Exchange 2010 SP2: Changes to the MRSProxy Service Configuration
Although it’s a minor one, it’s worth mentioning another change introduced by Exchange 2010 SP2 this time revolving around the Mailbox Replication Proxy Service (aka MRSProxy service). So as some of you know, the MRSProxy service helps facilitate cross-forest mailbox move requests. Its often used when performing a cross-forest migration from a legacy Exchange organization (containing at least one Exchange 2010 CAS server as the MRSProxy must be enabled in the source organization) to an Exchange 2010 organization. The MRSProxy makes mailbox move requests more seamless because it, among other things, encapsulates all communication between the organizations in HTTPS packets (read more details in the Exchange 2010 documentation on TechNet). If an organization decides to move to Exchange Online in Office 365 and the organization uses the rich coexistence scenario, they also use the MRSProxy, which means that its required to deploy at least one Exchange 2010 CAS server in the on-premise organization.
So up until Exchange 2010 SP2, the MRSProxy was disabled by default. And if you needed to enable it, you had to do so via the EWS “web.config” file located under “C:\Program Files\Exchange Server\V14\Client Access\exchweb\ews”.
In the bottom of this file, you needed to change IsEnabled=”false” to IsEnabled=”true” then save the file and restart the Exchange MRS service.
I’ve often wondered why the MRSProxy wasn’t enabled by default but guess this has to do with the relatively few cross-forest migrations that occur compared (at least compared to Exchange 2010 upgrades).
But now that Office 365 is here, it makes even more sense to enable it or at least make it easier to enable and disable it. Well guess what? Exchange 2010 SP2 does exactly that. With Exchange 2010 SP2, we can now enable and disable the MRSProxy using the “Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory” cmdlet. We can also configure the MRS connection limit using this cmdlet. For instance, if I wanted to enable MRSProxy and configure a connection limit to 100, I could use this command:
Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -Identity “EWS (Default Web Site)” -MRSProxyEnabled $true –MRSProxyMaxConnections 100
Much easier right?
Until later,
Henrik Walther
Technology Architect/Writer/MS Vendor
MCM: Exchange Server | MVP: Exchange Architecture
Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack (SP2) is released! - MCS UK Unified Communications Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs Says:
December 6th, 2011 at 3:15 am
[…] Henrik Walther: Changes to the MRSProxy Service Configuration […]
Carl lee Says:
December 14th, 2011 at 2:21 pm
not sure if the comment above says it. But the cmdlet you typed and the one in the image are different. you are missing the “Proxy” part in the MRSMPROXYMaxConnections.
but awesome stuff. thanks!
Henrik Walther Says:
December 19th, 2011 at 2:35 am
Yeap that was a doc bug. I’ve updated.
Thanks,
Henrik
Hamid Aiche Says:
January 15th, 2012 at 9:27 am
Hi Henrik,
i am actually playing with a lab to prepare a cross migration (exchange 2003 to an Exchange 2010 Resource forest). Of course, i had to use the new SP2 version of Exchange 2010.
Until now, everything was working like a charm (Trust between forests, prepare-move-request, …)
But whe i try to do a new-move-request, i got a strange error :
Microsoft.Exchange.MailboxReplicationService’ encountered an exception. Eror: An Active Directory error 0×51 occurred when trying to check the suitability of server ‘dc001.source.com’. Error: ‘Active directory response: The LDAP server is unavailable.’
Its true that all servers are running under Hyper-v but everyhing seems to be working as expected.
After reading your post, i start the MRSProxy like explained but nothing, i m still having the error !!
Any idea ?
Ravi Says:
January 17th, 2012 at 2:59 pm
I have a issue while performing pure Exchange 2010 SP2 cross forest mailbox move.
Error :
The call to ‘https://domainname/EWS/mrsproxy.svc’ timed out. Error details: The request channel timed out attempting to send after 00:00:06.9838244. Increase the timeout value passed to the call to Request or increase the SendTimeout value on the Binding. The time allotted to this operation may have been a portion of a longer timeout. –> The HTTP request to ‘https://domainname/EWS/mrsproxy.svc’ has exceeded the allotted timeout of 00:00:06.9830000. The time allotted to this operation may have been a portion of a longer timeout. –> The operation has timed out
On target cache servers, I have performed the below change,
Still cross forest mailbox move is failing.
Command I’m running : New-MoveRequest -Remote -TargetDatabase ‘Mailbox Database’ -RemoteHostName ‘CacheNetworkloadbalancername’ -RemoteCredential ‘System.Management.Automation.PSCredential’ -TargetDeliveryDomain ‘domainname.com’
Any help would be appreciated.
Ravi Says:
January 17th, 2012 at 3:02 pm
Forgot to paste the change performed
Mailbox Replication Proxy Service configuration
MRSProxyConfiguration
IsEnabled=”true”
MaxMRSConnections=”100″
DataImportTimeout=”00:25:00″