This blog post is probably out of date. If you want to set up Exchange ActiveSync, you should instead consult one my guides:
	iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Setup		iPad Exchange ActiveSync Setup
	iPhone ActiveSync Troubleshooting		iPad ActiveSync Troubleshooting

Is your non-3GS iPhone locked out of your Exchange 2007 ActiveSync server after upgrading to iPhone OS 3.1? It’s a feature, not a bug! Here’s how to get older iPhones up and running with Exchange Server 2007 SP1!

What’s The Problem?

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 added a feature to require mobile ActiveSync devices to encrypt data, enhancing security. Before iPhone OS 3.1, all iPhones incorrectly told the Exchange server that they supported on-device encryption. This allowed all iPhone hardware to function with Exchange 2007 SP1 servers that required device encryption. But original and 3G iPhones do not support device encryption, undermining corporate security policies.

The iPhone 3GS hardware actually does support device encryption, and iPhone OS 3.1 correctly reports this capability. But iPhone OS 3.1 also (correctly) reports that earlier hardware (the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G) does not support device encryption, so some Exchange 2007 SP1 servers refuse to allow them to connect. Oops!

What’s The Solution?

There are four possible solutions, three of which require IT assistance. Your Exchange administrator can research the meaning and implications of these options:

1. Disabling device encryption allows all iPhones to connect, but does not force any Exchange ActiveSync device to encrypt data. This is not a great solution from a security perspective, so don’t bother trying to convince IT to implement it!
2. Allowing non-provisionable devices enables all iPhones to connect but weakens security in general, allowing each device to enforce or ignore policies. This is a slightly better solution, since encrypting devices like the iPhone 3GS will encrypt, but it’s still not a great idea.
3. Creating a special policy for “old” iPhones and applying it selectively is probably more acceptable. Administrators can allow certain users to ignore the device encryption policy but still apply it to all others. This commandlet (from Krypted) will create such a policy:
   New-ActiveSyncMailboxPolicy -Name iPhone -AllowNonProvisionableDevices $true
4. Upgrading to an iPhone 3GS is probably the best answer. IT doesn’t need to get involved (as long as you know how to configure Exchange ActiveSync) and no security policies need to be weakened to make it work.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | How iPhone OS 3.1 Locked Some Out Of Exchange, And How To Fix It
This post was categorized as Apple. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Although my email archiving session always attracts a smaller crowd, they are all a dedicated bunch. One pertinent suggestion from an attendee was to ingest PST files into a special separate archive in order to ensure that messages recovered from it are treated with the proper skepticism. Questions after the session focused on the trick of engaging legal and business people in the decisions around email policy, truly a challenge. I suggested that an on-site mini-seminar for the relevant folks might help to break the logjam and illustrate the issues, something that I would be happy to arrange!

My storage virtualization session was once again placed in the main room, and a much larger group attended it. I was interested to hear just how great the impact of VMware’s VDC-OS had been. In just a week, a dozen or more folks in the audience had heard, comprehended, and strategized about the concept. It’s really that big! Others were very interested in the topic of green metrics for data center usage. How does one monitor and report the real “green” savings (power, carbon, cooling, space) for a virtualized environment? Although storage greenness is debatable, the savings from a virtualized server environment are real, and these often bundle in some of the storage numbers, too.

These topics are top of mind to me as well, and I will continue to investigate (and speculate) about them in the coming year. If you missed the show (or the handouts), I will be posting them here soon! Get my email address or head to LinkedIn by clicking the links in the sidebar (at top left).

Watch this space, and consider coming to my virtualization seminar in Charlotte on October 21 or to the Storage Decisions show in San Francisco, held November 17 to 19.

See my posts on Gestalt IT for similar enterprise IT infrastructure commentary

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Storage Decisions New York 2008 Feedback
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

The answer to this question can vary greatly based on conditions, but it is always a solvable problem.  Email is a unique application, and is especially interesting when it comes to litigation and e-discovery, so creating a corporate policy for retention, and implementing it, is critical.  The quandry often boils down to a simple question: Is the email system a repository of business records or a temporal system for communication?  You would never implement a policy for retaining cardboard boxes or manilla folders, because you never know whether it contains an important memo (or a MacBook Air!)  But email could be considered the same way – it’s a mechanism not a data type!

Another key point is that IT often feels that it cannot unilaterally implement a retention policy without outside involvement.  This is true, to a point, but IT had better start the discussion, or they’ll be asked to implement an unreasonable (or technologically unfeasible) policy sooner or later.  Strange as it may sound, a policy that reflects the functionality of email archiving systems might be a good place to start, since this is all you can really implement anyway!

This topic is discussed in far more detail in my new whitepaper (sponsored by Symantec), How Long Should Email Be Saved? Download a copy from their web site to see more information about what a retention policy looks like, the impact of various laws and regulations, and how to get a retention project off the ground!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | How Long Should Companies Retain Email?
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.