DaveStork.nl

19/02/2015

Issues with Unified Contact Store in combination with Lync on-premises and Exchange Online

I’ve encountered an issue that popped up while I was testing a move from Exchange On-premises to Exchange Online (EXO) while Lync Server 2013 remained on-premises due to Enterprise Voice. Outlook Web Access (OWA) from Exchange Online can be integrated with on-premises Lync, this way OWA users can see presence and have limited IM functionality just like what’s possible if...

Exchange 2013/Issue/Lync/Office 365/OWA Comments: 3

13/02/2015

Some things to do after leaving Windows Server 2003 (from an Exchange perspective)

Today the Exchange Team blog posted an article about upgrading the Domain Functional (DFL) level of your Active Directory environment away from Windows Server 2003 and the fact that raising the level might have some impact on your Exchange servers (and other applications). It is possible that they might not be able to authenticate. If you do run into issues after...

Active Directory/Exchange/Issue/Support/Update Comments: 0

20/01/2015

No, Windows Phone ActiveSync is not on par with OWA for Devices

Recently I came across this Twitter exchange: @WayneHRiddle You don’t need it for WP. Native app handles all of that functionality. — Ben Rudolph (@BenThePCGuy) January 17, 2015 I’ve heard this argument before, that the Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) implementation in Windows Phone doesn’t require an OWA for Devices app (or MOWA as is the official acronym) like iOS has (for iPad...

ActiveSync/Events/Exchange/Exchange 2013/OWA/Question of the day/Windows Phone / Mobile Devices Comments: 0

14/01/2015

Do not update your Office Web Apps Server with automatic updates

Although it is not exactly required to deploy with Exchange Server 2013, Office Web Apps Server (OWAS or also referred to as WAC server) provides a more user friendly experience instead of the standard Web Preview. For Lync Server 2013 it’s a requirement if you want to be able to present PowerPoint files in a conference. And well, for SharePoint...

Exchange 2013/Issue/Lync/Management/Question of the day/Update Comments: 0

09/12/2014

Exchange 2013 CU7, Exchange 2010 SP3 RU8 and Exchange 2007 SP3 RU15 are out!

Update 12 december 2014: The fixed Exchange 2010 SP3 RU8 with v2 is now available. Same location as the plagued v1. Update 10 december 2014: Exchange Server 2010 SP3 RU8 has been pulled due to connectivity issues with Outlook. There is currently not ETA on the fix. Customers are advised to not install this RU8 or remove RU8 if they...

Exchange/Exchange 2007/Exchange 2010/Exchange 2013/Update Comments: 0

07/12/2014

A new blog backend

The past few months Sander Berkouwer (MVP and admin for davestork.nl/) worked hard to get our new blogsite up and running. We had an ancient Telligent (now Zimbra) Community Server, which was limited and didn't provide new and interesting features. So, we decided to move towards WordPress 4. Luckily we could migrate most of our blog posts and comments from...

Personal Comments: 0

19/11/2014

Mail address sieve and Exchange

During a discussion about fighting spam, a coworker mentioned an interesting Gmail feature. As that service doesn’t provide aliasses, you can’t have a specific mail address alias for your internet services. Some use a different email address for each service they sign up for, a practice which is understandable with some services that (sometimes illegally) opt-in bulk mailings or more...

Exchange/Management/Office 365 Comment: 1

26/08/2014

Mail enabled Public Folders on Exchange 2013 CU6 require action for internet mail to be received

So, CU6 is out. It’s easy to overlook the change mentioned within the Exchange 2013 Release Notes. And you might have missed the Exchange Team blog post about all Public Folder changes with CU6. And it might not be relevant for your situation. But I know certain customers rely on mail enabled Public Folders that are able to receive internet...

Exchange 2013/Issue/Update Comments: 0

26/08/2014

Released: Exchange 2013 CU6, Exchange 2010 SP3 RU7 and Exchange 2007 SP3 RU14

Today Microsoft released the 6th update to Exchange Server 2013, aptly named Cumulative Update 6 (CU6), the seventh update to Exchange Server 2010 SP3; Rollup Update 7 (RU7) and the 14th update to Exchange Server 2007 SP3 named Rollup Update 14 (RU14). They mostly contain smaller security fixes and/or bug fixes or DST (Daylight Saving Time) updates. Having said that,...

Exchange 2007/Exchange 2010/Exchange 2013/Update Comments: 0

15/08/2014

Fixing Office 365 DirSync account matching issues

Recently I had to fix some issues with DirSync. For some reason (there were some cloud users created before DirSync was enabled) there were duplicate users, because DirSync failed to match the already present cloud user and the corresponding AD (Active Directory) user. There were also accounts that failed to sync and thus failed to sync all attributes properly. If...

Issue/Office 365 Comments: 11

13/08/2014

Optimizing the Outlook AutoDiscover process by skipping the root domain query

Updated 8/15/2014: see the bottom of this article for additional information on changed AutoDiscover behavior of Outlook 2013. Consider the following scenario: An Active Directory (AD) domain named equal to the SMTP Suffx, so the mailaddress dmstork@contoso.com in the contoso.com AD domain. No on-premises Exchange, this means that there is no Service Connection Point (SCP) in A. Outlook 2013 (or lower...

Exchange/Issue/Office 365/Outlook clients Comments: 3

01/08/2014

Managing Mailbox quota’s: databases with different settings?

So, a while back I discussed an on-premises Exchange design for a customer. When discussing database distribution in an Exchange 2013 Database Availability Group (DAG), the topic of mailbox quota’s came along. They insisted on having different Database (DB) level quota’s and move mailboxes to other databases when the user requires more storage space. It’s a tactic I have seen...

Exchange/Management/Question of the day Comments: 0

06/07/2014

Exchange mail flow not working? Check your (Cisco) firewall!

I’ve come across this issue several times: External mail (or mail between Exchange servers) cannot be delivered, however when you check with telnet the Exchange server(s) are responding. When you check via telnet on the external IP you get something similar: In this case it was a Cisco ASA firewall that had (E)SMTP filtering feature (also called Mailguard) enabled, which...

Exchange/Issue Comments: 0

01/07/2014

I am now an Exchange MVP!

For those who weren’t following me on Twitter (or Facebook or whatever), today I received an important mail: Dear Dave Stork, Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2014 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in...

Exchange/Personal Comment: 1

30/06/2014

Legacy Public Folders to Exchange 2013 migration tips

A couple of weeks ago I performed a Public Folder migration from Exchange 2007 (aka legacy) towards the modern Public Folders of Exchange 2013. As you may know, the traditional migration method using Public Folder replica’s isn’t available due to a radical redesign of the Public Folder architecture. Instead of dedicated databases, the hierarchy and data are now stored in...

Exchange/Exchange 2013/Migration/Transition Comments: 0