I'm taking requests for writing a new blog post.  I'd like to know what 10 things people would like to know how to do with AppCmd.exe.  You post your ideas via comment and I'll work on getting the top 10 put together.

If you don't know what AppCmd is, check out this article on IIS.Net.  It is a great new tool for working with IIS in Windows Server 2008.

Thanks,

Robba 

If you haven't checked out IIS 7.0 yet, do it. DO IT NOW I said!!!

Stop fooling around and go download the June CTP of Server 2008 you'll be glad you did.

With the migration to Exchange 2007 we've had a couple of minor issues that have been persisting.  One of them is the Free/ Busy Info not showing up when trying to schedule a meeting with another user.  The odd thing is that it shows up in Outlook 2003 and OWA but not Outlook 2007.  There are a couple of things going on here to make it work this way.  I'll talk about the basic difference between Exchange 2003 and 2007 first and then about our specific problem.

In the past the Free/ Busy Info was stored in the Public Folders information store on Exchange.  With Exchange 2007 that has changed to allow faster update times.  It is now actually stored and served by each users Outlook using the Exchange 2007 availability service to synchronize this information..  Exchange does maintain a copy of the information for legacy connections and for OWA to work. 

The reason our older clients and OWA showed the Free/ Busy Info but our newer Outlook 2007 clients didn't was because of a problem with our availability service URL.  When I initially setup our mail server I set it up with a test domain so that I could verify that everything was going to work correctly.  I added all of our domain accounts, did the whole shabang.  Everything worked just perfectly.  When it was time to bring the server live I replaced every instance of the test domain name with the real domain name.  Everything seemed to be fine.  However the Free/ Busy Info thing popped up and I started looking into it.  And looking and looking.

Well the basic result as you can guess is that the availability service had the wrong URL.  It was still referenced by the test domain.  There was no place in the GUI to determine or change this.  It can only be done in the Exchange Command Shell.  If you are having this problem you should do the following steps to determine that all of your URLs are pointing to the right place.

1. With Outlook open Control + Right click  the Outlook icon in your taskbar.
2. Select "Test E-mail Auto-Configuration"
3. Put in your email password and uncheck "Use Guessmart" "Secure Guessmart Authentication"
4. Click Test
5. Look at the results and check the Availability, OOF and OAB URLs.  If these are not set to the Public URL of your email server then you have found your problem.
6. On your Exchange server open the Exchange Command Shell.
7. Type Get--WebServicesVirtualDirectory | fl, this should verify the same results that you saw in Outlook.
8. Type Get--WebServicesVirtualDirectory | set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -internalurl <your url here>
9. Type Get--WebServicesVirtualDirectory | set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -externalurl <your url here>
10. Type Get--WebServicesVirtualDirectory | fl, this should verify the new changes you just made. 
    
11. Wait a few minutes for this to show up in your Outlook.

Tomorrow is my b-day, but my daughter will be with the grandparents so this morning my family gave my presents to me.  Well needless to say, since I already said it in the title, I got one of the best gifts ever.

I have this odd thing about sporks, yes sporks.  I really like the idea of a spork and it has been a running joke between my wife and me for a long time.  Well, I got one, not just any KFC spork, but a titanium spork.  It is in my shirt pocket right now, just ask me and I'll show you.  It is the coolest!!!

She found it on Thinkgeek.com, they describe it this way:

The Spork of the Gods

Every mythic hero normally has an equally mythic weapon. Zeus had his thunderbolts. Thor had his hammer, Mjolnir. King Arthur had his Excalibur. Frodo and Bilbo had their Sting. Rhydderch Hael had his Dyrnwyn. King Kong had his bananas…you get the idea. It's time for you to join the ranks of the heroes and heroines of lore as you wield your own legendary weapon in your battle against a very powerful foe: hunger.

The Titanium Spork is ready for the challenge. Titanium is known for its great strength, corrosion resistance, and light weight, which makes this spork a valuable asset around feeding time. Imagine how much more food you could shovel in at your local buffet if you didn't have to worry about the strain of picking up a heavy fork or spoon. Your food consumption can become the stuff of legends. Even just holding the Titanium Spork in your hand, you can feel its power. It is perhaps the greatest gastronomic invention since lickable wallpaper. Hunger, beware - your end is near!

Titanium Spork Dimensions:approx. 6.25" long and 1.5" at its widest point.

Tomorrow night I'm taking it out to where ever we go for dinner and I know that every table around us will be staring in AWE at my spork.  I'm sure I'll have at least 5 people ask me where they too can get this amazing utensil.  I'm still debating whether to tell them it was forged especially for me, or to let them know too where they can acquire one.

Many thanks to my beautiful bride for this wonderful, truely thoughtful gift.  I love you more each and every day.

Robba
 

I'm getting old, but I am ok with that cause the alternative isn't very good.     Seriously, I really am ok with it.  On Saturday I will turn 36 and I'm going to enjoy a nice day with my wife, sans daughter.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I doubt I'll sleep late, stupid internal alarm clock, but we're going to go look at furniture for the house, then just hang out and go out to eat.  I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do for dinner.  I read recently that a restaurant that I really like (Ozona Grill and Bar) has Dallas' best chicken fried steak.  I LOVE CFS!!!  Or we could do sushi.  I like sushi, but never go out to eat it cause its a little too pricey to take a 3 year old to eat.

One thing I've noticed about myself as I tried to give my wife ideas for gifts, although I work with technology I'm not very geeky.  I love playing with technology, but I don't need the latest and greatest toys.  I do like Dan Hounshell's gift idea site, whatiwantmost.com.  I was able to put the things on there I wanted for my wife to pick out and even show her the cheapest place to get an item.  I put alot of tools on there.  I like tools, and I'm finding that when I have to be I can be kinda handy when working on the car.  It's good stress relief, plus it saves me money.  If you have a need to get me something just pick anything on that list, obviously I want everything there.

Well it is late and I'm tired.  I'm gonna head to bed.

G'Night 

It seems like 40 to 50% of my day lately is business oriented tasks.  P&L or planning or billing or meetings.  The other time I spend finishing projects.  We just rolled out MS CRM 3.0, that was a challenge, and before that was Exchange.  I'm not complaining, just noticing.  I have to say if it weren't for Rick, alot of people wouldn't get their requests completed in a timely manner.  The problem I do have is that although I have been working with alot of technologies lately, I haven't run into anything that was really worthy of blogging about.  I am seeing some issues with  Exchange 2007, but I still haven't found a solution to them yet.  Once I do, you can guarantee I'll post them here. 

Soon we'll have a few more projects, a new firewall, getting everyone on Office 2007 and eventually Vista (don't hold your breath guys).  There is always something else to do.

One thing that I've noticed is that I'm growing into my position, which should be natural, but it is nice to feel more and more confident about my decisions.  That growth takes me away from the day to day technical duties more and more which kinda stinks but at the same time I enjoy the challenge of the business side of things.  One of the many great things about working here at Telligent is the support that the leadership team gives.  Jason, my boss, is hands off 98% of the time.  When he does need to give me direction, he just points the way and then steps out of the way.  He lets me do my thing with my department and passes on what information I need to know to make decisions.  The other members of the team all work together so well, I love the fact that there are no egos to deal with.  I've never worked at a better company. 

I'm really looking forward to being part of Telligent as we grow these next few years.  I think Community Server will really hit its stride and I know the brains around here are always coming out with something new and cooler than the last idea.

As always, thanks for reading.

Robba