MS Exchange

[Paul L. Lussier]

In a message dated: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 19:38:26 +0200
Jan Kratochvil said:

>  Well, I'll provide here some part of the mail from Al Margolis <al at sfex.com>
>who has been very helpful:
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>I have a feeling that Exchange is dependant on the RPC code that is not yet
>implemented in SAMBA CVS.  There are a number of places where it enumerates
>users.  It is also tightly integrated with User Admin for Domains so I
>could image that Microsoft "forgot" to document some service calls.
>
>My particular problem was an exchange server whose "MS Exchange Directory
>Service" would not restart after a hard crash (blown power supply,
>therefore no shutdown).  The solution was (1) reset privileges on al
>msexchg directories to full control for Administrators, System and Everyone
>and (2) resetting the admin password in Settings/Control Panel/Services
>(select failed service, click STARTUP button).  We didn't test between
>steps one and two, but my guess is that the password was the culprit.  I
>don't like that "Everyone", but Microsoft assured me that it was necessary
>and safe.
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, this explains a tremendous amount :)


>  Also Al Margolis pointed out that there is very good source of information
>in Knowledge Base, although it is scattered all over the place and hard to
>find.

Like all "knowledge" bases, it's in there, the trick is finding it.  Often 
times I've found that the question you have isn't asked/filed the same way in 
the knowledge base, which therefore makes it tough to find the answer.

>  I should get it, I haven't yet read any paper-written text on Samba.

John's book was excellent in explaining the brain-dead manner in which MS 
networking works (or rather, doesn't:).  Other than that though, it was much 
more of "man pages with commentary".  If you print out all the Samba man 
pages, then you have the majority of John's book.  Gerry's book was more of a 
"real life practicum in Samba" where he provided different scenarios, idea, 
and implementations as well as HOWTOs, etc.  The 2 books are a very 
complimentary.  I didn't feel that Gerry's book explained the MS networking as 
completely as John's, but it was more up to date and contained more examples.  
So, IMO, you can't go wrong with reading both.

>  Tech support would welcome it but people are using the time manager, work
>lists etc., I'm not forced to use it myself but simply due to all these
>features the remove of Exchange is unfortunately not a solution now.

I'm in a similar situation where people are using Outlook for time managment.  
Fortunately, though, everyone is using Eurdora or Netscape and POP3 for
e-mail, or they use native Unix mail :)

>  I'm currently not in a situation when I can try to move the whole network
>under Samba PDC but I'll try it during next several (3-4) weeks, I hope.
>Anyway I know that I'll have to do fresh install of Exchange at the start
>next time.

Please keep me updated,  I'm quite interested in how this goes for you, and 
what sort of problems/solutions you find.


-- 

Seeya,
Paul
----
	    Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
     There cannot be a crisis today; my schedule is already full.
  A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking.
	 If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right!