Event ID 9314

KB ID 0000358

Problem

Event ID 9314

The account specified for the Microsoft Exchange Server Mailbox Manager Administrator is invalid. No mailboxes will be processed.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Either the account specified to run the Mailbox Manager process does not have rights, or an account has not been specified.

 

Solution

1. Launch Exchange System Manager on one of your Exchange 2003 Servers. (Start > All Programs > Microsoft Exchange > system Manager).

2. Expand the Organisation > Administrative Groups > Administrative group name (i.e. First Administrative Group) > Servers > Servername > Right Click > Properties > Mailbox Management > Browse.

3. Select the Administrator account and add it in > Apply > OK.

4. At this point I would restart all the exchange services and apply the “Cup Of Coffee Rule” before proceeding.

5. After waiting a while right click each server that’s running the policy and select “Start Mailbox Management Process”.

Note: Depending on the size of the mail store(s) this can take some time (tip – Right click the servername and if you see “Stop the mailbox Management Process” it’s not finished yet.

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

NA

Exchange 2007 / 2010 change the SMTP Banner

KB ID 0000327

Problem

If you want to shield the outside world from seeing what mail platform you are running, or even if you just want to deter the casual script kiddy who is trying to remote fingerprint a massive range of IP addresses. Changing the SMTP response banner is quite simple to do.

Out of the box we know we are running a Microsoft mail platform

Solution

1. Open Exchange System Manager and find the name of your “Receive Connector” (Server Configuration > Hub Transport > Receive Connectors).

2.Open the “Exchange Management Shell” and issue the following powershell command,

[box]Set-ReceiveConnector “name of the connector” -Banner “220 The text you want to display”[/box]

3. Then your banner should be changed (you don’t need to restart anything).

Changing the SMTP Banner for Exchange 2000 / 2003

1. Drop to command line and issue the following commands,

[box]

cd c:inetpubadminscripts
cscript adsutil.vbs set smtpsvc/vsi number/connectresponse “220 The text you want to display”

[box]

Note: c:inetpubadminscriptsadsutil path may be different in your Exchange server. And “vsi number” is the number of your SMTP virtual server, this is nearly always 1, check in your Exchange System Management console to make sure.

How to locate your VSI Number

2. Then restart the SMTP service.

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

NA

Exchange 2007 / 2010 Search for and Delete Emails Containing “yoursearchtext”

KB ID 0000343

Problem

You have a nasty email that contains a virus or some offensive content and you want to delete ALL instances of it.

Solution

1. Log on as the domain administrator > Open the Exchange Command Shell.

2. First grant the correct rights to the administrator account.

This gives the Administrator FULL rights to ALL mailbox’s

[box]Get-mailbox -Database “Mailbox Database”| add-mailboxpermission -user administrator -AccessRights FullAccess[/box]

Note: this assumes your mailbox database is called “Mailbox Database”.

3. Then locate and delete the emails containing “yoursearchtext”.

[box]Get-Mailbox -Database “Mailbox Database” | Export-Mailbox -SubjectKeywords “yoursearchtext” -DeleteContent[/box]

Note: If you are unable to use the export-mailbox command then see here

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

NA

Exchange 2010 (c/w SP1) Install – Greenfield Site

(Installing on Server 2008 R2)

KB ID 0000416

Problem

Microsoft have not only slipstreamed the service pack into the install media, they have (Finally!) got the install routine to put in all the usual pre-requisites, roles, and features, that you had to do yourself before. (With the exception of the Microsoft 2010 filter pack, but even then you can do that after the install).

The procedure below was done on a single server in a test environment, to demonstrate the simplified procedure, it IS NOT good practice to install Exchange (any version) on a domain controller.

Solution

Before Site Visit

1. Have your install media downloaded and ready to go (Make sure you also have the unlock codes for Exchange – or you will have 119 days to licence it, post install).

2. Does your current anti virus solution support Exchange 2010? Do you need an upgrade?

3. Does your current backup software support Exchange 2010? Do you need to purchase extra remote agents or updates?

Before Deploying Exchange 2010

1. Depending on what documentation you read, some say that the global catalog server(s) in the current site need to be at least Server 2003 SP2. Other documentation says the schema master needs to be at least Server 2003 SP2. Let’s hedge our bets, and make sure that ALL the domain controllers are at least Server 2003 SP2 🙂

2. Your domain and forest functional levels need to be at Windows Server 2003.

3. Don’t forget – your server needs to be x64 bit (the video below was shot on a Server 2008 R2 server).

4. Make sure both the server you are installing on, and the Windows domain, are happy (get into the event viewers of your servers and have a good spring clean before deploying Exchange 2010).

5. Install the Office 2010 Filter Pack, and the Office 2010 Filter Pack Service Pack 1.

6. Install the roles required with the following PowerShell Commands;

[box]

Import-Module ServerManager

For Client Access, Hub Transport, and the Mailbox roles issue the following command;

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Dyn-Compression,NET-HTTP-Activation,RPC-Over-HTTP-Proxy,Web-WMI -Restart

For Client Access and Hub Transport server roles issue the following command;

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Dyn-Compression,NET-HTTP-Activation,RPC-Over-HTTP-Proxy,Web-WMI -Restart

For only the Mailbox role issue the following command;

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server -Restart

For only the Unified Messaging role issue the following command;

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server,Desktop-Experience -Restart

For only the Edge Transport role issue the following command;

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,ADLDS -Restart

[/box]

7. Set the Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service for Automatic startup by running the following command;

[box]Set-Service NetTcpPortSharing -StartupType Automatic[/box]

Exchange 2010 (c/w SP1) Install – Greenfield Site

The single best thing Microsoft has done with the SP1 install media, is to include this tick box.

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

How To Install Exchange 2016 (Greenfield Site)

Exchange: Importing Mail From PST Files (including Bulk Importing)

KB ID 0000443

Problem

If you have mail in .PST file format that you would like to import, either exported via ExMerge from an older Exchange server, or Exported via Outlook, or even exported via PowerShell, then the process for importing that mail into Exchange has been the same since Exchange 2010 (SP1).

Before SP1 you would have to install a copy of Outlook on the Exchange server and use a PowerShell command that looks like this (once you had granted Import/Export rights);

[box]

BEFORE Exchange 2010 SP1

Get-Mailbox | Import-Mailbox –PSTFolderPath C:Folder_Containing_PST_Files

[/box]

 

However try that after SP1 and you will get an error message, saying that Import-Mailbox is not a commandlet. That’s because now you no longer use this command you use “New-MailboxImportRequest”, and you also no longer need Outlook installing on the server.

How To Import PST Files

Note: To Bulk Import (See Below)

Firstly make sure the folder you are importing from is shared and the ‘Exchange Trusted Subsystem’ has read permissions, and SYSTEM has full control.

Grant the user you you want to Import the PST file with the appropriate permissions;

[box]New-ManagementRoleAssignment –Role “Mailbox Import Export” –User {username}[/box]

Note: This grants import and export rights, if you want to grant these permissions to a ‘group’ then see instructions below.

To submit the import request;

[box]New-MailboxImportRequest-FilePath \\{server-name}\{folder-name}\{filename}.pst -Mailbox “{mailbox-user}”[/box]

To check progress;

[box]Get-MailboxImportRequest
OR
Get-MailboxImportRequest | Get-MailboxImportRequestStatistics[/box]

If Mailbox Importing Fails

To troubleshoot failures, try using the following command and analysing the output;

[box]Get-MailboxImportRequest | Get-MailboxImportRequestStatistics -IncludeReport | fl [/box]

i.e. below you can see the problem was;

“This mailbox exceeded the maximum number of large items that were specified for this request. (Fatal error TooManyLargeItemsPermanentException has occurred.)”

To fix that error you can use the ‘-LargeItemLimit 200 -AcceptLargeDataLoss’ flags (which sounds alarming, but I have not seen it break anything in the last ten years).

Importing PST Files From the Exchange Admin Center

You can import PST files directly in the management GUI > Recipients > Mailboxes > Select the target mailbox > {Ellipses} > Import PST.

Enter the path to the .PST file > Next.

Select the target mailbox > Next.

Optional: Select a user to be emailed an export report.

Note: To view progress and troubleshoot failures, you will have to revert to PowerShell.

How To BULK Import .PST Files

Note: To BULK Import successfully, the .PST file MUST have the same name as the alias of the target mailbox.

Commands Required

1. Once you have created a “Universal Security Group” in this example called “Mailbox_Import” then assign the mailbox import/export roles with the following command;

[box] New-ManagementRoleAssignment –Name “MailboxImportExport” –SecurityGroup “Mailbox_Import” –Role “Mailbox Import Export” [/box]

Note: If you create a ‘global security group’ you will see an error when you try to import.

2. Remember to log off and back on as the user in question before proceeding.

3. To Start the bulk import use the following command, (all you should need to change is the UNC path to the folder with the .pst files in);

[box] Dir DC2APST_To_Import*.pst | %{ New-MailboxImportRequest -Name BulkPSTImport -BatchName Recovered -Mailbox $_.BaseName -FilePath $_.FullName} [/box]

4. Check on progress with the following four commands;

[box]

Get-MailboxImportRequest -Status Completed
Get-MailboxImportRequest -Status Queued
Get-MailboxImportRequest -Status InProgress
Get-MailboxImportRequest -Status Failed

[/box]

5. When finished, flush the requests with;

[box]

Get-MailboxImportRequest -Status Completed | Remove-MailboxImportRequest
Get-MailboxImportRequest -Status Failed | Remove-MailboxImportRequest

[/box]

Note: Enter “A” To accept multiple removes at once.

If New-MailboxImportRequest Fails

Firstly you need to find out why it failed, to do that you need to generate an error log.

[box] Get-MailboxImportRequest | Get-MailboxImportRequestStatistics -IncludeReport | fl >errorlog.txt[/box]

Then open that log file, to see what it says.

Common Errors

FailureType : TooManyBadItemsPermanentException Message : Error: This mailbox exceeded the maximum number of corrupted items that were specified for this move request.

This happens when it sees items in the mailbox it does not like, or considers corrupt. To get round this problem, import the .pst file on its own with the following command;

[box] New-MailboxImportRequest -Mailbox joe.soap -FilePath “DC2APST_TO_IMPORTjoe.soap.PST” -BadItemLimit 200 -AcceptLargeDataLoss[/box]

FailureType : MapiExceptionShutoffQuotaExceeded Message : Error: MapiExceptionShutoffQuotaExceeded: Unable to save changes. (hr=0x80004005, ec=12 45)

This happens if you have a limit on the mailbox size, and to import from this PST file would break that restriction.

FailureType : MailboxReplicationPermanentException Message : Error: serverfolderfilename.pst –> Page map offset {number} is greater than buffer length {number}.

This happens because you exported a PST file either using ExMerge or an older version of Outlook and it’s too big. Make sure it’s well under 2GB.

Additionally

If you want to import the “Old” mail into a folder within the target users mailbox, you can use the following command instead of the one in step 3;

[box] Dir DC2APST_To_Import*.pst | %{ New-MailboxImportRequest -Name RecoveredPST -BatchName Recovered -Mailbox $_.BaseName -FilePath $_.FullName -TargetRootFolder Imported_Mail} [/box]

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

Exchange Exporting Mailboxes to PST Files

Exchange 2000/2003 Exporting mailbox’s with ExMerge

Exchange 2007 – Export Mailbox’s to PST files