There are some installations that utilize a single node cluster hosting a clustered mailbox server for Exchange 2007.  It may become necessary to perform an upgrade of the solution to a different service pack.  This process can introduce some issues as the upgrade and upgrade processes assume that there is a second node in the…

Every Exchange 2010 server has a process internal to the replication service known as Active Manager.  The Active Manager is responsible for all database mount, dismount, and move operations that occur in Exchange 2010. When a server is a standalone server, Active Manager is configured as a Standalone Active Manager.  When a server is a…

In Exchange 2010 we achieve high availability of mailbox databases by utilizing a Database Availability Group (DAG).  When a DAG is utilized, and mailbox database copies are created on DAG members, they are either MOUNTED (active) or have a copy status – for example HEALTHY (passive). If an administrator or another process gracefully stops the…

When using continuous replication in Exchange 2007, an operation that sometimes needs to be performed is a database seed.  This operation is typically performed as part of enabling replication, and infrequently it is performed as part of the process for recovering from divergence. Seeding is most often performed with the Update-StorageGroupCopy cmdlet. During seeding, an…

Recently I have been asked how a file server / file share cluster can be utilized to host the file share witness directory for an Exchange 2010 Database Availability Group.  I think it is important to note that this is not a recommended deployment.  With Exchange 2010 changing the witness directory is as simple as…

Although Exchange 2010 no longer deploys a cluster resource model we still use Windows Failover Clustering service for certain functions. When a Windows 2008 / 2008 R2 cluster is created, the cluster core resources are groups together in the ‘Cluster Group’.  THe Cluster Group is a hidden group that contains the following resources: Cluster Name: …

http://blogs.msdn.com/ntdebugging/archive/2010/04/22/etw-storport.aspx A fantastic new way in Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2 to gather information on how your server is performing with your storage…

I recently had a case come across my desk where end users reported that after changing certain attributes in the directory these attributes were reverted to original or incorrect values. In this case what we had was a centralized portal for information where end users could request that updates be made to their accounts.  For…

In Exchange 2010 after a database availability group (DAG) has been created it is necessary for administrators to add database copies to members.  This is generally accomplished using the add-mailboxdatabasecopy command. When add-mailboxdatabasecopy is run, if the copy is successfully created an online seeding operation automatically occurs.  The online seeding operation that occurs utilizes the…

In Exchange 2007 / Exchange 2010, the maximum number of log files that can be reached  before the log file sequence is exhausted is 7fffffec (2147483628).  That’s a lot of log files! In an attempt to warn administrators of when they are approaching the maximum log file, so a planned outage can be taken to…