Outlook Anywhere changes in Exchange Server 2007 SP1

In Exchange Server 2007 SP1, the configuration of Outlook Anywhere (formerly known as RPC over HTTP) has been changed to accommodate the different ways Exchange CAS servers are deployed on the Internet. This blog post provides an overview of these changes.

For Exchange 2007 SP1, instead of always enabling Basic and NTLM, Outlook Anywhere now provides the ability to choose the authentication methods that will be enabled on the /rpc virtual directory in IIS.

To specify the authentication method, the following parameters have been added in place of the ExternalAuthenticationMethod parameter:

1. ClientAuthenticationMethod - This new parameter specifies the authentication method that the Autodiscover service will provide to the clients. This is the method that clients will use to authenticate against the Client Access server. In Exchange 2007 RTM, the ExternalAuthenticationMethod parameter was responsible for this setting.

2. IISAuthenticationMethods - This new parameter specifies the authentication methods that will be enabled the /rpc virtual directory in IIS. When using this parameter, all other authentication methods will be disabled. More than one value can be specified for this parameter by using a comma delimited list of authentication methods. For example: NTLM, Basic

The reason that both parameters exists is scenarios in which you have a firewall which is configured to provide authentication delegation. For example, Outlook clients use Basic authentication, but an ISA Server 2006 firewall delegates authentication to the /rpc virtual directory using NTLM authentication. In this scenario, you would set the ClientAuthenticationMethod to Basic and the IISAuthenticationMethod parameter to NTLM.

However, since many Outlook Anywhere deployments do not go through authentication delegation, a more common scenario would be that both of these parameters will use the same value. Because of this, the following additional parameter can be used:

3. DefaultAuthenticationMethod - This new parameter can be specified to set both the ClientAuthenticationMethod and IISAuthenticationMethod parameters to be the same value. When you use this parameter, only a single value can be specified.

 

Continue at: msexchangeteam.com

Translate This and Translate My Page Functionality with Windows Live Translator

Every now and then I look at visitor logs on the various personal and professional sites/blogs that I administer. It makes for a fascinating experience to see the many places worldwide that visitors come from. I have often wondered about non English speakers and how I could make my writing more accessible to them. While some professional and company web sites have translated versions available, in many user forums and communities across the web there have been requests for a translated version of the pages/posts. Today, on many sites, I have to copy the text on the site, paste it into a translator and look at the translation. It is cumbersome and not very seamless in an otherwise smooth navigation experience.

I am very pleased to say Windows Live Translator solved this problem with the latest feature addition that rolled out this week. Now on the Live Translator home page you will find a new link  “Add the web page Translator to your site“. By clicking on this link you go to a page that offers snippets of code that can be added to individual web pages for which you wish to offer translations.

The code generator will create the appropriate widget depending on the source language of your site. Refer to the Live Translator introduction post where Andrea listed the language pairs that we currently support.

So here is what you do to have a link on your web page to translate it:

Step 1: Click on the Add the web page Translator to your site link

Step 2: Select the language your web page is written in (source language)

For example: Since all the articles on my blog are in English, I choose English as the source language

Step 3: The code that you need to copy and paste into your web page’s HTML is generated in the box

For example: Since I chose English, the code that is generated looks like this

<script type=”text/javascript” src=http://translator.live.com/TranslatePageLink.aspx?pl=en></script>

Step 4: Copy that code and paste it into the page that should offer translation.

 

Continue at : blogs.msdn.com

Media Sharing Document for WHS Released

This Technical Brief, “Windows Home Server - Media Sharing” provides an in-depth look at the features and functionality of Windows Home Server Media Sharing.

The 23 page PDF document covers what Media Streaming is and how to enable it in WHS. Supported media file formats are listed for photo, audio and video formats. It shows you how to view photo slide shows stored on Windows Home Server using a Windows Vista screensaver, an Xbox 360 or by using a digital picture frame. Next up, is streaming music, and many options are discussed including using again Windows Media Player, an Xbox 360, a Windows Media Centre Edition PC and Microsoft Zune to play your music from WHS over your network. Finally streaming video content and playlist setup is also discussed.

Download at : www.microsoft.com

Windows Home Server Drive Extender

This Technical Brief provides an in-depth look at the features and functionality of Windows Home Server Drive Extender. Learn about configuring your home server’s storage and adding / removing hard drives.

Download At : www.microsoft.com

Create Blogs and Web Sites using Windows Home Server

The easy to use content management and blog solution includes revision support, tools for highlighting changes between versions of content, workflow, easy to use themes and built-in reporting.

If this is something you are interested in then the beta will be starting in 2 weeks and will include support for Windows Home server. Head on over to the sign up page to be informed when the beta starts.

In the meantime more information on Graffiti CMS in available in their FAQ (which is actually running Grafitti, as are these sites here , here and here), or if video content is more your thing, then here are a few for your entertainment:

• Teaser Video: http://telligent.com/blog/archive/sneaking-a-glimpse-of-graffiti.aspx
• Graffiti CMS – Overview: http://blip.tv/file/442255
• Graffiti CMS – People: http://blip.tv/file/443734
• Graffiti CMS – Posts: http://blip.tv/file/443914
• Graffiti CMS – Themes: http://blip.tv/file/443977
• Graffiti CMS - Navigation: http://blip.tv/file/444066
• Graffiti CMS – Windows Live Writer: http://blip.tv/file/446045
• Graffiti CMS – Widgets: http://blip.tv/file/459396

Windows PowerShell Graphical Help File

View the Windows PowerShell help (including cmdlet help and the About topics) in a fully-searchable, graphical format (a standard Windows .chm file). Also included in the help file is the VBScript to Windows PowerShell Conversion Guide and a collection of PowerShell Tips of the Week.

Download the Powershell help file for: Powershell 1.0 | Powershell 2.0

Exchange Server 2007 Component Architecture Poster

This poster highlights the architecture and feature set of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

Aside from showing the high-level architecture, this poster highlights the feature set of Exchange Server 2007. Sections include:

• Management and Monitoring
• High Availability
• Client Access, Edge Transport, Hub Transport, Mailbox, and Unified Messaging server roles

Download At : www.microsoft.com

Planning, Deploying, and Managing Unified Messaging with Exchange Server 2007

The purpose of this document is to help you plan, deploy, and manage Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging servers.

The purpose of this document is to help you plan, deploy, and manage Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging servers. The information and procedures in this document focus specifically on the Unified Messaging features of an Exchange 2007 computer that has the Unified Messaging server role installed. This document provides information about Unified Messaging features and the tasks you must perform to plan, deploy, manage, and configure them.
This document is a compilation of the Unified Messaging white papers that are available in the Exchange Server Technical Articles section of the Exchange Server 2007 Library. Each white paper is a compilation of Unified Messaging Help topics. This document is provided as a convenience for customers who want to view the topics in print format. The content in this document applies to the original release (RTM) version of Exchange Server 2007. To read the most up-to-date Unified Messaging topics, including information about Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1, visit the Exchange Server 2007 Library.

Download At : www.microsoft.com

VMware: New HA features in VC 2.0.2

As you know, HA is triggered on an ESX host after 15 seconds when it cannot contact it’s cluster partners and the default gateway. By Default, all virtual machines running on the ESX host are shut down and restarted on the remaining ESX hosts in the cluster (using a Legato AAM agent to do it’s job).

The only thing you could do up until now was changing the default gateway (via the das.isolationaddress option/value set). However, for most companies this is not enough. When a general network maintenance is scheduled, you should disable HA to avoid an unnecessary HA trigger.

New in VirtualCenter 2.0.2 are the following option/value pairs:

• das.failuredetectiontime = <value> (default 15 seconds)
• das.isolationaddress2 = <value>

These values can be set under Your Cluster => Edit Settings => VMware HA => Advanced Options.

See also VMware’s HA_Tech_Best_Practices.pdf document for more info!

VMware: Stopping a Virtual Machine gone haywire

Sometimes a Virtual Machine can’t be stopped via the VIClient. The job just hangs. There are a number of options to stop your Virtual Machine from within the Service Console. Keep in mind that these are last resort options!

• Stopping the virtual machine by issuing the command vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/<datastorename>/<vmname>/<vmname>.vmx stop. This must be done on the ESX host where the Virtual Machine is running!
• If this does not work, one can issue the following command: vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/<datastorename>/<vmname>/<vmname>.vmx stop hard. This will try to kill the Virtual Machine instantly.
• A final solution is to kill the PID (process ID). Issue the following command: ps auxfww | grep <vmname> to locate the correct PID (BTW: this cannot be done via ESXTOP). The first number to appear in the output is your PID. The PID can be used to terminate the process by issuing kill -9 PID.