Decoder ring, where are you?
Published Apr 01 2008 02:28 PM 2,514 Views

In order to help our customers configure their servers better, we have been working on a tool that you will be able to run from a workstation and configure your Exchange 2007 servers easier. Some of those options are not easy to configure otherwise, and some of the problems that you might have seen in your environments could be explained by those being turned on accidentally. The scheduled release of the final version of this tool is February 29, 2009. Have a look and give us your feedback: are there any other options that you find hard to configure, or you find that it is easy to inadvertently turn them on?

- The Exchange Team

39 Comments
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indeed, a real cool tool :)
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Ooh!  Ooh!  Can I be a beta tester? :)

Please be sure to add the online database fragmentation scheduler, and the cluster failover random generator.
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I Love It!!!  When get I get my hands on it?
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Dud3, y0ur s0ftw4r3 1s w4y l33t!  BTW, don't forget to add a button to delete all logs whenever someone tries to troubleshoot the server...
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Just what the Exchange admin needs!!
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We simply MUST have this uber-cool tool ASAP!!!
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Hey,

Tell your brotheren over at ISA 2006 a similar tool would be nice!
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As it stands now, in order to make administrations in Exchange 2K7, you either have to use ADUC, ESM and CMD Shell.  And that does not even mention if you are in the middle of a migration!

Why make a 4th interface to make config changes?

A seperate tool would be great to assist with the more complex tasks...Enabling the existing GUI with all the feature sets of the CMD Shell would be better.
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Very nice JOKE :)
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Real nice!
What about making up a service that distributes the mail flow from the most heavily loaded Mailbox users to users with nothing to do?
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Isn't this an April 1st joke ?
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Cool! Where's the configuration options for OOF replies? Also, I think you could squeeze "Enterprise" into the title of this app.

Professional Enterprise Advanced Edition.
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Wonderful... I love it!
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I think Aaron's all-to-serious rant is almost as funny as the tool itself.
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LMAO!!!  Gotta love Aaron's reply.
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I think the only thing missing here is a backup tool configuration area:

1. MS DPM (Recommended)
2. NTBackup (Not recommended but barely supported)
3. Any other program or system (Not recommended, probably won't work right anyway)
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Being an advanced setup tool, I was surprised to see that there was no advanced cluster configuration.  Some configuration options I'd like to see:

Cluster Failover Options:

1)     Failover successfully only when manually initiated

2)     Always attempt to fail to an active node before attempting a passive node

3)     Set random failover engine with preferential weighting during business hours
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Is there powershell support?  I'd love to try out a few scripts with these commands...
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Thank you for making my day that much better :)
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Aaron,
You fool!
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Nice :) !
I just wonder if some of the admins I know already use it, in fact :\ ...
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Please allow me to try its Beta version, i'm member of TAP
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Absolutely brilliant. :)
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I've heard the screen cap is just a mockup, and MS only plans on releasing powershell cmdlets for this, as "no body uses a gui anymore"

I've also heard the version for Server 2008 will only be in released in Esperanto.
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I used this tool this morning to adjust some settings on my server, and it made our production Exchange 2007 server MUCH more reliable.  For example:

- Now Exchange Server processes can use ALL the memory which is  normally reserved for OS Kernel space and system processes.
- I am able to greet my users with random RPC dialog boxes after delaying Outlook/OWA login for 7 minutes.
- I have also found that the "Randomly disconnect clients" option is good for remote employees who we think may be slacking off. This option is good to keep them on their toes.
- I have found that the "Service startup options" setting has no effect. I have already submitted the bug report. No matter which setting I select, the Exchange services still hang at 66% when either starting OR stopping. I hope the Exchange team can fix this.
- I also LOVE the feature to disable the management GUI. With the new Exchange PowerShell commandlets, no administrator should EVER need a GUI environment anyway.

Keep up the good work Exchange team!
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We need more cowbell with this tool! You can't get enough cowbell!

Besides that, how about a random message scrambling option? How about a big red button you push that randomly kills a hub transport server? So many options...
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Wow.

I have to say that there were some great ideas here in comments - thanks for contributing, we'll make this better! :)
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You really should have a section for event logging as well.

A checkbox for "Alert on anything and everything, whether mundane or not"
Another for "Spit random confusing events into the application log."
Perhaps one for "Add family member insults to events in security logs"

The options are endless...
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I guess all of those who ranted on about the tool or are desperate to get hold of it clearly have not patched up their Exchange servers to cope with Leap years.   'Hello....April fools!!!!!'. :)
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Astronaut Jones says,
"Yeah"
"Right"
"I can dig it"
"That's sweet"
Oh...  that's nice"

How about taking off Exchange 2007's hot pants and let me send an email?
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Please add "Generate rapidly growing transaction logs" :-)

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You could also call this <b>P</b>rofessional <b>I</b>nterface for <b>T</b>roubleshooting <b>A</b>dministrators
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So, what's new?
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Did anyone notice the following:

<quote>
The scheduled release of the final version of this tool is ><span style='color:red'>February 29, 2009.</span></b>
</quote>
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We would like to spend 3 billion to roll this out to all of our exchange and lotus and ccmail and snail mail installations.  We do require one more button at the bottom.  Uh-Oh!
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Great idea but as usual MS has made it more complex than it needs to be and didn't utilize that outstanding tool Powerhell. All that is really needed is one simple button that says "configure" and returns a pop-up that says "we didn't test it prior to release; so we have no idea what happened". ooooohhhhh, can you include a decoder for ISA 2006 too? :)
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Улыбнула кнопка "нах". =)
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Am I too late to get on the Beta tester list?

Another great option would be to randomly corrupt the eventlogs.  It is much easier to troubleshoot when you have no valid eventlogs...
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LoL !!!!!

There is no Feb 29 in 2009
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