Cloud Computing

The Exchange toolbox has always been a loose collection of utility programs gathered from the highways and byways within Microsoft. Some of the utilities come from the Exchange development group, and some, including the extremely useful Remote Connectivity Analyzer (ExRCA) are developed by people who aren’t part of the product group. It seems like the general rush in Exchange 2013 to drop everything related to the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) framework and embrace the browser paradigm for management in the form of the Exchange Management Center (EAC) has caused a clear-out of the toolbox, which now boasts just three entries (see below) instead of the twelve provided with Exchange 2010. Dropping MMC wherever possible seems like a really good idea, especially in view of the fact that MMC caused some problems for Exchange 2010 SP1 last year. Of course, the move to EAC was well under way by then as it builds on the principles established by the Exchange 2010 Control Panel (ECP) and Exchange 2013 was ramping up for its beta versions and I doubt that anyone in the Exchange team shed any tears at the demise of MMC. It’s understandable that the reason to drop some of the utilities is “progress”. For example, it probably does not make much sense to continue shipping the public folder management console when a) it’s built on MMC and b) Microsoft would really like any of you who use public folders to try their super-duper modern versions, which can be managed through EAC. Of course, during the migration process you can continue to use the public folder management console on an Exchange 2010 server or a workstation where you have installed the Exchange 2010 management tools. Other utilities, such as the RBAC editor and delivery reports (aka message tracking), are now part of EAC. However, one big change – and one that removes quite a lot of value – is that the Message Tracking Log Explorer (MTE) is dropped. I can’t quite think of a good reason why this decision was t

byITPro Today