Exchange Distribution Groups

When creating Distribution Groups on SBS 2008, there’s (of course) a wizard for it. It steps you through the creation, including adding users, and right near the very end of the wizard there’s an option available, shown here.

Of course, this is usually a no-brainer – we know right away whether the group should be available externally or not. Job done, no hassle.

But…

What if you need to create a distribution group manually for some reason? Or worse yet, on vanilla Exchange 2007 or 2010 servers where we don’t have wizards to baby sit us? If you create a distribution group manually, it MIGHT not accept email from the outside world. Where do you go when you have this problem?

This link has the answer. The checkbox referred to at the article below is the option controlled by the SBS Wizard shown in the above screenshot. http://www.ebsfaq.com/Exchange2007/HubCASMailboxUM/Distributiongroupdoesnotreceiveexternalemail/tabid/2105/Default.aspx

So, watch out for this!

Caffeine, BES, and Everything Else

Link dump day, stuff that's caught my eye:

What caffeine actually does to you - I really liked this article (thanks Jesse). Give it a read. I personally long for the days when caffeine actually worked on me, and I've decided I'd like to get there again. I'm going to slowly cut back over the next few weeks and see what happens.

http://gizmodo.com/5713564/what-caffeine-actually-does-to-your-brain

Clifford Stoll on ... everything - this talk is entertaining on just about every level. He's physically engaging (you'll see what I mean), he's super passionate, looks to be a tiny bit crazy (but in a good way), and brilliantly intelligent. I especially loved his comment on science, engineering, and technology (near the beginning). Do yourself a favor and watch it.

http://www.ted.com/talks/clifford_stoll_on_everything.html

Lastly, if you are upgrading a BES Express installation, and the installer greets you with something like this (after quite some time as well, as long as 20 minutes):

Database Information

An attempt to upgrade the database was unsuccessful. An error occurred while executing an SQL statement.

If you dig into the installer logs, you'll see something like:

[20000] (01/02 10:51:14.961):{0x2C44} [CBESDBInstaller::executeRetryDDL] Timeout expired 0x80040E31

I did some research on this and found the link below. Basically, before doing any major BES upgrade work, start the process off with a clean boot of your server.

http://www.blackberryforums.com/bes-admin-corner/233903-cant-upgrade-besx-5-0-1-5-0-2-sql-error.html

That's it!