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How to Create a Journal Recipient in Exchange 2007
To create a Journal Recipient a copy of all mail going in and out of a mailbox database in Exchange 2007, you first need to create a destination mailbox to receive all the mail. In addition, this mailbox should also belong to a separate mailbox database for the journal copy to be effective. Once the above task has been accomplished, you can go to Server Configuration, select the mailbox database that you would like to journal, right-click it and click on Properties.
Within the General tab, select the Journal Recipient option. Click on browse and look for the destination mailbox that was established in the previous step. Click on “OK” after selecting it, and “OK” again at the Properties dialog.
All mail going to and from mailboxes in the selected mailbox database in Exchange 2007 will now be copied and forwarded to the recipient mailbox that has just been configured.
How to Create Public Folders: Using the Public Folder Management Console
In this video I will show you how to create a public folder by using the Public Folder Management Console.
In the previous lesson you’ve seen how to create the public folder database, but in reality, the public folder is empty upon creation. To get started, some initial public folder structures can be created by logging into the Outlook Web Access (OWA) client as an administrator. Once logged in, right-click on the Public Folders structure and select “Create New Folder -> Mail Folder” to create the desired folders within the main public folder.
As an alternative, a new tool called the Public Folder Management Console tool was introduced with SP1 for the managing of public folders. The application can be launched from the Toolbox in the Exchange Management Console by clicking on “Public Folder Management Console.” Creating of new folders from within the Public Folder Management Console is as simple as selecting the desired public folder and clicking on “New Public Folder…” to initiate the wizard. In the same manner, nested folders can also be created as desired.
It’s generally a good idea to give a little thought to a public folder structure as they tend to take on a life of its own. An initial structure that is well-organized and logical will go a long way towards ensuring that any growth will be manageable. I hope you found this video helpful, and that now you are familiar with the Public Folder Management Console.
Mount Exchange Database and Dismount Exchange Database
Every mailbox database in Exchange Server 2007 is either in a mounted or dismounted state. A dismounted Exchange database will not be accessible to the Microsoft Exchange Information Store Service, and is required for certain administrative tasks. For example, the creation of off-line backups requires that a mailbox database first be dismounted.
This is a pretty simple task. To dismount Exchange database, select the mailbox database you have in mind and the option to “Dismount Database” will appear in the Actions panel on the right. Click on it, and select “Yes” when asked if you are sure about this. The dismounted mailbox database appears with a grey circle with a down arrow, and users will not be able to send and receive mail from it. To Mount Exchange database entails selecting a dismounted database and clicking on “Mount Database” option.
We hope you found this video helpful and now you know how to mount Exchange database or dismount Exchange database.
Creating a new mailbox database is the next task following the creation of a storage group. Bearing in mind the best practice of one database per storage group where, the creation of a new Exchange mailbox database can be initiated by a right-click under the desired storage group and selecting “New Mailbox Database…” An alternative would be to click on the “New Mailbox Database…” link on the Actions panel on the right to start up the New Mailbox Database wizard.
You will need to assign a mailbox database name and database file path in the New Mailbox Database wizard. As mentioned in previous lessons, the database should ideally be on a disk drive that is separate from the operating system, Exchange Server installation and the location assigned for the log files generated by Exchange.
Finally, be aware that the “Mount this database” option at the bottom is selected by default. This will cause the database to be mounted as soon as it’s created and should be unchecked if that’s not the desired course of action.
Assuming the checkbox is left unmodified; clicking on “New” will generate and execute the Exchange Management Shell commands for creating the new Exchange mailbox database and mounting it. As usual, there is the option of typing CTRL+C to copy out the command for future reference. Once completed, clicking on “Finish” will close the wizard. We hope this video helps you to create a new mailbox database.
Today’s video shows you how to move storage group path in the Exchange Server 2007.
We know that the first Exchange storage group and mailbox database are automatically created as part of Exchange’s installation process. There are situations where it is desirable to move these files to another location, however. This is especially the case since the storage group path is located on the C: drive by default, which is the system volume of the underlying Windows Server operating system. As this is not optimal, the files will need to be moved to another location.
To move the Exchange storage group file, first select the desired storage group from within the Exchange Management Console. The option “Move storage group path…” will appear under the Actions pane. In addition, the wizard can also be initiated by right-clicking on the appropriate storage group and selecting the “Move storage group path…” option from the menu.
Within the Move Storage Group Path wizard, use the browse button to scroll to the appropriate location for the Log files path and the System files path. Once ready, simply click on “Move” to initiate the move. A warning that about databases and storage group are being temporarily dismounted will be shown; click on “Yes” to proceed.
When completed, a warning about being unable to mount the database will be shown. Simply click on “Finish” to exit back to the main menu. There, you will see an icon as a little down arrow and a gray circle beside the Exchange storage group that was moved. Click on the affected database, and select “Mount database” to mount the database. Once this is completed successfully, the icon changes back to normal.
We hope you found this lesion move storage group path helpful and will see you in the next lesion.
This video will give you the basics of Exchange storage which you need to know before you start creating your Exchange storage groups and databases.
The process of installing Exchange will see to the creation of a default Exchange storage group with a single database. In addition, a public folder database will also be created if the “free Outlook 2007 clients” option was selected during the installation process.
Examining the Exchange folders from Windows Explorer, it is possible to see the various Exchange storage groups and their respective database, which has an EDB extension. The size of this database increases as email is added, with a size limit of 50 GB for Exchange Standard Edition and no limits for Exchange Enterprise Edition. The size limitation of the former can be modified through the registry, though it should be noted that a larger database will take longer for recovery in the event of a hard disk crashes, or database corruption.
Also present in the same folder would be files with an LOG extension called transaction logs. When new e-mail enters the server, it goes into the memory and is written to these logs, before being written to the database eventually. Each log is 1 MB in size, and helps provide redundancy for your mail. The current log is e00.log, which will be closed and renamed with a longer name when it reaches the 1MB limit.
The Exchange storage group can handle more than one database, but the logs for these databases will be intertwined within the storage group’s folder with no separation between the two. As such, having several databases within the same storage group may be a negative impact on performance or recoverability at some point. For this reason, Microsoft recommends using one storage group for one database.
Finally, it is recommended that log files and the Exchange database be kept on a separate drive from the one that holds the operating system. An even better option would be to use a RAID 5 storage volume for the Exchange database file and a RAID 1 storage volume for the transaction logs. This will allow data recovery from the transaction logs should the Exchange storage database fail or become corrupted. These are the best practices for your Exchange storage group.
Getting started with the Exchange Management Shell (EMS)
In today’s video we introduce you to the Exchange Management Shell (EMS).
The Exchange Management Shell (EMS) was designed to make things easier by the use of simple commands to perform powerful administrative tasks. A part of PowerShell, commands are put together with a verb-noun pairing called Cmdlets to create intuitive commands such as Get-Mailbox or Move-Mailbox. The concept of Exchange Management Shell Commands is simple with only 26 verbs that are relevant to Exchange. Combining with various nouns however, creates hundreds of different Cmdlets that can be used to manage Exchange. There are also ways to help you remember the Cmdlet you are looking for.
When the Exchange Management Shell is launched, a welcome screen and some basic commands and instructions are displayed together with the tip of the Day. When you want to see the full list of Exchange Management Shell Commands typing “Get-ExCommand” will display commands that are relevant to Exchange. Typing in “Get-Command” will show a full list of all commands. For assistance with any Cmdlet, just type “help” followed by the Cmdlet name. If the verb to use is known, simply type the verb and then hit the tab key to scroll through the various options alphabetically until the desired command is reached.
In the final analysis, while most tasks can be performed via the GUI, there are times when the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) is the only way to perform certain tasks. As such, administrators will do well to get acquainted with it.
In today’s video I would like to talk about the tool you have to work with in Exchange Server 2007 the Exchange Management Console (EMC), so let’s start.
On the left-hand side of the Exchange Management Console are four work centers, which consist of the Organization Configuration, Server Configuration, Recipient Configuration and the Toolbox. The middle section divides into a Result pane and a Work pane, while the right hand column holds the Actions pane. Right clicking on an item will also display the various actions that can be performed on an item.
Experienced administrators may want to turn off the Actions pane by clicking on the “Show/Hide Action Pane” toggle along the top of the Exchange Management Console, or customized the columns that are displayed using the “Add/Remove Columns…” option from the View menu. Finally, various components of the Console can also be turned on and off from the “Customize…” option, which is also located on the View menu.
And that’s all you need to know about the Exchange Management Console (EMC).
An Overview of Distribution Groups in Exchange 2007
Most users would be familiar with the use of groups for sending e-mail to more than one person, which can save a lot of time. Rather than creating them individually, these groups may be determined by the structure of Active Directory, or by the creation of a variety of different group types within Active Directory. When that happens, an e-mail sent to the group will be automatically expanded and sent to everyone. That’s what a distribution group is; a group that’s mail-enabled and has its own e-mail address.
There is also a dynamic distribution group, which is populated by user attributes defined by a set of filters. Based on the predefine conditions, individual accounts are added or removed from the dynamic distribution group. This works differently from a distribution group, which uses a static list of members.
A future lesson will demonstrate how to create a distribution group and a dynamic distribution group.
A “Mail User” is very similar to a Mail Contact in that a mailbox will not be created on an Exchange Server, but which would nevertheless appear in the global address list. Unlike a Mail Contact that does not allow for user login however, a Mail User is able to logon to the network and can access resources if given the relevant permissions to do so. This is useful for workers who prefer to have their e-mail messages sent directly to their external account, but who needs to log in occasionally.
To create a new mail user, simply click on the “New Mail User…” link on the Actions panel to launch the appropriate wizard from the Exchange Management Console. The difference between a mail contact and a mail user becomes evident on the second screen: A new mail user receives a user logon and password. In this scenario, a mail user named “newmailuser” is created.
Unlike a mail account, there is no need to worry about which storage group and database that a mailbox belongs to in this instance. The wizard will prompt for an alias and external e-mail address, which defaults to an SMTP address. As usual, a drop-down arrow just beside the “Edit” button allows for the inclusion of X.400, GroupWise, Lotus Notes any other type of E-mail addresses.
Finally, the configuration summary will be shown, and click on “New” to create a new mail user. Once again, note the different icon used to denote the just mail user. Moreover, the Active Directory Users and Computers should also show the newly created “newmailuser” user. And due to its ability to login, double-clicking on it will show it as standard user account.
How to create mail enabled contact in Exchange 2007
There may be situations in which an email address is required for a person who does not need access to internal resources. There is where a mail enabled contact comes in, which will create an Active Directory object with full information that will appear in the global address list. A mail-enabled contact is usually used for users that do not work within a company.
To create a mail-enabled contact, click on the “New Mail Contact…” link on the Actions panel at “Recipient Configuration.” This will launch the New Mail Contact wizard. Click on “New contact” when prompted whether to create a mail contact for a New contact or an Existing contact. By default, the contact object will be placed in the Users container, though this can be modified by clicking on the “Browse….” button.
Next, type in the contact name (ContactOne) and click on the “Edit…” button to enter an external e-mail address. Note that clicking on the small down arrow beside the “Edit…” button will allow an administrator to change the default SMTP E-mail type to other address types such as X.400, GroupWise or Lotus Notes. The final screen will present a configurations summary, and clicking on “New” will create the new mail contact.
Under the Exchange Management Console, note how the icon for the new mail-enabled contact is different from that of an equipment resource, room resource and standard mailbox.
The created contact can be viewed under Active Directory Users and Computers, though this individual would not be able to logon with this account because the account doesn’t have logon information and has no password. Double-clicking on the user in Exchange Management Console will allow an administrator to edit information such as street address and phone numbers.
An administrator may configure the settings for a resource mailbox using the Exchange Management Shell, though it would be much easier to do this from within the Outlook Web Access or Outlook tools. Most of the options found in “Resource Settings,” are self-explanatory, though a few of them may require more attention as their purpose may be less obvious.
The Resource Scheduling Options section for example, makes it possible to define the Maximum number of days that a resource can be booked in advance. The default in this instance would be 180 days in which a room or to book a piece of equipment may be booked ahead of time.
Another option called “Allow conflicts” makes it possible for an employee to schedule recurring meetings, or meetings that are known to take more than one timeframe. If so desired, it is also possible to define the number of individual conflicts or the percentage of individual conflicts.
Another setting that deserves an explanation would be the settings under the Resource Scheduling Permissions section. This section makes it possible to explicitly specify a list of executives or individuals who may be allowed to book a certain room or handle a particular piece of equipment. The permissions for a particular resource can be tweaked here by “Selecting users and groups.”
Finally, Resource Privacy Options contains various configurations such as “Always add the organizer name to the meeting subject” and “Always remove the private flag on and accepted meeting,” while the Response Message at the bottom allows additional text – which can be formatted, for inclusion in responses to meeting requests.
Accessing Resource Mailbox Settings using Outlook Web Access in Exchange 2007
In today’s video we will look at how to access resource mailbox settings using Outlook Web Access in Exchange 2007.
One way to access the settings of a resource mailbox in Exchange 2007 would be using the Outlook Web Access (OWA). In this instance, we are logged in using the account named “Scheduler,” which has earlier been assigned with the appropriate control over the resource mailbox. For avoidance of doubt, any user account will work as long as the pertinent permissions are assigned for the desired resource mailbox.
To access the configuration settings for a resource mailbox, first click on the drop down arrow beside the “Scheduler” link at the top right hand corner of OWA. A new dialog box titled “Open Other Mailbox” will appear; type in the name of the appropriate resource mailbox and click on “Open…” to launch the Resource mailbox.
As a user account, the Scheduler account will has its own mailbox, but with the ability to access and work with ConferenceRoom1. For instance, clicking on the “Options” pane on the left column will reveal an additional option called “Calendar Options.” Employees in charge of this resource will hence be able to determine the days of the week that a particular resource can be made available to others. This may include making it available on Saturdays and Sundays – or vice versa. A number of Automatic Calendar Processing options are also configurable there.
Finally, further down the Options pane is an option called Resource Settings, which will be covered in a future lesson.
Configure Resource Mailbox Properties in Exchange 2007
In today’s video I will show you how to configure resource mailbox properties in Exchange 2007.
There really isn’t anything different in terms of looking at a resource mailbox and a standard mailbox in terms of their properties. There is however one new tab found in a resource mailbox called the Resource Information tab. Opening the properties of a resource mailbox (Projector1) and clicking on “Resource Information” will reveal two options: Resource capacity and Resource custom properties.
The resource capacity is simply a numeric figure that shows the number of people that can use the resource. A room resource for a room that can hold 25 people for example, can be indicated with “25” in the Resource capacity field. Given that this particular example is a projector however, an administrator may want to specify “1” to indicate that only one person can use the resource; or perhaps indicate the total number of people that the projector can provide good production quality for.
The Resource custom properties may be populated by items to denote special features inherent to a room or equipment resource. Do note that the Resource custom properties are empty by default. Clicking on it brings up a message informing the administrator to add new items using the Set-ResourceConfig Cmdlet in the Exchange Management Shell.
From the Exchange Management Shell, the following command can be used to indicate that the room has a projector: Set-ResourceConfig -ResourcePropertySchema (“Room/Projector”). Going back to the Resource custom properties of a room resource and clicking on “Add” will now reveal a new item called “Projector.” If desired, this can be added to the Resource custom properties by selecting it and clicking on “OK.”
Today’s video walks you through creating Equipment mailbox in Exchange 2007
Due to the similarity of the process, administrators who are already familiar with creating a Room Resource mailbox will find creating an Equipment mailbox in Exchange 2007 a simple affair. Start off by launching the New Mailbox wizard by clicking on “New Mailbox” at the Recipient Configuration work center. Instead of Room Mailbox, select Equipment Mailbox instead.
The wizard will then prompt to assign a name and password, followed by the target database in which the resource is to be created. Clicking on the “New” button will execute the Exchange Management Shell command to create the new equipment resource. Note that the icon for the resultant Exchange equipment mailbox is slightly different to that of a room resource mailbox or a user mailbox. Future lessons will discuss managing those resource mailboxes.
In today’s video I will show you how to create room mailbox in Exchange 2007.
To create a resource mailbox in Exchange 2007, first open the Exchange Management Console. Next, select Recipient Configuration from the navigation tree, and click on the New Mailbox wizard from the Actions panel on the right. In the opening dialog of the New Mailbox, select “Room Mailbox” followed by “New User” at the next prompt.
The wizard will then ask for the user information for the room mailbox resource, which may appear a little odd considering that this is a resource mailbox in Exchange 2007. The reason for this is simple: by registering the room resource as an object in Active Directory, an administrator can now control it with a user name and password.
In this example, a descriptive name such as ConferenceRoom1 will work well when creating a resource used to denote a conference room. As with the case when creating a new user, the wizard will eventually present a configuration summary page. Clicking on the “New” button will execute the automatically generated Exchange Management Shell command to create the ConferenceRoom1 room resource mailbox.
ConferenceRoom1 should now appear within the Exchange Management Console with an icon that represents its type as a resource. Now you created room mailbox in Exchange 2007.
In this video we will define what a resource mailbox in Exchange 2007 is and how to use it.
When creating a new mailbox, one option would be the creation of Resource Mailboxes. Resource mailboxes are not used for the sending or receiving of emails, but are designed instead for use in the scheduling of resources such as rooms and equipment. Rooms in this context typically include conference rooms, auditoriums and training rooms. For example, the feature can be used to determine whether a conference room is available, and if necessary, schedule an appointment to use it at another time – this is possible because the conference room is a mailbox.
Where equipment is concerned, this may include projectors, laptops and company cars. Indeed, any equipment that needs to be scheduled can be created as a mailbox, with someone assigned to control and organize the schedule for these resources. Of course, it is not compulsory to use the Exchange 2007 resource mailboxes in this manner, though it is nice to know that automated features exist within Exchange to help manage them where necessary.
In today’s video we show you how to disable user mailbox as well as how to delete user mailbox from Exchange 2007.
One way of how to disable user mailbox in Exchange 2007 to prevent them from sending or receiving mails can be done through the Exchange Management Console. First locate the mailbox by selecting Recipient Configuration on the left-hand pane and clicking on “Mailbox.” Click on the desired user mailbox to disable, and an option called “Disable” will appear on the right-hand Action pane. Click on it, and answer “Yes” to the warning prompt to disable the selected mailbox.
Once a mailbox is no longer active, it disappears from the Mailbox list. It can be found under “Disconnected Mailbox” on the left-hand pane however. Browsing to the disabled mailbox there and selecting it will present the administrator with the option to “Connect…” on the Action pane. Clicking on it will bring up a “Connect Mailbox” wizard, which prompts if you want to connect the mailbox to the “Matching User,” or select “Existing User” if you want to connect it to another user. Click on “Next” to see the configuration summary, and “Connect” to initiate the action. Click on “Finish” once done.
Do note that after 30 days, a disconnected mailbox will be automatically deleted by the system, and a restore from backup files will be needed to bring it back. In addition, there is also the option to remove user mailbox, which has the effect of deleting the user behind a mailbox. Simply select the desired mailbox, click on “Remove” and you removed user mailbox. Removing an account in this manner means that the linked user can no longer be found in Active Directory Users and Computers, and which will have to be manually created if desired.
This lesson walks through the process of how to create new mailbox in Exchange 2007 as well as how to create new user in Exchange 2007 at the same time. From the Exchange Management Console, click on the Recipient Configuration on the left panel, and click on “New Mailbox” on the Action panel to launch the new mailbox wizard. This time, select the default “New user” option and click “Next.” Once again, the New Mailbox dialog will first prompt you to select a mailbox type to create, which ranges from User Mailbox, Room Mailbox, Equipment Mailbox and Linked Mailbox. Select “User Mailbox” this time round and click on “Next” to advance the wizard.
Here, you will be prompted to provide the same information that is usually prompted for by Active Directory, but within the new mailbox wizard. This is because in addition to the mailbox being created, a new user object will be created in the Active Directory of Exchange 2007 as well. In this case, assign the first name and last name, logon name and password. In addition, the checkbox “User must change password at next logon” can also be selected for better security before clicking on “Next.”
The wizard now shows the mailbox settings page in which the alias can be changed. In addition, you will need to click on “Browse” to select the appropriate storage group in which you create new mailbox. As with the previous lesson, leave the Managed folder mailbox policy and Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policy deselected at this time as the subjects have not been covered. Click on “Next” to see the configuration summary and “New” to create the mailbox and user account if no modification is required.
Finally, click on “Finish” to exit the wizard. You should be able to see that created new user with a Mailbox within “Active Directory Users and Computers” from Administrative Tools now.
Create User Mailbox: For an Existing User Account in Exchange 2007
There are a couple of different ways to create mailbox in Exchange 2007: you can create user mailbox for an existing user, or create a new mailbox and user at the same time. In this lesson from Exchange 2007, we will create user mailbox for an existing user, which must first be created in “Active Directory Users and Computers” from Administrative Tools. From within Exchange Management Console, click on the Recipient Configuration on the left panel, and click on “New Mailbox” on the Action panel to launch the new mailbox wizard.
The New Mailbox dialog will first prompt you to select a mailbox type to create, which ranges from User Mailbox, Room Mailbox, Equipment Mailbox and Linked Mailbox. Select “User Mailbox” for this lesson and click on “Next.” The wizard in Exchange 2007 will then present the option of creating a mailbox for a new user, or for existing users. Select the “Existing users” and click on the “Add” button to locate the user from the list. Select the user and click “Next” where the wizard will display a bunch of mailbox settings that can be configured for the selected user. The alias can be changed, for example, as well as the option to specify the storage group and mailbox database in which to create the mailbox.
Finally, there is also the option to adopt a Managed folder mailbox policy or Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policy at this time. Leaving these two options unchecked for now, click on “Next” to see a configuration summary of the configuration options that were chosen so far. Assuming everything is in order, clicking on “New” will initiate the creation of the mailbox for the selected user account. Click on “Finish” to exit the wizard and you are done. You successfully created user mailbox in Exchange 2007
Recipient Configuration and Modify Recipient Scope in Exchange 2007
Today’s video shows you how to use the Recipient Configuration in Exchange 2007 and how to Modify Recipient Scope
The maximum number of contacts displayed in a mail in Exchange 2007 is determined by the Recipient Configuration parameters for messages, and can be further filtered by modifying the recipient scope settings. In the first instance, changing the maximum number of recipients can be done by selecting the Recipient Configuration” on the left panel of the Exchange Management Console. An option “Modify the Maximum Number of Recipients to Display” will appear on the Actions pane on the right, which is configured to 1,000 by default. If desired, this can be changed to a larger number to display more recipients.
In addition, another option called “Modify Recipient Scope…” can be used in Exchange 2007 to filter what’s shown under recipients. This can be configured to “View all recipients in forest” or “View all recipients in specified organization unit.” The former is self-explanatory – and is also the default setting. The latter option allows for filtering in order to limit the recipients that are seen based on a particular organization unit or recipient domain controller, for example.
This lesson discusses how to configure public folder settings in Exchange 2007 for individual folders. As noted in previous lessons, the properties dialog for individual folders can be accessed by using the Public Folder Management Console, which is launched as a separate application from within the Exchange Management Console from the Toolbox. Note that a mail-enabled public folder has more configuration options than one that has not been mail-enabled.
When mail-enabled, additional tabs will appear in support for the additional mail-related functions it now supports, such as Mail Flow Settings and Exchange General. This is on top of the default tabs that a standard public folder comes with.
On the other hand, a default public folder that has not been mail-enabled will have three tabs here: General, Replication and Limits. The General tab will show standard information like the total number of items that are in the folder, the size of the folder, when it was last modified and so forth. There is also a checkbox for “Maintain per user read and unread information for this folder,” which allows the user to see if a message has been read or unread in Microsoft Outlook.
Next would be a Replication tab where other public stores can be added in order to configure replication between multiple public stores. A custom schedule for the public folder database replication is established here, and the “Local replica age limit” can also be tweaked in terms of days. The final tab in the properties dialog would be the Limits tab. The configuration under the Limits tab defaults to the database quota defaults, retention defaults and age defaults. You can change this by deselecting any one of these options to configure your own database quota defaults, number of days to retain deleted items and age limits for replicas.
We hope that you found this video informative and you know how to configure public folder settings in Exchange 2007.
Today’s video walks you through configuration of public folder database in Exchange 2007 including public folder replication, public folder referral and storage limits.
Managing public folders in Exchange 2007 can be somewhat complicated due to the public folder structure to consider, as well as the presence of public folders replication in larger environments. For the latter, it is necessary to consider the public folders to be replicate, the replication schedule, and managing the database itself.
Similar to managing a mailbox database, the properties panel for a public folder can be initiated by a right-clicking on the public folder database and selecting “Properties” at the Exchange Management Console. There are four tabs within the public folder database properties: General, Replication, Limits and Public Folder Referral. This is different from going to the Public Folder Management Console and looking at the properties of individual folders, which allows configuration to be individually configured – or set to inherit the configuration of the underlying public folder database.
Going back to the database properties in Exchange Server 2007 at the Exchange Management Console, the Replication tab is what allows public folder databases to be replicated to create redundancy and also for increased performance for users who need to access the information. The replication interval can be set to always run, disabled, or even to create a custom schedule. There is also the replication message size limit here, which defaults to 15 minutes and 300kB respectively.
The Limits tab is similar to that of a mailbox database, and will issue a warning when the first storage limit is exceeded, prohibit new posts at the second limit, and also allows for the maximum item size to be defined. Moreover, deleted items is kept for a default of 14 days, while an age limit of up to 24,855 days can be applied to force Exchange to delete old items to free up space automatically.
The final tab of public folder datase in Exchange 2007 would be the Public Folder Referral tab, which lets you select Active Directory site costs or a custom list for tweaking the decision process when directing a client towards the most optimal public folder. If unsure of how to configure this, it’s best to just use active directory site costs for your public folder referral.
Today’s video will cover mail enable public folder in Exchange 2007.
Upon creation, public folders in Exchange Server 2007 are unable to receive e-mail by default until they have been mail-enabled. If you go to Outlook Web Access (OWA) and create a new email for instance, the email addresses of any public folders won’t be shown as a valid recipient there unless it has first been mail enabled.
To mail enable public folder in Exchange 2007 from the Public Folder Management Console, simply select the desired public folder and select “Mail Enable.” The default icon will change to show a little envelope beside the icon to reflect its new mail enabled status. Click on “New” email from within the OWA and you will now see the address of your mail enabled public folders appearing as part of the global address list.
How to Create a Public Folder Database in Exchange 2007
In today’s video I will show you how to create a public folder database in Exchange 2007.
Given the best practice of putting each mailbox database in its own storage group, it is hence necessary to first create a new storage group with default settings. Next, select the storage group, but instead of clicking on “New Mailbox Database…” select “New Public Folder Data…” instead. This will launch the new public folder database wizard, which will prompt for a database name. Remember to click on the “Browse…” button next to select a database file path on a drive that is not shared with the operating system, Exchange installation or Exchange log files.
As with the creation of a new mailbox database, clicking on “New” here will generate and execute the pertinent Exchange Management shell commands to create a new public folder database in Exchange 2007. Hitting CTRL-C will make a copy of the raw commands into the system clipboard for reference. Selecting “Finish” dismisses the dialog.
I hope you found this video helpful and you won’t have a problem to create a public folder database in Exchange 2007.
Unlike the properties of a storage group, the mailbox database properties dialog has a fair bit more of information. Right-clicking on Exchange 2007 mailbox database and selecting “Properties” will bring up its properties dialog. You will see that the various information and configuration options divided into three tabs, which are titled “General,” “Limits” and “Client Settings” respectively.
The General tab provides basic information and also shows when the last full backup and incremental backups were held, journal recipient and the maintenance schedule. On its part, the Limits tab shows the various storage limits and deletion settings. Finally, the Client Settings tab is where the default public folder database location is configured, as well as the location of the offline address book.
The General Tab
The General tab of the mailbox database properties dialog contains dynamic information, or information that changes from day to day. This includes information such as the last full backup and last incremental backup, as well as the status of the mailbox database – whether it is mounted or not, and when it was last modified.
In addition, there is also an option called Journal Recipient. The Journal Recipient option allows the administrator to create a copy of all mail going into and out of the selected mailbox database. To configure it, you first enable Journal Recipient by selecting the checkbox, then click on the “Browse…” button to indicate a mailbox to be the recipient of all these mails.
The General tab also has a configuration option called “Maintenance schedule,” which allows you to stipulate the time where maintenance activities are to be conducted. The primary goal of the maintenance schedule is to purge deleted items permanently, purge mailboxes that have been deleted and have extended past the period of time that has been established. Moreover, this batch process also verifies that everything is in good order where mailboxes and folders are concerned. The maintenance schedule task is run while the database is mounted.
Two final options round-off the General tab here: “Do not mount this database at startup” and “This database can be overwritten by a restore.” The former option is helpful should you desire to bring up the mailbox databases in a certain sequence rather than all at the same time. The latter is used when restoring from a backup in which an offline copy of the mailbox database has been made – as opposed to an online backup.
The Limits Tab (Storage Limits and Deleted Items Retention Times)
The Limits tab of the mailbox database properties has two components that deserve a closer examination: Storage limits and Deletion settings.
Storage limits allow an administrator to configure three different tiers of storage space limits. Warnings can be issued to the user when they reach the first level, prohibited from sending mails when they reach the second, and then prohibited from both sending and receiving of mails when they reach the final storage limit. The warning message is configured to be sent daily at 1AM by default, but can be customized as desired.
In terms of determining the amount of disk space that is required, administrators will logically need to consider the number of users multiplied by the amount of disk space per user. Moreover, there is a need to also consider the amount of space for deleted items and mailbox retention in order to ensure sufficient space for the proper functioning of your Exchange Server.
There are two configurable settings under Deletion settings: Keep deleted items and Keep deleted mailboxes. Both of these are defined by the number of days in which items and mailboxes will be retained. For deleted items, this means that mails are retained for 14 days (default) after users clear them from their Deleted Items folder. The latter option allows deleted mailboxes to be reinstated should a staffer who has resigned decide to come back within 30 days (default) – for example.
Obviously, a restoration from backups will need to be done should the configured days for items and mailbox retention elapsed. However, the defaults should be more than adequate ordinarily, given that administrators probably perform backups on a regular basis, and not just every 14 or 30 days.
The Client Settings Tab
The final tab that can be found on the mailbox database properties dialog would be the Client Settings tab. This are only two configurable items in this section, namely the default public folder database and the offline address book. The creation of a default public folder database will be left till a future lesson; smaller and midsized companies will likely find the default settings for the offline address book to be adequate as well. However, the administrator for a larger organization that uses multiple address lists will need to go into Client Settings to change the default offline address list.
Enabling or disabling circular logging in Exchange 2007 is a pretty easy task, though it is important to first understand what circular logging entails. We know from previous lessons that the transaction logs will continue to grow as email continues to flow into the mailbox database. In certain situations however, it may be desirable to enable circular logging in order to save on some disk space. This is easily achieved by enabling circular logging, which will see the log files overwritten once they have been committed to the database.
Of course, the downside is that should the disk drive holding the databases crash, it would not be possible to recover up to the moment of failure from the use of transaction logs alone. In such a scenario, the only option would be to recovery from the latest database backup. For this reason, circular logging is disabled on Exchange by default.
Circular logging in Exchange 2007 can be enabled from within the Exchange Management Console. Simply right-click on the appropriate storage group and go to properties. There is a checkbox titled “Enable Circular Logging” that can be found within the properties dialog box. Select the checkbox, click on “Ok” and circular logging is now enabled.
In order to create a new Storage Group in Exchange, it is necessary to first log in as a member of the Exchange Server Administrators role as well as a member of the local administrators group. From within the Exchange Management Console, click on the navigation tree and expand Server Configuration and select Mailbox. Next, select the appropriate server from the Results pane before clicking on the “New Storage Group…” link in the Actions pane. Clicking on the link will bring up the New Exchange Storage Group wizard.
Information needed by the New Storage Group wizard includes the server name, a storage group name, as well as the location to place the transaction log files and the system files path. Based on our earlier discussion about the Exchange storage architecture, we know that we want our log files on a drive separate from the ones holding the operating system and the application files for Exchange Server. The path can be selected by clicking on the relevant “Browse” button at this stage.
When ready, clicking on “New” and it will create New Storage Group. Once completed, click on “Finish” and an additional Exchange Storage Group can be seen. Do note that there is no databases created at this point however, just the storage group itself. To copy the Exchange Management Shell command used behind the scenes by the wizard to create the storage group, simply hit CTRL-C prior to exiting the wizard, and the Management Shell command will be copied.
Today’s videos will cover moving mailboxes to Exchange 2007 Server.
Administrators can start to move over mailboxes and public folders once their Exchange 2007 environment is up and running. The ultimate goal will be to transition everything over to the Exchange 2007 servers and eliminate the Exchange Servers based on Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003 where possible. It is easy to identify mailboxes that are still residing on Exchange 2000 or 2003, as they are tagged as a “Legacy Mailbox” in the Recipient Configuration work center of the Exchange Management Console. Accounts tagged as a “User Mailbox” would be those that have already been moved over to Exchange 2007.
One way to move the mailboxes would be to use the Exchange Management Shell with the Move-Mailbox cmdlet. Another way is to rely on the Move Mailbox wizard from the Exchange Management Console. This can be initiated simply by selecting a user account, and then right-click and choose “Move Mailbox…” Note that the Move Mailbox wizard will work just fine with multiple selections in order to move multiple users.
With the Move Mailbox wizard, the administrator is prompted on the introduction screen to choose the server storage group and mailbox database to move the mailbox to. Next up is the Move Option screen, which issues a prompt on how to deal with corrupted messages. Available options are to skip affected mailboxes or to skip corrupted messages. Finally, the Move Schedule screen allows for the move to be performed immediately or to set a schedule for moving the mailboxes after office hours, for example. Upon completion, clicking on “Finish” should show that the user has moved from Legacy Mailbox to User Mailbox. The administrator can eliminate existing Exchange 2000 or 2003 servers from the mix to run a pure Exchange 2007 environment once all mailboxes and public folders have been moved over.
Do you want to know how you can prepare your Exchange 2007 Active Directory by using comman line switches such as PrepareLegacyExchangePermissions or PrepareAD? Watch our video.
When transitioning to Exchange 2007, the simplest way to make the required changes to Active Directory is to proceed with installing Exchange 2007 into your environment. Checks will be automatically performed to ensure that Exchange 2007 Active Directory is up to date, invoking the necessary options as needed. You will need to learn more about the various switches however, should there be a need to perform the changes in stages.
The /PrepareLegacyExchangePermissions for example, is used to ensure the recipient update service and administrative permissions are functioning properly. Moving on, /PrepareSchema will make the changes to the Active Directory schema – assuming the proper permissions to be able to update the schema. The next switch is: /PrepareAD, which makes several helpful changes such as creating universal security groups in both the root and existing Domain. It will also create an administrative group named Exchange Administrative group and a routing group called Exchange Routing group. These groups won’t be visible through the Exchange Management Console and Exchange 2007 though, and can only be seen in the System Manager in Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003. Note that executing the /PrepareAD switch before the two other switches mentioned above will run them automatically.
Finally, the /PrepareDomain or /PrepareAllDomain switches will configure the appropriate permissions on a container called Domain for your Exchange servers, organization administrators, authenticated users and mailbox administrators. It also creates the system objects container, establishes proper permissions, configures a new domain global group and adds that group into the universal security group.
Obviously, the quickest way to prepare your Exchange 2007 Active Directory would be to run the /PrepareAD switch as a start, followed by the /PrepareAllDomains Switch. The easiest way to determine whether everything worked would be to check the administrative and routing groups created within the Exchange System Manager. Its existence will be a clear sign that everything worked, and that your environment is ready for the installation of Exchange 2007 Server.
