Friday, October 22, 2010

Exchange 2010 SP1 Hosted Installation Failure

Those of you have been playing with Exchange 2010 SP1 Hosted version might have run into some issues during the installation process. Having installed different versions Exchange multiple times you could get caught in the repetition trap, where you install Exchange the same way you have for previous versions.

For the Hosted version of Exchange 2010, extra commands are needed for the installation to succeed. To prepare Active Directory for Exchange 2010 hosting, you must run the following command:

 Setup.com /PrepareAD /Hosting

If you forget to add that "/Hosting" entry and continue to the server install with the following command:

Setup.com /Mode:install /Roles:m,ca,ht /Hosting /on:Exch2010

You will get the following error:


Active Directory wasn't prepared using hosting mode.  To install server roles for hosting mode, you need to clean up Active Directory and prepare it again for hosting mode. 


In order to continue with your Hosted Exchange install you must remove a registry key and remove some objects via ADSI Edit. Locate and then select the following subkey in the registry:


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\ExchangeServer\V14

Delete the PARTNERHOSTEDMODE registry key.


Then go into ADSI Edit expand Default naming context, find and then delete the following two objects:

Microsoft Exchange Security Groups
Microsoft Exchange System Objects


Next expand the Configuration container and delete the following two objects:
      
Microsoft Exchange
Microsoft Exchange Autodiscover


Now you can go back, run the PrepareAD command with the Hosting switch and then proceed to run your server install. Now you can explore Hosted Exchange

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

SharePoint 2010 PowerPack

Every year Quest Software has a Challenge that allows any member of the general public to create a PowerPack for their application PowerGUI. If you don't know PowerGUI and your in the IT field then you should definitely get acquainted with it. PowerGUI also includes the PowerGUI script editor which is my editor of choice. 

Well, back to the subject, after a couple of years of sitting on the sidelines and watching the PowerPack's and contest unfold, I have decided to participate in this years competition. I have created a PowerPack to help administer and view data for SharePoint 2010. It has been uploaded to the PowerGUI website although it is still a work in progress. So please, download it, play with it, break it, and let me know what you like, dis-like or need added to the PowerPack. 























You can view and download the pack here


http://www.powergui.org/entry.jspa?externalID=3022&categoryID=389