Tech Blog

Before I get started this is not referring to standard Distribution Groups, this email refers to the groups that can be created in the newer version of Office 365 that allow a “Lync-esque” conversation feature but with added functionality, such as reviewing previous messages when added at a later date.

In most environments this would be a great feature, workplace and alike, however in environments like  schools it can lead to some administrative troubles as there is no, current, way to administrate the groups once created as they are hidden to the admin unless viewed within the mailbox/OWA of the user doing the creating.

In this particular case these groups needed to be, A: removed manually, and B: disabled from future creation.

First you have to log in to the exchange mailbox via PowerShell, so have your admin credentials ready, once you are in and are ready to make changes, this is the command to run;

Set-OwaMailboxPolicy -Identity <strong>DOMAIN.LOCAL</strong>\OwaMailboxPolicy-Default -GroupCreationEnabled $false

You can create a new policy and apply the above change to it, then set that policy as the default for your users/groups.

Please see this article for a much more in-depth overview of the feature and how to disable or utilize it.

If you have any questions please email me.

A friend came across this issue while migrating from Exchange 2010 to 2013.  Users were unable to receive/send email from their mobile device after migration.  This continues for up to 4 hours or so then starts working out of the blue.

It’s actually a bug with certain versions of Exchange 2013.

To fix, simply recycle the following App Pools in IIS on the CAS server:

• MSExchangeAutodiscoverAppPool
• MSExchangeSyncAppPool

A fix is in place for CU5, so if you are on that version or higher this fix “shouldn’t” apply…….

I recently read a brilliant blog by Michael B. Smith which you can read here which talks about the flaws of Exchange 2013, all his options are absolutely valid and justified but here’s my take on some of them:

OWA

• Help -> About is gone – MEH
• It’s very slow. – Easily improved
• No S/MIME support – Thank god
• No Public Folder support, either for legacy public folders or modern public folders. – Who uses PFs anymore
• No distribution list moderation – Will miss this
• No way to move the reading pane – Odd
• Built-in spell-check is gone. IE 10 provides spell-check natively, but earlier versions of IE do not. A third-party add-in or an alternate browser is required. – THIS IS STUPID

Client Connectivity

• No BES support – No one seems to like BES anymore
• Outlook 2003 is no longer supported. – GOOD
• Direct MAPI access to the Exchange server is no longer supported.  RPC/HTTP (Outlook Anywhere) is required. – This will be annoying
• Outlook now reports that the server is it connected to is <<guid>>@<<active-directory-domain>>. This is intentional, if misguided. – Agreed

Installation and Architecture

• Cannot uninstall individual roles from a server, must uninstall all of Exchange – This is BALLS
• Install is painfully slow – I didnt find this
• The Hub Transport role is gone. There is now a Front End Transport service on CAS servers and Mailbox Transport services on Mailbox servers. – I don’t mind this as I never had a separate HT server for any installation
• The Unified Messaging role is gone. There is a now a Unified Messaging Call Router service on CAS servers and a Unified Messaging service on Mailbox servers. – Never installed it, UT is way too expensive!
• Documentation is minimal at best – This will change with time but agree it annoying
• Cannot be installed along with Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010 – Really, that ridiculous!
• Exchange 2013 Edge server is not available – Interesting!
• Forefront Protection for Exchange is gone – Fail, I like Forefront

Exchange Management

• The Exchange Management Console is gone as is the Exchange Control Panel. They are mainly replaced by the Exchange Administration Center (EAC); which is completely web based. – I appreciate this is different but makes life easier in the long run.
• If you are attempting to use EAC with IE 10, you need KB2761465 (released on December 11, 2012). – Silly!
• The Exchange Best Practices analyzer is no more. – Urgh, this was always really useful when looking at new sites setups!
• The Exchange Mail Flow Troubleshooter is no more. – Shame, liked this.
• The Exchange Performance Troubleshooter is no more. – Shame, liked this.
• The Exchange Routing Log Viewer is no more. – Never used it personally
• Antispam cannot be managed from the Exchange Administration Center; it must be managed using PowerShell in the Exchange Management Shell – Thats annoying and I like powershell
• System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) version required for backups of Exchange 2013 is SC DPM 2012 SP1 – for now maybe