Exchange 2010 SP1 curiosity(ies)

“(ies)” because there are mulitples.

I went to remove the default mailbox database from a new e2010 sp1 install today. In the midst of the fun, I noticed that I still could not remove the database from the EMC.  I had previously moved the arbitration mailboxes and the discover assistant mailbox. 

But still, I got this error:

But, turning to the EMS proved very fruitful.

Wazzup wid dat?  How can the GUI not allow the removal, but powershell yank it right out.  The GUI is just a shell of the CLI.  So what gives?

Also, note that GUI talks about set-mailboxplan and get-mailboxplan.  Neither of those commands exist on the copy of Exchange 2010 SP1 that is running on this server.  Nice, eh?

Exchange 2010 public folder custom forms

Kudos to Dustin Rush, NAC Architecture

We are in the midst of an e2003-e2010 migration, and the customer has a custom contact form in the organization forms library.  Regular public folder replication created the requisite public folder structure on the e2010.  The custom form sort of worked in that new items in the contact list used the custom form, that data was intact, but viewing existing contact cards in the public folder reverted to the OOBE view.

Various efforts at enforcing the custom form from Outlook proved fruitless. 

Dashing Dustin found this tool (DocMessageClass) that allowed us to modify the object attribute for each of the contacts in the public folder.  The process took very little time – maybe 3-4 minutes for 10k+ objects.

quotes

Michael Jordan:

"I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."

Lou Holtz:

"Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it."

Spam spam spam spam

The Nigerian spam scam is making its’ rounds again.  I’ve been seeing this in filters for the last month or so.  Here is the first paragraph of what I received today:

Compliments of the day Sir,

How are you doing? Please this email is in regards to a consignment abandon which has been confiscated in your likely details etc, as the real approved receiving beneficiary from African delivering Company. we are running a scan text on this item to know why dropped before we discovered that it is a high valued and personal allocation, cash money is the content for delivering in your personal and company's favour hence this email. I have a scan copy result of Dubai airport detecting machine and can prove it.

Just for an eyeball test, how many grammar errors can you find in this short cut?  But, the scary part is not the bad grammar.  The scary part is that this spam is showing up because somebody is saying “wow, my lucky day!” and actually responding to this and following through, and losing their money.  This spam exists because if the numbers are big enough, even the 1/2 of one percent (or whatever the return is) is worth it to the originator.

Can people really be THAT stoopid?

Default Exchange 2010 RBAC groups

I had to look this up the other day – and I did not think it was all that easy to figure, so I made up this little table so I could get my head around the DEFAULT RBAC groups.  Keep in mind that the base recommendation is to create your own groups to match your specific requirements.  This table illustrates the what comes OOBE and represents some great starting points for understanding what is going on under the hood with RBAC.

Built-in RBAC Group	Functionality	Default assigned roles	Default Members
Delegated Setup	Members of this management role group have permissions to install and uninstall Exchange on provisioned servers. This role group shouldn't be deleted.	View-Only Configuration	None
Discovery Management	Members of this management role group can perform searches of mailboxes in the Exchange organization for data that meets specific criteria.	Legal Hold Mailbox Search	None
Help Desk	Members of this management role group can view and manage the configuration for individual recipients and view recipients in an Exchange organization. Members of this role group can only manage the configuration each user can manage on his or her own mailbox. Additional permissions can be added by assigning additional management roles to this role group.	User Options View-Only Recipients	None
Hygiene Management	Members of this management role group can manage Exchange anti-spam features and grant permissions for antivirus products to integrate with Exchange.	Application Impersonation Receive Connectors Transport Agents Transport Hygiene View-Only Configuration View-Only Recipients	FQDN of server
Public Folder Management	Members of this management role group can manage public folders. Members can create and delete public folders and manage public folder settings such as replicas, quotas, age limits, and permissions as well as mail-enable and mail-disable public folders.	Mail Enabled Public Folders Public Folders	Exchange Public Folder Administrators
Recipient Management	Members of this management role group have rights to create, manage, and remove Exchange recipient objects in the Exchange organization.	Distribution Groups Mail Enabled Public Folders Mail Recipient Creation Mail Recipients Message Tracking Migration Move Mailboxes Recipient Policies	Exchange Recipient Administrators
Records Management	Members of this management role group can configure compliance features such as retention policy tags, message classifications, transport rules, and more.	Audit Logs Journaling Message Tracking Retention Management Transport Rules	None
Server Management	Members of this management role group have permissions to manage all Exchange servers within the Exchange organization, but members don't have permissions to perform operations that have global impact in the Exchange organization.	Database Copies Databases Exchange Connectors Exchange Server Certificates Exchange Servers Exchange Virtual Directories Monitoring POP3 And IMAP4 Protocols Receive Connectors Transport Queues	None
UM Management	Members of this management role group can manage Unified Messaging organization, server, and recipient configuration.	UM Mailboxes UM Prompts Unified Messaging	None
View-Only Organization Management	Members of this management role group can view recipient and configuration objects and their properties in the Exchange organization.	Monitoring View-Only Configuration View-Only Recipients	Exchange View-Only Administrators
Organization Management	Members of this management role group have permissions to manage Exchange objects and their properties in the Exchange organization. Members can also delegate role groups and management roles in the organization. This role group shouldn't be deleted.	Active Directory Permissions, Address List, Audit Logs, Cmdlet Extension Agents, Database Availability Groups, Database Copies, Databases, Disaster Recovery, Distribution Groups, Edge Subscriptions, E-Mail Address Policies, Exchange Connectors, Exchange Server Certificates, Exchange Servers, Exchange Virtual Directories, Federated Sharing, Information Rights Management, Journaling, Legal Hold, Mail Enabled Public Folders, Mail Recipient Creation, Mail Recipients, Mail Tips, Message Tracking, Migration, Monitoring, Move Mailboxes, Organization Client Access, Organization Configuration, Organization Transport Settings, POP3 And IMAP4 Protocols, Public Folder Replication, Public Folders, Receive Connectors, Recipient Policies, Remote and Accepted Domains, Retention Management, Role Management, Security Group Creation and Membership, Send Connectors, Transport Agents, Transport Hygiene, Transport Queues, Transport Rules, UM Mailboxes, UM Prompts, Unified Messaging, User Options, View-Only Configuration, View-Only Recipients	Exchange Organization Administrators

LM and OC password lockout

A bit of trivia I discovered today.  The OC client and the LM client are sort of linked at the hip. I backed into this via Outlook and the LM addin…because I got locked out of my office account while testing the client’s install.  Something got bollixed up with the passwords…and here is what happened.

While doing some testing I had to change the login account on my OC.  I noticed that when I did that, the LM client picked up the change.  Nice!

But alas!  the password in the LM client account setup remains as the previous login…

Naturally, this resulted in the account being locked out for password failure.  So, while the LM did pick up the user name change, it bombed on the password.

Also, note that this is different depending on which way you work it…certainly not a two way street.  In the first scenario, I changed the username from OC, and LM picked up the change but not the password.  Going the other way is even worse; changing the username in LM only sent the sign-in name to OC client… the underlying verification stayed the same in both clients – and both were wrong.  In addition, the LM had the password from the other account!

Let’s hope this get’s fixed in CS 2010 where the LM and OC are one client.

disable “Schedule a Conference Call” button in Outlook LM plugin

 

I got asked today on how to do this.  Being as clueless as I am, I started with a little research.  Doggoned if I didn’t hit paydirt after only a few reads.  This is good stuff, so I want to make sure that I don’t lose it.

See this article here for the original material – figures there would be a KB for this.  I am reposting here for my own edification.

There is a registry entry that can be used to disable this button:

1. Locate and then click to select the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Live Meeting\Addins

Note Use this subkey for x86-based systems. If you are running a x64-based system, locate and click the following subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Live Meeting\Addins

2. After you select the subkey that is specified in step 3, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD Value.

3. Type RemoveConferenceCall, and then press ENTER.

4. Right-click RemoveConferenceCall, and then click Modify.

5. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

6. On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

Change the Value to 0 and the button will be available again.

A full list of livemeeting registry keys can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd637135(office.13).aspx