Thomas Stensitzki is a principal technology consultant focusing on the Microsoft messaging and collaboration technologies and the owner of Granikos GmbH & Co. KG.
He was awarded as MVP for Office Apps & Services in 2018.
He holds Master certifications as Microsoft Certified Solutions Master Messaging and as Microsoft Certified Master for Exchange Server 2010. This makes him a subject matter expert for any messaging topic related to Microsoft Exchange, Exchange Online, Microsoft 365, and Hybrid configurations.
Follow Thomas on: Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter
My sessions: https://sessionize.com/thomas-stensitzki
Personal blog: http://justcantgetenough.granikos.eu Personal blog (legacy): http://www.sf-tools.net Personal website: http://www.stensitzki.de Contact Thomas at thomas@mcsmemail.de
The Excel workbook Public-Folder-Migration-Actionplan-EN.xlsx spreadsheet is supposed to support you during a migration of Legacy Public Folders (Exchange Server 2010) to Modern Public Folders in Exchange Online.
The workbook consists of three spreadsheets:
If you encounter any issues while preparing for migration or during migration of public folder, I recommend to check the Exchange Server Techcommunity Forum.
Enjoy Exchange Public Folders!
You have an Exchange Server 2016 organization and plan to upgrade to Cumulative Update 10. You log on to an Exchange Server, activate DAG maintenance and prepare the Server Component States for installing the new Cumulative Update.
You open an elevated PowerShell Session and start the Setup using
./Setup.exe /Mode:Upgrade /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
Out of a sudden the Exchange Server CU Setup fails while executing setup step Stopping Services with an error:
Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 10 Unattended Setup Copying Files... File copy complete. Setup will now collect additional information needed for installation. Languages Management tools Mailbox role: Transport service Mailbox role: Client Access service Mailbox role: Unified Messaging service Mailbox role: Mailbox service Mailbox role: Front End Transport service Mailbox role: Client Access Front End service Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check Configuring Prerequisites COMPLETED Prerequisite Analysis COMPLETED Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server Preparing Setup COMPLETED Stopping Services FAILED The following error was generated when "$error.Clear(); & $RoleBinPath\ServiceControl.ps1 -Operation:DisableServices -Roles:($RoleRoles.Replace('Role','').Split(',')) -SetupScriptsDirectory:$RoleBinPath; & $RoleBinPath\ServiceControl.ps1 -Operation:Stop -Roles:($RoleRoles.Replace('Role','').Split(',')) -IsDatacenter:([bool]$RoleIsDatacenter) " was run: "Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ProcessCommandException: Cannot stop process "fms (2496)" because of the following error: Access is denied ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: Access is denied at System.Diagnostics.ProcessManager.OpenProcess(Int32 processId, Int32 access, Boolean throwIfExited) at System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessHandle(Int32 access, Boolean throwIfExited) at System.Diagnostics.Process.get_HasExited() at Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.StopProcessCommand.ProcessRecord() --- End of inner exception stack trace ---". The Exchange Server setup operation didn't complete. More details can be found in ExchangeSetup.log located in the <SystemDrive>:\ExchangeSetupLogs folder.
Why would an error like Access Denied happen while executing the Setup.exe as a member of the local Administrators security group from within an elevated PowerShell session?
The PowerShell code executed as part of the CU Setup sets the startup type of Exchange and some Windows services to Disabled. This ensures that in the case of a server reboot an automatic start of the service will not interfere partially executed the setup. After setting the startup type to Disabled the services are stopped.
The services are controlled by the ServiceControl.ps1 script which is located on the Exchange Server installation media in \Setup\ServerRoles\Common\.
The function StopServices stops services using the Stop-Service cmdlet. Due to some timing issues some services are stopped by killing the running processes using Stop-Process -Force.
The services stopped by stopping the running process are:
Executing the Stop-Process cmdlet results in the Access Denied error.
The issue is related to fact that the user account logged on the server and executing the Exchange Server Cumulatice Update does not have the local User Rights Assignment to Debug Programs.
By default the right to debug programs is assigned to the local Adminstrators security group. In secured Active Directory infrastructures the user rights assignments and local security groups are often managed using Group Policy Objects (GPO). The GPOs manage the names of local security groups, group memberships and even user rights assignments.
The client encountering the issue described above hasn't had any issues installing Cumulative Updates for Exchange Server 2013 in the past. So this is solution is related to the setup of Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Updates on Windows Server 2016 only. If you have any information regarding Exchange Server 2013, let me know using the comments section below.
Enjoy Exchange Server!
It happend again.
A new .Net Framework version has been released via the Windows Update distribution channel and the Exchange Server Team has decided to skip support for the new release.
You're only option is to block the automatic installation by the local Windows Update Agent using a registry.
The follow BlockNetFramework472.reg file simplifies setting the registry key.
As always... Enjoy Exchange Server
The PowerShell script New-RoomMailbox has been updated and release v1.2 has been published to GitHub and TechNet Gallery.
The script now creates a third mail-enabled security group to limit the set of users which are allowed to book the resource. The group itself is created (prepared) only, but not assigned to the room resource.
Additionally, the default language (locale) is configured. This prohibits the "Set locale" - dialogue when accessing the room mailbox using Outlook on the Web.
Read more here: https://www.granikos.eu/en/justcantgetenough/PostId/337/create-a-new-room-mailbox-with-security-groups
Enjoy Exchange.
The Category List Manager is a C# Visual Studio Solution that allows you to connect to a source mailbox which is either hosted on an on-premises Exchange Server or in Exchange Online using Exchange Web Services (EWS).
You can use AutoDiscover or a static Url to connect to the Exchange Server or Office 365. By default the solution uses the credentials of the user executing the program. These credentials are referred to as default credentials. You can use the Settings form to set dedicated credentials of an user with appropriate access rights to the mailbox(es).
The program helps you to
The supported target mailbox types are:
The GUI comes with an easy-to-use UI. The execuable works a command line tool as well and can be used for automation purposes.
Use CategoryManager.exe -help to get the most recent command line help information.
Watch the presentation held at the Exchange User Group Berlin Meetup on May 31st 2018.
Additional credits go to Henning Krause