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Are you prepared for the Windows 2008 certification wave?

Joel Stidley — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:56:00 GMT

With the new wave of products (Exchange 2007, Windows 2008, SQL 2008, OCS 2007, etc) many people are looking to refresh their certifications. The new technical certifications fall into four categories:

Technology Series (entry level): Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS)
Professional Series: Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) and Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD)
Master Series: Microsoft Certified Master (MCM)
Architect Series: Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA)

Of note, each of these certifications has subcategories that identify a specific area of specialization, you achieve a certification in that area of specialization. There are 12 different MCITP titles to achieve. One example, is that of MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator, which you can achieve by passing exams: 70-236, 70-237 and 70-238. There are also almost 30 MCTS certifications that you can achieve.

Instead of wasting all of that time playing Rockband, you can hit the books and rack up some real-life achievement points! Ok, well maybe you should still play Rockband.

If you are preparing to take exam 70-643 in order to achieve MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure Configuration, be sure to check out my new book aptly named: MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure Configuration Study Guide (Exam 70-643).

The book includes:

Full coverage of all exam objectives in a systematic approach, so you can be confident you're getting the instruction you need for the exam
Practical hands-on exercises to reinforce critical skills
Real-world scenarios that put what you've learned in the context of actual job roles
Challenging review questions in each chapter to prepare you for exam day
Exam Essentials, a key feature in each chapter that identifies critical areas you must become proficient in before taking the exam
A handy tear card that maps every official exam objective to the corresponding chapter in the book, so you can track your exam prep objective by objective

If you buy it, let me know what you thought of it!

iSCSI initiator 2.07 available

Joel Stidley — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:24:09 GMT

This week Microsoft posted an updated to the iSCSI initiator for pretty much every version of Windows prior to Vista (the full list: Windows 2000 Service Pack 4; Windows Server 2003 R2 (32-Bit x86); Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition (32-Bit x86); Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition (32-Bit x86); Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition (32-bit x86); Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard x64 Edition ; Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 editions; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 for Itanium-based Systems; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 for Itanium-based Systems; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition for 64-Bit Itanium-Based Systems; Windows Server 2003, Datacenter x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition for Itanium-based Systems; Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Web Edition; Windows Small Business Server 2003 ; Windows XP 64-bit; Windows XP Professional 64-Bit Edition (Itanium) ; Windows XP Professional 64-Bit Edition (Itanium) 2003; Windows XP Professional Edition ; Windows XP Service Pack 2).

The listed fixes included in 2.07:

Fix data written twice when spanning tapes on an iSCSI target virtual tape drive.
Fix Bugcheck in iscsiprt on getting storage device ID property.
Fix iscsiexe can leak memory on discovering targets.
Fix initiator leaks handles when refreshing the list of persistent targets
Fix MSISCDSM leaves stale Registrations under certain conditions
Fix persistent Reservation not propagated across paths

MPIO 1.21 fixes (included in 2.07)

Fix system hang that could occur due to race condition between path recovery and new path arrival.
Fix install sample to use the correct MPIO hardware identifier on Windows Server 2008
Fix memory leak in MPIO
Fix system hang that could occur during total path failure in a Cluster environment.
Fix MSDSM to update statistics for the correct path
Fix MSDSM logic for retrying Persistent Reservation commands

You can download the new version here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=12cb3c1a-15d6-4585-b385-befd1319f825&displaylang=en&tm

Exchange 2007 SP1 rollup 3 OWA issues?

Joseph Nguyen — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:01:00 GMT

I've seen some posts around that others are having issues with OWA after applying rollup 3 for SP1. We got it this past weekend. Essentially after applying and trying to access OWA, a blank page is all you get.

After digging around, uninstalling and reinstalling, none of which worked for us, one of the guys where I work (our man "Stuff") found that there seemed to be a change of code in logon.aspx from rollup 3. We changed

var a_sLgn = "<% RenderLogonHref(); %>";

var a_sLgnQS = "<% RenderLogonQueryString(); %>";

In our case we've heavily customized our logon page so when we copied the customized logon.aspx from previous builds it didn't quite work. One of these days we'll have to redo our custom theme from RTM code to SP1 code. Most everything still works but rules, and deleted item recovery screens are pretty broke.

Lots of certified Exchange professionals

Joseph Nguyen — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:45:00 GMT

I caught this from Trika's certification blog. Did you know there are 7,399 certified ~~dudes~~ Technical Specialists on Exchange 2007? How about 2,236 certified Enterprise Messaging Administrators? Have you gotten your certifications yet?

Trika's post is here, http://blogs.msdn.com/trika/archive/2008/07/24/new-numbers.aspx.

ExchangeExchange The Podcast: Episode #2 has been posted

Joel Stidley — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:12:00 GMT

It took us longer than expect due to some conflicting schedules however Jeffrey Rosen and I were able to record episode number two.

Subscribe to the Podcast feed here, or

The show notes are here.

Please send us feedback on the Podcast at podcast@exchangeexchange.com.

Using CCR to provide redundancy for Exchange Server 2007

Joel Stidley — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:14:18 GMT

About nine months ago I promised to blog about the different high availability options available in Exchange Server 2007. I followed up with a post on LCR but then abandoned the project. So, today lets start that series back up. This time around lets cover in detail what CCR is, how to use it and when you should and shouldn’t use it.

What is Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR)?

CCR is similar to LCR in the fact it keeps two copies of the databases on disk, however CCR is different in that it relies on Microsoft Clustering and a pair of servers. CCR has no single point of failure if configured properly, as there are two servers with two sets of everything. To take full advantage of having two copies of the data, on two separate servers, two separate storage systems should be used. Thankfully, Exchange 2007 has a lower disk I/O requirement than previous versions of Exchange, so that inexpensive local storage can often be used to ensure complete separation between nodes. CCR can only have two cluster nodes, an active and a passive node. Just like with LCR, you can only have one database in each storage group.

Configuration considerations

Since you do not need shared disk for a CCR cluster, you will most likely choose to use a file share witness rather than using a quorum disk. It is recommended to use a local Hub Transport server as the file share witness as being a file share witness will not put a substantial load on the server.

When would you use CCR? It is an excellent solution for environments that need local data redundancy and have the experience in working with Microsoft-base clusters.

Pros

No Single point of failure
Two copies of data exist at all times

Cons

Requires Microsoft Clustering Service
Requires double the disk space to store two copies of logs and data

Exchange Server 2007 Rollups and Security Update Released

Joel Stidley — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:54:00 GMT

Other than Fruit Rollups, Exchange rollups are my second favorite type of rollup.

This is no exception as Exchange Server 2007 RTM Rollup 7 and Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Rollup 3 have been released. These updates contain a long list of updates and security fixes. The security bulletin 08-039, posted yesterday not only effects Exchange Server 2007, it also effects Exchange Server 2003. The rollups are recommended updates for everyone, however if you have and QFE fixes installed you will want to verify if this rollup supercedes that QFE, or if you will require a new or need to reapply your QFE after installing the rollup.

You can find the full description of Update Rollup 7 for Exchange Server 2007 RTM here. Download the update here.
You can find the full description of Update Rollup 3 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 here. Download the update here.

You can also download just the security update for Exchange Server 2003 SP2 here.

2008 MVP Awarded!

Joel Stidley — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:09:00 GMT

I received notification this morning that I have been awarded Exchange MVP status!

Dear Joel Stidley,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2008 Microsoft® MVP Award! The MVP Award is our way to say thank you for promoting the spirit of community and improving people’s lives and the industry’s success every day. We appreciate your extraordinary efforts in Exchange Server technical communities during the past year. Microsoft will soon send your MVP Award gift package. It is our way to say “thank you for making a difference."

You can check out my MVP profile here.

July Contest

Joel Stidley — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:34:18 GMT

It has been a couple of months so it is time for a contest. In honor of our new (almost-monthly) podcast we are giving away a 1GB ~~Zune~~ Ipod Shuffle along with a copy of Professional PowerShell for Exchange Server 2007 SP1. I do apologize for featuring an Apple product. I have two Zunes and I love them, perhaps my dear friends at Microsoft can help me out for the next contest.

To enter the contest, send us an email at podcast@exchangeexchange.com along with a question, comment or topic we can feature on the next podcast. The winner will be chosen at the end of July and notified by email. All decisions are made at the discretion of the fine people at ExchangeExchange.com

Hyper-V has RTM’d

Joseph Nguyen — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:58:00 GMT

This is probably the 289th blog that will note that Hyper-V has made release to manufacturing (RTM) and is available for download. It will be available to Windows Update in about 12 days. Check out the news at the Virtualization team blog here: Virtualization Team Blog. Anyone testing Exchange 2007 with Hyper-V?

One question I have which I haven’t been able to find is when System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) will be released.

Updated Exchange 2007 SCOM Management Pack

Joseph Nguyen — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:14:00 GMT

Looks like the Exchange 2007 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 has been updated. Released 6/22/2008 version 6.0.6278.12. I was hoping to get a few more canned reports but it doesn’t look like they added much. Get it here: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007

Also, at Teched Professionals a few weeks ago, I attended an interactive theater session which used to be called cabana sessions. I liked that name better. Leave it to Microsoft’s marketing people to screw things up. Anyways the session was from Ake Pettersson over monitoring Exchange 2007 with SCOM. He had a bullet list covering a few hotfixes that should be applied in your SCOM environment. I haven’t read over all of the details of the hotfixes but thought that they might be of interest for some folks. They are KB’s 951979, 950853, 951380. We applied them this week and nothing’s blown up so far.

Another RIM Service Outage

Joel Stidley — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:50:42 GMT

Wow, another service outage for RIM users early on June 18th. This time it only effected users in the southeastern United States.

With the large selection of decent Windows Mobile devices that don’t require reliance on a third-party its an excellent time for even the most zealous BlackBerry fans to start considering a change. Of course my favorite demonstration of this is the Palm’s Be Direct ad campaign.

Professional PowerShell for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 now available on Kindle!

Joel Stidley — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:42:48 GMT

I was at the airport last week and noticed another passenger waiting and reading a book on his Amazon Kindle. The device is a lot neater looking in person that it is on the Website. If you have a Kindle and want to read the book you can get it here.

Microsoft 2.0

Joel Stidley — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:03:00 GMT

I don't often do book reviews; however I figured I would share my latest reading experience. I picked up a copy of Mary Jo Foley’s book Microsoft 2.0 at TechEd. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the balanced view of how Microsoft plans to stay the powerhouse that it is today. She explains some of the current business thrusts of the company as well as a lot of the plans the company has for the future. This is all done with a very pragmatic and unbiased view.

I was also impressed on how current the book is. Even though it takes a couple months for a book to complete the copy edits and layout the book reads as if you were reading today’s technology headlines. If you are interested in Microsoft and one view on how BillG’s retirement will effect the company, I would recommend picking up a copy of Microsoft 2.0.

To ensure that it stays current, Mary Jo will keep the book up-to-date by posting information at www.microsoft2.net.

HMC 4.5 Available

Joel Stidley — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:37:42 GMT

HMC 4.5 (Hosted Messaging and Collaboration) is now available for download here. The big deal with this release is support for OCS 2007 with IM and conferencing. What a great value add for hosters to offer!

More information from the download:

Overview

HMC 4.5 brings together powerful Microsoft enterprise products such as Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, and
now gives you Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, which manages all real-time communications such as instant messaging (IM)
and audio and video conferencing.

Other new features and enhancements:
• Exchange Server 2007 SP1: Web-based OABs and resource mailboxes
• Windows SharePoint Services: multi-tenant People Picker functionality
• Provisioning capabilities have been expanded: Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) cross data store integration procedures and Individual Information Worker (IIW) tenant model