Exchange Server 2010 : Using EMS to Do Administrative Mailbox Tasks (part 2)

Disabling or Removing Mailboxes with EMS

Disabling a mailbox in Exchange Server 2010 removes the Exchange Server attributes from a user in AD, making the AD user non-mail enabled. The AD user account is otherwise untouched. The mailbox is truly deleted by Exchange Server during the online maintenance cycle after exceeding the retention time.

Removing a mailbox in Exchange Server 2010 actually deletes the AD user account and mailbox. Because most Exchange Server administrators might not have rights to delete user accounts in AD, the most common Exchange Server task is to disable the mailbox.

The following example disables a mailbox of a user in the companyabc.com domain:

Disable-Mailbox companyabc\claire

The next example shows how to delete all the mailboxes in the “Test Database” mail store so that it can be decommissioned:

get-Mailbox -database "test database" | disable-Mailbox –whatif

The –WhatIf switch in the preceding example runs the task in read-only mode, allowing the administrator to see what would happen by running this command.

The Remove-Mailbox cmdlet is used to remove the AD user account associated with a mailbox, as shown in the following example:

Remove-Mailbox claire

Using EMS for Server Tasks

Thus far, most of the examples have been for managing mailbox resources. EMS can also manage the Exchange servers in your environment. The following example demonstrates how to disable a Unified Messaging server. This enables the administrator to start or stop call processing on a Unified Messaging server so that the Unified Messaging server can be brought online or taken offline in a controlled way:

Disable-UMServer UMserver3

The next example uses the Set-AttachmentFilterListConfig command to modify the configuration of the Attachment Filter agent on the computer running the Edge server role:

Set-AttachmentFilterListConfig -action reject

And in this example, the Set-EventLogLevel cmdlet is used to set diagnostic logging for the mailbox replication to high:

Set-EventLogLevel 'MSExchange Mailbox Replication\Service' -Level High

These are just a few examples of what can be done with the Exchange Management Shell to manage Exchange servers. Many, many more commands are available to the administrator.

Provisioning Databases with EMS

Exchange Server 2010 databases can easily be provisioned and configured using the Exchange Management Shell. This first example creates a new database called “Marketing Storage Group”:

New-MailboxDatabase -name "Marketing Storage Group" -EdbFilePath "D:\Database Files\Marketing Storage Group.edb"

					  

The next example configures circular logging on the “Test Database 2” database:

Set-MailboxDatabase -CircularLoggingEnabled $true -Identity "Test Database 2"

					  

Managing Databases with EMS

All facets of Exchange Server database administration can be handled with the Exchange Management Shell. Using the following examples, mailbox stores can be created, dismounted, and moved. The first example creates a new Sales Database:

New-MailboxDatabase -name "Sales Database" -EdbFilePath "D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Mailbox\Sales Database.edb"

					  

The second example shows how to mount the same mailbox database after it has been created:

Mount-database "Sales Database"

Use the Move-DatabasePath command to set a new path in Active Directory for the database object and then move the related files to the new location. For example:

move-DatabasePath -Identity 'MBDB1' -EdbFilePath 'D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Mailbox\MBDB1\MBDB1.edb' 
-LogFolderPath 'D:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Mailbox\MBDB1'

					  

When the preceding command is run, EMS automatically takes the database offline, moves the database, and mounts it again.

The next example shows how to delete a mailbox database:

Remove-MailboxDatabase "sales database"

When this command is run, Exchange Management Shell deletes the database and provides a warning, letting the administrator know that the database has been removed from Active Directory but the physical files remain. The following warning is displayed:

WARNING: The specified database has been removed. You must remove the database file
located in DatabaseFilePath from your computer manually if it exists. Specified
database: Sales Database

					  

Managing Connectors with EMS

All types of connectors can be managed with the Exchange Management Shell. Receive and Send connectors can be created, deleted, and configured. This example gets the existing credential object and creates a new secured Send connector on an Edge or Hub Transport server role and configures it to use that credential:

$CredentialObject = Get-Credential
New-SendConnector -Name "Secure E-Mail to Companyabc.org" -Type ToInternet
 -AddressSpaces companyabc.com -AuthenticationCredential $CredentialObject

This example modifies an existing Receive connector. The Identity parameter is required when you are running the Set-ReceiveConnector command. This example sets the maximum number of hops, sets the SMTP banner message, and configures the connection timeout value:

Set-ReceiveConnector -Identity "Internet Receive Connector" -MaxHopCount 1-Banner "220 Authorized access only" -ConnectionTimeout 00:15:00

					  

This command deletes the object and the configuration information for a Receive connector. After this task completes, the object and the configuration information for the Receive connector are deleted:

Remove-ReceiveConnector "Companyabc.com Receive Connector"