The Exchange team has released the ExLogAnalyzer, it’s an enhancement of a bunch of VB scripts released earlier for creating reports based on the message tracking logs. It looks like a cool tool, which can come handy in a lot of scenarios.
The main shift in this model, compared to the previous script, is that ExLogAnalyzer is built as a framework that can be used to analyze Exchange as well as possibly any other log format.
ExLogAnalyzer is now released to the community and here’s a few examples of what it can analyze/report:
- Generates the top 1000 senders based on mailbox deliveries. Messages to the internet are not counted.
- Provides an understanding of the message size distribution.
- Discover and summarize recipients for which "Recipient Not Found" error was generated.
- Generates a directed graph showing the server being analyzed and all the inbound / outbound mail flow paths.
- Analyzes the latencies of the different components and determines the latencies experienced by the specified percentiles of messages.
- Analyzes the SMTP receive work load over time while tracking tarpitting, client time outs, etc.
- An analyzer that samples the connections over time. This analyzer generates a CSV file per source (e.g. SMTP or MAPI).
- An analyzer that provides the frequency of sessions, failed and DNS failures per source + destination combination.
Just to name a few, read more at the Exchange team blog and download here.
HP has released their sizing tool for Exchange 2010. This successor to the Exchange 2007 Sizing tool does recommendations for deployment and sizing of servers and storage and includes a (HP) bill of materials. The tool supports multi-site deployments, Database Availability Groups (DAG), DAS or or SAN-based storage and high availability and client options.
As with the 2007 version it uses a combination of technical and business requirements and projects best practices for high available Exchange configurations (when applicable). The tool can update itself and the product information it uses.
This tool can be used as a good guideline together with Microsoft’s own Exchange 2010 Mailbox Server Role Requirements Calculator.
You can download the HP Sizer for Exchange Server 2010 here.
The Exchange Team has made a blog post about ISA 2006 SP1 configuration with Exchange 2010.
While ISA 2006 SP1 includes a Client Access Web Publishing Wizard for both Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007, the wizard does not have any knowledge of Exchange 2010.
Read it here.
I just got the news, I’m now officially qualified as a MCM: Exchange 2007. This is the best Christmas present ever! Well it wasn’t actually a present, but really tough work and a final exam. 
I attended the MCM: Exchange 2007 Rotation 3 in May 2009. I enjoyed the tough 3 weeks of training in Redmond, it was an incredible learning experience and also great opportunity network with fellow Exchange specialists. I can only recommend this experience and very dedicated training to everyone who specializes within one of the MCM areas.
The Microsoft Certified Master: Exchange Server 2007 program provides the most in-depth and comprehensive training that is available today for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
Meet more Masters here.
I’ll not write about the program and the training, a lot of fellow Masters has already done this and there’s The Masters Blog.
This might be old news to some
But PFDAVADmin is still a great utility and it works perfect for Exchange 2007 (from a client, see my last post). Besides using it to handle folder permissions, it can also recover public folders or public folder items, that have been accidentally deleted, as long as it’s within the retention time.
This article describes how to recover deleted public folders or items that are deleted from public folders in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server. You can use the Microsoft Exchange Server Public Folder DAV-based Administration (PFDAVAdmin) tool to recover public folders or items. You can use the methods that are described in this article when you cannot recover folders or items by using the Recover deleted items command in Microsoft Outlook.
Read more in the MS article.
PFDAVAadmin is still a great tool to manage public folders. It helps you do a lot of things "in bulk" that you would not easily be able to do otherwise (in a GUI). At least not as quickly and it works with Exchange 2000/2003/2007 even though it’s an old utility. However, on two different Exchange 2007 servers, I have received messages similar to this:
‘Could not expand https://localhost/exadmin/admin/mydomain.com/public%20folders/: name cannot begin with the ‘0′ character, hexadecimal value 0×30. Line 1, position 386′
I figured something was wrong with my public folder configuration, but thanks to a discussions on the web, I found that it relates to the .Net framework used by the utility. This message occurs if you do not have the Microsoft .NET Framework v1.1 installed on the server. (Exchange 2007 uses the v2.0 Framework).
Microsoft recommends using the PFDAVAdmin utility from a workstation, not from the console of the Exchange server, though. If you get this message, do NOT install the v1.1 Framework on an existing Exchange 2007 server. You run the risk of resetting some of the v2.0 Framework settings and, thus, breaking Exchange Server 2007!
So if you want to run PFDAVAdmin from the console of an Exchange 2007 server, you need to install the v1.1 .NET Framework prior to building Exchange.
Thanks to Jim McBee for highlighting this.
This great blog post by the Forefront team about Backscatter protection and how to deal with it using Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server.
In essence, backscatter is a DSN (Delivery Status Notification) delivered to a recipient who never sent the original mail in the first place. While the DSN itself is perfectly legitimate and valid notification initiated by a reputable MTA, it has been sent to a user who never initiated the original mail transaction.
Read the blog post here.
Microsoft has announced an update of the Exchange 2007 Storage Cost Calculator.
The new version 2.9 is available for download here.
For more information about the enhancements in the new version, check the blogpost at msexchangeteam.com.
