Business Server 2003 Upgrade Best Practices
Exchanging Messages
Wednesday, April 5th, 2006I have started a new blog on blogs.msexchange.org/dalby. The blog
is called Exchanging Messages will focus on Exchange Server and all the
associated elements that are thrown in the mix for free. Hence I
have been spendng a bit of time over there and ignoring my regular blog
for a bit.
I’ll be posting regularly on both blogs and I am proud to have been gven a spot on msexhange.org.
The address is http://blogs.msexchange.org/dalby/
E12 Installation - First impressions
Friday, March 24th, 2006 |
I have installed E12 and will start testing and using over the coming days. For anyone that is trying out E12, the best source of information is the Exchange Team blog.The installation seems relatively straight forward and certainly alot easier than previous versions. The wizard basically does the job for you, as a wizard should. There are a few elements needed prior to installation: MMC 3.0 (known bug, see fix in previous post) .NET Framework Version 2.0 Windows 2003 Native Domain |
Apart from that, point and click and the whole thing magically installs. er, at least thats what I’m hoping!
The architecture of E12 has changed, in that there is no longer a Front
and Back End server configuration. This has now been broken
further down into 5 different server roles. I’ll be posting
further articles on E12, so watch this space.
Exchange 12 MMC3.0 installation bug
Friday, March 24th, 2006There is a known issue when installing E12. E12 requires MMC 3.0
and .NET Framework version 2. Even with MMC 3.0 installed,
installation fails:
“Exchange Server ‘12′ requires Microsoft Management Console 3.0.”
There is a workaround for this problem. Open the registry and navigate to the following:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
Add a new key:
MMC30Core
Works first time with this key.
E12 - Little Ilford Webcast week
Thursday, March 16th, 2006Microsoft have started running webcasts on Exchange 12, or E12 as it is
being referred to. I must admit, I was trying to work out which part
of East London they were talking about when they started banging on
about E12.
Anyway, E12 appears to be a leap ahead in terms of functionality,
features and administration. We have downloaded and will be testing.
May I say thank you for making our lives easier.
Being at the bottom of the tree in Exchange has not always been an easy
ride. E12 has been designed to make administration and automation
easier. The new MONAD command shell looks like the answer to all my admin dreams.
Exchange 12 webcasts
Tuesday, March 14th, 2006Microsoft are holding a series of webcasts this week on exchange 12. First impressions are looks good, sounds good. I’d like to try it out.
The new Exchange System Manager interface is clean, similar to the newer interfaces like MOM 2005.
Exchange 12 boasts Anywhere Access. You are able to access your calendar and email through voice on the telephone.
Unified Messaging - voice, fax and email all from within one location
Outlook Voice Access
OWA
Auto Attendant
Calendaring
- Calendar attendant
- Resource booking attendan
- Scheduling assistant
New Wizards and Command Shell
There are bigger and newer wizards. Everything can be done on the GUI or the command shell. Microsft have provided One liners throughout the wizard processes. This allows you to easily create scripts and move into the power of automation from the command line. A Big emphasis is being put on this.
Tab completion on the command shell helps you to quickly script.
Geographic site failure failsafe with geographic clustering.
Line of Business(LOG) appliction integration via Web services.
Tune in to our webcast – setting up Outlook for Hosted Exchange with Yellow Park.
Saturday, March 4th, 2006Microsoft Exchange provides integrated messaging and grants remote access to public folders for group discussions, group scheduling, shared calendars and document sharing. It offers you and your employees mobile, remote, and desktop e-mail access with state-of-the-art security and privacy. Allowing you to access your email using a wide range of options – from PC, laptop, mobile device or internet café.
Simply log on and receive access to your contacts, calendars and email completely synchronised between devices. To demonstrate the configuration settings needed, we are running a webcast on Friday 10th March at 3pm GMT. Simply email chris@yellowpark.net to register to attend this webcast. The webcast will be presented using Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2005.
Email access using Outlook over the internet
Saturday, February 18th, 2006I have spent quite a few days over the last week configuring RPC over Http. This allows users of Outlook 2003 to connect to Exchange Server 2003 simply using a HTTPs connection in order to get access to your company email, calendar, contacts etc while working away from the office. This means you longer need a VPN to access your corporate email using hosted exchange.
There are various ways to access your email. The majority of users will undoubtedly use a POP3 mailbox. This is not only the least secure method, but also means that you are missing out on loads of great functions. Hosted exchange means that you have access to a host of features like your address book, calendar, shared company address books etc. Plus, whether you check your email from your laptop, pda or office PC, you will aways have access to exactly the same content, ensuring all devices are synchronised.
Implementing RPC Http was quite a feat, and is not for the feint hearted. I’ll be blogging how I did this in the next few days, as there were many steps needed to get this working and even more to troubleshoot.
Microsoft will only issue a 64bit version of Exhange 12
Wednesday, November 16th, 2005Microsoft will only issue a 64bit version of Exhange 12. True, and yes hard to believe. Or not, depending which side of the fence you sit on.
But indeed, it is true. At this moment, IT Directors and managers accross the globe are weeping when they add up the receipts of their now redundant Dual Xeon Exchange 2003 servers. Within 3 years of Exhange 2003 being released, not only will you need to pay more to upgrade your software, but you’ve also gotta complemetely change your harware architecture too.
When you consider that a Xeon power supply alone starts from £110, you know you’re going to have quite a few high spec servers rendered useless within seconds. Welcome to the Cockroach Motel. You can check in, but you can’t check out.