Manage OWA Signatures Using PowerShell

I recently rediscovered the Set-MailboxMessageConfiguration cmdlet (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd638117.aspx) which can be used with –SignatureHTML or –SignatureText to set a mailbox signature in OWA/ECP. There are plenty of tools out there to do this, my favourite being Exclaimer Signature Manager (http://www.exclaimer.com/products/outlook-email-signatures/outlook-email-signatures.aspx), but hey we can do this for free.

I created a HTML file for each mailbox with the signature and used PowerShell to set them.

$mailboxes = Get-Mailbox
$mailboxes| foreach {$file= "C:\signatures\" + ($_.alias) + ".html"; Set-MailboxMessageConfiguration -identity $_.alias -SignatureHtml "$(Get-Content -Path $file -ReadCount 0)"}

This is useful for me as I have lots of work on with OWA only organisations at the moment. With the Exchange Server 2010 Hosting Edition (multi-tenant) providers may choose to expose Remote PowerShell so a tenant administrator could run this remotely.

I’m planning to expand this further with a simple WYSIWYG editor hosted on SharePoint to allow the Cobweb marketing department to build or upload a template, a service to pull information from AD and update both OWA and Outlook.

It would be cool to see this type functionality making it in to some SharePoint/ECP hybrid in a future Exchange release.

Test-ExchangeUMCallFlow - Unified Messaging Troubleshooting Tool

Microsoft have released the Unified Messaging Troubleshooting Tool which used some new cmdlets to help configure testing and diagnose configuration errors with call answering and voicemail.

Whether the solution is on-premise or cross-premise, use OCS R2 2007 or MCS “14” the cmdlet will emulate and run diagnostic tests in telephone, UM 2010 SP1 and cross-premise deployments. You end up with some useful information in the form of a cause and possible solutions.

Download it here, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=10d2e48f-0846-40b6-b08f-d282309811a2

OCS 2007 R2 July 2010 Cumulative Update

Can you believe July is nearly over? Microsoft have released a wave of OCS 2007 R2 cumulative update packages for OCS Server, Communicator and Group Chat.

OCS 2007 R2 Server
KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968802/

OCS 2007 R2 Database
KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2032834/

Communicator 2007 R2
KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2028888/

Communicator Phone
KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2267962/

Group Chat Server
KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2032881/

Group Chat Client
KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2032922/

Group chat Admin
KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2032949/

Windows Mobile: Activate IRM

Using Windows Mobile Device Center end users can activate Information Rights Management on compatible Windows Mobile devices. Before this can happen a simple change needs to be made.

Go in to: Mobile Device Settings > More > Connection Settings.

Change “This computer is connected to: Work Network”

The Activate IRM action will then work as long as the user can authenticate to the RMS using their domain account from their PC. Upon opening the first IRM message the user will need to authorise against the RMS, so should be connected to corporate Wi-Fi or connected by USB.

Daniel

Hosting Deployment Guide for Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Beta

Microsoft have released the Hosting Deployment Guide for Exchange Server 2010 SP1 which is the first of many services to break away from the HMC and MPS deployment and provisioning model. Multi-tenant capabilities are now built directly in to AD and Exchange, although there are some limitations such as the removal of public folders and no access to ECP for tenant organisations.

Despite some limitations this is the product many hosters and carriers have been waiting for, as until Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Microsoft have not provided guidance or support for multi-tenant Exchange Server 2010. The really good news for me is this opens up the doors to more complex cross-premise deployments where the customer has Exchange in-house and in the Cloud(s).

A couple of warnings about the /hosting install. 1. You must deploy in a new forest where Exchange Server has not been installed previously. 2. There is no GUI for /hosting you must install form command line using setup.com /hosting and manage the service through Powershell. This makes sense as the current Exchange GUI won’t display multi-tenant organisations in a hierarchy and it also prevents simple changes being made outside of automated provisioning 3. Resource forest type scenarios still has limitations.

If you are interested head to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a0965fc9-2723-4947-ae6b-74bc3808e72a&displaylang=en to download SP1, remember to use setup.com /hosting.

While that is installing start reading through the guidance provided here, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=bba88fb5-9d84-475c-85d7-3ffeb308636e.

I have been testing /hosting in the lab for a few months now and we still have a journey to complete before /hosting will make it in to the Cobweb production platform. I imagine we will start to see the hosting editions, lead by BPOS, gaining new and updated features through regular smaller releases.

Happy Hosting

Daniel