#Exchange #Exchange2010 a deeper look to the UM Worker Process and WP Recycling

A Deeper look to UM Process, Worker Process and Recycling:

Couple of days ago a thread came across in front of me,  that talks about the UM worker process and UM Service and I wanted to share the info with you.

As all of us know, the UM server is the server that provides Voice Mail, Outlook Voice Access and other Exchange cool voice features to users in the Exchange organization.

Referencing http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125141.aspx

There 2 very important processes within the UM server

The MS Exchange UM Service and the Exchange Unified WP (check the above diagram).

The MS Exchange UM service  is lightweight service that accepts connection on port 5060 or 5061 (depends on the security level of your SIP connection) but doesn’t handle the media stream but itself, this is handled by the EUWP.

How, the UM service accepts the connection from the SIP endpoint (whatever it is) and send to it SIP 302 redirect message to the port 5065 and 5066 (where the actual media is passing).

The Worker Process service is the service that handles the actual media, it doesn’t listen on 5061 it listens on either 5065 and 5066.

The idea that the WP RECYCLE itself every 7 days (this is to reset the WP because of the heavy loads due to voice mails..etc) so it needs to reset itself.

This causes the WP to recycle every 7 days and listen for a week on port 5065, and then listen for another week on 5066 and going back and forth like that.

This has been around since Exchange 2007 RTM, but since Exchange 2010 SP1 there is has been some reports that some PBX (like Nortel CS 1000, and Cisco CCM 6) not working with the Exchange 2010 SP1 UM, this could be due how Exchange 2010 SP1 constructs the 302 redirect message but no solid clues on that one, thus some users running on those PBX might not some drops in the voice mail call during the WP recycle.

NOTE: editing the Recycle schedule is not supported by Microsoft

 

Transitioning from Exchange 2003/2007 to Exchange 2010 planning session recording from Microsoft OpenDoors Egypt – Arabic Session

This is a session recording from Microsoft Open Doors event for me and Mohamed Fawzy speaking about planning to transition from 2003/2007 to 2010.

http://vimeo.com/18044461

the slides are here:

 

#Exchange #Exchange2010 #Microsoft understanding IPv6 Support on technet

if you have been following my blog then you know that there is lot of here and there about IPv6 support, Microsoft finally came up with an official article on technet.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg144561.aspx

 

#Exchange #Exchange2010 Why you will need IPv6 Enabled on your Exchange 2010 Server

Disclaimer: This is not an official KB, These are just notes that has been collected or communicated and open available on the internet…

if you have been reading my blogs and following me online you will note that I am a fan of disabling IPv6 and I am always recommending disabling it on the Exchange Server as well on DCs. I have seen service starting issues and communication issues that was resolved but disabling IPv6.

I have seen a discussion around IPv6 were with other fellow MVPs, and Thanks to Nicolas Blank for point to a very important point.

quoting Nicolas:

IPv6 is a bit more than supported, it’s part of the CEC, just like PowerShell and GPO manageability is:

For those of us who don’t know, CEC is the Common Engineering Criteria and I’ll paste from the CEC link:

All Microsoft server products are required to comply with a set of engineering requirements as part of the Microsoft Common Engineering Criteria (CEC) program. The goal of the CEC program is to reduce the overall total cost of ownership (TCO) through improved integration, manageability, security, reliability, and other critical infrastructure attributes that are expected by our customers.

THE IPv6 bits are explicitly stipulated here:

http://www.microsoft.com/cec/en/us/cec-overview.aspx#data-ipv6

Internet Protocol version 6 support

IPv6 solves numerous connectivity issues and issues that are associated with IPv4 address depletion. All Microsoft server products are required to support both IPv6 and IPv4. In addition, all server products are required to be configurable to run in dual-stack (IPv4 and IPv6) or IPv6-only modes.

Exchange 2010 scores a G in the IPv6 scorecard, which means “The server product complied with this requirement”

http://www.microsoft.com/CEC/en/us/cec-scorecards.aspx?display=tech

under “Data Center and Enterprise Readiness”

That means Exchange is MEANT to work with IPv6, if some bits need ipv6 disabled in order to get things to work

—————

That means that in order to make your Windows that hosts Exchange CEC compatible then you will need to make sure that IPv6 is enabled on your server.

however note that there is no harm in disabling IPv6 (keep in mind that UM role is not compatible with IPv6) so no harm in disabling it but Exchange was designed and tested with IPv6 in mind and against IPv6.

I have to admit that I have been disabling IPv6 on all of our servers, and that was my recommendations but that should be changed but note:

– Exchange 2010 is designed to work with IPv6 and tested against IPv6.

– To comply against the  CEC you will have IPv6 enabled on your servers.

– UM role is not compatible with IPv6 so you will have to disable IPv6.

– To disable IPv6 on a given server you MUST not disable it bu un-checking the IPv6 check box on the TCP/IP properties and you must disable it from the registry.

again the above are just the findings until now for the IPv6/Exchange topic. I will update you if I have any other news in this specific topic.