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Monitoring Exchange 2007 With System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Part 1)
Monitoring Exchange 2007 With System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Part 2)
Monitoring Exchange 2007 With System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Part 3)
Monitoring Exchange 2007 With System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Part 4)
Monitoring Exchange 2007 With System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Part 1)
The administration and operation of an Exchange Server 2007 infrastructure includes not only the day-to-day administrative tasks, but also the necessary operational processes and procedures that help make sure that all components in the organization's environment on which Exchange relies are healthy.
The Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack helps you do more monitoring with fewer people by monitoring the following key scenarios:
- Are all Exchange services running?
- Are all databases mounted and do disks have sufficient free space?
- Can Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 clients connect and is its performance good?
- Is the mail flowing between servers?
- Is Exchange performing efficiently and reliably?
- Is Exchange configured correctly and is it secure? For example, are regular backups being performed?
The Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack (MP) for Operations Manager 2007 contains rules to monitor a significant subset of server health indicators and create alerts when problems are detected, or when reasonable thresholds are exceeded.
The following table provides an overview of the Exchange Server 2007 MP monitoring functionality that is enabled through Operations Manager 2007:
Exchange component | Monitoring functionality |
Exchange Client Access | |
Exchange Edge Transport | |
Exchange Hub Transport | |
Exchange Mailbox | -
Information Store monitoring
-
Mailflow and MAPI connectivity monitoring
-
Performance measuring and alerting
|
Exchange Unified Messaging | |
Configuration and Security | |
Exchange Event Log monitoring | |
Table 1: Exchange 2007 MP monitoring functionalities
Solution Topology
For the purpose of writing this article, I installed the following environment on my test lab:
As you can see, I’ll be using x64 machines (virtualized on Hyper-V), with the exception of the OpsMgr server, which is a 32 bit machine.
Name | Role | Architecture | Software |
OPSMGR | Root Management Server | x86 | Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1 |
E2K7-x64 | Domain Controller Mailbox Server CAS Server HUB Transport Server | x64 | Windows Server 2008 Exchange Server 2007 SP1 + UR3 |
E2K7UM | Unified Messaging Server | x64 | Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 Exchange Server 2007 SP1 + UR3 |
E2K7EDGE | Edge Server | x64 | Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 Exchange Server 2007 SP1 + UR3 |
Table 2: List of servers
Exchange 2007 Management Pack Prerequisites
Before importing the Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007, ensure that you meet all the requirements:
-
-
-
Install the agent update specified in Knowledge Base article 950853 on all Exchange-based servers managed by Operations Manager before importing the Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack. This update addresses an agent memory leak issue.
-
Install the update specified in Knowledge Base article 951979. This update contains an updated agent restart script and fixes issues with cluster discovery.
-
If you are monitoring Exchange Server 2007 clusters, ensure that you have installed the agent update specified in Knowledge Base article 951380 on all Exchange Server 2007 cluster nodes managed by Operations Manager. This update addresses an issue with cluster discovery.
-
Install Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 - With the release of Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1, some performance counters were renamed. Specifically, the Database object was renamed to MSExchange Database (this affects the Mailbox, Hub Transport and Edge Transport roles). If Operations Manager monitors Exchange Server 2007 RTM with the version 6.0.6278.12 (or higher) of the Management Pack, agents on those servers will report missing performance counters.
Install the Hotfixes
The required hotfixes must be installed prior to the Exchange 2007 MP installation. Obtaining the required files and then installing them is not difficult. The related KB articles contain a link at the top (Figure 1) that will redirect you to Hotfix Request page.
Figure 1: Hotfix Download AvailableOnce you download the hotfix installation files, just run them on the OpsMgr server. The Hotfix from KB 951979 is different, though. It includes some updated Management Pack files that you’ll have to import. After running the Software Update (Figure 2), open the OpsMgr 2007 Operations Console. Click the Administration tab, right-click the Management Packs node and then click Import Management Packs. Browse to %ProgramFiles%\System Center 2007 Hotfix Utility\Q951979, select the required Management Packs and then click the Import button (Figure 3).
Figure 2: Hotfix Software Update 
Figure 3: Import KB951979 updated MP files Install the Exchange Server 2007 MP
Once you download the Exchange 2007 MP, double click the .msi file in order to install it. The installation is a very simple process that just extracts the required Management Pack files to the folder you choose (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Exchange 2007 MP installationIf you peek at the newly created folder, you’ll notice 4 files, 1 installation guide, 1 licensing supplemental notice and the 2 required management pack files:
- Microsoft.Exchange.2007.mp
- Microsoft.Exchange.2007.Reporting.mp
To import the Exchange 2007 MP, open the OPSMGR 2007 Operations Console. Click the Administration tab, right-click the Management Packs node and then click Import Management Packs. Select the required Management Packs and then click the Import button. After the import process is complete and the dialog box displays an icon next to each Management Pack that indicates success of the importation (Figure 5), click the Close button.
Figure 5: Import Management PacksAs you noticed from the above picture, I also installed 2 other Management Packs:
Add the Exchange servers as agent managed computers
- Click the Administration tab and then click Configure computers and devices to manage on the Actions pane. This will start the Computer and Device Management Wizard (Figure 6). Click Next, choose Advanced Discovery (Figure 7) and select Servers Only from the Computers & Device Types drop-down box.
Figure 6: Computer and Device Management Wizard
Figure 7: Advanced discovery-
On the next window, browse for the computers you are adding (Figure 8) and click Next. Select Use selected Management Server Action Account (Figure 9), click Discovery and wait for the discovery results. (Figure 10). If the Discovery Wizard stops responding, follow the procedures from KB article 941409. Figure 11 shows a brief summary that is displayed at the end of the wizard. It is mandatory that all systems running Exchange Server 2007 that are managed by Operations Manager use Local System as the Agent Action Account. Click Finish.
Figure 8: Discovery Method
Figure 9: Administrator Account
Figure 10: Select Objects to Manage
Figure 11: Summary-
If the agent installation was successful, on each Exchange server you’ll be able to see the System Center Operations Manager 2007 Agent listed on the Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features on Windows 2008 (Figure 12). A new service is also created, the OpsMgr Health Service, as depicted in Figure 13.
Figure 12: Programs and Features (Add/Remove Programs)
Figure 13: OpsMgr Health Service PropertiesAll the Exchange 2007 servers should be added as agent managed computers. If you are monitoring Exchange Server 2007 clusters, ensure that all physical nodes of the cluster are monitored by Operations Manager 2007 and that Agent Proxy is turned on for each physical node in the cluster:
To enable Agent Proxy configuration on all managed Exchange servers, in the Administration pane, under Administration, Device Management, Agent Managed, right-click on each Exchange server, select Properties, then the Security tab (Figure 14), and check the box Allow this agent to act as a proxy and discover managed objects on other computers. This step will also make exchange cluster instances to appear in the Agentless Managed section.
Figure 14: Enabling Agent Proxy--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monitoring Exchange 2007 With System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Part 2)
Installing the Agent on Edge Server
The Edge Transport server can be deployed as a standalone server or as a member of an Active Directory domain (for advantages and disadvantages of each configuration, please read Deployment Options for Edge Transport Servers).
If you remember the topology from Part 1, I decided to install the Edge Server as a standalone (workgroup) server. This means that authentication against the Operations Manager server must be done with certificates, because the agent in the workgroup cannot authenticate with the management server in the domain using the Kerberos protocol.
Figure 1: Certificate Authentication
In this scenario, the agent must be manually installed. Although the agent setup is available on the Operations Manager installation media, we’ll use the binaries from the Management Server, since the required hotfixes are already there.
-
From the Edge server, browse to the folder where you installed the OpsMgr binaries on the Management server. In my case this was \\OpsMgr\D$\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\ AgentManagement\AMD64\ (Figure 2). Double Click MOMAgent.msi to trigger the setup process (Figure 3). Click Next.
Figure 2: Agent installation binaries
Figure 3: Operations Manager Agent Setup
- On the Destination Folder window (Figure 4), accept the default installation path and click Next. On the next window (Figure 5), click Next to specify Management Group information.
Figure 4: Agent Setup: Destination Folder
Figure 5: Agent Setup: Management Group Configuration
- On the Management Group Configuration window (Figure 6), specify the Management Group Name, the Management Server and the Management Server Port. Click Next.
Figure 6: Agent Setup: Management Group Configuration (Cont.)
- On the Agent Action Account window (Figure 7), select Local System and click Next. Review the summary (Figure 8), click Install and them Finish (Figure 9).
Figure 7: Agent Setup: Agent Action Account
Figure 8: Agent Setup: Ready to Install
Figure 9: Agent Setup: Finish
- Go back to the folder where you installed the OpsMgr binaries on the Management server (\\OpsMgr\D$\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\AgentManagement\AMD64\) and run any hotfix that’s there (in my case I only had Q950853-x64.msp).
After these steps the agent will be installed, but it won’t be able to communicate with the Management Server, since it doesn’t have a certificate assigned yet.
Perform the following steps on both the computer hosting the agent and the Management Server using the same certification authority (CA) for each:
-
Request certificates from the CA
-
Approve the certificate requests on the CA
-
Install the approved certificates into the computer certificate stores
-
Use the MOMCertImport tool to configure Operations Manager 2007
You can use a private CA, you don’t need to buy public certificates. Depending on the kind of internal CA you have – Enterprise or Standalone – the procedures to issue the required certificates differ a little bit. The difference lies on the template needed for the certificate: the Stand-Alone CA will allow specifying the OID for the type of certificate needed, whereas the Enterprise has a very well defined template that you can use. That’s why for the Enterprise CA we’ll need to create and enable a new certificate template.
NOTE: In order to create and enable the required template, you must be running Windows Certificate Service on Windows Server Enterprise Edition. If you don’t have Enterprise Edition, my advice is to install a new Stand-Alone CA.
Since I had a Stand-Alone CA already installed on my DC, I’ll describe the steps for this kind of CA. If you’re interested in using an Enterprise CA, please read Operations Manager 2007 Security Guide.
Do these steps on Edge server and on the OpsMgr server (both require a certificate):
- Start Internet Explorer, and then connect to the computer hosting Certificate Services (Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.). On the Microsoft Certificate Services Welcome page, click Request a certificate. On the Request a Certificate page, click Or, submit an advanced certificate request. On the Advanced Certificate Request page, click Create and submit a request to this CA.
- On the Advanced Certificate Request page (Figure 10), do the following:
a) Under Identifying Information, in the Name field, enter the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the computer you are requesting the certificate for. (Event ID 20052 of type Error is generated if the FQDN entered into the Name field does not match the computer name).
b) Under Type of Certificate Needed, click the list, and then select Other. In the OID field, enter 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.1,1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.2 c) Under Key Options, click Create a new key set; in the CSP field, select Microsoft Enhanced Cryptographic Provider v1.0; Leave the other default options (Key Usage: Both, Key Size: 1024, Automatic key container name selected). Select Mark keys as exportable, clear Export keys to file, clear Enable strong private key protection and then click Store certificate in the local computer certificate store.
d) Under Additional Options, in the Friendly Name field, enter the FQDN of the computer that you are requesting the certificate for and click Submit. If a Potential Security Violation dialog box is displayed, click Yes.
e) When a Certificate Pending page displays, close the browser.
Figure 10: Requesting the certificate online
- To approve the pending certificate request, log on to the computer hosting Certificate Services as an administrator and open the Certification Authority administration console. Expand the node for your certification authority name, and then click Pending Requests. In the results pane, right-click the pending request from the previous procedure, point to All Tasks, and then click Issue.
- To retrieve the certificate, log on to the computer where you want to install the certificate (and from where you issued the request). Start Internet Explorer, and connect to the computer hosting Certificate Services (http:///certsrv).
a) On the Microsoft Certificate Services Welcome page, click View the status of a pending certificate request.
b) On the View the Status of a Pending Certificate Request page, click the certificate you requested.
c) On the Certificate Issued page, click Install this certificate. In the Potential Scripting Violation dialog box, click Yes.
d) On the Certificate Installed page, after you see the message that Your new certificate has been successfully installed, close the browser.
- Since both servers must trust the CA who issued the certificates, we must now import the CA certificate on both machines (Edge and OpsMgr). Start Internet Explorer, and connect to the computer hosting Certificate Services (http:///certsrv).
a) On the Welcome page, click Download a CA Certificate, certificate chain, or CRL.
b) On the Download a CA Certificate, Certificate Chain, or CRL page, click Download CA certificate chain.
c) On the File Download dialog box, click Save, specify a file name (.P7B) and then click Save again. Close the browser.
- Run MMC and add the Certificates snap-in (in the Certificates snap-in dialog box, select Computer account, and then click Next. Ensure that Local computer is selected, and then click Finish). Expand Certificates (Local Computer), expand Trusted Root Certification Authorities, right-click Certificates, select All Tasks and then click Import. Browse to the place where you saved the .P7B file and import the certificate.
- To import certificates using MOMCertImport, browse to the folder where the Operations Manager 2007 installation binaries are. The MOMCertImport utility is located on \SupportTools\i386 (for 64-bit computers \SupportTools\amd64). Run the following command:
MOMCertImport /SubjectName
(You can also export the previously issued certificate to a .PFX file and run the command MOMCertImport .pfx)
Figure 11: Running MOMCertImport
If you ever need to remove certificates imported with the MOMCertImport tool, just run MomCertImport /Remove.
Allow Manual Agent Installation
Before the first manual agent installation, the global setting must be changed from reject to “Review new manual agent installation in pending management view” in the operations console of OpsMgr 2007.
Open the Operations Console and on the Administration pane select Settings. On the right pane, expand Server and right pane click Security (Figure 12). Click Properties and on the General tab select Review new manual agent installation in pending management view (Figure 13). Click OK to finish.
Figure 12: Allowing manual agent installations
Figure 13: Global Management Server Settings - Security
After every manual agent installation the new agent must be approved in the System Center Operations Manager Console:
Open the Operations Console, on the Administration pane expand Device Management and select Pending Management. On the right pane, right click each server requiring approval and select Approve l(Figure 14).
To check if the agent is successfully approved look in the Agent Managed folder for the approved agent to see if it’s there.
Figure 14: Manual Agent Install Approval
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Monitoring Exchange 2007 With System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Part 3)
Detailed configuration of the Exchange 2007 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager (OpsMgr) 2007.
Create a new management pack for customizations
Part of the installation and configuration of the Exchange Server 2007 MP is about setting some custom customizations and overrides. These customizations and overrides should be saved to a different management pack.
Creating a new management pack for storing overrides has the following advantages:
- It simplifies the process of exporting customizations that were created in your test and pre-production environments to your production environment.
- It allows you to delete the original management pack without first needing to delete the default management pack.
- It is easier to track and update customizations to individual management packs.
- In the Operations Console, click the Administration button.
- In the Administration pane, right-click Management Packs and then click Create Management Pack. The Create a Management Pack wizard displays.
- In the General Properties page (Figure 1), type a name for the management pack in Name, the correct version number in Version, and a short description in Description. Click Next.
- To finish creating the management pack click Create.
Figure 1: Creating a Custom MP for customizations
Enabling External Outlook Web Access Connectivity Monitoring
Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access, Exchange ActiveSync, and Exchange Web Services are tested by running some PowerShell cmdlets: Test-OwaConnectivity, Test-ActiveSyncConnectivity, and Test-WebServicesConnectivity. These cmdlets require a special test mailbox on each Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox server managed by Operations Manager.
To create the test mailbox, on to the Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox server, open the Exchange Management Shell, locate the Scripts directory under the installation path for Exchange Server 2007 (usually \Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Scripts) and execute the script New-TestCasConnectivityUser.ps1 (Figure 2). Repeat this process on each Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox server that is to be tested.
If you forget to create this test mailbox, you’ll get the warning depicted on Figure 3.
Figure 2: New-TestCASConnectivityUser.ps1
Figure 3: Warning: The test mailbox was not initialized
The rule requires that you set an external URL on your Outlook Web Access virtual directory. To set an external URL, you can do it by running a PowerShell cmdlet or by using the Exchange Management Console:
Exchange Management Shell (Figure 4):
- Set-OwaVirtualDirectory "\owa (Default Web site)" -externalurl:"https:///owa"
Exchange Management Console (Figure 5):
- Open the Exchange Management Console, select Server Configuration, select Client Access, and then click the Outlook Web Access tab.
- In the work pane, select the virtual directory that you want to modify, and then click Properties.
- In the virtual directory properties dialog box, select the tab that contains the properties that you want to modify. Click OK to save your changes and close the properties window.
Figure 4: Setting the OWA external URL by using the Command Shell
Figure 5: owa Properties
Tuning the Test-MapiConnectivity
You might need to tune the rules that run the synthetic transactions via Windows PowerShell, like Test-MapiConnectivity, which may need a different timeout setting (in my case I had some critical events related with timeouts). To change the Test-MapiConnectivity rule:
- In the Authoring section of the Operations Manager Operations console, search for the rule named Execute: Test-MAPIConnectivity diagnostic cmdlet (Report Collection). Right-click the rule, and then click Overrides>Override the Rule/For all objects of type: Microsoft Exchange 2007 Mailbox Servers Installation (Figure 6).
- Click cmdletCommand and expand the Override Setting column. Change the appropriate cmdlet parameter, but make sure that it is less than the frequency with which the cmdlet runs (Figure 7).
- Select the destination management pack, which should be the previously created custom management pack, and then click Apply.
Figure 6: Test-MAPIConnectivity override
Figure 7: Test-MAPIConnectivity Override Properties
Tuning the LDAP Search Time Rules and Monitors
By default, LDAP Search Time rules and monitors sample the MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers/Ldap Search Time counter every minute. Since it’s difficult to provide a default threshold that fits all customers, this rule frequently requires tuning.
- If you have no idea what this value should be, you should first graph it in Performance View. In order to do that, in the Computers view, right-click the server and open the Performance View (Figure 8). You now know if the current threshold is triggering warning or not (Figure 9).
Figure 8: Graphing LDAP counters
Figure 9: Performance view of the LDAP counters
- You can change the LDAP Search Time rules and monitors in two ways:
a) To set a higher threshold, open the Authoring section of the Operations Manager Console and search for monitors that start with the name “LDAP Search Time”. Right click the LDAP Search Time – sustained for 5 minutes – Red(>100msec) and/or the LDAP Search Time – sustained for 5 minutes – Yellow(>50msec) monitors, select Overrides > Override the Monitor > For all objects of type Ex. Common (Figure 10). Click Threshold and expand the Override Setting column. Change the appropriate value (Figure 11), select the destination management pack, which should be the previously created custom management pack, and then click Apply.
b) To change the number of samples (thus smoothing out spikes in the samples), open the Authoring section of the Operations Manager Console and search for rules (notice that the previous step was with monitors) that start with the name “LDAP Search Time”. Right click the LDAP Search Time – sustained for 5 minutes – Red(>100msec) and/or the LDAP Search Time – sustained for 5 minutes – Yellow(>50msec) rules, select Overrides > Override the Rule > For all objects of type: Exchange 2007 All Servers Installation. Click Num Samples and expand the Override Setting column. Change the appropriate value (Figure 12), select the destination management pack, which should be the previously created custom management pack, and then click Apply.
Figure 10: LDAP Search Time Override
Figure 11: LDAP Search Time threshold override
Figure 12: LDAP Search Time Num Samples override
Tuning Failures DSN
The Failure DSNs Total rules and monitors sample the MSExchangeTransport DSN/Failure DSNs Total/internal counter every 5 minutes. Since it’s difficult to provide a default value that works in all customer environments, tuning is often required.
- As in the previous tuning, you can first graph the counter to get an idea what the correct value should be. To graph this counter, in the Computers view, right-click an Edge or Hub Transport server and open the Performance View. Figure 13 depicts the results in my test environment.
- These rules and monitors can be changed in two ways: by setting a higher threshold or by configuring a larger number of samples.
a) To change the threshold, in the Authoring section of the Operations Manager Operations Console, search for monitors that start with the name “Failure DSNs Total”. Right click the Failure DSNs Total - increase over 60 minutes - Red(>40) - Edge Transport and/or the Failure DSNs Total - increase over 60 minutes - Yellow(>30) - Edge Transport monitors, select Overrides > Override the Monitor > For all objects of type Ex. Edge Transport (Figure 14). Click Threshold and expand the Override Setting column. Change the appropriate value (Figure 15), select the destination management pack, which should be the previously created custom management pack, and then click Apply.
b) To change the number of samples, in the Authoring section of the Operations Manager Console, search for rules (rules, not monitors as in the previous step) that start with the name “Failure DSNs Total”. Right click the Failure DSNs Total - increase over 60 minutes - Red(>40) - Edge Transport and/or the Failure DSNs Total - increase over 60 minutes - Yellow(>30) - Edge Transport rules, select Overrides > Override the Rule > For all objects of type: Microsoft Exchange 2007 Edge Transport Servers Installation. Click Num Samples and expand the Override Setting column. Change the appropriate value (Figure 16), select the destination management pack, which should be the previously created custom management pack, and then click Apply
Figure 13: Performance view of the Failure DSNs Total counter
Figure 14: Failure DSNs Total override
Figure 15: Failure DSNs threshold override
Figure 16: Failure DSNs Num Samples override
Disabling unnecessary services monitoring
There may be some services that you are not using, such as IMAP4 or POP3. If this is the case, you can remove it or configure an override to stop monitoring it. To configure the override, right-click the IMAP4 alert, select Overrides, Disable the Monitor, and then select For the object: (Figure 17). On the confirmation dialog box, click Yes (Figure 18).
Figure 17: Disabling the IMAP4 connectivity monitor
Figure 18: Confirmation Dialog Box
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Monitoring Exchange 2007 With System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Part 4)
Configuring custom overrides for monitoring Exchange Server 2007 with System Center Operations Manager (OpsMgr) 2007. Troubleshooting and reporting.
Enabling Remote Unified Messaging Connectivity Monitoring
You need to modify the parameters of the script that executes Test-UMConnectivity to provide a telephone number and an IP gateway, in order to monitor remote voice connectivity.
The rule that performs remote connectivity checks with the Test-UMConnectivity cmdlet must be provisioned with 2 necessary parameters:
- Extension number: the cmdlet must know which telephone number to call and it must be a number that will be answered by a Unified Messaging server (Figure 1).
- Name of the IP gateway: the cmdlet must know the identity of an IP gateway that connects it to the telephone network.
Figure 1: Subscriber Access Number
After you have identified the appropriate UMIPGateway and Phone parameters, you must use the following steps to enable the rule because it is disabled by default. Then, you must create an override for the script parameters in the Operations Manager Operations Console.
- In the Operations Manager Operations Console, click the Authoring tab, expand Management Pack Objects and the select Rules.
- Under Look For, enter Test-UMConnectivity, and then click Find Now.
- Right-click the rule Execute: Test-UMConnectivity (Remote Voice) diagnostic cmdlet. (Report Collection), select Overrides, Override the Rule, and then select For all objects of type: Microsoft Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging Servers Installation (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Test-UMConnectivity rule override
- In the Override Properties dialog box (Figure 3), select the Override column for the Enabled Parameter name, and then check that the Override Setting is set to True. Select the Override column for the cmdletCommand parameter name, and then make the following edits on the Override Setting (the command listed here is Test-UMConnectivity -UMIPgateway:{gatewayname} -Phone:{extension} -MonitoringContext:$true):
a. Replace {gatewayname} (including the braces) with the name of your UM IP Gateway.
b. Replace {extension} (including the braces) with the appropriate number and then click OK. This phone number should preferably be the subscriber access number, which provides access to users to the Outlook Voice Access and directory search to unauthenticated callers.
The Phone number can also be the number answered by Auto Attendant, if you're testing a server dedicated to Auto Attendant only.
Figure 3: Test-UMConnectivity Override Properties
Configure Customized Overrides
The monitors, rules, and alerts can be enabled, configured and disabled through overrides, according to your requirements. You should customize those in order to meet the real conditions of your infrastructure, so that you don't get alerts by situations that you consider normal. There are many thresholds you can override, from available disk space to cpu utilization. I'll describe how you can quickly tune one of these.
For instance, imagine you want to modify the percentage of committed memory in use threshold so that you don't get the alert depicted on Figure 4.
Figure 4: Alert Properties
In the Monitoring pane of the Operations Console, right click the alert, select Overrides, point to Override the Monitor, and then click For the object: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard (Figure 5).
In the Override Properties dialog box, you can then modify the threshold in order to match those to your real needs (Figure 6).
Figure 5: Configuring Committed Memory Override
Figure 6: Percentage of Committed Memory in Use Override Properties
Common Troubleshooting
There are some common alerts you may get right after you start monitoring your servers. I'll enumerate a few and tell you the resolution.
Clustered Servers Running Exchange 2003 Server Discovered as Ex.Common in the 6.0.6278.12 Version of the Management Pack
If you installed the 6.0.6278.12 version of the Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack and are monitoring clustered Exchange Server 2003 mailbox servers from the same management group, those servers may have been discovered as instances of the Ex.Common class. Importing the latest version of the management pack will not automatically remove those instances.
To remove the incorrectly discovered instances, create a group in Operations Manager consisting of type Windows Computer and populated with the clustered Exchange Server 2003 mailbox server names. Disable the Microsoft.Exchange.2007.Ex._Common_Class.StateAlertDiscovery discovery for the group. Then, run the remove-disabledMonitoringObject cmdlet from Operations Manager Command Shell to remove the incorrectly discovered instances.
State View Display
In Operations Manager 2007, the State view displays an orphaned "Exchange" class (Figure 7). This class is never populated via discovery. Therefore, you can safely ignore it.
Figure 7: Exchange State View
Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007 Management Packs
If you have both Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007 management packs, you will see a duplication of the Exchange Server view structure. This can be ignored.
Site Name Appears as "Unknown"
The Site name should be the name of the Exchange Server site. However, the site name will appear as Unknown in the following reports:
-
Report Local Mailflow Availability
-
Report Mailbox Availability
-
Report Remote Mailflow Availability
Test-mailflow Alerts
You may see alerts from the test-mailflow cmdlet even though mail is flowing through Exchange. These alerts may occur if the subject line in the test message is modified in any way (for example, via an AntiVirus scanning engine).
"The Windows services essential to Exchange Mailbox servers are not running" Alert
The test-ServiceHealth cmdlet may raise the above alert on non-clustered Exchange Server 2007 mailbox servers if database replication has not been configured and the Microsoft Exchange Replication Service is not running. In this case, the alert can be ignored. To resolve this, you can start the Microsoft Exchange Replication Service on the mailbox servers. It is also possible to disable the rule for the server. Note that this will disable all service-checking by the cmdlet on the mailbox server.
"Replication Performance Counters not found" Warnings in the Operations Manager Event Log on Exchange Mailbox Servers
You may see warning messages related to replication performance counters in the Operations Manager event log on Exchange mailbox servers similar to the below:
Figure 8: Event ID 10103
These warnings can be ignored if the mailbox servers are not involved in replication, because these counters are not present on those servers. You can disable the rules for these performance counters for servers that are not involved with database replication.
Reports
Although the current release of the Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack is not very rich in reports (the next version should be much better), there are a few reports that you should be aware of:
| Report name | Description | Report is dependent on these rules |
| Report ActiveSync Service Availability | -
Service Availability, as based on the time period specified in parameters
-
Dependencies and related rules
-
Configurations details, definitions of parameters used in report execution, and calculations applied
| Execute: Test-ActiveSyncConnectivity (Internal) diagnostic cmdlet. (Report Collection) |
| Report Local Mailflow Availability | -
Service Availability, as based on the time period specified in parameters
-
Dependencies and related rules
-
Configurations details, definitions of parameters used in report execution, and calculations applied
| Execute: Test-Mailflow (Local) diagnostic cmdlet (Report Collection)
Get_Mailbox_Count (Report Collection) |
| Report Mailbox Availability | -
Service Availability, as based on the time period specified in parameters
-
Dependencies and related rules
-
Configurations details, definitions of parameters used in report execution, and calculations applied
| Execute: Test-MAPIConnectivity diagnostic cmdlet (Report Collection)
Get_Mailbox_Count (Report Collection) |
| Report Outlook Web Access External Availability | -
Service Availability, as based on the time period specified in parameters
-
Dependencies and related rules
-
Configurations details, definitions of parameters used in report execution, and calculations applied
| Execute Test-OwaConnectivity (External) diagnostic cmdlet (Report Collection) |
| Report Outlook Web Access Internal Availability | -
Service Availability, as based on the time period specified in parameters
-
Dependencies and related rules
-
Configurations details, definitions of parameters used in report execution, and calculations applied
| Execute: Test-OwaConnectivity (Internal) diagnostic cmdlet (Report Collection) |
| Report Remote Mailflow Availability | -
Service Availability, as based on the time period specified in parameters
-
Dependencies and related rules
-
Configurations details, definitions of parameters used in report execution, and calculations applied
| Execute: Test-Mailflow (Remote) diagnostic cmdlet (Report Collection)
Get_Mailbox_Count (Report Collection) |
Table 1: Available MP Reports
Optional Management Packs
At a minimum, you should deploy the Active Directory Domain Services Management Pack together with the Exchange Management Pack so that you can monitor AD in addition to the components specific to Exchange Server 2007. Consider also deploying Management Packs for the following items:
-
The operating systems of the servers running Exchange
-
Internet Information Services (IIS)
-
Network devices, such as routers and switches (3rd party)
-
Forefront Server Security (if you're using it)
Conclusion
If System Center Operations Managers 2007 is configured correctly, it will detect the problems (and resolve them) even before your users notice it. The long awaited Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for OpsMgr 2007 has finally arrived. It still has lots of space for improvements (mainly reports), but it already does a pretty good job maintaining the overall health of your messaging environment.
