Eric Siebert done a good job to contribute this much resource in one piece
]]>You can download the service pack 1 Beta from here
]]>Scenarios:-
- Your Company has different independent business units and the each of them need different e-mail domains; company management doesn’t want to spend money for this.
- You Providing the email hosting service and have to accept e-mail for more than one SMTP domain name
Prerequisites
- A public DNS MX resource record is required for each SMTP domain for which you accept e-mail from the Internet. Each MX record should resolve to the Internet-facing server that receives e-mail for your organization.
- Send and Receive connectors should be configured, so that the Exchange organization can send e-mail to and receive e-mail from the Internet.
There are two steps to configure exchange 2010 to accept e-mail for more than one SMTP domains. The initial step is configuring the accepted domain and the second one is create or modify the email policy.
Use the EMC to configure Exchange 2010 to accept e-mail for more than one domain
Expand the Organization Configuration node, and then click Hub Transport. In the results pane, click the Accepted Domains tab.
In the action pane, click New Accepted Domain, or right-click and select the New Accepted Domain from the Accepted Domains tab. Then the New Accepted Domain wizard appears.
Figure: 1
On the New Accepted Domain page, type a name to identify the accepted domain entry. In the Accepted Domain field, type the SMTP domain name. Select Authoritative Domain. E-mail is delivered to a recipient in this Exchange organization.
Click New to create the Accepted Domain.
Figure: 2
Now you can see that the Authoritative Accepted Domain shareef.info has been created and listed in the Accepted Domain tab
Figure: 3
Now we need to configure the email address policy for the newly created authoritative domain. To do this either we can create new email address policy or edit the existing email address policy. I prefer to create the new email address policy.
To create the new email address policy expand the Organization Configuration node, and then click Hub Transport. In the results pane, click the E-mail Address Policies tab.
In the action pane, click New E-mail Address Policy or right-click and select the New E-Mail Address Policy from the E-mail Address Policies tab.
Figure: 4
Type a name for the e-mail address policy in this example its @shareef.info. If the users that will be assigned this new e-mail address policy are all in a specific organizational unit (OU), click Browse to restrict this e-mail address policy to that specific OU. Select an option under Include these recipient types to determine to which recipient types this e-mail address policy will be applied, in this example I choose Users with Exchange Mailbox, you can select this option as per your exchange environment. Click Next.
Figure: 5
If you want to specify any condition for this policy specify the same. In this example I prefer not to specify any condition. Click Next to continue.
Figure: 6
On the E-mail Addresses page, click Add to specify the domain for the E-mail Address and the E-mail address local part.
Figure: 7
In the SMTP E-mail Address dialog box, select the option under E-mail address local part that determines how the recipient’s e-mail address alias will be generated.
Click the Select the accepted domain for the e-mail address option, and then click Browse. In the Select Accepted Domain dialog box, select an accepted domain, in this example its shareef.info and then click OK. Click OK again to close the SMTP E-mail Address dialog box.
Figure: 8
Click Next to continue.
Figure: 9
In the Schedule page, select an option to specify when the e-mail address policy will be applied and the maximum length of time that the task is permitted to run. I am choosing immediately.
Click Next.
Figure: 10
Click New to create the new E-Mail Address Policy
Figure: 11
The New E-Mail Address Policy task has been completed successfully. Click Finish to exit the wizard.
Figure: 12
In this screenshot you can see the new email address policy has been applied.
Figure: 13
PowerShell commands for configuring the Exchange 2010 to accept e-mail for more than one domain
To create the New Authoritative Accepted Domain
New-AcceptedDomain -Name “blog.shareef.info” -DomainName shareef.info -DomainType Authoritative
To create the New E-Mail Address Policy
New-EmailAddressPolicy -Name “@shareef.info” -IncludedRecipients UserMailbox -ConditionalDepartment “Fourth Coffee” -Priority 1 -EnabledEmailAddressTemplates “SMTP:@fourthcoffee.com”
To apply the New E-Mail Address Policy to the recipients
Update-EmailAddressPolicy -Identity “@shareef.info”
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Creating the Mailbox Database Copy:-
To create the Mailbox Database Copy open the exchange management console, then select the Mailbox under the organization configuration from the console tree, from the right panel select the Database Management tab then right-click the appropriate database and select the add Mailbox Database Copy
Figure: 1
For selecting the mailbox server who is going to host the database copy click the browse button
Figure: 2
In this example I have only one mailbox server so I am selecting mbx01 to host the copy or the mbx01 database. If you have multiple mailbox servers you can choose multiple mailbox servers. Click ok to add the mailbox server.
Note: maximum number of mailbox server which can host the single database copy is 16
Then click next button to create the Mailbox Database Copy
Figure: 3
Our Mailbox Database Copy has been successfully created, we can see the confirmation from the below screenshot. Click finish to exit the configuration task
Figure: 4
In the below screenshot we can see mailbox database DAG_DB has two copies of the database and it is hosted in MBX01 and MBX02. DB01 is located on MBX01 and it doesn’t have replication copy.
Figure: 5
We are created the Database copy for testing the DAG functionality. Now we need to create a mailbox in DAG_DB database.
For that right-click the Mailbox under the Recipient Configuration from the console tree then select the New Mailbox.
Figure: 6
Select the User Mailbox and click Next->>
Figure: 7
Select the New User and click Next->>
Figure: 8
Fill the user account information details and password, Click Next to continue
Figure: 9
Select the DAG_DB (Copy enabled mailbox) and click ok
Figure: 10
Click next continue, in the next the step it will prompt you for the creating the archive mailbox, if you want to creating the archive mailbox you can select the check box. In this scenario I am not using the archive feature.
After the archiving prompt click next then it will ask you for the confirmation for creating the mailbox, If all the information’s are correct click New to create the Mailbox
Figure: 11
Now we are created the Mailbox
Figure: 12
The below screenshot we can see the mailbox name shareef is created in DAG_DB (copy enabled database). You can see that the administrator Mailbox is located in DB01. We are not enabled the database copy on DB01.
Figure: 13
Now it’s the time for test the DAG failover functionality, so I am login to OWA with the username shareef
Figure: 14
This is the first time I am login with the username shareef, so need to choose the language and time zone. Right now I am in Qatar so I am choosing time zone as +3.00 Kuwait, Riyadh and I am comfortable with the English language.
Click OK to login to the OWA Mailbox
Figure: 15
Right now I don’t have any mail in my inbox so I am composing a mail and sending to user shareef and administrator subject as DAG Replication Test.
Figure: 16
Figure: 17
You can see from the below screenshot that the user shareef is received the mail subjected as DAG Replication Test
Figure: 18
Now I am shutting down the MBX01 mailbox server, MBX01 is holding the DB01 database.
The below mentioned screenshot you can see that the DAG database DAG_DB copy status on MBX01 is showing ServiceDown
Figure: 19
The DB01 database copy status is also showing ServiceDown
Figure: 20
This is the screenshot of the DAG network, in that the MBX01 server network interface IP address (192.168.1.161) is showing unavailable.
Also the status of the MBX01 node in Failover Cluster is showing Down
Figure: 21
Figure: 22
This is the status of the network adapter in Cluster network and it is showing Unavailable.
Figure: 23
Now we are confirmed that the Mailbox Server MBX01 is completely down, that means the database DB01 is also down. In this situation I can’t login to the administrator mailbox, it has to give an error when I try to login to the administrator mailbox.
I am going to login to OWA with the username administrator
Figure: 24
As I am login first time with the administrator user ID, I have to choose the Language and Time zone.
Click OK to login to the administrator mailbox
Figure: 25
This is the error we will get when the mailbox database is down or the server itself down. The error shows that the administrator mailbox is unavailable that means the database where the administrator mailbox is down.
We confirm that the administrator mailbox is not working we need to find out the whether the mailbox for user shareef is available or not.
Figure: 26
This is the mailboxes of both shareef and administrator. In this we can see the mailbox for shareef is available and accessible without any issue.
Through this we identified that DAG failover is working perfectly.
Figure: 27
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In this part I will show you how to create DAG, how to add the member servers to DAG and how to configure the DAG network.
Create the new DAG:-
Go to the exchange management console, in organization Configuration click the Mailbox sub menu
From the Database Availability Group tab right-click and create new Database Availability Group
Figure: 1
Type the DAG name and File share Witness server name and path of the Witness Directory.
Click New to create the new DAG
Figure: 2
Now we are successfully configured the new Database Availability Group named DAG01.
Click Finish to complete the configuration
Figure: 3
In the below screenshots we can see the newly created DAG name (DAG01), Witness server name and Witness Directory path
Figure: 4
Adding Member server to DAG:-
Now I am going to add the member servers to the newly created DAG, this process will also install and configure the failover clustering in the servers.
For that right-click the DAG01 and click the Manage Database Availability Group Membership
Figure: 5
Then click Add button to add the member servers to DAG01, this will give you the server selection window for adding the servers to DAG01
Figure: 6
Select the appropriate server from the selection window, in my example I have only 2 servers with mailbox role installed.
Click ok to complete the selection of Servers
Figure: 7
Now we can see both Mailbox server added to the Database Availability Group Membership window.
Click Manage to add both servers to DAG01
Figure: 8
Now we are successfully completed adding the server to DAG01
Click finish to exit the Database Availability Group Membership window.
Figure: 9
The below mentioned screenshot we can see the we can see the member server of the DAG01, network interfaces of the both servers and the status of the interfaces
Figure: 10
Assigning the Virtual IP address to DAG:-
In the below screenshot we can see that there is no IP assigned for the DAG01
We have to configure the Virtual IP address for the DAG01
Figure: 11
This is the PowerShell command for configuring the DAG IP address
Set-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup DAG01 –DatabaseAvailabilityGroupIpAddresses 192.168.1.165
Figure: 12
Now we can see that the IP address (192.168.1.165) is assigned to the DAG01, also a computer account is created in the active directory
Figure: 13
Figure: 14
This the file share witness folder which is created by the DAG
Figure: 15
The below mentioned screenshot we can see the status of the DAG01 nodes, IP address of the DAG01 and the Witness directory path in Failover Cluster Manager.
Figure: 16
Figure: 17
In the next parts i will show you how to create the database copy and how to test the DAG
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VCP4 Exam Blue print
VMware Official Documentation for vSphere
VMware vSphere 4 Documentation
Consolidated Backup Documentation
vCenter Update Manager Documentation
vCenter Converter Documentation
Study materials
Learning guide by Matthijs van den Berg
VCP4 vSphere Study Notes from Simon long’s blog
VCP vSphere 4 Practice Exams from Simon long’s blog
vSphere 4 Mock Exam from VMware
Test the VMware General IT Knowledge
Related Blogs
http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/11/14/vcp-4-exam
http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/vcp-vsphere-4-practice-exam
http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/vcp-vsphere-upgrade-study-notes
http://professionalvmware.com/2009/07/vsphere-vcp4-beta-follow-up
http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com/2009/09/studying-for-vcp-on-vsphere-4.html
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Today I got the confirmation mail from Microsoft certification team regarding the exchange 2010-configuring exam update; they have uploaded the soft-copy of the certification in my MCP account. I downloaded my certificate, that certificate was labeled as Charter Member. I am very happy to see the charter member label in my certificate.
I pass the exchange 2010-configuring (070-662) exam on 11 April.
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Database Availability Groups
A DAG is a set of up to 16 Mailbox servers that provide automatic database-level recovery from failures that affect individual databases. Any server in a DAG can host a copy of a mailbox database from any other server in the DAG. When a server is added to a DAG, it works with the other servers in the DAG to provide automatic recovery from failures that affect mailbox databases, such as a disk failure or server failure.
Moved features from Exchange Server 2007 to Exchange 2010
The following features in Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2007 SP1 no longer exist in Exchange 2010. Their replacements are noted in the table.
| Exchange 2007 | Exchange 2010 |
| Cluster continuous replication (CCR) | Database availability groups and mailbox database copies |
| Standby continuous replication (SCR) | Database availability groups and mailbox database copies |
| Local continuous replication (LCR) | Database availability groups and mailbox database copies |
| Single copy clusters (SCC) | Database availability groups and mailbox database copies; built-in third-party synchronous API available to replace third-party data replication used with SCC |
| Clustered mailbox servers | Database availability groups and mailbox database copies |
| Storage groups | Databases |
| Recovery Storage Group | Recovery database |
LAB Design for Exchange 2010 D A G
Figure 1
This lab is created in VMware environment. In this lab I will show you how to create DAG; how to add the existing server’s to newly created DAG and how to test the DAG fail-over if any member server fail or went offline. I will also show you how to test the DAG fail-over in data base level.
Pre-requisite for this LAB
| Server Name | OS | Roles | Memory | Network Card |
| DC | Windows Server 2008 R2 ENT | DC, DNS, HUB, CAL | 2GB | 1 |
| MBX01 | Windows Server 2008 R2 ENT | Mailbox | 2GB | 2 |
| MBX02 | Windows Server 2008 R2 ENT | Mailbox | 2GB | 2 |
The Network settings for each network adapter in each node are detailed in the following table.
| Name | IPv4 address | Subnet mask | Default gateway |
| DC/HUB/CAL(LAN) | 192.168.1.60 | 255.255.255.0 | 192.168.1.1 |
| MBX01 (LAN) | 192.168.1.61 | 255.255.255.0 | 192.168.1.1 |
| MBX02 (LAN) | 192.168.1.62 | 255.255.255.0 | 192.168.1.1 |
| MBX01 (CLR) | 10.1.1.1 | 255.255.255.0 | None |
| MBX02 (CLR) | 10.1.1.2 | 255.255.255.0 | None |
LAB prerequisites:-
Windows Server 2008 R2
1 On servers that will host the Hub Transport or Mailbox server role, install the Microsoft Filter Pack. For details, see 2007 Office System Converter: Microsoft Filter Pack.
2 On the Start Menu, navigate to All Programs, then Accessories, then Windows PowerShell. Open an elevated Windows PowerShell console, and run the following command:
Import-Module ServerManager
Figure 2
For a server that will host the Client Access and Hub Transport server roles:
Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Dyn-Compression,NET-HTTP-Activation,RPC-Over-HTTP-Proxy -Restart
Figure 3
Figure 4
On servers that will have the Client Access Server role installed, after the system has restarted, log on as an administrator, open an elevated Windows PowerShell console, and configure the Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service for Automatic startup by running the following command:
Set-Service NetTcpPortSharing -StartupType Automatic
Figure 5
For a server that will host the Mailbox role:
Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server -Restart
Figure 6
Network Interfaces Configuration Pre-requisites
MAPI (LAN) Network Adapter Configuration:-
A network adapter intended for use by a MAPI network should be configured as described in the following table.
| Networking Features | Setting |
| Client for Microsoft Networks | Enabled |
| QoS Packet Scheduler | Optionally enable |
| File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks | Enable |
| Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IP v6) | Optionally enable |
| Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IP v4) | Enabled |
| Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver | Enabled |
| Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder | Enabled |
The TCP/IP v4 properties for a MAPI network adapter are configured as follows:
- The IP address for can be manually assigned or configured to use DHCP. If DHCP is used, we recommend using persistent reservations for server’s IP address.
- The MAPI network typically uses a default gateway, although one isn’t required.
- At least one DNS server address must be configured. Using multiple DNS servers is recommended for redundancy.
- The Register this connection’s addresses in DNS check-box should be checked.
Replication Network (CLR) Adapter Configuration:-
A network adapter intended for use by a Replication network should be configured as described in the following table.
| Networking Features | Setting |
| Client for Microsoft Networks | Disabled |
| QoS Packet Scheduler | Optionally enable |
| File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks | Disabled |
| Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IP v6) | Optionally enable |
| Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IP v4) | Enabled |
| Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver | Enabled |
| Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder | Enabled |
The TCP/IP v4 properties for a Replication network adapter are configured as follows:
- The IP address for can be manually assigned or configured to use DHCP. If DHCP is used, we recommend using persistent reservations for server’s IP address.
- Replication networks typically do not have default gateways, and if the MAPI network has a default gateway, then no other networks should have default gateways. Routing of network traffic on a Replication network can be configured by using persistent, static routes to the corresponding network on other DAG members using gateway addresses that have the ability to route between the Replication networks. All other traffic not matching this route will be handled by the default gateway that’s configured on the adapter for the MAPI network.
- DNS server addresses should not be configured.
- The Register this connection’s addresses in DNS check-box should not be checked.
Before going to install the Exchange 2010 I am going to set up the appropriate network configuration to the mailbox servers (MBX01, MBX02). For this open the network connections. Here we have 2 NIC’s listed. NIC LAN is the MAPI connectivity and NIC CLR is the REPLICATION network.
Figure 7
Let’s try to configure the LAN interface first, below showing the properties of LAN interface; ‘QoS Packet Scheduler’ and ‘Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IP v6)’ are optional.
Figure 8
Configure the static IPv4 address with gateway and DNS.
Figure 9
Now we have completed the LAN interface configuration. Click OK button to save and close the LAN interface configuration page.
Now I am going to configure the CLR interface, below showing the CLR interface properties.
‘Client for Microsoft Networks’ and ‘File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks’ should be disabled. ‘QoS Packet Scheduler’ and ‘Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IP v6)’ are optional
Figure 10
Take the property of the ‘Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)’ and configure the IP address which has been reserved for replication network. Gateway and DNS is not required because this interface is only used for replication, heartbeats and seeding purpose.
Figure 11
Next click the advanced tab and uncheck the ‘Register this connection’s addresses in DNS’. Click OK to save the exit the CLR interface configuration page.
Figure 12
We have configured the both network interfaces, now will set the interface binding order list, for that press ‘Alt’ key and from advance tab take the ‘Advanced Settings’
Figure 13
Check the LAN interface is in first binding list, if it is not in the first binding list move up the LAN interface.
Figure 14
Click ok to save and close the Binding order list.
Now we are completed the pre-requisites to installing the exchange server 2010. Insert the exchange 2010 CD in the cd drive and run the setup. This will bring the exchange 2010 installation windows; choose the Exchange language option and select appropriate option.
Figure 15
Now select the Install Microsoft Exchange link, this will start the exchange 2010 installation window.
Figure 16
Click next for begin the installation…
Figure 17
Accept the Exchange 2010 license agreement…and click next…
Figure 18
Select ‘Yes’ if you want to enable Error Reporting or select ‘No’. Click next for continue with the installation…
Figure 19
Select the custom installation tab to customize the Exchange 2010 installation…Click ‘Next’ to continue…
Figure 20
Install the Exchange client access and hub transport role on DC.
Figure 21
In MBX01 and MBX02 we need to choose Mailbox role.
Figure 22
Click next and specify the Exchange Organazation name…..
Figure 23
Click next and mention the owa address………
Figure 24
Click nex….if you want to participate the CEIP program select ‘yes’ or select ‘No’….
I don’t want to participate in this program so I am selecting ‘No’……
Figure 25
Click Next to begin the Exchange Readiness checks……
Figure 26
Figure 27
Once the Readiness is finished without any errors click ‘Install’ to start the exchange 2010 server installation….
Figure 28
Figure 29
Now we are finished the Exchange 2010 server installation.
In the next part i will show you how to configure the Fail-over clustering,DAG and how to test the DAG.
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