Archive for the ‘Exchange’ Category

Security: cloud-client.info domain blacklist

Monday, February 23rd, 2015

Hello Folks,

like already mentioned in our blog registration form we will publish domains which are used by spam bots, malware and virus senders and/or domains where users perform suspicious actions against our websites.

So here is our first list called “domains_we_dont_like” containing 643 domains (collected by our websites in the last 12 months), you can use this list as blacklist for mail servers or to protect other webhostings/services. We do also allow the use of this list for other security related use and to prevent these actions in the future. Please note: There are also a couple popular email providers like GMX, Yahoo or Hotmail in the list, as long these mail provider can’t prevent the massive misuse of there services we have no reason to remove these providers from the list. All listed domains are used a couple of times for different suspicious activities, if you are responsible for one of these domains and you want to be removed you can get in contact with us to discuss how you can be removed from the list.

The list will updated from time to time.

Cheers

Michael

 

Tip: Reducing Exchange 2013 storage space consumption

Friday, December 12th, 2014

Hi Folks,

maybe you already run into the situation where you notice that Microsoft Exchange 2013 consume a lot of your HDD/Storage capacity?

This is mostly related to regular log files and transaction logs for the mail database but there are some ways to gain free space again and to clean it up a little bit.

First of all there is a really cool script to delete all the old regular log files, i found some time ago in an other blog (sorry i did not found the blog to name it as source, if the author read this please contact me to give you the credit!)

Set-Executionpolicy RemoteSigned

$days=7 #You can change the number of days here

$IISLogPath=”C:\inetpub\logs\LogFiles\”

$ExchangeLoggingPath=”C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Logging\”

Write-Host “Removing IIS and Exchange logs; keeping last” $days “days”

Function CleanLogfiles($TargetFolder)

{

if (Test-Path $TargetFolder) {

$Now = Get-Date

$LastWrite = $Now.AddDays(-$days)

$Files = Get-ChildItem $TargetFolder -Include *.* -Recurse | Where {$_.LastWriteTime -le “$LastWrite”}

foreach ($File in $Files)

{Write-Host “Deleting file $File” -ForegroundColor “Red”; Remove-Item $File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | out-null}

}

Else {

Write-Host “The folder $TargetFolder doesn’t exist! Check the folder path!” -ForegroundColor “red”

}

}

CleanLogfiles($IISLogPath)

CleanLogfiles($ExchangeLoggingPath)

Copy the code and create a new cleanup.ps1 txt file and insert it, than execute the script thru Powershell (in Admin mode) and that’s it. The only modification done by myself is the day variable, thru this variable you can modify how old logs must be you want to delete. In this sample i delete all log files older than 7 days.

The second big storage killer are the mail database transaction logs.. There are two ways to handle it.

1) Use Windows Server Backup (Feature Role in Windows Server) and create a backup by following this article Exchange Backup. You can exclude all not needed folders like the Windows folder and so on. This scenario is mostly recommended for medium or large environments and is the save way to deal with transaction logs. Once the backup is done the transaction logs will be removed from the mail database folder and this can free a lot of space.

2) For smaller environments you can also use an other way, this way is less secure regarding the fact that this can result in a (small) dataloss. If you open the Exchange Management Console (ECP) browse to Server->Mail Database settings and edit the mail database settings (see picture below).

exchange2013opt

 

In the maintenance configuration enable circular logging, this will only create a few transaction log files that will merged into the database. Disadvantage: This way will consume some performance during the regular run/use time for the log file handling/merge. If the server crash it might be that the you loose some informations which are not merged into the database. Typical situation where i use this are smaller SMB Exchange scenarions running in a virtual Environment where the Mail Server VM is “secured” in any other way, Test and Demo environments  and environments where the User amount/Mail transfer is not on a very high level. I mention this because it was a default enabled feature for older Exchange versions and sometimes Administrators run into a storage trap after they upgrade there environment and be not aware about this changed default behavior.

Have Fun

Michael

P.S.: Everything on your own risk like everytime… 🙂

Release: Microsoft Office 2013 SP1, Microsoft Exchange 2013 SP1 and Sharepoint 2013 SP1

Wednesday, February 26th, 2014

Hi Folks,

yesterday/today Microsoft has release several Service Packs containing Updates, new Features and Optimizations for Microsoft Office 2013, Exchange 2013 and also Sharepoint 2013, you can download the Service Packs here:

Microsoft Office 2013 SP1 32Bit: Download
Microsoft Office 2013 SP1 64Bit: Download
Microsoft Exchange 2013 SP1: Download

Office for Windows RT based devices will also receive an update thru Windows Update which is already available.

There are currently no product ISO Files available on MSDN that already contains the SP1, so currently you are required to download/intall the SP1 seperate or to deploy it thru Windows Update or a WSUS Server.

Cheers

Michael

Tip: Fixing Microsoft Exchange 2013 Index Database issues

Thursday, February 20th, 2014

Hi Folks,

i just have done two Exchange 2013 stand alone installations and on one Server i’ve run into the issue that the Mail Database Index Search did not work (EventID 1012 for MSExchangeIS) and the User was not able to perform a Search in Outlook or thru Outlook Web Access.

There are a couple of solutions mentioned like changing User Rights and so on but mostly the issue can be fixed quite simple: Just delete the Index Database.

1) Create a Backup or Snapshot for the Exchange Server
2) Browse to the Databasefolder (Default: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Mailbox\Mailbox Database XXXXXXXXXX\)
3) Stop the two Search Services (Microsoft Exchange Search Host Controller and Microsoft Exchange Search)
4) In the Mailbox Database Folder should be a cryptic subfolder like  DC206C90-9627-4A70-B156-2E40F8A9429F12.1.Single, it should be the only subfolder here. Move this folder to an other directory (for recovery) or delete it.
5) Restart the two Search Services (see Names in 3))
6) Open the Exchange Administration Site and browse to Server->Database and Verify the Index state.. After a couple of time it should be changed from Unknown to Recreating, be prepared that the recreation can take some time and do not reboot the Server during this time and until the Index State has changed to “without errors”.
7) Drink a beer and be happy that the issue is fixed. 🙂

Cheers
Michael