Ramblings of a Geek

Moving!

2008-09-16T09:33:00.001+01:00

I have moved!!!

You can now find me at http://geekcroft.wordpress.com

I've copied all the postings over so take care :)

Microsoft to support ESX-Virtualised 2008 x86.... But only on Opteron hardware?

2008-09-15T16:50:00.001+01:00

According to

http://windowsservercatalog.com/item.aspx?idItem=3989e3af-30c0-dee8-8078-960c2ec0e1a6&bCatID=1521

Microsoft have "Passed" ESX. Running Server 2008 x86. On Opteron Hardware (with a max memory of 4gb).

Does this mean Intel-based ESX installations are not supported?

And only 2008 x86???

And on another side-note, Exchange 2007 is now supported under "passed" Virtualization Environments.

Microsoft supports Exchange Server 2007 in production on hardware virtualization software only when all the following conditions are true:

* The hardware virtualization software is Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V technology, Microsoft Hyper-V Server, or any third-party hypervisor that has been validated under the Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program.
* The Exchange Server guest virtual machine:
o Is running Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later.

o Is deployed on the Windows Server 2008 operating system.

o Does not have the Unified Messaging server role installed. All Exchange 2007 server roles, except for the Unified Messaging role, are supported in a virtualization environment.

* The storage used by the Exchange Server guest machine can be virtual storage of a fixed size (for example, fixed virtual hard drives (VHDs) in a Hyper-V environment), SCSI pass-through storage, or Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage. Pass-through storage is storage that is configured at the host level and dedicated to one guest machine.

Note:
In a Hyper-V environment, each fixed VHD must be less than 2,040 gigabytes (GB). For supported third-party hypervisors, check with the manufacturer to see if any disk size limitations exist.

o Virtual disks that dynamically expand are not supported by Exchange.

o Virtual disks that use differencing or delta mechanisms (such as Hyper-V's differencing VHDs or snapshots) are not supported.

* No other server-based applications, other than management software (for example, antivirus software, backup software, virtual machine management software, etc.) can be deployed on the physical root machine. The root machine should be dedicated to running guest virtual machines.

* Microsoft does not support combining Exchange clustering solutions (namely, cluster continuous replication (CCR) and single copy clusters (SCC)) with hypervisor-based availability or migration solutions (for example, Hyper-V's quick migration). Both CCR and SCC are supported in hardware virtualization environments provided that the virtualization environment does not employ clustered virtualization servers.

* Some hypervisors include features for taking snapshots of virtual machines. Virtual machine snapshots capture the state of a virtual machine while it is running. This feature enables you to take multiple snapshots of a virtual machine and then revert the virtual machine to any of the previous states by applying a snapshot to the virtual machine. However, virtual machine snapshots are not application-aware, and using them can have unintended and unexpected consequences for a server application that maintains state data, such as Exchange Server. As a result, making virtual machine snapshots of an Exchange guest virtual machine is not supported.

* Many hardware virtualization products allow you to specify the number of virtual processors that should be allocated to each guest virtual machine. The virtual processors located in the guest virtual machine share a fixed number of logical processors in the physical system. Exchange supports a virtual processor-to-logical processor ratio no greater than 2:1. For example, a dual processor system using quad core processors contains a total of 8 logical processors in the host system. On a system with this configuration, do not allocate more than a total of 16 virtual processors to all guest virtual machines combined.

Source: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794548.aspx

Source 2: http://exchangepedia.com/blog/2008/08/announced-virtualization-support-for.html

Beremote.exe may take an excessive amount of memory on the Exchange server while running Granular Restore Technology (GRT) enabled backups to tape

2008-09-15T12:36:00.001+01:00

Symantec PWN Again.

The Following TiD explains it;

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/289695.Htm

However I have seen this on none-Exchange servers, and on BackupExec 12 servers also.

Basically to check for it, pop into task manager, enable the "Virtual Memory Usage" column, and see how much the beremote.exe is using.

It "should" be 30mb (or there abounts)

Answer;

Write a batch file to restart the service and schedule it every night.

Good job Symantec!!

Exchange 2007 and Disconnected Mailboxes

2008-09-12T14:33:00.001+01:00

Another interesting "feature" from MS;

When you disconnect a Mailbox, it doesn't always show under the "Disconnected Mailboxes" within the EMC. Hmm where did it go?

clean-mailboxdatabase -identity "MailboxDB" should work. Or, as I prefer;

Get-MailboxDatabase | Clean-MailboxDatabase

To sort them all out :)

Have fun!

Exchange 2007, DDL's and OPATH Filters

2008-09-12T11:32:00.001+01:00

Well well well.

MS Have done another Grand job implementing Dynamic Distribution Lists. I mean OK, I can cope with having to use the PS to create "fancy" one's. I mean that's what the PS is for, doing more "hardcore" admin. But for Jeebus sake, make it work.

My task? Customer wants to create a DDL for each Storage Group (and/or Database) he has, so he can send email out to the list when he has any Database Maintenance to do. Simple enough surely?

get-mailboxdatabase -StorageGroup STORAGEGROUPNAME | % { New-DynamicDistributionGroup "DDG-$($_.Name)" -RecipientFilter "Database -eq '$($_.Identity.DistinguishedName)'" }

Fabulous. Creates a DDL from the Database in the Storage Group, and adds all users to it.

Almost.

Preview it in EMC.

Cannot convert value "EXCHTEST\First Storage Group\Mailbox Database" to type "Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Directory.ADObjectId". Error: "The string "EXCHTEST\First Storage Group\Mailbox Database" does not represent a valid distinguished name."

But wait, I told Exchange to use the "Identity.DistinguishedName". Why is it now talking "shortened" language to me?

Looks like Exchange translates this, as its not able to store the OPATH filter directly. Well we can fix that.

Dig out ADSI edit. Locate your DDL you just created (Users typically). Modify it. Find the "msExchQueryFilter" attribute.

(Database -eq 'EXCHTEST\First Storage Group\Mailbox Database' -and -not(Name -like 'SystemMailbox{*') -and -not(Name -like 'CAS_{*'))

Thats not right.

Fire up a powershell, get-mailboxdatabase | fl.

Copy (and clean up with notepad or something similar) the Distinguished name, it should look something like this;

CN=Mailbox Database,CN=First Storage Group,CN=InformationStore,CN=EXCHTEST,CN=Servers,CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT),CN=Administrative Groups,CN=First Organization,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=exchangetest,DC=local

Now copy it, flip back into ADSI edit, and change mcExchQueryFilter like so;

(Database -eq 'CN=Mailbox Database,CN=First Storage Group,CN=InformationStore,CN=EXCHTEST,CN=Servers,CN=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT),CN=Administrative Groups,CN=First Organization,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=exchangetest,DC=local' -and -not(Name -like 'SystemMailbox{*') -and -not(Name -like 'CAS_{*'))

Preview it (again) and voila! :)

The case of disappearing Update Rollup 4

2008-09-12T10:52:00.001+01:00

The case of disappearing Update Rollup 4: "

For a brief period of time on 9/9 (Tuesday), a pre-release version of Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB952580) was inadvertently made available to Microsoft Update, the Microsoft Update Catalog, and WSUS servers for download. While we quickly identified and removed the update from Microsoft Update within a short period of time, some servers using these distribution methods might have detected, downloaded and/or installed this version of the update.

An issue exists with this pre-release version of the Rollup 4 with regard to the Exchange Web Service (EWS) that creates the potential for a continuous crashing cycle. The final version of this update will be released shortly and we recommend customers who have not already installed the update to wait to do so. For those who have already installed the update, we recommend uninstalling this version. Once a new the final version is made available, all Exchange 2007 SP1 Installations with pre-release version of Rollup 4 installed will be offered the final version which will install over the pre-release.

We apologize for any inconvenience and are working to make sure this does not happen again. While at this time we are not aware of many customers being affected by this, we wanted to let you know in case you are currently testing what you downloaded 2 days ago.

Identification of Rollup version via Add/Remove Programs:

To identify the version of the Rollup that you have installed, press the 'Click here for support information' link on the rollup, under your Add or Remove Programs applet in Control Panel:

Identification of the rollup version via the Registry:

To identify if the rollup is installed via the registry, the 'DisplayVersion' value shown below will be 1. The newer version of the rollup to be released will consist of a 2 or higher.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\KB952954
Name: DisplayVersion
Type: REG_SZ
Data: 1

Identification of crashes caused by this problem:

If you are experiencing crashes caused by this problem, you will see the following event being logged on your server:

Log Name: Application
Source: MSExchange Common
Event ID: 4999
Task Category: General
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
Description:
Watson report about to be sent to dw20.exe for process id: 9364, with parameters: E12IIS, RTL-AMD64, 08.01.0240.006, WS, M.E.Services, M.E.S.C.PerfCounterReader.GetCPUPercent, System.InvalidOperationException, d177, 08.01.0311.001. ErrorReportingEnabled: True

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event'>
<System>
<Provider Name='MSExchange Common' />
<EventID Qualifiers='16388'>4999</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>1</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime='2008-09-11T00:49:11.000Z' />
<EventRecordID>1262</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>test.contoso.com</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>9364</Data>
<Data>E12IIS</Data>
<Data>RTL-AMD64</Data>
<Data>08.01.0240.006</Data>
<Data>WS</Data>
<Data>M.E.Services</Data>
<Data>M.E.S.C.PerfCounterReader.GetCPUPercent</Data>
<Data>System.InvalidOperationException</Data>
<Data>d177</Data>
<Data>08.01.0311.001</Data>
<Data>True</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

- Scott Roberts

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(Via You Had Me At EHLO... : Exchange 2007.)

Oh Microsoft. Go you! :)

The biggest file I've ever seen - 3Tb PUB.EDB

2008-09-12T10:48:00.001+01:00

The biggest file I've ever seen - 3Tb PUB.EDB: "

Well I haven't seen this for myself, but I was sent a screenshot of it. Actually, it was 3 different Exchange public folder servers, each of which had ~3Tb of public folder data...

That's scary and impressive in equal measure.

Reminds me of some of the stories people posted in response to my How does your Exchange garden grow? post nearly 3 years ago, on the Exchange Team blog...

(Via The Electric Wand.)

Sent through via a RSS Feed I view.

3Tb for a public folder?!?!?! Feck.