Monday, June 22, 2009

Disabling Message Subject Logging

Message Subject logging is by default enabled in Message Tracking Logging. You might need to disable Message subject logging as part of compliance and Security requirements, in order to achieve this you have to run following command

Note: Before you enable or disable message subject logging, make sure that you verify your organization's policy about revealing subject line information.

Set-TransportServer <ServerName> -MessageTrackingLogSubjectLoggingEnabled $false

Changing Exchange server Queues and Logs directory Location

When you install Exchange 2007 Edge or Hub Transport Role, by default Exchange setup configures Queues, Replay, Pickup and Transport logs directory on C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server Folder. In an enterprise environment where you have high volume of emails coming in and out it is good to have separate drive for these folders . Following are the steps for changing the these folders default location

Old Queues, Replay, Pickup and Transport logs directory: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server

New Queues, Replay, Pickup and Transport logs directory: F:\Exchange

 

Configuration steps for Queue Directory:

1. Create the following directory: F:\Exchange\Queue

Permissions Required for the Directory:

Administrator: Full Control

System: Full Control

Network Service: Full Control

 

2.  Open the following file by using Notepad:

 C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\EdgeTransport.exe.config

 

3. .Modify the following line in the <appSettings> section:

<add key="QueueDatabasePath" value=" F:\Exchange\Queue " />

And

<add key="QueueDatabaseLoggingPath" value=" F:\Exchange\Queue " />

EdgeTransport

4. Save and close the EdgeTransport.exe.config file.

5.Restart the Microsoft Exchange Transport service.

(Make sure you have also added the same set of accounts with the same permissions on F:\Exchange folder otherwise Microsoft exchange Transport service will not start.)

 

Configuration steps for Pickup Directory:

1. Open Exchange Management Shell.

2. Run following commands
Set-TransportServer <ServerName> –PickupDirectoryPath "F:\Exchange\Pickup"

Permissions Required for Pickup Directory

Administrator: Full Control

System: Full Control

Network Service: Read, Write, and Delete Subfolders and File

Configuration steps for Replay Directory:

1. Open Exchange Management Shell.

2. Run following commands
Set-TransportServer <ServerName> -ReplayDirectoryPath "F:\Exchange\Replay”

Permissions Required for Replay Directory

Administrator: Full Control

System: Full Control

Network Service: Read, Write, and Delete Subfolders and File

 

Configuration steps for Transport Logs-Connectivity Logs Directory:

1. To change the location of connectivity logs run following commands
Set-TransportServer <ServerName> -ConnectivityLogPath "F:\Exchange\Logs\Connectivity"

Permissions Required for Directory

Administrator: Full Control

System: Full Control

Network Service: Read, Write, and Delete Subfolders and File

Configuration steps for Transport Logs-Protocol Logs Directory:

1. To change the location of Send Protocol Logs run following commands
Set-TransportServer <ServerName> -SendProtocolLogPath "F:\Exchange\Logs\ProtocolLog\SmtpSend"

2. To change the location of Receive Protocol Logs run following commands
Set-TransportServer <ServerName> -ReceiveProtocolLogPath "F:\Exchange\Logs\ProtocolLog\SmtpReceive"

Permissions Required for Directory

Administrator: Full Control

System: Full Control

Network Service: Read, Write, and Delete Subfolders and File

 

Configuration steps for Transport Logs-Routing Table Logs Directory:

1. To change the location of Routing Table Logs run following commands
Set-TransportServer <server name> -RoutingTableLogPath "F:\Exchange\Logs\Routing"

Permissions Required for Directory

Administrator: Full Control

System: Full Control

Network Service: Read, Write, and Delete Subfolders and File

 

Configuration steps for Transport Logs-Message Tracking Directory:

1. To change the location of Messaging Tracking Logs run following commands
Set-TransportServer <ServerName> -MessageTrackingLogPath " F:\Exchange \logs\MessageTracking"

Note: You might need to disable Message subject logging as part of compliance requirement, in order to achieve this you have to run following command

Set-TransportServer <ServerName> -MessageTrackingLogSubjectLoggingEnabled $false

Permissions Required for Directory

Administrator: Full Control

System: Full Control

Network Service: Read, Write, and Delete Subfolders and File

PowerShell Script for getting list of users having no Default Quota Set

In a big exchange environment having more than 5000 users, it is hard to control Mailbox quota limit, you continuously gets pressure from the executive and top management for increasing their Mailbox quota and it is very hard to control that who has the default quota limit and who has not. Following commands can help in these type of situations by simplifying reporting and giving a list of users having no default quota set. The results from this command can be used for identifying the possible users who no longer need customized quota and should be configured back to default quota for ease of maintenance

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited -Database <Mailbox Server\Database Name>  | where {  (  $_.UseDatabaseQuotaDefaults -eq $false) }

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Exchange 2007 DR Training

Last week i have attended 3 day Exchange 2007 DR training. It was level 300 training and was delivered by one of MS Exchange PFE Pelin Taldilal (i think i misspelled her last name). This course was designed after getting feedbacks and inputs from lots of MS PFEs all around the world. This is a new course and as per my information its was first time delivered in ME Region. The course contains lots of excellent information on Exchange DR configuration such as CCR,SCR and SCC. This course was offered as part of Microsoft premier customer agreement. I will post some blogs on exchange DR in the future covering information which i learned from this training.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Exchange Mailbox Movement – BlackBerry issue

Last week i faced a strange issue, we are facing some space issue on one volume so i draft a strategy to move selective mailboxes from one database to another database located in another storage group, on the weekend i ran one batch of users and moved them to another database. All goes fine. Next day was a working day and i got some complains that users are not able to sync and use their blackberry devices. Initially i thought that it is some other issue but after investigation i found that these are the same users which i have moved on weekend. After some search i found that Blackberry has some problem when we move mailboxes between storage groups in different databases on same server. It seems that blackberry services are not aware or are not updating itself for reflecting the database change. Although as per some articles the mailbox movements between servers is not an issues only within the same server has but i haven't tested it.  By following the instructions on Blackberry support site i have restarted the Blackberry Enterprise service and the result was as per the expectation the problem goes away. I think Blackberry has to work on this glitch and should fix it in the next release or in the next service pack.