Exchange 2003 ActiveSync

Creating a blog that acts as a reference to previous work is clearly not my forte.

We had an Exchange failure over the weekend. It wasn't actually an Exchange failure but a VMware ESXi 4.0 datastore that got out of control. The lesson learned was don't take snapshots unless you really have to and make sure you delete them as soon as possible. I already knew this but somebody, three years ago, took a snapshot called "test" and there it remained, undetected, consuming more and more of the disk until it was impossible to delete. It is impossible to delete because it needs to consolidate disks which are now too unwieldy to be merged on the remaining datastore. It is particularly difficult if you are using local storage and there's nowhere to go or grow.

So after a restore from tape everything was working again. Except ActiveSync.

So the environment consists of one front-end server and two back-end servers. In this scenario I am under the impression that as long as port 443 is open on your firewall the FE will catch all requests and pass them on to the BE servers. The default website config that the Exchange 2003 installation puts in place should just work. That is all the virtual directories (ExAdmin, Exchange, ExchWeb, Exchange-Server-ActiveSync, OMA and Public) will be set up with the correct security and functionality. The certificate should reside on the FE server which should also stipulate SSL.

In a scenario with no FE server AND SSL or forms-based authentication is enabled then you need to create a duplicate of the Exchange VD, assign it name (Microsoft seems to like "Exchange-OMA" but "Whatever-the-fuck-you-want" is ok too) and then point to it in a registry entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MasSync\Parameters\ExchangeVDir

This should be case-sensitive and contain a string such as "/exchange-oma" or "/Whatever-the-fuck-you-want".

But you don't need this registry entry if you have a FE server. Of course in the upside-down environment I was working in all servers have this entry, even the FE server. So in order to get AS working I did the same on the restored server and it started working again. God knows why, but no doubt I will be returning to this at some point.

 A side note to this is about resetting the VDs should they stop working. Here are the steps:

1. In IIS delete all the VDs - the ones named above. You can take a backup of the website first but I'm not sure how useful this is.
2. Go to c:\inetpub\adminscripts in a cmd and type "adsutil delete ds2mb".
3. Restart the System Attendant and see the VDs recreated.

LB 2003 to 2010 Exchange Migration p4

I went in to remove the Exchange 2003 server from the LB office and have the following observations.

The public folders went fairly smoothly, in that the "MoveAllReplicas" script seemed to do its job and clear the old server of all its replicas.

A new internet connector needed to be created for internet-bound email because ownership can't be given to the new server (due to it being in a different routing group).

The RUS service needs to be handed to the new server, which I didn't mention in past posts.

So after removing one system e-mail account (something to do with Free / Busy, but not sure what since this functionality should be derived from public folders...) the 2003 uninstall was ready to proceed. And so it did, but it also failed quite spectacularly and so, outlined below, is a guide on how to manually remove an orphaned Exchange 2003 server from AD:

1. Go into ADSIedit and delete the server object.

You should be able to run the BPA with no errors, and if you do have errors then they can probably be fixed by copying and pasting the DN from one field, in AD, to another. Not graceful, but there you go.

LB 2003 to 2010 Exchange Migration p2

Yesterday I copied and pasted a screed of unformated text which formed my attack plan for the migration. Today I have been at the company and gotten underway with the whole thing. So, inevitably with IT, my list wasn't comprehensive and certain problems have slowed the progress of the installation.

When Exchange 5.5 was around it used a thing called the "Active Directory Connector" which was for syncing with AD. 2003 did away with it and began using the recipient update service and the ADC was rendered redundant. Exchange 2007 / 2010 will not proceed with installation if there are any traces of the ADC left. Additionally, the Exchange orgnisation was in "mixed mode" and should have been in "native mode". So how do you remove these traces of ADC and change the mode of the organisation?

Firstly, uninstall the ADC service. In the case of this company it was installed on a DC. Uninstall failed citing "additional connectors". From here the ADC connectors need to be manually deleted from ADSIEdit. So go to Config > Services > Exchange > AD Connectors and delete the connectors not related to the ADC service. Once this is done the uninstall will proceed.

Some pesky ADC were still lingering, however. These we simply deleted. This can be achieved from ADSIEdit, as mentioned above, or AD Sites and Services (remember to show the hidden service options from the toolbar).

Now we thought we would be able to change to native mode, but still it was greyed out. The next thing to be done is to stop and disable the "Site replication service" on Exchange 2003. Still native mode was greyed out.

Finally we deleted the "Site replication service" in Exchange system manager under Tools. At last we could change to native mode and begin to prepare Legacy permissions (setup /pl), the schema (setup /ps) and the domain (setup /prepareAD).

LB 2003 to 2010 Exchange Migration p1

I have to go to some company tomorrow to help with their migration from Exchange 2003 to 2010. I've done this a few times but I think that I may have some blagging to do if they choose the co-existence route.

I wrote this in preparation for my visit.

Exchange 2003 - 2010 migration

Planning and Install

1.    Exchange Server 2010 Planning
a.    Is Exchange 2003 running SP2. If not it must be upgraded.
b.    Domain Functional level – must be 2003
c.    Hardware and storage considerations
i.    Run perfmon to find current IOPS requirement
d.    Does the environment require roles at different sites or can all roles be on one server?
e.    Exchange Server Deployment Assistant, or ExDeploy
f.    DR considerations. DAGs require Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise
g.    How many databases should be deployed for easy restoring?
h.    Exchange Best practice analyser – run to determine existing problems
i.    External access requirements:
i.    Additional certificate needed. SAN certificate recommended with “mail”, “autodiscover” and “legacy”.
ii.    How is OWA / ActiveSync published?
j.    What version of Office is being used? Is there a requirement for public folders?
k.    Archiving software – what needs to be done to move this to new server?
l.    What SMTP devices (e.g. MFDs, backup alerts, etc) need to be reconfigured?
2.    Windows 2008 R2 hotfixes
a.    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb691354%28v=exchg.141%29.aspx
3.    Exchange 2010 Installation
a.    Install the Windows RPC Over HTTP Proxy Component
b.    Prerequisites can be installed by the Exchange 2010 installer if SP1 is bundled.
c.    If external domain names are known they can be entered during installation, otherwise they should be entered in step 5
d.    SP1 and SP2 and rollup hotfixes
e.    Exchange best practice analyser – run again
f.    Configure the Exchange 2010 certificate
i.    Is there an internal CA available?
ii.    Provision for a legacy URL (if option 1, below, is to be followed)

Option 1 – Co-existence

Both servers will run in tandem for the duration of the migration. More complicated route but allows external OWA for users on both servers except during the period when their mailbox is moved (move is offline).

4.    Configure the client access server.
a.    Enable Outlook anywhere on client access server
b.    Set the Legacy URL on OWA
i.    Set-OwaVirtualDirectory <CAS2010>\OWA*  -Exchange2003Url https://legacy.contoso.com/exchange
1.    Enable forms-based authentication on Exchange 2003
c.    Change the OAB generation server to the new 2010 server and enable web based access
d.    Install hotfix for ActiveSync
i.    http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=937031
5.    Publish the old Exchange server via the legacy URL
a.    Import the Exchange 2010 certificate into the Exchange 2003 server
i.    Use this recently imported certificate in IIS on the 2003 server by replacing the old one
b.    Arrange with DNS service provider to create an A record for the legacy URL, which should match the URL in 3.c.ii and 5.b. This can point to the same IP address if the publishing method allows this. E.g. ISA 2006.
c.    Use firewall / ISA to publish the old Exchange server from the new external IP / legacy URL
d.    Disable HTTP over RPC on any 2003 front end servers.
6.    Use ISA / firewall to publish the new Exchange server from the old DNS record.
a.    Users on both servers should now be able to reach their mailboxes via the old URL (and 2003 users should be able to use the legacy URL too).

Option 2 – Migration during maintenance window

The new Exchange server will be published for OWA and then all mailboxes can be moved to the new server. As soon as a user’s mailbox resides on the new server OWA will become available for him or her.

7.    Use the existing external URL and publishing rule on the firewall / ISA to publish the new Exchange server.
a.    The ECP sub site should also be published
b.    Users on the Exchange 2003 server will now be unable to access OWA.

Migration Process 

8.    Once option 1 or 2 above is complete then the mailboxes can be moved using the Exchange 2010 console or shell.
a.    Migration of mailboxes causes a large amount of logs and so disk space should be monitored.
9.    If public folders are in use then they should be replicated to the new server.
a.    .\AddReplicaToPFRecursive.ps1 -server "Exchange 2010 Server" -TopPublicFolder "\" -ServerToAdd "Exchange 2010 Server"

Post Migration processes

10.    Check public folders have finished replicating (get-publicfolderstatistics) move them to the new server:
a.    .\MoveAllReplicas.ps1 -Server "Exchange 2003 Server" -NewServer "Exchange 2010 Server"
b.    Use Get-PublicFolder -recurse |fl name,replicas and Get-PublicFolder -recurse \non_ipm_subtree |fl name, replicas to ascertain whether migration is complete.
11.    The public folder home server should be moved to the new server
12.    Shared mailboxes can be converted to resource mailboxes
13.    Uninstall Exchange 2003
a.    If it is impossible to uninstall Exchange due to remaining replicas in the public folder database then it can removed using ADSIedit before proceeding.
14.    Remove routing group connectors and the RUS using ADSIedit.