One of the reasons why you might get the “outlook cannot log on. verify you are connected to the network” error is when there is a setting missing in the “Microsoft Management Console”. I recently worked at a client who’s PDC went south big time. Long story short they were getting the “outlook cannot log on. verify you are connected to the network” error every time they tried setting up a new user in outlook. Also if they selected a group from the Outlook Address Book (OAB) non of the contact of the groups would display.

The item that resolved this error for me was:

In Exchange Management Console, Right Click “Organization Configuration”and select “Modify Configuration Domain Controller”… setting.

A new window will open. Browse for the proper info. Active directory will need to be working as well as some kind of name resolution (namely DNS) in order to select the domain and domain controller properly.

Once done hit OK. You will need to restart the services or restart the whole server. I restarted the services and that was all that I needed to do. Some people have had to do a full reboot of the exchange server after applying these settings.

This was done on a Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 running on Windows 2008 64bit.

1. Open up the Microsoft Exchange Console.
2. Find the user you are wanting to make the changes to.
3. Right Click the user and select properties.
4. go to the General tab and change the name.
5. Go to “User Information” tab and make sure each line is correct
6. Go to “Email Addresses” tab. Make sure both the SMTP and X400 lines are correct. Normally exchange leaves the old X400 address lying around. I always remove it.

Now that these changes have taken place you might think to yourself. I’m going to test this out! You open outlook and check to see if the Global Address list has been updated. You look and it hasn’t!

The reason for this is Exchange caches the Global Address via the Offline Address Book so that the system feels extremely quick. This caching however is not your friend when you want to see the changes right away. First thing you will need to do is:

1. Make sure you still have the Microsoft Exchange Console open. If it is not open please open it again.
2. There will be 3 types of configurations on the left hand side of the console. You want to click on Organization configuration
3. Under Organization configuration there will be Mailbox. Click on that.
4. Once you Click on Mailbox, in the main area of the Console you will see 5 tabs. The last one should be “Offline Address Book”. Click it.
5. Most people will only see “Default Offline Address Book”.
6. Right Click and select update.
7. This will force Exchange to get all that data you entered in the first few steps added to the Global Address Book cache.

You are now officially done with working with exchange. If people are still complaining about not seeing the right name you will need to get them to download the most up to date Offline Address book. Again since the client caches the Offline Address Book you will need to make sure the client has the most up to date version. (Note – I really don’t know how long a client will take to get the newer Global Address list. Some clients seem to get it within an hour while others seem to take up to a couple of days)

To update the Global Address list on the machines:

1. Open Outlook 2003/2007
2. Click on Options
3. Click Send/Receive
4. Click on Download Address Book…

Below are some of the screenshots from the steps above.

Make sure this is all filled in with the correct info.

This shows how to update the Offline Address Book.

Shows how to get Outlook Client to download the latest Offline Address Book.

Graphical way of enabling Connectivity Logging in Exchange Server:

Open the Exchange Management Console

Find the server that has the “Edge Transport server role installed”. If you only have one exchange server install this should be pretty easy to find. Select the server in the “Hub Transport” section.

Once the server has been selected the Action Pane should change. Select Properties as seen below.

Find the “Log Settings” tab and check off “enable connectivity logging” and hit “OK” to save the changes. *NOTE* Make sure to note where the log folder is located.

How to enable Connectivity logging in Exchange Server via Powershell script

Script Format

Set-TransportServer <ServerName> -ConnectivityLogEnabled <$true | $false>

Real World Example

SetTranportServer Exchange07.domain.com - ConnectivityLogEnabled $true

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 2 includes a VSS plug-in for Windows Server Backup to support Exchange backups. Once SP2 is installed, you can use Windows Server Backup to back up and restore your Exchange 2007 SP2 databases. The new plug-in is delivered in the form of a single executable called WSBExchange.exe.

This plug-in is automatically installed by SP2 on all Exchange 2007 Mailbox servers. The plug-in enables Windows Server Backup to be able to make Exchange-aware VSS backups. For more information about this feature and how to use it, see Using Windows Server Backup to Back Up and Restore Exchange Data.

To see what else is new in Exchange 2007 SP2 click here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/library/ee221150.aspx

This post will cover how to change the storage quota for a single users in Exchange 2007. If you want to learn how to configure the storage quota for all users in Exchange 2007 check out my previous post.

To Configure the storage Quota for a single user in Exchange 2007 you must do the following:

1.) Open “Exchange Management Console”

2.) Click on “Recipient Configuration” and then “Mailbox”. Right click the individual user that you want to change the mailbox quota for and then select properties.

3.) A new window will open. Click on “Mailbox Settings Tab”, then click on Storage Quotas. There should be a “properties…” button above. Click on that.

4.) A new window will open. Uncheck “Use Mailbox database defaults”. You can change the settings to what ever you want. ** NOTE ** the size is in KB.

Once you uncheck the “Use Mailbox database defaults” you however override the global settings.

This post will cover how to change the storage quota for all users in Exchange 2007. Might want to do this the slow way and configure it on a User by User Basis. If that’s the way you want to do it good luck! If you want to learn how to configure the storage quota for all users in Exchange 2007 keep reading.

To Configure the storage Quota for all users in Exchange 2007 you must do the following:

1.) Open “Exchange Management Console”

2.) Expand Server Configuration

3.) Click on Mailbox

4.) Right Click the “Mailbox database” under the “First Storage Group” and select properties.

5.) In the new window that open click on “Limits Tab”. The first 3 entries will set the default limits for all users in the Exchange Storage Group.

You can however override these setting by going into an individual’s mailbox and set the storage quota to be higher or lower then the default.

If you want to override the default settings for an exchange user set forth by the server you might want to check out the post “How to configure the storage Quota for a single user in Exchange 2007”

Disclaimer

The only 32bit version of Exchange is for testing purposes only. I don’t recommend that you use this software for any other reason then testing. If you decided to use this in a production environment you will not get any support for Microsoft nor myself. You will be able to at least test out Exchange and get a good feel for things.

Overview

This How to install Exchange 2007 in Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 post will go over downloading the software and then running through a very basic install of Exchange in a 32bit environment.

What do we need?

1. Please make sure you have at least one Domain Controller and Active Directory Setup.
2. Make sure the Domain Functional level is at least Windows 2000 Native Mode
3. Please install Powershell on the server you want to deploy exchange 2007 on.
4. Please make sure all servers are completely patched before you do anything.
5. If you have any Exchange 2003 servers make sure thy are patched up to SP2.
6. Download Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Tools (32-Bit) 800MB+

I am going to be showing you the install process with a Windows 2008 32bit Virtual Machine.

You are going to need to open “Program and Roles” from the Control panel.

Click on Roles and then “Add new Role”.

Click “NEXT”

Select “Web Server (IIS)

A Window will pop-up asking if you want to “Add Required Features”.

Click Add Required Features

Click Next

Click Next on the introduction page.

Keep the default selections but check off:

• ASP.net
• Basic Authentication
• Windows Authentication
• Digest Authentication
• Dynamic Content Compression
• IIS 6 Management Compatibility

Once the installation is done click “Close”

Restart the Server.

Open a command prompt and type:

ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS

Restart the server. All the pre-requisites for installing Exchange 2007 Server are now complete.

The Exchange Management Tools that you downloaded will need to be run. On Windows 2008 you MUST right click and “run as administrator”. Why? I have no idea. All the file does is extracts and expands it’s contents to a directory.

Once it is extracted go to the directory and open the exchange folder

Run “setup.exe”

You will now see something similar to this. Click Install Exchange Server 2007 SP1.

Click next.

Accept the terms and sign your life away.

I like help Microsoft out. Click YES then NEXT.

Click NEXT.

Select the server that mail will flow through. Click NEXT.

The Exchange installation Wizard will do a scan of your network. It will tell you that this is not to be used for production use. It will also say the install routine will make some changes to Active Directory.

Hit “install”.

It should all complete with green checks. Hit Finish.

Reboot. You’re Done!

This post will explain why you might receive this error message if you are using Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010. You might see this error when a user logs into Outlook Web Access (OWA). It took me a while to figure this out so I hope this helps other people.

This is the exact output of the error.

Request

Url: https://www.domain.com:443/owa/lang.owa

User host address: 192.169.1.4


Exception

Exception type: Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.StoragePermanentException

Exception message: There was a problem accessing Active Directory.


Call stack

Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ExchangePrincipal.Save()

Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.RequestDispatcher.DispatchLanguagePostLocally(OwaContext owaContext, OwaIdentity logonIdentity, CultureInfo culture, String timeZoneKeyName, Boolean isOptimized)

Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.RequestDispatcher.DispatchLanguagePostRequest(OwaContext owaContext)

Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.RequestDispatcher.PrepareRequestWithoutSession(OwaContext owaContext, UserContextCookie userContextCookie)

Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.RequestDispatcher.InternalDispatchRequest(OwaContext owaContext)

Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.RequestDispatcher.DispatchRequest(OwaContext owaContext)

System.Web.HttpApplication.SyncEventExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()

System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously)


Inner Exception

Exception type: Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Directory.ADOperationException

Exception message: Active Directory operation failed on exchange.domain.com. This error is not retriable. Additional information: Insufficient access rights to perform the operation. Active directory response: 00002098: SecErr: DSID-03150A45, problem 4003 (INSUFF_ACCESS_RIGHTS), data 0


Call stack

Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Directory.ADSession.AnalyzeDirectoryError(PooledLdapConnection connection, DirectoryRequest request, DirectoryException de, Int32 totalRetries, Int32 retriesOnServer)

Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Directory.ADSession.ExecuteModificationRequest(ADRawEntry entry, DirectoryRequest request, ADObjectId originalId)

Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Directory.ADSession.Save(ADObject instanceToSave, IEnumerable`1 properties)

Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ExchangePrincipal.Save()


Inner Exception

Exception type: System.DirectoryServices.Protocols.DirectoryOperationException

Exception message: The user has insufficient access rights.


Call stack

System.DirectoryServices.Protocols.LdapConnection.ConstructResponse(Int32 messageId, LdapOperation operation, ResultAll resultType, TimeSpan requestTimeOut, Boolean exceptionOnTimeOut)

System.DirectoryServices.Protocols.LdapConnection.SendRequest(DirectoryRequest request, TimeSpan requestTimeout)

Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Directory.PooledLdapConnection.SendRequest(DirectoryRequest request, LdapOperation ldapOperation)

Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Directory.ADSession.ExecuteModificationRequest(ADRawEntry entry, DirectoryRequest request, ADObjectId originalId)

How to Fix: Exception type: Microsoft Exchange Data.Storage.StoragePermanentException

Go into Microsoft Active Directory and Computers on the Domain Controller.

Find user effected by error message.

Right click user and select properties on user.

Go to the “Security Tab”. Click on “Advance”.

Make sure that “Inherit from the parent the permission entries that apply to child objects…” is checked off like you see in the screen shot.

This should resolve the error:

Exception type: Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.StoragePermanentException

Exception message: There was a problem accessing Active Directory.

Enough of the ranting. Here is how you can manage and Exchange 2007 server from a 32bit Workstation. * NOTE * You need just over 350MB of hard drive space to “Install Exchange 2007 Management Tools (32bit)”.

You have to:

1.) Download Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Tools (32-Bit)

2.) Run “E2K7SP1EN32.exe”

3.) This will ask you where you want to extract the files to. I selected C:\temp\Exch-07

4.) Open C:\temp\Exch-07

4.) Make sure to have installed:

• .net Framework 2.0
• Microsoft Management Console
• Microsoft PowerShell
• Reboot your machine once more after all these have been installed.

5.) Run Setup.exe

6.) Click on Step 4 – Install Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1

7.) Click Next

8.) Click “I Accept” and then “Next”.

9.) Click “No”. Click Next.

10.) Click “Custom Exchange Server Installation Type”, Choose Directory, and then “Next”.

11.) Choose Exchange Management Tools. Click “Next”.

12.) Everything should Go through OK. Click “Install”.

13.) Exchange 2007 Management tools 32bit should complete successfully

14.) Exchange 2007 Management Tools 32bit should open up and look like this. This was done on a Windows XP Workstation.

Items that will be covered:

• Checking DNS
• Checking Listening ports
• Testing email flow

Checking DNS

You should have MX, A, and PTR records set on the Public DNS server. I will now cover the roles of each of those records.

A Records

This are also called “Host Records”. These records are the bread and butter of DNS. For example. When you type Google.com your DNS request would be sent out on the internet most likely to your ISP. Your ISP would look up the domain “Google.com” and reply back to you an IP4 address. This address is what your machine will now use to find the actual address of Google.com! A Records will only / Always point to an IP Address. A lot of online providers use “@” symbol for “all requests for ”

MX Records

These bad boys are the “Mail eXchange” records. They allows you to specify an alternative IP address for your mail server. MX records can point to IP Addresses or they can point to A Records. Most people have MX records that point them to A records.

PTR Records

These are reverse lookup records. If you don’t have this setup for your domain good luck successfully sending emails. The reason for this is many spam filter require you to have a reverse lookup to verify that the email’s origins match the domain that is sending the email. By using nslookup <IP Address> you will get the A Host record.

** For a great ”how to use nslookup” article  go here **

Checking Listening Ports

You will most likely have a firewall in front of the mail server as well as on the mail server itself. There are several things you will need to do with the ports:

1. The NAT firewall should have port 25 open. That Port should be passed through to the Exchange server by using the IP of the server. (inbound and outbound)
2. Firewall on Exchange server should be open and listening for communication on port 25. (inbound and outbound).
3. Make sure that your ISP has given you the ability to run port 25. To prevent spam, it is becoming common for ISP’s to block port 25 unless you ask them.

You can check to see if you have access to port 25 by using telnet and trying to log onto a mail server.

** For a great “how to troubleshoot email using telnet” article go here **

Misc Configuration

Authorizated domains need to be configured

Email address policy needs to be configured.