From the monthly archives:

July 2005

SID error on cloned Virtual Server / VPC / VMWare OSes

July 29, 2005

If you simply copy an existing Windows OS image to create multiple virtual servers/workstations, and try to log on to a domain controller, you may get the following error: The system or security ID (SID) of the domain specified is inconsistent with the trust information for that domain. This happens because the SID of the [...]

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Exchange SP2 – Connection Filtering that actually works

July 27, 2005

I was excited to find out about Connection Filtering (screenshot) in Exchange 2003 – finally I could use RBLs (real-time block lists) without having to dabble with event sinks!! (This is from back in the days when RBLs were still sexy and could keep a good chunk of spam away from your users… ) Connection [...]

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Windows Vista it is!

July 22, 2005

Microsoft just announced the next version of Windows that practically the whole world (except for the Mac users perhaps?) is eagerly awaiting will be called Windows Vista. The first beta will ship early next month. The actual product will ship in second half of 2006. The name – Vista – has left many people confused. [...]

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NetApp Data OnTap 7 and Flexvolumes

July 17, 2005

The Saturday (July 16th) was spent on migrating an Exchange cluster from an older NetApp 840 to a new 920 filer. My personal experience with NetApp’s Exchange solutions – from the older filers that used NetApp’s VLD protocol to the newer iSCSI filers – has been a string of hit or miss affairs. The Windows [...]

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Exchange 12 to axe Active/Active Clustering?

July 11, 2005

Oliver Rist’s Enterprise Windows column in InfoWorld talks about many facts/announcements related to the Exchange Server product roadmap – most of it discussed/announced at TechEd in Orlando and at other venues. He also talks about Active/Active clustering being history with Exchange 12. I’m a little surprised – I thought Microsoft would perhaps work towards making [...]

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Adding disclaimers to outbound SMTP messages

July 7, 2005

Disclaimers are increasingly becoming commonplace in email messages sent to external (and at times internal) recipients. Security policies at many organizations require these disclaimers. If you’ve been looking for this feature in Exchange System Manager, it’s not there yet! You need to use a SMTP Event Sink to get this done. Microsoft has couple of [...]

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Message Tracking as part of OWA/Outlook

July 3, 2005

Message Tracking is one thing I’ve since long wanted to see built into the client – either as an OWA-only feature or perhaps in OWA and Outlook. Problem: Users want to find out where a message they sent ended up – was it delivered? At what time? To which server? Same thing for inbound messages. [...]

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