Just can't get enough of IT

Problem

It might happen that a mobile device running an Android operating system is not being redirected properly by the on-premises AutoDiscover service, when the mailbox has been migrated to Office 365.

If your device is not redirected, the device prefix is not recognized by Exchange Server and therefore not being redirected properly. The new device redirect feature for Android devices was introduced in Exchange Server 2010 SP3 RU9, Exchange Server 2013 CU8, and Exchange Server 2016.

The following device prefixes are known to Exchange by default:

• Acer, ADR9, Ally, Amazon, Android, ASUS, EasClient, FUJITSU, HTC, HUAWEI, LG, LS, Moto, Mozilla, NEC, Nokia, Palm, PANASONIC, PANTECH, Remoba, Samsung, SEMC, SHARP, SONY-, TOSHIBA, Vortex, VS, ZTE

Solution

If the device prefix of your device is not part of the default list, you can add the prefix to the AutoDiscover web.config file. 

Add the device prefix to the MobileSyncRedirectBypassClientPrefixes key in the appSettings node.

  <appSettings>
    <add key="LiveIdBasicAuthModule.AllowLiveIDOnlyAuth" value="true" />
    <add key="LiveIdBasicAuthModule.ApplicationName" value="Microsoft.Exchange.Autodiscover" />
    <add key="LiveIdBasicAuthModule.RecoverableErrorStatus" value="456" />
    <add key="LiveIdBasicAuthModule.PasswordExpiredErrorStatus" value="457" />
    <add key="ActiveManagerCacheExpirationIntervalSecs" value="5" />
    <add key="ProxyRequestTimeOutInMilliSeconds" value="30000" />
    <add key="LiveIdNegotiateAuxiliaryModule.AllowLiveIDOnlyAuth" value="true" />
    <add key="TrustedClientsForInstanceBasedPerfCounters" value="bes" />
    <add key="InstanceBasedPerfCounterTimeWindowInterval" value="900000" />
    <add key="MobileSyncRedirectBypassEnabled" value="true" />
    <add key="MobileSyncRedirectBypassClientPrefixes" value="Acer,ADR9,Ally,Amazon,Android,ASUS,EasClient,FUJITSU,HTC,HUAWEI,LG,LS,Moto,Mozilla,NEC,Nokia,Palm,PANASONIC,PANTECH,Remoba,Samsung,SEMC,SHARP,SONY-,TOSHIBA,Vortex,VS,ZTE" />
  </appSettings>

File location

%ExchangeInstallPath%\ClientAccess\Autodiscover\web.config

Notes

• Modify the web.config on each Exchange 2010/2013 Client Access Server and each Exchange 2016 server.
• After installing an Exchange 2013/2016 CU, the web.config must be modified again.

As always: Be careful when modifying application settings. Test such changes in a test environment first, if possible.

Links

• Some Android devices do not redirect to Exchange Online
• Exchange ActiveSync on-boarding to Office 365
• Exchange HTTP ActiveSync Protocol: HTTP Error 451

You need assistance with your Exchange Server setup? You have questions about your Exchange Server infrastructure and going hybrid? You are interested in what Exchange Server 2016 has to offer for your environment?

Contact me at thomas@mcsmemail.de
Follow at https://twitter.com/stensitzki

Problem

I came across an interesting issue when setting up a new Exchange 2013 server in an Exchange organization having the cmdlet extension agent enabled.

As mentioned in my last post Exchange setup checks for the existence of the ScriptingAgentConfig.xml file when agent extenstion is enabled in the Exchange organization. It turned out that this ist not only true when you install an Exchange update using /mode:update, but as well when installing a new Exchange server using /mode:install.

The following error occurs when Exchange Management Tools are provisioned.

Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server

    Preparing Setup                                                               COMPLETED
    Stopping Services                                                             COMPLETED
    Copying Exchange Files                                                        COMPLETED
    Language Files                                                                COMPLETED
    Restoring Services                                                            COMPLETED
    Language Configuration                                                        COMPLETED
    Exchange Management Tools                                                     FAILED
     The following error was generated when "$error.Clear();
          Set-WERRegistryMarkers;
        " was run: "Microsoft.Exchange.Provisioning.ProvisioningBrokerException: Provisioning layer
initialization failed: '"Scripting Agent initialization failed: "File is not found: 'C:\Program File
s\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Bin\CmdletExtensionAgents\ScriptingAgentConfig.xml'.""' ---> Microso
ft.Exchange.Provisioning.ProvisioningException: "Scripting Agent initialization failed: "File is not
 found: 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Bin\CmdletExtensionAgents\ScriptingAgentConf
ig.xml'."" ---> System.IO.FileNotFoundException: "File is not found: 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exc
hange Server\V15\Bin\CmdletExtensionAgents\ScriptingAgentConfig.xml'."
   at Microsoft.Exchange.ProvisioningAgent.ScriptingAgentConfiguration.Initialize(String xmlConfigPa
th)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.ProvisioningAgent.ScriptingAgentConfiguration..ctor(String xmlConfigPath)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Microsoft.Exchange.ProvisioningAgent.ScriptingAgentConfiguration..ctor(String xmlConfigPath)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.ProvisioningAgent.ScriptingAgentClassFactory.get_Configuration()
   at Microsoft.Exchange.ProvisioningAgent.ScriptingAgentClassFactory.GetSupportedCmdlets()
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Provisioning.ProvisioningBroker.BuildHandlerLookupTable(CmdletExtensionAgen
t[] enabledAgents, Exception& ex)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Provisioning.ProvisioningLayer.GetProvisioningHandlersImpl(Task task)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Provisioning.ProvisioningLayer.GetProvisioningHandlers(Task task)
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.<BeginProcessing>b__4()
   at Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.Task.InvokeNonRetryableFunc(Action func, Boolean termin
atePipelineIfFailed)".

As expected a fresh Exchange install contains the sample file only. The following screenshot shows the Exchange Management Shell and the releated folder in the background.

Solution

The only solution currently known to me is to disable the cmdlet extension agent until the setup of the new Exchange server has finished.

Disable-CmdletExtensionAgent "Scripting Agent"

Having the cmdlet extension agent disabled the setup finishes without any issues. Don't forget to copy the cmdlet extension Xml file to the newly built server and to enable the cmdlet extension agent again.

Enable-CmdletExtensionAgent "Scripting Agent"

Links

• Cmdlet extension agents

You need assistance with your Exchange Server setup? You have questions about your Exchange Server infrastructure and going hybrid? You are interested in what Exchange Server 2016 has to offer for your environment?

Contact me at thomas@mcsmemail.de
Follow at https://twitter.com/stensitzki

When you've enabled the Exchange scripting agent extension agents, it is required to copy the configuration file to each Exchange server. Paul Cunningham's script helps you to achive this goal pretty easily.

But if you have installed the Exchange 2013 Management Tools on additonal servers, these servers are not fetched using the Get-ExchangeServer cmdlet. But when you install a Cumulative Update the existence of the extension agent config file is checked. And this even on a server having only the Exchange Management Tools installed.

Therefore the following PowerShell code provides an easy and simple way to add additonal server having the Exchange 2013+ Management Tools installed (aka Admin Servers, Monitoring Servers, Job Servers, etc.). The script uses a filter to select Exchange 2013 servers only, as the script has been extended in an environment having still active Exchange 2007 servers.

The following PowerShell snippet displays only the changes, which need to be added to Paul's original script starting row 68.

# Original PowerShell code
# $exchangeservers = Get-ExchangeServer

# Select all Exchange 2013 servers only, restrict properties to Name and AdminDisplayName
$exchangeservers = Get-ExchangeServer | ?{$_.AdminDisplayVersion -like "Version 15.0*"} | Select Name, AdminDisplayVersion

# Add additional servers as needed

$manualServers = @()
# Copy and modify as needed
$manualServers += (New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name="EXSRV2010";AdminDisplayVersion="Version 14"})
$manualServers += (New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name="EXSRV2013-01";AdminDisplayVersion="Version 15"})
$manualServers += (New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name="EXSRV2013-02";AdminDisplayVersion="Version 15"})

# Combine arrays
$exchangeservers = $exchangeservers + $manualServers

# End Modification

$report = @()

[string]$date = Get-Date -F yyyyMMdd-HHmmss

Enjoy extending the Exchange PowerShell cmdlets.

Links

• TechNet: Cmdlet extension agents
• TechNet: Manage cmdlet extension agents
• Paul Cunningham's blog post: PowerShell Script to Distribute Scripting Agent Configuration File to Exchange Servers

Questions? Just leave a comment.