September 2012 Question of the Month
What is surprising about the name of the next version of Exchange Server?
ANSWER:
It has the number “13” in it. Normally Microsoft avoids “13”. The code name “E13” was avoided, but I suspect for business reasons they labeled it Exchange Server 2013.
July 2012 Question of the Month
When configuring 2010 Hub Transport site links costs, how do you determine cost per link?
ANSWER:
Check back after the meeting for the answer.
June 2012 Question of the Month
What is delayed fan-out and what are the benefits?
ANSWER:
Functionality on the Exchange Server 2010 Hub Transport server role where the server uses site link information to optimize the routing of messages that are sent to multiple recipients. The Hub Transport server delays the splitting of a message until it reaches a fork in the routing topology. Uses less bandwidth with routing messages.
May 2012 Question of the Month
Do you know PAM and SAM? If so, who are they? Hint: DAG or no DAG, you know at least one of them.
ANSWER:
Primary Active Manager (PAM) & Standalone Active Manager (SAM). For 2010, in the Mailbox role, you’ll find either 1 or 2 of them. PAM is used to determine which DAG member is primary and running and SAM is used to report issues with local system. So, a mailbox server with DAG will have both PAM and SAM, while a single server environment will just have SAM. Microsoft TechNet Article on PAM and SAM – CLICK HERE
April 2012 Question of the Month
For Exchange 2010 Hybrid mode with Office 365, which versions of Exchange are supported?
ANSWER:
At least one Exchange Server 2010 SP2 running the Client Access and Hub Transport roles. So, you could in theory have Exchange 2007 Mailbox Servers with a single 2010 Server and support Hybrid mode.
March 2012 Question of the Month
Can you change the default EHLO banner in Exchange 2010?
ANSWER:
Yes, Yes, and Yes. Click HERE for 2010 changes.
Click HERE for 2007 changes.
Click HERE for 2000/2003 changes.
February 2012 Question of the Month
For Exchange 2010, in how many places is the maximum # of recipients set for sending/receiving messages?
ANSWER:
You can restrict the # of messages per messages at 4 levels. 1) Mailbox, 2) Organization, 3) Connector (Receive), and 4) Transport server.
Microsoft TechNet Article – Click HERE.
January 2012 Question of the Month
What feature was brought back from the dead in Service Pack 2 for Exchange 2010?
ANSWER: This feature was alive in 2003 and then disappeared. It came back from the dead in SP2 in 2010. What is “Outlook Mobile Access”. Why? No idea…. see page 6 of this presentation [click HERE] to see all the details behind it.
December 2011 Question of the Month
What free tool can be used to determine what types of devices are connecting to your Exchange Server (CAS role)? Very useful for troubleshooting high RPC usage or client-side load.
November 2011 Question of the Month
Name 3 features that are integrated between Exchange 2010 & Lync 2010 Server.
ANSWER:
Calendar availability, presence (free/busy) status, and unified messaging (voicemail, call flows, etc). More integration documentation can be found on this Technet Blog/ – Click HERE.
October 2011 Question of the Month
What is the function called that protects Exchange 2007/2010 Hub & Transport Servers from excessive connections from users and/or servers?
ANSWER:
Message Throttling. This built-in function automatically protects the Exchange Server from “excessive” usage by slowing down client or other server connections. A frequent usage of auto-throttling is inbound mail speed.
Microsoft TechNet Library on Message Throttling – Click HERE.
September 2011 Question of the Month
What are 2 major dangers that can affect availability with Cloud deployments due to big economies of scale?
ANSWER:
Amplication & Isolation. Amplication can incur issues when automated “fixes” and larger failures can make recovering more difficult (e.g. try rebooting all your iSCSI booted hosts at the same time). Isolation since a user/company can cause problems for other companies sharing the service (e.g. a DoS can effect thousands of companies). Normally, this would not be an issue with companies with separate hardware & environments. Exchange General Manager Perry Clarke explains that Microsoft is aware and has been working to improve Exchange to be the best solution for the last few years. Microsoft TechNet Blog Posting by Exchange General Manager Perry Clarke – Click HERE.
August 2011 Question of the Month
Microsoft BPOS and Office 365 and Google’s Gmail for Business Email offer what SLA for email transit timing (aka how long an email will take to arrive to you)?
ANSWER:
Will be posted after the meeting on August 9.
July 2011 Question of the Month
What new technique is being used by spammers to obfuscate URLs in messages?
ANSWER:
URL shortening websites such at bit.ly. The normal technique anti-spammer solution to detect bad URLs is based on DNS lookups on the domain portion of the URL. So, a spammer using bit.ly/897237 and a good URL of bit.ly/329082 were considered equal. So, the new anti-spammer technique to address this to use the full URL. So, make sure you’re anti-spam solution is capable of checking full URLs. The anti-spammer technique for URL checking is called SURBLs. Make sure your SURBL solution can look-up full URLs. such as this bit.ly/searchthispart.html as well.
June 2011 Question of the Month
For Exchange 2010 SP2 (per planned release in 2nd half 2011) , GAL segmentation has changed in what way?
ANSWER:
Click here for more information. With the release of SP2 the way GAL segmentation will work has been changed. GAL segmentation allowed administrators to optimize address lists in large companies, creating smaller ‘virtual’ organizations, with users only able to see the users they need to see. In previous versions of Exchange GAL Segmentation was ACL based on a permission structure. With Exchange 2010 SP2 GAL Segmentation will be delivered using an “Address Book Policy” assignment model.