I have a customer that routinely deletes sub-folders in their Outlook mailboxes.
These subfolders get re-recreated programmatically later.
They’re using Outlook 2003, and up until a few days ago, were on Exchange 2003.
We just upgraded to Exchange 2010 on the back end.

After the upgrade, the customer is having trouble deleting sub-folders. We press the delete key on the keyboard, or right-click and choose to delete, and nothing happens.
There is no error message in the Application Log to give us a clue about what is happening.

I have seen this kind of problem before, but it only happened when deleting “system folders”, for example when we somehow got a duplicate Calendar folder, or when we want to delete the “Sync Issues” folder.
In those cases, the solution was to open Outlook Web Access and delete the folder from there. So I tried it with this scenario.

Surprisingly, Outlook Web Access delivered a useful error message! Basically, it told me that it could not delete the folder because there was already a folder with that name in the Deleted Items folder.
I went and looked, and found not only a folder with that same name, but also a bunch of others with incrementally numbered names, like Folder, Folder1, Folder2, Folder3, etc.

My conclusion:
With Exchange 2003, if you delete a folder, and there is already a folder with that name in the Deleted Items folder, Exchange simply adds a number to the folder name as it drops the folder into Deleted Items.
With Exchange 2010, it fails to delete the folder and, with the Outlook 2003 client at least, fails to notify you about why it cannot delete the folder.

So it seems that Exchange 2010 is slightly retarded in this aspect. WTF, Microsoft?!

Additional: I have tested this scenario with Exchange 2007 and Outlook 2007. It adds a number to the end of the folder, no problem. Unfortunately, I do not have a test platform with Exchange 2010 and Outlook 2010 available. However, I will have such a test platform in the near future. I will test this when that becomes available, and update the article with the results.

Tags: Exchange, Outlook, Outlook Web Access

Not long ago, I received an e-mail from the owner of a business that I provide IT services to. It was forwarded from an intern at the company. Here is what it said:

From: [Intern]
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 12:06 PM
To: [Owner]
Cc: [Admin person]
Subject: Way to save money?

I was doing some research into this, and it may be a way for our company to cut some costs. Google has a more efficient and easy way to control email and calendars than Microsoft exchange server. It removes the need for servers, tapes, etc., for our email system and saves money as well. Granted I don’t know what we pay for the server and IT support, but they break down the costs on the website.

A great benefit: it allows employees to choose to use outlook or Gmail as the client (ie: don’t have to train people who are accustomed to outlook and don’t want to switch – not that Gmail is complicated). We keep all the same email addresses and such, however it allows EVERYONE to check their email and calendars from home, much easier than with the exchange server, and Google syncs the calendar, contacts and emails with outlook so everyone has the same information.
• Because chat is part of Google, quick answers can be received from within the office, rather than having to write up an email, yet it is stored as an email. Below is the link to information on the business premium version of Google apps.
• 25 GB storage per person is also a huge factor. I believe that may be larger than what we currently have with MS exchange.
• Email archiving of up to 10 years of retention
• Better spam controllers (we wouldn’t need our specialty spam software)
• Fully secure web server
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html There are also some videos from some large business who use Google rather than Microsoft here.

This is the link to the cost savings calculator: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/messaging_value.html I find it really interesting the difference in costs. If we were able to save over $100,000 in a 3-year time period by switching, maybe it’s worth it?

Take a look and let me know what you think. I was trying to explain Google Wave to you both last week when we were discussing marketing, and how I think it is the start of what is to come in business communication, and I think Google apps is also in this realm. Personally, I know that I love Gmail and all the applications associated with it, and I think I can speak for [admin person] in that she agrees with me (we’ve both mentioned the “conversation” aspects of Gmail which are incredibly useful at helping organize your inbox).

Thanks,
[An intern at one of my clients]

Here is my response to the customer:

Summary: Switching to Google e-mail will increase your e-mail costs by 40 percent and complicate your infrastructure by decentralizing it.

Truth in advertising:
I think that large enterprises that have entirely different network and software licensing infrastructure from yours might be able to save some money with this. They have huge costs for servers and software that are dedicated to running their e-mail system and don’t have any other roles. Instead, small businesses have less costly servers ($3500) that perform multiple roles, one of which is e-mail.

Google’s figures assume that you’ll be buying two servers at $5,000 each JUST to run your e-mail, that you’ll somehow be paying $3,193 for a ten user license of Exchange, which is about twice the actual cost, assuming a standalone Exchange server that is not part of Small Business Server. The SBS edition combines the e-mail license as part of the overall license, further reducing the cost.

There is also an assumption that your IT admin will spend a bunch of hours specifically working on the e-mail system. That may be true for large businesses, but I’ve hardly touched your e-mail system in years.

The figures on the Google website are inflated, designed to catch your eye. They are not accurate figures for a company of your size and with your e-mail usage.

Also, outsourcing the e-mail to Google will not eliminate the need to have a server or backup system. You’ll still need that for your files, centralized control of user accounts, antivirus control, VPN access, accounting software, etc. So you’re only affecting one component – email. But you’re not eliminating it, you’re moving it further from your control. Also, someone in your company (or paid by your company) still has to manage it whether it’s at Google or in your office. The software licenses for it are tied in with your licenses for the other components of the server. You’ve already paid those licenses.
Your actual IT costs:
Nearly all of the money you have spent maintaining your network has been on things like printers, server OS and file backups, workstation issues, firewall, switch, etc. These other components of your infrastructure would still be needed to run your business and to access and work with your Google Mail. The only money you have spent on e-mail was a result of having more than one e-mail account on your computers, which was not related to hosting your own e-mail.

Your IT costs through BFTech from 3/24/2009 through today have been $3540. That’s just the labor. You’ve also purchased a server. Your total costs are probably more like $7500 – but that included replacing some equipment that was more than 5 years old. Looking through the descriptions of those costs, I see about $350 of that being related to e-mail – your home e-mail, NOT company e-mail. You’re paying about $250 per year for the Postini anti-spam service, and a percentage of your antivirus cost is e-mail related. Those are the only ongoing costs that are specifically tied to your e-mail. Let’s call it $500/year combined.

When it is time to replace the Proliant server, which runs your files, printers, user logons and e-mail, that might cost you $10k if I gouge you mercilessly for labor costs and make you upgrade to SBS 2008– but the portion of that cost which will be related to e-mail will be about 15% – so that’s $1500 you’ll be spending on maintaining your e-mail. That happens about every 3-4 years, so that’s between $375 and $500 that can be attributed to e-mail. Let’s say for sake of argument that you replace your server every three years.

So how are you going to save $100,000 in three years when you’re only spending about $2000 in three years on your e-mail?

You’ll save $2 per mailbox per month ($2 x 10 users x 12 months = $250/yr) by not needing to have Postini. That means each month, you can buy an extra pizza and a couple of beers with your savings. Oh, but wait – you’re going to have to pay Google $3,302/year for the privilege of hosting your e-mail with them. So much for the pizza and beer.

In fact, let’s look at that a little more closely. Right now you’re spending about $2000/year in e-mail related costs. Google wants $3302/year for 10 users.

Aren’t numbers great? We can play with them all day and make them say different things.
Features:
Easy access from home/mobile – Right now, your users can check their e-mail from home by just going to [OWA URL]. The logon process for that is no more difficult than the logon process for Google. Their entire mailbox is in there, not just their Inbox, calendar, and contacts. If your users have a Windows Mobile smartphone, or an iPhone, or a Droid, or a Palm smartphone, or a Samsung smartphone, or any number of other mobile phones that support Microsoft ActiveSync, they can work with their e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks right from their mobile device.  This support is just as widespread as the Google mail thing – maybe more so at this point.

Chat -  that looks nifty – but if it stores as an e-mail, why not send an e-mail using a web browser, phone, or mail client? Microsoft used to have an IM component built into Exchange. They stopped including it because nobody was using it.

E-mail Conversations and organizing – Outlook has many different views and ways to organize your e-mail, including a Conversation view. This is not an Exchange vs. Google thing. It’s a feature of Outlook, and you can use it no matter what e-mail system you are using.

Storage capacity – 25 GB per user is definitely more than Exchange server supports at your current license level – but who needs that much? Your mailbox, that you have been building up for more than ten years, is 6.5 GB in size. [Intern’s] is 1.2 GB. If we needed more capacity, we could upgrade your Exchange licensing and expand to meet the need, and still come in below Google’s pricing in the medium to long term.

E-mail archiving – also nifty, and if at some point in the future you need it, we should evaluate the costs to implement it on your existing server or migrate to a service like Google mail that includes it.

Integrated anti-spam – that’s a good feature. I like that. See the comment above regarding pizza and beer.

Security – Has anyone hacked your Outlook Web Access server lately?
The bottom line:
You have to support a network infrastructure anyway, for reasons other than e-mail. E-mail is a relatively small portion of your IT costs. You are utilizing a very small percentage of what your Exchange server is capable of. It can be made to do much more.
Google is “the new hotness” – but is your Exchange system “old and busted”?
I don’t think so.

I also submitted this thread to some other consultants on an e-mail distribution list, and here are their responses:

-=-=-

Ellis:

The number one reason I’ve found to recommend an internal e-mail system over any hosted solution is how can a missing message be traced that the business is critically dependent on?  That is the kind of situation where the ability for us to be able to dive into the message tracking logs, filters and other connectivity systems to find out where the connection failed, and this can provide value that outweighs the cost of the entire e-mail system if the message is valuable enough.

-=-=-

Eugene:

By the way, I laughed when I saw the $100,000 in 3 years thing.  When has this customer ever spent $100,000 in 3 years on all their IT (let alone the email portion, as you point out)?  Most small to medium-small business don’t spend that kind of money, so it’s patently impossible for them to _save_ that kind of money.  And since savings are always a proper (obviously) fraction of spend that is well below unity (i.e. well below 100%) – because the new vendor damn well wants a piece of the pie to take to their own bank – they’d have to spend multiple times that – so, multiple hundreds of thousands per 3 years.  Doesn’t happen, as you point out – you set them up with $3,500 budget servers, reasonable compromise backups plans (i.e. no gold-plated tapes stored in nobel-gas-filled earthquake-proof offsite vaults), and only as much consulting as they need to make their email and OWA work in a normal fashion, and your customer’s costs are quite reasonable.

Regarding Intern’s mention of Google Wave: it is not a real thing at this time, and there’s no indication anytime soon that it will be.  Therefore it is a non-feature, with no importance to the client.
See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/18/google_wave_drowning/ – “Google Wave isn’t even close to being ready yet for the average user” (published 9 weeks ago)
-=-=-

Joe:

When it breaks, who do you call and what do you expect?  Notice that Wikipedia.com was offline today?  At this point it’s nice to have a bit of control.  You know what you have, you don’t have to worry about a failure outside of your control.  If something breaks, you can walk over, tap the person on the shoulder and ask what the issue is, and when things will be back up.  Who are you to Google?  How important is your business working to them?

Lets say you want to cut down on costs, what can you cut from Google?  You can have me come in less, do no upgrades, and for the most part things should continue to run at a minimal cost.

I’ll also toss in the large file between users – where it has to be uploaded to the server and then pulled down again (rather than staying on the LAN).  It’s not like the client gets to turn off a server by doing this.  All it’s doing is replacing part of a software package that’s already owned and implemented, to let’s change, and this is how many hours of billable work it is to change.  Change like this is expensive for no savings.

Easy math = My Hourly Rate x Hours to Migrate all existing data into this new setup = more than you would save in 2-3 years time by changing.

-=-=-

Patty:

Agreed on all counts.  I don’t think g-mail tech support could be a replacement for a consultant or on-site help desk when problems arise.  That being said, I also think it would probably be the consultant dealing with that g-mail support and charging the client in turn for the time spent dealing with them rather than just solving the problem directly.  Thanks to Microsoft SBS, the e-mail portion of IT expense is small and would be extremely difficult for any outside vendor to compete with from a cost or functionality standpoint.

-=-=-

Ken:

I think you and others have nailed it on a number of counts, particularly with the point about flexible IT budgeting. Customers like being able to get lean when they have to and then ramp up quickly when they get busy.

-=-=-

Here’s a good account of what can go wrong with this type of service as well:
http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/cloud-computing2/Networking-Forecast-Cloudy-with-a-Chance-of-Indifference.aspx

Tags: Exchange, Google Mail

 

First, let me just say it is excellent that Microsoft has changed their attitude toward SBS migration, and the SMB market is very appreciative of that. This is the first version of SBS that has an in-the-box, MS-supported migration path from a previous version of SBS. Big kudos to the SBS team for this.

 

After installing SBS2008 using the answer file for a migration, the SBS console contains a group of wizards and instructions. Some of the migration tasks are handled for you, and others are links to help files with instructions for performing migration tasks.

 

However, like any of Microsoft’s first efforts in a given direction, the going is a bit rough. Some of the manual migration tasks could have been done in a wizard, and others were omitted entirely.

 

If one were to follow this migration wizard strictly, and do no more than is listed, the customer would be left with a non-functional network (from their point of view). They would come in on Monday morning, log in, and their network drives would not map. Their printers would not function. Their web browser, if it opened to http://companyweb, would display no data. Their desktop shortcuts would not work.

 

While this wizard is certainly helpful, with lots of useful information, it falls short in actually guiding a consultant to a conclusion that would be called successful by any customer’s standards. If I followed this guide, and did nothing more, my customer would not pay the bill for this migration.

 

I have seen (and cleaned up) the aftermath of a project done this way. It is the sort of event that prompts a customer to start looking for a new IT company.

 

</soapbox>

 

Every network is a little different, and MS could not be expected to cover all eventualities – but there were a number of tasks I performed after the wizard that I would reasonably expect to perform during any migration.

 

Click here to skip down to the post-migration-wizard tasks that I performed.

 

What follows below is a list of steps I went through during this migration. First, I did a migration from a freshly built SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 in a test lab, and of course it went perfectly. Then I did a real migration in a production environment, and it was a far more interesting journey.

 

Preparation and Pre-Wizard Migration Steps:

 

A. Checked to ensure that I had a restorable backup.

 

B. Cleaned up unnecessary files taking up space.

 

C. Powered down my SBS2003 VM and resource server VM, took snapshots, and powered them back on.

 

D. Edited Autounattend.xml and inputted the proper settings for my environment (this is not necessary for an SBS 2008 migration, but since I already covered doing a fully unattended SBS 2008 load, I figured I’d include this bit).

 

E. Ran SBSAFG.exe to create an SBS answer file for this migration, and put it into a virtual floppy disk along with the autounattend.xml file.

 

F. Created a VM with 4 CPUs, 8GB RAM, C:60GB, D:125GB, virtual floppy with answer files, ISO file of the SBS DVD.

 

G. Set the SBS2008 VM to boot into BIOS on first boot.

 

H. Booted the SBS2008 VM and adjusted the time (it was 8 hours off) and boot sequence.

 

I. Rebooted the VM and it started setup.

 

Note: I experienced some issues with the disk sizing, either due to geometry issues, conversion math issues, or something. Anyway, the answer file specified that the disk size should be 61440 KiB. This should fit neatly into a 60GB container, but apparently does not. This is undoubtedly due to the difference between SI values and Binary values, and the confusion between them. See this web site for details.

 

Also, here is a handy calculator:

Anyway, I adjusted the answer file to use 60000 instead of 61440 and it’s all good.

 

J. Waited for the unattended installation to finish.

 

K. Received an error about the source server not meeting minimum requirements for migration.

 

Things missing:

· AD Schema needs to be extended to Windows 2008 level.

· Domain and forest functional levels need to be set to Windows 2003.

· Hotfix needs to be installed to extend time limit for multiple SBS servers in one domain.

 

Note: This is the “Point of no return” as it were. Obviously, it is possible to proceed past this point, stop, and still recover – but cleanup will be required, and possibly technical support from Microsoft.

 

L. Ran the Source tool on the source SBS server, which failed because I was running it as an account that did not have the required permissions. I ran it again successfully using the administrator account.

 

The source tool updated the schema, installed the hotfix to extend the multiple SBS server deadline, adjusted Exchange to allow migration, and required a reboot. I rebooted.

 

M. After the reboot, I upgraded the domain and forest functional levels to Windows 2003. This did not require a reboot.

 

N. Clicked the “Check Again” button on the SBS2008 server. It found that all of the issues were resolved, and continued forward. Note: During this phase, in addition to the schema changes above, the new SBS server appears in AD users and computers in the domain.

 

 

It should be noted here that during this phase, I ran into a serious road block that took me more than a few hours to resolve. The underlying issue and the solution are detailed in another blog entry.

 

The initial SBS wizard completed with errors. The error was “An update could not be applied”. I won’t lose any sleep over that one.

 

O. Added two partitions, one 12 GiB volume for the pagefile, and one 125 GiB volume for data. (You can choose your own preference here)

 

P. Adjusted the pagefile to be a system managed pagefile on the 12 GiB volume. (Again, your preference)

 

 

Started the Migration Tasks in the wizard provided by SBS:

 

On the Windows SBS Console, I clicked the Migration task, but it would not let me run it as the built-in administrator. It wants me to create an administrator user for the tasks. This is annoying because many of the tasks will require elevation, which means using the runas command to run them as the built-in administrator.

 

I created an administrative user using the SBS console, and during that process it failed to send a welcome e-mail to the new user using webmail. The error message is: “Service Discovery failed in looking up the CAS Server in the target AD Site.” I guess this has something to do with SSL certificates for the website. This problem solved itself later when I moved my certificate over.

 

A. Change Data Locations:

i) Change Exchange server data locations

(1) (Clicked OK to continue without backing up the server)

(2) Chose the location for the Exchange data and moved the databases.

ii) Change the Sharepoint Data location

(1) (Clicked OK to continue without backing up the server)

(2) Chose the location for the Sharepoint data and moved the database.

iii) Change the User data location

(1) (Clicked OK to continue without backing up the server)

(2) Chose the location for the user data.

iv) Change the users’ Redirected Documents location

(1) (Clicked OK to continue without backing up the server)

(2) Chose the new location for the redirected documents.

v) Change the Windows Update Repository data location

(1) I chose not to move this.

vi) Clicked Task Complete and Next

 

B. Configure the Network:

At this point, I was expecting to have to use netsh to export the DHCP database from the old server and import it to the new, as I did during my test migration. However, when I attempted to do so, I discovered that SBS08 had already disabled the DHCP server service on the source server, and created a new one without regard for any reservations or static IP addresses I may have had on my network (in fact, this created an IP address conflict – way to go, MS!). I was, however, able to stop DHCP on the new server, start it on the old server, retrieve my DHCP database, delete the scope on the new server, and import my previous database to the new server.

 

I used the netsh utility to export the scope from the source server, and import it on the destination server. This turned out to be premature, because the DHCP scope got wiped out again later – so my advice is to export the DHCP database from the source server before you begin the entire process, and then after every step that changes the networking via an SBS 2008 wizard, check the DHCP scope and re-import if necessary. If you’re doing this on a weekend and it doesn’t matter if the machines lose their DHCP leases, then just wait until everything else is done and do this step last.

 

You’ll want to use the NETSH utility with elevated permissions at the CMD promp, as follows:

 

1. On the SBS2003 server, run this at a command prompt:
netsh dhcp server export c:\dhcp.data 192.168.0.0  (substitute your internal network subnet)
This saves your DHCP database to a file o the root of C on your old SBS server.
2. Copy that file to C:\ on your SBS2008 server.
3. Stop and disable DHCP on your old SBS server.
4. On the SBS2008 server, enable and start the DHCP service.
5. On the SBS2008 server, run this at a command prompt:
netsh dhcp server import c:\dhcp.data 192.168.0.0  (substitute your internal network subnet).

 

 

Normally, when doing a migration, I recommend setting the DHCP scope to a low lease duration – but in this case, I think an 8-day lease duration is probably best, especially since the DHCP server address will remain the same if you swap IP addresses at the end, and you will get to keep your DHCP database if you export it with the netsh command.

 

C. Connect to the Internet (Clicked to start the CTIW).

The CTIW wizard ran successfully, trashing my DHCP scope again. I restored it again.

 

D. Configure the Internet address.

i) Start the Internet Address Management Wizard

(1) Selected “I already have a domain name”.

(2) Selected “I want to manage the domain name myself”.

(3) Typed my domain name into the field.

(4) Clicked the Advanced button.

(5) Chose not to use a domain prefix. (My SSL certificate does not have one.)

(6) Clicked OK, Yes on the warning, and Configure.

(7) Viewed the warning about the wizard failing to administer my firewall (good!).

 

The second part of this wizard deals with self-signed certs, which I am not using.

Skipped the self-signed cert bit because I have a real one.

I’ll see about moving the cert later if not prompted to do so.

ii) Task Complete -> Next

 

E. Migrate Network Settings.

i) Migrated DNS forwarders.

ii) Migrated the Mobile Users Group.

iii) Clicked to open the help for migrating SSL certificates.

iv) Followed the instructions for migrating my certificates (2 of them).

v) The “Add a trusted certificate” only allows one at a time.

vi) I have a second one which I will figure out how to add to another SSL website later.

vii) Task Complete -> Next

 

It should be noted at this point that the migration wizard trashed my internal authoritative DNS zone for my external domain name, and replaced it with a single host record for the new domain. How rude. I modified it manually to restore my DNS records.

 

F. Migrate Exchange mailboxes and settings.

i) Migrate Exchange mailboxes and settings. This brings up a help topic telling you how to:

(1) Remove Internet connectors from the Source Server.

(2) Migrate POP3 connectors (optional) from the Source Server.

(3) Move the Offline Address Book

(4) Move mailboxes from the Source Server to the Destination Server

(5) Move Exchange Server public folders.

 

It should be noted here that public folders and mailboxes have default size limits on them that should be adjusted before moving anything.

 

Before I started this, I fixed my FQDN in the SMTP connector so that the two exchange servers could talk to each other properly.

 

My event log had errors about communication between the servers, and I could not move a mailbox. This turned out to be because permission inheritance was blocked on the source server. This is a fairly common practice, because it was required in order to use EXMerge when migrating mailboxes into SBS2003.

 

Setting permission inheritance and restarting all Exchange services was not enough to resolve the issue. It was necessary to restart the source server. Once the source server was rebooted, the test mailbox moved successfully. I then started moving them all.

 

While the mailboxes were moving, I took care of the other tasks as well:

 

ii) Remove internet connectors from the source server

(a) Moved my smart host setting to the Send Connector on the new server first.

iii) Migrate POP3 connectors.

(a) None to migrate. Skipped.

iv) Move the offline address book.

(a) Followed the help file instructions.

v) Move the Public Folders

(a) Followed the instructions.

 

 

Additional notes here: When SBS works itself into the Exchange system, it disables the previous default recipient policy, and adds a new one. This does not cut off access to additional e-mail domains that might be in the old policy, but things in the old policy should be migrated to the new one anyway.

 

vi) Finish migrating Exchange and removed the old server from the organization.

vii) Task Complete -> Next

 

There are some procedures not covered in the migration help files regarding decommissioning the old server. In the page of the migration wizard where it told me that I would need to do so, there may have been a link to an MS article on doing so, but I didn’t see it. I’ll look for this next time around.

 

Basically, removing the old Exchange server entails deleting the routing group connectors (both sides) that were created when SBS2008 joined the organization, modifying the home server for the recipient update services, and uninstalling Exchange from the old server (SBS Disc 2 is required).

 

 

G. Remove legacy group policies and logon settings.

i) Clicked the link for removing legacy login scripts, which was a help file explaining how to remove them.

(1) I was not using SBS_Login_Script.bat. I removed my custom login scripts.

 

Login scripts stored in the netlogon share are being replaced with GPOs. This is due to the fact that UAC events are being triggered by conventional scripts. However, the SBS migration wizard does not specifically tell you to put your scripts into GPOs.

 

ii) Went on to the help section for removing legacy GPOs.

(1) I had already removed the default SBS GPOs long ago.

iii) Removed the WMI filter GPOs they referred to in the help.

iv) Task Complete -> Next

 

H. Migrate Users’ Shared Data.

i) Clicked the link for “How do I migrate…”, and it brought up a help topic.

(1) I used Robocopy with the /COPY:DATSO switch to migrate data.

(2) Recreated shares as appropriate.

 

I. Migrate SharePoint Web site

i) This opened a help topic with instructions to follow on both servers.

 

I started working through these instructions, and got to the part where it was going to have me create a new website called “Old Companyweb”.

 

At first, I thought that that this was not truly a migration and integration of the old SharePoint with the new – this was adding the old one so people could still access it, while someone manually moves things over to the new one.

 

I read further, and found where it says that it will, actually, upgrade the old site to SharePoint 3.0 as part of this process. I recommend, therefore, that you do NOT name the site “OldCompanyWeb” as they suggest, and instead name it something that the customer will be happy to keep using as you move forward – like for example, CompanyWebSite, or put their company name in it, or something. Further, when you detach the database files and move them over, you may want to take the time to rename the database files to something that does not include the old server name, for cleanliness – although this is behind the scenes.

 

J. Migrate Fax Data.

i) This was an automated process, which ailed for me because there is no fax service installed on the source server.

ii) Task Complete -> Next

 

K. Migrate Users and Groups.

 

Users and groups have already been migrated, but require some tweaking to show up in the new SBS console.

Note: This section is ripe for automation. Why didn’t MS make a wizard for this?

Note: I found out later that the Change User Role wizard removed all of my users from their previously assigned groups. Thanks, MS, that’s very helpful for a seamless migration!

 

i) Clicked the link for “Display the security group migration instructions.”

(1) Followed the instructions.

ii) Clicked Next to get to the Migrate User Accounts section.

(1) Clicked the link for Run the Change User Role Wizard.

(2) Ran the Roles wizard a couple of times for my user base.

 

L. Demote the Source Server

i) Clicked the link for “How do I demote the Source Server?”

(1) This help topic simply tells you to dcpromo down the old server.

 

Note: The help topic regarding demoting the source server is sadly lacking. It does not mention that you will need to update any static DNS or WINS pointers that you have on your other servers, workstations, or network appliances.

 

It also fails to mention that after you demote the old server, it might be helpful to remove its computer account from the Active Directory and run the netdom command to add an alias with the old server’s name, to help with any static shortcuts or registry entries on the workstations that might be pointing to the old server name.

 

M. Checked the box for “My source server is no longer a domain controller” and finished the wizard.

 

 

 

 

Things I did after the wizard:

 

1. Changed the server name and IP address of the source server so that it is still available on the network, but the old name and ip is available.

2. Exported the DHCP database in anticipation of the CTIW wizard trashing it for me again when I changed the server IP to match the previous source server’s IP.

3. Took a screen shot of my internal DNS zone for my external namespace in anticipation of the CTIW wizard trashing it for me (not worth the extra effort of exporting the DNS file, there are only a few records in there, I can fix them afterward.)

4. Ran the Connect to the Internet Wizard and adjusted the server IP address to be the IP the source server used to have. This is a helpful step because it avoids the necessity of changing static DNS settings and other settings that point to the IP address of the old server in network appliances, other servers, statically assigned workstations, firewalls, etc.

 

Note: The CTIW said it did not properly configure e-mail. It told me to run it again, and it failed again. I had to go into the Exchange Console and manually adjust the IP address bindings on the Receive Connectors.

 

5. Imported my DHCP database, made necessary adjustments, and fixed my DNS zone.

6. Ran the netdom command to add the computer name alias, and adjusted the registry setting to allow the netdom fix to work.

7. Added my login script into a new GPO called Login Scripts and applied it.

8. Installed printer objects with the exact same printer name and share name as on the source server, and tested network printers on workstations.

 

 

 

Some additional things that came up:

 

1. IE’s phishing filter was enabled via GPO. Some users don’t like that. I modified the GPO to allow the user to decide.

2. IE’s homepage was set to http://companyweb. Some users don’t like that, etc.

 

So that’s it, in a nutshell. Your mileage may vary, of course. This is my first SBS 2008 migration from SBS 2003, so I’m sure I missed some things. Perhaps later, some other tips/tricks will come up that make some of the above unnecessary, or even incorrect. We can only hope.

 

Tags: answer file, deployment, Exchange, from boot to welcome, lua, Migration, replication, SBS 2008, SBSAFG, unattended

 This causes many of these applications to fail to install correctly or talk to the server. Some of them are written well enough to check for this problem and tell you about it during the installation. Some of them may fail to mention one or the other, or give you a link to the CDO download but not to the one that includes both MAPI and CDO. 

 The CDO installer (the one without MAPI) complains that Outlook 2007 is not yet installed.

It is very likely NOT necesary for you to install Outlook 2007 on your exchange server. Instead, download the Exchange MAPI+CDO add-on from Microsoft. The download size is just 2.4MB.

Since Exchange 2007 does not include MAPI (nor does it use MAPI internally), there are no concerns about a MAPI conflict arising from the installation of it on the Exchange server.

Tags: CDO, Exchange, MAPI

Problem: You want to have separate URLs pointing to two different domain names, with SSL, and both pointing to the same Exchange server.

Environment: Exchange 2007 on Server 2008 with IIS7.

Usage Scenario: Your e-mail domain has two (or more) e-mail domains, and users in both domains want to use their own domain names to access OWA. For example, users with domain1.com e-mail addresses want to go to https://remote.domain1.com/owa, and users with domain2.com e-mail addresses want to go to https://remote.domain2.com/owa to access their e-mail.

In Exchange 2003/IIS6, you might have done some crazy metabase manipulations, such as exporting the entire website to a file, then reading it, and choosing to import the /exchange  subfolder only.

Well, it’s actually somewhat simpler than that with Exchange 2007/IIS7.
Here’s what to do:
1. Open Exchange Management Shell with elevated permissions.
2. Paste this command into the shell:

New-OWAVirtualDirectory -OwaVersion:Exchange2007 -ExternalUrl:https://remote.domain2.com -InternalUrl:https://remote.domain2.com -Name “owa” -WebSiteName “Domain2.com”
Change the parameters in this command to match your environment, of course.

This command makes some assumptions:
a. Your external and internal URLs to access the website are the same. You could use different ones at this point. It’s up to you.
b. Domain1.com already has OWA enabled. So, we’re adding the OWA virtual directory to Domain2.com.

If you’re experimenting with this, and you make a mistake, DO NOT delete the virtual directory from the website using IIS Admin. Instead, use this command in Exchange Management Shell:
Remove-OwaVirtualDirectory -Identity “owa (Domain2.com)”

This will not only remove the virtual directory, but also fix some behind-the-scenes stuff that would have bitten you if you had deleted the virtual directory (voice of experience here).

Here is a Technet article with the complete command reference for the New-OWAVirtualDirectory command, and some related ones.

Updated - Here is a related command to add the ActiveSync virtual directory as well:

New-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory -WebSiteName “YourWebSite” -ExternalURL “http://YourAccessURL/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync“

If this gets out of sync, you can use this command to remove it:

Remove-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory “Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync (YourWebSiteName)“

Tags: Exchange, IIS7, Outlook Web Access, Virtual Directory