Shutdown/Startup scripts for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

OS: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise (64-bit)
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

Most of my work being in Identity Management, I usually try to load as many components as I can onto a single virtual machine instance. For example: Having Oracle Identity Manager alone doesn't help me much, unless I can test provisioning to Active Directory, Exchange, Oracle Database etc.

However, the downside is that each of these services typically use a LOT of memory and so I usually install them and shut them down till required. Most services (like an Oracle Database) are easy to bring up when necessary. However, I didn't find an easy way to shut down or start up Exchange services and so decided to write my own - especially since there are about 23 services that Exchange runs! I also didn't want to have a script shutting down each of the services individually.

From what I was able to analyze, the service hierarchy is as shown below.

• Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology Service
• Exchange Address Book Service
• Exchange Anti-Spam Update
• Exchange EdgeSync Service
• Exchange File Distribution Service
• IMAP4
• Mail Submission
• Mailbox Assistants
• Mailbox Replication
• POP3
• Protected Service Host
• Replication Service
• RPC Client Access Service
• Search Indexer
• Service Host
• Throttling
• Transport
• Transport Log Search
• Forms-Based Authentication Service
• Exchange Server Extension for Windows Server Backup
• Exchange Monitoring Service
• Exchange Information Store
• Exchange System Attendant

As you can see, just shutting down the AD Topology Service also shuts down 17 associated services with it. This leaves 5 other services to be shut down separately and allows me to write a simpler, smaller script file.

Type the following into notepad and save it as a .bat file and execute.

net stop MSExchangeADTopology /y
net stop MSExchangeFBA
net stop wsbexchange
net stop MSExchangeMonitoring
net stop MSExchangeIS
net stop MSExchangeSA

Memory usage with Exchange running: 1.09GB
Memory usage after Exchange was shut down: 552 MB

That saves me a cool half gig of RAM! :-)

Tip: Installing a 64-bit Virtual Machine Guest OS on a 32-bit Host

Most Operating Systems today are available in 64-bit editions – especially Server OSs. Some, like Solaris, have been truly 64-bit for ages right from their nifty SPARC processor.

So what does 64-bit mean exactly? It starts (as most things do) at the hardware level.

If the CPU is 64-bit, it just means that the CPU can address (and access) greater than 4GB of Memory (RAM). Of course, all this is pretty useless if you have a 32-bit OS installed on it.

Why? Well – if the OS is 32-bit, then all it can “see” is it’s limit of 4GB of addressable RAM - even if you have a lot more installed. So it, in turn, reports the 4GB to all the applications that sit on top of it. Think of this as an OS with 32-bit blinders on – where the OS doesn’t even know there’s more Memory installed.

This is, however, a simple description. I’m not going to go into all the details of what 64-bit computing offers in this post. I just want to cover an issue which I hit in setting up a 64-bit Guest Virtual Machine on a 32-bit Host.

These days, 64-bit edition OSs aren’t reserved for just servers, but are available right to the end user as well on personal Desktops and Laptops. Anyway, I had a need to setup a couple of virtual 64-bit OSs for testing on a 32-bit Host and hit an issue.

NOTE: If your CPU is 32-bit, ignore this post. This only works if your CPU is 64-bit and supports Virtualization Technology to begin with. Almost all 64-bit AMD and Intel processorts do support Virtualization Technology.

Problem: Unable to install a 64-bit Virtual Machine Guest OS on a 32-bit Host

My setup:

• CPU: Intel P9400
• Host OS: Windows Vista 32-bit
• Guest OSs (all 64-bit)
• Solaris 10
• Linux (Fedora Distro 12)
• Windows Server 2008 

Fix: Enable Virtualization Technology at the CPU

Details:

• Restart your computer and during bootup access the BIOS.
• Navigate to Virtualization Support > Virtualization and check the box to Enable Intel Virtualization Technology
• Boot up the Host OS
• Install the Guest OS