steve.theproexchange.comExchange Server - Alive and well

Exchange Server – Alive and well Menu Home About Exchange 2000 memories April 30, 2019 Steve Bryant This is not a very productive post but while decluttering my office, I stumbled across my super-old Microsoft badge! I was on campus in Redmond a lot in the late 90’s getting prepared for the Exchange 2000 release and I honestly don’t remember being that young. Exchange 2019 – Thoughts so far… September 11, 2018 Steve Bryant Alive and well indeed! The Public Preview of Exchange 2019 has been available since late June and I’ve been running it through the ringer to learn all I can before the final release this year. In that time, I’ve not yet found that one thing the makes the release exciting for me but there are several things that come very close! First, is the increase in server resources. While machine hardware continues to improve, Microsoft’s Preferred Architecture for Exchange also increases. Exchange 2019 supports 48 processes as its predecessor but the supported memory increases from 192GB to 256GB. We are condensing servers and moving further away from virtualization my friends! This is an important move for Microsoft since it better supports a cloud architecture plus it allows your large On-Prem environments to further reduce your own footprints. Other density-driven improvements include using Solid State Drives (SSD) for specific indexing data and another new” indexing engine. Sorry about the quotes, but this is not the first-time indexing has been changed and I’m holding out for more solid testing before I drink the Bing Kool-Aid. Indexing is back inside the store and so it replicates (again) to the secondary copies. I have high hopes this will speed up searches and Outlook launches. The Bing search engine is terrific of course but we’ll know more about its performance/stability once we see it in action and can perform some real-world testing inside Exchange. Will the use of Server Core reduce the monthly security updates? Probably the most exciting change is the inclusion of Windows Server Core as a supported Operating System. While this will certainly lower the attack surface and help stabilize the server, I’m not sure it will reduce the patching cycles as I once hoped. Perhaps it was my own wishful thinking but I had concluded that OS security patches could be reduced if the OS has no UI! Unfortunately, the Windows Update Catalog shows no security patch distinction with Server Core so the same monthly patches are recommended for now. I am wondering if that will change. Will the ECP now allow for truly global searches? At present, large organizations must use PowerShell to create a New-ComplianceSearch and then execute .\MBSearchFromComplianceSearch.ps1 to convert it to a Mailbox Search when the search scope is large. For large companies with tens of thousands of mailboxes, this usually means training for the legal teams or a 3rd party tool. The Office365 compliance tools are SAWWWEEET and don’t have this limitation so I’m still hoping some of that trickles down to On-Prem. Looking forward to Ignite! In the last 6 weeks, I’ve noted a few other questions and only a couple of concerns so I look forward to what information they release at Ignite . For example, the Bing indexing changes weren’t in the public preview so real-world testing is a bit limited. Honestly, this version is more dramatic of a change than 2013–2016 and so most of us are impatiently awaiting the final release! I’ll keep you posted as I learn more. Arm yourself for battle against an email virus outbreak May 31, 2017 Steve Bryant The onslaught of ransomware and devious social engineering efforts means it’s only a matter of time before your organization is hit with a major email virus outbreak. Administrators should prepare on-premises Exchange — and themselves — to quickly stem the bleeding when that malware lands in a user’s inbox. And while the techniques to protect on-premises Exchange Server aren’t new, they are important steps to reduce the effects of an attack. Even if the antivirus scanner fails to detect the threat, there are ways to isolate affected mailboxes, slow the proliferation and even stop the spread of a virus. Have procedures, processes and scripts in place to fight off an email virus outbreak before trouble starts. The risk chart also indicates the appropriate response based on the severity and distribution of the threat. For example, a widespread distribution of the destructive Locky ransomware warrants a far greater response than when the Tinba malware hits a single mailbox. Use this chart as a baseline to assemble a threat-response plan. Follow this link to get the processes and scripts you can use to help slow down the attack. Prevent Extended Exchange Outages February 1, 2017 February 2, 2017 Steve Bryant Small problems can turn into large ones in Exchange environments that aren’t regularly monitored, causing the system to deteriorate quickly to the point of outage or even total failure. There are a few areas to watch to prevent outages in single-sever Exchange environments and large enterprises with multiple servers. Here are three of the most common causes of extended Exchange outages. Failed/Incomplete Disaster Recovery Plan A failed recovery is the most common cause of extended Exchange outages. It may sound like circular logic, but if the Exchange environment is down for multiple days, the root cause of the failure is no longer relevant. Don’t let indecision and untested processes fuel a crisis. Every Exchange shop needs to have a detailed plan to recover each of the following: single mailbox, single database, single server and the entire environment. While there are a number of third-party products that handle disaster recovery, tools and processes included with Microsoft Exchange and Windows Server are good options because Microsoft offers support and documentation for different disaster scenarios. Microsoft provides guidance on how to restore the following — a single mailbox from a database backup, an Exchange Server, a DAG Member Server and dial tone portability, which can solve failures of a mailbox database, server or entire site. Use these procedures regularly to understand the process and test backups. The processes to restore a database and a single mailbox are not invasive; administrators can perform these procedures on live servers. It’s best to perform these on weekends and after hours to minimize the potential effect on end users. For the rest of the article, please follow this link to my complete article at Tech Target. Reconnected! January 10, 2017 Steve Bryant Recognition is always appreciated and last month Microsoft honored me by including me in the MVP Reconnect Program. Its a privilege to be included in the group once more and to be reconnected with so many brilliant and talented people again. 20 Years of Exchange September 29, 2016 Steve Bryant It was an honor and privilege to be included in a small gathering last night celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Microsoft Exchange. The product group, MVPs and the writers/Rock-Stars were all there to commemorate the landmark achievement. There were folks in that room who gave me opportunities many years ago to publish articles and chapters in books. Because of their trust and support I was able to branch off and write many more articles, to speak at events and to expand my own horizons within the field. In fact as I looked around the room and shook hands I was humbled by the realization of how many of them have helped me over the years. This event was not about strategizing the future of email, our careers or even the future of Exchange. This gathering was a pure trip down memory lane and an opportunity for us to reacquaint and reconnect. I don’t know if there will be another version of Exchange but I will continue to help the Exchange community as we continue our migration into the cloud. Office 365 eDiscovery bolsters an admin’s compliance arsenal September 12, 2016 Steve...