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Cecurity update KB2817630 removes Outlook folder pane

  By Remigiusz Szatkowski | 17/09/2013 - 15:16 | ,
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After installing the non-security update KB2817630 many people reports to Microsoft that they lost Folder Pane in Outlook 2013.

Microsoft pulled out this update in 3h of its release.

This patch couses desappearing Folder Pane in Outlook 2013 when you using Office 2013 Standard or Professional Plus.

How to resolve this problem:

Two updates can get a user into this state. Installing the September Public Update delivers an updated version of mso.dll without updating outlook.exe, resulting in the incorrect user interface.

  • If you have Automatic Updates enabled, visit the Add Remove Programs feature of your Windows Installation, and uninstall KB2817630. Close Outlook and restart.
  • If you have installed the August Cumulative update (which you must do manually), removing KB2817347 will correct the issue. From the Add Remove Programs feature, select KB2817347 from the list and select “Uninstall.” Close Outlook and restart.
  • If you have BOTH Updates installed, the problem is not evident. The issue only manifests when one of the updates has been installed. If you have updated to the September Public Update and you want to roll forward, install the August Cumulative update, KB2817347.
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Exchange 2010 OWA Help url change

  By Remigiusz Szatkowski | 03/09/2013 - 03:44 |
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If you have your own website where help files are located, then you can change OWA Help url to point to this website.

Then users will use yours help documents published by Helpdsk.

 

By default OWA Help url opens website:

http://help.outlook.com/pl-PL/140/ms.exch.owap.MailPremium.aspx

 

To change OWA Help URL you need to run EMS and then type:

Set-ExchangeAssistanceConfig -OWAHelpURL "http:\\mywebsite\owahelp.html"

 

You can easly change others urls used in Exchange environment like: ControlPanel, OWA, Windows Live Account etc.

 

To get list of all of those links, use command:

Get-ExchangeAssistanceConfig

 

OWAHelpURL

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Microsoft.Exchange.RpcClientAccess.Service.exe process cause excessive CPU usage on Client Access servers in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

  By Remigiusz Szatkowski | 30/08/2013 - 02:31 | ,
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On Microsoft Support website you can find article about high CPU usage on Client Access Server.

 

CPU_usage

 

 

 

This issue can occur in following scenario:

  • You deploy some public folder databases in a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 environment that has Update Rollup 5 version 2 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 (SP2) or a later-version update rollup installed.
  • The environment contains multiple Active Directory sites.
  • The default public folder server is unavailable. So, the Microsoft Exchange RPC Client Access service tries to connect to other public folder servers.

 

In this scenario, the Microsoft.Exchange.RpcClientAccess.Service.exe process consumes excessive CPU resources on one or more Client Access servers in the site. Additionally, Microsoft Outlook clients cannot connect to Exchange servers, or they encounter slow performance when they connect to Exchange servers.

To resolve this issue, install the following update rollup:

2866475 Description of Update Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2010 SP3

More information you can find here…

 

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List of Exchange 2010 Mailboxes with Archive enabled

  By Remigiusz Szatkowski | 22/08/2013 - 06:17 |
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If you are using Exchange Archive Online, sometimes you need to identify mailboxes with enabled Archive.

To get list of Archive enabled mailboxes you can use EMS console and following command:

 

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | where {$_.ArchiveDatabase -ne $Null}

 

As a result you will get list of all mailboxes with Archive Online enabled, but you won’t get information about database where this archive is stored.

 

To get list of all mailboxes with information where are they in databases you can use following command:

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | where {$_.ArchiveDatabase -ne $Null} | Select Name, ArchiveDatabase, ArchiveName

 

 

 

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Exchange 2013 Security Update MS13-061 not recommended to install

  By Remigiusz Szatkowski | 19/08/2013 - 02:00 | ,
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Few days ago Exchange Team relesed the first Security Update for Exchange 2013 (MS13-061).

This security update was rated as Critical and resolves three publicly disclosed vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server. The vulnerabilities exist in the WebReady Document Viewing and Data Loss Prevention features of Microsoft Exchange Server. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution in the security context of the transcoding service on the Exchange server if a user previews a specially crafted file using Outlook Web App (OWA).

More information you can find here:

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS13-061 – Critical

Unfortunately after some people reported issues after installing new security update for Exchange 2013 MS13-061  (KB2874216), Microsoft pulled it untill further notice.

Installation of new security update MS13-061 can breaks your installation of Exchange 2013 and you can experience the following symptoms:

  • The content index (CI) for mailbox databases shows “Failed” on the affected server.
  • The Microsoft Exchange Search Host Controller service is missing.
  • You see a new service that is named “Host Controller service for Exchange.”

 

So now it’s not recommended to install MS13-061 on Microsoft Exchange 2013 servers.

Continue reading →

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Exchange 2010 CAS RPC & OWA active connections

  By Remigiusz Szatkowski | 09/07/2013 - 02:25 |
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Sometimes you want to know how many users connect do your Exchange 2010 Client Access Servers. This information is useful then you are using Network Load Balancer or Hardware Load Balancer.
Then you can easily check if it works perfectly.

Information about users connections to specified CAS server you can get from Counters:

  •  MSExchange RpcClientAccess\User Count
  • MSExchange OWA\Current Unique Users

 

You can get value of those counters using Exchange Management Shell and paste following powershell code:

 

$CASServers = Get-ClientAccessServer | select name

Foreach ($srv in $CASServers){
 $RPC = Get-Counter "\MSExchange RpcClientAccess\User Count" -ComputerName $srv.name
 $OWA = Get-Counter "\MSExchange OWA\Current Unique Users" -ComputerName $srv.name
 New-Object PSObject -Property @{
 Server = $srv.name
 "RPC Client Access" = $RPC.CounterSamples[0].CookedValue
 "Outlook Web App" = $OWA.CounterSamples[0].CookedValue
 }
}

 

You only need to have access to all CAS servers, then you will get result like below:

 

CAS_statistics

 

 

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Exchange 2010 Administrator Audit Log – script

  By Remigiusz Szatkowski | 07/06/2013 - 04:00 |
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Till now we wrote two articles about Adminstrator Audit Log.

First described how to enable and configure Administrator Audit Log:

Exchange 2010 Administrator Audit Log – configuration

in second we explained how to search Administrator Audit Log:

Exchange 2010 Administrator Audit Log – search logs

 

Now we will describe how to automate search of Administrator Audit Log.

During Administrator Audit Log configuration we set, how long audit logs will be stored in a hidden arbitration mailbox.

The command you to configure how long the logs should be kept are presented below:

Set-AdminAuditLogConfig -AdminAuditLogAgeLimit 60.00:00:00

 

To specify a value of days, use the format dd.hh:mm:ss so in this example logs will be kept for 60 days.

Continue reading →

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Exchange 2010 Administrator Audit Log – search logs

  By Remigiusz Szatkowski | 06/06/2013 - 02:12 |
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We wrote how to enable Administrator Audit Log on Exchange 2010 in last post:

Exchange 2010 Administrator Audit Log – configuration

 

Now we want to explain how can we search logs or export them.

 

We can see logs and export them using:

  • ECP console
  • CMDlet Search-AdminAuditLog or New-AdminAuditLogSearch

 

Using ECP console to search and export logs:

Run ECP console and choose:

  1. In the drop-down list box next to Mail > Options, click My Organization from the Select what to manage list.
  2. Click Reporting, click Auditing, and then click Export Configuration Changes.
  3. Select a date range using the Start Date and End Date fields.
  4. Select the recipient who should receive the XML file using the Select users to email the audit log to field.
  5. Click Export.

Continue reading →

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Exchange 2010 Administrator Audit Log – configuration

  By Remigiusz Szatkowski | 05/06/2013 - 04:20 |
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audit

If your Exchange organization has more than one administrators, and sometimes you need to know who did what, then you should use Exchange Administrator Audit Log.

When you enable Administrator Audit Log it will help you to keep a track of the changes made to any Exchange configuration like:

creating new mailbox, changing receive connectors, transport rules etc.

 

Those information are quite important during troubleshooting your Exchange environment.

In Microsoft Exchange 2010 RTM, Administrator Audit Log logged all operations to mailbox. When you enable audit log then you need to use parameter AdminAuditLogMailbox to specify mailbox to store all audit logs.

But with SP1 for Exchange 2010 you don’t need to use mailbox anymore.

Now all logs are stored in a hidden, dedicated arbitration mailbox.

 

To check if Administrator Audit Log is enabled we should use following command:

Get-AdminAuditLogConfig | FL

 

we will receive information about audit settings like below:

Continue reading →

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Provisioning Guide for Lync-Skype Connectivity

  By Remigiusz Szatkowski | 04/06/2013 - 04:29 | ,
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On Microsoft Download Center WebSite you can find document describing how to create Lync-Skype connectivity

Lync

 

To download this document go to:

Provisioning Guide for Lync-Skype Connectivity

 

In this Lync-Skype connectivity guide you will find information about:

  • Provisioning Guide for Lync-Skype Connectivity
  • Enabling Lync – Skype Connectivity for Office 365 and Lync Online
  • Overview of Lync-Skype Connectivity Process for Lync Server
  • Accessing the Microsoft Lync Server Public IM Connectivity Provisioning Site
  • Enabling Federation and Public IM Connectivity (PIC)
  • Using Lync-Skype Connectivity as an End User

Continue reading →

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