Preparation before you install Exchange 2013 in existing organisation

1. There are only two roles now for Exchange 2013, CAS and MBX. You can only install Exchange 2013 with CU1 or later.
2. If you will use the legacy method, configure second internet ip to point to an A record called legacy. In the FW point both ip addresses to the old exchange server. 
3. Upgrade all the existence exchange servers to the latest sp3 and rollup. You can’t upgrade from exchange 2003.
4. Supported Clients:

• Outlook 2013 (15.0.4420.1017)
• Outlook 2010 Service Pack 1 with the Outlook 2010 November 2012 update (14.0.6126.5000). For more information, see Description of the Outlook 2010 update: November 13, 2012. 
• Outlook 2007 Service Pack 3 with the Outlook 2007 November 2012 update (12.0.6665.5000). For more information, see Description of the Outlook 2007 update: November 13, 2012. 
• Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition
• Outlook for Mac 2011

5- Hardware needs to be 64bit processors, Xeon is the preferred with 8GB memory will be a good start.
6- The supported OS is either 2008 R2 sp1 or 2012
7- In a multi-server scenario these are the requirements:
• Schemma is windows 2003 sp2
• Domain Function level can be 2003
• Forest level is 2003
• DNS is a Multi-label DNS online.local
8- Additional Components:
• .NET Framework 4.5
• Internet Information Services (IIS)
• Windows PowerShell V3.0 you can use Get-Host to determine the version
• Windows Management Framework V3.0
9- Two versions of CAL for Exchange, Standard and Enterprise.. The Enterprise CAL allows for the use of unified messaging, advanced compliance capabilities and antivirus / anti-spam facilities.
10- To use the advance features in Exchange 2013 like UM voice message to email and auto-archiving you need the Client Standard license plus the Enterprise one.
11- Sales bought SSL certificate with a multi-domains capability.
12- Ensure the RPC-Over-HTTP service installed as well.
13- Change WinRM services to automatic and type the following command in PowerShell:
Enable-PSRemoting -Force
14- To do the prerequisites
For the Windows 2012

• Install-WindowsFeature AS-HTTP-Activation, Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface, RSAT-Clustering-Mgmt, RSAT-Clustering-PowerShell, Web-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Http-Redirect, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, Web-Metabase, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-Net-Ext45, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI, Windows-Identity-Foundation
• Install-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS

For 2008 R2 use the following:
a- Import-module ServerManager
b- Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Dyn-Compression,NET-HTTP-Activation,RPC-Over-HTTP-Proxy –Restart

15- On servers that will host the CAS or Mailbox server role, install the Microsoft Filter Pack. Download and install the following:
• Microsoft Unified Communications Managed API 4.0, Core Runtime 64-bit
• Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack 64 bit
• Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack SP1 64 bit

16- Make sure the server is up to date in securities
17- Setup will do these commands but in multi-server installation it will be preferred to run them manually so you can assess the reaction of each one. Run these commands to upgrade the Schema setup.com /PrepareSchema, Domain setup.com /PrepareAD,

How to Setup and configure the Legacy option with EXCH07

1-      Pre-requisties: 

§  Second internet IP address and point it to an A record called legacy.

§  Access to the internal and external DNS service.

2-       In the FW point both ip addresses mail and legacy to the old exchange server.

3-      Create the SSL certificate and include the legacy.internetdomainname as one of the Subject Alternative Name. Install the certificate in the new exchange2010

4-      Make sure the RPCoverHTTP server component is installed in the 2010

5-      Configure OWA and Outlook Anywhere as well.

6-      Move the OAB and enable web distribution

7-      After the certificate is ready, install it in the Exchange 2010

8-      Export the certificate to a file

9-      There may be a small outage of service till you make the 2007 work with the 2010 so, inform the admin or your contact.

10-   Import the certificate to the Exchange 2007

11-   This is needs to be done in the 2007 HUB server

Disable-OutlookAnywhere –Server EXCH2007

12-   All the below needs to be done in the 2007 CAS

Set-OWAVirtualDirectory –Id EXCH07\OWA*
-ExternalURL https://legacy.company.co.uk/owa

Set-OABVirtualDirectory –Id EXCH2007\OAB*
-ExternalURL https://legacy.company.co.uk /OAB

Set-UMVirtualDirectory –Id EXCH2007\Unified*
-ExternalURL https://legacy.company.co.uk /UnifiedMessaging/Service.asmx

Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory –Id EXCH2007\EWS* -ExternalURL https://legacy.company.co.uk /ews/exchange.asmx

Set-ActiveSyncVirtualDirectory –Id EXCH2007\Microsoft* -ExternalURL https://legacy.company.co.uk /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync

13-   Configure the legacy in the internal DNS to point to the Exchange 2007 and mail and autodiscover to point to the Exchange 2010 if exist in the internal DNS.

14-   Configure the FW to point the old IP address to the new Exchange 2010

15-   Move one of the test mailbox and test OL Anywhere, webmail and mobile.

16-   Test it as well with a mailbox in the 2007 server.

How to manually merge Hyper-V snapshots into a single VHD

Okay, so you have to recreate your VM configuration and you absolutely know that your VM had a snapshot at some time. 

You also realize that if you just link to the base VHD that you will lose the current state of your VM - what do you do? 

You manually merge your snapshots into your base VHD before you boot your VM. (I am assuming that you know how to connect to an existing VHD using the new VM wizard). 

Merging of snapshots can be performed manually. This is achieved by: 

1. On your Hyper-V host.Power off the Virtual Machine. 
2. Make a copy of the VHD and its corresponding AVHD files. 
3. Rename the AVHD extension to VHD. 
4. Write down the order of the disks from youngest to oldest (the oldest should be the root VHD). You can do this by looking at the last modified time stamp on the origional AVHD files, find the one that last changed. And find the last one that changed before it. 
5. In the Hyper-V manager, open the Edit Disk wizardBrowse to the youngest VHD in the chain, then choose 'reconnect' to point to the next youngest (the one that came before). 
6. Open the Edit Disk wizard a second time and merge. 
7. Then repeat the process until you have only a single VHD. 

In a disaster case, you need to recover a copy of the root VHD prior to attaching it to a new VM and booting it (the act of booting it, modifies it) 

Usually the most difficult part of this process is finding the last AVHD (differencing disk) in the chain. 

The easiest way to do this is to find the configuration file for the VM. 

Then open up that configuration file and locate the information for the virtual hard disk. In the screen shot below is the location of the current running state of the VM. The snapshot is a point in time to return to, the current running state is the "Now" and is contained in a differencing disk (AVHD) after a snapshot has been taken. 

Now, find that AVHD file within the file system and rename it to VHD. 

Now, go back tot he Hyper-V manager and open the "Edit Disk" wizard - Select the disk that you renamed above, and merge this disk into the one before it. 

This process can be continued until all of the snapshots are merged back into a single VHD (the base VHD). 

Pasted from <http://itproctology.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-manually-merge-hyper-v-snapshots.html>  

Activesync Working But Only For Some Users On Exchange 2007 / 2010

There are some issues with ActiveSync for both Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 users whereby some users can connect their Mobile Devices (Windows Mobile Phones / iPhones / Motorola Droid etc) quite happily and ActiveSync pushes mail to the devices, but other users cannot connect and cannot sync anything at all. 

There appear to be plenty of potential solutions for this problem around if you search the web, but the solution to the majority of these problems can be solved quite simply. 

If you open up Active Directory Users and Computers and locate one of your users that is not working, Double-Click into the account and click on the Security Tab (if this is not visible, Click on View> Advanced Features from the Menu at the top of the screen then navigate back to your user). Once on the security tab, click on the Advanced Button and make sure that the ‘Include Inheritable Permissions From This Object’s Parent’ is ticked. Click OK twice to close the user account. 

Once the box is ticked, you should then be able to connect up your Mobile Device to your Exchange Server and receive your mail like the rest of your users. 

This particular problem seems to only affect migrated users and not users that were setup on the server post migration. 

You may also find that if you use an account that has Admin privileges, and you Check the ‘Include Inheritable Permissions From This Object’s Parent’ check box, that it works for a while, and then stops working again about an hour or so later. 

The reason this happens is because Active Directory uses something called the AdminSDHolder to define what permissions the default protected security groups receive. Whilst you can change the inherited permissions, a process called SDPROP will run, by default every 60 minutes on the domain controller that holds the PDCe role. It will check the ACL of the protected groups and reset their inherited permissions and the users within the groups, with what has been defined by the AdminSDHolder object. 

Microsoft’s recommendation and best practice is that if you are a domain administrator that you have 2 accounts. One for your everyday user which is restricted in the same way that every other user is and a second for your administration role. 

The built in groups that are affected with Windows 2008 are: 

Account Operators 

Administrators 

Backup Operators 

Domain Admins 

Domain Controllers 

Enterprise Admins 

Print Operators 

Read-only Domain Controllers 

Replicator 

Schema Admins 

Server Operators 

The built in users that are affected with Windows 2008 are: 

Administrator 

Krbtgt 

Pasted from <http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Server_Software/Email_Servers/Exchange/A_2861-Activesync-Working-But-Only-For-Some-Users-On-Exchange-2007-2010.html#discussion>  

Exchange 2007 sp3 when moving from one storage to another 1056749164 Error occurred in the step: Moving messages. Failed to copy messages to the destination mailbox store with error: MAPI or an unspecified service provider. ID no: 00000000-0000-00000000

I had this issue just now, working on Friday after 7pm, and broke the move of mailboxes from one SG to another and I kept scratching my head what happened for this to break like that.
After searching and looking I found that I ran out of space in the disk so, I enabled circular logging and remounted the database then I ran the move wizard again and everything look smiley so far.

Takes long time to open documents in Office 2007

Try this

1.) Open My Computer. 

2.) Go to Tools -> Folder Options, and click on File Types. 

3.) Find the extension of the file in question (XLS, DOC, etc.) 

4.) Highlight the extension, and click \"Advanced.\" 

5.) Highlight the \"Open\" Action, and click \"Edit\” 

6.) Click into the \"Application used...\" field, and scroll to the end of 

the command. 

7.) Put a space at the end, and type in \"%1\" (With the quotes.) 

8.) Uncheck \"Use DDE.\" 

9.) Click \"OK.\"

Open Tools, Options, and check "Ignore other applications that use DDE"

Pasted from <http://www.technologyquestions.com/technology/microsoft-office/287228-takes-long-time-open-documents-office-2007-a.html> 

XCOPY: Use It To Copy Folders Structure ONLY

Sometimes you want to copy the folders structure only but not the content and xcopy is a great free tool to accomplish this.
at the command prompt type the following:
xcopy source destination /T /E
this command will copy the folders structure that is why you need the /T and /E even if the folder is empty