Exchange 2013, SharePoint 2013 and Lync 2013 – virtual machines from Microsoft

Microsoft has published a complete set of virtual machines ready to use with Exchange 2013, Lync 2013 and SharePoint 2013.

You can use these virtual machines as a Lab for 180 days.

You can use all or part of these VM’s depending of the scenario you want to evaluate, including unified messaging.

If you want to run the full environment, you need to host the VM’s on a server which has 24 Gb of RAM and 150 Gb of disk space.

 

Download the VM’s here:

 

Multi-Tenant Scalability Guidance for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013

Microsoft released document contains high-level guidance for properly scaling and deploying a multi-tenant Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 solution.

 

It includes details of testing performed in Microsoft labs to validate the scalability of the product and suggests methods that can be used during the design and deployment process to mitigate potential risks associated with such solutions.

You can download it here:

Multi-Tenant Scalability Guidance for Exchange Server 2013

Exchange Server 2013 Deployment Assistant Updated

At the beginning of August Exchange Team updated Exchange Server 2013 Deployment Assistant.

New version include the following new scenarios:

  • Upgrading from a mixed Exchange 2007/Exchange 2010 deployment to Exchange 2013
  • Configuring an Exchange 2013-based hybrid deployment for Exchange 2010 organizations

These new scenarios provide step-by-step guidance about how to upgrade your mixed Exchange 2007/Exchange 2010 organization to benefit from the improvements and new features of Exchange 2013. Additionally, Exchange 2010 organizations can now configure a hybrid deployment with Office 365 using Exchange 2013 if you would like to leverage the newest improvements to the Hybrid Configuration Wizard.

You can use deployment assistant here:

Exchange Server 2013 Deployment Assistant

 

Exchange 2013 Security Update MS13-061 not recommended to install

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.

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Exchange 2013 RTM CU2 (KB2859928) updated release – fix public folders issue

Cumulative Update 2 for Exchange Server 2013 was re-released yesterday (07/29/2013)

New version of CU2 for Exchange 2013 RTM fixes a serious permission issue when moving modern public folders mailboxes around.

 

We wrote about this in article:

Exchange 2013 CU2 Issue – Public Folder Permissions Loss After PF Mailbox Move

 

Regardless of whether you are using modern public folders, we strongly recommend upgrading to this build of Exchange 2013 RTM CU2.

 

New CU2 has build number: 15.0.712.24 (KB2859928)

and can be downloaded from Microsoft Download Center:

 Cumulative Update 2 for Exchange Server 2013 (KB2859928)

Exchange2013CU2v2

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Exchange 2013 CU2 Issue – Public Folder Permissions Loss After PF Mailbox Move

Exchange Team Blog inform about some issue when you install CU2 for Exchange 2013 and you use Modern Public Folders.

This issue can occur when you move public folder mailboxes.

When you move public folder mailbox it’s possible that you will lost permission structure on some public folders, specially:

  1. If you move (via New-MoveRequest) a secondary public folder (PF) mailbox, the permissions on any public folder (including well known folders) not stored in the secondary PF mailbox would be lost from the secondary PF mailbox and replaced by the default ACL. The original ACLs can be restored via a full synchronization event by executing Update-PublicFolderMailbox -InvokeSynchronizer <Public Folder Mailbox> -FullSync.
  2. If you move (via New-MoveRequest) the primary PF mailbox, the permissions on any public folder (including well known folders) not stored in that public folder mailbox are lost and replaced by the default ACL.

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Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator 5.9

With new CU2 for Exchange 2013 we also received new Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator now in version 5.9

This version reflect changes introduced by installation of CU2 for Exchange 2013 like the increased maximum number of databases per server.

You can download new Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator here:

Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator 5.9

 

And release notes is available here:

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Exchange 2013 CU2 released (KB2859928)

Microsoft announced the release of Exchange 2013 CU2 on the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog.

Exchange 2013 Cumulative Update 2 can be downloaded here:

Cumulative Update 2 for Exchange Server 2013 (KB2859928)

 

After installation CU2 you will get version number: 15.0.712.22

 

CU2 contains a number of fixes as well as new/improved features, including:

  • Per-server database support increased back to 100
  • OWA Silent Redirection
  • Addition of the DAG Management service
  • Changes to Managed Availability
  • Improved PowerShell Help Updating
  • OWA Search improvements
  • Malware Filter Rules

 

Description of Cumulative Update 2 for Exchange 2013 you can find below:

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TechEd NA 2013 Exchange 2013 Sessions on Channel9

Just finished TechEd North America 2013, and already you can see through Channel9 sessions that took place there.

 

Below you can find almost all of Exchange 2013 sessions presented at TechEd North America 2013:

Understanding Compliance in Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, and Office

TechEdNA2013_1

Bharat Suneja

Organizations are increasingly in need of solutions that help them to meet compliance requirements and protect information. Come learn about our overall Office-wide investments in Compliance in Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Excel, etc.

Download High Quality MP4    High Quality WMV

 

 

Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Managed Availability

TechEdNA2013_2

Ross Smith

In this session, learn about managed availability. With managed availability, internal monitoring and recovery-oriented features are tightly integrated to help prevent failures, proactively restore services, initiate server failovers automatically, or alert administrators to take action. The focus is on monitoring and managing the end user experience rather than just server and component uptime to help keep the service continuously available.

Download: High Quality MP4    High Quality WMV

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