Author: Steve Man

Importing pst to mailbox

Scenario: Import pst into a mailbox
Note: Must have mailbox export/import permissions to be able to do this. targetrootfolder is good if you are importing multiple psts into the mailbox. This way content is not merged under existing folders.
From Powershell, type:
New-MailboxImportRequest -Mailbox newmbox -filepath serverpstfilesnewmbox.pst-BadItemLimit 50 -T
argetRootFolder “Mailbox -newmbox”

​Troubleshooting Outlook login Prompt Issues

​Below are some of the steps you can use to troubleshoot Outlook login Prompt Issues
Step 1: Download and Install Netmon on the PC having the issue
 
 
 
2)        Install Network Monitor on the appropriate server/client.
3)        Start the Network Monitor tool, there will be a shortcut on your Start menu under Programs. Right click and “Run as administrator” in elevated mode.
4)        From the “Tools” -> “Options” ensure that the Temporary capture file size is set to at least 200mb on servers.
5)        Start Netmon on the appropriate servers/client, and reproduce the issue.
a.        Click “Create New capture” on the left pane.
b.        Click the Play button “>” to begin the capture.
6)        Stop Netmon after the issue is reproduced by hitting the stop button.
7)        Upload the cap files.
 
Step 2:  Enable Outlook Logging
 
 
Enable Outlook Logging Client Side:
For Outlook 2007:
On the Tools menu, click Options.
On the Other tab, click Advanced Options.
Click to select the Enable mail logging (troubleshooting) check box in Outlook 2003 and the Enable logging (troubleshooting) check box in Outlook 2007, and then click OK two times.
 
For Outlook 2010:
On the File tab, click Options.
In the Outlook Options dialog box, click Advanced.
In the Other section, select the Enable troubleshooting logging(requires restarting Outlook) check box, and then click OK.
Exit and then restart Outlook.s
 
 
 
Step 3: Disable Encryption on outlook
 
a.Click Start, click Run, type control, and then click OK.
b.Double-click Mail, and then click Show Profiles.
c.Select your profile, and then click Properties.
d.Click E-mail Accounts, select View or Change Existing E-mail Accounts, and then click Next.
e.Select the Exchange account, and then click Change.
f.Click More Settings, and then click the Security tab.
g. Disable  the  checkbox “Encrypt data between Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server check box.”
h.Click OK, click Next, click Finish, and then click Close.
 
 
Outlook in Online Mode
 Turn Cached Exchange Mode off
1.       On the Tools menu, clickAccount Settings.
2.       On the E-mail tab, click the Exchange account, and then click Change.
3.       Under Microsoft Exchange server, clear the Use Cached Exchange Mode check box.
4.       Exit and restart Office Outlook 2007.
 
 
 
Step 5: Add host file entry on outlook client machine to single CAS server
 
 
 
 
Note: Before you run netmon, please contact an engineer on the support team so netmon on can be started on the cas server. The netmon trace needs to happen simultaneously
 
 
 
Step 6: Gather the ETL Log files & the capture files from Netmon
 
Note: Outlook generates a new ETL file each time you start Outlook with logging enabled. Therefore, it is important to control the repro scenario so you know which log file(s) to collect from the computer. Please don’t copy all the ETL files in the Temp folder.
 The log files are generated in the following format:
 OLKRPCLOG_<month>_<day>_<year>_<hour – 24 hr clock>_<minutes>_<seconds>_<index>.etl
 For example: OLKRPCLOG_09_06_2008_17_35_47_1.etl
 
 
Gather and upload the logs/trace files to Microsoft for analysis

Allow this website to configure server settings

​Issue: Customer gets a prompt while in Outlook saying
“Allow this website to configure user@user.edu server settings ?
https://autodiscover.domain.edu/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml. Your account was redirected to this website for settings. You should only allow settings sources you know and trust
Resolution: Click on Don’t ask me about this website again box. Click on Allow
In some cases, recreating the profile can fix the issue

Display date on Outlook items in Drafts Folder

​If you need to see the date items were added to the drafts folder, you will need to use a custom view and add modified date field to the view and sort by it
The default view uses sent date field, whcih is blank and displayed as none, because the message hasn’t been sent yet.
So follow these steps to add modified date to othe view
  1. Right click on the row of field names at the top of the message list, were it reads “Arrange By: Date”
  2. Choose View Settings (Outlook 2010) or Custom (Outlook 2007 and older)
  3. Click the Columns (or Fields) button to open the Show Columns dialog
  4. Select date/Time fields from the “Select available columns from” menu
  5. Click on modified and Add to add it to the view then close the dialog
  6. Click on modified column to sort by modified date

RDP screen goes black or white after successful remote login on windows server 2012

Issue: RDP screen goes black or white after successful remote login on windows server 2012
 
Resolution:
 
Press Ctrl-Alt-End, then click on signout
Log back in. Issue should be fixed. problem might be caused by screen resolution of the rdp connection

Working with Recoverable Items Folder

​The Recoverable Items folder (known in earlier versions of Exchange as the dumpster) exists to protect from accidental or malicious deletions and to facilitate discovery efforts commonly undertaken before or during litigation or investigations
To retrieve the following quota settings:
* RecoverableItemsQuota
◦ RecoverableItemsWarningQuota
◦ ProhibitSendQuota
◦ ProhibitSendReceiveQuota
◦ UseDatabaseQuotaDefaults
◦ RetainDeletedItemsFor
◦ UseDatabaseRetentionDefaults
use this one liner:
 
Get-Mailbox “testmbox” | Format-List RecoverableItemsQuota, RecoverableItemsWarningQuota, ProhibitSendQuota, ProhibitSendReceiveQuota, UseDatabaseQuotaDefaults, RetainDeletedItemsFor, UseDatabaseRetentionDefaults
 
2.To retrieve the current size of the Recoverable items folder:
Get-MailboxFolderStatistics “testmbox” -FolderScope RecoverableItems | Format-List Name,FolderAndSubfolderSize
 
please note that quota for recoverable items folder can be raised.The default is 30GB
 
To make sure no items are deleted from the Recoverable Items folder, increase the Recoverable Items quota. You can also increase the Recoverable Items warning quota, and set the deleted item retention period to a value higher than the current size of the user’s Recoverable Items folder. This is particularly important for preserving messages for mailboxes placed on In-Place Hold or litigation hold. It’s recommended to raise these settings to twice their current size.
 
3. Increase recoverable items quota
 
Set-Mailbox “testmbox” -RecoverableItemsQuota 80Gb -RecoverableItemsWarningQuota 80Gb -RetainDeletedItemsFor 3650 -ProhibitSendQuota 80Gb -ProhibitSendRecieveQuota 80Gb -UseDatabaseQuotaDefaults $false -UseDatabaseRetentionDefaults $false
 
 
4. This example retrieves the size of the Recoverable Items folder and its subfolders and an item count in the folder and each subfolder.
Get-MailboxFolderStatistics -Identity “Mickey Mouse” -FolderScope RecoverableItems | Format-Table Name,FolderAndSubfolderSize,ItemsInFolderAndSubfolders -Auto

Search IIS logs for ActiveSync data for specific user accounts.

Scenario: You want to find ActiveSync activity for specific users that is stored in IIS logs on the Exchange Servers.

 
Using LogParser you can edit and run the following command:
 
logparser “Select * from ‘servernamec$inetpublogslogfilesw3svc1*.log’ Where cs-uri-stem LIKE ‘%Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync%’ AND (cs-uri-query LIKE ‘%username1%’ OR cs-uri-query LIKE ‘%username2%’)” -i:IISW3C -q:on >FilePathfilename.txt

HTTP 413 Errors in IIS logs with ActiveSync and Certificate Based Authentication

Scenario: After setting up Certificate Based Authentication for ActiveSync, users on mobile devices may experience the following error message: “Cannot Send Mail.The message was rejected by the server because it is too large”. When you check the IIS logs, you may see HTTP 413 errors. Our Environment: Exchange 2013, Windows Server 2012, IIS 8.0.
Reason: The client connection was dropped to prevent DeadLock. The server requests renegotiation for certificate authentication, and the content length the client is trying to send is larger than the value of the UploadReadAheadSizemetabase property in IIS.
WorkAround: The workaround below will re-bind the certificate to enable client certificate negotiation upfront.
Re-bind the certificate and enable ClientCertNegotiation:
1. netsh http show sslcert <– Copy the results to notepad.
2. netsh http delete sslcert hostnameport=<hostnameport>:443
3. netsh http add sslcert hostnameport=<hostname>:443 certhash=<certhash> appid=<appid> certstorename=MY clientcertnegotiation=enable <– Use copied results from step 1 to fill in these values)
Note: We have a separate IIS Site with EAS setup for Certificate Based Authentication. We use a separate certificate on this site so we can enable clientcertnegotiation on the certificate. Another work around would be to change the UploadReadAheadSize on the Web Server, the website that hosts the EAS subsite, and the EAS subsite.