Inside Exchange Public Folders
June 18, 2003
Please note: Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity
Hosts:
- Charles McDaniels, Exchange Problem Control Engineer
- Chris Gregson, Tech Lead in the Exchange Admin Team
- Jud Doran, Problem Control Support Professional in Exchange Enterprise Support
- Andrew Moss, Software Tester in the Exchange Product Group
- Brandon Hoff, Moderator and Exchange MVP Lead
Moderator: Brandon (Microsoft)
Hello everyone! Welcome to the "Inside Exchange Public Folders" chat today, which is a follow-up to a presentation that was done at TechEd 2003 by Andrew Moss, a Microsoft Exchange Product Group member. I've got 4 Public Folder experts here to day to answer questions on Exchange Public Folder functionality and troubelshooting. I'll Let the hosts introduce themselves now.
Host: Charles (Microsoft)
Charles McDaniels Exchange Problem Control Engineer
Host: Chris (Microsoft)
My name is Chris Gregson, I am a Tech Lead in the Exchange Admin Team
Host: Jud (Microsoft)
Hello, my name is Jud Doran. I am a Problem Control Support Professional in Exchange Enterprise Support.
Host: Andrew (Microsoft)
Hi my name is Andrew Moss and I'm a Software Tester in the Exchange Product Group, I was the guy that did the TechEd presentation :-)
Moderator: Ken (Microsoft)
We're ready to go!
Host: Chris (Microsoft)
Q: I want to Backup the M: of an exchange server can I use NT backup or another backup application?
A: The M drive should never be a target of a backup or an AntiVirus program, to back up the Exchange data, you should use a supported online backup program.
Host: Andrew (Microsoft)
Q: Is in 2003 the "everyone" group given less permissions?
A: Yes - in Exchange 2003 no longer does "everyone" have create top level folder permissions by default. We removed that permission. You can still add it if you require it
Host: Charles (Microsoft)
Q: In Exchange 2000 you have to implement 264733(thanks Chris_ms) is that corrected in 2003?
A: This has not changed in Exchange 2003
Host: Jud (Microsoft)
Q: I've set up a group for our helpdesk and given it full administrative rights on public folders. How can I ensure that these admin rights for this group are automatically inherited by new public folders? Right now, I have to force propagation.
A: If you permission a public folder with a security group all child folders that are subsequently created will inherit those permissions. Otherwise you will have to propagate settings.
Host: Chris (Microsoft)
Q: What is a "supported online backup program"?
A: Hans named a few "Backup Exec(veritas) Arc serv.. etc" NTBackup is one as well Guide_KenM is away: Welcome to MSN Communities Chats
Host: Chris (Microsoft)
Q: Why is 264733 not changed? it's only bugging the system engineers.
A: It is viewed as a bit of a security feature in order to prevent people from accessing permissions at these levels by default.
Host: Chris (Microsoft)
Q: You have to have the right permissions to change these settings anyway.........so why hide them?
A: So the real answer as I see it from my work fixing issues is that a lot of times the people who have the "God" rights are the ones who wind up causing the permissions issues (changing things they should not) because they don't really know any better. So, I would rather hide the page from everyone, hoping to keep it hidden from those individuals who can cause bad things to happen, then let the people like you who know what they are doing go ahead and un-hide the security pages. I hope this satisfies your question :-) because it is the real reason why it is hidden. I can write you a reg file you can just double click on if you want :-).
Host: Jud (Microsoft)
Q: I have users who have edit permissions on a public contact folder, but there are some records they cannot edit. It says they don't have permission. How can I fix permissions at the record contact level?
A: Sounds like there are item level permissions on the contacts. You could try to move the contacts into a different folder and back, if that doesn't help I would recommend that you contact Microsoft PSS.
Host: Charles (Microsoft)
Q: Are there limitations on searching a newly entered item in a public folder? We can't do a find on an item on the same day it is entered in the public folder.
A:319433 Configuring Full-Text Indexing on Public Folders. Information in regards to index timing can be found here.
Host: Jud (Microsoft)
Q: What are the advantages/disadvantages of adding public folders through the Exchange System Manager as opposed to adding them from within the Outlook client?
A: There is no difference. The user whom creates the folder in Outlook does become the owner.
Host: Chris (Microsoft)
Q: I'm not an MVP but I'm wondering why it is not possible to post an .mdb MS Access file to MS Public Folders 2000 Outlook? I can post .xls & .doc but not .mdb - Thanks, that's it!
A: I just tested this on my E2K server running SP3, I could post a .mdb file with no problem. Here is what I did, made a new Access database, went into Outlook as one of my test users, made a public folder. I could do two things: make a new post with a .mdb in it and I could directly drag and drop the .mdb into the folder. Both of these work.
Host: Andrew (Microsoft)
Q: Is Microsoft Exchange 2003 in any way installed in a "Lockdown" state like Microsoft Windows Server 2003 & IIS6.0 ?
A: Yes. However, this depends on whether you upgrade or clean install. There are several "lockdowned" features including disabling some services by default (such as pop, imap & nntp). public folder related, everyone cannot create top level folders and freedoc support (incl asp's in public folders) are disabled. There are many more - which I can't go into here. The release notes for E2K3 will contain more information.
Host: Jud (Microsoft)
Q: We are using exchange system manager on a windows xp machine to administer Exchange 2000. When we try to open client permissions on a public folder we receive an error. In order to modify the client permissions we must log into the exchange server.
A: I would suggest applying SP3 to ESM on the XP machine, and if that doesn't help reinstall ESM. See kb article 329136 for more information.
Host: Jud (Microsoft)
Q: Does Exchange 2003 support fetching mails from POP3 servers now, or do I still need a connector to do the job?
A: That functionality hasn't changed. You will still need a connector.
Host: Jud (Microsoft)
Q: Does Exchange 2003 come with out-of-the-box support for Windows Messenger 5.0, ie, the grenwich instant messaging service?
A: There is not an RTC server shipping with Exchange 2003.
Host: Charles (Microsoft)
Q: Do you need Windows2000 advanced to install Exchagne2000 enterprise like you need windowsnt4 enterprise to install Exchange5.5 enterprise?
A: Yes, you can install Exchange 2000 Enterprise on Windows 2000 Standard
Host: Chris (Microsoft)
Q: So does the mdb Access file need to be posted on the server level or can I post it as a user of Public folders? My IT person said he couldn't do it & I'm assuming he tried it the way you described. Thank you for your answers !
A: All of the steps I listed previously we done from within a public folder. This should be the way you go about this, you can then set permissions in order to restrict access to the people you want. At the server level, it almost seems as though your IT person is trying to mount an Access database under Exchange server? Like a mailbox store? No, this will never work :-)
Host: Andrew (Microsoft)
Q: Where is the SMTP greenbook
Host: Charles (Microsoft)
Q: Will mail-enabled PFs receive messages as IPM.NOTE in Exchange 2K3 or still as IPM.POST?
A: It will not be in RTM of Exchange 2003. Will be in SP1 for Exchange 2003. In Exchange 2000 there is a Public Hotfix availible to address this issue: KB-817809
Host: Andrew (Microsoft)
Q: Any plans to update the public folder replication whitepaper for Exchange 2003? The E2K version has a lot of useful tech info about pfs that isn't available elsewhere.
A: There is no such thing as a Public Folder replication whitepaper. There was, however, a document written that was made available to MEC attendees which went into some depth about public folders.
Host: Andrew (Microsoft)
Q: Any plans to update the public folder replication whitepaper for Exchange 2003? The E2K version has a lot of useful tech info about pfs that isn't available elsewhere.
A: There are some documents currently being written for E2K3 which will address many of the new features and cover similar details.
Host: Andrew (Microsoft)
Q: Will there ever be changes to MAPI to allow access to multiple Public Folder trees?
A: no current plans
Host: Andrew (Microsoft)
Q: Will there be support for IPv6 in Exchange 2003?
A: no we don't support IPv6 in E2k3
Host: Chris (Microsoft)
Q: We can use ExMerge to import data from a .pst into a mailbox. Is there an equivalent tool to import/export public folder content?
A: yes you can use ExMerge to import data into a mailbox from a PST, there is not an equivalent for Public Folders, we in support make a PST in Outlook and drag and drop.
Host: Charles (Microsoft)
Q: is there a whitepaper how to implement Forms into the public folders
A: There is no whitepaper available, however there are Knowledge Base Articles you can look at: 244591;271816
Moderator: Brandon (Microsoft)
Thanks to all of you for showing up for today's chat, I hope you got your questions answered and found this useful! Thanks also to our expert panel for coming and assisting our customers. Have a great rest of your day/evening wherever you may be!
Moderator: Brandon (Microsoft)
This concludes our chat, please look for the chat transcript for this chat to be posted soon on the TechNet website.
For further information on this topic, please visit the following:
Newsgroups: Exchange Server
Transcripts: Read the archiveof past Exchange chats.
Website: Visit the home page for Microsoft Exchange