#Exchange individual users cannot acces Control panel or options in OWA

in Exchange 2010 some users might not be able to access options from OWA or access the control panel URL, also some individual users might get errors when setting OOF, Rules or accessing other user’s mailbox.

to fix this issue use the following cmdlet

Get-Mailbox {username} | Set-Mailbox –RoleAssignmentPolicy “Default Role Assignment Policy”

How to Resize the VHD harddisk in Hyper-v

have you ever wanted to reduce the VHD size or resize it to a newer size, here is a step by step on how to resize the VHD disk size:

1- you need to shrink the VHD disk first:

a: If your Host is running Windows 2008 R2, then you can attach the VHD directly to the host and then use disk management to shrink the VM. Once done detach and run resizer. This attach VHD option is also available in Windows 7.
How to attach a VHD

b: If you don’t have a Vista/2008/Win7/2008 R2 VM and you host is Windows 2008 (not R2), you can install VHDmount tool available in Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 setup and use it to mount the VHD and then use the disk management tools to shrink the VHD.
Mount a VHD file with VHDMount

Once you did shrink to the VM, do resize using VHD sizer :

http://www.windowsreference.com/free-utilities/vhd-resizer-resize-microsofts-vhd-hyper-v-files/

the above steps will allow you to resize the VHD and also reduce its size as well

#Exchange 2007 or SBS 2008 database stopped with error Microsoft Exchange MDB Store has stopped working

you might get this error in SBS 2008 or Exchange 2007 SP1 or SP2:

Microsoft Exchange MDB Store has stopped working

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: APPCRASH

Application Name: store.exe

Application Version: 8.1.240.5

Application Timestamp: 474279c0

Fault Module Name: EXWRITER.DLL

Fault Module Version: 8.1.240.5

Fault Module Timestamp: 4742791f

Exception Code: c0000005

Exception Offset: 00000000000468ba

OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.305.9

Locale ID: 2057

Additional Information 1: 34e2

Additional Information 2: 3454105bfc0b075716dc31602387ef8a

Additional Information 3: 6d90

Additional Information 4: c1912ee3b1078fa2042383c7390c02af

Microsoft Exchange MDB Store has stopped working
Problem signature:  Problem Event Name: APPCRASH  Application Name: store.exe  Application Version: 8.1.240.5  Application Timestamp: 474279c0  Fault Module Name: EXWRITER.DLL  Fault Module Version: 8.1.240.5  Fault Module Timestamp: 4742791f  Exception Code: c0000005  Exception Offset: 00000000000468ba  OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.305.9  Locale ID: 2057  Additional Information 1: 34e2  Additional Information 2: 3454105bfc0b075716dc31602387ef8a  Additional Information 3: 6d90  Additional Information 4: c1912ee3b1078fa2042383c7390c02af

FIX:

Apply Exchange 2007 SP3 then restart the server

Changing SCVMM 2008 R2 Communication Ports

1. Stop the Virtual Machine Manager Windows Service.

2. OpenWindows Registry.

3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager Server\Settings.

4. Change the value of IndigoTcpPort (for WCF), WSManTcpPort (for WinRM), or BITSTcpPort (for BITS).

5. Ensure that the proper firewall rules exist for communication on the changed ports. If both a hardware and a software firewall are in place in your environment, consult with the system administrator to enable these firewall rules on both types of firewall.

6. Start the Virtual Machine ManagerWindows Service.

#Exchange Calls to UM or Voice Mail are dropped when the called is withheld

That is an issue with Exchange 2007 and 2010 as well, if the call is withheld then the call is dropped, this is basically because the the call to the Exchange voice mail when the number is withheld unknown the calls comes in the format sip@withheld or sip@unknown thus the call is dropped, there is currently no available official fix for this issue from MS, to workaround this issue you might want to look into your gateway of your PBX to create some sort of call modification rule to convert unknown to some thing like 1unknown or 0withheld just add any number before this text thus the call comes in the format sip@1unknown or sip@1withheld and thus Exchange 2010 accepts it.

MSN Messenger gives error in wldcore.dll with error “A problem caused the program to stop working correctly.Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available”

after Windows Update 2 days ago I couldn’t load my MSN messenger, not sure what really causes the issue, but here is the fix,

open regedit

browse to:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger\PerpasswordSettings

delete all of the subfolders inside it and then load MSN and you are back.

if this issue occurred again, please make sure to change your display picture and it will be solved for good.

#Exchange users accessing ECP or options in OWA gives getting error Outlook Web Access is requiring Outlook Live to change Options

Scenario:

a user is accessing OWA on Exchange 2010 server, he can access OWA fine, once he clicks on the options button or trying to access the ECP virtual directory the user gets the following error:

Outlook Web Access is requiring Outlook Live to change Options

Cause and Solution:

This is caused by 2 reasons:

– Either wrong authentication configuration on the ECP virtual directory, to solve it remove the ecp virtual directory using remove-ecpvirtualdirectory and new-ecpvirtualdirectory.

– Make sure that the user accessing the options page have already a mailbox and that he is not just user who has a permissions to access the mailbox.

#Exchange #FFPE Your Receive UnknownDNSName; Mail from IP banned

Consider the following scenario:

you just finished installing Exchange and just Installed FFPE, configured antispam filtering and enabled RDNSBL feature, you might get all of the emails blocked with the following error message:

oogle tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 5.7.1 :x.x.x.x:Client host xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx UnknownDNSName; Mail from IP banned. To request removal from this list please forward this message to delist.forefront@messaging.microsoft.com (state 14).

Explanation:

1. Forefront DNSBL agent makes a call to DNSBL backend to query on the connecting IP
2. DNSBL finds the connecting IP is not listed on any of the blocklists available to it
3. The reply query it sends back is NXDOMAIN
4. HOWEVER, when it hits OpenDNS, OpenDNS replaces NXDOMAIN with the connecting client IP address
5. Forefront DNSBL agent expects either NXDOMAIN or 127.0.0.n format of the returned query so after receiving someting like (i.e.) 1.1.1.1 instead of NXDOMAIN from your DNS Server the agent makes a call to block the connection as it’t not in the expected format.

what to do:

First make sure from your DNS Server , OPENDNS had the issue and they should have fixed it, for Egypt Customer LinkDotNet and TEDATA DNS servers are having the issue as well as google’s DNS 8.8.8.8 , as for my testing the DNS server 4.2.2.2 didn’t have the issue and I think that 4.3.3.3 will not have the issue as well.

#Exchange error “Unable to execute the task. Reason: The discovery mailbox, a hidden default mailbox that is required to search mailboxes, can’t be found. It may have been inadvertently deleted. This mailbox must be re-created before you can search mailboxes”

When I try to use the Discovery Search Mailbox from the Exchange Control Panel (ECP) I get the following error:

“Unable to execute the task. Reason: The discovery mailbox, a hidden default mailbox that is required to search mailboxes, can’t be found. It may have been inadvertently deleted. This mailbox must be re-created before you can search mailboxes”

Solution:

Run Setup.com /PrepareAD
then

Enable-Mailbox “SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9}” -Arbitration