Installing Active Directory On windows 2008 server using dcpromo command

In this post I will show you step by step with snapshots how to install Active directory on a machine to create a new domain in a new forest .

My lap setup :

1. I will need one machine only with windows 2008 server installed on it

2. I will name the server as dc1

3. I will name the new domain as test.com

The steps :

1. configure your network adapter TCP\ IP configuration and give your server any private IP address , as shown in the figure below.

2. From Start menu click RUN then type dcpromo and hit enter.

3. dcpromo will start installing active directory domain services as it is needed to make your server a domain controller as shown below.

4. After finishing the last process ,The domain controller setup wizard will start.

5. select second option to create a new domain controller in a new forest.

6. type the new name of your forest or domain in the text box as shown below .

7. choose your domain functional level , i will select windows 2008 as i will not add any windows 2003 addtional domain controllers .

8. select the DNS installation as it is a must for your domain controller to operate

9. click Yes .

10. Now the domain setup wizard will start and after finishing it will reboot your machine as it is a must then you log on using your domain administrator account.

So , Installing active directory on windows 2008 is very similar to windows 2003

I hope this post will be useful to most of you

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thank you

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Using SYSPREP on windows 2008 server to change the SID for a machine

To change the SID of a machine running windows 2008 server ,you will use the sysprep utility that comes with the windows 2008 server. this will help you in many case.

For example : you took an image from an operating system running on one server and you will restore and use it on another server then you have to change your SID if you are planning to join this machine to the domain

The steps to use this utility is as follow :

1. go to the following path :

c:\windows\system32\sysprep

2. double click on the sysprep.exe file

3. select the generalize option and choose to reboot , this will start creating a new SID for your machine then it will reboot the machine and start a mini windows setup as below figures show

4. choose your language and choose and type your hostname for this machine and after that you are done and when finish your machine will reboot and you can log on to windows

Note :

Using sysprep.exe will not affect any settings you already made inside your OS and it will not remove any pre-installed software or data

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thank you

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Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server Beta Installation on Windows 2008 SP2 Step By step Guide

As Exchange server 2010 is a new version of exchange and also it is also new to us , we will discuss today the installation steps of exchange 2010 .
Exchange 2010 is still in Beta version so I think it is a good idea to start now installing this new product and see how it works and what what are the new features inside it and and enhancements before it is released as RTM version to the Market.
This post is about a simple fresh installation for exchange 2010 on a single machine in a new environment.
Ok, let's go ahead and start installing it .

My Lab Setup :
1- one server acting as domain controller with Windows 2008 server installed , I will call it dc1.test.com.
2- one server that I will use exchange 2010 installation with windows 2008 server 64 bit edition installed , I will call it mail.test.com.

 
Exchange 2010 Minimum System Requirements :

 
1- PC\Server - based computer with Intel processor that supports Intel 64 architecture or AMD processor that supports the AMD64 platform as exchange 2010 comes only in 64 bit edition
2- Operating system - Windows 2008 standard x64 or Enterprise x64 edition with SP2
3- Memory - Varies depending on Exchange features that are installed.-, but for testing purposes 2GB memory will be enough .
I will post another post on how to size hardware for you exchange 2010 installation.
4- Network And Directory Services :

1. Schema master (By default, the schema master runs on the first domain controller installed in a forest.) - The latest 32-bit or 64-bit edition of the Windows Server 2003 Standard or Enterprise operating system or the latest 32-bit or 64-bit edition of the Windows Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise operating system.

2. Global catalog server - In every Active Directory site where you plan to install Exchange 2010 you must have at least one global catalog server that is either the latest 32-bit or 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2003 Standard or Enterprise or the latest 32-bit or 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise.

5- Install Microsoft .NET framework 3.5 on server you will use as exchange server

 

 

6-Install the Active Directory remote management tools by running the following command:

ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS

7- Install Windows Remote management (WinRM) 2.0 community technology preview 3.0 from the following link :

https://connect.microsoft.com/WSMAN/Downloads

 

8- Install windows power shell V2 CPT3 from the following link :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c913aeab-d7b4-4bb1-a958-ee6d7fe307bc&displaylang=en

 

 

Install Active Directory management tools on the exchange server

open server manager and click on add role and then add the active directory domain services

9- Install the update for the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) in Windows Server 2008. See Microsoft Knowledge Base article 951725 from the following link :

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=951725

10- Install all IIS services on the server that you will use as exchange server from the add role section in the sever manager console as shown below

Note: you must select all the components and services inside the IIS as shown below

 

Also you need to install the HTTP Activation feature from the add feature section in the server manger console as shown below

 

11- Install the extensions for ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 from the following link :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ca9d90fa-e8c9-42e3-aa19-08e2c027f5d6&displaylang=en

 

12- Install the 2007 Office System Converter: Microsoft Filter Pack. from the following link :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=60c92a37-719c-4077-b5c6-cac34f4227cc&displaylang=en

 

 

Notes:

1- For this release ( Beta Release ), you must install Exchange 2010 into a new Active Directory site.

2- For e-mail messages to flow correctly, you must install both the Mailbox server role and the Hub Transport server role in the same Active Directory site.

3-You can install the Mailbox server role, the Hub Transport server role, the Client Access server role, and the Unified Messaging server role on the same computer or on separate computers.

Exchange 2010 typical Installation Steps :

1- Log on to the server on which you want to install Exchange 2010

2- Insert the Exchange 2010 DVD into the DVD drive (or browse to your install location). If Setup.exe doesn't start automatically, navigate to the DVD drive and double-click Setup.exe.

3- On the Start page, ensure that you have completed Steps 1 through 12.

4- On the Start page, click Step 4: Install Microsoft Exchange. Setup copies the setup files locally to the computer on which you are installing Exchange 2010.

5- In the Exchange 2010 Setup wizard, on the Introduction page, click Next.

6- On the Language Files Location page, click Next. On the Language Pack Confirmation page, click Next.

7- On the License Agreement page, select I accept the terms in the license agreement, and then click Next.

8- On the Error Reporting page, choose Yes, and then click Next.

9- On the Installation Type page, click Typical Exchange Server Installation. If you want to change the path for the Exchange 2010 installation, click Browse, locate the appropriate folder in the folder tree, and then click OK. Click Next.

Note:

If you choose the Typical Exchange Server Installation option, you will not be able to install the Unified Messaging server role, Edge Transport server role, or clustered mailbox servers during this installation. You can add additional server roles later if you choose not to install them during this installation.

10- If this is the first Exchange 2010 server in your organization, on the Exchange Organization page, type a name for your Exchange organization.

11- If this is the first Exchange 2010 server in your organization, on the Client Settings page, click the option that describes the client computers in your organization that are running Microsoft Office Outlook.

Note:

If you have client computers that are running Outlook 2003 or earlier and you select Yes, Exchange 2010 will create a public folder database on the Mailbox server. If all your client computers are running Outlook 2010, public folders are optional in Exchange 2010. If you select No, Exchange 2010 will not create a public folder database on the Mailbox server. You can add a public folder database later. For example, if you add client computers that are running Outlook 2003 and you need a public folder database, you can create one on the Exchange 2010 Mailbox server. You must then configure the offline address book for public folder distribution, and then restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service before client computers that are running Outlook 2003 and earlier will be able to connect to the server.

12- On the Customer Experience Improvement page, choose the appropriate selection for your organization, and then click Next.

13- On the Readiness Checks page, view the status to determine if the organization and server role prerequisite checks completed successfully. If they have completed successfully, click Install to install Exchange 2010.

14.On the Completion page, click Finish.

15. now the management console will open and it will look like below

16. open the OWA and it will look like below

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In this post we finished installing exchange 2010 with typical installation options

In the following post i will talk about how to do basic configurations for the exchange.

Thank you for reading this post and I hope it will help you .

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Torrents Privacy While you are doing torrents search

 

Hi, all.
This is a guide explaining basic means of Bit Torrent safety and obfuscation methods, making it harder for snoopy people on the internet of even nosey ISP’s to interpret BT Traffic and throttle it, or even catch you doing something you shouldn’t!
First of all, This guide is written solely for BT as I believe it is the only way to file share, considering Bit Torrent potentially consumes at least 60% of all available ISP bandwidth, a lot of people agree with me!
File sharing is making data available for transfer from point A to point B, usually this is done my a P2P means (peer-to-peer), files are stored on and served by personal computers of the users.

 
Let me just make this one point clear, file sharing itself is NOT illegal, when copyrighted material is shared, it is, but when its not, its as legal as going to church, so don’t frown upon BT, all it is, is a data transfer protocol, for getting data from point A to point B.
I am not responsible for what you do with this guide, all I am writing this for is to keep you SAFE!

I believe it is my right to have my privacy, if your neighbor started spying on what you chuck in your wheelie bin, or watching you while you put your clothes on the washing line, you’d be concerned, you may even want to give them a firm smack in the face with the front of a shovel, its not your fault, blame human nature.

 
So, why is it any different for the world of the internet?, well, its not!

When people start watching what you do, bad things happen, you know…
That’s why it’s your job to stop this happening, I have written this simple post to help you keep yourself safe when using Bit Torrent, its your choice what you do with it, be it acquire licensed or copy right protected material or whatever, if you do not secure yourself, you will face the consequences of your actions, you can greatly decrease this risk by simply following what is written in this guide, so with all this said, enjoy my friends.

So I am recommending to all of you to use Torrent Privacy service , it is great and it will keep you protected and away from any kind of problems you can thin off. so click on the hyper link or click on the photo below and read more information and it is your choice at the end

thanks

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Update your blog content by automatic blog posting from blog directory ( RSS Feeds are dead) !!!

Hi everyone,

one of the big problems we all face is how to improve search engines rankings to a website.

It can be a pain to manually update your blogs with fresh content. I know you hate this boring job. But don't think that the old-fashioned method of using content from RSS is the only solution.

As you know, it will make a website for Search Engine bots, but not for REAL Visitors.

RSS feeds only pull information to your blog from he first few sentences of various content sites...
usually not more than 55 words. So if a visitor really wants to read it, he will LEAVE YOUR SITE and go to the article source to continue reading.

You are losing visitors instead of converting them into customers!

Here's a simple and powerful solution that will automatically post QUALITY content to your blog.

=>> HERE click here to find out more information

Also you can Unleash A Swarm of Traffic to Your Sites! just by click the pervious link

Automatic Blog Wordpress Plug-in gets fresh new article search and every day and posts them automatically to your blog. You get FULL ARTICLES to your blog, at least 300 words long!

it's so "Set-it-and-Forget-it" simple! You install it in less than 3 minutes and then it works automatically!

Don't wait... Go ahead and check it out.

=>> click this link and see

To Your Success,

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Network Configuration For isa 2006 as a firewall

Microsoft Internet Security Accelerator - ISA server 2006 - is now considered one of the powerful firewalls in the market .

Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 is the security gateway that helps protect your mission critical applications from Internet-based threats. ISA Server enables your business to do more, with secure access to Microsoft applications and data. Secure your Microsoft application infrastructure by protecting your corporate applications, services, and data across all network layers with stateful packet inspection, application-layer filtering, and comprehensive publishing tools. Streamline your network with simplified administrator and user experiences through a unified firewall and virtual private network (VPN) architecture. Safeguard your information technology environment to reduce security risks and costs, and help eliminate the effects that malicious software and attackers have on your business.

Today I will explain an interesting topic ,we will talk how to configure our Network adapters On ISA 2006 so you can Implemented as a firewall in your network

Lab Setup :

1. One server acting as domain controller and internal DNS named dc1.test.com
2. One server will act as ISA server firewall with two network cards On it.

Steps :

1- You have to configure your internal DNS to forward Internet queries coming from the internal users to the internet DNS , in other words when a user try to open www.google.com his query will be sent to the internal DNS and then the internal DNS will forward the query to external DNS on the internet cloud then returns back the result to the user. to do this configuration do the following :

open DNS mmc then click on your server name then right click on forwarders ,go to properties and then start adding some IP addresses to some external DNS servers which you can get a list of these IP addresses fro your ISP , then add them the red marked area shown in figure below.

2- Now will start configuring ISA server Network , I will assume that your network setup is as below figure which is a simple network but can be taken as a base for any setup you have.

I guess the figure explains everything.

the figure has the following details

1. first network card ( Internal NIC) has a private IP , DNS IP But no gateway IP
2. Second Network Card has a public IP , no DNS IP and gateway IP which is the internet router IP
3. for your internal servers and clients , ISA server will be their default gateway .
4. On The ISA server you have to make an access role to allow the internal DNS to forward traffic through ISA to the external network

so now any user want to open a website , his DNS query will be sent to the internal DNS then forwarded to the external DNS server through the ISA server then result will come Back to the internal DNS then to the user PC then website is opened .

This was the whole Network configuration for ISA server 2006 as a firewall , then you can start making your access and publish roles for your exchange server , other web , ftp , SharePoint or any other servers you have.

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Thanks

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Autodiscover Configuration On Exchange 2007 with Multi CAS

 

Hi everyone
Today I am going to show you how to configure autodiscover services in exchange 2007 server
in my scenario I have two Hub+ CAS server load balanced together using Microsoft NLB services
I spent a lot of time and effort in my labs and also with my customers in their real environment to figure out the correct steps to configure autodiscover services and make it work perfectly in any setup or environment . and it is proven to work in any case
I will take you step by step to configure auto discover and also how to test it also , ok now it is time to go ahead and start the work .
My Scenario setup :

1- I have two domain controllers DC1 , DC2
2- my domain name is test.com
3- I have two mailbox servers called exch1 ,exch2 and I am using SCC cluster
the virtual name for my mailbox cluster is exchange.test.com
4- I have two HUB+CAS servers called owa1 ,owa2 and load balanced together
the virtual name for my HUB+CAS load balanced cluster is mail.test.com .....this is the name will be used to access my OWA from inside and outside

Autodiscover configuration steps :

now i have two cases that you might face , either your client PCs are joined to the domain or not
I will talk about how to configure autodiscover service when your client PCs joined to the domain.

Here are the steps :

you must have a suitable SAN certificate either generated locally or from a third party and i will talk about how to create a SAN certificate in a different post
start Configuring your SCP URLs so the autodiscover service work correctelly , to do this you will use the exchange managment shell with the following commands :

Get-clientAccessServer  | fl Name,AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri

the output of this command will be similar to the following

Name : OWA1

AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri : https://owa1.test.com/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml

Name : OWA2

AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri : https://owa2.test.com/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml

After that run the following commands to set the autodiscover URI :

Set-ClientAccessServer -Identity owa1 -AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri "https://mail.test.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml"

Set-ClientAccessServer -Identity owa2 -AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri "https://mail.test.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml"

Now we will configure the offline address book URLs:

run the following command to get the OAB information details

Get-OabVirtualDirectory  | fl Server,Name,internalurl,externalurl

the output will be similar to below:

Server : OWA1

Name : OAB (Default Web Site)

InternalUrl : http://owa1.test.com/OAB

ExternalUrl :

Server : OWA2

Name : OAB (Default Web Site)

InternalUrl : http://owa2.test.com/OAB

ExternalUrl :

now run the following command to set OAB URLs:

Set-OabVirtualDirectory -Identity "owa1\oab (default web site)" -InternalUrl https://mail.test.com/oab -ExternalUrl https://mail.test.com/oab

Set-OabVirtualDirectory -Identity "owa2\oab (default web site)" -InternalUrl https://mail.test.com/oab -ExternalUrl https://mail.test.com/oab

for Unified messaging URLs:

Get-UMVirtualDirectory  | fl Name,Server,Internalurl,externalurl

Name : UnifiedMessaging (Default Web Site)

Server : owa1

InternalUrl : https://owa1.test.com/UnifiedMessaging/Service.asmx

ExternalUrl :

Name : UnifiedMessaging (Default Web Site)

Server : owa2

InternalUrl : https://owa2.test.com/UnifiedMessaging/Service.asmx

ExternalUrl :

set-UMVirtualDirectory -Identity "owa1\UnifiedMessaging (Default Web Site)" -InternalUrl https://mail.test.com/UnifiedMessaging/Service.asmx -ExternalUrl https://mail.test.com/UnifiedMessaging/Service.asmx

set-UMVirtualDirectory -Identity "owa2\UnifiedMessaging (Default Web Site)" -InternalUrl https://mail.test.com/UnifiedMessaging/Service.asmx -ExternalUrl https://mail.test.com/UnifiedMessaging/Service.asmx

for EWS services URLs:

Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory | fl name,internalurl,externalurl

Name : EWS (Default Web Site)

InternalUrl : https://owa1.test.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx

ExternalUrl :

Name : EWS (Default Web Site)

InternalUrl : https://owa2.test.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx

ExternalUrl :

**Note if you are not using an NLB then you can leave the internal settings to the default.

set-WebservicesVirtualDirectory -Identity "owa1\EWS (default web site)" -InternalUrl https://mail.test.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx -ExternalUrl https://mail.test.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx

set-WebservicesVirtualDirectory -Identity "owa2\EWS (default web site)" -InternalUrl https://mail.test.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx -ExternalUrl https://mail.test.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx

now to test the autodiscover service settings follow these steps:

1- hold the CTRL button
2- right click the outlook icon in the system tray
3- select the test autoconfiguration option
4- if your pc is joined to domain the do not write your password otherwise write it if your pc is member of workgroup
5- then click test
6- the result should be successful

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thank you very much
I hope this post help most of you in their work
i will be waiting your comments on my post and also i will be waiting any suggestions

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Regards
Ahmed Saber
Microsoft Senior Engineer and Team Leader
KDCC
Kuwait

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Backup is back with exchange 2007 SP2

Backup is one of the important things and administrator needs to do his job , in case of any disaster or failure happen to any server the administrator has to bring up this server up and running in now time and to do that he needs a valid backup for every server he has inside his network .

When exchange 2007 was introduced , it was installed on windows 2003 server as windows 2008 server was not in the picture yet .It was very easy to take a backup for exchange 2007 when it was installed on windows 2003 server , you could use and third party backup software to back it up and if you have budget limitation you could simply use ntbackup inside the windows itself .

The problem started when windows 2008 server came into picture , customers started to install exchange 2007 on windows 2008 then they discovered that windows 2008 server does not come with ntbackup anymore ,so they faced a big problem and they had to buy a third party software to backup the exchange 2007 server and this is unexpected additional cost for them .

Now exchange 2007 SP2 will solve this problem as it will bring back the backup feature again to exchange 2007 server installed on windows 2008.so without any third party backup software you will be able to backup your exchange server and feel safe again.

Let us start exploring the backup plug-in that is shipped with exchange 2007 SP2.

• When you install exchange 2007 SP2 you are in the same time installing a backup plug-in to windows 2008 that will enable the windows backup to make exchange aware VSSbackups.
• there is no specific “exchange only” granularity backup when you backup your exchange server , it is a volume based backup , that means if your mailbox database and logs are stored on drive D:\ ,when backing up drive D:\ windows will also give you exchange aware backup of your storage groups located in this drive and will backup your database and purge the logs
• Only VSS backups are supported. There is no support for streaming backups
• You can backup either to a local hard drive or a network share , only full backup is available

• There is no remote server backup functionality
• The plug-in supports only full backups of the active copy (if you are using continuous replication).
• When restoring, you do not have to restore the whole backed up volume, but can choose to restore only Exchange application data
• Recovery can be done to original location or to another location , that means if you are restoring a backup , the restore will be done to the original location , in other words there no explicit support to recovery storage groups , if you want to use RSG then you have to restore your database to alternate location then you will do some copying to some files to the RSG .

More details about SP2 will be available at the time of release in Q3 of 2009

following is some wizards snapshots taken from www.msexchangeteam.com .

Many thanks to Microsoft exchangeteam blog for giving us this great news .

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Thank you

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MS Exchange 2007 service pack 2 (sp2) is on the way soon!!!

Just after Microsoft has launched MS Exchange 2010 Beta edition , Microsoft now is preparing to release MS Exchange 2007 SP2 to the customer and they are going to do in the third quarter of 2009 , that means very soon.

Exchange 2007 server is consider the industry’s leading product in the email ,calendaring and unified messaging market .

Exchange 2007 SP2 is going to help the customer to set the foundation for the transition process to exchange 2010 server which is expected to be available as final release in the second half of 2009 .

Customer Benefits:
Key new features of Exchange Server 2007 SP2 unveiled today include:

• Enhanced Auditing - New Exchange auditing events and audit log repository enable Exchange administrators to more easily audit the activities occurring on their Exchange servers. It allows the right balance of granularity, performance, and easy access to audited events via a dedicated audit log repository. This simplifies the auditing process and makes review of audited events easier by segregating audited events in a dedicated location.
• Exchange Volume Snapshot Backup Functionality - A new backup plug-in has been added to the product that will enable customers to create Exchange backups when a backup is invoked through the Windows Server 2008 Backup tool. Exchange Server 2007 didn't have this capability on Windows Server 2008 and additional solutions were required to perform this task.
• Dynamic Active Directory Schema Update and Validation - The dynamic AD schema update and validation feature allows for future schema updates to be dynamic deployed as well as proactively preventing conflicts whenever a new property is added to the AD schema. Once this capability is deployed it will enable easier management of future schema updates and will prevent support issues when adding properties that don't exist in the AD schema.
• Public Folder Quota Management - SP2 enables a consistent way to manage quotas by improving the current PowerShell cmdlets to perform quota management tasks.
• Centralized Organizational Settings - SP2 introduces new PowerShell option that enable centralized management of many of the Exchange organization settings.
• Named Properties cmdlets - SP2 enables Exchange administrators to monitor their named property usage per database.
• New User Interface for Managing Diagnostic Logging- SP2 enables Exchange administrators to easily configure and manage diagnostic logging from within the Exchange Management Console.

Pricing and Availability:

Exchange 2007 SP2 will be available to customer for no additional charges .you will find the all information about SP2 on http://www.microsoft.com/exchange at the time of release.

Notes on Exchange 2007 SP2:

1. Exchange Server 2007 SP2 is required to interoperate with Exchange Server 2010 and to enable the transition of services to the latest version of the product.
2. Microsoft will continue providing support and Update Rollups to customers running SP1 for 12 months after SP2 ships. See our Service Pack Support Policy for more details.
3. Customers will be able to apply the pre-requisites for Exchange Server 2010 independently of SP2. However, SP2 will be the minimal requirement for interoperability scenarios of the two products.

Look for Exchange 2007 SP2 to be available sometime in Q3.

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Thank you

wait for more on exchange 2007 SP2

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Solving 0x8004010F Offline address book (OAB)problem in MS Exchange 2007 SCC Cluster

Okay , Today I am having a new story for you about ms exchange 2007 server .

Here is the story details :

I have four exchange 2007 servers enterprise edition with Sp1 installed on windows 2008 enterprise edition also with sp1 , the configuration of the four servers are as follow :

1. Two exchange 2007 servers acting as SCC failover cluster with mailbox role installed on them .
2. Two exchange 2007 servers acting as HUB+CAS servers in Network Load Balanced Configuration .

OK!!! so what is the problem in that???

the problem is that when i finished the installation and made all kind of needed configuration ,I found that all my outlook clients users are getting the famous 0x8004010F error when they try to hit the button SEND\RECIEVE either with outlook 2003 or outlook 2007 users:

I tried every solution on the internet in ms exchange support sites but no luck , But finally i solved it perfectly and here is my troubleshooting steps and I am sure it will work for you also :

1. check that autodiscover service is configured correctly and working fine, follow the steps in the below link to configure it :

http://www.ms-phantom.com/2009/07/autodiscover-configuration-on-exchange.html

2. Also you must be using a correct SAN certificate , follow the below link to create a correct SAN certificate :

http://www.ms-phantom.com/2009/07/creating-san-certificate-for-exchange.html

3. update your four exchange 2007 server with the latest Rollup update , latest one is Rollup 9

which can be downloaded from the following link :

http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/details.aspx?FamilyID=55320be2-c65c-48bb-bab8-6335aa7d008c&displaylang=en

4. next check if the offline address book is really generated , to do this go your exchange 2007 Database drive where you are storing your mailbox database on the active node of the mailbox cluster and search for the below folder :

(ExchangeOAB) which has to be shared and given suitable permissions :

Authenticated users group must have Read permission on this folder

if you open this folder I am sure you will find it empty , and if it is empty then this your problem because the offline address book is not generated so the users are trying to download something that does not exist and this why they are getting this error message .

I have done a lot of researches on the internet until I found a Two Microsoft KB article stating that this is a bug in windows 2008 server failover cluster and they release a hotfix for this problem , the hotfix file you have to download and install it on both nodes of windows 2008 failover cluster , you will find the KB articles and the hotfix file in the following two links , the hot fix download link is in the first link , you will have to submit your email address and Microsoft will send you the download link through the email :

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;955733

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957978

after installing this hotfix on both nodes and restarting the servers , do the following :

5. open exchange management console

6. go to organization configuration , then to client access , then to offline address book

7. right click your offline address book then click update.

8. wait for a few minutes , then go to the exchangeOAB folder we were talking about and you should find a folder inside it with a name like GUID number as below in the figure :

and in this folder you will find the address book generated similar to below figure

now your half way done .

the last thing is to make sure that this folder is replicated to CAS servers ,

if the folder is replicated to the exchange installation directory on the CAS servers then you have totally solved your problem and you will never see that error again

Note:

you have to be sure that your offline address book is web based and public folder enabled so outlook 2003 and outlook 2007 can work perfectly.

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I hope I was able to cover everything on that problem in this post .

if you have any further question about this topic feel free to leave me a comment and I will reply to you ASAP

Thank you

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