Managed Default Folder and Configure Retention in Exchange 2010

Sometimes, being an Exchange Administrator, you might received the request or complaints from your users telling that their Junk or RSS Feeds or even Sync Issues folder in their Outlook is occupying a lot of space. And therefore, user will continue asking is there anyway to control it.

To configure this, there will be differences between Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 whereby Exchange 2007 is allow to configure via Exchange Management Console (EMC) or Exchange PowerShell while Exchange 2010 is only allow via Exchange PowerShell only. And therefore, it's time to start brushing the skill over in PowerShell. :(

In Exchange 2007, from the EMC,
1. Create the Managed Content Setting.

2. Configure the Retention and Action as you wish. Below are the examples for RSS Feeds folder and Junk Email folder. Both have been configured with 1 day retention and proceed for deletion but allow recovery after the retention.

 

3. Create the Managed Folder Mailbox Policy after configured the content settings.

 4. Bind / associate the default folder for with the policy. In my example, I associated both Junk Email and RSS Feeds folders

5. Last, to assign the policy to users, just need to launch the properties page of the users from EMC -> Recipients Configuration -> Mailbox -> Choose your user -> Properties -> Mailbox Settings -> Messaging Records Management.

6. Tick the column "Managed folder mailbox policy" and browse to the policy configured on step 3.

 

7. Done.

For Exchange 2010, basically perform the same steps but is via Exchange PowerShell.

1. To create the managed content setting for the default managed folder. In this example, I create a new managed content setting named “SyncIssuesFolder-Retention1Day”
 ->  New-ManagedContentSettings -FolderName 'Sync Issues' -MessageClass SyncIssues -Name SyncIssuesFolder-Retention1Day -RetentionEnabled $true -RetentionAction DeleteAndAllowRecovery -AgeLimitForRetention "1"

2. To create the managed folder mailbox policy. In this example, I create a new policy named “SyncIssuesFolder-Retention1Day-Policy”
 -> New-ManagedFolderMailboxPolicy -Name "SyncIssuesFolder-Retention1Day-Policy" -ManagedFolderLinks 'Sync Issues'

3. Apply the managed folder mailbox policy to the users. In this case, I apply to user called “exchadmin”
 -> Set-Mailbox -Identity exchadmin -ManagedFolderMailboxPolicy "SyncIssuesFolder-Retention1Day-Policy"

4. Done.

One thing to take note on the licensing part which is managed custom folders are a premium feature of MRM, and each mailbox that has managed custom folders requires an Exchange Server Enterprise CAL. More information about licensing can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb310756(v=exchg.80).aspx.

Thanks and hope the above steps will helps some administrators that looking at this area.

Service Manager 2012 Authoring Tool - error during installation (finalizing stage)

If you wish to customize the service manager management pack, the tool require would be the Authoring Tool. However, during the installation of Authoring Tool, you might hit the error during the finalizing stage of the installation process. The error should looks like below.

However, no worries on this. To solve this, just require to install one items but both x64 and x86 version, which is below.

1. Visual C++ 2010 x64 Redistributable

2. Visual C++ 2010 x86 Redistributable

After that, rerun the installation of the Authoring Tool again and this time should be successful.:)

Configuration Manager 2012 - Activate from evaluation version

1. Go to Start -> Microsoft System Center 2012 -> Configuration Manager -> Configuration Manager Setup

   

2. Choose “Perform site maintenance or reset the Site”

3. Insert your 25-character product key

4. Accept the License Terms

5. Completed

6. The log showed that the system successfully converted from evaluation to full product version.

7. Congratulation!

Steps for Installing Update Rollups on DAG Members

There are steps and sequence if you trying to install the Update Rollups on the Mailbox Server which is DAG member. Below are the general and detail steps

Installing Update Rollups on DAG Members

Installing Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 update rollups on a server that is a member of a database availability group (DAG) is a relatively straightforward process. When you install an update rollup on a server that's a member of a DAG, several services are stopped during the installation, including all Exchange services and the Cluster service. The general process for applying update rollups to a DAG member is as follows:

1. Use the StartDagServerMaintenance.ps1 script to put the DAG member in maintenance mode.
2. Install the update rollup.
3. Use the StopDagServerMaintenance.ps1 script to take the DAG member out of maintenance mode and put it back into production.
4. Use the RedistributeActiveDatabases.ps1 script to rebalance the active database copies across the DAG.

Detail steps 1 to 4 as below.

STEP 1:

Run the StartDagServerMaintenance.ps1 script on the server being updated

Run the following command in the Exchange Management Shell from the Scripts directory:

.\StartDagServerMaintenance.ps1 <ServerName>

STEP 2:

Install the update rollup

1.       Close all Exchange management tools.

2.       Right-click the Exchange update rollup file (.msp file) you downloaded, and then select Apply.

3.       On the Welcome page, click Next.

4.       On the License Terms page, review the license terms, select I accept the License Terms, and then click Next.

5.       On the Completion page, click Finish.

STEP 3:

Run the StopDagServerMaintenance.ps1 script

Run the following command in the Shell from the Scripts directory:

.\StopDagServerMaintenance.ps1  <ServerName>

STEP 4:

Re-balance the DAG, as needed

Run the following command in the Shell from the Scripts directory to optionally balance the DAG by Activation Preference and to produce a report when balancing is complete:

.\ RedistributeActiveDatabases.ps1 -DagName <DAGName> -BalanceDbsByActivationPreference -ShowFinalDatabaseDistribution

Unable to open Exchange Management Console - Initialization Failed

When see this, no worries.. 
Follow the below steps will clear this off and allow you to access the EMC as normal.

1. Close all MMC/EMC instances before proceeding.
2. Open Registry Editor (regedit) as the user you run the EMC under.
3. Go to
4. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\v14\AdminTools
5. Look for value NodeStructureSetting.
6. If it is there, back it up and then remove it.

iOS 6.1.2 solved iOS 6.1 bug of excessive activity to MS Exchange Server

For Apple users who using iOS 6.1, faster go and upgrade to 6.1.2. :)


From Apple Support article

iOS 6.1: Excess Exchange activity after accepting an exception to recurring calendar event

Symptom:

When you respond to an exception to a recurring calendar event with a Microsoft Exchange account on a device running iOS 6.1, the device may begin to generate excessive communication with Microsoft Exchange Server. You may notice increased network activity or reduced battery life on the iOS device. This extra network activity will be shown in the logs on Exchange Server and it may lead to the server blocking the iOS device. This can occur with iOS 6.1 and Microsoft Exchange 2010 SP1 or later, or Microsoft Exchange Online (Office365)



iOS 6.1.2 Software Update
Fixes an Exchange calendar bug that could result in increased network activity and reduced battery life