Exchange 2013 OWA Comparison: RTM to CU1

We are happy to report that after walking through all of the troubleshooting steps we needed to that Exchange 2013 CU1 installed successfully on one of our Exchange 2013 RTM greenfield deploys.

Note that there were 18 steps to the whole process _after_ completing the AD prep steps and installing the required components on Server 2012.

This is a shot of Exchange 2013 RTM OWA:

This is a shot of Exchange 2013 CU1 OWA:

We now have the SPAMfighter folder listed.

One thing we noticed is that OWA loaded a _lot_ faster on the new platform than it used to on RTM.

As always, _test_ updates in a lab setting before wondering out and running them on production systems.

We had a System State and a full ShadowProtect backup of this particular setup before we jumped in as a just-in-case.

Given that some of the RTM bugs were critical at this site we jumped into CU1 right away on a production system.

So far, we can report that things are back to normal. So far . . .

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

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SBS 2011 Exchange 2010 SP1 – Outlook Web Access HTTP 500 Error

This is a strange situation in that everything was working fine. Because we are in the middle of a migration from SBS v7 to SBS 2011 on our network there are a lot of changes going on because of the migration.

So, it is tough to pinpoint exactly when OWA on SBS 2011 stopped working.

When we hit our SBS 2011 OWA to log on we get the following:

Punch in a username and password and we are greeted with:

There are very few results in our search attempts but it turned out that the second item in our Bing search did the trick:

• Microsoft Exchange Forms-Based Authentication service: Not Running.

The Recovery tab for the service shows “Restart the Service” for all three options. Yet, the service is not running.

So, we go ahead and start the service:

Sure enough, we were able to get in:

Hat tip: Henrik Walther Blog on MSExchange.org: Exchange 2010 SP1 – Experiencing an OWA HTTP 500 Error?

As Henrik indicates, the cause of the no-start situation with the FBA service is unknown at this point. We will be keeping an eye on this one for our SBS 2011 installs post reboot.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

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A Glimpse At Exchange 2010 OWA And SharePoint Foundation

OWN has had their hosted Exchange and SharePoint systems on Exchange 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010 for a while now.

We just finished provisioning a client’s e-mail infrastructure and collaboration around OWN’s 2010 hosted Exchange and SharePoint products.

Since we have been so busy with other tasks, this is the first time we have had the time to take a bit of a dive into the new Microsoft offerings.

Outlook Web Access

Exchange 2010’s Outlook Web App (OWA):

Microsoft’s continued development of Outlook Web Access on Exchange has certainly been excellent. With each successive version we have seen vast improvements with each new release.

The changes from 2007 to 2010 however, are not quite as dramatic.

Outlook Web Access on Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2:

OWA 2010 does have a few key features out of the box that OWA 2007 did not though.

1. Mail: Inclusion of the Favorites section which is identical to the Office Outlook client.
2. Mail: Search Folders actually has the Unread Mail folder set up by default.
3. Mail: Recover Deleted Items is now a right click option in 2010 as opposed to digging through Options in 2007.

From there, the OWA Options management page is a lot more intuitive to use on 2010 than it was on 2007. Users will be able to find the items they want to use with a bit more ease.

SharePoint Foundation 2010

Once the services are provisioned by OWN, we need to log on as the SharePoint site admin to set a template.

When the template has been set up, we then need to create our contributor group and add our client’s users to that group. Any needed Sites and/or special permissions groups would be created from there.

This is the new SharePoint Foundation 2010 site:

The changes between Windows SharePoint Services v3 and SharePoint Foundation 2010 are quite substantial.

Note the layout and navigation changes. There are a lot of changes made in the SharePoint product. As a result, be prepared to either contract someone like Robert Crane who can customize the site quite quickly and efficiently or delve into the bits and bolts to figure it out.

Own Web Now and the Cloud

We have mentioned this before, but it bears mentioning again since developing alternate revenue streams for our business is absolutely critical to our growth and longevity.

1. We partner with OWN for our hosted Exchange/SharePoint needs because _we_ are the face of the hosted products to our client.
• We set the value and pricing for each OWN service we resell.
• We invoice our clients for those services ahead of time the same way our cell phone provider invoices us for next month’s services plus last month’s overages.
• Once the services are set up, we have that monthly residual that totally _kills_ any residuals we might get through other Cloud services vendors.
2. We partner with OWN because we get to work with _real_ and _knowledgeable_ people if we need support.
• Benjamin and Matt have been our primary support contacts and they have always come through for us.
• The OWN support team when called upon have been second to none.

While the Cloud and its impact have certainly been on the top of our minds lately, picking the right Cloud vendors is absolutely critical to the life of our business.

Even with the mainframe style of Cloud services, the client/customer will _always_ be in need of experts to facilitate their IT solutions and infrastructure. That’s another reason why we always need to be growing our expertise.

Those Cloud Solutions Experts need to be _US_! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

SBS 2003 – Enable Password Changing in OWA

One of the new features in SBS 2008 is the integration of the user’s password state into both the Remote Web Workplace (RWW) and Outlook Web Access (OWA.

A user would be prompted by RWW to change their password when it was approaching its expiry date. We set our SBS domains to warn users at 14 days.

Within RWW and OWA themselves the user can fine a link to initiate a password change.

With SBS 2003, we would be prompted to change our password after it had expired, but that was as far as it goes when it came to managing passwords.

There is a tweak that can be done on the Exchange and IIS side to enable users to change their password from with OWA:

• Microsoft Knowledgebase: KB297121: Implementing the Change Password feature with Outlook Web Access

Note that the implementation will take a number of steps and are quite invasive. Make sure to take a proper backup just prior to making any changes.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Outlook Error – The name cannot be resolved and SBS 2008 with Vista Hosting

We had a user on our hosted SBS 2008 service accidentally copy a bunch of folders into the Outbox in Outlook 2007.

The call to us came in that they were unable to send anything and were not sure why.

Once we connected to the Vista VM, we found the folders nested in the Outbox.

We removed the folders from the Outbox but the Send/Receive dialogue was still stuck.

So, we deleted the Outlook profile, deleted the OST file, and attempted to reconnect to their mailbox, but were not able to do so:

Microsoft Office Outlook

The name cannot be resolved. The name cannot be matched to a name in the address list.

Currently, the SBS hosting services are low key for a few clients that do not have network infrastructure in place but need a secure desktop and data sharing experience for their Line of Business applications.

The Microsoft licensing is provided through SPLA.

When we initially run the SBS Add a new user account wizard, there were no problems with configuring the Outlook profile.

The problem came after the fact:

Exchange 2007: Philip Elder Properties

Note the setting below the Alias: Hide from Exchange address lists. Once the user’s profile has been set up, we enable this setting to remove them from the GAL.

The error in this case was due to the Hide from Exchange address lists setting being enabled. Once we removed the check mark and clicked the Apply button, we were able to complete the Outlook profile set up.

SBS 2008 and Windows Vista Hosting

On the hosting side of the business, we have set up a custom User Role for new hosting users on the SBS 2008 server that tightens up the group membership and quota structures.

Access-based Enumeration is used for any needed shares to keep them hidden from users with no permissions to them and Standard User profiles are used on the Windows Vista VMs with no Network Discovery enabled to keep them isolated.

Customized GPOs are then used to tighten up the security settings on the desktops.

As this side of our business grows, we will look to incorporate another rung on the redundancy ladder by including OWN’s Hosted Exchange solution into the mix.

Scorpion Software’s AuthAnvil is also on the To Do list to incorporate another level of security for the hosting environment as we grow.

The key to making the SBS 2008 and Vista hosting viable for small business is catching the balance between the cost of installing a server setup for the client versus the low monthly cost of having someone else do it for them.

As a result, we need to partner up with key Cloud services providers to augment our own services to provide the best balance between cost and availability.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

RWW and OWA Idle Time-Out Bug Filed - Please Feedback

We previously mentioned the situation here: SBS 2008 - RWW and OWA Idle-Time Caveat or Hiccup?

Essentially, if you pass through the Remote Web Workplace into Outlook Web Access and leave the RWW window/tab open but idle, it will time-out after 30 minutes.

The problem is, the active OWA window/tab will hit an OWA logon page once the RWW has timed out too. Even though OWA was being used right up to the moment RWW timed out.

A bug has been filed on the Connect site: OWA Time-Out Behaviour when Remote Web Workplace idle time-out is reached. If this issue is important to you, please take a moment to rate the bug. It has already been validated by the SBS Team.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SBS 2008 - A couple of neat OWA features

The new Outlook Web Access (OWA) based on Exchange 2007 SP1 that we get with SBS 2008 is such a huge improvement over OWA in SBS 2003.

There are so many new client-side features that greatly improve a user's e-mail communication efficiency as well as their overall experience using Outlook Web Access.

One:

Deleted Items Recovery

Having the Deleted Items Recovery tool in the Outlook application when Exchange integrated is an administrator's life saver! Once a user has been shown that they can recover their deleted items, they take full advantage of it.

Now they can do so via OWA. They no longer need to establish a connection to a dedicated Remote Desktop to recover an e-mail, wait until they get back to the office to do so, or call us to help them out.

Two:

Remote Device Wipe

The time between a Windows Mobile device has been discovered missing and its being wiped by an administrator via Exchange 2003 can be absolutely critical ... and long.

With Exchange 2007, the user has control over the device. If the user's mobile device is somehow lost or stolen, they can remote wipe their own device quickly via OWA.

There is added security for Windows Mobile 6.x devices as the users would have turned on encryption for their add-in storage cards. So, barring any possible signal blocks or a dead battery, the device will wipe itself and any data on the card would be "lost" too.

These two features make SBS 2008 along with Windows Mobile device integration that much more attractive for clients with highly mobile workers.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.