Exchange 2010 New Features

Well, with a new version of Exchange obviously brings a new set of features. While there are a lot of new features, here are just some of the new features:

1. Database Availability Groups – Database Availability Groups combine CCR and SCR functionality to provide a single solution for both scenarios. What happens here is that you install a DAG member and it behind the scenes installs Failover Clustering making the High Availability deployment more intuitive for the administrator. There was one scenario we ran into here where we had two source CCR Clusters wanting to replicate to the same target SCR Standby. The problem here is that when you recoverCMS on the SCR Standby, the replication fails with the other source CCR that was still working becuase the target SCR server can only ever have 1 CMS. DAGs fix that issue.

2. Outlook Web Access Features – There are quite a few new features with OWA. Some features I really like are:

Side-by-side comparison of calendars

Ability to attach messages to messages

Integration with Communicator including presence, chat, and a contact list

Conversation View

Support for multiple browsers such as Firefox and Safari

3. Unified Messaging Features – There are quite a few new features with UM. Some features I really like are:

Message Waiting Indicator

Voicemail Preview – This is essentially a speech to text that will display the text in your e-mail message to get a preview of what the voice mail includes

Personal auto attendants

Protected Voice Mail – Ability to track and restrict where voice mails can go

4. Store Functionality – There are a ton of new features for UM. Some important things to note:

No more Storage Groups

Mailboxes are no longer connected to the server object in which the schema has been flattened to allow for this

I/O Improvements including JBOD support and better support for SATA disks

Being able to run on cheap disks (SATA) and have a backupless organization by having multiple copies stored on DAG members.

5. Administration – There are a ton of additions/enhancements to administration. Some important things to note:

Role Based Access Control (RBAC) – Allows you to create granular permissions on custom groups that you create. This essentially replaces the administration model in Exchange 2007. For example, if you want a help desk group that has access to specific pieces of functionality within Exchange, you can do so.

Exchange Control Panel – Ties into RBAC and shows/hides features you are not given access to.

Audit Logging

6. Other

Multi-Mailbox Search

Text Messaging Integration (SMS)

Moderation and approval of distribution group submissions

Mail Tips – Will notify an Outlook user of an impeding error before it happens so the user doesn’t get a confusing NDR.
For example, if your message size limit is 10MB and the user tries sending a 15MB message, Outlook will notify the user before the user tries to send out the e-mail saving Exchange resources and making the failure experience more intuitive for the end user.

Updates available for expiration date issue with the evaluation editions of Office Communications Server and Office Communicator

Microsoft has just released the following Knowledge Base articles (KB972041, KB972042) to address the incorrect calculations of license expiration dates for Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 and Office Communicator (OC) 2007 R2 Evaluation Edition. The current expiration dates were calculated based on build time, causing the OCS 2007 R2 and OC 2007 R2 Evaluation Edition to expire after June 13, 2009.

Microsoft has issued the fixes below to correct the issues. By applying this fix, the expiration date will be updated to one hundred eighty (180) days after the initial installation of OCS R2 or OC R2 Evaluation Edition, as stated in the license terms for these applications.

Microsoft encourages its customers to apply necessary updates in their evaluation environment to take full advantage of the evaluation period.


To get the updates packages, please go to:
Office Communications Server 2007 R2
Office Communicator 2007 R2

Or to get your new evaluation edition, please go to:
Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Eval
Office Communicator 2007 R2 Eval

Presence info for an OCS user may not appear, or may appear intermittently, in Outlook when the SIP address and primary e-mail addresses differ

步驟 1：新增在 Exchange Server 中 SIP Proxy 位址，指定使用者的 SIP URI 之使用者帳戶

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003

開啟 [ Active Directory 使用者和電腦] 。
連按兩下 [使用者] 。
按一下 [ 電子郵件地址 ] 索引標籤。
按一下 [ 新增 ]。
按一下 [ 自訂通訊 ]， 在 [ 電子郵件地址 ] 欄位中輸入 SIP URI，然後再輸入在 [ 電子郵件類型 ] 欄位的 [ SIP ]。
按兩次 [確定] 。

等候 Active Directory 目錄服務及 Exchange 同步處理。

Exchange Server 2007 預設的情況下，Exchange 2007 可以從 Active Directory 中取得 Communications Server 2007 使用者的 SIP URI，並填入 SIP 自動 Proxy 位址。

步驟 2： 新增的兩個的登錄項目 (只有 Outlook 2003 SP2)

請注意 這個步驟不需要在 Outlook 2007 中執行。

Outlook 2003 SP2 不會搜尋使用者的 SIP 位址，以取得組態選項的資訊。 如果使用者的 SIP Proxy 地址和 使用者的預設電子郵件地址不同，Outlook 2003 SP2 無法顯示出席資訊。 加上下列登錄機碼，Outlook 2003 SP2 您有助於避免發生問題，如果這些位址不同。

按一下 [開始] ，再按一下 [執行] ，輸入 regedit ，並按下 ENTER。
找出下列登錄子機碼：
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\PersonaMenu
按一下 [編輯] ，指向 [ 新增 ]，然後再按一下 [ DWORD 值 ]。
輸入 QueryServiceForStatus ，然後再按一下 [ 確定 ]。
連按兩下 [ QueryServiceForStatus 輸入 2 ]，然後再按一下 [確定] 。
按一下 [編輯] ，指向 [ 新增 ]，然後再按一下 [ DWORD 值] 。
型別 EnableDynamicPresence ，再按一下 [確定] 。
連按兩下 [ EnableDynamicPresence 輸入 1 ]，然後再按一下 [確定] 。
結束 [登錄編輯程式]。

您可以建立這些登錄機碼之後，Outlook 2003 SP2 就會顯示出席資訊。

Changes in Office Communications Server Public IM Federation

Federation is an important goal for the Office Communications Server team and we are excited to announce several changes to public IM federation between Office Communications Server and public IM networks, effective July 1, 2009:

· The Live Communications Sever Public IM Connectivity (LCS PIC) license will be renamed Office Communications Server Public IM Connectivity (OCS PIC) license.

· Customers with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Standard CAL or Office Communications Server 2007/Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 Standard CAL with Software Assurance will no longer require an additional license to federate with Windows Live. (A license will still be required for federation with AOL & Yahoo!.)

· With Windows Live federation, customers are able to add Windows Live contacts to their Office Communicator contact list, view presence and send and receive instant messages.

We will continue to work with our partners to enable more options that allow you to communicate seamlessly with customers, partners, friends and family on different networks. For more information on public IM connectivity with Office Communications Server, please go to http://www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver/en/us/public-im-connectivity.aspx

From Unified Communications Group

OCS & Outlook Integration Errors

•Profiles don’t match - the sign-in address must match with the Outlook MAPI profile address
•Office 2007 SP1 is required in order to avoid OL hangs, make the voicemail notification work

•Transient auto-discovery error
•When Communicator first signs-in, auto-discovery is initiated in order to discover the Exchange Web Service
•During this period, Communicator does not have access to Calendar information
•The user would see a transient error in the notifications area until auto-discovery is completed Typically, this should be 5-30 seconds

OCS Sign-in Failures

•Incorrect DNS configuration – OC “auto configuration” fails
•Strict DNS name checking is also one cause

•Server is not available (e.g. under maintenance) and thus TLS socket cannot be connected
•The client does not have the server certificate

•User is not SIP enabled or in the process of moving OCS Pools