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After a few days of deserved rest, here we get back to work! No that I want to, but I'm sure you are all waiting for new posts ... ... ... or not?
In the following short article I would like to list all possible database connection strings, just in case you need them in your projects. We will see just the basic way of connecting to data sources, so keep in mind that specific additional security parameters may be used, in case you need them.
Ready? Then please follow me...
Web development, web design and programming.
Showing posts with label exchange server. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exchange server. Show all posts
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Monday, 30 April 2012
Exchange: delay the startup
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The last time I had to change the company server hardware, I decided to use a virtual domain controller, while the Exchange Server remained on the physical machine.
Upon boot, Exchange couldn't find the domain controller and that gave me a lot of trouble. I needed to delay the Exchange Server service enough to allow the virtual DC to boot and be ready.
How can we do that?
Follow me and I will explain it to you.
The last time I had to change the company server hardware, I decided to use a virtual domain controller, while the Exchange Server remained on the physical machine.
Upon boot, Exchange couldn't find the domain controller and that gave me a lot of trouble. I needed to delay the Exchange Server service enough to allow the virtual DC to boot and be ready.
How can we do that?
Follow me and I will explain it to you.
Friday, 16 September 2011
Outlook: how to view the content of a pst file
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As explained in one of my previous posts, it is highly recomended to perform maintenance on your Exchange Server. Using tools like ExMerge, you can archive old mails or mails for closed mailboxes and thus reduce storage size. But what happens when we need to view the content of the resulting PST file?
First of all, we can always open the PST with Outlook. However we can use a separate tool to achieve that: Outlook PST Viewer.
The software is very simple to use and completely free.
As explained in one of my previous posts, it is highly recomended to perform maintenance on your Exchange Server. Using tools like ExMerge, you can archive old mails or mails for closed mailboxes and thus reduce storage size. But what happens when we need to view the content of the resulting PST file?
First of all, we can always open the PST with Outlook. However we can use a separate tool to achieve that: Outlook PST Viewer.
The software is very simple to use and completely free.
- View PST files without having MS Outlook installed.
- Open & view password protected .pst files without a password.
- View Outlook messages, OLE embedded objects without MAPI or Outlook.
- View PST files with exact email formatting.
- View PST files & restore all its meta data like To, Cc, Bcc, From, Sent & Received date.
- Reads PST files and extracts all MAPI properties.
- View PST files with Internet header.
- Software recovers Rich Text, HTML or Text formatting of emails stored in PST files.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
Exchange: the recovery storage group
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Today we are talking about retro-software... As many of you are already using Exchange 2010, you might not be interested in the information given in this post. In fact the Recovery Storage Group has been removed from the Microsoft famous email server starting from the 2010 version.
Anyway, if you are sticking with a previous release then I believe you should - at least - know something about recovering mailboxes from a backup. In my experience, whenever I knew about a possible disaster recovery solution, the disastrous situations never occurred. It's like a protective talisman!
So, here we are. Read this post and take it as an amulet, protecting you from disastrous situations!
Typical situation:
1) Your Exchange is working and should continue to work;
2) You need to recover a deleted mailbox or single email;
3) You do have a back-up copy of the mailbox store;
4) You need to recover that back-up and put it in a safe position to extract mails with ExMerge.
Confused? You shouldn't, because the operation is quite easy - even if could be quite time consuming.
Today we are talking about retro-software... As many of you are already using Exchange 2010, you might not be interested in the information given in this post. In fact the Recovery Storage Group has been removed from the Microsoft famous email server starting from the 2010 version.
Anyway, if you are sticking with a previous release then I believe you should - at least - know something about recovering mailboxes from a backup. In my experience, whenever I knew about a possible disaster recovery solution, the disastrous situations never occurred. It's like a protective talisman!
So, here we are. Read this post and take it as an amulet, protecting you from disastrous situations!
What is the Recovery Storage Group?
The Recovery Storage Group (RSG) is a storage group (!) that can be used to mount a backed-up copy of a mailbox store in your Exchange environment.Typical situation:
1) Your Exchange is working and should continue to work;
2) You need to recover a deleted mailbox or single email;
3) You do have a back-up copy of the mailbox store;
4) You need to recover that back-up and put it in a safe position to extract mails with ExMerge.
Confused? You shouldn't, because the operation is quite easy - even if could be quite time consuming.
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
iPhone & Exchange: the passcode lock
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The perfect scenario! Your boss has just received his new iPhone 4. He is quite proud of it - and maybe a little bit scared due to his age - and he starts playing around with it. Since you are the ITC manager, it is quite clear that this means troubles. Yes, the damn phone is great - you have one yourself - however you perfectly know that such a piece of technology in the hands of a person who barely uses the basic functions of a pc (and that's troubles, you already know) is a problem. So, you slowly walk towards your miserable fate.
Now, after playing with his new toy a while, your boss asks for emails on the iPhone. No problem. You set up the Exchange account on the shiny new piece of technology easily and professionally in just a few clicks.
Happy and satisfied, you return to your beloved world - a.k.a. your desk with your stuff!
Just a few moments later, your boss comes back saying that the iPhone is not working. That is the usual problem: whenever something is not doing whatever a user expects, the technology behind it (either software or hardware) is inevitably broken. That is what I personally hear every day.
"Marco, my computer is not working."
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Can't send an email..."
"Please, explain what is happening..."
"I send it, and I receive a message back"
"Ok, what's the message?"
"I don't know. I haven't got the time to read it..."
"......"
"... but it says something about wrong mailbox ... I don't know ... Would you come over and see?"
The perfect scenario! Your boss has just received his new iPhone 4. He is quite proud of it - and maybe a little bit scared due to his age - and he starts playing around with it. Since you are the ITC manager, it is quite clear that this means troubles. Yes, the damn phone is great - you have one yourself - however you perfectly know that such a piece of technology in the hands of a person who barely uses the basic functions of a pc (and that's troubles, you already know) is a problem. So, you slowly walk towards your miserable fate.
Now, after playing with his new toy a while, your boss asks for emails on the iPhone. No problem. You set up the Exchange account on the shiny new piece of technology easily and professionally in just a few clicks.
Happy and satisfied, you return to your beloved world - a.k.a. your desk with your stuff!
Just a few moments later, your boss comes back saying that the iPhone is not working. That is the usual problem: whenever something is not doing whatever a user expects, the technology behind it (either software or hardware) is inevitably broken. That is what I personally hear every day.
"Marco, my computer is not working."
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Can't send an email..."
"Please, explain what is happening..."
"I send it, and I receive a message back"
"Ok, what's the message?"
"I don't know. I haven't got the time to read it..."
"......"
"... but it says something about wrong mailbox ... I don't know ... Would you come over and see?"
Friday, 22 October 2010
Exchange: Me, my iPhone and Ms Exchange
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I've always thought that mobile phones should be made to make phone calls. Period. Then a good friend of mine has bought an iPhone 4 and gracefully decided to give his old 3G to me. I must admit, the iPhone is really a great toy! I started immediately to play with it and, considering that the user manual is very limited, the phone is really easy to use. The GUI is intuitive and clear. Everything is at hand and iTunes has loads and loads of apps.
I understand that these are well known characteristics, and that there are many blogs, forums and websites talking about it, but here I want to share the experience I had with the iPhone's mail handling and an in-house Exchange Server 2003.
I've always thought that mobile phones should be made to make phone calls. Period. Then a good friend of mine has bought an iPhone 4 and gracefully decided to give his old 3G to me. I must admit, the iPhone is really a great toy! I started immediately to play with it and, considering that the user manual is very limited, the phone is really easy to use. The GUI is intuitive and clear. Everything is at hand and iTunes has loads and loads of apps.
I understand that these are well known characteristics, and that there are many blogs, forums and websites talking about it, but here I want to share the experience I had with the iPhone's mail handling and an in-house Exchange Server 2003.
Monday, 20 September 2010
Exchange server: ExMerge
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When dealing with Ms Exchange Server, you don't always find a ready solution to problems. One of the most useful application you might need is ExMerge (Microsoft Exchange Server Mailbox Merge Wizard).
ExMerge is a small program that you might not use for months, but it's worth knowing how to use it before things go wrong.
It can extract data from mailboxes on your server for backup or maintenance purposes. I actually use it when someone leaves the company: after a while, I extract all the mailbox folders and save them as a .pst file, then delete all the items and close the user account.
When dealing with Ms Exchange Server, you don't always find a ready solution to problems. One of the most useful application you might need is ExMerge (Microsoft Exchange Server Mailbox Merge Wizard).
ExMerge is a small program that you might not use for months, but it's worth knowing how to use it before things go wrong.
It can extract data from mailboxes on your server for backup or maintenance purposes. I actually use it when someone leaves the company: after a while, I extract all the mailbox folders and save them as a .pst file, then delete all the items and close the user account.
Thursday, 15 July 2010
Outlook Web Access and Outlook 2003
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This is an issue I resolved today, and it took quite a lot. Probably I am really a nerd when talking about Exchange Server and Outlook Web Access, but I had to bang my head against the pc screen more than usual before getting to any result.
What was I trying to do?
The General Manager wants to receive and send emails when he's in office, when he's at home, when he's abroad... basically he wants to be always connected to our Exchange Server (why not use a BlackBerry? Mystery...). It was a battle in the past months in order to let him try Outlook Web Access. A battle I said. Possibly a struggle, because problems were hiding everywhere: the OWA interface is slow, the address book is not working like the one in Outlook, and other trivial things.
This is an issue I resolved today, and it took quite a lot. Probably I am really a nerd when talking about Exchange Server and Outlook Web Access, but I had to bang my head against the pc screen more than usual before getting to any result.
What was I trying to do?
The General Manager wants to receive and send emails when he's in office, when he's at home, when he's abroad... basically he wants to be always connected to our Exchange Server (why not use a BlackBerry? Mystery...). It was a battle in the past months in order to let him try Outlook Web Access. A battle I said. Possibly a struggle, because problems were hiding everywhere: the OWA interface is slow, the address book is not working like the one in Outlook, and other trivial things.
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