Exchange Center

The best way to learn about Exchange Server is to get hands-on with the product. And the best way to get hands-on without risking a production environment is to build your own test lab.

The following blog post is a trimmed-down excerpt from the eBook "Exchange Server Troubleshooting Companion":

One of the primary talking points of my Storage Configuration Options for Exchange session at IT Dev Connections was around JBOD with Exchange, and what that definition means to various people.

A career-defining moment for many IT professionals is the day that their customer requests some data to be restored from backup, and the backup is found to be not working. Or even worse, the backup doesn’t even exist.

It’s not a situation you ever want to find yourself in, and to help you to avoid it I’m going to tell you about the common (but easily remedied) mistakes that can lead to such an unfortunate position.

The following blog post is a trimmed-down excerpt from the eBook "Exchange Server Troubleshooting Companion":

Mailbox corruption is not a new problem for Exchange Administrators, Support Engineers, and Consultants. Causes of corruption can vary and include:

Exchange Server 2016 has arrived and has been lauded as one of the most reliable releases of Exchange yet. In many ways, it’s an evolution of the core technologies built into Exchange Server 2010 – but the way it’s put together has been revolutionized, making deployment choices much more straightforward.

Over the past two weeks, Microsoft has made a range of announcements around updates and new releases of Office, Office 365 and Exchange. The fact that Microsoft announces updates is hardly surprising. By now you should be used to the never-ending cascade of new features that are constantly dropped onto the market. A good way to keep track of what’s to come is the Office 365 Roadmap website.

Earlier this week, Tony Redmond wrote about Jeffrey Snover – also known as the godfather of PowerShell – being promoted to Technical Fellow at Microsoft; one of the highest achievable ranks.

Given that Jeffrey is considered to be the founding father of PowerShell, that does not really come as a surprise, as PowerShell has changed the way we work and interact with systems. And this does not only apply to large-scale environments or cloud solutions like Office 365.

A few days ago, Microsoft released the public preview of Exchange 2016 to the world. For many messaging professionals, this is usually an exciting time. But is it really? I remember when Exchange 2007 'hit the market.' I spent quite a few long days and nights discovering the new features and dramatically changed architecture. Pretty much the same happened when Microsoft unleashed Exchange 2010. The newly minted Database Availability Group kept many people – including myself – fascinated and busy for a long time. One of my fondest memories about that time was a hefty, yet in hindsight very funny, discussion that followed a technical presentation at my former employer.

On June 16 2015, Microsoft released Cumulative Update 9 for Exchange Server 2013 along with Update Rollup 10 for Exchange Server 2010 and Update Rollup 17 (yes, that many already) for Exchange Server 2007.

Unfortunately for some, Update Rollup 9 looks like it's going to be another uneventful update —provided that no post-installation issues arise. Except for changing where Sent Items are stored when a message is sent as or on behalf of a Shared Mailbox, Microsoft reported no new features or changes in existing functionality. That is not too surprising, given that Exchange Server 2013 is now in its third year.

Yesterday, Microsoft issued its monthly security bulletin. This time around, the bulletin also includes a fix for a vulnerability that affects only Exchange 2013 environments.