Creature of Habit

Exchange 2010 Rollup Pack 4 (and You)

admin — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:35:34 +0000

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2010 includes a great many fixes to errors big and small in Database Availability Groups, legacy Exchange 2003 migration scenarios, and a number of fairly irritating problems with OWA. What I’m most excited about (in other words, the problems that were most disruptive to my life) are these:

979848 Event [...]

Error Importing Third-Party Certificate in Exchange 2010

admin — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:26:35 +0000

Occasionally, Exchange Server 2010 admins may encounter the following error when attempting to import a certificate or complete a certificate request:

The certificate status could not be determined because the revocation check failed

This error is thrown when your Exchange server is unable to connect outward to the appropriate certificate authority’s certificate revocation list (CRL.) Microsoft’s KB article [...]

Bug in Windows Aero May Allow Remote Exploit

admin — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:51:52 +0000

Microsoft Security Response Center is warning of a flaw in Windows 7-x64 and Windows Server 2008 R2-x64 that could permit remote code execution. Although the bug affects users of the “Aero” theme on either platform, since “Aero” is off by default in Windows 2008 Server R2, this is primarily a threat for Windows 7-x64, where it [...]

Reliable Exchange 2010 DAG: Part 1, Active Directory Health

admin — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:30:40 +0000

One of the most awaited (and misunderstood) features added to Exchange Server 2010 is the disaster-recovery/high-availability feature known as the Database Availability Group (DAG.) Microsoft touts it as a perfected “2.0″ of the heretofore painful database replication process known as Continuous Cluster Replication (CCR,) which came into our lives in Exchange 2007. While the DAG does [...]

Strengthening Network Security on a Budget

admin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:12:53 +0000

eWeek has taken on a topic near and dear to the SMB network administrator’s heart: How to improve network security on a budget.

Times are tough. The economy is down. Spending is controlled. And your budget is cut. Specifically, your security budget has been hacked to pieces because ROI for security is a pretty tough sell. As [...]