Maintenance & Monitoring Exchange Environment Tzahi Kolber IT Supervisor - Polycom Israel

What will we cover: Exchange Maintenance types. Exchange Frequent Maintenance. Exchange Server 2003 Monitoring. Exchange Server 2007 Monitoring & Reporting.

Problems and Concerns Maintenance: Keep server running with the minimum of downtime (do it as faster as possible). Maintain the server for getting the best performance ALL the time. Prevent security issues that can harm the / crash the server (WU / AV, open ports etc). Different maintenance plan to different intervals (Daily / Weekly / Monthly…). DRP / Backups / Network load? Monitoring: Dynamically change the monitoring parameters VS. the server changes (HW / Performance / etc). Use different ways for alert ( / SMS / Monitor). Use different ways for alert ( / SMS / Monitor).

Maintenance

Exchange maintenance types Online Maintenance. Manual maintenance base on frequent time frame (including security maintenance for the OS and Apps). DRP / Backups / Network.

Not clash with backup schedules Database size (what recommended VS. what can be done). Purge Indices (public and mailbox stores) Tombstone Maintenance (public and mailbox stores) Dumpster Cleanup (public and mailbox stores) Cleanup Deleted Mailboxes (mailbox stores) Events for each Database processed 700 Defrag Started 701 Defrag Ended 1221 The Defrag ended and the amount of free space in DB. Online Maintenance

/D = Defrag Mode New signatures Log files mismatch, immediate backup required /T can be used to specify alternate location for the temp files /M = Dump headers (/ML, /MK, /MH) /R = Recovery performs soft recovery /K = Integrity Check for Snapshots /G = Checks Integrity at the ESE Level No Changes Are Made, This is a reporting Tool /F = Copy Mode /C = Hard Recovery Mode (direct to restore.env) /CC = Force Hard Recovery /CM Dump the restore.env file header /P = Repair /P/CreateSTM When to perform a repair /p  /d  “Isinteg –fix –test alltests” ESEUtil switches

Dumping File Headers using ESEUtil Database Header Database signature, log signature State: Consistent or Inconsistent Checkpoint Header Shows checkpoint log file and signature Transaction Log File Headers Generation number Log file signature The attached databases

Offline Defrag – Yes / No ??? What should I consider before offline defrag? - Backup, Backup, Backup – ALL three !!! How frequent should I defrag the DB: - Depends on 1221 event and disk space that you have. What options do I have? - Most common: eseutil /d priv1.edb /te:\tempedb.edb (e - is the alternet location). What should I consider after offline defrag? - Backup, Backup, Backup – ALL three !!! Main reason – signature changes.

Exchange Daily / Weekly maintenance Examine the Windows Event Logs for Exchange warnings and errors. Check Backup Jobs. Check Performance Monitors / task manager. Check disk usage / connectors status. Check Security (AV / WU / etc) Updates. Check Security (AV / WU / etc) Updates. us/library/aa aspx us/library/aa aspx

chain Monthly maintenance Security Checks (penetration tests). Security Checks (penetration tests). Capacity Planning (mailboxes / HW load, Network). Capacity Planning (mailboxes / HW load, Network). Disaster Recovery Tests (Backup / Restore, including AD). Document changes in the chain (components, HW, drive letters, etc). us/library/aa aspx us/library/aa aspx amilyid=c5133f35-8e b31c- bfd1dc09ab1e&displaylang=en amilyid=c5133f35-8e b31c- bfd1dc09ab1e&displaylang=en amilyid=c5133f35-8e b31c- bfd1dc09ab1e&displaylang=en amilyid=c5133f35-8e b31c- bfd1dc09ab1e&displaylang=en

DRP / Backups / Network. Check options for DRP compatibilities: Storage (snapshots), Geo Cluster, Cluster, Dual NIC, Mirror disks, LCR, CCR. Check backups by restoring DB to RSG, save tapes in off site, check backups logs. Keep documents of the mail flow & Exchange configuration. Keep printed procedures in case of DR. Check Network performance, updated driver’s NICs, use VLANs if possible.

Exchange Monitoring Many excellent monitoring software ($$$...) - CA: TNG Unicenter. - HP: OVO. - Microsoft: MOM NetIQ: AppManager 7 Many good (built in) software – Free !!! - Performance Monitor. - Exchange Notification services. - SNMP based monitoring that arrives with the hardware vendors (CIM, Tivoli, Open Manage).

Exchange Monitoring - using perfmon Configure performance monitor in Administrative Tools to set thresholds and alerts. Use it not only for Exchange….

Exchange 2007 Monitoring & Reporting Get-PublicFolderStatistics -Identity \Marketing | fl Get-MailboxStatistics -Database "Mailbox Database" Get-MailboxStatistics | Where {$_.DisconnectDate - ne $null} get-MailboxStatistics | select DisplayName, TotalItemSize, TotalDeletedItemsize, DatabaseName | format-table or export-csv c:\mbexport.csv get-mailbox -filter {Office -eq “Boston” } | select name,office, *quota | sort name | export-csv export.csv

EXBPA – Exchange Best practice Analayzer. EXBPA collects settings and values from data repositories such as Active Directory, registry, metabase and performance monitor. EXBPA analyze the data and create reports and solutions in order to achieve greater performance, scalability and uptime. Built in Exchange 2007 (including updates). aspx?familyid=DBAB201F-4BEE AC22-E2DDBD258DF3 aspx?familyid=DBAB201F-4BEE AC22-E2DDBD258DF3

Some Useful links…… ases.htm ases.htm ESEUTIL.html ESEUTIL.html F-4BEE-4943-AC22-E2DDBD258DF3&displaylang=en F-4BEE-4943-AC22-E2DDBD258DF3&displaylang=en MOM-2005-Part1.html MOM-2005-Part1.html

Questions? Thank you !