I really like the new DCPromo for RODC's!

I accidentally tried to dcpromo with the same .inf twice, and found that it removes the password fields immediately after you attempt a dcpromo! Pretty slick!

How long does it take for an Exchange 2007 Transport rule to re-check a group membership?

Exchange 2007 Transport rules are a GREAT feature to control mail flow for business and security reasons. One of my favorite uses is to base a rule on group membership. Unfortunately, the first time I tested this, I was making a rule to block Internet Email from members of the "No Internet Email" group. I created the group, added myself, and created the rule.

It worked flawlessly, and I then removed myself from the group. Then I tested again and found I still got a bounce error from the rule firing.

I found out (quickly) that restarting the transport service fixed this, but I never did find the reason why this was occurring.

Then I found this article that explains it all:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124703.aspx

"Each Hub Transport server maintains a recipient cache that is used to look up recipient and distribution list information. The recipient cache reduces the number of requests that each Hub Transport server must make to an Active Directory domain controller. The recipient cache updates every four hours. You can't modify the recipient cache update interval. Therefore, changes to transport rule recipients, such as the addition or removal of distribution list members, may not be applied to transport rules until the recipient cache is updated. To force an immediate update of the recipient cache, you must stop and start the Microsoft Exchange Transport service. You must do this for each Hub Transport server where you want to forcibly update the recipient cache."

So in short, testing can be unpredictable because once the transport rule fires on a DL membership rule, it caches that membership for 4 hours.

My home network already got malware.

I am usually not an idiot about these things, either, just missed about 15 days of Windows Updates on this box. No unusual installs.

My Hyper-V server as seen from VMM 2008!

Spiffy, eh?

$1300 @ newegg + free Hyper-V 2008. Currently has about 6 machines, 2 in "production" meaning I lose DC or DHCP if two of them are offline. Not horrible critical, but annoying if down. But it's a home network, I should be able to take some downtime. We shall see how it goes.

I am working on watching actual RAM usage and monitoring needs so I can maximize the box. Here are the specs (essentially):

I was tempted to go Vmware but neither the motherboard RAID or the rocketraid are supported in ESX. The velociraptor is in my desktop, and the flash cards and USB keys are stocking stuffers :)

70-638 - Passed!

The OCS exam. The only one, too! Passed with flying colors.

So I am now an MCITP: Messaging, and MCP in OCS, and MCSE in 2003.

If only I passed the pesky 279, I would also have MCSE+Messaging.

Update on the URL Rewrite for Exchange!

Update on the URL Rewrite for Exchange!

Great feedback on the code. I somehow posted the same screenshot twice! Fixed!