The windows Powershell snap-n ‘Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Powershell.E2010’ is not installed on this machine

I was onsite recently and a vendor from a 3rd party product was having difficulties installing the application. When I looked at the error it was referencing ‘Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Powershell.E2010’ which should be there since this was a physical Exchange 2010 SP1 RU1 box. This was a bit odd so I looked at the current snapins by using the “get-pssnapin” command and nothing but Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Setup was there! WHAT!? I was expecting to see the following:

Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Setup
Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010
Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Powershell.Support

I then tried to manually load the Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Powershell.E2010 and we got the following error:

“The windows Powershell snap-n ‘Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Powershell.E2010’ is not installed on this machine.”

REALLY!!?

The next thing to check was to see if ConnectFunctions.ps1, RemoteExchange.ps1, and CommonConnectFunctions.ps1 was in D:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV14bin (this paticular install path for Exchange) and they were. Apparently there have been reports that issues occurred on this server only during the SP1 roll out and after the fact some random issues with running basic commandlets also occurred. Looking into the registry we found somethign interesting in HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftPowerShell1PowerShellSnapIns. We saw only 1 out 3 keys and you might have guessed it.. the Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Setup

I then tried to manually load the Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Powershell.E2010 and we got the following error:

“The windows Powershell snap-n ‘Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Powershell.E2010’ is not installed on this machine.”

We then looked in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftPowerShell and found only the Setup key in parent key of the broken server but all three are there for servers that work ok. Since the install path was exactly the same we safely exported the missing registry keys and imported them in and it worked (no reboot needed). The followign is the actual keys that are needed:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftPowerShell1PowerShellSnapInsMicrosoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010]
“CustomPSSnapInType”=”Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.AdminPSSnapIn”
“ApplicationBase”=”D:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV14bin”
“AssemblyName”=”Microsoft.Exchange.PowerShell.Configuration, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35”
“Description”=”Admin Tasks for the Exchange Server”
“ModuleName”=”D:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV14binMicrosoft.Exchange.PowerShell.Configuration.dll”
“PowerShellVersion”=”1.0”
“Vendor”=”Microsoft Corporation”
“Version”=”14.0.0.0”
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftPowerShell1PowerShellSnapInsMicrosoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.Setup]
“CustomPSSnapInType”=”Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.SetupPSSnapIn”
“ApplicationBase”=”D:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV14bin”
“AssemblyName”=”Microsoft.Exchange.PowerShell.Configuration, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35”
“Description”=”Setup Tasks for the Exchange Server”
“ModuleName”=”D:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV14binMicrosoft.Exchange.PowerShell.configuration.dll”
“PowerShellVersion”=”1.0”
“Vendor”=”Microsoft”
“Version”=”14.0.0.0”
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftPowerShell1PowerShellSnapInsMicrosoft.Exchange.Management.Powershell.Support]
“CustomPSSnapInType”=”Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Powershell.Support.SupportPSSnapIn”
“ApplicationBase”=”D:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV14bin”
“AssemblyName”=”Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Powershell.Support, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35”
“Description”=”Support Tasks for the Exchange Server”
“ModuleName”=”D:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV14binMicrosoft.Exchange.Management.Powershell.Support.dll”
“PowerShellVersion”=”1.0”
“Vendor”=”Microsoft Corporation”
“Version”=”14.0.0.0”

Outlook 2007 Performance Troubleshooting Checklist

Outlook performance cases and issues can be one of the more difficult items to troubleshoot when dealing with messaging. In some cases it can be isolated to one item like physical performance issues on the Exchange server or potentially a 3rd party add-in which often happens. The most important thing to consider is that it is possible that is an amalgamation of many different things or different portions of the client to server Path which would encompass the following:

OutlookNetworkServer

As mentioned above we need to look at how the round trip of the MAPI request takes to complete the full circle from the Outlook client, through the network, and fetched off the server. Looking at just the client portion of this trifecta we can help alleviate some of the “performance pain” which is all based on the following article “How to troubleshoot performance issues in Outlook 2007”, *http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=940226. The main focus and overall recommendation for an Outlook clients is to have the client in what is called cached mode. There are many benefits of having you mail locally “cached” and like portable mail access, independency of network connectivity, local search and indexing, less burden to shared mail servers, and potential increased storage on the backend assuming less expensive disks are used on Exchange.

While not all users may conform to these 100%, it is important to understand that we should expect delays if we can’t hold to some of the known limitations if the user insists to be in “online” because of a misconceptions that cached mode is bad which may not be the case. Below are some of these common items to consider that are considered potential issues with cached mode”

1. Reduce Non-Default COM Addis: Outlook 2007 has the capability to have add ins that literally hook into Outlook to connect to the mail system. These can range from Anti-Virus plug ins, business applications (e.g. Interwoven), and data sharing applications. These add ins can cause huge performance hits against a workstation when loading and using Outlook. We starting to look at performance issues make sure to unload all non Outlook adds under COM adding and Exchange Client Extension found under tools, Trust Center, Add ins. Below is the list of the Microsoft shipped default addins:

COM add-ins
Microsoft Access Outlook Add-in for Data Collection and Publishing
Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging
Microsoft Office Groove Proxy for Outlook Add-in
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Colleague Import Add-in
Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile Service
Microsoft VBA for Outlook Add-in
OneNote Notes about Outlook Items
Windows Search E-mail Indexer
Exchange Client Extensions
Delegate Access
Deleted Item Recovery
Exchange Extensions commands
Exchange Extensions property pages

2. Have Outlook SP2 or greater: Build 12.0.6423 of Outlook 2007 incorporated major performance improvements in the product. Having a lower version will have a detrimental effect on how many items per folder and size of the OST files
3. Have less than 15,000 items: In any folder, especially the inbox, the item count is recommended to be below 15,000 assuming the client is using Outlook SP2 build as mentioned in recommendation 1. This can also be a problem with Outlook 2007 in online mode (non cached) since we have to deal with physically building this view on the Exchange server and transmitting the results via RPC back to the client. Have custom (non-default) views in addition to large item counts can aggravate the slowness even more.
4. Have less than 5GB OST file: The new build of Outlook SP2 (12.0.6423 or greater) busted through the performance barrier with OST files which was limited to 2GB originally. The newer version of Outlook 2007 you can expect the following as outlined in the “How to troubleshoot performance issues in Outlook 2007” article:

• 25GB: This size increases the frequency of the short pauses, especially while you are downloading new e-mail. As described above, you can use Send/Receive groups to manually sync your mail.

5. Use Very Fast local Hard Drive: Since Outlook 2007 in cache mode will store the OST have a fast drive that is not over burden with other I/O from other applications or system process (e.g. background Anti-virus and/or defragmentation tools) is absolutely critical for best user experience. If slower 5400rpm or Solid State Drive (pre September 2008) that perform less than 40MB/sec are in workstations the expected performance with Outlook 2007 will be poor.
6. Use Folder Synchronization Filters: By default the Offline Folders in Outlook will synchronize every item in every folder regardless to whether or not the user will truly needed it. You can within outlook make certain messages become “hidden” and unavailable to be download but they still exist on the server. The downside to this is that the user will not be able to see if the message is actually there or not unless the user removed the filter in Outlook 2007 cached mode, go to Outlook 2007 online mode, or use Outlook Web Access. For more information on this please see
7. Limit the amount of custom Views: The default views in Outlook will work best for view and rendering items quicker. We recommend using “Arranged By: Date” because as mentioned any other view will add to the overhead and create a potential “slow” Outlook 2007 experience. One thing that a user can try is to see if any views have become corrupted that can cause severe performance problems in which I have seen Outlook 2007 slow cases become solved by using this switch. This can be corrected by using running outlook in the run command line with the syntax “outlook.exe /cleanviews”. To get a good understanding of views and even associated item count please look at the article, “Understanding the Performance Impact of High Item Counts and Restricted Views” found at *http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc535025(EXCHG.80).aspx
8. Limit amount of open mailboxes: In outlook the user has the ability to add multiple mailboxes to load on startup. This will always increase the load time as you are literally connecting and logging onto an alternate mailbox, potentially even on another Exchange server that may or may not be experiencing performance issues.
9. Verify that PST Null Free on Close does not Exist: If there was an Outlook client that was upgraded from a previous build (pre-Outlook 2007 SP2). We have found issues that if the following key exists and is set to 1
Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice12.0OutlookPST
DWORD: PstNullFreeOnClose (needs to be at 0, not 1)
10. Clean out Calendar Stubs: Over time the use of Outlook will remember which shared calendars that you may have opened up in the past. Having these still present, especially if the user no longer exist in the organization, can cause a slight delay when switching from mail to Calendars (usually after around 20 minutes). One item that has helped out a lot is to clear out the shared calendar stubs by using the “outlook.exe /cleansharing” command from the run command. For more information on this switch and many others that are available please see the following:
11. Uncheck Outlook integration if presence is not needed in Outlook: Outlook 2007 can interfaces with OCS (Office Communicator Server) for presence information. This can be disabled so that outlook will not attempt to search for a server and user presence to prevent unnecessary delays. In order to disable this feature, click on Options on the Tools menu and then unchecked the box next to “Display online status next to a person name check box under Person Names”

New Updates for Exchange 2010 SP1 and Exchange 2007 SP3

Thought you might like to know that we have some new Rollup have been release for Exchange 2010 SP1 and Exchange 2007 SP3.

Exchange 2010 SP1 RU2

– Documentation: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2425179
– Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=0059546f-f43d-4c7e-8367-81c6d5642bf3&displaylang=en

Exchange 2007 SP3 RU2

– Documentation: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2407025
– Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=eb4c9729-75cb-4126-aabe-5a7c66901c79&displaylang=en

New Version of PAL 2.0 (Performance Analysis of Logs)

PAL has been such a fantastic tool for troubleshooting perf issues with Exchange and other Microsoft applications. I highly anyone that used previous versions or have never downloaded and played around to give a shot! Clint Huffman, Mike Lagase, and the other contributers have clearly outdone themselves this time. To try the latest version, go try it here:

http://pal.codeplex.com/

Great Outlook 2010 resource blog recommendation

I ran across this excellent blog from the Office product team and was able to learn some interesting calendaring features that were introduced in Outlook 2010. I have to admit that working mainly on Exchange that I just don’t get to know all the neat tricks that you can do with Outlook and am surprised sometimes with what can be leveraged. This resource is great to help keep your Outlook Information Worker Ninja skills sharp. Enjoy!

The official blog of the Microsoft Outlook product team
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/outlook/

Does Exchange 2010 allow Public Folder via IMAP4 or not?

I had a customer ask about IMAP4 access to public folders when they were designing their 2010 transition plans because there is some ambiguity out there. If you dig around on the internet you may see a few links (and blogs) that has conflicting information: 

Understanding Public Folders
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397221.aspx
Discontinued Features and De-Emphasized Functionality
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998911.aspx
Understanding POP3 and IMAP4
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124107.aspx

The first article titled Understanding Public Folders states that “In Exchange 2010, the following client applications can access public folders: Outlook 2010 ,Outlook 2007, Outlook 2003, Client applications compatible with IMAP4, such as Outlook Express”. 

The second article called Discontinued Features and De-Emphasized Functionality mentions that “If you need this functionality, retain an Exchange 2003 server in your Exchange 2010 organization“.

And while the third article mentioned above, Understanding POP3 and IMAP4 says “IMAP4 also supports public folder access.”  A bit confusing to say the least!

So what is true? Overall, the truth is that we don’t have public folder access via IMAP4 and haven’t had it since Exchange 2003. We removed PF access through IMAP4 with the release of Exchange 2007 which is mentioned in Terry Myerson’s blog about E12 back in 2006. http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/02/20/419994.aspx

Social Networks Feeds for Joe Trombley’s Microsoft Exchange PFE Tech Update

If you like to use Twitter, Facebook, and/or LinkedIn I have feeds from this blog published to them as well. To get update feeds on Exchange or use them to start a conversation fell free to follow me at the following networks.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=147970698548006#!/pages/Microsoft-Exchange-PFE-Tech-Update/147970698548006
Twitter: http://twitter.com/joetrombley
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joe-trombley/2/455/26

New IT Showcase Whitepaper: How Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 MSIT Showcase Whitepaper

For the past few months while onsite I have been asked.. “Joe, how does Microsoft designed and implement Exchange 2010 and when will you have a case study?”

Often we talk about mailbox sizes, amount of Database Availability Groups nodes, storage design/RAID, etc. and how that may or may not work in their environment. Now the wait is over! Go check out our July 2010 whitepaper that talks all about how we did IT:

Exchange Server 2010 Design and Architecture at Microsoft:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff829232.aspx#_Toc266439880

Friends Don’t let Friends do PSTs

One of the many discussions that come up often over the years while onsite has to deal with the concern of PST files that are saved throughout the network. Microsoft future direction with the product is to try to de-emphasize the usage of the PST as we see in the archive mailbox feature in Exchange 2010.

Not only are they hard to back up, but they also can lead to discovery issues, potential data loss if they become corrupt, or harder to get to the necessary data via mobile devices or OWA for instance. One of the biggest things is that PSTs are not supported on a file server while Outlook has these files opened which has been the case for many years. This unsupported scenario is mentioned below:

Personal folder files are unsupported over a LAN or over a WAN link
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297019/en-us

Also, this configuration can cause severe windows kernel resource depletion because of how NTFS handles PST files. The windows performance team wrote a very interesting blog that goes over this very big risk:

Network Stored PST files … don’t do it!
http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/01/21/network-stored-pst-files-don-t-do-it.aspx

One way it is possible is to restrict the creation or further use of PSTs. There are registry entries that you can deploy via group policy that prevent users growing the current size of PSTs all the way to no PSTs at all. For more information about this please see the following:

A network administrator can add the DisablePST registry value to a registry key so that all the users of a computer cannot create or access Outlook .pst files in Outlook 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896515

How to configure the size limit for both (.pst) and (.ost) files in Outlook 2007 and in Outlook 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=832925

Welcome to my new Blog!

Hello my name is Joe Trombley and I am a Senior Premier Field Engineer employeed with Microsoft. I currently have my Exchange 2007 Certified Master designation but have been working mostly with Exchange 2010 all this year. I have enjoyed this position since May 2004 so I guess I am one of the “old timers” on the team. I will be posting items that I find, news relating to Exchange, and answering questions that you may have. Currently I work. Please feel free to post your questions on the blog or ping me directly at jotrom at microsoft DOT com.