Just to let you know CRM 2011 Rollup 7  has been released

You can download from the following location http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29221&WT.mc_id=rss_alldownloads_all

Windows Live Essentials 2011 has been released and is now available for download from the Microsoft Download Center . You can download via the following link http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29219&WT.mc_id=rss_alldownloads_all 

We’ve had a few issues recent in regards to the CRM 2011 Outlook add-in on Windows 8.

The issues manifested there selves in a two different ways.

1. First being that we couldn’t install the CRM client due to the Installation of Windows Identity Foundation failing
2. CRM Client installed but we were getting connection errors even after typing the correct CRM URL.

We resolved this by adding the “Windows Identity Foundation 3.5”  and all started working.

Here’s quite a useful command that will come in handy while troubleshooting name resolution issues. The below command will show you all the entries in your DNS cache and will help you identify if it needs to be cleared as it may be holding an old IP address for a certain hostname.

ipconfig /displaydns

Just a quick useful command to show the amount of white space in your Exchange Database

Get-MailboxDatabase -Status | Select-Object Server,Name,AvailableNewMailboxSpace

The command issues an output like below

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Evaluation has now been released!

You can download it from the following location http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29066

“Microsoft SQL Server 2012 enables a cloud-ready information platform that will help organizations unlock breakthrough insights across the organization as well as quickly build solutions and extend data across on-premises and public cloud backed by capabilities for mission critical confidence.
SQL Server 2012 enables a cloud-ready information platform that will help organizations unlock breakthrough insights across the organization as well as quickly build solutions and extend data across on-premises and public cloud backed by capabilities for mission critical confidence:

• Deliver required uptime and data protection with AlwaysOn
• Gain breakthrough & predictable performance with ColumnStore Index
• Help enable security and compliance with new User-defined Roles and Default Schema for Groups
• Enable rapid data discovery for deeper insights across the organization with ColumnStore Index
• Ensure more credible, consistent data with SSIS improvements, a Master Data Services add-in for Excel, and new Data Quality Services
• Optimize IT and developer productivity across server and cloud with Data-tier Application Component (DAC) parity with SQL Azure and SQL Server Data Tools for a unified dev experience across database, BI, and cloud functions”

Just a quick PowerShell script we’ve wrote that will basically alert you when a Replay Queue Length goes above a configured threshold (In the below Scripts Case it’s a 1000 but you can alter to what you want)

It’s best to configure the below PowerShell to run in task scheduler on your server on an hourly occurrence . Please note an email will only be triggered when the Queue length goes above the value you’ve specified.

Please Edit the Below highlighted in red to suit your needs and then save the script to a PS1 and your all ready to run it

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010
Function sendEmail ([String] $body)
{
    $MailMessage = New-Object System.Net.Mail.MailMessage
    $MailMessage.From = EmailAddressFrom@Email.com
    $MailMessage.To.Add(EmailAddressTo@Email.com)
    $MailMessage.Subject = "Replay Queue Length Above 1000"
    $MailMessage.Body = $body
    $MailMessage.Priority = "High"

    $SMTPClient = New-Object System.Net.Mail.SMTPClient
    $SMTPClient.Host = "ExchangeServerName"
    $SMTPClient.Send($MailMessage)
}

Get-MailboxServer | Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus | ForEach {
    If ($_.ReplayQueueLength -gt "1000")
    {
$body += "ServerName"
$body += "`r`n "
$body += $_.MailboxServer
$body += "`r`n "
$body += "Database"
$body += "`r`n "
$body += $_.DatabaseName
$body += "`r`n "
$body += "Replay Queue Length"
$body += "`r`n "
$body += $_.ReplayQueueLength
$body += "`r`n "
$body += "`r`n "
$body += "`r`n "
$body += "`r`n "
}
}
 
if ($Body -ne $null)
{
sendemail $Body}"

The Outpoint to email  will be like below

ServerName

TempServer

Database

TempDB

Replay Queue Length

9482

We came across an issue recently where we have a few alerts flagged up on our monitoring system (SCOM 2007 R2) in regards to the below Exchange error.

Object [CN=Test,OU=Test,DC=Test,DC=com]. Property [HomeMtaServerId] is set to value [Test.com/Configuration/Deleted Objects/Microsoft MTA
DEL:Guid], it is pointing to the Deleted Objects container in Active Directory. This property should be fixed as soon as possible.

The issue is as said above that the HomeMTA value is set to deleted objects.

You can run the following in the Exchange Management Shell to quickly resolve the issue, add the username above into the below PowerShell command. This will correct the HomeMTA value to the correct setting.

Get-Mailbox “MailboxMentionedAbove” | update-recipient

Skype Beta has been released today and is now available for download from the Marketplace for your Window 7.5 Phone . You can download via the following link http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/c3f8e570-68b3-4d6a-bdbb-c0a3f4360a51 

Just a quick blog on how you can allow a Distribution Group to receive mail from External Users in Exchange 2010/2007

1. Open the Exchange Management Console

2. Expand Recipient Configuration > Distribution Group

3. Right Click Distribution Group you need and choose properties

4. Go to the Mail Flow Settings Tab > Select Message Delivery Restrictions and choose properties

5. Un-tick “Require that all senders are authenticated”

6. Press ok

You will now receive mail from External users to your Distribution Group