Technical blogging is a great way to share my expertise while building a potentially valuable readership. Imagination & Innovation is more important than knowledge.
A very common scenario for Exchange Server 2013 administrators is the need to allow applications and devices on the network to use the Exchange server as an SMTP service.
There are generally two specific business requirements:
Internal SMTP relay – the ability to make an SMTP connection to an Exchange 2013 server and send email to recipients that are internal to the organization (for example, a “scan to email” feature on a multi-function print device)
External SMTP relay – the ability to make an SMTP connection to an Exchange 2013 server and send email to recipients that are outside the organization (for example, applications or hardware that sends automated reports or alerts to external vendors or consultants)
Practice as many questions as you can prior to sitting your
assessment. This will enable you to familiarize yourself with the
typical format of the questions and the type of responses that are
required.
Review the answers to the practice questions you sit. All good
situational judgement test practice questions will come with detailed
solutions. While it’s tempting to sit the test review your score and
then move onto the next one reviewing solutions is the best way to
learn. With all psychometric tests you will learn more from the
questions you get wrong than the ones you get right.
Try to identify patterns in your responses. Are you a team player
who likes to ask everyone’s opinion before making a decision or are you a
leader who makes decisions with conviction but fails to get everyone’s
buy in first? These are the types of personality traits situational
judgement tests are designed to assess so by practicing questions in
advance you can learn valuable lessons and avoid making any obvious
errors in your real assessment.
Only practice situational judgement questions that have been written
by qualified chartered occupational psychologists. Chartered
occupational psychologists write the real tests for the major test
publishers. By practicing questions written by these experts you will
gain real insight into what your real assessment will be like.
Practicing questions written by standard authors is not recommended.
All the situational judgement test questions on
practiceaptitudetests.com have been written by chartered occupational
psychologists so you can rest assured you are getting good quality
practice.
Think carefully about the company and role you are applying for and
what sort of person they are likely to want to hire. Situational
judgement tests are generally tailored to the organisation you are
applying to so thinking about what sort of people they are likely to be
looking to employ can help you understand why they are asking certain
questions. For example if you are applying to an audit firm and they
asking questions about teamwork it’s probably because auditors work in
teams and they will want to hire candidates who demonstrate teamwork
skills.
Be yourself. Psychometric tests are a two way process. The company
hiring you wants to ensure you’ll be a good fit as much as you want to
ensure you’ll enjoy working there. It’s important to answer questions
honestly and not to get ‘in character’ for a particular application.
Stick to your timings. At the start of your assessment work out how
many questions you have to sit and how long you have to answer each
one. Don’t spend too long on any one question. This avoids rushing at
the end.
Speak to the HR department of the company you are applying to. They
might be able to direct you towards some example questions so you can
see what formant your real assessment will be in.
Practice situational judgement test questions in different formats.
At practice aptitude tests.com you can practice situational judgment test
questions in the standard format on our situational judgement test
page, and you can practice additional questions in our etray.
Practicing in different formats means you’ll be more prepared for the
real thing and won’t be as put off by any surprises on the day. Our
bundle package gives access to both the etray and the situational
judgement tests.
Practice, practice, practice. There is no substitute for practicing
questions, use your limited revision time effectively, purchase our
bundle package and get started with your effective targeted preparation
now.
A variety of issues can cause Outlook to freeze when forwarding email, including a bug within the software, a conflicting program or add-on, a corrupted email archive or a problem with the individual message itself (more likely if you are only having problems forwarding one email in particular). Make sure you have installed the latest updates for Outlook before attempting any other troubleshooting steps.
Program Bug If part of Outlook's program code has become corrupted or developed a fault, this can cause freezing issues. Downloading and installing the latest updates from the Office website, or uninstalling and reinstalling Outlook from scratch, should be enough to resolve this issue. Uninstalling and reinstalling Outlook shouldn't affect the messages in your email archive, though it's always wise to make backups in case (or connect to a Web service such as Outlook.com via IMAP). The process should reset Outlook's settings and entries in the Windows registry settings file, too.
Corrupted Data If Outlook comes across a corrupted piece of data that it can't parse -- whether in your user profile, the email archive or the folder you're viewing -- this can cause a hang. Running the Inbox Repair tool (the scanpst.exe file in the Outlook installation folder) or the Fixit tool from the Microsoft Support website may be enough to resolve the issue. Alternatively, you can try creating a new user profile from the Account Settings dialog (choose "File" then "Info" from inside Outlook). Reducing the size of your inbox by moving messages into smaller folders can also help.
Related Reading: Outlook Freezes When Typing
Conflicting Program or Add-on An Outlook add-on or third-party program can be causing the freezing issue. For example, your security software may be attempting (and failing) to scan the outgoing email for potential threats as you try and forward it. Check that your installed security tools are up-to-date, and look within these programs for options related to email scanning and checking. You may need to disable certain settings for the email to be successfully sent. The list of current add-ins can be viewed by selecting "File," "Options" and then "Add-Ins" from within the software. From the same dialog, you can disable these plugins one by one to see if the problem is resolved.
Other Issues It's possible that something within the email itself is causing the freezing issue, particularly if you only have trouble with one or two specific messages. Converting your message to plain text before forwarding it (via the "Plain Text" option under the Format Text heading on the message window) may help by eliminating images and other interactive elements from the email. Removing and re-adding the email account you're using (via the "Info" tab on the File menu) or creating a new user account within Windows can also help to resolve problems with Outlook freezing.
VM Types Explained One of the first decisions in SAN storage provisioning is making the LUN decision: determining what RAID level for the LUN based on the application I/O profile to provision a physical LUN to ESXi. This task is usually done based on prior experience with the application or some help from vendor’s best practice guide. The next step is to choose a suitable virtual disk format for VM’s virtual disk. Here are three formats of virtual disks: Thin: In thin provisioned disks, the size of the VMDK (at any point in time) is as much as the amount of data written out from the VM. So if you provision a 1 TB virtual drive and the VM only wrote 200GB then the size of the vmdk on disk is 200GB. The key thing to note is that the storage is zeroed on demand and data written out. Lazy Zero Thick (aka Flat): In Flat or Lazy Zero Thick format, the VMDK is provisioned and whenever a guest issues a write it is zeroed first and then the data is written. The size of the VMDK on the datastore is same as the size of the virtual disk that was created. Eager Zero Thick: With Eager Zero Thick, the VMDK is pre-zeroed and assigned to the guest during provisioning of the VMFS volume.
Have you ever provisioned a new virtual machine in vSphere, put it in production, and discovered belatedly that you mistakenly used “thin provisioned” virtual disks? This can often happen when deploying from a template which was thin provisioned since the default option is to use the same disk format as the source. Good news! It is quite easy to convert these to thick with the vSphere client and your mouse.
No command line required, as was the case with previous versions of VMware Infrastructure. The only downside is that the virtual machine must be shut down prior to inflating its disk(s).
1. Launch your vSphere client and log in to your vCenter server.
2. Select the virtual machine which has mistakenly been thin provisioned.
3. Select the option to “Shut Down Guest” under Commands. This is a necessary step. If your virtual machine is in production, you will have to schedule some downtime.
4. Right-click the virtual machine and select the Snapshot menu. If you see the option to “Revert to snapshot”, it means that you have at least one snapshot of this virtual machine. I highly recommend that you remove all snapshots by opening Snapshot Manager and selecting Delete All. Please keep in mind that this has its own implications so please understand them before continuing.
4. Look at the Datastore list on the right to see what Datastores your virtual machine is using. Note the free space listed – you must have enough free space to allow the disks to expand to their “provisioned” size or you will cause yourself quite a headache!
5. Now right-click the Datastore and select “Browse Datastore…”
6. Select the folder for your virtual machine on the left, and the contents will show on the right.
7. Look for the file(s) ending in the “.vmdk” extension. These will be labeled “Virtual Disk” under the “Type” header. Note the “Provisioned Size” header and make sure that you have enough free space in this datastore to support your virtual disk(s) growing to consume this space.
8. Finally, to inflate your virtual machine’s disk you simply right-click the .vmdk and select “Inflate”. Depending on the size of the disk and your underlying storage architecture, this may take quite some time.
9. If the virtual machine has more than one virtual disk that needs to be inflated simply repeat step 8.
10. When complete, the inflated virtual disk will be “eager zeroed thick”, which is the highest performing type of virtual disk in vSphere land.
Resolution 1. Try this at an elevated command-prompt: netsh winhttp import proxy source=ie
Everything should now work and be nice and fast, as expected. ---------------------------------------------------- Resolution 2.
Open a Command Prompt. Click Start > Run and type “cmd” then hit “OK” Type “net stop wuauserv”. This shuts down the windows update service so you can delete the files. Still on the Command Prompt, type “cd /d %windir%” Type “rd /s SoftwareDistribution” Type “net start wuauserv” to restart the service then check for updates as normal -----------------------------------------------------
Resolution3. Disable your Antivirus security software / Firewall To do this, right click on your antivirus program in taskbar Click on Disable product protection or a similar looking button Disabling non-Microsoft services temporarily Press Windows Logo key + R to open run Type msconfig Go to the services tab Click on Hide all Microsoft Services
We can either use a new Group Policy Object or edit excising one.
In this case I’ll edit existing one, to start open the GPO -> User Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Right Click on software Restriction Policy and Select Create new Software Restriction Policy.
Once created, Right Click on Additional Rules -> New Path Rule
I do a lot of work with Firefox, as its developer tools outshine all the other browsers, hands down. But recently I’ve been getting a lot of sites appearing without CSS. As it turns out, there’s actually “mixed content” on the page, and the default security setting is to block that content. Normally I agree with security settings in general, but I know what I’m doing, and this is just a massive annoyance. There are ways around this though.
1) You can add the toggle mixed content add-on from here https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/toggle-mixed-active-content/
2) However, my preferred method is to disable the feature in the browser by doing the following.
Enter about:config into the Firefox address bar (confirm the info message in case it shows up) & search for the preference named security.mixed_content.block_active_content. Double-click it and change its value to false.
After this, you’ll be browsing without that annoying security blockage, and everything will feel back to normal.
As an Exchange Administrator, I'm always excited by changes in Microsoft Exchange's architecture and capabilities. And there are plenty of changes in the forthcoming Exchange 2013 you may have missed, given all the attention on Windows 8, Office 2013, and Windows Server 2012.
Power of PowerShell IFW Deep Dive promo
The essential guide to PowerShell for Windows, Windows Server, and Exchange
Make the most of Microsoft’s command line by mastering the nuances of the PowerShell language
Read Now
Here is what Exchange admins can expect from Exchange 2013, based on its preview version:
[ Get the details on what's new in Windows Server 2012. | Stay abreast of key Microsoft technologies in our Technology: Microsoft newsletter. ]
Exchange Administration Center: The EAC brings to mind the quote, "You're riding it, dude!" Yes, I cannot help but think of the line from "Finding Nemo" whenever I think of the new admin console for Exchange. But seriously, the GUI-based EMC (Exchange Management Console) and the Web-based ECP (Exchange Control Panel) are being replaced by a single Web-based UI that is, frankly, my least favorite of all the new Exchange 2013 features. I don't like Web-based consoles for administration; they always feel clunky and unfriendly. Plus, it has that Metro look, which leaves me cold. We'll see if I can get used to it.
Exchange architecture revisions: Exchange 2007 and 2010 are broken into five server roles, mainly to address performance issues like CPU performance, which would suffer if Exchange were running as one monolothic application. But Microsoft has made progress on the performance side, so Exchange 2013 has just two roles: Client Access server role and Mailbox server role. The Mailbox server role includes all the typical server components (including unified messaging), and the Client Access server role handles all the authentication, redirection, and proxy services. You can deploy Exchange 2013 with an Exchange 2010 Edge Transport server role but a 2013 Edge role is planned post-RTM.
A new managed store: The store service has been completely rewritten in managed code (C#). Although this change bodes well in terms of higher availability and resiliency, it doesn't mean the ESE (Extensible Storage Engine) database engine has been replaced with SQL, as many admins would like. Exchange 2013 continues to use ESE as the database engine. But now each database runs in its own dedicated worker process, so a hung process in one database will not cause problems in other databases. Fast Search (an add-on to SharePoint 2010) is also integrated into the managed store for improved search and indexing.
Modern public folders: Rather than just getting rid of public folders (something promised for future releases), Microsoft has embraced them once again. They are no longer managed through the separate Public Folder Management Console; instead, they are managed via the EAC. That makes them public folder mailboxes, which means they use regular mailbox databases. In turn, this means they can be made part of a database availability group for disaster recovery.
Lots o' PowerShell cmdlets: Although 13 cmdlets have been removed (many having to do with the old public folder management), Exchange 2013 brims with 187 new PowerShell cmdlets. That may not be the final tally when the final version ships next year, but it shows that command-line management tools are still growing. I wasn't kidding years back when I told everyone to learn PowerShell. It's not going away.
Exchange Administration Center: The EAC
brings to mind the quote, "You're riding it, dude!" Yes, I cannot help
but think of the line from "Finding Nemo" whenever I think of the new
admin console for Exchange. But seriously, the GUI-based EMC (Exchange
Management Console) and the Web-based ECP (Exchange Control Panel) are
being replaced by a single Web-based UI that is, frankly, my least
favorite of all the new Exchange 2013 features. I don't like Web-based
consoles for administration; they always feel clunky and unfriendly.
Plus, it has that Metro look, which leaves me cold. We'll see if I can
get used to it.
Exchange architecture revisions:
Exchange 2007 and 2010 are broken into five server roles, mainly to
address performance issues like CPU performance, which would suffer if
Exchange were running as one monolothic application. But Microsoft has
made progress on the performance side, so Exchange 2013 has just two
roles: Client Access server role and Mailbox server role. The Mailbox
server role includes all the typical server components (including
unified messaging), and the Client Access server role handles all the
authentication, redirection, and proxy services. You can deploy Exchange
2013 with an Exchange 2010 Edge Transport server role but a 2013 Edge
role is planned post-RTM.A new managed store:
The store service has been completely rewritten in managed code (C#).
Although this change bodes well in terms of higher availability and
resiliency, it doesn't mean the ESE (Extensible Storage Engine) database
engine has been replaced with SQL, as many admins would like. Exchange
2013 continues to use ESE as the database engine. But now each database
runs in its own dedicated worker process, so a hung process in one
database will not cause problems in other databases. Fast Search (an add-on to SharePoint 2010) is also integrated into the managed store for improved search and indexing. Modern public folders:
Rather than just getting rid of public folders (something promised for
future releases), Microsoft has embraced them once again. They are no
longer managed through the separate Public Folder Management Console;
instead, they are managed via the EAC. That makes them public folder
mailboxes, which means they use regular mailbox databases. In turn, this
means they can be made part of a database availability group for disaster recovery. Lots o' PowerShell cmdlets: Although 13 cmdlets have been removed (many having to do with the old public folder management), Exchange 2013 brims with 187 new PowerShell cmdlets.
That may not be the final tally when the final version ships next year,
but it shows that command-line management tools are still growing. I
wasn't kidding years back when I told everyone to learn PowerShell. It's not going away.
DLP (data loss prevention): DLP is new in Exchange
2013's transport rules, but it's also a continuation of Mail Tips in
that it warns users when they may be violating policies meant to prevent
disclosure of sensitive data. Such disclosures are usually inadvertent,
so the use of DLP-fired reminders lets users be aware when they are
putting something like a credit card number or Social Security number in
an email. The built-in DLP policies are based on regulatory standards like PCI. Outlook Web App enhancements:
The whole of OWA is redesigned -- yay! One awesome feature is support
for offline access, which lets users write messages in their browser
when offline, then have the messages delivered when they connect to the
Internet. OWA supports this feature in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 10,
Apple's Safari 5, and Google's Chrome 16 (or later), all of which
support the HTML5 local data storage
feature. There's also a new set of UI layouts that users can choose
from for desktop, tablet, and smartphone use -- a smart approach. Built-in antimalware:
Exchange has had antispam capabilities for quite some time; as of
Exchange 2007 you could even choose whether to turn on antispam in the
Edge role or in the Hub Transport role. Exchange 2013 extends antispam
to a broader set of antimalware capabilities, such as to block phishing
attempts. In addition to these highly visible changes, Exchange
2013 will also show improvements in high availability and site
resilience with DAG, as well as in its unified messaging capabilities, but no large overhauls are expected in those areas. For
Exchange admins who work with the GUI management console daily, the
biggest challenge will be the new Web-based UI. But whatever your
feelings are about Web-based consoles, I believe you'll like the overall
changes in Exchange 2013, especially with enhanced integration with
SharePoint and Lync 2013.
As an Exchange Administrator, I'm always excited by changes in Microsoft Exchange's architecture and capabilities. And there are plenty of changes in the forthcoming Exchange 2013 you may have missed, given all the attention on Windows 8, Office 2013, and Windows Server 2012.
Power of PowerShell IFW Deep Dive promo
The essential guide to PowerShell for Windows, Windows Server, and Exchange
Make the most of Microsoft’s command line by mastering the nuances of the PowerShell language
Read Now
Here is what Exchange admins can expect from Exchange 2013, based on its preview version:
[ Get the details on what's new in Windows Server 2012. | Stay abreast of key Microsoft technologies in our Technology: Microsoft newsletter. ]
Exchange Administration Center: The EAC brings to mind the quote, "You're riding it, dude!" Yes, I cannot help but think of the line from "Finding Nemo" whenever I think of the new admin console for Exchange. But seriously, the GUI-based EMC (Exchange Management Console) and the Web-based ECP (Exchange Control Panel) are being replaced by a single Web-based UI that is, frankly, my least favorite of all the new Exchange 2013 features. I don't like Web-based consoles for administration; they always feel clunky and unfriendly. Plus, it has that Metro look, which leaves me cold. We'll see if I can get used to it.
Exchange architecture revisions: Exchange 2007 and 2010 are broken into five server roles, mainly to address performance issues like CPU performance, which would suffer if Exchange were running as one monolothic application. But Microsoft has made progress on the performance side, so Exchange 2013 has just two roles: Client Access server role and Mailbox server role. The Mailbox server role includes all the typical server components (including unified messaging), and the Client Access server role handles all the authentication, redirection, and proxy services. You can deploy Exchange 2013 with an Exchange 2010 Edge Transport server role but a 2013 Edge role is planned post-RTM.
A new managed store: The store service has been completely rewritten in managed code (C#). Although this change bodes well in terms of higher availability and resiliency, it doesn't mean the ESE (Extensible Storage Engine) database engine has been replaced with SQL, as many admins would like. Exchange 2013 continues to use ESE as the database engine. But now each database runs in its own dedicated worker process, so a hung process in one database will not cause problems in other databases. Fast Search (an add-on to SharePoint 2010) is also integrated into the managed store for improved search and indexing.
Modern public folders: Rather than just getting rid of public folders (something promised for future releases), Microsoft has embraced them once again. They are no longer managed through the separate Public Folder Management Console; instead, they are managed via the EAC. That makes them public folder mailboxes, which means they use regular mailbox databases. In turn, this means they can be made part of a database availability group for disaster recovery.
Lots o' PowerShell cmdlets: Although 13 cmdlets have been removed (many having to do with the old public folder management), Exchange 2013 brims with 187 new PowerShell cmdlets. That may not be the final tally when the final version ships next year, but it shows that command-line management tools are still growing. I wasn't kidding years back when I told everyone to learn PowerShell. It's not going away.
Exchange Administration Center: The EAC
brings to mind the quote, "You're riding it, dude!" Yes, I cannot help
but think of the line from "Finding Nemo" whenever I think of the new
admin console for Exchange. But seriously, the GUI-based EMC (Exchange
Management Console) and the Web-based ECP (Exchange Control Panel) are
being replaced by a single Web-based UI that is, frankly, my least
favorite of all the new Exchange 2013 features. I don't like Web-based
consoles for administration; they always feel clunky and unfriendly.
Plus, it has that Metro look, which leaves me cold. We'll see if I can
get used to it.
Exchange architecture revisions:
Exchange 2007 and 2010 are broken into five server roles, mainly to
address performance issues like CPU performance, which would suffer if
Exchange were running as one monolothic application. But Microsoft has
made progress on the performance side, so Exchange 2013 has just two
roles: Client Access server role and Mailbox server role. The Mailbox
server role includes all the typical server components (including
unified messaging), and the Client Access server role handles all the
authentication, redirection, and proxy services. You can deploy Exchange
2013 with an Exchange 2010 Edge Transport server role but a 2013 Edge
role is planned post-RTM.A new managed store:
The store service has been completely rewritten in managed code (C#).
Although this change bodes well in terms of higher availability and
resiliency, it doesn't mean the ESE (Extensible Storage Engine) database
engine has been replaced with SQL, as many admins would like. Exchange
2013 continues to use ESE as the database engine. But now each database
runs in its own dedicated worker process, so a hung process in one
database will not cause problems in other databases. Fast Search (an add-on to SharePoint 2010) is also integrated into the managed store for improved search and indexing. Modern public folders:
Rather than just getting rid of public folders (something promised for
future releases), Microsoft has embraced them once again. They are no
longer managed through the separate Public Folder Management Console;
instead, they are managed via the EAC. That makes them public folder
mailboxes, which means they use regular mailbox databases. In turn, this
means they can be made part of a database availability group for disaster recovery. Lots o' PowerShell cmdlets: Although 13 cmdlets have been removed (many having to do with the old public folder management), Exchange 2013 brims with 187 new PowerShell cmdlets.
That may not be the final tally when the final version ships next year,
but it shows that command-line management tools are still growing. I
wasn't kidding years back when I told everyone to learn PowerShell. It's not going away.
DLP (data loss prevention): DLP is new in Exchange
2013's transport rules, but it's also a continuation of Mail Tips in
that it warns users when they may be violating policies meant to prevent
disclosure of sensitive data. Such disclosures are usually inadvertent,
so the use of DLP-fired reminders lets users be aware when they are
putting something like a credit card number or Social Security number in
an email. The built-in DLP policies are based on regulatory standards like PCI. Outlook Web App enhancements:
The whole of OWA is redesigned -- yay! One awesome feature is support
for offline access, which lets users write messages in their browser
when offline, then have the messages delivered when they connect to the
Internet. OWA supports this feature in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 10,
Apple's Safari 5, and Google's Chrome 16 (or later), all of which
support the HTML5 local data storage
feature. There's also a new set of UI layouts that users can choose
from for desktop, tablet, and smartphone use -- a smart approach. Built-in antimalware:
Exchange has had antispam capabilities for quite some time; as of
Exchange 2007 you could even choose whether to turn on antispam in the
Edge role or in the Hub Transport role. Exchange 2013 extends antispam
to a broader set of antimalware capabilities, such as to block phishing
attempts. In addition to these highly visible changes, Exchange
2013 will also show improvements in high availability and site
resilience with DAG, as well as in its unified messaging capabilities, but no large overhauls are expected in those areas. For
Exchange admins who work with the GUI management console daily, the
biggest challenge will be the new Web-based UI. But whatever your
feelings are about Web-based consoles, I believe you'll like the overall
changes in Exchange 2013, especially with enhanced integration with
SharePoint and Lync 2013.
