Exchange RBAC might be more granular than you think

Most Exchange admins probably know (or should know )  the permission model since Exchange 2010 is Role Based Access Control, RBAC for short. With it, you can regulate quite granularly what admins and end-user are able to do, without the hassles of Access Control Lists (ACLs). However, it recently became clear that it might be more granular than you think. You can allow only certain types of PowerShell Cmdlets, have only change rights on a certain Organizational Unit (OU)or types

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I will be presenting at the NGN Exchange evening event on 25th November

On the 25th of November the Dutch usergroup NGN (Netwerk Gebruikersgroep Nederland) will organize an Exchange themed evening event and I'm one of the speakers. I'm extra excited as it will be held at the OGD ICT Diensten head office in Delft, my employer! My session will be about Exchange and mobile devices, focused on ActiveSync but also on Outlook Web App and the OWA App for iPad/iPhone. A very interesting and currently relevant topic, if I say so myself

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Blocking the Windows 8 Mail app in Exchange 2010 & 2013

I think I might start a new tradition: every time a major/important OS or update is released, I try find out how to block it from Exchange . Now, I know the Mail app has been around for some time now. If you recollect, I did some research on how Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) within the Mail app works in general and how it implements security settings in Windows 8. But especially since Windows 8.1 RT has been released yesterday with

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Failed Exchange Server 2013 CU2 & CU3 install due to security update 2874216 (updated again)

Today a customer asked for my help because an installation of Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 2  (v2) had failed; Their Exchange environment didn’t work anymore and they were stuck. During the installation from Cumulative Update 1 (CU1) to Cumulative Update 2 (CU2), they encountered the following error: Error: Unable to remove product with code 4934d1ea-be46-48b1-8847-f1af20e892c1. Fatal error during installation. Error code is 1603. Last error reported by the MSI package is 'Unable to install because a previous Interim Update

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Apple iPhone 5s TouchID and Exchange ActiveSync (updated)

2013/10/17: Added support statement by Microsoft below Just today I was curious how the Apple biometric convenience solution TouchID on the iPhone 5s would impact password policies enforced by Exchange ActiveSync(EAS). I frequently run into complaints from Android users who previously used a Pattern Lock instead of a PIN to unlock their phones. When my EAS policy sets specific password requirements, the Pattern Lock is replaced by the phone OS to the more traditional PIN (or alphanumeric password) unlock. Unfortunately,

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Blocking iOS 7 in Exchange 2010 & 2013 (updated)

Now that iOS 7 available, it might be interesting to know how to block this version. In the past there were some issues with the Exchange ActiveSync implementation in specific iOS DeviceOS versions (read this and this). Please note that I did not encountered or heard of any ActiveSync issues with iOS 7, but it might be prudent to be prepared. But first we have to find out which DeviceOS versions are already present, or how they are presented to

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Exchange Server 2013 RTM CU2 is out!

Just now the Exchange Team released Cumulative Update 2 for Exchange Server 2013. Some helpful links: Blogpost: Released: Exchange 2013 RTM Cumulative Update 2 Download: Cumulative Update 2 for Exchange Server 2013 Knowledge Base article: KB2859928 Sizing tool: Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator v5.8 The Role calculator is also upgraded to support CU2, which is logical as CU2 now enables 100 databases per server instead of 50 (Enterprise Edition). There is also some clarification on how to interpret the

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Back from TechEd NA 2013: Thoughts on Exchange and BYOD

*** Updated 9 juli 2013: See the end of this article *** Back from TechEd North America 2013 and almost recuperated from my jetlag (7 hours difference), some of the bits and pieces get their place and new thoughts are formed. Having seen the keynote (see it here) and the new features added in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2, combined with knowledge I’ve blogged about earlier some new thoughts formed on Exchange and BYOD. For years we have

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Exchange 2013 OWA Mailbox policy issue cause of OWA error?

Within Exchange 2013 you can have OWA (Outlook Web App) Mailbox policies, in which an Exchange Admin can determine which features within OWA are available to users. By default, there's a default policy with all options enabled, but you can have more policies and configure them at will and assign them to Mailbox-enabled users according to the organization's needs. In this case we wanted to completely disable the Text Messaging option, as it offers no additional functionality for this organization. Disabling it

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My portable lab hardware

Recently somebody asked via Twitter my what the make and model is of my laptop, used for Exchange testing environments. Well, 140 characters is not a lot of space so I decided to blog about it. Our company uses Dell laptops as a laptop standard, but other vendors might have comparable configurations. The main model type is a Precision M4700, but for lab purposes the configuration has been customized: CPU: Intel Core i7-3820QM @ 2,70GHz Memory: 32GB (4x8GB) 1600MHz DDR3

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