Whilst the server was down we also took the time out to prove the fact that if a voicemail message is left on the avaya IP Office system whilst the mail server is unreachable, then the user NEVER gets the voicemail. The voicemail box fails to queue the voicemail for delivery at a later date -something that the tech’s didn’t acknowledge as a problem. The fact that users could end up not receiving voicemails or have any trace of them yet the caller knows they left it seems a pretty major bug to me. I’m looking forward to bringing *that* up at the wrap up meeting.
It was a long day in the office today with an upgrade of a windows 2000 server running exchange2000 to a windows2003 running exchange2003. We also upgraded a w2k server running sqlserver to w2k3 too. The sql server was the easiest upgrade with no hitches whatsoever – shame we couldn’t say the same thing about the exchange server.
11 outlook web access tips for 2003 which are also useful in outlook itself. I did wonder what the difference between premium and basic version was and now I know. My bonus tip is that unless you have owner access to a users mailbox you only get read access to someone elses calendar in outlook web access, even if you have edit or author access within outlook. I spent ages trying to work this out for a remote customer (who I couldn’t talk through things over the phone as they only had 1 phone line which she used for dialup! I finally managed to get hold of someone in the office, make sure that a pc in the office wasn’t in use and then take control of the pc to test the outlook vs outlook web access functionality.
Ben talks about the confusion that is going on about exchange2003sp2 and the best ways to install the upgrade and have imf working at the same time. subsequently.
1. If a computer freezes every 20 minutes, is it safe to upgrade the bios (which might solve the problem)? A tricky question and in my case, the answer is no. The computer crashed during the bios update and consequently was Columbus’ biggest doorstop. Fortunately I had made sure the machine was under warranty before I began but still had to endure a 45 minute phone call with Dell as they troubleshooted the call. The last 2 minutes went something like this
Dell: Sounds like you need a new motherboard.
Me: Yep
Dell: Sounds like you knew I was going to say that.
Me: Yep!
The engineer will be on site tomorrow to swap out the part although they asked if I wanted to do it. Very cheeky on their part seeing as though the company is paying for the warranty and the coverage – why do their job for them? That and the engineer can sit and wait whilst the lengthy diagnostics runs and I won’t.
2. If you use Lotus Notes as your mail client and synchronise your databases to the server, it doesn’t synchronise your address book (which doesn’t need a replica on the server either to confuse matters). Instead you go to Actions/Synchronise Address Book. Why you have to do this I don’t know *cough* you don’t have to do that in outlook you know – its all included in the synchronisation/offline capabilities *cough*. I’ve also not worked out how to get that command onto a toolbar so I have one click access rather than going to the menu to do it (or even better to automatically do it). I’ve also yet to work out what they synchronise journal does as I dont see an option for a journal in my notes client – this notes client lark is a steep learning curve.
3. If users complain they can’t see unread email in outlook, make sure that the messages view does NOT have the “Use Group” menu item selected otherwise it is possible to hide last weeks mail, including unread emails, in this one line within the view (and its too complicated for the users to go to the unread emails view)
OABInteg and Troubleshooting may be useful tomorrow. Two weeks ago a user didn’t appear in a outlook address book on one machine but did on another machine and on the server. Hopefully these pages may help troubleshoot if I still have the problem tomorrow. (I’m hoping it will have solved itself over the past 2 weeks)
For my reference – troubleshooting and DR readiness Thanks to You Had Me At EHLO
Build numbers and release dates for Exchange Server came in handy today although why they can’t put the service pack details on the tab when you right click on a server and do properties I don’t know.
It was a tough job getting up early yesterday morning for the first day at work. What was also weird was that I was out of the house just as everyone else was getting up – apparently I looked like a school kid on the first day of school as I left the house with a backpack on my back (You’ll be glad to know that I wasn’t wearing grey shorts though).
The funny thing when you start a new job is that the first thing you do is fill in the forms so you can have your wage packet reduced due to all the various types of taxes that will get deducted, so a nice encouraging start there!
After a run through of the company manual it was time to go see some clients. We only got to see two clients and I spent most of the time there filling out the server checklists which is a good way of getting used to all the customer sites.
Although it wasn’t a stressful or difficult day I was really tired at the end of it and enjoyed the meal that Kristen and I had at the Old Bag of Nails pub. This is famous for its fish and chips so I was looking forward to a traditional english meal. The menu is full of jokes and funny sayings and worth reading in full before you order and we both ordered the fish and chips. It would have been nice to have had photos of the meal in the menu as we’d have realised to only order one portion between us as it came with loads of chips and two fish portions the size of a normal english portion! Although the fish and chips were nice, we did feel that the fish was rather dry inside the batter and although it was a good meal I don’t think it lived up to its hyped reputation (although it was MUCH better than the harry ramsden’s fish and chips I had from a mall in Wales one time)
Today we’re off to about 3 more customer sites. No techie hints and tips (sorry Danny 🙂 yet but I do have a couple of puzzlers that I need to research. Out of Office setups on two sites are causing problems – one client has an individual who’s ooo just doesn’t work and another site where the mailbox cleanup agent removes all the ooo data when it runs. According to Microsoft this shouldn’t happen but it does!
In another DR situation coming up shortly, we are going to restore a w2k3 server with exchange2k3 on it. I’ve done it (for real) on exchange2000 and it wasn’t a pleasant experience but hopefully e2k3 has improved the methods used to do a recovery. Checking in technet I found a good page which has multimedia presentations on how to do various exchange2003 recovery procedures. Hopefully I can find this content on my technet cd’s so I don’t have to download it off the internet but again, useful training to do before the event.