Exchange Tutorials

One of the great unsung heroes is Log Parser Studio. This utility allows you to easily parse through gigabytes upon gigabytes of IIS logs to find the information you need. Without this tool, this task is tedious in a single Exchange server environment and orders of magnitude worse in Exchange environments with many servers.

Log Parser Studio is great when it comes to migration planning and discovery, and it is a tool I always have in my tool belt. It does not matter if you are migrating to a newer version of Exchange or Office 365; Log Parser Studio can aide in the planning for both scenarios. For discovery, I use it in the following two ways:

• First, is to identify third-party integrations, such as those from a voicemail system, fax solution, or, conference room system
• Second, is to identify all client software connecting to Exchange

With the third-party integrations and clients identified you can then add them to your migration plan and determine the next steps. This could include upgrading legacy Office clients, or, testing the integration of a third-party app against the target system.

Discovery with Log Parser Studio becomes especially useful in environments where Exchange predates the current IT team, or, knowledge and documentation have been lost over time.

In this article, we will explore how to use Log Parser Studio to identify the multitude of client software and third-party integrations.

Let’s get started!

Installing Log Parser Studio

Log Parser Studio comes in two downloads. The first is the original command-line utility known as Log Parser. The second is Log Parser Studio which was later developed to give a GUI to that command-line. We will need to download both components for this process.

• Log Parser 2.2
• Log Parser Studio

Tip: I recommend installing Log Parser on a workstation and not directly on an Exchange server. That way we avoid adding unnecessary CPU cycles to the Exchange server.

First, we need to install Log Parser 2.2. Double-click on the LogParser.msi. On the installation screen, click Next. Accept the license agreement and click Next. On the Choose Setup Type screen click Complete. Click Install. After the install completes, click Finish.

Next, we need to install Log Parser Studio. Unzip the file LPSV2.D2.zip (I recommend unzipping this to your desktop). Open the newly created LPSV2.D2 folder and launch LPS.EXE.

This will launch Log Parser Studio.

Adding an external sender notification to the top of an email is an important distinction for many companies. This disclaimer quickly identifies to its end users when a message is sourced from an external sender. This eliminates the guesswork for internal users, helping them to identify potential phishing attacks but also a great reminder when it comes to data loss prevention as they reply.

Companies approach this disclaimer in many different ways. Two common examples are a disclaimer prepended at the top of the email, or, adding a keyword in the message subject.

Thankfully, adding this is a simple process in Office 365 (and also Exchange on-premises – the instructions are identical).

For this article, our example company, Time Travel Research, wishes that all inbound email from external senders is prepended with a disclaimer stating the sender is external to the organization. Time Travel Research wants to ensure that every instance of an external email, even those in the same email chain, is prepended with this disclaimer.

Let’s get started!

Add an external sender disclaimer to all inbound email

Log in to the Exchange Admin Center. Once logged in, navigate to Mail Flow >> Rules. Click the New () button.

From the drop-down menu, you will notice several choices. These choices are predefined rule templates. We will create a rule from scratch. Select Create a new rule.

The Exchange Team has announced the general availability of the Exchange Online PowerShell Module in Azure Cloud Shell.

Azure Cloud Shell is a web-based version of PowerShell that can be launched from within any web browser by navigating to shell.azure.com, or, clicking the PowerShell icon in the Azure portal (portal.azure.com).

In this article, we will explore how to initially configure Azure Cloud Shell, cover the basics of the interface, connect to Exchange Online, and perform some basic Cloud Shell tasks, such as managing files and running some Exchange cmdlets.

Let’s get started!

Running the Azure Cloud Shell for the first time

To get started with Azure Cloud Shell you can either navigate to shell.azure.com or, click the PowerShell icon in the Azure Portal. The icon is at the top of the screen, to the right of the search box (pictured in the screenshot below)

The first time you open Cloud Shell you will be asked if you want to connect to PowerShell or Bash. Click PowerShell.

You will then be prompted to create storage for use with Cloud Shell. You will be given a drop down of all your available Azure subscriptions. Pick an Azure subscription with active credit and click Create Storage.

One of the best-kept secrets in the hybrid configuration wizard (“HCW”)
 is the F12 easter-egg. Jeff Kizner demonstrated this feature during his Ignite session back in September.

Tip: For a break down of Jeff’s session, with notes and timers, I highly recommend checking out 15 Ignite sessions every Exchange admin should see.

If you press F12 this enables a new section called Diagnostic Tools. This section provides shortcuts to the following tools or folders.

• Open Exchange Management Shell opens a remote PowerShell session to your on-premises Exchange servers.
• Open Exchange Online PowerShell opens a PowerShell connection to Exchange Online. This supports MFA-enabled admin accounts.
• Open Log File opens the active HCW log file in Notepad. The logs are stored in the profile of the user running the HCW. For example, C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Exchange Hybrid Configuration
• Create Support Package will combine your HCW log files into a single ZIP file which can easily be sent to Microsoft support. This link actually opens a second screen where you can specify to ZIP logs from the last 24 hours, or, between a certain date range. You then have the option to copy the file to the clipboard so it can be easily attached to an email.
• Open Logging Folder opens the folder location of the HCW logs. 
  The HCW logs are stored in the profile of the user running the HCW. For example, C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Exchange Hybrid Configuration
• Open Process Folder opens a Command Prompt to the HCW process directory.

Pressing F12 a second time will hide these tools.

What do you think about this easter-egg? Have you run into any cool easter-eggs in other Microsoft products? Drop a comment below or join the conversation on Twitter

When a company has implemented Exchange hybrid and has moved some or all their users to Office 365, the question “How do I create a mailbox in Office 365?” frequently comes up.

In this article, we explore how to create a mailbox in Exchange Online when directory synchronization is in place. For this article, we will explore this process using Exchange 2016. We will look at how to complete this task with the GUI and PowerShell. Note that these steps are identical for Exchange 2013.

Using the Exchange Admin Center

This is the simplest and quickest way to create a mailbox in Office 365. The drawback of this solution is that it only allows you to create an entirely new Active Directory user. A preexisting user without a mailbox cannot be enabled for an Office 365 mailbox using the GUI. To grant an existing user an Office 365 mailbox you will need to use PowerShell. Alternatively, that user could be given an on-prem mailbox and then move that mailbox to Office 365.

If your current process is to create a new account in Active Directory first and then enable the mailbox in Exchange second, I would recommend reversing these steps. Using the method below allows you to create a basic user in Active Directory with a mailbox in Office 365. Then you can go back into Active Directory to make any additional changes to the new account, such as group memberships.

For our example, we are going to create a new user called Wilfred Mott who will have a mailbox in Office 365. Wilfred does not currently have a user account in Active Directory so we can use this method. Wilfred’s email will be wilfred.mott@exchangeservergeek.com.

From your on-premises Exchange 2016 server, log into the Exchange Admin Center. Select the Recipients tab and Mailboxes sub-tab. Click the New (plus sign) and select Office 365 mailbox.

Note: If you do not see this option you may be missing the required RBAC permissions, or, there is an issue with your hybrid configuration.

Selecting this option walks you through the process of creating a remote mailbox in Office 365. The benefit here is that you do not need to migrate the mailbox after it is created as it already exists as an object in the cloud. Keep in mind that you will not see this mailbox in the Office 365 tenant until directory synchronization has run.