Most adminsitrators RDP into their servers daily and every now and then install updates and then reboot a server. The terminal server session closes and you move on. Life is good. Later you go back to RDP into the box and you get nothing. When you finally make it over to the console you notice that the box is still up and the logs show no reboot, what just happened happened?

1.) You didn’t use the /console or /admin switch. This provides you with console level access which is where you should reboot a box from. Since you are not at the console level you have to ask other process if it’s ok to shutdown. They can say no but your RDP session is already closed and you think it’s rebooted.This blog post goes into more detail.

http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2008/03/18/hotfix-installs-remote-desktop-and-the-reboot-that-wasn-t.aspx

2.) You did us the /console or /admin switch and it still didn’t work, you can never win can you?

Solution: Try applying this update.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;971310&sd=rss&spid=3198

Hope this helps. You could also use shutdown.exe /r/f to force it but you could lose data.

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Recently I’ve gone through the pleasure of having to move the MS Search instance in an Exchange Cluster to a new disk location. There are 3 options. The easy way, the dangerous way, and finally the hard but manual way.

The first way is the easy way. You basically take the mssearch offline, rename the folder, create a new folder as a mount point, then copy the data into it and start the service. Simple if you are able to keep the same drive location. This has a detailed walkthrough of what I sort of  outlined.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938445

The second way I think its much more dangerous to me, since it involes deleting data. Basically if you wanted to simulate that you lost the drive and you need to recreate search you would do the following. Run a script that is listed in this KB that will delete the registry settings in the cluster on that node, stop and start the MS Search, delete the System Attendant and recreate it You will lose any custom settings you have in the System Attendant. Then you basically recreate the System Attedant. Detailed steps can be found here. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830189/en-us

Wow that seems pretty scary, deleting data and hoping you dont have custom stuff if you don’t actually know it. Seems dangerous to me.
The third way is the manual way. Which is also semi dangerous but at least a controled danger. I take no responsibility for any of these steps. If you really want this done right call MS and open a support case or at least attempt this in a lab first. This is just a good direction with my fuzzy memory from a few months ago. I’m mostly confused by the passive node aspect of it. If I remember I’ll update it.

First you need to have your new drive set up for where the files are going to go. The MS Search needs to be online for this first part otherwise the registry settings on the local machine DO NOT SHOW UP. This is key. You can test this by taking the Search offline and seeing the keys disappear. You may also want to take the search out of the dependencies so it doesn’t take your entire Exchange Virtual Server Offline. You then want to change the following keys after you backup your registry naturally.

1.)Change the ‘SearchDirectory’ string to corresponding new drive location under -

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Search\1.0\Applications\ExchangeServer_<EVS name> hive

Change the strings ‘FileName’ and ‘LogPath’ & pointe them to the corresponding new drive location.·

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Search\1.0\Databases\ExchangeServer_<EVS name>

Change the strings ‘ApplicationPath’ and ‘DefaultProjectPath’ & point them to the corresponding new drive location.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Search\1.0\GatheringManager\Applications\ExchangeServer_<EVS name>

Change the string ‘ApplicationPath’ and point it to the corresponding new drive location.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Search\1.0\Indexer\ExchangeServer_<EVS name>

Finally check through out the hive to make sure nothing is pointing to the old location
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Search\1.0”

2.) Then take the MSSearch resource offline. (Note if you try to copy the data while it’s online it will sucesffully copy but it wont come on-line).

3.) Then on all physical nodes you need to change this registry setting.

Change the string ‘ApplicationPath’ and pointed it to the corresponding new location.

HKLM\Cluster\Resources\<GUID>of the MSSearch Resource>\Parameters

4.) Then copy the Exchangeserver_<EVS name> directory from old drive as whole to the new drive in the corresponding path. Rename the folder “_old” in the old path for backup purpose.

5.) Bring the resource online.

There aren’t enough Warnings in the world for you before you do this. Please test this in the lab first if possible.

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So let’s say you aren’t one of the people who slips streams the latest service pack. If you want to use Windows XP in Hyper-V you need to install the Integration Services “disk”. You’d need this if you want to have the heartbeat functionality for example or actually connect to a network, these include the drivers. So yes, you will want/need to do this. The Integration Services will only install if you have XP SP3. So the question is, how do you get SP3 on a VM in Hyper-V when you have no connectivity? The answer, SP3 in ISO FORMAT. I love this. You are able to download the .ISO, connect the ISO to an IDE drive in the settings menu. SP3 is cumlative so if you have a disk pre SP1, yes that was me, after installing this you should be able to install the Integration Services and connect to the network.

SP3 ISO download

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2FCDE6CE-B5FB-4488-8C50-FE22559D164E&displaylang=en

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I recently had to change SANs and one of the disks you need to move is the Quorum. It’s relatively straight forward. After you change the Quorum to the new disk (remember the new disk has to be online in the cluster), then you’ll then need to stop the MSDTC resource, copy the MSDTC folder to the new disc, then delete the MSDTC resource. Then just simply re-create it.

Changing Quorum Disks

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;280353

Recreate the MSDTC Resource

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301600/

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One of the most common things an Exchange administrator will want to do is find out how much mail their environment is sending out or receiving, and who is receving it or sending it, etc. Here are some options to solve the issue.

The ones that cost money

Quest MessageStats (I’ve never actually used it but Quest usually makes some very good tools)

http://www.quest.com/messagestats/microsoft-exchange.aspx

System Center Operations Manager (Using Exchange Management Pack)

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/operationsmanager/en/us/default.aspx

The Ones That Are Free

These use the Message Tracking Logs and LogParser

Exchange 2007

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/11/12/447515.aspx

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/11/28/447598.aspx

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/02/07/448082.aspx

Exchange 2003

http://anewmessagehasarrived.blogspot.com/2008/03/exchange-2003-statistics-with-logparser.html

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A category that is near and dear to my heart. I wrestled with a performance problem for quite some time and every week or so I see someone posting a similar problem over in the Exchange forums and there are usually the same base of links and questions that really help someone determine or overcome their performance issues. So I’m going to keep a collection here. If you have things I think I should add please let me know.

General Questions

1.) What time of day do you experience the performance problem?

2.) How many users are affected? What is in common with these users? (Same network segment? All same Storage Group?)

3.) What mode is there Outlook client in (Online or Cached mode)?

4.) Are you using a desktop search engine (Google Desktop Search, XOBNI, Live Search, etc)?

5.) Do you have an anti virus installed on the Exchange server, is it Exchange aware?

6.) Have you run Exchange Best Practice Analyzer?

7.) Have you run Exchange Performance Troubleshooting Analyzer?

8.) Are there blackberries or ActiveSync devices in the environment and how many?

9.) Has ExMon show any interesting data?

10.) Have you tried running the PAL counters to see if they show you anything different then EXPA and EXTA (I LOVE THIS TOOL)?

Some useful links and docs

Download Exchange Performance Troubleshooting Analyzer

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4BDC1D6B-DE34-4F1C-AEBA-FED1256CAF9A&displaylang=en

How to use Exchange Performance Troubleshooting Analyzer

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Exchange-2003-Performance-Troubleshooting-Analyzer-Tool-v10-ExPTA.html

Performance and Scalability Guide

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996078(EXCHG.65).aspx

Troubleshooting Exchange Performance (Helps you pinpoint what area might be the problem and shows what counters to measure)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997270(EXCHG.65).aspx

Exchange Performance Troubleshooting Basics

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2005/09/28/411674.aspx

Exchange Best Practice Analyzer

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=DBAB201F-4BEE-4943-AC22-E2DDBD258DF3&displaylang=en

Identifying Slow RPC Request Processing

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124154(EXCHG.65).aspx

Troubleshooting Outlook Dialog Popups Waiting for Exchange Server

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2005/05/25/405353.aspx

RPC Cancel Request Dialog Box (Generally if RPC Average Latency is over 100 MS)

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=839862

How to Change Outlook client behavior with Cancel Request dialog box

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833007/

Client Performance

Maximizing Client Performance

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124670(EXCHG.65).aspx

Showing Cached Mode vs Online Mode in IOPS (Search for “Effect of Online Mode Clients” Applies to Exchange 2003 as well)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb738147.aspx

Disk Links

Optimizing Storage for Exchange 2003 (Shows Blackberries use 3.75 IOPS and why you should be aligned on 4 KB disk boundaries a MUST READ)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125079(EXCHG.65).aspx

A Few Basic Concepts of Disk Sizing

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2004/10/11/240868.aspx

More Thoughts on Disk IO

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2004/11/03/251743.aspx

Why you should use DiskPar

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2005/08/10/408950.aspx

http://almostdailytech.com/?tag=disk-alignment

Exmon Links

Download ExMon (There is a word doc included, read that)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9A49C22E-E0C7-4B7C-ACEF-729D48AF7BC9&displaylang=en

How to Use ExMon

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Microsoft-Exchange-Server-User-Monitor.html

Introducing ExMon

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2005/04/06/403409.aspx

PAL (A Poor mans MOM/SCOM with key counters to measure)

http://almostdailytech.com/tag/pal/

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For those that have installed Outlook 2007 Feb Update, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961752/ or have installed Office 2007 SP2, when you start up Outlook for the first time after the update, Outlook has to do some optimization on your mailbox. This can take some time, it took over 15 minutes for my mailbox though it is rather large (over 15,000 items). While it is doing this it displays a message “Preparing Outlook for first use”. This may confuse some people since they have already used Outlook before. A better way to say it may have been “Preparing Outlook for first use after SP2 was installed”. More importantly you can modify the text to whatever you want in this message, “Optimizing for Performance, Please Call Help Desk With Any Questions”.

How do we do this?

1.) Install the hotfix or SP2 for Office.

2.) Go to the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Preferences and add a new string value called StoreUpgradeProgressTitle.

3.) In the value data box type whatever you want your message to be.

Pretty simple and a way to give you more control of what is being communicated to your end users.

Links

Outlook 2007 Feb Update http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961752/

Office 2007 SP2 Download http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/default.aspx

Original KB Article on Customizing http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969791

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Who wants to see how Outlook 2010 works with Exchange 2010? Ok that’s just me and a few other really Exchange nerdy people. What about the rest of you, just to see how Word looks? You can still sign up for the Technical Preview that should be out July.

https://microsoft.crgevents.com/Office2010TheMovie/Content/Default.aspx?p=Home&
If you went to TechEd this year you go to the front of the line for this preview, horray. Log in to the TechEd site, click on Special Offers and there is a 1 click sign up for it. It’s that easy. Until next time.

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Does anyone know that the limit if for common Active Directory features that you’d never think you’d hit in your environment but then one day you come close? Sometimes you wonder what is the max number of domain controllers you should have in a domain? (It’s 1,200) What about how many GPOs can be applied to a user? (It’s 999) Well all these max limits comes from a Technet article I suggest everyone takes a look at bookmarks for future reference just encase.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc756101(WS.10).aspx

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In Exchange 2003 when you use the Move Mailbox wizard, it generates an XML report file. This is located at C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\Exchange Task Wizard Logs\something.xml

If you have to actually read this log file you’ll notice that you do not have the XLST Style Sheet meaning when you open the file up, it will look like this.

That Is A Little Hard To Read

That Is A Little Hard To Read

There is a way to get that formatted all nice and neat so you can read it. You need to download and install the Exchange 2003 SDK. You can get that located here, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5CA18D40-5A37-4A20-94AE-6A6CF6CB846D&displaylang=en

Once that is installed you need to browse to the directory, C:\Program Files\Exchange SDK\SDK\Samples\TaskWizard. That is if you used the default install path. Once in there you need to add the TaskWizardRun.xlst file to the same directory as the XML file. Then in the XML file you need to add

<?xml-stylesheet type=”text/xsl” href=”TaskWizardRun.xslt”?>

To the second line of the file. Now when you open up this file it will look like this.

Much Better

Much Better

Also included in the directory where you found the XLST file is a file called TaskWizard.hta. This allows you to browse to an XML file and view it in a similar style as adding the line to the XML file.

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