PowerShell and Reporting. Microsoft has provided Exchange admins / engineers with a feature rich scripting language that allows for some great reporting. However, one off reports and spur of the moment reports are one thing, but an active monitoring system is another. How can these reports be made useful to the average engineer and how…
New Exchange Updates are Out
Microsoft just released their newest Updates for Exchange 2007, 2010 and 2013: Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 6 Exchange Server 2010 SP3 Update Rollup 7 Exchange 2007 SP3 Update Rollup 14 Perhaps the most anticipated is CU6 for Exchange Server 2013 due to the fact that it fixes an issue in the Hybrid Configuration Wizard…
Exchange 2013 and Quotas
In a previous article I noted an easy way to set Quotas via PowerShell. Now, I explore reporting on quotas and mailboxes that are over the quota that was set for it. One of the attributes I look for While researching some information for this article I ran into an interesting KB article on this….
Exchange Licensing – Enterprise/Standard
Often while working through design features with a client I have to sort through a wish list for DLP, EAS, OWA, Retention Policies, Databases, etc. the client needs to decide if a feature is worth the Enterprise License for the server or an Enterprise CAL for the end user. I find it quite an exercise…
Migration Conundrums – Quotas and Mailbox Arrangement
Performing an Exchange Migration requires a lot of pre-planning and even some research before any work is done. Two often overlooked items are how to sort the mailboxes into the new Exchange Server databases as well as mailbox quotas. How will the mailboxes be arranged – by size, name, random, department, etc.? For Quotas will…
Exchange 2003 EOL and Migrating to 2013
Exchange Server 2003. Yes, 2003. Why would an organization still be running 2003 in 2014? With an average upgrade cycle between 3 to 6 years, an eleven (11) year old server is quite old. So what would hold back an organization from upgrading their messaging system? Budget issues? Stability of 2003? Lack of technical knowledge…
Exchange 2013 PowerShell Scripts – A Practical Guide – Part 2
For part two (2) of my series on Practical Exchange scripts I will cover prewritten scripts that come from MVPs and other Exchange engineers as well as some of my scripts that I have created over the years. The purpose is to provide a sampling of what can be done with Exchange Powershell to help…
Exchange 2013 PowerShell Scripts – A Practical Guide – Part 1
While exploring possible topics for a User Group Presentation I came up with the idea of promoting the use of PowerShell Scripts for use with Exchange Server 2013. Now while this may seem like a novel topic, it is nevertheless a good topic because so many on-prem support engineers are failing to see the benefit…
Exchange Labs for Engineers – Part 2
In part two of my series on Exchange Labs I will focus on the new lab that I am in the process of building. My goals for the lab are relatively ‘simple’ – 128GB for running VMs; plenty of storage for snapshots, ISOs, backups and virtual machines; fast network connections between all nodes and a…
Exchange Labs for Engineers – Part 1
In this series I will cover my thought process for creating a home lab to be used for keeping your skills fresh and for testing out scenarios that you encounter or wish to simulate for your own knowledge. History of home my lab environment About 5 years ago I decided that I needed hardware at…
