Just can't get enough of IT

Given Microsoft’s success in building Exchange Online running on its Office 365 cloud platform, it has undoubtedly learned a few valuable lessons that can be applied to on-premises deployments.

In this whitepaper, ENow board member and Microsoft Exchange MVP Tony Redmond reveals how standardization, automation and monitoring played into Microsoft’s success with scaling its platform.

Download the Whitepaper here: http://enowsoftware.com/whitepaper/Improve-Your-Exchange-Deployment-by-Learning-from-Massive-Scale.pdf

Are you unsure, if you should migrate to Office 365? You want to know more about security of cloud applications and services? Your Exchange Server infrastructure requires an upgrade? Contact me via email: thomas@mcsmemail.de

A new community PowerShell script to simplify Exchange Server mailbox migrations has been published to TechNet Gallery and Github.

Features

• Validate CSV file for required column EmailAddress prior to creating migration batch in Exchange
• Automatic batch naming based on CSV file name
• Common notification email address settings
• Variable AutoComplete of batches
• Common logging of script activities

See script help for examples.

Links

• TechNet Gallery: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Create-MIgration-Batches-2331e021
• GitHub: https://github.com/Apoc70/Move-MailboxesAsBatch

Check out the professional services provided by Granikos for planning and migrating your existing Exchange Server infrastructure to the cloud.

Description

PowerShell module providing centralizied logging and other helpful functions.

Examples

Import-Module GlobalFunctions 
$ScriptDir = Split-Path $script:MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path 
$ScriptName = $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Name 

# Create a new logger object, keeping the last 14 days of log files
$logger = New-Logger -ScriptRoot $ScriptDir -ScriptName $ScriptName -LogFileRetention 14 

# Write a new informational message to the log file  
$logger.Write('My Log Message')

# Write an error message to the log file
$logger.Write('My custom error message')

# Write a warning message to the log file
$logger.Write('My custom warning')

# Send a log file by email at the end of your script
$logger.SendLogFile('sender@mcsmemail.de', 'recipient@mcsmemail.de', 'smtpserver.mcsmemail.de')

How to install a PowerShell Module

You can "install" a PowerShell module by copying the module to a sub folder of the same name as the module in either of the two following locations:

• Default PowerShell module path define by PSModulePath variable ($env:PSModulePath)
• Custom PowerShell module path, which requires the full path to be added to the PSModulePath system variable

Default PowerShell Module Path

1. Open a new PowerShell window and query the content of PSModulePath variable

   PS C:\> $env:PSModulePath
   C:\Users\admin\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules;C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules;C:\WINDOWS\sys
   tem32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules

    

2. Create a new folder named GlobalFunctions in C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules

3. Copy the GlobalFunctions.psm1 file to C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\GlobalFunctions

That's it.

Custom PowerShell Module Path

These steps assume that you use a dedicated PowerShell scripts folder, e.g. D:\MyScripts

1. Create a new folder named MyModules in D:\MyScripts
   -> D:\MyScripts\MyModules
2. Create a new folder named GlobalFunctions in D:\MyScripts\MyModules
   -> D:\MyScripts\MyMOdules\GlobalFunctions
3. Copy the GlobalFunctions.psm1 file to D:\MyScripts\MyModules\GlobalFunctions
4. Add the full file path D:\MyScripts\MyModules to the system variable PSModulePath
   You can use Set-PersistentPSModulePath.ps1 script, provided here. Just copy the script to D:\MyScripts\MyModules 

   .\Set-PersistentPSModulePath.ps1 -Add

Close the current PowerShell window and open a new PowerShell window. That's it.

PowerShell 5

When using PowerShell 5, you can simply use the following PowerShell command from within an administrative PowerShell window.

Install-Module GlobalFunctions

When a new version of the GlobalFunctions module has been released, use the following PowerShell command to update the module.

Update-Module GlobalFunctions

That's it.

Version History

• 1.0 Initial release
• 1.1 Write to Event log added, send log file added
• 1.2 CopyFile added
• 1.3 Updated for PowerShellGallery
• 2.0 Converted to UNICODE, Functions added: Replace-SpecialCharactersUpperCase, New-RandomPassword
• 2.1 WriteToConsole switch added to Logger.Write method

Links

• Import from PowerShellGallery: https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/GlobalFunctions
• Download and follow at Github: https://github.com/Apoc70/GlobalFunctions
• Download and like at TechNet Gallery: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Centralized-logging-64e20f97

Follow

• Twitter @stensitzki
• LinkedIn
• Xing

Description

This script copies a single receive connector from a source Exchange Server to a single target Exchange server or all other Exchange servers.

The primary purposes of this script are:

• Simplify migration of legacy Exchange receive connectors (Exchange 2007 or Exchange2010) to a modern Exchange server (Exchange 2013 or Exchange 2016)
• Simplify receive connector distribution across multiple Exchange servers (Exchange 2013, Exchange 2016, or Exchange 2019)

Find the most recent full documentation at GitHub.

Examples

Copy Exchange 2013/2016 receive connector RC2 from server MBX01 to server MBX2

.\Copy-ReceiveConnector.ps1 -SourceServer MBX01 -ConnectorName RC2 `
-TargetServer MBX2 -DomainController MYDC1.mcsmemail.de

Copy Exchange 2013/2016 receive connector RC2 from server MBX01 to all other Exchange 2013 servers

.\Copy-ReceiveConnector.ps1 -SourceServer MBX01 -ConnectorName RC1 `
-CopyToAllOther -DomainController MYDC1.mcsmemail.de

Copy Exchange 2013/2016 receive connector relay from Exchange 2007 server MBX2007 to Exchange 2013 server MBX01 and reset network bindings

.\Copy-ReceiveConnector.ps1 -SourceServer MBX2007 -ConnectorName "relay" `
-TargetServer MBX01 -MoveToFrontend -ResetBindings `
-DomainController MYDC1.mcsmemail.de

Version History

• 1.0, Initial community release
• 1.1 Domain Controller parameter added, permissions group copy added
• 1.2 Move to FrontendTransport added, optional permission copy added, reset bindings added
• 1.3 Update receive connector, if receive connector exists
• 1.4 Fix to handle connector updates properly
• 1.41 Minor fixes and update for Exchange 2016
• 1.5 Issue #2 fixed
• 1.6 Issue #3 fixed
• 1.7 Issue #6 fixed, new parameter UpdateExistingConnector added, tested with Exchange Server 2019

Links

• Download, and follow at Github: https://github.com/Apoc70/Copy-ReceiveConnector
• Download, and like at TechNet Gallery: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Copy-a-receive-connector-b20b9bef

Additional Credits

Additional credits go to Jeffery Land, https://jefferyland.wordpress.com

Follow

• Twitter @stensitzki
• LinkedIn
• Thomas' Tech Talk

The PowerShell script to purge IIS and Exchange Server 2013 has been updated to support email reporting.

When executed by a scheduled task it is extremely helpful to Exchange Administrators to receive some sort of conformation of the script execution.

If using the SendMail switch, a summary report is sent as an Html email

Parameters added:

.PARAMETER SendMail
Switch to send an Html report

.PARAMETER MailFrom
Email address of report sender

.PARAMETER MailTo
Email address of report recipient

.PARAMETER MailServer 
SMTP Server for email report

Links

• Purge Exchange Server 2013 and IIS Log Files at Technet Gallery
• Purge-Logfiles at Github

This post has first been posted on my legacy blog.