Exchange 2010 Two Nodes Enter – ONE LIVES.

Starting Active: MBX1

Starting Passive: MBX2

Starting Primary Active Manager: MBX1

The scenario is one where there are two DAG nodes (yes I know more is ideal, but that’s life) that must be brought down, and the active node has an issue from which it cannot recover. This can apply to site-wide power outages or other disaster scenarios as well.

The issues that can arise in this scenario seem to vary from my testing.

Test lab steps:

1. Shutdown both nodes.

2. Power on MBX2. Leave MBX1 offline.

3. Databases' status comes up as Service Down (as expected) for MBX1, and Disconnected/Resyncing for MBX2.

Issues and solutions that may arise:

1. Cluster won’t start on MBX2.

a. On MBX2, open a CMD prompt and run: ‘net start clussvc /fq’

b. This forces the cluster service up without concern for quorum.

2. EventID: 3154 MSExchangeRepl

Active Manager failed to mount database DB1 on server EXCHANGE. Error: An Active Manager operation failed with a transient error. Please retry the operation. Error: A transient error occurred during discovery of the database availability group topology. Error: Database action failed with transient error. Error: A transient error occurred during a database operation. Error: MapiExceptionNetworkError: Unable to make admin interface connection to server

a. Verify that MBX2 is the Primary Active Manager (PAM).

i. Generally after a failure of this type, the former Active Manager (if it was MBX1) will be offline, or unassigned.

b. The owner of the cluster core service group (“Cluster Group”) is the PAM. If this isn’t true, then we need to force the fact.

c. cluster . group "Cluster Group" /move:MBX2

3. Check PAM via ‘Get-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup -Status | fl name,primaryactivemanager’

a. Validate MBX2 as PAM.

4. EventID: 3170 MSExchangeRepl

Attempt to move active database ‘DB1’ from MBX2 to MBX1 failed. Error: An Active Manager operation failed. Error: The database action failed. Error: An error occurred while trying to validate the specified database copy for possible activation. Error: Database copy ‘DB1’ on server ‘MBX1’ has content index catalog files in the following state: 'Failed'.

a. Validate: Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus | fl name, contentindexstate

b. Content index displays as ‘Failed.’

c. Move-ActiveMailboxDatabase - identity DB1 -ActivateOnServer MBX2 -SkipLagChecks -MountDialOverride BestEffort – SkipClientExperienceChecks

d. Process is repeated on all other databases. SkipClientExperienceChecks will ignore the bad content index.

5. All databases are mounted on MBX2, and MBX1 is still down.

6. Booted up MBX1 post-disaster and resume.

a. Replication comes up as ‘Healthy’ after a few minutes.

b. A reseed may be necessary depending on the size and circumstances, but it was never required for me.

iPhone IOS4 Issues

As any iPhone enthusiast knows, IOS4 has been released. Unfortunately there have been a large number of reports of issues surrounding IOS4’s implementation of ActiveSync.

Issues reported include dramatic increases in resource usage on Exchange servers (causing potentially severe issues), issues with iPhone sending and receiving mail, and issues with iPhones not syncing correctly with regards to their mail and calendar items.

Apple has released a single update, but it only addresses one of the seemingly many issues. My company, Azaleos, is currently taking the stance of advising customers to hold off on upgrading until Apple and Microsoft work out these issues.

Additional Links:

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/07/01/455342.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3398

Script to pull database stats and e-mail results

With some help from a coworker (irundis.com), I got this script put together for pulling database stats, and then e-mailing the results to an e-mail recipient. The idea is to just attach this to a scheduled task and let it run. It is a good thing I got help or I'm positive it wouldn't be quite this pretty.

Scheduled Task:

Program/Task:

C:\windows\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe

Arguments:

-PSConsoleFile "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\bin\exshell.psc1" -noexit -command ". C:\DBStats.ps1

-------------------------------------------------------------

Script (be careful about returns if you copy/paste)

-------------------------------------------------------------

function Get-MXDBData() {

PROCESS {

$identity = $_.Name

$FullID = $_.identity

$FilePath = $_.EdbFilePath.PathName

$SizeMB = [long]([long]((Get-ChildItem $FilePath).length) / 1048576)

$SizeGB = [long]($SizeMB / 1024)

$MBXCount = (Get-Mailbox -database $FullID).count

#Create the new custom object and add new members to the object

$obj = New-Object PSObject

$obj | Add-Member NoteProperty Database $identity

$obj | Add-Member NoteProperty "Size in GB" $SizeGB

$obj | Add-Member NoteProperty "Size in MB" $SizeMB

$obj | Add-Member NoteProperty "Mailbox Count" $MBXCount

#Output the object to gain access to all of its properties for later in the pipeline.

Write-Output $obj

}

}

Get-MailboxDatabase -Server SERVER | Get-MXDBData | export-csv -path c:\DBStats.csv -NoTypeInformation

################

# SMTP Mail Alert

################

$file = "c:\DBStats.csv"

#Create new .NET object and assign to variable

$mail = New-Object System.Net.Mail.MailMessage

#Sender Address

$mail.From = "sender@domain.com";

#Recipient Address

$mail.To.Add("recipient@domain.com");

#Message Subject

$mail.Subject = "Database Statistics Report";

#Message Body

$mail.Body = "Please see attached CSV for database size and mailbox count.";

#Connect to your Hub Transport (FQDN or NLB alias)

$smtp = New-Object System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient("fqdn.domain.com");

#Attach CSV

$attachment = new-object Net.Mail.Attachment($file)

$mail.Attachments.Add($attachment)

#Uncomment if no anonymous relay (best practice to have separate receive connector)

# $smtp.Credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential("username", "passwd");

#Send Email

$smtp.Send($mail);

$attachment.Dispose()

Example of output before CSV:

Prevent Double-Booking Rooms in Exchange 2007

My new responsibilities leave me little time to post, so I figured I'd dump a quick PS execution for admins quickly searching for a way to avoid double booking in their environment.

get-mailbox | where {$_.ResourceType -eq "Room" } | Set-MailboxCalendarSettings -

AutomateProcessing AutoAccept -AllBookInPolicy:$true -AllowConflicts:$false

ResourceType can be substituted for other types than Room as well.