Plan and Design a Lync Topology
Plan Lync Site Topology
Supported Lync Server 2013 Topologies

Lync Server 2013 supports 

1. Deployment of sites on premises in an organization
2. Integration of on-premises deployments with Lync Online deployments, which is known as a hybrid deployment.
3. In a hybrid deployment, some users are homed on-premises and some users are homed online.

A Lync Server 2013 on-premises deployment consists of the following:

Your deployment must include at least one central site (also known as a data center).

Each central site must contain at least one Enterprise Edition Front End pool or one Standard Edition server. 

These consist of the following:

1. Enterprise Edition Front End pool, which consists of one or more Front End Servers
2. Separate Back End Server.

• A Front End pool can contain a maximum of twelve Front End Servers.
• For SIP traffic, we recommend DNS load balancing, but hardware load balancing is also supported. 
• If you use DNS load balancing for SIP traffic, you still need a hardware load balancer for HTTP traffic.
• We recommend SQL Server mirroring for high availability of databases. 
• The back-end database requires a separate instance
• You can collocate the archiving database, monitoring database, persistent chat database, and persistent chat compliance database with it. 
• Lync Server 2013 also supports shared cluster for the file shares.

• Standard Edition server includes a collocated SQL Server Express database.
• Your deployment can also have one or more branch sites associated with a central site.

Important
If you collocate Lync Server databases
We highly recommend assessing all factors that might affect availability and performance.
To verify failover capabilities, we recommend testing all failover scenarios.

Q: Can we have more than one central site?

The Lync Server 2013 Planning Tool

Two key areas of the new Lync 2013 planning tool are:
Planning Tool Itself
and
Planning Tool Reporting

(Continued..) 

IC621105.jpg

Recording of this session is available on YouTube
Here we discussed about.

• ACID Property of a Database
• Active Directory Sites and Services
• Active Directory Replication
• Domain Controller
• Global Catalog Server
• Logical and Physical Components of Active Directory
• FSMO Roles
• Domain Functional Level
• Forest Functional Level
• Installing Active Directory (Windows Server 2012)

ACID Property of a Database

In computer science, ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties that guarantee that database transactions are processed reliably.
In the context of databases, a single logical operation on the data is called a transaction

ACID Property of a Database

Atomicity

Atomicity requires that each transaction is “all or nothing”: if one part of the transaction fails, the entire transaction fails, and the database state is left unchanged.

Consistency

The consistency property ensures that any transaction will bring the database from one valid state to another.

Isolation

The isolation property ensures that the concurrent execution of transactions results in a system state that could have been obtained if transactions are executed serially, i.e. one after the other. Each transaction has to execute in total isolation.

Durability

Durability means that once a transaction has been committed, it will remain so, even in the event of power loss, crashes, or errors. Even if the database crashes it can be restored.

Active Directory Sites

• Sites in Active Directory represent the physical structure, or topology, of your network.
• Managed using Active Directory Sites and Services Console.
• Each Sites are connected by a Site link and each Site link has a cost associated.

Active Directory Replication

• Intrasite Replication
• Intersite Replication

Intrasite Replication

• Happens between DC’s in the same site.
• Replication happens 15 seconds after a change.
• This happens automatically.
• Intrasite topology is automatically generated by KCC (Knowledge consistency checker) which runs on every DC.

Intersite Replication

• This is not created automatically. Administrator makes.
• Active Directory will automatically pick a Domain Controller from each site to act as a Bridgehead server.
• Bridgehead servers replicate changes between the sites. This is much efficient than every DCs attempting to replicate to other sites.
• When a change happens to the bridgehead server change is replicated to all other domain controllers inn that site.
• Administer can manually select the bridgehead server, they are called preferred bridgehead server. If they are selected manually and if those DCs aren’t available no replication will occur.
• Each of these sites are connected each other by Site Link.

Site Link

• Determine the schedule of replication.
• Allows to configure a cost
• Cost determines at what priority these links should be used. Lower cost, higher priority
• KCC running on bridge will act as ISTG (InterSite Topology Generator.
• Whenever a site link goes down, KCC creates a new InterSite Replication Topology. KCC runs every 15 mins.

Transport Protocol

• RPC over IP
• SMTP

RPC over IP

• Supports every type of data replication required for Active Directory
• Synchronous
• Used when the connectivity is reliable.
• Always used for Intrasite replication.

SMTP

• Cannot be used to replicate every data replication required for Active Directory, for ex. It cannot do file replication. Files include – Login Scripts and Group Policies.
• Asynchronous
• Used when the connectivity is unreliable.
• Please refer this technet for more details.

RPC over IP is normally used in the real world.

Active Directory Replication Database prospective

Domain Controller

• Server which has Active Directory installed
• Uses LDAP port 389 for communication

Global Catalog Server

• The global catalog is a domain controller that contains a searchable, partial representation of every object in every domain in a multi domain Active Directory forest.
• Uses non standard LDAP port 3268 for communication.

Lets review AD Database Layers again

ESE Layer

• JetEngine Database Engine

Database Layer

• Schema Partition
• Config Partition
• Domain Partition
• Application Partition

Core Directory System Agent (DSA) Layer

• The directory service component that runs as Ntdsa.dll on each domain controller, providing the interfaces through which services and processes gain access to the directory database.

LDAP Layer

• The primary interface for AD DS access. Directory clients use LDAP v3 to connect to the DSA through the LDAP interface. The LDAP interface is part of Wldap32.dll. LDAP v3 is backward compatible with LDAP v2.

Replication Layer

• The replication management interface.

SAM Layer

• Proprietary interface for connecting to the DSA on behalf of clients that run Windows NT 4.0 or earlier.

Logical and Physical Components of Active Directory

Logical Components

• Domain
• OU
• Objects (not every objects)
• Global Catalog
• Tree
• Forest
• Group Policy

Physical Components

• Domain Controller
• Sites
• Site Link

Multi Master Replication

• Multi-master replication is a method of database replication which allows data to be stored by a group of computers, and updated by any member of the group.

Single Master Replication

• Single-master replication is a method of database replication which allows data to be stored by a group of computers, but can only be updated by one member of the group.

Active Directory works on Multi Mastered Replication Model except for few.

FSMO Roles
Flexible Single Master Operations Roles

Schema Master Role:

• The schema master domain controller controls all updates and modifications to the schema. Once the Schema update is complete, it is replicated from the schema master to all other DCs in the directory. To update the schema of a forest, you must have access to the schema master. There can be only one schema master in the whole forest.

Domain naming master Role:

• The domain naming master domain controller controls the addition or removal of domains in the forest. This DC is the only one that can add or remove a domain from the directory. It can also add or remove cross references to domains in external directories. There can be only one domain naming master in the whole forest.

Infrastructure Master Role:

• When an object in one domain is referenced by another object in another domain, it represents the reference by the SID and the DN of the object being referenced. The infrastructure FSMO role holder is the DC responsible for updating an object’s SID and distinguished name in a cross-domain object reference. At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the infrastructure master in each domain.
• Note: The Infrastructure Master (IM) role should be held by a domain controller that is not a Global Catalog server (GC). If the Infrastructure Master runs on a Global Catalog server it will stop updating object information because it does not contain any references to objects that it does not hold. This is because a Global Catalog server holds a partial replica of every object in the forest.

Relative ID (RID) Master Role:

• The RID master is responsible for processing RID pool requests from all domain controllers in a particular domain. When a DC creates a user or group, it attaches a unique Security ID (SID) to the object. This SID consists of a domain SID (the same for all SIDs created in a domain), and a relative ID (RID) that is unique for each security principal SID created in a domain. Each DC in a domain is allocated a pool of RIDs that it is allowed to assign to the security principals it creates. When a DC’s allocated RID pool falls below a threshold, that DC issues a request for additional RIDs to the domain’s RID master. The domain RID master responds to the request by retrieving RIDs from the domain’s unallocated RID pool and assigns them to the pool of the requesting DC. At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the RID master in the domain.

PDC Emulator Role:

• The PDC emulator is necessary to synchronize time in an enterprise. At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the PDC Emulator in each domain.
• The PDC emulator role also does the following functions:
• Password changes performed by other DCs in the domain are replicated preferentially to the PDC emulator.
• Authentication failures that occur at a given DC in a domain because of an incorrect password are forwarded to the PDC emulator before a bad password failure message is reported to the user.
• Account lockout is processed on the PDC emulator.
• Editing or creation of Group Policy Objects (GPO) is always done from the GPO copy found in the PDC Emulator’s SYSVOL share, unless configured not to do so by the administrator.
• The PDC emulator performs all of the functionality that a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Server-based PDC or earlier PDC performs for Windows NT 4.0-based or earlier clients.

More detailed documentation can be reviewed here:

http://www.petri.co.il/understanding_fsmo_roles_in_ad.htm

They are 5 FSMO Roles in total, 2 Forest wide and 3 Domain wide.

Domain Functional Level

• Active Directory has functional levels at the domain and forest levels which determine which Active Directory features are available. The higher the functional level the more features available.
• They also determine which Windows Server operating systems you can run on domain controllers in the domain or forest. However, functional levels do not affect which operating systems you can run on workstations and member servers that are joined to the domain or forest.

The different domain functional levels are:

Mixed or Interim

• Upgraded from an NT4 domain and may have some domain controllers that are still NT4.

Windows 2000 native

• Gives basic Active Directory functionality

Supported domain controller operating systems in that domain.

• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows 2000

Windows Server 2003

• Allows the computer name of a domain controller to be changed.
• Adds last login time stamp to each user account
• Adds UserPassword to iNetOrgPerson object. This is used when migrating from a 3rd party directory service. It allows the 3rd party password to be stored in Active Directory.
• Constrained delegation.

Supported domain controller operating systems in that domain.

• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Server 2003

Windows Server 2008

• DFS for replication of SysVol share.
• Advanced Encryption System (AES) for Kerberos
• Additional last login details. Adds attributes like number of failed login attempts.
• Fine-grained password. Allows multiple password policies to be defined in the same domain.

Supported domain controller operating systems in that domain.

• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 R2

• Authentication Mechanism Assurance. Adds details to the Kerberos ticket about how it was authenticated, e.g., if a SmartCard was used to authenticate the user.
• Automatic SPN (Service Principal Names) management.

Supported domain controller operating systems in that domain.

• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2012

• The KDC support for claims, compound authentication, and Kerberos armoring KDC administrative template policy has two settings (Always provide claims and Fail unarmored authentication requests) that require Windows Server 2012 domain functional level. For more information, see Support for claims, compound authentication, and Kerberos armoring.

Supported domain controller operating systems in that domain.

• Windows Server 2012

Forest functional level

Windows 2000

• Basic Active Directory features

Supported domain controller operating systems in that forest.

• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows 2000

Windows Server 2003

• Forest Trust: Allows a trust relationship between two forests. A forest trust allows resources to be shared between the forests.
• Rename Domains: This allows you to change a domain name.
• Improved Knowledge Consistency Checker (KCC)
• Allows Active Directory objects to be created with an expiration time.
• Convert INetOrgPerson to user: Allows an INetOrgPerson object to be converted to a user object and vice versa.
• The INetOrgPerson object is used when importing or exporting users from Active Directory to a 3rd party directory system.
• This forest level is required if you want to start using Windows Server 2008 Read Only Domain Controllers in Active Directory.
• Deactivation of attributes: Once you make a change to the schema of Active Directory it can’t be deleted. Deactivation allows you to deactivate attributes in the Schema that are no longer required.

Supported domain controller operating systems in that forest.

• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Server 2003

Windows Server 2008

• All of the features that are available at the Windows Server 2003 forest functional level, but no additional features are available. All domains that are subsequently added to the forest, however, operate at the Windows Server 2008 domain functional level by default.

Supported domain controller operating systems in that forest.

• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 R2

• All of the features that are available at the Windows Server 2003 forest functional level, plus the following features:
• Active Directory Recycle Bin, which provides the ability to restore deleted objects in their entirety while AD DS is running.
• All domains that are subsequently added to the forest will operate at the Windows Server 2008 R2 domain functional level by default.
• If you plan to include only domain controllers that run Windows Server 2008 R2 in the entire forest, you might choose this forest functional level for administrative convenience. If you do, you will never have to raise the domain functional level for each domain that you create in the forest.

Supported domain controller operating systems in that forest.

• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2012

• All of the features that are available at the Windows Server 2008 R2 forest functional level, but no additional features.

Supported domain controller operating systems in that forest.

• Windows Server 2012

Installing Active Directory (Windows Server 2012)

Review the recording and for documentation please refer.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/12370.step-by-step-guide-for-setting-up-windows-server-2012-domain-controller.aspx

Please find the slides here.
Thanks you all for spending your valuable time.

NOTE:

This is a copy of the post made on Road2Master Blog.

http://beta.road2master.com/Learning/understanding-active-directory-for-beginners-part-2/

Recording of this session is available on
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQupF2rE3mCcICksyRHABY1UIIUP4XqyB&feature=view_all

Here we discussed about.

1. What is Directory Service?
2. Active Directory
3. History of Directory Service
4. Advantage of LDAP
5. Back to Active Directory
6. Naming conventions
7. Requirement of DNS
8. AD objects
9. AD Database
10. Schema
11. Domain, Tree and Forest

What's a directory service?

• A directory service is a container that provides a hierarchical structure and allows to store objects for quick and easy access and manipulation. A directory service is like an electronic phone directory that lets you search for Name and retrieve the phone number, address, or other information without knowing where that person lives.
• Before directory services, If you needed a file, you needed to know the name of the file, the name of the server on which it is stored and its folder path. Now this works well on small network, but as the network grows it becomes challenging.
• Directory service is the means by which users and administrators can locate resources regardless of where those resources are located.
• Also earlier typical user could have more than one user account or password, and as the network grows and the number of username and password also increases, like one for File Server, one for email server, etc.

Active Directory

• Active Directory is Microsoft’s answer to directory services and it does a lot more than just locating resources.
• Active Directory take care of this by using Kerberos Authentication and Single Sign-On (SSO). SSO means ability of Kerberos to provide a user with one set of credentials and grant them access across a range of resources and services with that same set of credentials. Kerberos authenticates the credentials and issues the user a ticket with which the user gains access to the resources and services that support Kerberos.
• Active Directory also makes user management more easier as it acts as a single repository for all of this user and computer related information.

History of Directory Service

• Earlier to today’s directory services is X.500 specification that emerged from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), formerly the CCITT (Comité Consultatif International Téléphonique et Télégraphique).
• X.500 sits at the Application layer in the OSI model. X.500 contain several component databases that work together as a single entity.
• The primary database is the Directory Information Base (DIB), which stores information about the objects. Major limitation was its lack of integration with Internet Protocol (IP).
• Protocol it used was Directory Access Protocol, or DAP. DAP offered more functionality than that is required for implementing directory services, so a scaled down version called Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) was made. Later it was considered as a standard by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Advantage of LDAP

• LDAP relies on the TCP/IP stack rather than the OSI stack
• Integrate with IP and enable IP clients to use LDAP to query directory services.
• LDAP can perform hyper-searches. Giving one directory the ability to defer to another to provide requested data.
• LDAP’s API is C-based
• Like X.500, LDAP uses an inverted-tree hierarchical structure
• LDAP supports Kerberos authentication, Simple Authentication Security Layer (SASL), and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
• Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) is a framework for authentication and data security in Internet protocols.

Back to Active Directory

• AD is Microsoft’s answer to directory services and it does a lot more than just locating resources.
• AD uses LDAP as its access protocol.
• AD relies on DNS as its locator service, enabling clients to locate domain controllers through DNS queries.
• Lets Understand Active Directory in more detail.

Naming Conventions 

• AD contains information about objects in your enterprise.
• These objects can be computers, users, printers etc.
• AD is a container with nested containers holding other containers or objects.
• And we name these container and objects so that its easy to query or search.

AD supports several Naming Conventions.

• User Principal Names, or UPN
• LDAP names also known as Distinguished Name

User Principal Names, or UPN

• This one you’ll probably find most familiar, is as per RFC 822 specification.
• This has the same format as your email address: Like ashwin@road2master.ms
• They take the form user@domain
• If you have a user named User01 under Active Directory domain Domain01.local, the UPN will be User01@Domain01.Local
• We will discuss more about AD domain later. 
• In AD you can create custom UPNs too, which means you can also add User01@Domain01.com or User01@xyz.com as UPN for above mentioned object.
• More on these later.

LDAP names also known as Distinguished Name 

• Typically it has this format 

cn=common name

ou=organizational unit

dc=domain

for eg. cn=Ashwin,ou=Trainer,dc=Road2Master,dc=ms

• And query should look like this for the

LDAP://R2MAD01.road2master.ms/cn=Ashwin,ou=Trainer,dc=Road2Master,dc=ms

R2MAD01.road2master.ms is the FQDN of the Domain Controller.

Requirement of DNS

• DNS Server must support
• Service resource (SRV) records
• Dynamic update protocol specified by RFC 2136
• AD relies on DNS as its primary locator service, although its not the only mechanism for locating domain controllers (DCs).
• Domain Controller is the server which has Active Directory Installed.
• When a Domain Controller starts,
• It registers both its DNS name and NetBIOS name. More on NetBIOS name later.
• It add LDAP-specific SRV records in DNS to enable LDAP clients to locate DCs through LDAP queries.
• It also add Kerberos authentication protocol-specific SRV records to enable clients to locate servers running the Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) service.
• Also each DC also adds an A record that enables clients that don’t support SRV records to locate the DC through a simple host record lookup. You can disable this if required.

Active Directory objects

• Objects in AD can be either containers for other objects or they can be leaf objects, which do not serve as containers.
• Objects in AD have attributes, and these attributes not only define the object but also store data. This defines the character of that Object.
• Some attributes and optional and some are mandatory.
• Optional : Phone Number
• Mandatory: Username
• When an Object is created AD assigns a GUID, which is a 128-bit number and no two objects in AD have the same GUID.
• And If an object is moved from AD, it doesn't delete its GUID.
• Objects in AD are protected by Access Control Lists (ACLs).
• More on Security later.

Active Directory Database

• The ESE comprises of tables that define the structure of the directory.
• The Database Layer has three partition that define the contents of AD with an optional 4th table or partition.

Schema Partition

• This stores Active Directory Schema.
• Active Directory Schema defines what are the types of objects that can be created in the directory
• How are those objects relate to one another, and what are the mandatory and optional attributes of each object.
• And how can one create such objects.

Configuration Partition

• This contains configuration of AD.

Domain Partition 

• This partition stores the objects.

Application Partition

• This is an optional 4th partition that an administrator can create.
• More on this later.

• More about Active Database in the upcomming parts.

Active Directory Schema

• Active Directory Schema defines what are the types of objects that can be created in the directory
• How are those objects relate to one another, and what are the mandatory and optional attributes of each object.
• And how can one create such objects.
• Schema requires to updates whenever you need to create a new type of object or add anything that requires new attribute.

Domain, Tree and Forest

AD Domain

• Objects that are made on AD are grouped into domains.
• The objects for a single domain are stored in a single database (which can be replicated).

AD Domain Tree

• A tree is a collection of one or more domains

AD Forest

• A forest is a collection of trees that share a common global catalog, directory schema, logical structure, and directory configuration.

Please find the slides as attached.
Thanks you all for spending your valuable time.

Understanding Active Directory - PART 1.pdf

Recording of this session is available on
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQupF2rE3mCdLvO6AMEBmF0nKg1LWVNxy

Here we discussed about.

PART 2 of 2
Changes in Clients and Mobiles
Changes in Sharing and collaboration
Changes in Unified Messaging
Changes in Batch mailbox moves
Changes to High availability and site resilience
What is Exchange workload management?
Exchange 2013 Setup
Finally, What’s Removed in Exchange 2013?

Changes in Clients and Mobiles

ActiveSync

1. There is no new EAS version or hidden ActiveSync features in the Exchange 2013.
2. Only difference I can find is New-ActiveSyncMailboxPolicy is replaced by New-MobileMailboxPolicy.

Outlook

1. No more MAPI
2. No offline access to Archive Mailbox
3. Outlook 2013 can control the size of the OST file
4. Outlook 2013 not longer connects to Server using FQDN
5. Outlook uses Autodiscover to create a new connection point comprised of mailbox GUID, @ symbol, and the domain portion of the user’s primary SMTP address.

Optimized for touch devices.

1. Apps in Outlook Web App.
2. Apps for Outlook aren’t dependent on the version of Exchange Server that you’re using.
3. Administrators can also allow users to download apps from Office.com.
4. Third-party developers can create additional apps for Outlook and offer them at Office.com.
5. Contacts a.k.a People
6. Users can link multiple entries for the same person and view the information in a single contact card.
7. Calendar - Users can now view multiple calendars in a merged view.
8. Calendar - The month view now includes an agenda for the selected day.
9. Calendar - In all calendar views, users can click an item to view a pop-up of the item's details.
10. Calendar - The month view now includes an agenda for the selected day.
11. Calendar - In all calendar views, users can click an item to view a pop-up of the item's details.
12. Outlook Web App Offline
13. Does not include Archive Mailbox Still. Its still Online Archive Mailbox.

Changes in Sharing and collaboration

Site mailboxes

Site mailboxes require Exchange 2013 and SharePoint Server 2013 integration and configuration.



Managed availability

In this monitoring and recovery-oriented features are tightly integrated to help prevent failures

1. Proactively restore services
2. Initiate server failovers automatically
3. Alert administrators to take action.

What is New?

1. The Managed Store is the name of the newly rewritten Information Store processes in Exchange 2013.
2. Support for multiple databases per disk
3. Automatic reseed
4. Automatic recovery from storage failures
5. Lagged copy enhancements
6. Lagged copies can invoke auto replay feature when a low disk space threshold has been reached
7. Single copy alert enhancements
8. Is no longer a separate scheduled script, now a part of Managed availability
9. DAG network auto-configuration

What is Exchange workload management?

1. Monitor the health of system resources
2. Control how resources are consumed by individual users

• First we need to create workload management policy
• New-WorkloadManagementPolicy
• Then create a new workload policy and assign it to the above new workload management policy
• New-WorkloadPolicy
• Apply the custom workload management policy to a specific server
• Set-ExchangeServer -WorkloadManagementPolicy Workload_Management_Policy_Name -Server ServerName

• Change workload management policy settings for all servers in your organization
• create a new workload policy and assign it to GlobalOverwrittenWorkloadManagementPolicy

Exchange 2013 Setup

Active Directory preparation

Install the following software on the computer that will be used to prepare Active Directory:

1. Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5
2. Windows Management Framework 3.0
3. Remote Tools Administration Pack

Prerequisites required on the server.

Mailbox server role or combined Mailbox and Client Access server roles

• Install-WindowsFeature AS-HTTP-Activation, Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface, Web-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Http-Redirect, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, Web-Metabase, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-Net-Ext45, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI, Windows-Identity-Foundation

Client Access server role

• Install-WindowsFeature AS-HTTP-Activation, Desktop-Experience, NET-Framework-45-Features, RPC-over-HTTP-proxy, RSAT-Clustering, Web-Mgmt-Console, WAS-Process-Model, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Digest-Auth, Web-Dir-Browsing, Web-Dyn-Compression, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Http-Redirect, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console, Web-Metabase, Web-Mgmt-Console, Web-Mgmt-Service, Web-Net-Ext45, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Server, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Static-Content, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-WMI, Windows-Identity-Foundation

Active Directory preparation

Prepare Active Directory and Domains

Prepare Active Directory Schema

• setup /PrepareSchema or setup /ps
• Sets the schema version (ms-Exch-Schema-Verision-Pt) to 15137

Prepare Active Directory

• setup /PrepareAD [/OrganizationName:<organization name>] or setup /p [/on:<organization name>]
• Sets the objectVersion to 15449.
• CN=<your organization>,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<domain>

Prepare Active Directory Domain

• setup /PrepareDomain or setup /pd

Verify Active Directory preparation

• In the Configuration naming context, verify that the msExchProductId property in the CN=<your organization>,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<domain> container is set to 15.00.516.032.
• In the Schema naming context, verify that the rangeUpper property on ms-Exch-Schema-Verision-Pt is set to 15137.
• In the Configuration naming context, verify that the objectVersion property in the CN=<your organization>,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=<domain> container is set to 15449.
• In the Default naming context, verify that the objectVersion property in the Microsoft Exchange System Objects container under DC=<root domain is set to 13236.

What's Discontinued in Exchange 2013
Architecture

• No more Hub Transport server Role
• No more Unified Messaging server Role

Management interfaces

• No more Exchange Management Console
• No more Exchange Control Panel

Client access

• Outlook 2003 is no longer supported
• RPC/TCP access for Outlook clients

Outlook Web App (Removed)

• Access to shared email folders
• Distribution list moderation
• S/MIME
• Inability to apply messaging policies
• Antivirus software is unable to scan encrypted message content
• Impact to custom transport agents
• Taken care by Information Rights Management
• Spell check
• Reading pane at the bottom of the page
• Cannot reply to emails that are sent as attachments

Mail flow (Removed)

• Linked connectors
• Anti-spam and anti-malware
• Anti-spam agent management only availble in Exchange Management Shell
• No more Connection Filtering agent
• The Connection Filtering agent provides IP Allow List and IP Block List capabilities.
• Messaging policy and compliance
• Retention policies replace Managed Folders

Tools (Removed)

• Exchange Best Practice Analyzer
• Mail flow troubleshooter
• Performance monitor
• Performance troubleshooter
• Routing Log Viewer

Please find the slides as attached.
Thanks you all for spending your valuable time.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 - PART 2.pdf

Recording of this session is available on
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQupF2rE3mCdLvO6AMEBmF0nKg1LWVNxy

Here we discussed about.

PART 1 of 2
Changes in Exchange Architecture
What is Exchange Admin Center?
Changes in Information Store
Changes in Certificate Management
Changes in Messaging Policy and Compliance
Changes in Anti-malware protection
Changes in Transport Rules
Changes in Mail Flow
Changes in Recipient Management

Changes in Exchange Architecture

Exchange 2013 Server Roles

1. Client Access Server role
2. Mailbox Server role.

HT, UM and Edge Role didn’t make to 2013

1. The Mailbox server handles all activity for a given mailbox.
2. This Architecture changes brings changes with client connectivity.
3. No more RPC
4. Clients not longer connects to Server FQDN
5. Only Outlook 2007 and higher versions are supported

Later we talked about Exchange Admin Center?

Major changes in Information Store

Managed Store

1. Newly rewritten Information Store processes, Microsoft.Exchange.Store.Service.exe and Microsoft.Exchange.Store.Worker.exe.
2. Each database runs under its own process, allowing for isolation of store issues to a single database.
3. Tightly integrated with MSExchangeRepl.exe to provide higher availability through improved resiliency.
4. Public Folder Database no longer exist.
5. Exchange 2013 it supports up to 100 GB of Mailbox size, with OL2013 OST file size can be controlled.
6. Exchange 2013 Enterprise Edition can only mount 50 databases on a mailbox server

Major changes in Certificate Management

1. Certificate management functionality is provided in the Exchange Administration Center.
2. All certificate management is performed on the Client Access server.
3. Notifications center will display warnings when a certificate stored on any Exchange 2013 Preview Client Access servers is about to expire.
4. The Client Access server automatically trusts the self-signed certificate on the Exchange 2013 Mailbox server, provided that the Exchange 2013 Client Access server has a non-self-signed certificate from either a Windows certificate authority (CA) or a trusted third party.

Major changes in Messaging Policy and Compliance

1. Data loss prevention (DLP)
2. In-place Archiving, retention, and eDiscovery
3. In-Place Hold   
4. In-Place eDiscovery
5. Search across primary and archive mailboxes in Outlook Web App
6. Archive Lync content
7. Retention policies
8. Transport rules
9. Information Rights Management
10. Protects sensitive emails from unauthorized access.

Major changes in Transport Rules

1. New predicates are added to Exchange 2013 preview transport files in order to
2. Detect sensitive information from message body and attachments.
3. Detect messages sent from specific ip ranges.
4. Detect messages with specific extensions
5. Detect messages that contain attachments with executable content.  
6. New Actions are added in order to :
7. Controls how the sender of a message that goes against a DLP policy is notified.
8. Stops the processing of all subsequent rules on the message.
9. Requires TLS encryption when routing this message outside your organization.

Major changes in Anti-malware protection

1. Builtin Antimalware protection
2. If malware is detected, the message is deleted.
3. You can also choose to replace infected attachments with either default or custom messages that notify the recipients of the malware detection.
4. You can also use a third-party anti-malware protection program. In this case, you may want to disable the built-in anti-malware protection
5. Enable-Antimalwarescanning.ps1 and Disable-Antimalwarescanning.ps1
6. Update-MalwareFilteringServer.ps1
7. Each server checks for new malware definitions every hour.
8. The default anti-malware policy controls your company-wide malware filtering settings. As an administrator, you can view and edit, but not delete, the default anti-malware policy

Major changes in Changes in Mail Flow
The Mailflow in Exchange 2013 is made up of several different services:

1. Front End Transport service on Client Access servers
2. Hub Transport service on Mailbox servers
3. Mailbox Transport service on Mailbox servers.

Front End Transport service

This service runs on all Client Access servers and acts as a stateless proxy for all inbound and outbound external SMTP traffic for the Exchange 2013 organization.

Mailbox Transport service

This service runs on all Mailbox servers and consists of two separate services

1. Mailbox Transport Submission service
2. Mailbox Transport Delivery service

• Mailbox Transport Delivery service receives SMTP messages from the Hub Transport service, and connects to the mailbox database using an Exchange remote procedure call (RPC) to deliver the message.
• Mailbox Transport Submission service connects to the mailbox database using RPC to retrieve messages, and submits the messages over SMTP to the Hub Transport service.
• Mailbox Transport service doesn't queue any messages locally as it is a stateless service.

Hub Transport service

1. This service runs on all Mailbox servers and is virtually identical to the Hub Transport server role in previous versions of Exchange.
2. Handles all SMTP mail flow for the organization, performs message categorization, and performs message content inspection.
3. Routes messages between the Mailbox Transport service, the Hub Transport service, and the Front End Transport service.

Messages from outside the organization

1. Enter through a Receive connector in the Front End Transport service on a Client Access server
2. Then routed to the Hub Transport service on a Mailbox server.
3. The Transport service on a Mailbox server never communicates directly with a mailbox database.
4. Transport service communicates with the Mailbox Transport service on the Mailbox server.
5. Mailbox Transport service communicates with the mailbox database on the local Mailbox server.

NOTE:
Exchange 2013 Mail Routing is 100% DAG aware.
When the Mailbox server is a member of a DAG, only the Mailbox Transport service on the Mailbox server that holds the active copy of the mailbox database accepts the message for the destination recipient.

Usage of RPC in Mail Routing

1. RPC is never used for cross-server communication.
2. Remote procedure calls (RPCs) are only used by the Mailbox Transport service when sending messages to or receiving messages from the local mailbox database.
3. When the Mailbox server is a member of a DAG Mailbox Transport service only uses RPCs to communicate locally with the active copies of the mailbox databases.
4. Mailbox Transport service and the Transport service on different Mailbox servers always communicate using SMTP.

Improvement in Message Queuing

1. Exchange 2013 uses more precise queuing for remote destinations.
2. Instead of using one queue for all destinations in a remote Active Directory site, Exchange 2013 queues messages for specific destinations within the Active Directory site, such as individual Send connectors.
3. Linked connectors have been deprecated. A linked connector was a Receive connector that was linked to a Send connector. All messages received by the Receive connector were automatically forwarded to the Send connector.

Brief overview of Mail Flow

Transport Pipeline:

1. Front End Transport service on Client Access servers
2. Hub Transport service on Mailbox servers
3. Mailbox Transport service on Mailbox servers. 

Routing:

1. Recognizes DAG boundaries
2. Recognizes AD Site boundaries
3. Improved Queuing

Connectors:

1. The default maximum message size for a Send connector or a Receive connector has been increased from 10MB to 25MB.
2. You can set a Send connector in the Transport service of a Mailbox server to route outbound mail through a Front End transport server in the local Active Directory site.

Edge Transport:

1. Currently, there isn’t an Exchange 2013 version of the Edge Transport server. Supports 2010 and 2007 version also can use Third Party Solution.

Major changes in Recipient Management

Group naming policy

1. Administrators can now use the EAC to create a group naming policy, which lets you standardize and manage the names of distribution groups created by users in your organization.
2. You can require a specific prefix and suffix be added to the name for a distribution group when it's created
3. You can block specific words from being used. This capability helps you minimize the use of inappropriate words in group names.

Auditing reports

1. The EAC includes auditing functionality so that you can run reports or export entries from the mailbox audit log and the administrator audit log.
2. The mailbox audit log records whenever a mailbox is accessed by someone other than the person who owns the mailbox.
3. The administrator audit log records any action, based on an Exchange Management Shell cmdlet, performed by an administrator.

Message Tracking

1. Administrators can also use the EAC to track delivery information for email messages sent to or received by any user in your organization.
2. You just select a mailbox, and then search for messages sent to or received by a different user.
3. You can narrow the search by searching for specific words in the subject line.
4. The resulting delivery report tracks a message through the delivery process and specifies if the message was successfully delivered, pending delivery, or if it wasn't delivered.

Please find the slides as attached.

Thanks you all for spending your valuable time.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 - PART 1.pdf

This is the documentation for the Online discussion we conducted on Office 365.

Recording of the session is available on
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQupF2rE3mCf0S482zpjXOkttyePGgopr&feature=view_all

Here we discussed about.

Exchange Hybrid Deployment and Migration with Office 365

• E-mail Deployment Options
• Preparing to Deploy
• The Microsoft Online Services Directory Synchronization tool
• Mail Routing
• Migration Methods and Tools
• Move requests with the Mailbox Replication Service (MRS)
• Cutover Exchange migration
• Staged Exchange migration
• IMAP e-mail migration
• PST Capture
• Third-party solutions

And Lets start with an Introduction.

E-mail Deployment Options for Exchange Online

Hybrid deployment
Mailboxes for your organization can reside on-premises in an Exchange organization and in the cloud. In the hybrid deployment scenario, messaging functionality is seamless across the on-premises deployment and the cloud deployment. For the full list of supported features.
This hybrid deployment scenario can also include single sign-on, which lets users use their existing Active Directory on-premises credentials to access all on-premises and cloud resources.

All mailboxes in the cloud
If your long-term goal doesn’t require messaging functionality that spans cross-premises, you should plan to move all your mailboxes to the cloud. It may take a week or maybe months to complete the migration, but it’s the best option if your long-term goal is to migrate all your mailboxes to the cloud.

Preparing to Deploy Exchange Online

Things to consider

• Identity management
• Microsoft Online Services Directory Synchronization tool
• Mail routing
• Migration methods and tools

Identity management

• Non-Federated identity
• Single sign-on or Federated Identity

Non-Federated identity
Here all users with mailboxes in the cloud use Office 365-generated credentials to access their Office 365 resources.
You can use directory synchronization to automatically provision users from the on-premises Active Directory. Either way, ultimately, credentials are generated and managed by Office 365.
If you have an on-premises identity management system such as Active Directory, users will have a set of credentials for their Office 365 resources and a set of credentials for their on-premises resources.
The advantage of a non-federated identity management solution is that there is less overhead in deploying and setting up your identity solution.
The disadvantage to a non-federated identity solution for organizations that still maintain user resources on-premises is that the user experience is fractured and requires more user education about credential management.

Single sign-on or Federated Identity
When you deploy single sign-on, all users with mailboxes in the cloud use their existing on-premises Active Directory credentials to access both cloud and on-premises resources.
You enable this by installing an AD FS server(s) in your on-premises organization.
Advantage
Users don’t need to use different set of credentials.
Policy control
The administrator can control account policies through Active Directory, which gives the administrator the ability to manage password policies, workstation restrictions, lock-out controls, and more, without having to perform additional tasks in the cloud.
Access control
The administrator can restrict access to Office 365 so that the services can be accessed through the corporate environment, through online servers, or both.

Advantage
Reduced support calls
Forgotten passwords are a common source of support calls in all companies. If users have fewer passwords to remember, they are less likely to forget them.
Security
User identities and information are protected because all of the servers and services used in single sign-on are mastered and controlled on-premises.
Support for strong authentication
You can use strong authentication, also called two-factor authentication, with Office 365.

The disadvantage of single sign-on is that you have to install new servers also involves more cost.

Why Single sign-on or Federated Identity?
Single sign-on is recommended, though not required, in the hybrid deployment scenario.
Single sign-on may also be a good solution for some large organizations that plan to migrate all mailboxes to Office 365 over many months.
NOTE
Single sign-on with AD FS requires Active Directory on-premises.
Single sign-on requires that you install and run the Microsoft Online Services Directory Synchronization tool.
If you deploy AD FS and directory synchronization then you got to perform staged Exchange migration, cut over migration is not possible.
Difference between Staged and Cut Over Exchange Migration will be discussed later.

The Microsoft Online Services Directory Synchronization tool

• Primarily used to synchronize
• Global Address List
• Support complex routing scenarios
• Provision users in a cross-premises deployment

By default, the Directory Synchronization tool synchronizes one-way from the on-premises directory to the cloud directory.

To enable following features of hybrid deployment, you must grant write access to the Directory Synchronization tool to synchronize some messaging-related user data back into the on-premises Active Directory.

• Archiving on-premises mailboxes to the cloud
• Moving mailboxes from the cloud to the on-premises Exchange organization
• Synchronizing user-managed safe sender and blocked sender lists from the cloud
• Synchronizing voice mail notifications from the cloud

Directory synchronization is required for the following: hybrid deployment; single sign-on; and staged Exchange migration.

Mail Routing

Generally in a hybrid deployments your MX Record will be pointed to your on-premises Exchange system as the authoritative domain.E-mail to cloud-based recipients is then relayed from the on-premises Exchange organization to the cloud.
You can also configure routing for hybrid deployments in such a way that the MX record points to the cloud as the authoritative domain.

NOTE:
Both cutover Exchange migration and staged Exchange migration manage short-term e-mail synchronization during the migration phase.
Cutover Exchange migration synchronizes e-mail using subscriptions until migration is complete.
Staged Exchange migration routes e-mail by stamping the cloud target address on the on-premises mailboxes.

Migration Methods and Tools

• Move requests with the Mailbox Replication Service (MRS)
• Cutover Exchange migration
• Staged Exchange migration
• IMAP e-mail migration
• PST Capture
• Third-party solutions

Move requests with the Mailbox Replication Service (MRS)

The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication Service (MRS) resides on all Exchange 2010 Client Access servers and is responsible for mailbox moves

• Importing and exporting .pst files
• Restoring disabled and soft-deleted mailboxes.

Move requests require a hybrid deployment.
Move requests let you move mailboxes back and forth between your on-premises Exchange organization and the cloud. You do this in the Exchange Management Console.

Cutover Exchange migration

Cutover Exchange migration is for organizations that have fewer than 1,000 mailboxes and want to move all mailboxes to the cloud in a single operation.
Use E-Mail Migration in the Exchange Control Panel to access the tool.

NOTE:
Cutover Exchange migration only supports Exchange 2003 or later.
If you are running older versions of Exchange, you have to use IMAP e-mail migration or a third-party solution.
If you are running Exchange and have more than 1,000 mailboxes, consider using staged Exchange migration.
If you plan to deploy single sign-on, run cutover Exchange migration first, and then set up single sign-on (and directory synchronization after the migration is complete). Running directory synchronization before you run cutover Exchange migration will cause the migration to fail.

Staged Exchange migration

Staged Exchange migration is for larger organizations or organizations that want to migrate mailboxes to the cloud over time.
In this scenario, you can migrate some mailboxes to the cloud while maintaining the rest of the mailboxes in your on-premises organization.
Use E-Mail Migration in the Exchange Control Panel to access the tool.

NOTE:
Staged Exchange migration has been designed for organizations that plan to move all on-premises Exchange mailboxes to the cloud eventually.
Staged Exchange migration only supports Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2007.
If you are running older versions of Exchange, you have to use IMAP e-mail migration or a third-party solution.
If you are running Exchange 2010, you must implement a hybrid deployment and use move requests to migrate.
Staged Exchange migration requires directory synchronization.
If you plan to deploy single sign-on as part of your long-term deployment plan, set up single sign-on and directory synchronization before you run the staged Exchange migration.

IMAP e-mail migration

IMAP e-mail migration is designed as a fallback e-mail content migration tool for a wide variety of e-mail servers.
If you are running Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 4, or any other compliant IMAP server, such as Gmail, IMAP e-mail migration is an option.
Use E-mail Migration in the Exchange Control Panel and a CSV file.

PST Capture

Another method for migrating mailbox items to cloud mailboxes is Microsoft Exchange PST Capture.
PST Capture lets you search for and collect PST files on computers in your on-premises organization and then import the PST files to cloud mailboxes.
Note that you can also use PST Capture to import PST files to on-premises primary or archive mailboxes.

Third-party solutions

• Binary Tree
• BitTitan
• Cemaphore
• Quest
• Metalogix
• MigrationWiz
  etc
• Discussion on these tools will be out of scope of this documentation.

Please find the slides as attached.

Thanks you all for spending your valuable time.

Road2Master - Hybrid Deployment and Migration with Office 365 - PART 1.pdf

Exchange 2010 - A Brief overview

As per the request from many of my friends, I'm starting a new series which will be updated along with the other series, this series is focused more on basics of Exchange Server 2010.
And main creteria remains to keep it as small and simple as possible, And for those who wish to learn on deeper level I will make sure to provide technet urls as reference.

So lets get started.

And to start with, lets speak about different roles of Exchange Server 2010.

Exchange 2010 Server is Role Based, which means it comes in following 5 server roles:

Mailbox Server
In simpler term, this server hosts Mailboxes and public folders.

Client Access Server
This is the server that hosts the client protocols, such as Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3), Internet Message Access Protocol 4 (IMAP4), Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS), Outlook Anywhere, Availability service, and Autodiscover service. The Client Access Server also hosts Web services.

Unified Messaging Server
This is the server that connects a Private Branch eXchange (PBX) system to Exchange 2010.

Hub Transport Server
This is the mail routing server that routes mail within and outside* the Exchange organization.
* Default configuration is to route mails within the organisation.

Edge Transport Server
This is the mail routing server that typically sits at the perimeter of the topology and routes mail in to and out of the Exchange organization.

One can choose to install Exchange 2010 Mailbox Server Role, Client Access Server Role, Hub Transport Server Role and Unified Messaging Server Role all on one server or on seperate servers.

Yes, i know some will have a question in mind, hey, you missed Edge Transport Server Role.
Actually not, that role cannot  be installed along with any other roles, and needs seperate server.

To know more about these in dept please refer to the below TechNet urls

Understanding Mailbox Server
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124699.aspx

Understanding Client Access
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124915

Understanding Unfied Messaging
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd351090

Understanding Hub Transport
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123494.aspx

Understanding Edge transport
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124701.aspx

So thats about the different Roles of Exchange.
We will be talking more about overview in the next parts and finally step into Installation and Configurations.

So, Stay Tuned!

So, Let’s target these commands.

Get-MailboxDatabase
Get-PublicFolderDatabase

Note: As we move on we will be including more commands in one part, and this part will be specifically made to make all understand the 4 Step rule to tame PowerShell.

Now you got the commands, now the task is to get it working.

LAB
We are going to use the below mentioned Lab
https://cmg.vlabcenter.com/default.aspx?moduleid=7a24cd3c-9be4-4ec1-ae43-9bfb9f8ecbd6

Once connected, we are ready to rock and roll.

Get-MailboxDatabase

So here you go let's start with my 4 Step Rule to tame PowerShell 

Step 1 
Get-Command
One Stop Search to understand the available commands

What if, I’m not aware of the command Get-MailboxDatabase? Quiet possible. But I’m aware that I need to get some details about the MailboxDatabase. And I know for PowerShell MailboxDatabase is a noun.
Let’s see the possible options.
 
Option 1
 
I’m aware that MailboxDatabase is a valid noun for PowerShell, but unaware of the verb (although that is a real rear case for many), I will use the below command on Exchange Management Shell.
 
Get-Command –noun MailboxDatabase

Here you can easily choose Get-MailboxDatabase.
 
Option 2
 
I aware that the verb is Get and noun which I’m looking for may contain database in its name, I will use the below command on Exchange Management Shell.
 
Get-Command –verb Get –noun *database*

Similarly, here you can easily choose Get-MailboxDatabase.
 
Note:
And to have a better understanding, please refer to.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2012/05/15/find-powershell-commands-by-using-the-get-command-cmdlet.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/ee176842.aspx
 
Now that you know the command, let’s move to the next step.
 

Step 2
Get-Help
 
This gives the detailed manual of each command.
Let’s see the possible options.
 
Option 1
 
To start with, first we must know how to use Get-Help command.
So let’s first check the manual for Get-Help command, for that just type.
 
Get-Help

Output shows as follows, and yes it give a lot to read, maybe we can highlight those which are really important and truncate the other details
 
Syntax
get-help {<CmdletName> | <TopicName>}
help {<CmdletName> | <TopicName>}
<CmdletName> -?
 
 
"Get-help" and "-?" display help on one page.
"Help" displays help on multiple pages.
 
Examples:

get-help get-process   : Displays help about the Get-Process cmdlet.
get-help about_signing : Displays help about signing scripts.
help where-object: Displays help about the Where-Object cmdlet.
help about_foreach     : Displays help about foreach loops in PowerShell.
set-service -?   : Displays help about the Set-Service cmdlet.
 
You can use wildcard characters in the help commands (not with -?).

Examples:
 
get-help *: Displays all help topics.
get-help get-*  : Displays topics that begin with get-.
help *object*   : Displays topics with "object" in the name.
get-help about* : Displays all conceptual topics.
 
Note:
 
And below link can get you a detailed idea on this.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee176848.aspx
So, a lot told about Help command, let’s get to work using the above knowledge.
 
Here we are going to check the Help File for Get-MailboxDatabase

Any gusses for the Syntax? Oh, yeah I know it is easy.

Get-Help Get-MailboxDatabase

And as I said earlier, let’s see the examples.

Get-Help Get-MailboxDatabase –Examples
 
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 1 --------------------------
 
This example retrieves information about all the mailbox databases in the Exchange organization, including the mailbox databases that reside on computers running Exchange 2010 and earlier versions of Exchange.
 
Get-MailboxDatabase -IncludePreExchange2010
 
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 2 --------------------------
 
This example retrieves information about MailboxDatabase01 on Server01. This example also retrieves the status information, and pipes the output to the Format-List cmdlet so that you can view all the information about the mailbox database.
 
Get-MailboxDatabase -Identity Server01\StorageGroup01\MailboxDatabase01 -Status | Format-List
 
 
 
Step 3
Parameter Sets

Parameter Sets are the different ways of using the same Windows PowerShell command.
And hence it is very important to understand.
 
Note:
And below link can get you a detailed idea on this.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2012/05/16/use-the-get-command-powershell-cmdlet-to-find-parameter-set-information.aspx
 
 
But It won’t have any impact as Get-MailboxDatabase is a simple command.
What do you see if you follow the below syntax?
 
Syntax you can use are:
$command=Get-MailboxDatabase
$command. DefaultParameterSet
$command.ParameterSets 

 So here it’s not a big deal, but we have just started.

Step 4
Discover all available properties of a PowerShell Command.

Get-Member is an important command for discovering more about a PowerShell Command.
Here in this series, we were will be focusing on properties available for each command.

Apart from properties, we can also get methods, which I will leave it to reader for experimenting.

<Command> | Get-Member -MemberType property
OR
<Command> -Property * | Get-Member -MemberType property
OR
<Command> <-Filter *> -Property * | Get-Member -MemberType property

This will get you all available properties that you are work around.

Step 5
Practice with some examples.

Get the list of all MailboxDatabase with Database Size
Get-MailboxDatabase –Status | Ft Name, DatabaseSize –AutoSize

Get the list of all MailboxDatabase with BackupInProgress Staus
Get-MailboxDatabase –Status | Ft Name, BackupInprogress –AutoSize
 
 
Advanced Level

Get the list of MailboxDatabases for which currently backup is in progress
Get-MailboxDatabase -Status | where {$_.backupinprogress -eq $True}

Get the list of MailboxDatabases whose Database Size is over 1TB
Get-MailboxDatabase  -Status | where {$_.DatabaseSize -gt 1TB}

In general, If you know the PropertyName and the condition
Get-MailboxDatabase  -Status | where {$_.ProperyName -condition}

To list all properties of a MailboxDatabase.
Get-MailboxDatabase –Identity “Name” -DumpsterStatistics –Status | fl
 
Now when comes to Get-PublicFolderDatabase, it is more or less similar and so let’s add that in your Try yourself list. 

For more details on these commands please refer the below links
 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124924.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998827.aspx

So now, we have mastered two commands of Exchange Server 2010.
Stay tuned!

In the previous post we talked about how we are going to go about this series, and now it’s time to gear up.

So now let’s get started with Database Management, and for those who missed the Part 1, please follow the below link.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/ashwinexchange/archive/2012/06/20/managing-exchange-server-2010-a-powershell-approach-part-1.aspx
 
As we all know Windows PowerShell uses a "verb-noun" naming system, and hence it is quite a lot easier to understand.

Oh! Wait verb-noun?  What is it? Did anyone ask that?
Then it’s the right time to pause here and review the below mentioned PowerShell training videos. And yes, better learn before it’s too late. So gear up and let’s get the basics clear.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/manojnair/archive/2012/03/06/learn-powershell-from-the-quot-the-scripting-guy-quot-himself.aspx

So now, that all basics are set lets now talk about verb and noun. And in simple terms verb defines what action you are going to take on the corresponding noun.

For example,
Get-Process (verb-noun) - Here action is to get the process from the computer.
Stop-Process (verb-noun) - Here action is to stop the currently running process.

Also in this Part I stress to keep it simple and small so that all can get easily acquainted with PowerShell.

So here is how we are going to tame PowerShell

My 4 Step Rule to tame PowerShell

Step 1
Get-Command
In my words, One Stop Search to understand the available commands

And to have a better understanding, please refer to.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2012/05/15/find-powershell-commands-by-using-the-get-command-cmdlet.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/library/ee176842.aspx

Step 2
Get-Help
This gives the detailed manual of each command.

And below link can get you a detailed idea on this.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee176848.aspx

Step 3
Parameter Sets
Parameter Sets are the different ways of using the same Windows PowerShell command.
And hence it is very important to understand.

And below link can get you a detailed idea on this.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2012/05/16/use-the-get-command-powershell-cmdlet-to-find-parameter-set-information.aspx

Step 4
Discover all available properties of a PowerShell Command.

Get-Member is an important command for discovering more about a PowerShell Command.
Here in this series, we were will be focusing on properties available for each command.

Apart from properties, we can also get methods, which I will leave it to reader for experimenting.

<Command> | Get-Member -MemberType property
OR
<Command> -Property * | Get-Member -MemberType property
OR
<Command> <-Filter *> -Property * | Get-Member -MemberType property

This will get you all available properties that you are work around.

Step 5
Practice with some examples.

And the good news is that now we are all well equipped to move forward learning the commands.
This part should have provided some amble baseline for anyone to move ahead and crack PowerShell commands.

So let’s get started with our Database Management commands in the next part.

Stay tuned!

Managing Exchange Server 2010 – A PowerShell Approach (Part 3)
http://blogs.technet.com/b/ashwinexchange/archive/2012/06/22/managing-exchange-server-2010-a-powershell-approach-part-3.aspx