PowerShell Awesomeness!!

Loves PowerShell!

Here is how to get the details of all mailboxes in Exchange 2013 and then assign it to the new App of Enterprise Vault 10.0.4 in a particular OU:

Get-ADUser -SearchBase "OU=My Users,DC=domain,DC=local" -SearchScope Subtree -Filter {proxyaddresses -like "smtp:*"} | ForEach-Object {$mbx = Get-Mailbox $_.SamAccountName; New-App -mailbox $mbx.LegacyExchangeDN -Url ("https://vault.domain.local/EnterpriseVault/OfficeMailAppManifest.aspx?LegacyMbxDn=" + $mbx.LegacyExchangeDN + "&BaseURL=https://vault.domain.com/EnterpriseVault")}

Don't forget the change the -SearchBase, -Url parameters.

All the users in the OU with mailbox enabled will get the new Enterprise Vault Web Application!

Exchange 2013 CU2 v2 Installation Guide

Here are the steps that I have followed to upgrade my Exchange 2013 CU1 servers to CU2 v2 version

I have 1x (MBX + CAS) Server role, 2x MBX Server role and 2x CAS Server role. The order of patching is to have MBX server done first, then CAS server following after that. All the MBX servers I have are a member of the same DAG Cluster

Exchange Schema Version
Exchange 2013 CU2 is upgrading the Active Directory schema as part of the installation.
To check the existing schema version of the Exchange, run the following PowerShell script:


$root  = [ADSI]"LDAP://RootDSE"
$name  = "CN=ms-Exch-Schema-Version-Pt," + $root.schemaNamingContext
$value = [ADSI]( "LDAP://" + $name )
"Exchange Schema Version = $( $value.rangeUpper )"

The CU1 schema version is: 15254

I prefer to run the schema change using the Setup.exe command line rather then using the GUI.
Make sure the server that you are running the schema change is on the same site with the domain controller who holds the schema master FSMO
Make sure the account that you are using to run the schema change is a member of Enterprise Admin group

To run the schema upgrade, using the setup.exe from the extracted CU2 file:


Setup.exe /PrepareSchema /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
Setup.exe /PrepareAD /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
Setup.exe /PrepareDomain /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms



After the schema upgrade, the version is: 15281

Exchange Mailbox Role Upgrade
Make sure the PowerShell Script Execution Policy is set to "Unrestricted" before you are starting the upgrade process

Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

If there is another language pack of UM installed other then en-US, it must be uninstalled (for example if you have en-AU language pack installed):

Setup.exe /RemoveUMLanguagePack:en-AU

If you are using SCOM to monitor this mailbox server, put the agent under maintenance

If you have an active Mailbox database on this server, move it to another server

Drain the Hub Transport

Set-ServerComponentState <servername> -Component HubTransport -State Draining -Requester Maintenance

Redirect Message to another server
Redirect-Message -Server <servername> -Target <target-server.fqdn>
Note: target-server.fqdn MUST be FQDN


Suspend DAG Node
Suspend-ClusterNode -Name <servername>

Disable database copy activation
Set-MailboxServer <servername> -DatabaseCopyActivationDisabledAndMoveNow $true

Review the existing database copy auto activation policy
Get-MailboxServer <servername> | Select DatabaseCopyAutoActivationPolicy
Take a note of the copy auto activation policy **

Set AutoActivation policy to blocked
Set-MailboxServer <servername> -DatabaseCopyAutoActivationPolicy Blocked

Put Server in Maintenance Mode
Set-ServerComponentState <servername> -Component ServerWideOffline -State InActive -Requester Maintenance

Apply CU2 to the server
Run the setup.exe from the CU2 extracted folder
Once finished, reboot the server

Stop DAG Maintenance mode
Set-ServerComponentState <servername> -Component ServerWideOffline -State Active - Requested Maintenance

Resume DAG node
Resume-ClusterNode -Name <servername>

Set AutoActivation policy to original setting
Set-MailboxServer <servername> -DatabaseCopyAutoActivationPolicy Unrestricted (** original settings from the above command)

Enable database copy activation
Set-MailboxServer <servername> -DatabaseCopyActivationDisabledAndMoveNow $false

Put Server in Active Mode
Set-ServerComponentState <servername> -Component HubTransport - State Active -Requested Maintenance

- Re-install Language Pack if needed
- Take server out of maintenance mode in SCOM


Exchange CAS Role Upgrade
Make sure the PowerShell Script Execution Policy is set to "Unrestricted" before you are starting the upgrade process

If you are using SCOM to monitor this mailbox server, put the agent under maintenance


Apply CU2 to the server
Run the setup.exe from the CU2 extracted folder
Once finished, reboot the server


- Take server out of maintenance mode in SCOM

Configuration File is not well-formed XML

Today, I found one of my Exchange 2013 servers start generating Event ID 2001

It turns out that Exchange has corrupted the applicationHost.config file. If you try to open the file, you will see corrupted garbage characters all over the place.

Luckily I have got another Exchange 2013 server running on DAG, so I just copy the file applicationHost.config from C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config folder and replace the corrupted one then do IIS Reset