Google Desktop search and Outlook Problems

We came across a interesting issue with users having performance issues accessing their Exchange server 2003 mailbox using Outlook 2k3 and 2k7.

And the problem as it turned out to be, users were using Google Desktop search, which searches and indexes the mailbox and Public folder, creating a lot of RPC requests resulting in poor Outlook performance.

There are a lot of interesting articles relating to various issues, they are Public folder issues , Cross desktop search , Exchange server performance issues!. It's worth reading these articles to make sure the performance issue is not relate Desktop search Engine!

In the KB article Exchange server performance issues! they have given a tool called EXMON.exe to identify which all users have installed the desktop search software, cool isn't it.

Calendar sharing and reminders in outlook

• We all know that user can share his/her outlook resources with other users through delegates tab, but the point to note is that the user can only share the default system calendar container and not the user created custom calendar.
• Outlook reminders will work as long as the mails received is in it's original container, in other words if a item received in Inbox folder is moved another folder, the remainder feature won't work, as the exchange server generates remainders for only items in their received folder.

Windows server 2008 - The next big thing!

As all of the Exchange Administrators would have been aware that Exchange 2007 is making ripples in the IT industry for the advanced features and simple design, Microsoft is ready with the release of the next big server lines

• Windows 2008
• SQL 2008 and
• Visual Studio 2008

Find the details in Windows server 2008 home page and the countdown clock indicating the launch date.

Windows 2008, incorporates some amazing features like:

• Option for Windows core installation.
• Installation of server roles as opposed to default installation in 2003.
• Windows fail-over clustering.
• Virtualization support.
• Stoppable Domain services.
• Federation service.
• Rights management service.
• New backup tool (not pre-installed).
• Read only Domain controller for unsecured office locations.
• 32 installable features and 16 installable roles in total.
• Ease of administration through Server manager console.
• Reduced attack surface.

The list goes on, so why not go to the Technet Windows 2008 site and check it out.

Windows 2008 guide by Mitch Tulloch is an excellent book to start with Windows 2008 and adopt early for the technology.

 

Enjoy learning!

Creating Calendar public folders

We can create a calendar public folder only through Outlook under the public folder in which you have permissions to create a folder.

To create a Calendar PF:

1. Select the Public Folder in which you have "Create Sub-folders" permission on.

• Right-click and select New folder
• In the Pop-up dialogue box Give the name of the folder you want to create.
• In the drop down list below, select the type of the folder you want to create (Calendar PF in this case) and click OK.

Exchange System Manager, stores and policies

In this continuation blog, we'll look at some of the basic things about what Exchange System Manager(ESM), Information stores and Policies are all about.

Exchange System Manager (ESM) is the interface through which we manage most of the Exchange related object. The Exchange Server 2003 Administration Guide covers all the interfaces in ESM, though i'll give you some of the areas you will frequently access.

• Queue viewer:

This interface as shown above provides status of the various mail routing queues handled by the exchange server. You can freeze the mail flow by right clicking a queue a selecting FREEZE. This helps view the contents of the queue easily. Each queue in the above screen shot shows mails in various states and destinations, which is clearly described in the Server Admin guide.

• Message Tracking Center:

This important peace of tool located in the TOOLS container of ESM is used for tracking the path of the mails sent/received by users for finding:

1. Possible mail delays using time stamps.

2. Means to confirm the delivery of a mail to a recipient.

3. Recipients of a mail in a Distribution list etc.

Every mail handled by a server is entered in a transaction log file, which can be used in a later date to view the overall flow of the mail through the Exchange organization, by collecting the logs from the servers that handled a particular mail.

In the Tracking Center the mandatory fields are Sender, Server, Recipient, Time range. When the results of a tracking job appears, double click it to view the sub-process and time stamps.

You can view the racking log settings in the General Tab of a server's properties.

Exchange stores are containers that hold the mailboxes and the data relevant to them. Exchange stores are made up of two system file <infoStoreName>.edb and <infoStoreName>.stm

Here the .EDB is the Exchange Database files stores the mailbox contents a particular format by converting them from their original form (this is for efficient handling of the data by the server). The .STM file is the streaming contents database, meaning it stores the Internet streaming contents as it is without converting them to a particular format (since converting them back and forth would require a good deal of CPU power and can bring down server performance).

These two system files are managed by a database engine called Extensible Storage Engine (ESE). This is the Engine responsible for handling every transaction like mails deletion, correction etc. Information on ESE is L300 stuff so this bit of information will suffice for now to dram a mental map of the exchange server back end.

• Policies:

System policies container is under the Administrative group container in ESM.

There are three types of policies you can create, Server, Public Folder and Server policies.

For public folders store, you can set policies on Database settings, Replication settings, Limits settings and Full-text indexing settings as shown below.

For Mailbox store you can set policy for Store Limits, Database settings and Full-text indexing.

Apart from this you can set Administrative group Servers settings, which is basically enabling Exchange servers for Message tracking.

The links below have a good collection of key features of the ESM.

ESM Part1, Part2, Part3

Recovering Hard-deleted items a.k.a Exchange Dumpster

One of the basic features that comes in handy for customers that come with the request of recovering deleted mails from backup is to use Dumpster mail recovery feature in Exchange server to check if mails are there in the server.

There are two ways in which this recovery operation can accomplished:

1. Registry editor option: - This option is for remote user support guys only not for users!!!

A. Go to Start --> Run and type “regedit”.
B. In the Registry editor click on the + sign next to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE”.
C. Click on + sign next to “SOFTWARE”.
D. Click on + sign next to “Microsoft”.
E. Click on + sign next to “Exchange”.
F. Click on + sign next to “Client”.
G. Click on + sign next to “Options”.
H. Right-click the options folders and select NewàDWORD value
J. Name it as “DumpsterAlwaysOn” (Without quotes and no space inbetween).
K. Double click the key and set the value as 1
L. Exit the registry Key and re-open the Outlook.
M. Select the folder where the items were hard deleted (i.e, shift+delete).
N. Go to ToolsàRecover Deleted items and select the items you want to recover and press the arrow button at the top of the window.

2. Now another easy way is to copy the below content and ask the user to save it as .reg file (say dumpster.reg) in the desktop. Double click the file and say OK for the pop-up window.

The content of the file is below:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options]
"DumpsterAlwaysOn"=dword:00000001

3. The third way is using Add-in manager:

A. Go to Tools -->Options.
B. Select the “other” tab.
C. Click on the “Advanced features” button.
E. Click the “Add-in Manager” button.
F. In the opened popup window Click on the “Install” button.
G. Select the DUMPSTER.ECF and click OK, also make sure that the "Deleted items recovery" is selected.
H. Exit all the windows by clicking OK.
I. Now access the Folder where you Hard deleted (shift+delete) the mails.
J. Go to Tools --> Recover deleted items.
K. In the open window select the item you want to recover and click the arrow button at the top of the window.

Missing or Disabled Out Of Office (OOO)

Came through this interesting issue a while ago, thought it’s worth writing.

A user reported that he is not able to use his OOO, because it’s grayed out.

While checking some features found out the root cause, to enable the OOO feature again, follow the below steps:

1. Go to Tools menu -->Options
2. In the pop-up window select the “Other” tab.
3. Click the “Advanced options” button at the top part of the window.
4. In the pop-up window click on the “Add-in manager” button.
5. A small window with various options opens, in that, click on the install button and select OUTEX.ECF and say OK also make sure that the "Exchange Extensions property Pages" option is selected.
6. Exit all the window by clicking OK.
7. Re-open Outlook and use the OOO feature.