Category: Powershell

Running Exmerge from Windows XP SP2

According to Microsoft’s website, Exmerge tool is used to extract data from mailboxes on a Microsoft Exchange Server and then merge this data into mailboxes on another Microsoft Exchange Server. The program copies data from the source server into Personal Folders (.PST files) and then merges the data, in the Personal Folders, into mailboxes on the destination server.
steps to install exmerge on windows xp with sp2
1. Install the Exchange 2003 System Management Tools from exchange 2003 cd
2. download exmerge from:
3. Install Exmerge
4. Configure permissions on the database by using this powershell command:
Get-MailboxDatabase -identity “servernameFirst Storage GroupMailbox Database” | Add-ADPermission -user “DomainUsername” -ExtendedRights Receive-As, Send-As
Note that this command assumes you have setup exmerge account on the domain and will be using it for exmerge operations.

Configuring Message Tracking Log files on the Hub Transport

Set-TransportServer “servername” –MessageTrackingLogMaxDirectorySize 2GB

Use the following powershell commands to set message tracking age, max log file size and max directory size

1. setting the max log file size to 5MB
 Set-TransportServer HT2k7 –MessageTrackingLogMaxFileSize 5MB

2. setting the age for the logs
Set-TransportServer SERVERNAME –MessageTrackingLogMaxAge DD.HH:MM:SS

for eg

Set-TransportServer E2K7 –MessageTrackingLogMaxAge 15.00:00:00 (will set the logs to expire after 15days)
3. setting the max directory size to 2gb for eg

Set-TransportServer e2k7ht – MessageTrackingLogMaxDirectorySize 2GB

event id parameters of message tracking logs defined

 In exchange 2007, the admin needs to understand the important parameters of Message Tracking logs. Whereas Exchange Server 2003/2000’s Message Tracking log was an easy-to-use application that shielded the user from this complexity, it also provided much less flexibility.
 
Message Tracking logs have a lot of details about a message as it originates from an internal user or external sender, and makes its way through the different stages of message routing and transfer, and finally gets delivered (or not). You can now track messages based on these events.
 
see below the event ids and descriptions. Proper understanding of these events will help for better troubleshooting and tracking of messages.
 
 
EventID Description

DEFER Message delivery delayed
DELIVER Message delivered to a mailbox
DSN A delivery status notification was generated.
Messages quarantined by the Content Filter are also delivered as DSNs. the recipients field has the SMTP address of the quarantine mailbox.
EXPAND Distribution Group expanded. The RelatedRecipientAddress field has the SMTP address of the Distribution Group.
FAIL Delivery failed. The RecipientStatus field has more information about the failure, including the SMTP response code. You should also look at the Source and Recipients fields when inspecting messages with this event.
POISONMESSAGE Message added to or removed from the poison queue
RECEIVE Message received. The Source field is STOREDRIVER for messages submitted by Store Driver (from a Mailbox server), or SMTP for messages
a) received from another Hub/Edge
b) received from an external (non-Exchange) host using SMTP
c) submitted by SMTP clients such as POP/IMAP users.
REDIRECT Message redirected to alternate recipient
RESOLVE Generally seen when a message is received on a proxy address and resolved to the default email address. The RelatedRecipientAddress field has the proxy address the message was sent to. The recipients field has the default address it was resolved (and delivered) to.
SEND Message sent by SMTP. The ServerIP and ServerHostName parameters have the IP address and hostname of the SMTP server.
SUBMIT The Microsoft Exchange Mail Submission service on a Mailbox server successfully notified a Hub Transport server that a message is awaiting submission (to the Hub). These are the events you’ll see on a Mailbox server.
The SourceContext property provides the MDB Guid, Mailbox Guid, Event sequence number, Message class, Creation timestamp, and Client type. Client type can be User (Outlook MAPI), RPCHTTP (Outlook Anwhere), OWA, EWS, EAS, Assistants, Transport.
TRANSFER Message forked because of content conversion, recipient limits, or transport agents

Working with message tracking logs

use this powershell command to get message tracking logs from a hub transport server, with start date of 1/13/2009 and end date of 2/13/09 at 11:20am respectively. this will also export to csv file on root of C:drive
get-messagetrackinglog -Server “servername”
 -Start “1/13/2009 11:20:00 AM” -End “2/13/2009 11:20:00 AM” -resultsize unlimited
| select timestamp, eventid, source, messagesubject, sender, internalmessageid, {_.recipients}, sourcecontext | export-csv c:msgtrak.csv
 
more examples:
Get-MessageTrackingLog -sender chuck@chuck.com
Get-MessageTrackingLog -sender “obi@obi.com” -eventID RECEIVE
Get-MessageTrackingLog -sender “barb@domain.com” -eventID DELIVER
Get-MessageTrackingLog -sender “erik@domain.com” -eventID DELIVER -Start “10/01/2009 9:00AM” -End “10/03/2009 5:00PM”
formatting the output
Get-MessageTrackingLog -sender obi@domain.com -eventID DELIVER -Start “10/01/2009 9:00AM” -End “10/03/2009 5:00PM” | Select timestamp,recipients,messagesubject
Get-MessageTrackingLog -sender “Mike@domain.com” -eventID DELIVER -Start “10/01/2009 9:00AM” -End “10/03/2009 5:00PM” -ResultSize 25

Access to additional contacts in Outlook

During the conversion from Groupwise to Outlook, some of my contacts that were in subfolders have been added to contacts in their respective folders, but I can’t access them when I am trying to create an email. I don’t want to add them all to my ‘Contacts’ list since that list is synched with my Blackberry, and I don’t want several hundred names to sort through. How can I get access to contacts to send emails if they are not part of the Global email address list?

how to turn on diagnostic logging of services in exchange 2007

Use these commands to turn on diagnostic logging for information store
 
get-eventloglevel (this lists all services that can be logged extensively)
use the powershell commands below to set logging level (lowest, low, medium, expert)
 
set-eventloglevel -id ‘MSExchangeIS9002 SystemGeneral’ -level ‘expert’
 
set-eventloglevel -id ‘MSExchangeIS9000 privateGeneral’ -level ‘expert’

steps to create shared mailbox for customers

steps to create shared mailbox for customers. Note that ad accounts for shared mailboxes are disabled.
 
Customers can use shared mailboxes for shared calendaring.
customers should use sharepoint as the preferred method for for shared and collaborative calendaring.
 
use these steps below to create shared mailbox and assign full access to the owner
 
step 1 create new user mailbox with console or powershell
 
step 2 use powershell and type this command to convert mailbox to shared.set-mailbox pep-employees -Type:Shared
step 3  Assign full access to the owner using this command.
get-mailbox -id “ep-events” | add-mailboxpermission -user “ond1” -accessrights ‘FullAccess’

meeting requests sent to a user gets sent to another outlook user

Issue:
 
user A sends meeting request to user B, user C(in a different department) gets the meeting request even though she was not invited. This only happened when meeting request is sent to user B
 
resolution:
 
Problem was fixed by having user A close outlook, re-open Outlook by typing
 
start, run, Outlook /Cleanrules, close outlook and run Outlook /cleanfreebusy
 
This fixed the problem. User C no longer received meeting requests sent to User B

customer’s web mail launches only in lite/basic mode

Issue: customer’s web mail launches only in lite/basic mode

more info: customer is using internet explorer. Customer checked in with admin and he/she checked and confirmed cas mailbox is set correctly

cause: customer had checked the “blind and low vision experience” option. If checkd, users get a very limited version of high-contrast web access, seemingly even more limited than the actual Light mode login. 

 Resolution:  Instructed customer to  uncheck the option, after logging in, under Options -> Accessibility.  The Outlook web Premium mode was back