If you missed the first part in this article series please read Managing Exchange 2007 using PowerGUI (Part 1)

In part 1 of this article series covering the PowerGUI tool, I gave you an introduction to the feature-set in the PowerGUI tool as well as showed you how easy it is to manage Exchange Server 2007 objects in bulk. In part 2 of this article series, I will continue where we left by moving on to a couple of what could be considered advanced topics. I will show you how to create additional Exchange 2007 nodes in the PowerGUI navigation tree, as well as how to manage public folders, provision mailbox users, create reports and so forth.

Creating Additional Exchange 2007 Nodes in the Navigation Tree

Although the navigation tree only shows a few Exchange Server 2007 specific nodes by default, you can easily add additional nodes as required. As shown in Figure 2.1, this is done by right-clicking on the folder or node under which you want to create a new node.

Figure 2.1: Creating additional Nodes in the navigation tree

This will open a New Node window, where you first need to type in the name of the new node. Next we need to specify the cmdlet used to perform the action required. When done, click OK to have the new node created.

For example, if we wanted to create a node that listed all Exchange 2007 Mailbox servers in the organization we would create a node similar to the one shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2: Specifying the name and cmdlet of the new node

Managing Public Folders

Another great thing about PowerGUI is that it allows you to manage public folders in an easy and efficient way. I bet those of you who already tried managing public folders from the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) are pretty frustrated right? Okay okay, I know you can manage public folders stored in an Exchange 2007 public folder database using the Exchange 2003 System Manager, but unfortunately not all of us have the option of keeping an old Exchange 2003 server in the organization just for the purpose of managing public folders.

As you can see in the PowerGUI console, there is a Public Folders node in the navigation tree. Let us click on this node. As you can see only the IPM_SUBTREE is listed here. Now let us click Subfolders under Links in the Action pane. This will list all subsfolders as shown in Figure 2.3. Currently two public folders exist here; Budgets and Marketing.

Figure 2.3: Listing Public Folders

Creating a new public folder is a straightforward task, you simply click New Folder in the Action pane and then specify the name for the public folder followed by clicking OK.

Using the tasks under Links in the Action pane, we can have client and administrative permissions listed as well as see statistics for the folders.

Figure 2.4: Listing Public Folder Client Permissions

For example, what if you wanted to mail-enable a public folder? Well although no action for this specific task exists in the Action pane, we can easily create it. To do so click Add new item under the Actions, then specify a name for the task (such as Mail-Enable), then type in the cmdlet used to mail-enable a public folder (which is Enable-MailPublicFolder), then click OK.

Note:
It is not expected that you know all these cmdlets off the top of your head, you can instead search for them using the search field to the right of the command field.

Figure 2.5: Creating a Mail-Enable Public Folder item in the Action pane

Now just select the public folder(s) that should be mail-enabled, and then click the new Mail-Enable task in the Action pane, then click Ok. To verify that the public folder(s) have been mail-enabled, expand the Recipients folder in the navigation tree - select Mail-Enabled Public folders and there you have it.

Provisioning Users

PowerGUI also gives you the option of provisioning mailbox users, which means that you can, for example, create 50 new mailbox users in a matter of a few minutes.

To provision for users using PowerGUI you first have to export at least one existing mailbox user to a .CSV file. To create the .CSV file select the respective mailbox user(s), then click Report as CSV in the Action pane. In the Report as CSV windows, specify the path for the CSV file as shown in Figure 2.6 then click OK.

Figure 2.6: Specifying the path for the mailbox user CSV file

A Notepad file containing the selected users will now be opened (Figure 2.7). After having edited this file as needed, save and close it.

Note:
In order to provision for mailbox users successfully, the .CSV file created must contain at least the following columns: UserPrincipalName, Name, Database and OrganizationalUnit, Password otherwise the import will fail.

Figure 2.7: List of Mailbox users to be provisioned

Now in order to provision for the new mailbox users, click Create from CSV file in the Action pane, then specify the path to the CSV file you previously created and click OK.

Figure 2.8: Importing the CSV file

You have now provisioned the new mailbox users specified in the CSV file (Figure 2.9).

Figure 2.9: List of New Mailbox Users

Reporting

PowerGUI also gives us the option of creating reports with all kinds of information in them. For example, we could create a report that includes a list of all Mailbox users and their associated mailbox limit. We could also make a report of all the different Exchange 2007 servers in the organization etc. The cool thing about the reporting feature is that you can export it directly to an HTML file besides XML and CSV files.

To create an HTML report simply select the objects in PowerGUI, then click Report as HTML in the Action pane. Figure 2.10 below shows us a simple list of the Mailbox users in the organization.

Figure 2.10: Basic Mailbox User Report

Conclusion

Throughout this article series, I have shown you how, with the help of PowerGUI, it is possible to manage mailbox users, public folders and other Exchange server objects in bulk. In addition, you have seen how to provision mailbox users, and create reports etc. Needless to say, we have only touched the surface of what is possible with PowerGUI, but I hope you got an understanding of how powerful this tool actually is. In addition it is worthwhile to note that PowerGUI can also be used to manage all other types of objects. Currently you can use PowerGUI to manage systems based on Windows PowerShell technology. At the time of writing, these include Windows XP/Vista, Windows Server 2003/2008, Operations Manager 2007, SQL, networking and other new systems from Microsoft, but keep an eye on http://www.powergui.org as there constantly are new PowerPacks uploaded to library.

That was all for this time, I hope you enjoyed the reading…

If you don't have read Managing Exchange 2007 using PowerGUI (Part 1) click HERE!

If you would like to read the next part in this article series please go to Managing Exchange 2007 using PowerGUI (Part 2)

Introduction

In Exchange Server 2007, management of single recipients, databases, servers and other objects can typically be performed from within the Exchange Management Console, but when you are required to perform bulk changes of one or more of these objects, you need to turn to the new Exchange Management Shell (EMS). Although the Exchange Product group did everything in their power to make managing tasks via the EMS as easy, simple, and painless as possible, Exchange administrators with no scripting experience at all can find it extremely difficult to manage objects using this new command shell. Because a lot of work went into creating consistent verb-noun pairs (aka cmdlet’s), most Exchange administrators don’t have a problem issuing single cmdlet’s such as Move-Mailbox or Get-MailboxDatabase, but as soon as it comes to using piping (meaning one cmdlet makes use of the output of another cmdlet) or simply modifying objects in bulk, most Exchange administrators get stuck.

In addition to the above, the frustrated Exchange administrators have to use the EMS to manage public folders, POP3/IMAP4 access and many other Exchange 2007 features until Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 RTWs.

So what can you do to begin mastering the Exchange 2007 cmdlets? Well this is where PowerGUI comes into the picture. PowerGUI is a freeware tool developed by Dmitry Sotnikov who’s a CTO in the Windows Management group at Quest Software. PowerGUI is an extensible graphical administrative console, which you can use to manage systems based on Windows PowerShell technology. At the time of this writing this includes Windows XP/Vista, Windows Server 2003/2008, Operations Manager 2007 and other new systems from Microsoft. As I’ll show you throughout this articles series, PowerGUI allows you to use the rich capabilities of Windows PowerShell in a familiar and intuitive GUI console.

Alrighty, we have covered enough background information now let’s get started…

Installing PowerGUI

First thing we want to do is to download the latest version of PowerGUI (which at the time of this writing is version 1.0.6 beta) from the PowerGUI.org site. Then we simply launch the PowerGUI.msi package in order to begin the installation process. On the first page, click Next as shown in Figure 1.1.

In this article series, we’ll install PowerGUI directly on an Exchange 2007 server, but you could also install the tool on another server or Windows XP client with the Windows 2003 AdminPak and Exchange 2007 System Management tools installed.

Figure 1.1: PowerGUI Installation Wizard – Welcome Page

Now accept the license agreement and click Next once again. This brings us to the User Information page, which you should fill out and then click Next.

On the Select Features page, we can select which PowerPacks we want to install. As you can see in Figure 1.2, the PowerPack for Exchange 2007 is selected by default, so we can just click Next.

Figure 1.2: PowerGUI – Selecting Features to be installed

All necessary information has now been collected by the Installation Wizard, and we can click Next in order to let the actual installation to begin. When the installation has completed, click Finish as shown in Figure 1.3.

Figure 1.3: Completing the PowerGUI Installation

Using PowerGUI to Manage Exchange Server 2007

With PowerGUI installed, we can launch the application by clicking Start > All Programs > PowerGUI (Figure 1.4).

Figure 1.4: Launching PowerGUI

When PowerGUI has been launched you’ll see a screen similar to the one in Figure 1.5. This is the main console from where we, in this case, can manage Exchange Server 2007 objects.

Figure 1.5: PowerGUI Main Console

As you can see, the PowerGUI console looks very similar to a traditional MMC, it has a navigation tree, a work pane and an action pane as you’ll see in a moment.

Managing Mailbox Users

The first thing I wanted to show you is how you can manage mailbox users in bulk. To see a list of all mailbox users, click the Mailboxes object under the Recipients container. This will give us a list of all mailbox user objects (Figure 1.6), where the Name of the user, Alias, ServerName, and ProhibitSendQuota are the mailbox properties that are listed by default.

Figure 1.6: Listing Mailbox User Objects

If you want to have additional mailbox properties listed, you can right click on one of the columns, then choose the respective mailbox properties on the context menu as shown in Figure 1.7 below.

Figure 1.7: Selecting Mailbox Properties

Clicking More will reveal a complete list with all properties that are available for a mailbox-enabled user object (Figure 1.8).

Figure 1.8: List of additional Mailbox Properties

Let’s switch back to the main PowerGUI console again. As you could see back in Figure 1.6, the Prohibit Send Quota for my mailbox is set to 5GB (5000000KB). Let’s try to set this same quota for the rest of the mailbox recipients (which are all currently set to unlimited). To do so, we first need to select each of the users by holding down CTRL while clicking on each of them, or by clicking CRTL+A to select all, then de-select the mailbox already configured with this limit. When the respective mailbox recipients have been selected, click Change Properties in the Action Pane. This will bring up the Change Properties Parameters window shown in Figure 1.9. Here we need to scroll down to the ProhibitSendQuota property, and then specify the new value followed by clicking OK.

Figure 1.9: Changing ProhibitSendQuota for selected Mailbox Users

That was pretty easy right?

Exposed Cmdlet Code

Just like is the case with the wizards in the Exchange Management Console, you have the option of seeing the exact PowerShell commands used to perform specific tasks. This is done by clicking the PowerShell Code tab in bottom of the work pane (Figure 1.10). This gives you the option of reusing the code in a custom PowerShell script etc.

Figure 1.10: Exposed PowerShell Code

Search Filters

PowerGUI also gives you the option of filtering objects in a similar way as to how filtering works within the Exchange Management Console (you can even create multiple filters) by clicking the Filters in the top of the work pane as shown in Figure 1.11.

Figure 1.11: Using Search Filters

That was it for part 1 of this article series covering the PowerGUI tool, but you can look forward to part 2 which will be published in a near future. Until then have a nice one!

If you would like to read the next part in this article series please go to Managing Exchange 2007 using PowerGUI (Part 2)