1. How do I verify OMA is functioning?
You can verify Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) is functioning from a desktop machine running IE 6.0 Assuming that SERVER1 is running Exchange 2003:
1. From a desktop PC running IE6.0, navigate to http://server1/oma
2. Enter the logon credentials for an existing mailbox which resides on server1
3. Click the OK hyperlink when you receive the warning about your device being unsupported
4. Welcome to OMA!
Amongst other problems, the ASP.NET account changes which causes OMA to cease functioning.
3. I have just upgraded and I can not use OMA, why?
The setting to enable/disable OMA Browse is actually set during ForestPrep. Exchange 2003 ForestPrep will no longer enable OMA Browse by default. Exchange 2003 ForestPrep/Reinstall will keep it enabled if it was already enabled. This means that OMA Browse WON'T be enabled when running ForestPrep to upgrade from Exchange 2000. You can find OMA Browse settings in ESM, under Global Settings -> Mobile Services -> Properties
Note: ActiveSync and AUTD remain unchanged.
4. Which devices are supported by Microsoft to be used with OMA?
Device support for Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) Browse is dictated by the Device Update package installed on the Exchange 2003 server. When you run Exchange 2003 Setup today, the DU2 package is silently installed as part of the installation.
Approximately, every 6 months, new Device Update packages are released. This will add support for more devices to your Exchange server.
The current Device Update package is DU4. The full list of devices and which DU package they are included in is available here.
Outlook Mobile Access and Exchange Server ActiveSync features, formerly found in Microsoft Mobile Information Server 2002, are now built-in with all Exchange Server 2003 Standard installations.
Complementing the Outlook 2003 and Outlook Web Access mobile improvements, Outlook Mobile Access and Exchange Server ActiveSync help enable secure corporate e-mail on a range of mobile devices including browser-based mobile phones, Microsoft Windows Powered Pocket PC, and Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone devices.
Adding this functionality to the core Exchange Server 2003 product reduces the need to deploy additional mobile server products in the corporate environment, thus lowering the total cost of ownership.
6. Can I deploy OMA in a mixed environment?
In a mixed Exchange environment, you must use Exchange 2003 for both the front-end and back-end servers to gain access to mailboxes through Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) and Exchange ActiveSync. For mailboxes on Exchange 5.5 and 2000, you need to deploy Microsoft Mobile Information Server.
7. What are the new OWA Hot Keys?
* Ctrl+N: New Mail (or Post, if in public folders)
* Ctrl+R: Reply to currently selected mail in view
* Ctrl+Shift+R: Reply all to currently selected mail in view
* Ctrl+Shift+F: Forward currently selected mail
* Ctrl+U: Mark currently selected message(s) as unread
* Ctrl+Q: Mark currently selected message(s) as read .
8. How do I disable potions of the OWA interface?
Exchange 2000 SP2 introduced the concept of OWA segmentation. This is where you can selectively enable/disable certain features in the web client. Exchange 2003 extends the segmentation options found in Exchange 2000. You can either set global (per server) segmentation via a registry parameter, or set the msExchMailboxFolderSet attribute on user objects. A bit mask determines the functionality available to the user.
9. How do I activate session timeouts for OWA users?
Outlook Web Access user credentials are now stored in a cookie. When the user logs out of Outlook Web Access, the cookie is cleared and is no longer valid for authentication. Additionally, by default the cookie is set to expire automatically after 20 minutes of user inactivity. See Logon Modifications for OWA Users for the instructions.
10. How do I stop users from going to a bookmarked /LOGON.ASP page after conversion to 2003 OWA?
After converting from Exchange 5.5 OWA to 2000 OWA, all the users had book marked the URL of mail.company.com/exchange/logon.asp, since in 5.5 OWA it automatically would pull the user from the root URL into a logon page (since it used ASP) but now the user only sees the same base URL of mail.company.com/exchange. So once the users used the book mark or in some cases the “autocomplete” feature in IE they would be pulled to a dead address.
Go into the front-end server that is hosting your OWA.
* Start up IIS admin and locate the /Exchange virtual directory
* Right click on the /Exchange directory and using the “wizard” create a new virtual directory called logon.asp. When it prompts where the content is located just put something like c:inetpubwwwroot
* Once the virtual root has been created, right click it, select properties then select the tab labeled “Virtual Directory”
* Select the “A redirection to a URL” and then in the “Redirect to” URL enter /exchange/
What happens is when the user hits the virtual root of /exchange/logon.asp it pulls the user back to only /exchange*
11. How do I make OWA work properly with Extended Characters?
Beginning in Exchange 2000, messages with extended characters are encoded with UTF-8, by default. For more information see KB273615 and KB281745
12. How do I disable OWA for a single user in Exchange 2000/2003?
In Active Directory Users and Computers (Advanced Features view) open the properties for the user object and choose Exchange Advanced | Protocol Settings | HTTP | Settings | and uncheck the ‘Enable for mailbox' check box.
13. How can I get a list of connection agreements in Exchange 2003 ADC?
Run the ExchDump utility with the /CA switch.
14. Can I use the Windows 2003 Active Directory connector with Exchange 2003?
No, you need to install the Exchange 2003 ADC.
15. What are the new ADC Tools?
The Active Directory Connector management console now contains an ADC Tools option. ADC Tools is a collection of wizards and tools that help you set up connection agreements by scanning your current Active Directory and Exchange 5.5 Directory and organization, and automatically creating the recommended connection agreements. The following wizards are included in the ADC Tools:
Resource Mailbox Wizard This wizard identifies Active Directory accounts that match more than one Exchange 5.5 mailbox. Using this wizard, you can match the appropriate primary mailbox to the Active Directory account and stamp other mailboxes with the NTDSNoMatch attribute, which designates the mailboxes as resource mailboxes. You can either make these changes online or export a commaseparated value (.csv) file that you can update and import into the Exchange 5.5 directory.
Connection Agreement Wizard This wizard recommends connection agreements based on your Exchange 5.5 directory and Active Directory configuration. You can review the list of recommended connection agreements and select those you want the wizard to create.
The Exchange Server Deployment Tools lead you through the process of installing Active Directory Connector and running ADC Tools.
16. Why am I getting the 9582s and what is VM Fragmentation?
VM fragmentation is when the virtual memory becomes fragmented and can prevent stores form mounting. The 9582 event is the event that warns about this condition. For more information refer to “The Extensible Storage Engine Database Engine Contributes to Virtual Memory Fragmentation (324118)”
17. Are there any other differences between Win2k and Win2k3 clustering?
Win2k3 Enterprise and Datacenter both support 8-node clusters. MSCS (Microsoft Clustering Services) is now available for high availability. NLB Manager allows the administrator to configure the NLB service in a central location thus avoiding mistakes from repetitive actions. For more information see the “Technical Overview of Clustering in Windows Server 2003″ and “Windows Server 2003 Server Cluster Architecture” documents.
18. How many cluster nodes are supported by each version of Exchange?
Exchange 2003 and Windows 2003, Standard Edition will run up to a 4-node cluster. Exchange 2003 and Windows 2003 Enterprise will run an 8-node cluster with at least one passive node.
19. Do I still have to cycle the services on fail back like in 2000 Active/Passive mode?
The Exchange services are automatically shutdown on failover so when fail back happens the services are automatically brought back online for a clean address space.
20. What happened to Active/Active Clustering?
Active/Active clustering is only supported with a 2-node cluster limited to 1900 concurrent connections.
21. Which cluster configuration is preferred?
Microsoft recommends Active/Passive clustering because it:
* Scales better
* sizes the same way as a stand alone Exchange server
* can have up to 8 nodes in the cluster
* always fails over to a fresh node
22. If there is still an M: drive mapped, why does the free space number look funny?
The free space number shown on the M: drive is based on the main install drive for Exchange. It is not related to the drive space on the drives where the stores actually exist.
23. Will an in place upgrade from Exchange 2000 remove the M: drive?
Yes, In both the clean install and upgrade from Exchange 2000 scenarios, Exchange 2003 does not present EXIFS as drive letter M:
24. Is there an easier way to move mailboxes grouped by mailbox.store?
Yes, you can now move mailboxes through ESM grouped by mailbox store.
25. How do I move the log files?
The new ESM allows the administrator to move the log files through the GUI.
26. Why does the size of the EDB file not change when I move users out of that store?
The .edb file will only decrease in size once a database defrag is performed.
the .stm file is part of the information store database that contains the native internet formatted items. It is used to improve the performance of the database.
28. How do you restrict Distribution Lists?
Submissions can be restricted to a limited number of security principles though the standard Windows Discretionary Access Control List (DACL). This feature prevents non-trusted senders, such as unauthorized Internet users, from sending mail to an internal only distribution list. An example of this would be an “All Employees” distribution list which should not be available to anyone outside the company (by spoofing or otherwise). Note Restricted distribution lists will only work on the bridgehead servers or SMTP gateway servers running Exchange 2003.
29. How do I strip the attachment from an NDR?
You can do this through a registry entry. But there are two drawbacks. Once this is done, the details that are necessary to display the notification in the preview pane are stripped, and the originator of the message cannot use the Send Again option.
30. How do I limit the maximum amount of messages the SMTP queue can hold?
You have to use the MaxMessageObjects registry key.
31. How do I filter incoming mail by subject or attachment?
Exchange 2003 does not have any built-in function to accomplish that. Either look for a third party tool or develop your own Windows SMTP Transport Event Sink.
32. How do I activate the real time safe block list?
Enabling connection filter involves two steps:
1. Create the recipient filter using the Connection Filtering tab on the Message Delivery Properties under Global Settings.
2. Apply the filter at the SMTP virtual server level.
33. What do the various queue names mean?
DNS messages pending submission - Contains delivery status notifications (DSN), also known as non-delivery reports that are ready to be delivered by Exchange. The Delete All Messages (no NDR) and Delete All Messages (NDR) functions are unavailable for this queue.
Messages queued for deferred delivery - Contains the messages marked by the client for deferred delivery or messages simply awaiting delivery at a different time.
Failed message retry - Contains messages that have been marked as retry due to a delivery failure. This queue also does not have the NDR functions mention in the DNS messages pending submission queue.
34. How do I move SMTP queues and badmail directories?
Exchange 2003 allows you to change the location of queue directories for SMTP virtual servers and X.400.
The Directions are in the document entitled “Exchange Titanium Getting Started Guide”
35. Can I view the queues on a per server basis?
Yes, in the new Queue Viewer in the Exchange 2003 System Manager.
