Useful commands for troubleshooting Exchange 2010 routing with Exchange 2003/2007

8. July 2010
Comments (1)

I’ve just fixed an issue with Routing for my mixed Exchange 2003/2007/2010 environment.

The environment is a single AD domain with 4 sites, Site1, Site2, Site3 and Site4. In Site1, Site2 and Site3 there are 3 Exchange 2003 servers, one per site. In Site4 there is an Exchange 2007 SP2 server (CAS, Mailbox, HT). All the connectors required worked as expected, and inter-site routing works as expected.

I introduced into the mix a 2010 Enterprise server (CAS, Mailbox, HT) to Site1 as a prelude to a full upgrade of the site to Exchange 2010. When a test mailbox from Exchange 2010 attempts to send to a mailbox in Site1 Exchange 2003, it routes via the Site4 Exchange 2007.

Find out which site (if any) is a transport hub:

Get-ADSite

Find out the Site Link costs, and the Exchange specific costs (if set). Exchange costs override AD site costs:

Get-ADSiteLink

List the Routing Group Connectors:

Get-RoutingGroupConnector

List the Routing Group Connectors with their costs:

Get-RoutingGroupConnector | ft Name,Cost

For me the issue was that the Routing Group Connector set up for Exchange 2010 in Site 1 had a cost set to 100, whereas all other RGCs had a cost set to 1. This meant Site1 –> Site4 –> Site1 had a cost of 2. Site1 (2010) –> Site1 (2003) had a cost of 100. It’s easy to see why it won.

Using the following command I was able to set the costs to the same:

Set-RoutingGroupConnector -Identity "<Administrative Group>\<Routing Group>\<Connector>" -Cost 1

It’s quite difficult to get a grip on why the RGC cost takes precedence over the AD site cost, or the Exchange specific site cost – effectively you have 3 different settings to govern the mail routing. From my problem-solving steps, it would seem that The RGC takes precedence, followed by the Exchange specific cost, followed by the AD site link cost.

Any Exchange Guru out there care to correct or confirm?


Sam

Exchange 2010, Exchange 2007, Exchange 2003, Exchange , ,

Exchange ActiveSync fails on iPhone after upgrade to iOS4

2. July 2010
Comments (0)

I’ve spent a fair bit of time today trying to sort out my iPhone sync to my Exchange Server, failing miserably. It used to work, pre-upgrade to iOS4, but for some reason fails to sync.

Symptoms were:

 

The server was configured as per http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817379/en-us to allow OWA/ActiveSync with SSL on OWA.

The iPhone was configured to accept the SSL certificate on the Exchange Server.

My brother Tom sent me this Apple KB (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3398) which he’d found from the other side – Exchange servers he was managing were under very heavy load, which is another symptom of this issue.

I installed the new configuration as per the article, restarted the phone and the issue was fixed!

Exchange, Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007, Exchange 2010 , , , ,

Syncing email, calendar and tasks over a laptop, desktop and iPhone

10. December 2009
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In the past, I would often say to my wife, “if it’s not in Outlook, it isn’t going to happen”. Increasingly it’s “if it’s not on my iPhone, it’s not going to happen”. The fact is that I can’t actually remember all the things that I need to do each day, I need reminding!

I spend perhaps 8 hours a day at my work PC, maybe 2 hours a day on my home laptop and my iPhone is with me pretty much 24/7 – all of which are both data sources, and data endpoints. They all remind me to do things. To add a bit more complication to the mix, some things are personal, some things are work related.

So, to summarise, I want email, calendaring and to-do/tasks on my desktop, laptop and iPhone, and I want to be able to add/edit/delete for any of them.

[more]

Step 1 – Email

My personal email is downloaded by POP3 to Gmail from my ISP’s (GoDaddy) email server. I use Outlook 2007 on both my Laptop and Desktop to connect via IMAP to my Gmail account. Both use my ISP’s SMTP server to send email. I also configured Gmail to send via GoDaddy's SMTP server, this allows me to send from my personal address rather than my Gmail address. Email is accessible from my iPhone via the Exchange server protocol (Gmail Sync). Since all of these access email on the Gmail storage, when an email is deleted/moved/replied to on any platform, it stays up to date.

Step 2 – Calendar

Once again Google is the central repository for the data, using Google Calendar Sync to synchronise my calendar on both my Laptop and Desktop Outlook. On my Desktop, Google Calendar Sync updates the corporate Exchange account. Again the iPhone calendar syncs over the Gmail Sync/Exchange protocol to Google directly.

Step 3 – To-do/Tasks

This one is the most difficult and I’ve not yet resolved it fully. Google do have a Tasks app, but it doesn’t have a sync tool. My corporate Exchange server has tasks, but I have no way of syncing it with my Laptop. At the moment I am using the Exchange tasks which is obviously sync’d with my Desktop Outlook. I’m also using a free app called IMLite on the iPhone to access the tasks on the Exchange, but it’s read only.

It’s easier to view a diagram!

SMEmailSetup

Other things to note

  • All the connections are over SSL, so they’re secure – that’s really important because it’s personal information and you don’t need just anyone getting it!
  • I chose Gmail over other online hosts because of the storage (over 7.4GB and growing), because it hosts my calendar and tasks, and is easier to set up to SEND email from my SMTP server.
  • I know Gmail is ad supported – but if you access via IMAP/Exchange protocols, you’ll never see them.
  • I’d like to be using Google tasks and sync them with my Outlook, but as yet I’ve not found a way to do this (c’mon Google, release the app!)
  • My iPhone is sync’d to my Laptop via iTunes, but only for media and contacts.

Finally, I’m looking at my options for photo sync (or online storage) but it’s got to be high res, I’m also looking at document sync, but I’m pretty sure Google has that nailed too. I much prefer having it all under one roof.

Any comments, ideas, suggestions, drop a comment below!

Google, Exchange 2003, Outlook 2007, iTunes , , , , , , , , ,

Fixing "Outlook(R) Mobile Access is supported only on Microsoft(R) Exchange Server 2003. Currently your mailbox is stored on an older version of Exchange server." on Outlook Mobile Access under Server 2003

19. September 2008
Comments (0)

So I was testing the configuration on my Exchange 2003 server in preparation for the roll out of some Windows Mobile devices when I recieved the following error:

Outlook(R) Mobile Access is supported only on Microsoft(R) Exchange Server 2003. Currently your mailbox is stored on an older version of Exchange server. Please contact your system administrator for additional assistance.

"That's odd", I thought, "I only have Exchange Server 2003 in my organisation, how can I have an older version of Exchange?" It turns out that this has nothing to do with the version of Exchange you are using. I have set up my Exchange OWA to require SSL (see previous article on SSL and Integrated Authentication) and apparently this can cause issues for OMA.

The Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync and Outlook Mobile Access virtual directories cannot access the contents of the user's mailbox if the Exchange virtual directory is configured to require SSL. The Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync and Outlook Mobile Access virtual directories only try to connect with the Exchange virtual directory over TCP port 80 (HTTP), not over TCP Port 443 (HTTPS).

To resolve this, you need to follow these steps from MSKB 817379

1. Open Exchange Manager.
2. Expand Administrative Groups, expand the first administrative group, and then expand Servers.
3. Expand the server container for the Exchange Server 2003 server that you will be configuring, expand Protocols, and then expand HTTP.
4. Under the HTTP container, right-click the Exchange Virtual Server container, and then click Properties.
5. Click the Settings tab, clear the Enable Forms Based Authentication check box, and then click OK.
6. Close Exchange Manager.
7. Click Start, click Run, type IISRESET/NOFORCE, and then press ENTER to restart Internet Information Services (IIS).

 Additionally, you must use Internet IIS Manager to create this virtual directory for Exchange ActiveSync and Outlook Mobile Access to work. If you are using Windows Server 2003, follow these steps:

1. Start Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. Locate the Exchange virtual directory. The default location is as follows:
Web Sites\Default Web Site\Exchange
3. Right-click the Exchange virtual directory, click All Tasks, and then click Save Configuration to a File.
4. In the File name box, type a name. For example, type ExchangeVDir. Click OK.
5. Right-click the root of this Web site. Typically, this is Default Web Site. Click New, and then click Virtual Directory (from file).
6. In the Import Configuration dialog box, click Browse, locate the file that you created in step 4, click Open, and then click Read File.
7. Under Select a configuration to import , click Exchange, and then click OK.

A dialog box will appear that states that the "virtual directory already exists."
8. In the Alias box, type a name for the new virtual directory that you want Exchange ActiveSync and Outlook Mobile Access to use. For example, type exchange-oma. Click OK.
9. Right-click the new virtual directory. In this example, click exchange-oma. Click Properties.
10. Click the Directory Security tab.
11. Under Authentication and access control, click Edit.
12. Make sure that only the following authentication methods are enabled, and then click OK:
• Integrated Windows authentication
• Basic authentication
13. On the Directory Security tab, under IP address and domain name restrictions, click Edit.
14. Click the option for Denied access, click Add, click Single computer and type the IP address of the server that you are configuring, and then click OK.
15. Under Secure communications, click Edit. Make sure that Require secure channel (SSL) is not enabled, and then click OK.
16. Click OK, and then close the IIS Manager.
17. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
18. Locate the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MasSync\Parameters
19. Right-click Parameters, click to New, and then click String Value.
20. Type ExchangeVDir, and then press ENTER. Right-click ExchangeVDir, and then click Modify.

NoteExchangeVDir is case-sensitive. If you do not type ExchangeVDir exactly as it appears in this article, ActiveSync does not find the key when it locates the exchange-oma folder.
21. In the Value data box, type the name of the new virtual directory that you created in step 8. For example, type /exchange-oma. Click OK.
22. Quit Registry Editor.
23. Restart the IIS Admin service. To do this, follow these steps:
a. Click Start, click Run, type services.msc, and then click OK.
b. In the list of services, right-click IIS Admin service, and then click Restart.

Microsoft, Outlook Mobile Access, Exchange , , , , , ,

Exchange 2003 Email Size Delivery Restrictions...how confusing can it be?

24. July 2008
Comments (0)

I thought this would be fairly common knowledge by now, Exchange 2003 being quite mature in it's 5th year, but it's not something I've had a problem with before and therefore I'm going to write about it!

So a big email comes in; lets say it's 8MB. Your Exchange 2003 server, set to it's defaults for size restrictions, rejects the email. Why? Take a look at this Exchange TechNet article:

When the 8MB message crossed the routing group boundary through SMTP and arrived at the destination server, it was approximately 33 percent larger than the original message because of the inter-routing group SMTP increase...The final message had a content size equal to 11,594,558 (11 MB), and the message exceeded the 10-MB Global Limit, thus returning the 5.2.3 delivery status notification.

Petri.co.il elaborates:

Please keep in mind that message send [sic] through SMTP could grow about 10-20 percent because of format conversion (MIME and UUEncode)

For a standard Exchange Server installation, this is how the process of checking the email size goes (see the diagram below for full details):

  1. Does the email exceed Global Max submission content length?
  2. Does the email exceed the per-user Max Delivery Length for the recipient?
  3. If the email is not delivered locally, does the email exceed the Virtual Server SMTP limit?
  4. If the email is not delivered locally, does the email exceed the Connector limit?

Exchange Size Flow Chart

I won't elaborate on the places you can set the size restrictions, other than to reprint Petri.co.il's list and point you to the full article.

You can set message limits at the following objects:

  • Global settings
  • System Policy
  • Individual mailbox
  • Individual message limit
  • Distribution list
  • Public folder
  • Connector
  • Virtual SMTP Server

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