Conrad Agramont's WebLog : Exchange

Assigning Mailbox Quotas and Restrictions via Plans

Conrad — Wed, 24 May 2006 18:15:00 GMT

The “Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging & Collaboration 3.0” (HMC) provides a method for per user feature bundling via their “Plans System”. When provisioning new HMC users with mailboxes, Plans are used to determine what features and mailbox size a given user will be allocated. A default implementation of HMC and the Plans Database is the Quota values associated with a mailbox.

Post moved to: http://agramont.net/blogs/conrad/archive/2006/05/24/Assigning_Mailbox_Quotas_and_Restrictions_via_Plans.aspx

Latest MS Trend: Product Team Websites

Conrad — Wed, 24 May 2006 06:29:00 GMT

It appears that the “one off” website started by the ASP.NET team in Microsoft (http://www.asp.net/) is catching on. Recenlty, the IIS team has released a new site solely focused on just that product. It includes links to information around the web and some videos. Very interesting.

Here is a list of some of these sites:

ASP.NET – http://www.asp.net (blogs: http://weblogs.asp.net/, Atlas: http://atlas.asp.net/)
IIS – http://www.iis.net/
Exchange (blog) - http://msexchangeteam.com/

Anyone else know of some other of these Microsoft "One Off's". And by one off, I don't mean a site hung off of a "traditional MS Property" (e.g. MSDN)

I should also mention the CodePlex as well (http://www.codeplex.com/) which is a rebirth of GotDotNet. Another Microsoft site that's ran separately.

HMC 3.5 Boot Camp & MPS Developer Training

Conrad — Fri, 19 May 2006 20:58:00 GMT

As of today, we (Planet Technologies) are now offering an HMC 3.5 Bootcamp and MPS Developer Training at our training facility in Maryland. We have all of the labs (built on Virtual Server) and equipment ready to go. All you need to do is register and come get your brain jammed with Hosted Exchange, MPS, Active Directory, and lots more. The training class is less of a PowerPoint and Step-by-Step collection of labs, but is very interactive with whiteboard discussions, scenario based lab time, and learnings from real world deploymets! Did I mention the quality Foosball Table?

The first set of these hosting related courses will be taught by yours truly (uh, that’s Conrad Agramont for those of you who didn’t know me)!

For more details, please visit our training page at: http://www.go-planet.com/training/

Be sure to sign up today as we only have a few seats left for our first course on June 13th!

Exchange Hosted Service

Conrad — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 04:32:00 GMT

Today Microsoft announced that their acquisition of FrontBridge Technologies will now be rebranded as “Exchange Hosted Service” (EHS). EHS offers a outsourced, per user, per month service to

Now if you’re a hoster, which most of you who visit my blog are, you’ll notice that this is pretty close to the naming of “Hosted Exchange” the solution. Sure there is no “Microsoft Solution for Hosted Exchange” any longer as it’s now just a component of the “Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging & Collaboration”, but most people still think of Microsoft offering Web Hosting (via IIS and some SQL) and Hosted Exchange.

Now that Microsoft has done this, what real issues will come of this? Small Business and Enterprise customers are still coming around to looking at outsourcing their Exchange platform to a hoster that offers “Hosted Exchange” as a service. Microsoft has “Exchange Hosted Services” that they host, but can also be hosted via a Service Provider offering or customer can use “Exchange Hosted Services” without “Hosted Exchange” as they host their own services. Confused yet?

Also, with Microsoft making a big push via their “Microsoft Live” services, I’m wondering when they’ll restart their “Hosted Exchange” offering themselves. Several years ago, Microsoft offered Hosted Exchange via their bCentral services targeted towards Small to Medium businesses. Microsoft is already targeting a hosted offering towards Small Businesses via their Office Live service (Email via Hotmail, Collaboration via new version of Windows SharePoint Services, and web hosting). I’m thinking they are only a few steps away from bringing Hosted Exchange back into the fold. This is all speculation on my part and Microsoft has not made any hits or announcements about this.

With that said, I still think that there will be much room for Service Provider to offer Hosted Exchange and other services provided by Microsoft. Why am I so optimistic about that? With Microsoft getting more into the space, they will use their Marketing might to educated customers about this service. But it will also teach Microsoft on how to make their products better to target the Service Provider scenario. As for the existing or future customer base of Service Providers, I think there will be many that don’t want to host their corporate data with a company that has a big hacker bull’s-eye on it and they’ll want someone who is within their same region, focused primarily in the Hosting space, or is offering services that you know Microsoft won’t offer (mySQL, Oracle, Linux, Blackberry, etc.).

Now with that all said, I think there will be many hosters looking to see how they can automate the process of signing up their Hosted Exchange customers to utlilize “Exchange Hosted Services” and perhaps get a discount (as the hoster will be doing the selling) via the Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA). Or maybe this is something customers can do on their own, but still have their Service Provider host their Exchange Platform.

These are things I’ll have to add to my list of items to research. More on that (I hope) later.

Exchange Hosted Services: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/services/default.mspx
Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging & Collaboration: http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/solutions/hostedmessaging.mspx
Office Live: http://officelive.microsoft.com/

Troubleshooting Exchange Activesync and Outlook Mobile Access

Conrad — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 15:25:00 GMT

I recently watched the below webcast on Activesync. It was very informative and had lots of great detail. Below are my notes after watching that Webcast.

- Conrad

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TechNet Webcast: Troubleshooting Exchange Activesync and Outlook Mobile Access (Level 300)

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032271758&EventCategory=3

Post moved to : http://agramont.net/blogs/conrad/archive/2005/07/01/31.aspx

eQuest Job Posting: Software Development Engineer

Conrad — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 00:38:00 GMT

I guess I'll join the trend of puting job postings on a blog. We're growing our development team at eQuest and we're looking for that special person that loves to develop web applications, server side components, and a touch lots of different Microsoft products and technologies. If you're expereienced in MPS architecture, engineering, and/or development and want to work with a team of MPS experts, than this is youre future home!

If you're interested, please shoot me an email with your resume.

Conrad Agramont, Senior Architect, conrada@eqinc.com

Job Title: Software Development Engineer

SUMMARY:
eQuest, a division of Planet Technologies Inc., is looking for a Software Development Engineer that is passionate about developing challenging applications and a desire to work with a variety Microsoft based products and technologies. eQuest works with Service Providers and Telecommunications companies around the world to solve their business requires through the use of Microsoft products and technologies and custom integration with exciting software solutions.

An ideal candidate will be heavily experienced in provisioning and automating Microsoft products and technologies (Active Directory, Exchange, Internet Information Services, and SQL Server). Knowledge of Microsoft Solutions (Hosted Exchange & Windows based Hosting) and the Microsoft Provisioning System is a plus.

This position will also contribute to future product development for the eQuest Automation Framework (EAF). EAF is an ASP.NET-based user interface and a collection of class libraries (built on Visual Studio.NET 2003 and C#) which provides a web based user interface to manage customers, users, and services in a Microsoft Hosted Exchange and Microsoft Web Hosting environment.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Develop component level specifications
2. Perform peer based reviews for code efficiency and security.
3. Participate in project related team meetings and reviews
4. Work with Project Managers, Developers, and Testers to ensure proper scheduling, integration, and validation of your coding deliverables.
5. Work directly with customers on feature design and requirements.

KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS

Understanding and experience in Microsoft Solution Framework (MSF) development process
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Active Directory, Domain Name Service, & Internet Information
Services)
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft Provisioning System
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (2005 is a plus)
Microsoft Visual Studio.NET & C#
Scripting: VBScript, JavaScript, Windows Scripting Host
Web Development: ASP.NET, HTML, JavaScript
XML (Schemas,

MSN Postmaster

Conrad — Tue, 31 May 2005 12:33:00 GMT

As we all know, there is much spam flowing throughout the Internet. Hotmail (amongst others) is a favorite location to send mail from or "spoof" for many spammers. MSN understands this and is fighting back. They have created a website dedicated to work with other large mail carriers out there and even provide some tools to allow ISP/ESP's to view mail straffic from hotmail to their registered IP's.

If you're a hoster providing email services (e.g. Hosted Exchange), you should really take a look.

MSN Postmaster - http://postmaster.msn.com
MSN Smart Network Data Services (SNDS) - http://postmaster.msn.com/snds/

Exchange Server 2003 Tips and Tricks

Conrad — Sun, 29 May 2005 07:10:00 GMT

Scott Schnoll has nice list of tips for your Exchange Server environment.

http://www.awprofessional.com/articles/article.asp?p=170892&seqNum=3&rl=1

Microsoft Webcasts

Conrad — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 08:07:00 GMT

This is a collection of Microsoft Webcasts in various areas. This is not a complete list, but a good start.

Engineering:

Active Directory: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/adaug.mspx
Administrative Scripting: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/donjonesscripting.mspx
IIS: http://www.iiswebcastseries.com
Exchange Server 2003:

Management: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetmms.mspx
Security: http://www.microsoft.com/events/security/default.mspx
SQL Server 2003: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/community/webcasts.asp
SQL Server 2005: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetsqlserver2005.mspx
Windows Migration: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetadmigration.mspx

Developer Related:

ASP.NET - http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msdnaspnetoct.mspx
ASP.NET 2.0: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msdnwebdev.mspx
MSDN TV: http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/default.aspx
MSDN Webcasts: http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/webcasts/

Other:

Hosting Solutions: http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/programs/windowswebhostingwebcasts.mspx
Event Series Webcasts (Lots of stuff): http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/default.mspx
TechNet 2005 (Not all there yet, but scheduled): http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/teched2005.mspx
Microsoft Support Webcasts: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;RID;webcst&style=type2&sd=gn

Microsoft Hosting Solutions and Windows 2003 Service Pack 1

Conrad — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 04:05:00 GMT

The guidance to ALL Customers who have deployed the Windows based Hosting Solution, Hosted Exchange, and/or Hosted Messaging and Collaboration Solutions should NOT deploy Service Pack 1 thoughout the environment.

Do NOT install Windows 2003 Service Pack 1 in your production Hosted Environment as it will break certain area. There will be an updated version of these solutions with the proper workarounds and fixes to enable this scenario in the future (no official date set yet, but they're working on it hard).

We (eQuest) are building a Windows 2003 Service Pack 1 Readiness Program to assess a production environment and show where SP1 can be deployed in the environment and where it can't (and why). I'll post more details on this soon on my blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/conrad) or you'll find it soon on the eQuest website (http://www.eqinc.com)

On the (http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/solutions/windowsbasedhosting.mspx) official Microsoft site for "Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting 3.0" (same text for HMC 3.0), there is some text on the recommendation for SP1 and the solutions. Below is the text from that site.

Recommendations for Hosters on Windows Server 2003 SP1
Microsoft Corporation has released Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003. The service pack focuses on tightening security by locking down a number of operating system capabilities, and these security enhancements will help protect our hosting partners from potential viruses and malicious code threats.
Microsoft Hosting Solutions has finished component level testing of the Windows-based Hosting and Hosted Messaging and Collaboration solutions. As a result, we are recommending that hosters using either of the above solutions should not update to Service Pack 1 at this time. Rather, hosters should wait for the next scheduled release of the Windows-based Hosting Solution in June, or the September release of Hosted Messaging and Collaboration if they are hosting Exchange Server. This recommendation is based on the fact that Service Pack 1 focuses primarily on three areas, “Locking down the servers with Group Policy enforcement”, “Tightened protocol communication” and additional “diagnostic tools”. The above solutions currently address the first two of these areas; Group Policy management is implemented extensively, and protocol communication is limited to the back end servers. The solutions offer diagnostic tools through services like Microsoft Operations Manager but not at the core operating system level.

The decision to focus on our next release of the Windows-based Hosting solution (which is currently scheduled to release in June) will give our hosting partners the opportunity to finish testing Service Pack 1 in their environments. This release will fully support Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003. Our next release scheduled for September of Hosted Messaging and Collaboration aligns with the release of Service Pack 2 for Exchange Server and will include support for Service Pack 1 for Windows 2003.

Here is some helpful links on Windows 2003 SP1:

Technical Details: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/servicepack/default.mspx
(WindowsSecurity.com) Security Configuration Wizard in SP1: http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Security-Configuration-Wizard-Windows-Server-2003-SP1.html