Kerpau!

This DSQUERY lists all e-mail addresses in Exchange, and Active Directory including Public Folders, Contacts and User mailboxes.

dsquery * forestroot -scope subtree -filter “(&(mail=*)(proxyaddresses=smtp:*))” -attr proxyaddresses - limit 10000

The output is a bit messy but nothing a little bit on time in vim can’t fix. Bharat Suneja has a very elegant script that does the same thing but it doesn’t include the SMTP addresses of public folders.

The fix for this error condition is relatively simple. If your Exchange server has network interfaces on more than one network (perhaps a SAN or a dedicated backup network), it may be attempting to locate global catalog servers using the wrong network.

Event Source: MSExchangeDSAccess
Event Category: Topology
Event ID: 2103
Description: Process MAD.EXE. All Global Catalog Servers in use are not responding:

Go to Control Panel > Network Connections > Advanced > Connections and move the network interface that has access to your global catalog servers to the top of the list. No reboot or service restart is necessary. The Exchange server “checks in” with a global catalog server every 15 minutes so watch it for a while to get the warm fuzzy feeling of having saved the day yet again.

The solution to this is to delete the FRMCACHE.DAT file located in the Documents and Settings\user.name\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\FORMS folder. This fixed it for me on an Outlook 2003 system. I think it had something to do with some custom forms I had installed.

I’ve been following the Windows/Exchange DST issue for some time now and finally got around to doing the updates on my systems. Throughout February, I followed KB articles which were updated almost daily, Web seminars, blogs, chats and newsgroups.

Microsoft’s documentation has settled down and most of the conflicting or ambiguous sections have been resolved so I thought it was a good time to update everyone’s computers and calendars. Besides, March 11th is right around the corner. So after going through volumes of Microsoft’s information, I followed KB 930879, step-by-step and it was all I needed! Oh well. At least I was prepared.

Using Exchange System Manager (ESM), view the properties of the public folder. Under the Exchange Advanced tab deselect the “Hide from Exchange address lists” option. Apply your changes and open Outlook. Find the distribution list in the address book and view the General tab of its properties. Note: You may need to adjust your rights by making yourself the owner of the distribution list. Modify the member list to include the Exchange public folder and you are done!

There may be a time when you have the SMTP address of a user but you need to find the Active Directory user account associated with it. I found myself in need of this information while tracking a deliverability issue using the Exchange Server 2003 SMTP logs. To do this you will need to search the proxy address values for all users.

According to Hey, Scripting Guy, a proxy address is “simply an alias by which an Exchange user can be recognized by a non-Exchange mail system.”

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers
2. Right-click the domain and select Find
3. Go to the Advanced tab
4. Select Custom Search from the Find drop-down list and go to the Advanced tab.
5. In the Enter LDAP query text box, type the following:

proxyaddresses=SMTP:user@example.com

6. Click on Find Now

And it will list the Active Directory account with that SMTP address attached to it.

I had a situation recently where I had a front-end/back-end Exchange Server 2003 configuration and had to lock down the access between the DMZ (where the front-end server resided) and the internal network (where the back-end server resided). The requirement was to open the minimum number of ports necessary for Exchange to get its job done. The information for Exchange was easy enough to find. But there wasn’t anything to be found on the ports that Antigen required.

Monitoring connections with netstat revealed that there were a number of ports used by the Antigen processes. But only a few were static and the others seemed to be mapped dynamically. I ended up contacting Microsoft on the issue and they were able to provide the answer. Microsoft states that “once messaging connectivity has been established between the two servers, there is nothing additional to configure for Antigen’s functionality.” It almost sounds too simple to be true!

Microsoft Exchange Server is a remarkable product. I’ve been administering Exchange servers since version 5.0 and it has always been a reliable, leading edge product and Microsoft improves it continually. Having said that, there have always been feature gaps in the product, thus the numerous products on the market that do reporting, filtering and other such things.

I found myself needing to create a list of users who have access to their e-mail using Outlook Web Access. I fired up Active Directory Users and Computers thinking I would do a search on something like the HTTP mailbox property of user accounts and be done with it.

However, it wasn’t going to be that easy. I found there was no such property available. After a extended research session I finally found the right command. Here it is.

For Windows/Exchange Server 2003

dsquery * dc=example,dc=com -limit 10000 -filter “(&(&(objectcategory=user)(homeMDB=*)(|(!(protocolSettings=*))(protocolSettings=*http§1*))))” -attr displayName protocolSettings

If you are an Exchange administrator, bookmark this page, print it out and save it. It will save you a headache one day. Perhaps a small one but it’s my favor to you.