In his previous article, Antoine Khater made sure that every Exchange SysAdmin knew how to backup their servers. Now that you've got your backups running smoothly, his latest no-nonsense guide covers exacty how to restore everything ranging from whole servers down to individual mailboxes and items, and how to do it fast.… Read more
The very latest and greatest incarnation of Exchange Server 2010, Service Pack 1 Beta, is now available for the public to try out. Lucky for us, Jaap's had access to the new release for quite some time, and he gives us a distilled guide to exactly what is new and improved.… Read more
If you're using Exchange 2010, then you're probably interested in using the new Database Availability Group feature for your High Availability needs. The DAG is superbly powerful technology, but you'd better make sure yours is 100% correctly configured. Neil Hobson walks us through what we need to know, using a two-node DAG as an example.… Read more
If you're a Systems Administrator concerned about information security, you could do worse than implementing Microsoft's Information Rights Management system; especially if you already have Active Directory Rights Management Services in place. Elie Bou Issa talks Hub Servers, Transport Protection Rules and Outlook integration in this excellent guide to getting started with IRM.… Read more
With security concerns being a constant litany, it's worth considering Active Directory Rights Management Services as a powerful tool in your access-control arsenal, particularly when it integrates so neatly with Exchange 2010. Elie Bou Issa kindly takes us, step by step, through everything we need to know to install and start using this versatile technology like a pro.… Read more
Cluster continuous replication (CCR) uses log shipping and failover to provide a more resilient email system with faster recovery. Once it is installed, a clustered server requires different management routines. These are done either with a GUI tool, The Failover Cluster Management Console, or the Exchange Management Shell. You can use Powershell as well for some tasks. Confused? Not for long, since Brien Posey is once more here to help. … Read more
Johan Veldhuis completes his 'Deep Dive' by plunging even deeper into the mysteries of MS Exchange's Transport queues that are used to temporarily store messages which are waiting until they are passed through to the next stage, and explains how to change the way they work via configuration settings. … Read more
Submission queues? Poison message queues? Johan Veldhuis unlocks the mysteries of MS Exchange's Transport queues that used to temporarily store messages waiting until they are passed through to the next stage, and explains how to manage these queues.… Read more
It is possible to change the fields in the Outlook address book to make them a better fit for your organisation. Exchange provides templates for Users, Contacts, Groups, Public Folders, and Mailbox Agents that are downloaded to Outlook. Any changes will be visible in the address book. As usual with Exchange, careful planning before you make changes pays dividends, Ben Lye explains. … Read more
One of the first things you notice with Windows Server 2008 R2 is that PowerShell 2.0 has become central to the admin function There is a powerful Active Directory module for Powershell that contains a provider and cmdlets that are designed to allow you to manage Active Directory from the command line. Now, you can also use versions for previous versions of Windows Server.… Read more
Cluster continuous replication (CCR) helps to provide a more resilient email system with faster recovery. It was introduced in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and uses log shipping and failover. configuring Cluster Continuous Replication on a Windows Server 2008 requires different techniques to Windows Server 2003. Brien Posey explains all. … Read more
File system Quotas are used to restrict the amount of space users can consume or to report on the space consumed by them. They are useful for reporting on those users or folders that are consuming large amounts of disk space on a file server. Ben Lye shows that File system quotas are quick and easy to set up, with three different methods available for configuring them… Read more
Because the Sys Admins and DBAs who are efficient end up wielding a great deal of power, there is always a danger that it can 'go to their head'. If ever you start imposing your decisions on the organisation for no better reason than the fact that they're yours, then it is time to read Matt's simple guide on how to prevent your actions being controlled by your ego.</… Read more
What's new in Exchange Server 2010 and what features from Exchange Server 2007 have been deprecated? What has been done to further integrate Exchange with Active Directory? In an extract from his new book, Jaap gives a rooftop view of Exchange's new features and their significance, and spells out the main reasons why it is worth upgrading.… Read more
Jaap's Practical Guide to Exchange Server 2010 draws upon all that experience to deliver an easy-to-use guide to this latest platform, full of useful examples and top tips for SysAdmins, both new and experienced.… Read more
Outlook PST files are a problem for Exchange users, and give no benefits over Exchange mailboxes. You have to use them on a local drive, they are difficult to back up, and tricky for the administrator to manage. It is possible to use Exchange Group Policy settings to limit the use of PST files, and thereby alleviate some of the difficulties they cause. … Read more
When information is exchanged in XML format, you need an agreement between the sender and receiver about the structure and content of the XML document. This "agreement" takes the form of an XSD (XML Schema Definition Language) Schema. Jacob Sebastian's book explains all. Download the eBook.… Read more
Hiring someone for a technical post is a task that should never be tackled half-heartedly. Matt Simmons provides some general advice on the subject, illustrated by a recent experience of hiring an IT administrator to help share the load. It opened his eyes to the real state of the economy.… Read more
Imagine that you're researching Continuous Cluster Replication, looking for a simple, direct guide to the basics of getting it set up and running. What do you do if everything you find is either too specialised, or goes into far more detail than you need? If you're Brien Posey, and you can't find that practical, to-the-point article, you roll up your sleeves and write it yourself. To kick off, he tackles the rather tedious task of setting up a Majority Node Set Cluster.… Read more
In April 2009 Microsoft released a public beta of Exchange 2010, the latest and greatest version of a part of its unified communications family of products. Recently in August 2009, a feature complete Release Candidate version was released for public download. In this article Neil Hobson takes a look at some of the high availability features of Exchange 2010.… Read more
