Exchange Server Active Directory Schema Changes Reference, November 2011

Microsoft has published a reference of the Active Directory schema changes made by Exchange Server during installation. 


"The Exchange Server Active Directory Schema Changes Reference includes changes made by Exchange Server 2010 SP2, Exchange Server 2010 SP1, Exchange Server 2010, Exchange Server 2007 SP3, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007, and Exchange Server 2003."

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5401

Maintenance Prep

Being in retail, our company goes into a Q4 "freeze", where systems are locked down and no changes are made during our most critical sales period. I've been using this time to prepare for the next scheduled maintenance window, making lists of servers and what patches and hotfixes need to be applied to them.

A primary goal is to get all of my Exchange 2010 SP1 servers in sync. Those in the main office were in the middle of deployment when the UR4 bug was discovered, and so those have the interim update installed, while those in Australia and Europe, which were installed later, have UR4v2 installed. I was wary of installing UR5 because of the bugs found in UR3 and UR4, so I waited, then UR6 came out just before we locked everything down. Although I got it installed in QA, there wasn't enough time to get comfortable with it prior to the production freeze. After the freeze is lifted, the plan is to get all the servers on UR6, or possibly even SP2 if it's released by that time.

For the CAS/HUB servers in the main office, the steps will be:

1. disable Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange
2. uninstall the UR4 interim update
3. re-enable strong name checking
4. install UR6
5. re-enable Forefront
6. copy our custom OWA graphics to the new folder

For the DAG members:

1. disable Forefront
2. run StartDAGServerMaintenance.ps1
3. uninstall the UR4 interim update
4. re-enable strong name checking
5. install UR6
6. install the cluster hotfix from kb2550886
7. run StopDAGServer Maintenance.ps1
8. re-enable Forefront
9. run RedistributeActiveDatabases.ps1 -BalanceDbsByActivationPreference

That last command is supposed to re-balance the databases according to their activation preference. I've never used that script before. I usually re-balance my databases manually in the EMC, which is very tedious, especially when it tries to refresh the list of servers from all sites. Hopefully, the script will work as expected and simplify the process.

Updating the Australia and Europe servers will be simpler, since they don't have the interim update. However, they still need the cluster and Forefront hotfixes. I've already downloaded and copied the relevant installer files to each machine, so they're ready to go when the time comes. Well, unless SP2 is released before then, which will require testing in QA, and then an update to the maintenance plan. I've heard that SP2 will require a schema update, too, so that'll add another step.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a problem with Forefront Protection for Exchange on the DAG members in the main office, which was randomly crashing, taking down the Information Store with it. An emergency change was authorized, and hotfix rollup 3 was installed on the DAG members only, just to fix the immediate problem. Part of the upcoming maintenance will be to update Forefront on all of the Exchange servers, to get that hotfix installed on all of them, bringing them all up to v11.0.713.0.

I'm much happier when all my servers are in sync. It makes it easier to troubleshoot problems, and easier to explain when I have to call Microsoft for support.

ExPerfWiz - Exchange Performance Wizard

ExPerfWiz is a powershell based script to help automate the collection of performance data on Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 servers.

I just discovered this script yesterday, but haven't had time to play with it. If it's useful in our environment, I'll post a follow-up article with more details.

http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/ExPerfwiz