Toledo, OH: The Ultimate Pit Stop (11/02/2006)

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Good afternoon Toledo!

I am sorry for the delay, I had trouble finding all the great questions from the event, and I am not sure I got them all.  someone from the event gave an excellent suggestion to use Microsoft OneNote.  that was an excellent suggestion and it you are the one that suggested it please ping me, so I can say thank you.  I know we discussed licensing a little during the event.  Here are two great resources for you.

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: How do you expose the SCL in Outlook?
A: You can expose the SCL in archived email, owa and outlook.  TEST before you put this production, it does require a registry edit.

For Archive:
1. In Registry Editor (regedit), right-click ContentFilter, click New, and then click DWORD value.
2. Type ArchiveSCL for the registry key value.
3. Right-click ArchiveSCL, and then click Modify.
4. In Edit DWORD, under Value Data, type 1.

For exposing SCL in Outlook or OWA, see below:
Exposing SCL in Outlook: https://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2004/05/26/142607.aspx
Exposing SCL in OWA: https://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2004/05/27/143297.aspx

Q: What are the AD domain Requirements for Exchange 2007?
A:   Exchange 2007 relies heavily on Active Directory like previous versions.  Here is the core requirements for AD, however follow the links that follow to get even more detailed information.  Specifically you will need to extend Active Directory, some excellent guidance below. 

Here is some guidance for Active Directory for your Exchange 2007 organization:

  • The domain controller that is the schema master must have Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed. (By default, the schema master runs on the first Windows domain controller installed in a forest.)
  • You must have at least one global catalog server in every Active Directory directory service site where you plan to install Exchange 2007. This global catalog server must be running Windows Server 2003 SP1.
    Windows Server 2003 SP1 is recommended for the following reasons:
    • Windows Server 2003 SP1 supports Exchange 2007 service notifications. When a configuration change occurs in Active Directory, a notification is sent to the service. Several Exchange 2007 services use this notification. The notification mechanism in Windows Server 2003 SP1 is an improvement over the notification mechanism in Windows 2000 Server. 
    • Windows Server 2003 SP1 allows users to browse the address book in Microsoft Outlook Web Access. 
    • Windows Server 2003 SP1 provides the ability to look up distribution list membership in a more efficient manner than in Windows 2000 Server.
    • In each domain where you will run Setup /PrepareLegacyExchangePermissions, setup must contact a Windows Server 2003 SP1 domain controller. Setup /PrepareLegacyExchangePermissions will not complete successfully if it cannot find at least one Windows Server 2003 SP1 domain controller.
  • If you have any non-English domain controllers, and if you will use Outlook Web Access in your organization, you must install a hotfix on all non-English domain controllers. The hotfix is described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 919166, The address book function on Exchange 12 is broken when the Exchange OWA client and the Windows Server 2003-based domain controller do not have the same locale setting.
  • For all domains in the Active Directory forest where you will install Exchange 2007 or that will host Exchange 2007 recipients, the Active Directory domain functional level must be Windows 2000 Server native or higher.
  • For more information about domain and forest functional levels, see Functional Levels Background Information in the Windows Server 2003 Deployment Guide.
  • If your topology includes multiple Active Directory forests in which Exchange is installed, and if you want to use any of the advanced features in the following list, you must establish a trust relationship between the forests that have Exchange installed. Additionally, the minimum forest functional level for each forest with Exchange must be Windows Server 2003. The advanced features include:
    • Forest-to-forest delegation:
    • Ability for a user to select the type of free/busy information that will be available to users in another forest.
    • You can configure your Exchange servers to share free/busy information across forests that do not have a trust relationship, but the users will not be able to select the type of free/busy information that will be available to users in another forest. The types of free/busy information are None; Free/Busy time; Free/Busy time, subject, location; and Full Details.
    • If you have a resource forest topology, you must have either an external domain trust relationship from the Exchange forest to your account domains in other forests or a forest trust relationship from the Exchange forest to the accounts forest.
  • You cannot have any Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 servers in your Exchange organization, and your Exchange organization must be running in native mode. For more information about how to convert an Exchange organization to native mode, see How to Convert from Mixed Mode to Native Mode in Exchange in the Exchange Server 2003 Deployment Guide.
  • Domain Name System (DNS) is configured correctly in your Active Directory forest.
  • You have prepared Active Directory and your domain for the Exchange 2007 installation. For detailed steps, see How to Prepare Active Directory and Domains.

Here is a list of the system requirements: https://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/sysreqs/2006.mspx 
Here is a detailed listing of all the deployment requirements: https://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/e2k7help/1e80857c-b870-4a6d-a0f4-ff7b3a7be037.mspx?mfr=true 

Q: How do you customize the Windows Vista group policy .admx files?
A: Yes, there is a great technical reference site here:
https://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/30a71f36-88aa-438e-ac4d-13442560ee5b1033.mspx?mfr=true.
There is also an excellent step by step guide here: https://download.microsoft.com/download/3/b/a/3ba6d659-6e39-4cd7-b3a2-9c96482f5353/Managing%20Group%20Policy%20ADMX%20Files%20Step%20by%20Step%20Guide.doc . 

Q: Where can I learn more about the next version of Small Business Server?
A: While I have no time frames, Exchange Server 2007 will be an integral part of the "Longhorn" (code name for the next Windows release) version of Small Business Server (SBS) and the recently announced "Centro" mid-market server offering. SBS and Centro are expected to be released six to twelve months following the release of Microsoft Windows Vista.