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Exchange December 2019 Updates

December 22, 2019 By Gareth Gudger 2 Comments

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This week was a big week for Exchange. Microsoft released its fourth cumulative update for Exchange 2019 as well as a cumulative update for Exchange 2016. At the time of writing, there is no cumulative update for Exchange 2013.

As always, test these updates in a lab first! I recommend checking out this 7-part guide on configuring Exchange in your lab. It doesn’t take much to get one going.

The updates are as follows:

Exchange 2019 Cumulative Update 4 (VLSC)| KB4522149

Exchange 2016 Cumulative Update 1 5 | KB4522150 | UM Language Pack

Exchange 2010 support extended

Back in September, the Exchange Team announced that is was extending support for Exchange 2010 by nine months. Exchange 2010 now shares the same end-of-life date as Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010, which is October 13th, 2020.

While this extension allows for a little more breathing room, it does not extend support for Windows Server 2008 R2, which is the underlying operating system for many Exchange 2010 installations. Server 2008 R2 will still go end of life on January 14th, 2020.

The Exchange Team has provided this extension to allow companies more time to migrate to a newer email platform, such as Office 365, or, Exchange 2016.

Unfortunately, there is no direct path to Exchange 2019 from 2010. If you do plan to stay on-prem, you will need to migrate to either 2013 or 2016 (I’d recommend 2016 as 2013 is now in extended support). From there you can migrate to 2019.

For more information on migrating from Exchange 2010 to 2016, check out this recent blog article from the Exchange Team: Exchange On-Premises Best Practices for Migrations from 2010 to 2016

So, what’s new in these Cumulative Updates?

In this series of cumulative updates, Microsoft has resolved a number of security and non-security issues. You can read more about those in KBs 4522149 and 4522150.

Most notably this fixes an issue I had run into myself in both Exchange 2016 CU13 and CU14. The issue was after running the Hybrid Configuration Wizard you could no longer modify the Outbound to Office 365 send connector if your source servers were Edge Transport servers.

Attempting any modifications to the send connector would result in the errors: Error 0x5 (Access is denied) from cli_GetCertificate or Error 0x6ba (The RPC server is unavailable) from cli_GetCertificate. This error was caused because the Exchange organization was attempting to access the certificates on the Edge Transport servers. I can confirm CU15 resolved this error for me.

Error 0x5 Access is denied from cli_GetCertificate Exchange 2016 Edge Transport

Note: Error 0x5 (Access is denied) from cli_GetCertificate was also reported in Exchange 2019 CU2 and CU3. It has been resolved in CU4.

[Read more…]

Missing Address Lists in Exchange

December 18, 2019 By Gareth Gudger Leave a Comment

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Ran into a strange issue recently where all the default address lists were missing in Exchange. Running a Get-AddressList in the Exchange Management Shell returned zero results. The address lists were also absent in the Exchange Admin Center as well.

When we attempted to recreate the missing address lists using the same name (for example, “All Users”) we received an error that the address list already existed.

 C:\> New-AddressList "All Users" -Included Recipients MailboxUsers
Active Directory operation failed on dc1.skaro.local. The object 'CN=All Users,CN=All Address Lists,CN=Address Lists Container,CN=SKARO,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=skaro,DC=local' already exists.
+CategoryInfo : Not specified (0:Int32) [New-AddressList], ADObjectAlreadyExistsException

If we attempted to modify this address list (or remove it) it reported it could not be found.

 C:\> Set-AddressList "All Users" -Included Recipients MailboxUsers
The operation couldn't be performed because object 'All Users' couldn't be found on 'dc1.skaro.local'.

Similarly, if we tried to create a brand new address list that we knew never existed in the environment previously this also failed.

 C:\> New-AddressList "Brand New List" -Included Recipients MailboxUsers
The operation couldn't be performed because object 'CN=Brand New List,CN=All Address Lists,CN=Address Lists Container,CN=SKARO,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=skaro,DC=local' couldn't be found on 'dc1.skaro.local'.

These address lists were also missing when we used ADSI Edit to examine the Address Lists Container.

[Read more…]

MSExchangeFrontEndTransport – The address is already in use

November 10, 2019 By Gareth Gudger Leave a Comment

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I recently ran into an issue where the Microsoft Exchange FrontEnd Transport service refused to stay started. As a result, no external mail was being delivered to the Exchange server.

From the Services app, I could start the service, but it would stop within a couple of seconds.

MSExchangeFrontEndTransport starts and then stops

When reviewing the Application logs in the Event Viewer I ran into a few separate errors with a source of MSExchangeFrontEndTransport. The first error was merely a symptom of a broken Front End Transport and not the root cause. We ignored this one and moved on.

Inbound direct trust authentication failed for certificate %1. The source IP address of the server that tried to authenticate to Microsoft Exchange is [%2]. Make sure EdgeSync is running properly.

MSExchangeFrontEndTransport 1036 Application

The second error gave us the clue we needed. This error indicated something else was already listening to port 25.

The address is already in use. Binding: 0.0.0.0:25.

[Read more…]

Error ‘MSExchangeHM failed to stop’ when installing Exchange updates

November 3, 2019 By Gareth Gudger Leave a Comment

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When installing an Exchange update you may run into the error; Service: MSExchangeHM failed to stop.

Exchange 2019 CU1 MSExchangeHM Failed to Stop

[ERROR] The following error was generated when "$error.Clear(); 
& $RoleBinPath\ServiceControl.ps1 -Operation:DisableServices -Roles
($RoleRoles.Replace('Role','').Split(',')) -SetupScriptsDirectory:$RoleBinPath;
& $RoleBinPath\ServiceControl.ps1 -Operation:Stop -Roles:
($RoleRoles.Replace('Role','').Split(',')) -IsDatacenter:([bool]$RoleIsDatacenter)" was run:
"Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.Tasks.ServiceStopFailureException: 
 Service 'MSExchangeHM' failed to stop due to error:'Cannot stop MSExchangeHM service on computer '.'.'. 
---> System.InvalidOperationException:  Cannot stop MSExchangeHM service on computer  '.'. 
---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception:  The service has not been started   
    --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
    at System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController.Stop()

The MSExchangeHM service is part of the Managed Availability feature in Exchange. Managed Availability performs monitoring and self-healing to ensure Exchange stays up and running. This is a service you want to ensure stays running during normal operation, but in this particular scenario, we need to terminate the service so our cumulative update can complete.

[Read more…]

Secure files in OneDrive Personal Vault

October 13, 2019 By Gareth Gudger Leave a Comment

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Microsoft recently released a new feature in OneDrive Consumer called Personal Vault.

Personal Vault adds a layer of security within OneDrive. This means if anyone gains access to your OneDrive (for example, by circumventing your device’s security), they still need to authenticate to get access to the Vault.

This makes the Personal Vault great for securing those critically confidential files, such as a scan of your Passport, Driver’s license, or, Tax ID card.

Personal Vault is available anywhere OneDrive is available. In this article, we explore setting up Vault for the first time and accessing Vault from desktop, mobile, and web.

Note: Free OneDrive plans (like those through Outlook.com) are limited to 3 files in the Vault. Office 365 for Home or Personal does not have this limitation.

Setting up OneDrive Personal Vault on mobile

From your mobile device, open your OneDrive app and select the Files tab. You should see a new folder called Personal Vault.

The first time you open Vault, it will walk you through a setup wizard. Click Personal Vault.

The first screen will give you an overview of the Personal Vault. Click Continue. You will then be asked to verify your identity. Click Verify Identity.

Note: The identity verification process will vary based on the mobile device you own and the security you set up with your Microsoft account. For example, you may be required to enter a code from a text or authenticator app.

[Read more…]

Exchange September 2019 Updates

September 22, 2019 By Gareth Gudger Leave a Comment

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This week was a big week for Exchange. Microsoft released its third cumulative update for Exchange 2019 as well as a cumulative update for Exchange 2016. At the time of writing, there is no cumulative update for Exchange 2013.

As always, test these updates in a lab first! I recommend checking out this 7-part guide on configuring Exchange in your lab. It doesn’t take much to get one going.

The updates are as follows:

Exchange 2019 Cumulative Update 3 (VLSC)| KB4514141

Exchange 2016 Cumulative Update 14 | KB4514140 | UM Language Pack

Exchange 2010 SP3 Rollup 29 | KB4509410 (Released in July)

Exchange 2010 support extended

In a recent blog post, the Exchange Team announced that is was extending support for Exchange 2010 by nine months. Exchange 2010 now shares the same end-of-life date as Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010, which is October 13th, 2020.

The Exchange Team has provided this extension to allow companies more time to migrate to a newer email platform, such as Office 365, or, Exchange 2016.

For more information on migrating from Exchange 2010 to 2016, check out this recent blog article from the Exchange Team: Exchange On-Premises Best Practices for Migrations from 2010 to 2016

So, what’s new in these Cumulative Updates?

In this series of cumulative updates, Microsoft has resolved a number of security and non-security issues. You can read more about those in KBs 4514141 and 4514140. In addition, this set of cumulative updates addresses changes to daylight savings.

[Read more…]

Dark Mode Compilation

September 15, 2019 By Gareth Gudger Leave a Comment

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I have always been a big fan of dark mode for any application as I spend more hours than I care to admit at my computer, so eye strain is always a concern.

Dark mode lets us protect our eyeballs from the harsh glare of a white screen, and it may just conserve a little more battery life on our mobile devices.

The articles below are a compilation of tutorials with easy to follow steps on setting a dark theme in your favorite app.

Outlook Mobile

In this article, we explore how to enable dark mode in Outlook Mobile. Read more…

Outlook on Windows Black Theme Thumbnail

Outlook Desktop

In this article, we explore the dark theme in Outlook Desktop. We also explore how to turn the lights on and off temporarily and permanently in the reading and composition panes. Read more…

Outlook on the Web

In this article, we explore dark mode in Outlook on the Web (OWA). We also explore how to turn the lights on and off in the reading and composition panes. Read more…

Teams Mobile

In this article, we explore how to enable dark mode in Microsoft Teams mobile. Read more…

Teams Desktop

In this article, we explore setting Microsoft Teams to a dark theme. Read more…

Windows 10

In this article, we explore how to set Windows 10 to a dark theme. This includes changing Windows Explorer to dark mode. Read more…

Which app do you prefer in dark mode? Is there an app I should add to the list? Drop a comment below or join the conversation on Twitter @SuperTekBoy.

Enabling Dark Mode in Outlook Mobile

September 12, 2019 By Gareth Gudger Leave a Comment

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If you are like me and like to work on a mobile device at night, or, just work with the lights off, then dark mode is for you. I find a dark theme helps with eye strain. In addition, many sources also report that a dark color scheme helps conserve battery power on mobile devices.

The mobile client of Outlook has such a mode.

Let’s get started!

Enabling Dark Theme in Outlook Mobile

To enable dark theme in Outlook Mobile, click the Menu button in the top-left and then Settings (represented by a gear icon).

From the Settings page scroll down to the Preferences section. Click Theme. From the Theme pop-up select Dark.

Note: The Set by Battery Saver mode adjusts between the light and dark themes based on your device’s battery conservation settings. Microsoft states switching to dark mode consumes less device power.

The Preferences section now identifies your theme as Dark. To change to another theme, click Theme again and make a new selection. To revert to the default theme click Light.

Once satisfied, click the back arrow in the top left of the screen. Your inbox will now reflect your current theme. In our screenshot below, our inbox has updated to the dark theme.

[Read more…]

Exchange December 2019 Updates

Exchange 2010 support extended

So, what’s new in these Cumulative Updates?

Missing Address Lists in Exchange

MSExchangeFrontEndTransport – The address is already in use

Error ‘MSExchangeHM failed to stop’ when installing Exchange updates

Secure files in OneDrive Personal Vault

Setting up OneDrive Personal Vault on mobile

Exchange September 2019 Updates

Exchange 2010 support extended

So, what’s new in these Cumulative Updates?

Dark Mode Compilation

Enabling Dark Mode in Outlook Mobile

Enabling Dark Theme in Outlook Mobile

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Exchange 2010 support extended

So, what’s new in these Cumulative Updates?

Setting up OneDrive Personal Vault on mobile

Exchange 2010 support extended

So, what’s new in these Cumulative Updates?

Enabling Dark Theme in Outlook Mobile

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