• Microsoft Exchange Server,  Windows Server

    Temporarily Disable Timeout Detection For Exchange 2010 and Up

    I’ve seen a number of cases where Exchange Information Stores are located on SANs. If you don’t have enough throughput you’re likely to see RPC request timeouts for the database, mailboxes or even a server. This typically correlates to Event IDs of 10025, 10026 and 10027. If a mailbox is having such problems then it will be quarantined. If you have this happen once or twice then it’s likely not that big of a deal. However, if it happens repeatedly then you’ve likely got a problem. These can be cumbersome to fix. So while you’re working on things, rather than have mailboxes go offline all the time, you can edit…

  • Microsoft Exchange Server,  Windows Server

    Exchange Server 2010 PowerShell Mailbox Exports

    Need to export mailboxes from Exchange? Hate using exmerge to do so. Gone are the days of exmerge. Well, not entirely. But welcome to the days of New-MailboxExportRequest. Much longer and cooler command than exmerge ever thought about being. C:\>New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox cedge -FilePath \\kryptedexchange.krypted.com\pst\cedge.pst You then receive confirmation that the export has been queued: Name Mailbox Status ---- ------- ------ MailboxExport https://krypted.com//Users/cedge... Queued To view the status, swap New with Get (Get-MailboxExportRequest): Get-MailboxExportRequest The output is as follows: Name Mailbox Status ---- ------- ------ MailboxExport https://krypted.com//Users/cedge... InProgress To get even more info, use the -Name option with Get-MailboxExportRequest, identifying the actual process name. Get-MailboxExportRequest -Name MailboxExport | fl The output…

  • iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Using Payload Variables in Profile Manager

    Profile Manager allows you to leave certain fields that are user-centric blank and it will prompt at the time that the profile is installed for the blank information. These are usually user-centric fields, such as short name and password. You can also create a profile in Profile Manager for each user you want to setup mail, Exchange, iCal, Address Book and other services that are tied to a specific user. You can enter the username for each and leave the password blank and the user will be prompted for the password but have the username filled in. And then there are payload variables. Note: Before we get started on Payload…

  • iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Managing iOS Devices with Apple Configurator

    My traditional interpretation of Apple’s vision on how iOS devices are used is that everyone has an AppleID. That AppleID enables them to access their apps from any iOS device they own or Mac that they own. That AppleID enables them to access mail, contacts, calendars and even files through iCloud. That AppleID also allows users to remotely wipe their device through Find iPhone and track their friends iOS devices (as in social networking via breadcrumb tracking) through Find Friends. All of this “Just Works” in a consumer sense. And it even allows for a little sharing of content across devices you own. However, larger organizations need more. They need…

  • Microsoft Exchange Server,  Windows Server

    Mail Tips, For Loops and Powershell

    Powershell gives Exchange admins a lot of nice little tricks to use. Exchange 2010 has a new feature in tool tips. You can use Powershell, to run a basic for loop, looping through a quick Get-Mailbox. Based on the output of the Get-Mailbox, you can get a list of all valid mailboxes for an organization. You can then execute a command, allowing you to run any mailbox command against every mailbox of an organization. In the following example, we’ll use the Set-MailBox to make a basic mail tip for all users: foreach ($mailbox in (Get-Mailbox)) { Set-MailBox -Identity $mailbox -MailTip “Please send only legitimate emails” }

  • Network Infrastructure

    A Little Light Reading

    The last book (far right, Enterprise Mac Managed Preferences) is fresh, exciting (to me at least) and unique in that it is the most comprehensive information regarding managed preferences you can find. Management en masse of Mac OS X is very lucky to have this compendium. If the chapter in our Enterprise Integration book left you wanting more information about managed preferences then this book is for you!

  • Microsoft Exchange Server

    Bypassing Exchange 2007's Content Filter

    Exchange 2007 is often set to filter all spam and reject mail that is classified as spam. If you configure Exchange 2007 to do so then you still need an email address that does not get filtered. The reason is that in the body of your rejection emails, you need to provide a valid user with a means to contact you in order to get their mail through. To bypass the content filter for an email address can be done using a commandlet, Set-ContentFilterConfig. When using the Set-ContentFilterConfig you can use the -BypassedRecipients option to specify email addresses that the filter will not be applied to, which would then be…

  • Mac OS X,  Microsoft Exchange Server

    RIP Entourage

    Just when Microsoft released the EWS update for Microsoft Entourage, today it announced that it will be replacing Entourage with Microsoft Outlook for the Mac. Outlook for the Mac will be included in Microsoft Office Business Edition and be released at the end of 2010 more than likely. Maybe there will finally be an AutoArchive for Mac OS X?

  • Mac OS X

    Migrating Mail to Google Apps from cPanel

    If you have a web host that supports cPanel (a number do) then moving to Google Apps for Mail couldn’t be simpler. Just log in to your cPanel account and click on the Mail icon in the top left corner. From here, click on the last item in the list, Modify Mail Exchanger (MX Entry). Then click on change an MX Entry. In the Change MX for… drop down list, select the appropriate domain (if you only have one then there should be only the one to change and then enter aspmx.l.google.com in the to: field, clicking Change when you are done. According to the TTL value you will then…

  • Microsoft Exchange Server

    Blackberry 4.5 Update

    Been updating Blackberries in Exchange environments from 4.2 software to 4.5, mostly so they can view Free/Busy times on the devices. For the first few, I’m doing it manually by connecting the device to the USB port and updating it from within Desktop Manager, but I’ll be doing the rest OTA (over the air). For more on the update, check it out on the crackberry forums.