Dave Stork's IMHO

Integrated Authentication with Firefox and Exchange 2010

2010-02-17T09:21:00Z

With the Exchange 2010 Outlook Web App or OWA, it is possible to use Firefox to access your mailbox. Yes, this was always possible but the premium features were only available for Internet Explorer users. As of now, I could only detect one small difference between Firefox and IE namely the S/MIME functionality. Most users or even admins probably don’t know that it exists as it not often implemented.

I am a frequent user of Firefox and prefer it above IE, especially now with Exchange 2010. However, I am annoyed that I always have to enter my login credentials. That’s another benefit of IE: support for Integrated Authentication on Exchange. When logged in on a windows domain computer, why would you have to also log into the Webmail? You are already authenticated.

But… Firefox also supports Integrated Authentication! It is not configured by default, so this way it doesn’t accidentally present AD authentication information to an Internet server. Internet Explorer can be configured to forcibly recognize intranet domain names via Group Policies.

Just type the following in the Firefox addressbar:

about:config

And edit the following values:

network.negotiate-auth.delegation-uris
network.negotiate-auth.gsslib
network.negotiate-auth.trusted-uris

Just add the internal domain or the FQDN of your Exchange (CAS) server. The change is implemented instantly, but remember this only works on Windows domain computers residing in the same domain or forest as your Exchange Server.

Now I’m investigating whether these settings can be configured centrally via GPO’s or scripts. But that is another challenge as Firefox uses configuration files (prefs.js in the user profile) and no registry settings. If you have figured this out, let me know!

Further Reading:
Mozilla Firefox: Integrated Authentication

Exchange 2010: Configure Integrated Windows Authentication

Mailbox Replication Service unexpectedly quits when moving mailboxes from other Exchange server

2010-02-17T05:03:00Z

I’ve just completed a transition from Exchange 2003 directly to Exchange 2010. This is a supported scenario, but I did ran into some trouble. Luckily, I also have a solution.

Scenario

The installation of the Exchange 2010 server and upgrading of several items of the Exchange 2003 environment went without any hick-ups. The project was actually ahead of schedule and just when you think you could go home early…

Exchange 2010 now calls a mailbox move “Local Move Request”. The Exchange Mailbox Replication Service will then handle the mailbox move from one database to another. The source database can be Exchange 2003, 2007 or 2010. There are some cool benefits with this new approach, but I digress.

Symptoms

Very quickly after I requested a move of all 2003 mailboxes to the new Exchange 2010 server, the move of the mailboxes seemed to stall. I could see it with this Exchange Management Shell command:

Get-MoveRequest | ft Alias,Status,PercentComplete

Around 20-25%, this percentage suddenly dropped to 0%. After that it didn’t start up again (which it should).

Some research in the eventviewer showed this message:

Source: Service Control Manager
Event ID: 7031
Description:
The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 5000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

Sure enough the Mailbox Replication service started again after five seconds. But after a while it crashed again and again. There where no other relevant errors or warnings which where related to this issue. I decided to increase the logging level of the Replication Service with this cmdlet:

Get-EventlogLevel -Identity "MSExchange Mailbox Replication\*" | Set-EventlogLevel -Level Expert

Note: decrease it again after you don’t need it anymore with “–Level Lowest”.

The expert logging increased my insight in what was happening:

Source: MSExchangeIS
Event ID: 9660
Description:
User JOSH (/o=Test/ou=First Administrative Group/cn=Recipients/cn=JOSH) failed to log on because their mailbox is in the process of being moved.

and

Source: MSExchange Mailbox Replication
Event ID: 1101
Description:
Mailbox move for 'Test.nu/Test/DOCENT/JOSH' (b0de20a6-72ee-47ef-8123-123e123e123e) encountered a transient failure. The operation will be retried (1 out of 60). Error code: -2147467259 MapiExceptionMailboxInTransit: Unable to open message store. (hr=0x80004005, ec=1292)

The above message appear several times. This is happening after the replication service crashed and is probably the lock put in place as with the normal mailbox move lock. Not really surprising. It is nice to see that the replication service is willing to try 60 times.

Source: MSExchange Mailbox Replication
Event ID: 1104
Description:
Mailbox Replication service started initial seeding stage for 'Test.nu/Test/DOCENT/JOSH(b0de20a6-72ee-47ef-8123-123e123e123e). Total number of messages in mailbox: 854 (103.7 MB (108,744,421 bytes)).

And then it goes ahead again, but very soon the replication service crashes again and this starts from scratch (events not shown). There were no further clues on what was happening. Some mailboxes went over perfectly though, others didn’t but another time they went over without a hitch. I did get the feeling that with more mailboxes moving at one time the chance of the service crashing increased, but because of time constraints this was not further investigated.

There were no antivirus clients interfering, no antispam, the servers were in the same forest and site within the same subnet. Both servers were virtualized via vSphere. Yes, for the Exchange 2003 server not a supported situation but the problem was with the Exchange 2010 server which is supported.

Even so the virtual machines were not on the same node and the VMWare tools were up-to-date. Also the Windows Servers and Exchange servers were up-to-date, even with Exchange 2010 Update Rollup 1.

Solution

At this time I decided to call Microsoft Support. After some checks with ADSIedit, disabling firewalls, changing the type of NIC and other checks, Microsoft advised running a integrity check of the Exchange 2003 mailbox store. As I had ran out of ideas, this looked like a good suggestion. So I started ISINTEG on the Exchange 2003 server with:

exchsrvr\bin\isinteg -s <servername> -fix -test alltests

After about half an hour this summary appears:

. . . . . SUMMARY . . . . .
Total number of tests : 21
Total number of warnings : 222
Total number of errors : 0
Total number of fixes : 541
Total time : 0h:33m:26s

Yep, that database was bad…

After that the mailbox move requests completed without any relevant problems.

(I did have a lot of errors described in KB940012 resulting in the move request CompletingWithWarnings, but they are not a problem.)

Conclusion

My troubleshooting focused on the new Exchange 2010 installation, because it’s Mailbox Replication Service repeatedly unexpectedly quits. I also had to take the source server in consideration (something with assumptions…).

Although the problem ultimately was caused by a corrupted Exchange 2003 mailbox store, I hope that Microsoft will make the Mailbox Replication Service somewhat more robust or let it generate relevant error messages. It would have saved me quite some time troubleshooting.

Anyway, If you are not familiar with the Exchange environment and it’s history, it is a good idea to also check the integrity of the source exchange database before moving mailboxes. You can check it with ESEUTIL and ISINTEG:

ESEUTIL /G <databasename.edb>

ISINTEG -s <servername> -verbose -test alltests

/me makes mental note ;-)

Exchange 2007 will be supported on Windows 2008 R2!!!

2009-11-04T21:58:00Z

Just read an update in which the Exchange Team announces support for Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2!

I'm very very glad that they will make this possible. When it became clear that R2 would not support Exchange 2007 installations, I was very surprised and a bit disappointed. But I'm happy to see that Microsoft is willing to listen to customers.

So, now let's change those blogposts

The Road to Exchange 2010: Active Directory and Exchange Part 3

2009-10-28T19:25:02Z

In part 1 we’ve discussed the Exchange Mode, Domain Controllers and Schema Master compatibility. In part 2 we’ve discussed the Global Catalog and the Domain and Forest Functional level up to Windows 2008. So, that leaves us with Windows Server 2008 R2.

During the time it took to write this series of blogs a lot more information was made available. Especially the Exchange Server Supportability Matrix was a huge help. Actually, the previous lack of such a page with all this information in one place was one of the reasons to do this series.

Windows Server 2008 R2

Obviously the Exchange mode is something that is only relevant with Exchange 2000/2003 and nothing with this release of Windows.

The compatibility with domain controllers though, is another story. Only Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 with Rollup update 9 for SP1 (and higher) will work correctly with Windows 2008 R2 domain controllers. You could exclude the specific Domain Controller, when you have other DC’s in your domain/site with the Exchange Server. But I would not recommend it as this can impact the availability of any DC for Exchange and directly the availability of Exchange, next to the extra administrative effort you will have to take. I would only do this (and have done this) during transitional phases.

The same requirement is valid for the Schema Master and Global Catalog, so only Exchange 2007 SP1 with rollup 9 and higher. You also can exclude the specific Global Catalogs, but it comes with the same warning label as with Domain Controllers mentioned above. The Schema Master is a Forest FSMO role, so you can have only one in your AD forest and Exchange organization. No cheating possible here. ;-)

The Domain and Forest Functional Level of Windows Server 2008 R2 feels a bit weird to me, we didn’t have this with Windows 2003 R2. So, there’s probably something really happening here. For a overview of the new possibilities of DFL/FFL 2008 R2, look at this page.

Both the DFL/FFL of Windows 2008 R2 are only supported by Exchange 2007 SP1 with Rollup update 9 and higher. Exchange 2000 already couldn’t work with a domain with exclusive Windows 2008 (R2) server, so this is a logical progression. Exchange 2003 could work with Windows 2008 DC’s, but not with 2008 R2 DC’s, and this logically excludes both 2008 R2 DFL/FFL.

When we revisit our compatibility matrices and add Windows 2008 R2 to it, we get:

Conclusion

Exchange and Active Directory on their own can be complex to maintain. But combining the specific requirements and (im)possibilities, it can be a maze. Especially for those who have to maintain and transition their multi domain forest to newer versions of Exchange and Windows and you have a variety of different versions of Windows and Domain Functional Levels.

But there is one relatively safe route: Windows Server 2003 with at least SP2. This is the golden version of Windows for Exchange 2000 to 2010. The Domain Controller Global Catalog function and the FSMO role of Schema Master can al reside on this version and all versions of Exchange can function with it. For the Domain Functional Level 2003 is the safest level, when considering Exchange transition from 2000 to eventually 2010. The 2003 Forest Functional level also works with al version of Exchange.

For transition paths regarding only Exchange co-existence check this post.

I hope that you find these blog posts helpful in transitioning your Exchange organization to any versions available within any Active directory environment. If you have questions or comments on these posts (or just to say hi), feel free to contact me!

Disclaimer: the information here and in previous posts on this subject is presented as-is and could be subject to change. The information on Exchange 2010 is in some cases still in writing and could contain facts that have changed or will change. Recheck those facts before implementing Exchange 2010 when it has reached general availability, which will be announced at TechEd 2009 in Berlin and other events.

Exchange 2010 Code complete!!!

2009-10-09T13:58:00Z

Yesterday I was at the Technet Live event in The Hague (Netherlands).

I understand they wanted to make an announcement on the availability of Exchange 2010, but instead advised to keep monitoring the EHLO blog of the Microsoft Exchange team the following day. But on my travel home I already received a blog update:

Exchange 2010 is Code Complete and on its way to General Availability

There will be more information on TechEd Berlin, but unfortunatly I will not be attending. Luckily, video of the launch will be available via http://www.thenewefficiency.com/

So, until then I gonna delve into documentation and further testing of RC1!

PS. the documentation on Exchange 2010 is still subject to changes and there are some things that are not correct. For instance, it is mentioned that you will need a Exchange 2003 Front-end server when transition from an 2003 Exchange only organization to Exchange 2010. This is not correct (checked it at Technet Live).

The Road to Exchange 2010: Active Directory and Exchange Part 2

2009-09-28T18:08:49Z

In part 1 of this series, I discussed the requirements of Exchange Mode, Domain Controllers and the Schema Master in combination of various versions of Exchange.

In this post I will discuss the placement of Global Catalogs (GC), the Domain Functional Level (DFL) and Forest Functional level (FFL) required. In part 3 I will discuss the compatibility of Exchange with Windows Server 2008 R2.

Global Catalog

The Global Catalog is a specialized option for any Domain Controller, it contains a copy of all important attributes of objects of all domains across the whole forest. Placement is important especially with multiple domains within the same Forest. Any Domain Controller can be activated as Global Catalog and when placed properly it can speed up AD queries and logon times significantly.

Exchange also relies on the Global Catalog, but only since Exchange 2007 there are minimum requirements to be met. This version requires at least Windows 2003 with Service Pack 1 in any Active Directory site where there is an Exchange 2007 server. It can co-exist with older versions (within a site), but you will have to exclude them. According to the System Requirements of Exchange 2010, it will have almost the same minimum requirement: Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2. The difference with Exchange 2007 is that 2010 cannot co-exist with lower versions of Windows Domain Controllers. I consider this a low impact difference from the GC requirements of Exchange 2007 as it those DC’s already should be upgraded to SP2 or beter yet replaced by 2008 DC’s, in my opinion.

Exchange 2000 has no specific minimum requirement. But as it cannot communicate with Windows 2008 Domain Controllers and thus Global Catalogs, this will mean you will require GC’s with Windows 2000 or 2003 (any patch level) per site and have to hard link to them (this is not mentioned in the Supportability Matrix). Exchange 2003 is the only one which can communicate with all versions of Domain Controllers and thus Global Catalog (from 2000 to 2008).

The resulting table actually doesn’t differ much from the Domain Controller table:

The green v in a cell means that Exchange can communicate with a domain exclusively with whose versions or mixed with other versions that have a green v. A red x indicates that it cannot communicate when this version is present within the site, domain or forest. The yellow – represents that it cannot communicate with that version, but it can operate as long as the minimum Domain Controller version requirement has been met (within a site or domain).

Domain Functional Level

The Domain Functional Level (DFL) determines the Active Directory Features of a domain. Roughly with each major Server Operating System there is also a new DFL and with it new features and enhanced security. You can however have a lower DFL then the OS level. As of Windows Server 2000, there are the following DFL’s:

Windows 2000 Mixed
Windows 2000 Native
Windows Server 2003 Interim
Windows Server 2003 (sometimes Native is added)
Windows Server 2008

Note: The newest DFL of Windows Server 2008 R2 will be discussed separately.

The Windows 2000 Mixed and Windows 2003 Interim are the only ones which support Windows NT Domain Controllers. Each Native mode requires that all domain controllers in that domain are at the minimum OS level, meaning that for instance DFL Windows 2000 Native requires all DC’s to be at least Windows 2000.

And again Exchange 2007 required the DFL to be minimum of Windows 2000 Native (also excluding Windows 2003 Interim), which meant that you could not transition to Exchange 2007 when there were NT Domain Controllers in the Domain. Note that although the DFL could be 2000 Native, you still had to have a minimum of one 2003 SP1 Domain Controller (for the Global Catalog and of course Schema Master). For the 2008 DFL you will need to have Exchange 2007 SP1 or higher. Exchange 2010 obviously can work at the 2008 DFL (like duh!).

So, what about Exchange 2000? As it cannot operate in a domain with exclusive Windows 2008 Domain Controllers, we can deduce it will not operate at the 2008 DFL. Exchange 2003 on the other hand can operate with exclusive Windows 2008 Domain Controllers but it still cannot operate at 2008 DFL.

To summarize: the Domain Functional Levels of 2000 Native and 2003 (excluding 2000 Mixed and 2003 Interim) are the DFL’s compatible with all Exchange servers from 2000 to 2010. The 2008 DFL is only supported from Exchange 2007 SP1 and higher. I’ve made a table:

Forest Functional Level

The Forest Functional Level is determining the security and features of your whole forest containing all your domains. The following Forest Functional Levels FFL) are possible:

Windows 2000
Windows 2003 Interim
Windows 2003
Windows 2008

Note: The newest FFL of Windows Server 2008 R2 will be discussed separately.

The Windows 2000 FFL can harbor all Domain Controllers from NT upwards. As there are no requirements for Exchange, you could theoretically have a multi domain forest with Windows NT or Windows 2000 and still run Exchange 2007 in a separate domain within the same forest as long other minimum requirements are met (Schema Master and DFL). However for Exchange 2010 a minimum of a 2003 Forest Functional Level is required, as specified in the System Requirements.

The 2003 Interim is for transitions from NT domains directly to 2003 Domain Controllers and no support for Windows 2000. As this would also imply Exchange transitions from Exchange 5.5, this would be a useless situation for Exchange 2007 and 2010 as they no longer support direct transitions from 5.5.

The Windows 2003 FFL, supports only 2003 Domain Controllers and only Domains at the 2003 DFL. All Exchange versions from 2000 to 2010 can support this level. With this level the added bonus of a Forest Trust is possible, so a resource forest could be implemented separating you Exchange organization from your Active Directory with active user accounts.

The 2008 FFL is newer than any Exchange version currently released (excluding Exchange 2010 in any beta, RC and RTM form), so this will probably result in some incompatibilities. And indeed, Exchange 2000 and 2003 cannot function in a 2008 FFL. Although Exchange 2007 RTM cannot be installed on a Windows 2008 server, it does operate in a 2008 FFL. The matrix for the FFL will look like:

This concludes Part 2. In Part 3 we will discuss Windows 2008 R2 and Exchange.

Exchange Mode

The first question points to a left-over from Exchange 5.5, which needed Mixed mode to co-exist with 2000 and 2003. Most organizations can safely upgrade this mode, which is a pre requirement of Exchange 2007 and 2010 when co-existing with or transitioning from an older version of Exchange (respectively 2000/2003 and 2003 only). It’s been a while since I’ve seen 5.5 in production so I expect little real life impact, but still something that has to be done.

You can check and change the mode in Exchange System Manager, select the organization, click Properties, go to the General tab and under Operations Mode the current status is shown. Click Change Mode to change it (duh!).

Domain Controllers

With Exchange 2000/2003 and Windows 2000/2003 there was no question about it. It didn’t matter which OS your domain controller was, it just worked. But then came Windows 2008 and even later Windows 2008 R2, both with Read Only Domain Controllers (RODC) and Read Only Global Catalogs (ROGC). Oh, and lest not forget the Schema Master role…

Will Exchange 2000 work with a Windows 2008 DC? Short answer: No. This means that if you exclusively have Windows 2008 DC’s you can’t run Exchange 2000. This also means that before upgrading all of your Domain Controllers to 2008 or 2008 R2, you will have to upgrade your Exchange server(s) first. However, Exchange 2000 (with SP3) can co-exist with 2008 DC’s. For each AD Site with Exchange 2000 you will have to have a 2000/2003 DC to which the Directory Service Access is hard linked.

What about Exchange 2003? As from Service Pack 2, Exchange 2003 can interact with Windows 2008 Domain Controllers. Even when all domain controllers in the forest are 2008 and if there are Read-Only DC’s and GC’s present. It will ignore them as long as there are writeable DC’s and GC’s present and when it can detect them automatically. So don’t hard link them to read-only servers!

Exchange 2007 can work with Windows 2000 DC’s, only not exclusively. There has to be at least one Windows 2003 SP1 DC in every domain where Exchange 2007 will be installed. Although Exchange 2007 cannot be installed on Windows 2008, it can interact with 2008 DC’s.

The upcoming Exchange 2010 is a bit more demanding than Exchange 2007, it cannot be used in an environment with Windows 2000 domain controllers.

For a visual representation:

Schema Master

The Schema Master is one of the Flexible Single Master Operation (FSMO) roles in Active Directory. This DC is the only one which can update the directory schema, which in turn defines possible objects and its attributes. In each AD Forest there is only one Schema Master. As far as I know, Exchange 2007 was the first version which explicitly demanded that the Schema Master was on a Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 or higher. Exchange 2010 will have this same pre requirement.

How do you find out which Domain Controller holds this FSMO role? Well, there are several ways but the most easy one is with DCDIAG. If it’s necessary to transfer it, I mostly use the Active Directory Schema MMC Snap-in.

Note this: If your Schema Master is running Windows 2003 SP1 (or SP2), your Active Directory can support Exchange 2000, 2003, 2007 and 2010 if we disregard any other requirements. That is a useful fact to know when transitioning.

Will Exchange still be able to run when you have a Windows 2008 Schema Master? The Schema Master role is always placed on a Domain Controllers. As Exchange 2000 cannot directly interact with 2008 DC’s, we can logically conclude that Exchange 2000 will not work with a Windows 2008 Schema Master.

And Exchange 2003? Exchange 2003 can work in a forest exclusively with Windows 2008 DC’s, so it will have a Windows 2008 Schema Master and the deduced answer would be yes! The requirements for Exchange 2007 and 2010 explicitly state that they support Windows 2008 DC’s, and with that also an 2008 Schema Master.

And visually represented, that gives us:

This concludes part 1. In part 2 of this post, I will continue with the different requirements for the Global Catalog, Domain and Forest Functional level. In part 3 I will also discuss the requirements and limitations of Windows 2008 R2 servers in combination with Exchange.

*** edit: updated 28/9/2009 with corrections of some errors/typo’s and added compatibility matrices

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 downloadable

2009-08-25T11:24:00Z

As of now, Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 2 is downloadable. Direct link
Release notes can be downloaded here.

Two main reasons for me to download and install it:

Added Exchange Database backup capabilities with Server Backup on Windows Server 2008
Requirement for co-exsistence with Exchange Server 2010

So, now you can transition your Exchange 2007 environment to Exchange 2010 RC1 and later RTM!

The Road to Exchange 2010: Migration paths

2009-08-23T14:30:00Z

Exchange always had a specific combination of operating systems on which it could be installed. Now with the release of Exchange 2010 RC1,Windows Server 2008 R2 and the imminent Exchange 2007 Service Pack, it has become clear how the future will look like. Below is a table which visually shows the compatibilities:

So unfortunately, Exchange 2007 will not run on Windows Server 2008 R2… That has impact on your possible migration (officially transition) paths to Exchange 2010.

First, what migration paths did we have in the past and present? Exchange 2000 was in-place upgradable to Exchange 2003. If Exchange 2000 was installed on Windows 2000, you then could in-place upgrade to Windows 2003 with taking al those benefits that come with that. An in-place upgrade from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 wasn’t possible, mostly due to the required x64 OS for Exchange 2007. And an in-place upgrade from a 32bit OS to 64bit OS isn’t possible. Migrating to Exchange 2007 is directly supported from Exchange 2000 and 2003.

What about migrating to Exchange 2010? The Active Directory requirements are the same as with Exchange 2007. Another important requirement for migration to Exchange 2010 is that you at least have to have Exchange 2003 SP2 or Exchange 2007 SP2! So no co-existence with Exchange 2000. What kind of consequences will that have on your migration path? I know that a lot of businesses still use Exchange 2003 and even now some still use Exchange 2000, which makes it a very valid question.

Well, simply put: you will have to migrate from Exchange 2007 with Service Pack 2 on either Windows 2003 x64 or 2008 x64 (non R2!) or you have to in-place upgrade or transition your Exchange 2000 installation to Exchange 2003 SP2. Alternatively, you can transition directly from Exchange 2000 to Exchange Server 2007 SP2 and then transition to Exchange 2010. Note that an in-place upgrade of Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010 isn't supported.

I’ve made an illustration depicting the migration paths:

Conclusion: There are no real problems migrating to Exchange Server 2010, they are comparable to the paths you had to take with Exchange 2007. Extra steps have to be taken if you are still using Exchange 2000. And for those who already migrated to Exchange 2007, will have to wait for Service Pack 2 which is expected at the end of this month.

For those who want all servers to be Windows 2008 and have an Exchange server, you will have to wait for Exchange 2010 RTM which will be probably released later this year or you decide to run Exchange 2007 on non-R2 Windows 2008.

Oh, and for those daredevils who are migrating to the Exchange 2010 RC1… You can in place upgrade to RTM!

Exchange 2010 RC1 released!

2009-08-18T20:20:00Z

Well it took a few hours due to some problems, but now it's now actually downloadable!

See: Exchange Server 2010 Release Candidate Available Today!

Direct download

Exchange 2010 RC1 announcement imminent?

2009-08-17T21:56:00Z

Okay, I just received an email update of the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog. Interestingly, it is titled: "RC Announcement Placeholder." and has the following text: test placeholder.

I can't find it on the site. I guess their CMS has a bug that does mail their email subscribers even when the article isn't published? Anyway, it seems that a RC1 announcement is to be expected any day now!

*update*

Steven Bink has sources that state RC1 will be released this week: Exchange 2010 RC1 download this week!

*update 18 august 2009*

I just received an email from Microsoft UK, which states that the RC1 is available for download (presumably for only Technet subscribers). Unfortunatly, I cannot find it at the given site.... keeping you posted...

*update 18 august 2009 13:02 CET*

MS Exchange Team made an announcement: Exchange Server 2010 Release Candidate Available Today!

Unfortunatly, the download link still doesn't work for me (same link).

Relevant posts:

Exchange 2010 not RTM yet
Microsoft Exchange 2010 buzz grows louder

"Windows could not finish configuring the system".... Argh! update

2009-08-14T09:10:00Z

So, yesterday I started deploying Windows 7 on my laptop. But just as I finished posting yesterday, I ran into some problems. Well, big problem actually.

I made a capture of my laptop after a clean deployment. I added several programs dear to me, like iTunes, Firefox, some plugins and codecs. Because I was lazy, I had kept my data partition on the harddrive, but it didn't give any problems. I finished configuring just before adding Office and sealed it:

sysprep.exe /oobe /generalize /shutdown

Then made a capture and imported it on my WDS server.

Everything okay, so I rebooted my laptop. And then.... well the following quote sums up my internal process during this Windows 7 deployment excorcise: "Oh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming"

The following errorbox appears:

Windows could not finish configuring the system. To attempt to resume configuration restart computer

No matter what I did, it stayed. Removed volumes, made new, formated them, even completly deleted all partitions... no luck.

Even the following forumtopics didn't help me:

There are more, but they all basicly point to those two topics.

I do have to check this one:

Error during setup after first restart

My working theory is that I shouldn't have had the extra data partition when capturing it, so that is my next move after I checked above post. But if anyone had a good idea, let me know!

ps.: the problem also is present when deploying it to a VMWare machine

* Update 17 august 2009 *

Well, after installing Windows 7 manually and capturing it with no extra partition and without some programs (Truecrypt for instance), the deployment with WDS now works without problems. Currently I'm making and testing an answerfile for unattended installations. w00t!

Deploying Windows 7 with Windows Deployment Services

2009-08-13T18:43:00Z

So after reading Sanders excellent blogpost "Windows 7 Migration Checklist", I decided to ignore his advice. I'm an early adopter, so i'm just gonna do it and see where that gets me.

I already run Windows 7 RC1 on my personal laptop, with great pleasure I might add. My gaming PC had a dual boot ow Vista and W7RC1, but i didn't use W7 that much. Other computers are running XP and are somewhat older.

My goal is to have every computer running Windows 7 and to deploy it via Windows Deployment Services.

Preparing WDS
So I installed WDS on Windows Server 2008 RTM, which is also my Exchange Server 2007 server. Not ideal, but I didn't have another server available. The installation went fine, I mainly kept it default.

I added the install.wim from the Windows 7 RTM DVD, which took some time. I could even select the editions of Windows 7. I choose all of them. After the installation image was succesfully added, the next step was a boot image. I choose the boot.wim from the Windows Server 2008 RTM DVD.

Deploying via PXE
The unattend files would come later, I wanted to install Windows 7 already! All things up and running, the PXE boot of my laptop worked, boot image loaded succesfully and I could edit my drives and select language settings and such.

But then.... an error:

Windows Package manager
Operation failed with 0x80070002
The system cannot find the file specified.

Frak... Tried it several times, but nogo. But then I remembered that when I configured the drives no System Reserved partition was made.... a new feature of Windows 7.... and that is something the boot..wim WinPE environment should know. Yes, after installing the boot.wim from the Windows 7 DVD it all worked like a charm!

Capturing a prepared image
So now I have a laptop running Windows 7 RTM, stil have to install applications and such. But my settings are marvelously transferred with the Windows Easy Transfer tool, included in Windows 7 and Vista. You have to make a backup of your old installation offcourse, but it works brilliantly.

Next thing is to make a sysprep (after finishing installation) and capture it to the WDS server. Unfortunatly, the creation of that capture image is not going smoothly. But I solved it eventally, WDS want to make a new WIM file based on the boot image that has already been imported. Point it to a location with enough diskspace (takes about 150MB, so that probably won't be a problem) and it generates a knew WIM file. Import it just like the boot image, but give it a suitable name (something with capture in it).

At this point when you boot via PXE, you will see a menu with two boot images. One to be used when deploying an image, and one to capture a sysprepped one. At the moment I'm capturing my laptop installatie of Windows 7 RTM. When that is done, I will deploy it to a self built desktopcomputer (not my gaming pc).

I used the following documentation:
Step-by-Step Guide for Windows Deployment Services in Windows Server 2003

Windows 7 Migration Checklist

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 announced

2009-05-11T17:43:00Z

Today the Exchange team blog announced Service Pack 2 for Exchange 2007. It will be available in 2009 Q3.

One change I was longing for: Exchange Volume Snapshot Backup Functionality. For those who didn't know, when installed on Windows 2008 you didn't have a backup utility like NTbackup or an extension in Server Backup. Although I almost always prefer other solutions (DPM, SBE orso) but for simple environments, during transition setups and home testing facilities it was quite useful.

Furthermore, it is a requirement for future interoperability with Exchange 2010. That wasn't a real surprise to me, but time will have to tell what kind of interoperability will be possible between 2007 and 2010 and what drawbacks are present.

Installing Exchange 2010 Beta: Quick Preparation

2009-04-22T20:24:00Z

Just a few quick tips for those who want a quick result when preparing and installing for Exchange 2010 Beta. The past few days I've installed this beta too many times not to be wondering how to speed things up. So I wound up with two batch files. No unattend file (yet?) though.

I already have recently updated Windows Server 2008 images. But for Exchange 2010 beta you need some more updates and packs. When prepping a server for a beta installation I copy those files to the local drive and start the following batchfile (called 1_InstallUpdates.cmd):

dotNetFx35setup.exe /quiet /norestart
Windows6.0-KB950099-x64.msu /quiet /norestart
PowerShell_Setup_amd64.msi /quiet /norestart
Windows6.0-KB951725-v2-x64.msu /quiet /norestart
ASPAJAXExtSetup.msi /quiet /norestart
FilterPackx64.exe /quiet /norestart
Windows6.0-KB950888-x64.msu /quiet /norestart
Windows6.0-KB951327-x64.msu /quiet /norestart
Windows6.0-KB951116-x64.msu /quiet /norestart
Windows6.0-KB952664-v3-x64.msu /quiet /norestart
Windows6.0-KB953290-x64.msu /quiet /norestart
Windows6.0-KB958178-v2-x64.msu /quiet /norestart
pause

For your convenience I linked the download locations. After the succesfull installation of these updates, features and such, you will have to reboot the server.

Then the Windows Server 2008 roles and features need to be installed. That is the batchfile which I blogged about yesterday and is called 2_InstallPreqs.cmd

ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Server
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-ISAPI-Ext
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Metabase
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Basic-Auth
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Digest-Auth
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Windows-Auth
ServerManagerCmd -i Web-Dyn-Compression
ServerManagerCmd -i NET-HTTP-Activation
ServerManagerCmd -I RPC-over-HTTP-proxy
ServerManagerCmd -i Failover-Clustering
ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS
pause

Also after running this batch, you will have to reboot the server. After this second reboot you can now install Exchange Server 2010 Beta without any prerequirement troubles!

For this post I used primarily the article Exchange 2010 Prerequisites from Microsoft. Remember, these requirements are subject to change with any other Beta/RC or RTM.

Good luck installing!

EDIT: Somewhat relevant, for those who would like to install Exchange 207 quickly on Windows 2008:

ExPrep – Script to Automate Exchange 2007 Pre-Requisite Installation

Dave Stork's IMHO

Integrated Authentication with Firefox and Exchange 2010

Mailbox Replication Service unexpectedly quits when moving mailboxes from other Exchange server

Scenario

Symptoms

Solution

Conclusion

Further reading:

Exchange 2007 will be supported on Windows 2008 R2!!!

The Road to Exchange 2010: Active Directory and Exchange Part 3

Windows Server 2008 R2

Conclusion

Exchange 2010 Code complete!!!

Exchange 2010 is Code Complete and on its way to General Availability

The Road to Exchange 2010: Active Directory and Exchange Part 2

Global Catalog

Domain Functional Level

Forest Functional Level

The Road to Exchange 2010: Active Directory and Exchange Part 1

Exchange Mode

Domain Controllers

Schema Master

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 downloadable

The Road to Exchange 2010: Migration paths

Exchange 2010 RC1 released!

Exchange 2010 RC1 announcement imminent?

"Windows could not finish configuring the system".... Argh! update

Deploying Windows 7 with Windows Deployment Services

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 announced

Installing Exchange 2010 Beta: Quick Preparation

Dave Stork's IMHO

Integrated Authentication with Firefox and Exchange 2010

Mailbox Replication Service unexpectedly quits when moving mailboxes from other Exchange server

Scenario

Symptoms

Solution

Conclusion

Further reading:

Exchange 2007 will be supported on Windows 2008 R2!!!

The Road to Exchange 2010: Active Directory and Exchange Part 3

Windows Server 2008 R2

Conclusion

Exchange 2010 Code complete!!!

Exchange 2010 is Code Complete and on its way to General Availability

The Road to Exchange 2010: Active Directory and Exchange Part 2

Global Catalog

Domain Functional Level

Forest Functional Level

The Road to Exchange 2010: Active Directory and Exchange Part 1

Exchange Mode

Domain Controllers

Schema Master

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 downloadable

The Road to Exchange 2010: Migration paths

Exchange 2010 RC1 released!

Exchange 2010 RC1 announcement imminent?

"Windows could not finish configuring the system".... Argh! *update*

Deploying Windows 7 with Windows Deployment Services

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 announced

Installing Exchange 2010 Beta: Quick Preparation

"Windows could not finish configuring the system".... Argh! update