Montoring and Troubleshooting

Tools

Remote Connectivity analyzer

Queue Viewer

Delivery Reports - msg tracking tool up to 14 days.  delivery status to/from user. 

Auditing 

Tools in Exchange Online Preview or Online Protection Service: Message Trace

 Limited tools. Consider 3rd party tools such as MS Systems Operations Manager

High queue count means trouble

Server Health and Performance
Managed Availabilty is a concept that has two services (health manager worker process and health manager service)

the purpose of these services is to take measurements, monitor and respond when alerted that a component is unhealthy

workload management has components to assist with health and performance

An exchange workload can be a server feature, a protocol or a service defined as an exchange system resource management

workloads are monitored and there are system resouce health indicators to measure the health

there are system resource thresholds that when met kick off reactions in some cases throttling



Test cmdlets (32 total)

test-servicehealth
test-mailflow
test-smtpconnectivity
test-outlookconnectivity

Disaster recovery

built-in backup technology support

with exchange 2010/2013, ESE streaming backup is no longer supported.  Volume shadow copy service (VSS) backups are supported which is faster solution. 


VSS Writer changes in 2013.  Windows server backup is Exchange-aware.

• exchange 2007/2010 included two VSS writers
• one writer in the MS Exchange Information Store and other inside the MS Exchange Replication service

With Exchange 2013  all functionality is now in the MS Exchange Replication service.

• new writer is called MS Exchange Writer
• used by Exchange-aware VSS-based applicaition to backup both active and passive DB copies.

Windows Server Backup

exchange 2013 has a VSS plug-in that allows it to work with Windows Server Backup and get a VSS-based backup.

• the new plug-in called WSBExchange.exe and is installed by default.
• Windows server backup feature needs to be enabled on Mailbox server.
• point-in-time backup
• These backups are the volume level meaning they capture the entire volume
• Can only restore Exchange data to original or alternate location
•  Can't restore to a recovery database (RDB)
•  Only full backup scan be taken

add feature

Restore

option to restore application

exchange database that were backed up.

restore to original or alternate location.











Data Protection Manager

System Center Data Protection Manager (SC DPM) 2012 is designed to provide Continuous Data Protection (CDP) for Exchange. 


3rd party solutions offer more flexibility than SCDPM.

Dell AppAssure
Veeam Backup and Replication
CommVault Simpana


 Server Recovery

Most of the settings for an Exchange server are stored in AD.

To recover a lost server you use the Setup /m:RecoverServer switch

• Reset server name account. then set up server with same name then add to domain.
• Install all the prerequisites for Exchange and initiate recovery and reconnect back to AD and rebuild it as a clone to the failed exchange server.

Recovery Database (RDB)

a recovery database is a special mailbox database that allows you to mount a restored database and extract data from it over to a production database.

the benefit of the RDB is that you can restore a mailbox or inidividual mailbox items without upsetting the normal flow of your production database which is still mounted and working

You create an RDB through the EMS and not in Ex Admn Center

mail can't be sent to it.  users can't connect to their mailbox.  restore data must be extracted and merged to active mailbox.

 Using a recovery database

You can use an RDB to recover data through one of the following:

• same or alternate server dial tone recovery
• mailbox recovery (copy to a target folder or merge with another mailbox)
• specific item recovery

To create a recovery database you use the following EMS command

New-MailboxDatabase-Recovery-Name RDB1 -Server ServerMB1

Database Portability and Dial Tone Recovery

you can move and mount any database to any other mailbox server within same exchange organization

Dial tone recovery allows you to get your people up and running with mailboxes but their existing mailbox data is missing

• you restore the mailbox data into the recovery database and merge the two when you are ready

High Availability and Site Resilience

Si vis pacem, para bellum = if you wish for peace, prepare for war"

database file *.edb file and transaction logs 1 MB in size to provide consistent storage

emails are written to transaction logs then committed to database






continuous replications

database is initially copied and then log files are shipped and replayed constantly to keep the database up-to-date

system 1 is active and passive copy on one or more system.  trans logs shipped and replayed into it.


database may not in sync and data lost during a crash

passive can be set to lag changes from Active to help preventing active corrupted database corrupting the passive database .  ie transaction logs are x hours behind the active/passive database copy.



database availability group

uses continuous replication.  allows up to 16 mailbox servers that hosts a set of replicated databases.

if active database fails, automatic failover to a passive database using Active Manager an Exchange component running inside Exchange Replication service.

Creating a DAG is 3 step process

• create a DAG (15 Character name)

• add mailbox servers to the DAG (up to 16)

• determine passive copies of your active database(s)
• lag database (optional)

 split brain syndrom - active and passive becomes "active" thinking the other is down.

Wintess server and witness directory

DAg witness server and directory are only used for quorum (referee) purposes when you have an even number of DAG members.  witness server can't be a member of the DAG as well.

before becoming active, it checks with witness server which confirms the outage.

in 2008 R2, manually create in AD
and register within subsystem

blank creates default path is created in system drive folder "agfilesharewitnesses"

Add member servers

exchange uses Windows Failover clustering services

 up to 16 member server can be added

static IP can be used for avalability group IP

copy database to passive

sepcify where to copy to.  activation preference is overridden by Active Manager if needed.

"seeding" - copying initial copy.

updates are then done through continuous repilcation

summary of DAG protected vs regular database.






index state is healthy

Unified Messaging

released as a separate server role with exchange 2007, the UM services have been enhanced with each service pack and major release.  UM provides for a universal Inbox of email, voicemail and incoming faxes if implemented.

UM is built into the mailbox server role to provide for a universal inbox of email , voicemail and incoming fax.  used to be a seperate server role.  now part of mailbox server role installation.

UM does not eliminate PBX or VoIP phone system.  it enhances the voicemail feature to be integrated with exchange

Um featrures

outlook voice access (OVA) - call inbox to access VM, email, calendar, contacts (all read to the user with text to speech)

voice mail preview - uses speech to text to take a voicemail and put a preview in your mailbox. uses best guess words

incoming fax - requier fax vendor allow faxes to be sent to your inbox in tif format

play on phone - allow user to play their voicemail on a phone rather than PC speaker

auto attendant - default prompts but can be company specific prompts

 

UM configuration

deploy and configure telephony components

• - provision PBX line, organize channels and deploy voIp gateways

Configure UM elements

• create Um dial plan
• create and config your Um IP gateways
• create and config UM mailbox policy
• create and config UM auto attendants (optional)

Enable users, associate a policy and configure their PIN settings

Addittional configuration settings shown when editing.

UM Mailbox policy

UM IP Gateway

Hunt group added to dial plan



















Auto Attendant

A fallback auto attendant without "respond to voice commands" enabled.

Call stats/Reports

Enable for a user

Enable from user's mailbox account.