Detroit, MI (Livonia) The Ultimate Pit Stop (10/31/2006)

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Good day all my Detroit ghouls and goblins!  :-)

I hope everyone had a great Halloween and did not have too much sugar.  I had a great Halloween and I even flew home after the event to be home with the family.  It was FANTASTIC.  I had a great time and here is the information from the session.

Here is the licensing information:

As promised here are the questions and answers from the event.  Please comment if you need more information or if I missed a question.

Q: What ports need to be opened if Microsoft Exchange 2007 Client Access Role is place in the DMZ?
A: That really depends on what functionality you want the client access role to perform.  Remember the role can provide RPC/HTTPs, POP3, IMAP...etc, so it really depends.  Take a look here for even more guidance based on what protocol you are looking to enable: https://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/e2k7help/3f548d09-5210-44be-ac80-b5e388aa5670.mspx?mfr=true 

Q: Where can I find more information on why Microsoft Exchange 2007 will only run on 64-bit systems?
A: There is an excellent interview here at Michael Murphy's blog about this topic: https://blogs.technet.com/mjmurphy/archive/2006/02/27/420667.aspx 
There is also a great FAQ here: https://www.microsoft.com/exchange/preview/faq.mspx 

Q: Where is the RFC for computational puzzles?
A: After talking with Bill Steele about this, we did some more research and found out that it is not a a RFC standard as of yet however it is in the process.  For those of you who have not heard what a puzzle is.  Here you go:

Computational Puzzle: A challenge response method that requires a sender (or a sender’s computer) to authenticate a given e-mail message by solving a simple puzzle. While this activity would take little to no time for a regular e-mail sender’s computer to do, theoretically, it would overwhelm the computing cycles from someone sending large amounts of bulk e-mail.

Q: When will Virtual PC or Virtual Server support DVD ISO's?
A: This in part looks like it is supported to some extent today, check out the virtual pc guys' blog: https://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2005/06/09/427443.aspx 

Q: When is the release date for Virtual PC 2007?
A: While I do not have a date, you can register for the beta here: https://connect.microsoft.com/programdetails.aspx?ProgramDetailsID=874&wa=wsignin1.0   The dates of the beta run through March of 2007.

Q: Where can I find more information on the reliability improvements and clustering in Exchange Server 2007?
A:   There are several huge improvements on reliability and Exchange Server 2007.  Including some great improvements in the clustering as a whole.  Here are some of the new features:

  • Local Continuous Replication (LCR)    LCR is a single-server solution that uses built-in asynchronous log shipping technology to create and maintain a copy, or replica, of a storage group on a second set of disks that are connected to the same server as the production storage group. LCR provides log shipping, log replay, and a quick manual switch to a secondary copy of the data.
  • Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR)    CCR is a clustered solution that uses built-in asynchronous log shipping technology to create and maintain a storage group replica on a second server. CCR is designed to be either a one or two datacenter solution, providing both high availability and site resilience.
  • Single Copy Clusters (SCC)    SCC is a clustered solution that uses a single copy of a storage group on storage that is shared between the nodes in the cluster. SCC is very similar to clustering in previous versions of Exchange Server, with some significant changes and improvements.

For more information take a look here: https://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/e2k7help/3f548d09-5210-44be-ac80-b5e388aa5670.mspx?mfr=true 

Q: Where can I find more information on the Unified Messaging role in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007?
A:  The Unified Messaging whitepaper is a great place to start: https://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/um.mspx.
There is also a great whitepaper on the types of PBX/VOIP requirements you will need to consider: https://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/E2k7Help/f9b573f0-2198-47ec-a707-7e78f7dd668f.mspx?mfr=true 

Q: How can I run a command (like GPUPDATE /Force) on remote workstations?
A:   This came up during the session, you are looking for this tool check out: www.sysinternals.com and look for the PsTools suite and specifically checkout PsExec.  For more information check out this article: https://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PsExec.html