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#554 5.6.0 STOREDRV.Deliver.Exception:ObjectValidationException

Issue:

Recently our users were experiencing an issue when they would send updates to meeting requests. The following error is received when updating the meeting:

#554 5.6.0 STOREDRV.Deliver.Exception:ObjectValidationException; Failed to process message due to a permanent exception ##

After calling Microsoft we discovered that there is a bug in Exchange 2007 SP2 that the named tables on the Hub transports and CAS servers are not updated correctly. 

Cause:

What caused this to happen.  Basically, I have had a database that was about to reach its max drive space.  Instead of defragging the database, I decided to move all the users to other databases, delete the database and create a new empty one.  The process of deleting teh database causes the error above. 

The FIX:

Reboot all the CAS and HUB servers one by one in order for the Named Properties tables can be updated.  The actual fix will probably not be available from Microsoft until SR2 of Exchange 2007 SP2.

421 4.2.2 Dropped connections in Exchange 2007

I have been having a lot of fun lately troubleshooting an intermitten problem sending emails to the internet from the hub transport servers.  Basically, the queues would build up endlessly with a the following error message.

451 4.4.0 Primary target IP address responded with: “421 4.2.2 Connection Dropped.”…..

Here are some of the things I did to rectify the proble. 

1. Telneted from the server(s) to an outside server like microsoft or hotmail.  All failed as expected.

2. Rebooted the servers.  Failed

3. Updated the NIC software. Failed

4. Disabled TCP Offloading on windows 2008.  Failed (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951037)

5. Disabled Autotuning on the NIC.  Failed. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951291)

6. Made sure that we had all of our reverse lookup DNS entries in place.

7. Instead of forwarding all of our email to the filtering service at Microsoft, I configured the send-connectors to deliver using DNS.  This failed as well. 

After a week and half of troubleshooting and having users call me with complaints, someone thought about our web filtering software.  Well, we turned it of and all started working. the 150k emails in the send connectors were delivered within minutes.  Apparently, the web filtering software was not ignoring any SMTP traffic as programmed to do so.

The fix was to dual home the transport servers, one for the internal network and one for the DMZ.  The DMZ NIC delivered all of our internet email.  We set up a static route for our internal traffic.

After all of this week’s stress, I am needing a very big drink.  I don’t drink , but I may just pick it up.

Roll-up 6 to be released soon

This is a heads up that Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 should be out on Tuesday February 10, 2009. As you can see the rollup release date coincides with the day Microsoft issues security patches. No points for guessing that this rollup contains a fix for a security issue.   <Want to know More>

RDP Client – Awesome

A friend of mine just recently introduced to me an app that he uses to manage all of his RDP connections.  I downloaded it and I am loving it.  The company name is VisionApp.  The web site www.visionapp.com.  The name of the app is visionapp Remote Desktop 2009. There is a free version and a full blown version.  The one I am running, the free version, has some restrictions of course.   One of which is you can only have three connections at the same time.  If this limitation bothers me, I may just buy the full version.  It is pretty inexpensive. 

some features are:

Grouping of the connections into folders.

Connect/Disconnect all sessions at once.

VNC, Putty and Telnet to any of the connections.

It is a very nice tool.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

Cross AD Forest SID History

One of my current projects involves the need to integrate two forrests into one.  We will be migrating all the users and groups from Windows 2003 forest A to Windows 2003 forest R.  As soon as we got the go ahead to link the two forests together, I created the two way trust between the forests.  One of the outcomes from this trust was that new users for company A would be created in the company R domain.  With this in mind, they would need to get access to the resources in the company A’s forest.  This is accomplished by group membership and the drives are mapped using a logon script.  In order for me to drop these new users in that group in company A, I would have had to convert those groups to Domain Local groups.  There were a lot of groups to convert.  So, we purchased from Quest software the Active Directory migration tool.  I performed some tests and managed to migrate the accounts and groups over but I was unable to get to the resources in company A’s domain.  I then realized, after doing this one last time last year, that I had to enable SID History, or shall I say disable SID filtering on the domain and then enable SID History on the trust.  

Here are the to commands in order to get this accomplished.  I had to do a lot of digging around to get these two commands.  The EnableSIDhistory command is not properly documented by Microsoft. 

To disable SID filter quarantining

Netdom trust <trusteddomain>  /domain:<trustingdomain> /quarantine:no /userd:<AdminID> /passwordd:<AdminIDPassword>

 

To enable SID history between the Alliednt and Repsrv domains.

Netdom trust <trusteddomain> /domain:<trustingdomain> /EnableSIDHistory:yes /usero:<AdminID> /passwordo:<AdminIDPassword>

I hope this helps in clearing up the SID History in a cross forest trust.

MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator

After several months of studying and taking the three exams, I am finally an MCITP in Exchange 2007.  I just passed Exam 70-238 with, to my surprise, a pretty high score.  While taking the exam, I kept telling myself that I am not passing this exam.  There were a lot of questions on ISA and Edge Servers that I did not have direct experience with. 

If you are looking into taking this exam, make sure you know the following:

Edge Servers: Transport rules, IP Port Numbers, initial configuration

Storage Design: Raid configurations, database configurations

Server Role Placement: Hub Transports, Client Access Servers, Mailbox Servers. Not much on UM.

MBX Role: Know your LCR, CCR and SCC.  Many questions regarding these solutions.  Nothing on SCR.  I am guessing the exam has not been updated to reflect the updates included in SP1. 

What did I use to study?  I bought the book “How to Cheat at Microsoft Exchange 2007“. I also scoured the Internet for practice exams. 

Over all, this exam, in my opinion, was the hardest.  Study hard for it and know the topics mentioned above before going to take the exam.  

Is anyone has any questions, email me. 

Good luck.