Exchange 2007 SP1 available for download

As announced yesterday in the TechNet flashes Exchange 2007 SP1 is now available for download here.

Of course I'm most interested in the Unified Messaging enhancements, but there many other interesting improvements as the import/export of PST files which is very interesting for our migration projects (And we also look forward to better stability of the product due to all the included fixes)

Following is an overview of the changes from the download site -

Anywhere Access

• Integrated Exchange Unified Messaging functionality with Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.
• Outlook Web Access additions, including public folder access, S/MIME support, personal distribution lists, and mailbox rules editor.
• Webready document viewer supports Microsoft Office 2007 documents in addition to Microsoft Office 2003 documents.
• Extended language support in Outlook Web Access with Arabic and Korean spell checking.

Operational Efficiency

• Support for Windows Server 2008 deployments, including benefits in flexible clustering, advanced networking, and simplified management.
• Additional tools in the Exchange Management Console, including public folder management and configuration options for clustering and POP/IMAP access.
• Improvements to the Exchange Management Shell syntax and import-export PST in the move-mailbox command.
• Wider variety of web services for application development, including public folder access, delegate management, and folder level permissions.

Built-in Protection

• Addition of Standby Continuous Replication (SCR) for site resilient high availability deployments.
• Extended Exchange ActiveSync policies for mobile policy enforcement.
  Information rights management pre-licensing by the Hub Transport role.
• Secure Real Time Protocol (SRTP) support in the Unified Messaging role.
  Support for IPv6 when using Windows Server 2008.

Invoke-VbScript

Note: The script has been updated, see this post.

One of the best features of PowerShell is the ability to do the same on the command line as in a script. Even Command Prompt do not support than.

But as VBScript is not dead yet - I'm currently doing more than 3000-lines of it - this script is useful as it allows you to execute VbScript interactively. It has two uses: 1) Test VBScript details without having to run a huge script 2) Use VBScript features than you do not know how to do in PowerShell.

The script Invoke-VbScript.ps1

param($vbCode,[switch]$ExecuteStatement)

function PrepareVB {

    $vb=new-object -com MSScriptControl.ScriptControl
    $vb.language="VBScript"
    $vb
}

$vb=PrepareVB
if ($ExecuteStatement.isPresent) {
    $vb.ExecuteStatement($vbcode)
}
else {
    $vb.Eval($vbcode)
}

Execute command example -

PS> Invoke-VbScript -exe 'msgbox("hi")'

Evaluate expressions and return result example -

PS> $name=Invoke-VbScript 'InputBox("Enter your name","Test")'

Have fun!

VMRCplus v1.6

Just saw that VRMCplus that I wrote about earlier has been updated to v1.6. Get it here.

The changes are (taken from this blog post)

So what is new in 1.6.0?
First of all, the UI reflects Virtual Server terminology. Both Paul and I had used a mix of Virtual Server terminology and internal (SDK) terminology. To reflect the terminology used in the web administration UI of Virtual Server, the terminology of VMRCplus has been updated.
Second, VMRCplus now offers configuration of scripts on both the Virtual Server and Virtual Machine level. This was missing from the previous release.
Third, VMRCplus offers configuring promiscuous mode on the network so you can trace traffic in the virtual switch. This is something Virtual Server does not offer in the web administration UI.

Of course there have been minor enhancements like storage of Console Manager coordinates, conflict handling when a shortcut already exists (something Virtual Server fails to resolve).

The COM and LPT port assignment logic has been fixed (most of it did not work).
The x86 installer package no longer installs on x64. This has been done to prevent issues with 32-bit VMRCplus on 64-bit Virtual Server.

Error handling has been enhanced and several issues have been fixed.

Met MOW

I managed to meet MOW at Ask-the-Experts today. MOW is famous within the PowerShell community for his PowerTab function and he is running thepowershellguy.com blog.

If you haven't done so already - get a copy of Powertab now!

Well, it was fun meeting him and discuss some of the features I'm missing. On is -

• dir $folder\[tab] should expand into dir $folder\file

An I gave my regards for PowerTab as such and the new constructor feature - try it yourself -

• [system.diagnostics.process]:

Anyway, the PowerShell v2 CTP enables him to do a full tokenizing of the command line, so even better  intelligence will be possible.

Viridian becomes Hyper-V

Marketing is a strange beast. Server virtualization in Windows Server 2008 - e.g. the replacement of Virtual Server - will be called Hyper-V. I already hate that name! HyperV perhaps - but why the hyphen??

Anyway, Hyper-V will be a server feature that can be turned on. Microsoft is also planning a Hyper-V Server SKU.

Hyper-V is still expected to be delivered 6 months after Windows Server 2008.

On the management side, it was demoed at the keynote here in Barcelona, a virtual server manager that could manage Virtual Server 2005, Hyper-V *and* WMware server!

Teched IT-Forum Barcelona

(I apologize for these reposts. Windows Live Writer does not seem to be able to edit posts!?)

This is the first time I'm using the released Windows Live Writer to post here, so bear over with me if it does not work as expected ;) The new Windows Live Writer seems to support pictures and formatted PowerShell scripts, so it is much better than using the webpage.

In this year's Teched IT-Forum I'm going to focus on Windows Server 2008 and the System Center products - most ConfigMgr and OpsMgr. And then this is going to be a great PowerShell week. The CTP of V2 has been released and I hope to get in touch with some of the PowerShell staff as I have about 45 things I would like to discuss with them. I also hope to get in touch with some of the other people from the community.

Microsoft Quality of Experience Monitoring Server RTW'ed

After you've deployed OCS and enabled Enterprise Voice (Even works with PC to PC Communication) you will get calls from users saying that I had this & this conversation and voice quality was really bad.
During the OCS beta's the only answer was "hmmmm .... ok - can you try again" but then later the rescue came from the QoE Monitoring Server Beta, which has now RTW'ed -

The QoE Monitoring Server is a new server role for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition. It provides the information that you need in order to better understand the media quality that your users are experiencing in your Office Communications Server 2007 deployment. With QoE Monitoring Server, you can do the following:

• Gather statistics on media quality of locations or based on a grouping of subnets
• Proactively monitor and troubleshoot media quality of experience issues
• Perform diagnostics to diagnose VoIP user complaints
• View trends which can help you with post-deployment growth and measure results against the service level agreement

The QoE Monitoring Server collects quality metrics at the end of each VoIP call from the participant endpoints, including IP phones, Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, the Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 client, and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 A/V Conferencing Server and Mediation Server. These quality metrics are aggregated and stored in a SQL database. The data can then be used to alert you to abnormal media quality conditions and also to generate routine media quality reports.

Find it here