Exchange Management Shell Primer

Depending on whom you ask, some experienced Exchange administrators will tell you that the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) is the best improvement that has been introduced for Exchange 2007. Is knowledge of the EMS required? Some administrators will manage their Exchange servers for years and rarely use the EMS, while others will use it daily. However, we think it is safe to say that at least limited knowledge of the EMS will be required by all administrators.

As we stated earlier in the chapter, the intent of the EMS was to provide a consistent interface for performing management tasks for Exchange 2007 servers, whether the tasks are automation tasks, writing scripts, or extending the management capabilities. Tasks or operations that once required multiple programming APIs and hundreds of lines of scripting can now be accomplished in a single command.

The Exchange Management Shell is a set of Exchange-specific extensions to the Windows PowerShell. In this section, we want to introduce you to the PowerShell as well as the EMS and to do so without overwhelming you. Introducing a concept like the PowerShell or the EMS in just a few pages is difficult, but we hope to give you a basic idea of some of the capabilities and encourage you to learn more.

In total, there are about 350 Exchange-related cmdlets that you can use in the EMS; the goal is to cover all Exchange-related administrative tasks. You will find cmdlets that manipulate other data in the Active Directory (such as cmdlets for managing user accounts) and manipulating Exchange-related data in the Registry or Internet Information Services, but the cmdlets will manipulate or manage only data related to Exchange. The Exchange team is expecting other internal Microsoft teams such as the Active Directory and Internet Information Server teams to provide their own extensions to the management shell.

Command Syntax

The problem with a lot of scripting languages and command shells is that as they get more complex and powerful, the command syntax gets more and more cryptic. The Windows PowerShell and the EMS seek to make using the command-line interface and scripting more intuitive. To this end, most of the PowerShell and EMS cmdlets consist of two components, a verb and a noun.

Just in Case

The PowerShell cmdlets and the EMS extensions for the PowerShell are case not case sensitive. That means that you can type everything in uppercase, type everything in lowercase, or mix and match the case of the letters in your commands. For readability and per suggestions from folks on the Exchange team at Microsoft, we are using Pascal casing in this book. When you use Pascal casing, the first letter of each word is in uppercase, whether the cmdlet consists of one word or more than one word. All other letters in the cmdlet are in lowercase. So the cmdlet that is used to retrieve mailbox statistics is written as Get-MailboxStatistics. We are writing them this way merely for readability, though.

Verbs and Nouns

The verb identifies the action that is being taken and the noun indicates the object on which the action is being taken. The verb always comes first and the verb and noun are separated by a hyphen such as Get-Mailbox. Table 7.2 shows some of the common verbs that are found when using the EMS; some of these are specific to the EMS, but most are generic Windows PowerShell verbs.

Table 7.2: Common EMS Cmdlet Verbs
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Verb	Description
Get	Get is the probably the most common verb that you will use. Get retrieves information about the specified object and outputs information about the object.
Set	Set is probably the second most common verb that you will use. Set allows you to update properties of the object specified in the noun.
New	New creates new instances of the object specified in the noun.
Enable	Enable activates or enables a configuration on the object specified, such as enabling an existing user account.
Remove	Remove deletes an instance of the object specified in the noun.
Disable	Disable disables or deactivates the object specified in the noun. An example of this is removing a mailbox from an existing user (but not deleting the user account).
Mount	Mount is used to mount an Exchange 2007 mailbox or public folder database.
Dismount	Dismount is used to dismount an Exchange 2007 mailbox or public folder database.
Move	Move can be used to move mailboxes to other mailbox database.
Test	Test performs diagnostics tests against the object specified by the noun and the identity option.

The actual nouns that are used in conjunction with these verbs are too numerous to mention in even a few pages of text. Table 7.3 shows a list of some of the more common nouns; not to worry, though, later in this chapter we will show you how to use the online help to find more of the cmdlets that you need. The nouns in Table 7.3 can be used in conjunction with verbs such as the ones found in 7.2 to manipulate the properties of Exchange-related objects. Not all verbs work with all nouns, though.

Table 7.3: Commonly Used EMS Nouns
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Noun	Description
ActiveSyncMailboxPolicy	Properties of ActiveSync policies that can be assigned to mailbox
CASMailbox	Properties of a mailbox relating to client features, such as OWA and MAPI properties
ClientAccessServer	Properties specific to an Exchange Client Access server role
DistributionGroup	Properties relating to mail-enabled distribution groups
DynamicDistributionGroup	Properties relating to a dynamic distribution group
EmailAddressPolicy	Properties relating to the policies that are used to define e-mail addresses
ExchangeServer	Properties related to Exchange servers
Mailbox	Properties related to user mailboxes
MailboxDatabase	Properties related to mailbox databases
MailboxServer	Properties specific to an Exchange Mailbox server role
MailContact	Properties relating to mail-enabled contact objects
MailPublicFolder	Properties relating to mail-enabled public folder objects
MailUser	Properties related to a user that has an e-mail address but not a mailbox
ReceiveConnector	Properties relating to Receive connectors
SendConnector	Properties relating to Send connectors
StorageGroup	Properties relating to storage groups
TransportServer	Properties specific to an Exchange Hub Transport server role
UMMailbox	Properties relating to Unified Messaging
UMServer	Properties specific to an Exchange Unified Messaging server role
User	Properties related to user objects

One important thing to keep in mind with cmdlets is that they are not individual executables but rather .NET classes that are only accessible from within the PowerShell and only if the Exchange extensions to PowerShell are loaded.

Identity

For cmdlets that require input, usually the first parameter provided is the -Identity parameter. For example, if you want to retrieve information about a mailbox called Clayton Kamiya in the Corporate organizational unit (OU), you would type this:

 Get-Mailbox -Identity 'fourthcoffee.com/Corporate/Clayton Kamiya' 

However, you will quickly find that the identity parameter is not required. And, if your aliases or account names are unique, even the domain and organizational unit information is not required. For example, this command would yield the exact same results:

 Get-Mailbox 'fourthcoffee.com/Corporate/Clayton Kamiya' 

We can drop the domain and the OU name and as long as there is only one Clayton Kamiya in the Active Directory, this cmdlet will yield the exact same result:

 Get-Mailbox 'Clayton Kamiya' 

Tip 

Anytime the identity you are using has a space in it, you must use quotes. Either single or double quotes will work as long as you are consistent.

So the point is if you find that the identity parameter is not required, don't be concerned because it is by design. As you will find shortly, the input can even be piped in from another cmdlet's output.

If you are not sure what input can be specified for the identity parameter, you can easily look this information up either in the Exchange online help or using the EMS command-line help (more on this later in this chapter). For now, let's look at one small piece of the Get-Mailbox help screen:

    -Identity <MailboxIdParameter>        The Identity parameter identifies the mailbox. You can use one  of the following values:        * GUID        * Distinguished name (DN)        * Domain\Account        * User principal name (UPN)        * LegacyExchangeDN        * SmtpAddress        * Alias        Required?                    false        Position?                    1        Default value        Accept pipeline input?       True        Accept wildcard characters?  True 

From here, you can see that the identity parameter will take the mailbox GUID, the user's distinguished name, the domain name and account, the UPN name, the legacy Exchange distinguished name, the SMTP address, or the Exchange alias. And, of course you can pipe in input from the output of other cmdlets.

Cmdlet vs. Command

You will notice us sometimes using command and sometimes using cmdlet when talking about the PowerShell. There is a subtle difference. A cmdlet is the verb-noun combination that performs a specific task. For example, Get-Mailbox is a cmdlet. A complete command is the cmdlet along with any necessary options that the task might require. The command necessary to retrieve information about a specific mailbox looks like this:

 Get-Mailbox "Mark Watts" 

PowerShell vs. Exchange Management Shell

When we talk about generic Windows PowerShell functions such as Get-User or Get-Event, we refer to those as PowerShell functions. The Exchange Management Shell (EMS) is a series of extensions or additional functions that are added to PowerShell. These include functions such Get-Mailbox and Mount-Database that are specific to Exchange Server 2007. The Exchange Management Shell extensions always include the generic PowerShell functions.

Missing Exchange Management Shell cmdlets and functions?

A pretty common problem with new PowerShell and EMS users is that they open up the PowerShell and try to use Exchange specific cmdlets or use Exchange specific help. By default, the Exchange snap-ins are not loaded when you load the generic Windows PowerShell. You should run the Exchange Management Shell shortcut in the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 start menu folder to get the correct EMS extensions.

However, from a generic Windows PowerShell command line on an machine that has the Exchange management tools installed, you can type Add-PSSnapin *exchange* and load the Exchange specific snap-ins.

Cmdlet Parameters

PowerShell and EMS cmdlets also support a number of command-line parameters that are useful. Table 7.4 shows some of the parameters that cmdlets accept; not all cmdlets will accept all of these parameters - parameters are usually optional - and of course, some of these will not be relevant to some of the cmdlets you will use.

Table 7.4: PowerShell Cmdlet Parameters
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Parameter	Description
-Identity	Specifies a unique object on which the cmdlet is going to act. The Identity parameter is a positional parameter, which means that it does not necessarily have to be on the command line; PowerShell will prompt you for the identity if it is not specified. As we noted previously, in most cases you do not need to specify the -Identity parameter, just the unique object name.
-Whatif	Tells the cmdlet to simulate the action that it would normally perform but not actually make the change.
-Confirm	Asks the cmdlet to prompt for confirmation prior to starting the action. This option type is a Boolean, so you need to include either $True or $False. Some cmdlets (such as Move-Mailbox) do this by default, so you could specify -Confirm:$false if you did not want the confirmation to occur.
-Validate	Validate will check the prerequisites of the cmdlet to verify that it will run correctly and let you know.
-Credential	Allows you to specify alternate credentials when running a PowerShell command.
s-DomainController	Allows you to specify the FQDN of a specific domain controller that you want to perform a PowerShell task against.
-ResultSize	Allows you to specify a maximum number of results when working with Get- cmdlets.
-SortBy	Allows you to specify a sorting criteria when outputting data that is usually the result of a Get- cmdlet.
-Verbose	Instructs Get- cmdlets to return more information about their execution and possibly more data will be output.
-Debug	Instructs the cmdlet to output more information and to proceed step-by-step through the process of performing a task. Debug returns more information that than a typical administrator needs to perform daily tasks.

If you are piping output of one cmdlet in to another, the parameters must be within the cmdlet that you want them to affect.

Tab Completion

In order to be descriptive and helpful, some of the cmdlets are actually pretty long. Consider if you had to type Get-DistributionGroupMember several times! However, the PowerShell includes a feature called tab completion. If you type part of a command and then press the Tab key, PowerShell will complete the cmdlet with the first matching cmdlet it can find. For example, if you type Get-Distri and press Tab, PowerShell will automatically fill out Get-DistributionGroup. If you press Tab again, PowerShell will move on to the next matching cmdlet, in this case Get-DistributionGroupMember.

The Tab completion feature also works for cmdlet parameters. If you type a cmdlet followed by a space and a hyphen, such as Get-Mailbox -, and then press Tab, you will cycle through all of the parameters for that particular cmdlet.

Object Oriented

The PowerShell is even more flexible because the output of commands is not text based but rather object based. The PowerShell uses an object model that is based on the Microsoft .NET Framework. PowerShell cmdlets accept and return structured data. Don't let the terms object model and object oriented scare you, though. This is really quite simple. For example, Figure 7.25 shows the output of the Get-Mailbox cmdlet.

Figure 7.25: Output of the Get-Mailbox cmdlet

What you see on the screen is text, but to the PowerShell it is really a list of objects. You can manipulate the output to see the properties you want, filter the output, or pipe the output (the objects) to another cmdlet.

Filtering Output

In Figure 7.25, you can see that the cmdlet we used (Get-Mailbox) output every mailbox in the entire organization. There are a number of ways that you can filter or narrow the scope of the output that are you looking for from a specific cmdlet. In the case of Get-Mailbox and other cmdlets, you can specify just the identity of the mailbox that you are looking for.

PowerShell includes two options that can be used specifically for filtering the output. These are the where and the filter clauses. The where clause can be used on most any cmdlet and filter is applied at the client. The filter clause is only available on a subset of the commands since the filter is applied by the server:

 Get-Mailbox | where {$_.MaxSendSize -gt 25000000} 

The output of the Get-Mailbox cmdlet is piped to the where clause that filters the output. In this case, the output is any mailbox whose MaxSendSize parameter is greater than 25000000 bytes. Did you notice $_.MaxSendSize the portion of the where statement? The $_portion represents the object that is being piped to the where clause, and the .MaxSendSize represents the MaxSendSize property of that object.

For nonprogrammers, this might seem a little difficult at first, but we promise it gets much easier as you go along. The operators are also simple to remember. Table 7.5 shows a list of common operators that can be used in clauses such as where.

Table 7.5: Shell Values and Operators
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Shell value	Operator	Function
-eq	Equals	The object.property value must match exactly the specified value.
-ne	Not equals	The object.property value must not match the specified value.
-gt	Greater than	The greater than works when the object.property value is an integer.
-ge	Greater than or equal to	The greater than or equal to works when the object.property value is an integer.
-lt	Less than	The less than works when the object.property value is an integer.
-le	Less than or equal to	The less than or equal to works when the object.property value is an integer.
-like	Contains	Contains is used when the object.property value is a text string. The matching string can either match exactly or contain wildcards (*) at the beginning or end.
-notlike	Does not contain	Does not contain is used when the object.property value is a text string and you want to see if the values do not match the string. The matching string can contain wildcards (*) at the beginning or end.

Formatting Output

If you look at the output of the Get-Mailbox cmdlet shown in Figure 7.25, you might be tempted to think that the output capabilities of the PowerShell is limited, but this is far from the truth. The output shown in Figure 7.25 was the default output for the Get-Mailbox cmdlet. The programmer decided that the output should be in a formatted table with the name, alias, home server, and prohibit send quota properties as columns. However, you can select the properties you want by merely piping the output of the Get-Mailbox cmdlet to either the Format-Table (FT for short) or Select cmdlet. For example, in Figure 7.26, you can see that we used the following cmdlets:

 Get-Mailbox | FT Name,ProhibitSendquota,ProhibitSendReceiveQuota 

Figure 7.26: Outputting to a formatted table

The output of the Get-Mailbox cmdlet was directed to the Format-Table (or FT) cmdlet; the result was columns for the name, prohibit send, and prohibit send and receive quota limits.

You may be wondering how you can learn all of the properties of an object. The default output of the Get-Mailbox cmdlet, for example, is probably not the most useful for your organization. We will go into more detail on getting help in the PowerShell and Exchange Management Shell a bit later, but here is a simple trick to see all of the properties of an object: direct the output the results of a Get- cmdlet to the Format-List (FL for short) cmdlet instead of the default Format-Table output.

When you direct the output of a cmdlet such as Get-Mailbox to the Format-List cmdlet, you will see all of the properties for that object. Figure 7.27 shows an example where we have directed the output of a Get-Mailbox cmdlet to the FL (Format-List) cmdlet. The command we have used is Get-Mailbox ''Clayton Kamiya'' | Format-List.

Figure 7.27: Outputting to a formatted list

Outputting data to the screen is great, but it doesn't help you with reports. You can also output data to CSV and XML files. There are two cmdlets that make this easy to do; the Export-Csv and Export-Clixml cmdlets. Simply direct the output you want sent to a file and these cmdlets will take care of it. Let's use the same example we used previously, where we want a report of all mailboxes and their prohibit send and prohibit send and receive limits. However, we cannot use the Format-Table cmdlet in this instance. We have to use the Select-Object or just Select cmdlet to specify the output since we will be directing this to another cmdlet. Here is an example of the Get-Mailbox cmdlet when used with the Select command:

 Get-Mailbox | Select Name, ProhibitSendQuota, ProhibitSendReceiveQuota 

The output is shown here:

 Name                    ProhibitSendQuota    ProhibitSendReceiveQuota ----                    -----------------    ------------------------ Missy Kosloksy               unlimited                    unlimited Sueko Miura                  unlimited                    unlimited Daniel Petri                 unlimited                    unlimited Matt Paleafei                unlimited                    unlimited Shawn Harbert                 550000KB                     575000KB William Lefkovics            unlimited                    unlimited Dan Holme                    unlimited                    unlimited Todd Hawkins                 unlimited                    unlimited Karen Floyd                  unlimited                    unlimited Jason Serino                 unlimited                    unlimited 

To direct this output to the C:\report.csv file, we simply pipe it to the Export-Csv cmdlet as shown here:

 Get-Mailbox | Select Name, ProhibitSendQuota, ProhibitSendReceiveQuota  | Export-CSV c:\report.csv 

If you want to export the report to an XML file, simply use the Export-Xml cmdlet instead of Export-CSV.

Finally, just as when working with the DOS prompt, you can redirect output of a command to a text file. To send the output of Get-Mailbox to the file C:\mailboxes.txt, you would type this:

 Get-Mailbox > c:\mailboxes.txt 

Directing Output to Other Cmdlets

You have already seen a couple of examples where we used the pipe symbol (|) to direct the output of one command to be the input of the next command, such as Get-Mailbox | FT. We can do this because the output of PowerShell commands consists of objects, not just text. Unlike with other shells or scripting languages, we don't have to use string commands or variables to pass data from one command to another. The result is that you can use a single line to perform a query and complex task, something that might have required hundreds of lines of programming in the past.

One of our favorite examples would be making specific changes to a group of people's mailboxes. Let's say that we need to ensure that all executives in our organization are able to send and receive a message that up to 50MB in size rather than the default 10MB. Earlier we showed you how you could get the properties of the mailbox that you were interested in, such as the MaxSendSize and MaxReceiveSize properties.

First, let's use the Get-DistributionGroupMember cmdlet to retrieve the members of the Executives distribution group. Here are the results of typing Get-DistributionGroupMember ''executives'':

 Get-DistributionGroupMember "executives" Name                                         RecipientType ----                                         ------------- Mark Watts                                   MailboxUser David Elfassy                                MailboxUser Brian Tirch                                  MailboxUser Paul Robichaux                               MailboxUser Devin Ganger                                 MailboxUser Julie Samante                                MailboxUser Todd Hawkins                                 MailboxUser 

Remember that while we see the text listing of the group members, what is actually output are objects representing each of the members. Now let's pipe the output of that cmdlet to the Set-Mailbox cmdlet and do some real work! To change the maximum incoming and outgoing message size for the members of the Executives group, we would type this:

 Get-DistributionGroupMember "executives" | Set-Mailbox -MaxSendSize:50MB -MaxReceiveSize:50MB 

Notice that the Set-Mailbox cmdlet did not require any input since it will take as input the objects that are output from Get-DistributionGroupMember. When you run these two commands, there will be no output unless you have specified other options. But, you can easily check the results by requesting the membership of the Executives group, pipe that to the Get-Mailbox cmdlet, and then pipe that output to the Format-Table cmdlet:

 Get-DistributionGroupMember "Executives" | Get-Mailbox | FT Name,MaxSendSize,MaxReceiveSize Name                   MaxSendSize          MaxReceiveSize ----                   -----------          -------------- Mark Watts              50MB                    50MB David Elfassy           50MB                    50MB Brian Tirch             50MB                    50MB Paul Robichaux          50MB                    50MB Devin Ganger            50MB                    50MB Julie Samante           50MB                    50MB Todd Hawkins            50MB                    50MB 

Pretty cool, eh? After just a few minutes working with the PowerShell and the EMS extensions, we hope that you will be as pleased with their ease of use as we are. We will leave you with one more example of piping and hopefully this will be an example that you can use in the future. We will do a report of the mailbox statistics using the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet and will narrow the focus of the output so that the system mailboxes are not included. We will limit the output by using the Where command clause, choose the properties to output using the Select command, and finally pipe that output to the Export-Csv cmdlet:

 Get-MailboxStatistics | Where {$_.DisplayName -notlike "System*"}|  Select DisplayName,ItemCount, TotalItemSize,StorageLimitStatus |  Export-Csv c:\StorStats.csv 

Getting Help

We have shown you a few simple yet powerful examples of how to use the PowerShell and the EMS. Once you dig in and start using the EMS, you will need some references to help you figure out all of the syntax and properties of each of the cmdlets. A great starting place for just reading about the cmdlets is in the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 help file. The help file documents how to do most common operations both through the graphical user interface and through the EMS. Figure 7.28 shows the online help for how to create a new mailbox. After the procedures for creating the mailbox through the GUI are shown, you will see the procedures for using the EMS.

Figure 7.28: Referring to the online help for creating a new mailbox

After the example that is shown for creating the mailbox, you see a link to the New-Mailbox cmdlet that will take you to much more detailed information on that specific cmdlet. The New-Mailbox help topic (shown in Figure 7.29) will provide you with a great amount of detail about the use of the cmdlet. We strongly recommend you take advantage of the Exchange help file that is included with Exchange Server. In fact, you might want to even copy the file and save it to your workstation. The filename is ExchHelp.chm.

Figure 7.29: Online help for creating a new mailbox using the Exchange Management Shell

Information is also available on the cmdlets from within the PowerShell. For a good starting point, you can just type the help command and this will give you a good overview of using the PowerShell and how to get more help. Table 7.6 shows a list of some common methods of getting help on PowerShell and Exchange Management Shell cmdlets.

Table 7.6: Different Methods of Getting Help within the EMS
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Action	Description
Help	Provides generic PowerShell help information.
Help *keyword*	Lists all cmdlets that contain the keyword. For example, if you want to find all cmdlets that work with mailboxes, you would type help *mailbox*.
Get-Command *keyword*	Lists all cmdlets and files (such as help files) that contain the keyword.
Get-Command	Lists all cmdlets (including all PowerShell extensions currently loaded such as the EMS cmdlets).
Get-Excommand	Lists all Exchange cmdlets.
Get-PSommand	Lists all PowerShell cmdlets.
Help cmdlet or Get-Help cmdlet	List online help for the specified cmdlet and pauses between each screen. Provide multiple views of the online help (such as detailed, full, examples, and default).
Cmdlet -?	Lists online help for the specified cmdlet.

When you're working with help within the PowerShell, help topics are displayed based on the view of help that you request. In other words, you can't just type Get-Help CmdletName and see everything about the specified cmdlet. The Get-Help cmdlet includes four possible views of help for each cmdlet. Table 7.7 explains the four primary views plus the parameters view.

Table 7.7: Possible Output Views for the Get-Help Cmdlet
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View Option	Explanation
Default	The default view lists the minimum amount of information to describe the function of the cmdlet and show its syntax.
Example	The example view includes a synopsis of the cmdlet and some examples of its usage.
Detailed	The detailed view shows more details on a cmdlet, including parameters and parameter descriptions.
Full	The full view shows all the details available on a cmdlet, including a synopsis of the cmdlet, a detailed description, parameter descriptions, parameter metadata, and examples.
Parameters	The parameters view allows you to specify a parameter and get help on the usage of just that particular parameter.

The full option for Get-Help includes in its output each parameter's metadata:

Required?	Is the parameter required? This is either true or false
Position?	Specifies the position of the parameter. If the position is "named," then the parameter name has to be included in the parameter list. Most parameters are named parameters. However, the Identity parameter is "1," which means that it is always the first parameter and the -Identity tag is not required.
Default value	For most parameters this is blank, but it specifies what a value will be for a parameter if nothing else is specified.
Accept Pipeline Input?	Specifies if the parameter will accept input that is piped in from another cmdlet. The value is either true or false.
Accept wildcard characters?	Specifies if the parameter accepts wildcard characters such as the asterisk or question mark. This is either true or false.

Still not clear about what each view gives you? Perhaps Table 7.8 can shed some further light on the issue. This table shows you the different sections that are output when using each view option.

Table 7.8: Information Output for Each Get-Help View
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	Default View	Example View	Detailed View	Full View
Synopsis	ü	ü	ü	ü
Detailed description	ü		ü	ü
Syntax	ü		ü	ü
Parameters			ü	ü
Parameter metadata				ü
Input type				ü
Return type				ü
Errors				ü
Notes				ü
Examples		ü	ü	ü

To use these parameters, you type would use the following Get-Help cmdlet by the view option. For example, to see the example view for Get-Mailbox, you would type this:

 Get-Help Get-Mailbox -Example 

Let's look at a couple of more detailed examples for the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet. We are choosing a cmdlet (Get-MailboxStatistics) that we feel is pretty representative of the EMS cmdlets but also does not have a huge amount of help information. We feel it is important for administrators to understand the available online help options. First, let's look at the default view. We can type just Get-Help Get-MailboxStatistics, the -Default option is not necessary:

 Get-Help Get-MailboxStatistics -Default NAME     Get-MailboxStatistics SYNOPSIS     Use the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet to obtain information about a mailbox, such as the size of the mailbox, the number of messages it contains, and the last time it was accessed. SYNTAX     Get-MailboxStatistics [-Identity <GeneralMailboxIdParameter>] [-    DomainController <Fqdn>] [<CommonParameters> ]     Get-MailboxStatistics -Database <DatabaseIdParameter> [-DomainController <Fqdn>] [<CommonParameters>]     Get-MailboxStatistics -Server <ServerIdParameter> [-DomainController <Fqdn>] [<CommonParameters>] DETAILED DESCRIPTION     To run the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet on a computer that has any server role installed, except the Edge Transport server role, you must log on by using a domain account that has the permissions assigned to the Exchange Server Administrators group. The account must also be a member of the local Administrators group on that computer.     On Mailbox servers only, you can use the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet without parameters. In this case, the cmdlet will return the statistics for all mailboxes on all databases on the local server. RELATED LINKS REMARKS     For more information, type: "get-help Get-MailboxStatistics -    detailed".     For technical information, type: "get-help Get-MailboxStatistics -    full". 

This view (as you could have predicted from Table 7.8) includes the synopsis, syntax, and detailed description sections. Let's change our approach and look at the example view:

 Get-Help Get-MailboxStatistics -Examples NAME     Get-MailboxStatistics SYNOPSIS     Use the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet to obtain information about a  mailbox, such as the size of the mailbox, the number of messages it  contains, and the last time it was accessed.     Get-MailboxStatistics     Get-MailboxStatistics -Server MailboxServer01     Get-MailboxStatistics -Identity contoso\chris     Get-MailboxStatistics -Database "Mailbox Database"     Get-MailboxStatistics | Where {$_.DisconnectDate -ne $null} 

The example view does not have as much data, but a lot of techies learn by looking at examples, so we find this view particularly useful. Next let's look at the detailed view; since this view includes the parameters, it will have quite a bit more information:

 Get-Help Get-MailboxStatistics -Detailed NAME     Get-MailboxStatistics SYNOPSIS     Use the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet to obtain information about a  mailbox, such as the size of the mailbox, the number of messages it  contains, and the last time it was accessed. SYNTAX     Get-MailboxStatistics [-Identity <GeneralMailboxIdParameter>] [-DomainController <Fqdn>] [<CommonParameters>]     Get-MailboxStatistics -Database <DatabaseIdParameter> [-DomainController <Fqdn>] [<CommonParameters>]     Get-MailboxStatistics -Server <ServerIdParameter> [-DomainController <Fqdn>] [<CommonParameters>] DETAILED DESCRIPTION     To run the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet on a computer that has any server role installed, except the Edge Transport server role, you must log on by using a domain account that has the permissions assigned to the Exchange Serv Administrators group. The account must also be a member of the local Administrators group on that computer.     On Mailbox servers only, you can use the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet without parameters. In this case, the cmdlet will return the statistics for all mailboxes on all databases on the local server. PARAMETERS     -Database <DatabaseIdParameter>         The Database parameter specifies the name of the mailbox database. When you specify a value for the Database parameter, the Exchange Management Shell returns statistics for all the mailboxes on the database specified.         You can use the following values:         * Server\StorageGroup\Database         * Server\Database         * Database         This parameter accepts pipeline input from the Get-    MailboxDatabase cmdlet.     -Server <ServerIdParameter>         The Server parameter specifies the server from which you want  to obtain mailbox statistics. You can use one of the following values:         * Fully qualified domain name (FQDN)         * NetBIOS name         When you specify a value for the Server parameter, the command returns statistics for all the mailboxes on all the databases, including recovery databases, on the specified server. If you do not specify this parameter, the command returns logon statistics for the local server.         This parameter accepts pipeline input from the Get- ExchangeServer and Get-MailboxServer cmdlets.     -DomainController <Fqdn>         To specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the domain controller that retrieves data from the Active Directory directory service, include the DomainController parameter in the command.     -Identity <GeneralMailboxIdParameter>         The Identity parameter specifies a mailbox. When you specify a value for the Identity parameter, the command looks up the mailbox that is specified in the Identity parameter, connects to the server where the mailbox resides, and returns the statistics for the mailbox. You can use one          of the following values:         * GUID         * Distinguished name (DN)         * Domain\Account         * User principal name (UPN)         * Legacy Exchange DN         * SmtpAddress         * Alias         This parameter accepts pipeline input from the Get-Mailbox    cmdlet.     <CommonParameters>         This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Verbose, -Debug,         -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, and -OutVariable. For more information,type, "get-help about commonparameters".     Get-MailboxStatistics     Get-MailboxStatistics -Server MailboxServer01     Get-MailboxStatistics -Identity contoso\chris     Get-MailboxStatistics -Database "Mailbox Database"     Get-MailboxStatistics | Where {$_.DisconnectDate -ne $null}  REMARKS     For more information, type: "get-help Get-MailboxStatistics -    detailed".     For technical information, type: "get-help Get-MailboxStatistics -    full". 

Naturally, the full view is going to contain a little bit more information than the detailed view. The full view includes the metadata for each parameter as well as examples:

 Get-Help Get-MailboxStatistics -Full NAME     Get-MailboxStatistics SYNOPSIS     Use the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet to obtain information about a  mailbox, such as the size of the mailbox, the number of messages it  contains, and the last time it was accessed. SYNTAX     Get-MailboxStatistics [-Identity <GeneralMailboxIdParameter>] [-DomainController <Fqdn>] [<CommonParameters>]     Get-MailboxStatistics -Database <DatabaseIdParameter> [-DomainController <Fqdn>] [<CommonParameters>]     Get-MailboxStatistics -Server <ServerIdParameter> [-     DomainController <Fqdn>] [<CommonParameters>] DETAILED DESCRIPTION     To run the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet on a computer that has any  server role installed, except the Edge Transport server role, you must  log on by using a domain account that has the permissions assigned to  the Exchange Server Administrators group. The account must also be a  member of the local Administrators group on that computer.     On Mailbox servers only, you can use the Get-MailboxStatistics  cmdlet without parameters. In this case, the cmdlet will return the  statistics for all mailboxes on all databases on the local server. PARAMETERS     -Database <DatabaseIdParameter>         The Database parameter specifies the name of the mailbox database. When you specify a value for the Database parameter, the Exchange Management Shell returns statistics for all the mailboxes on the database specified.         You can use the following values:         * Server\StorageGroup\Database         * Server\Database         * Database         This parameter accepts pipeline input from the Get-    MailboxDatabase cmdlet.         Required?                    true         Position?                    Named         Default value         Accept pipeline input?       True         Accept wildcard characters?  false     -Server <ServerIdParameter>         The Server parameter specifies the server from which you want to obtain mailbox statistics.  You can use one of the following values:         * Fully qualified domain name (FQDN)         * NetBIOS name         When you specify a value for the Server parameter, the command returns statistics for all the mailboxes on all the databases, including recovery databases, on the specified server. If you do not specify this parameter, the command returns logon statistics for the local server.         This parameter accepts pipeline input from the Get- ExchangeServer and Get-MailboxServer cmdlets.         Required?                    true         Position?                    Named         Default value         Accept pipeline input?       True         Accept wildcard characters?  false     -DomainController <Fqdn>         To specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the domain controller that retrieves data from the Active Directory directory service, include the DomainController parameter in the command.         Required?                    false         Position?                    Named         Default value         Accept pipeline input?       False         Accept wildcard characters?  false     -Identity <GeneralMailboxIdParameter>         The Identity parameter specifies a mailbox. When you specify a value for the Identity parameter, the command looks up the mailbox that is specified in the Identity parameter, connects to the server where the mailbox resides, and returns the statistics for the mailbox. You can use one          of the following values:         * GUID         * Distinguished name (DN)         * Domain\Account         * User principal name (UPN)         * Legacy Exchange DN         * SmtpAddress         * Alias         This parameter accepts pipeline input from the Get-Mailbox cmdlet.         Required?                    false         Position?                    1         Default value         Accept pipeline input?       True         Accept wildcard characters?  false     <CommonParameters>         This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Verbose, -Debug,         -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, and -OutVariable. For more  information, type, "get-help about commonparameters". INPUT TYPE RETURN TYPE TERMINATING ERRORS     (Category: )     Type:     Target Object Type:     Suggested Action: NON-TERMINATING ERRORS     (Category: )     Type:     Target Object Type:     Suggested Action:     Get-MailboxStatistics     Get-MailboxStatistics -Server MailboxServer01     Get-MailboxStatistics -Identity contoso\chris     Get-MailboxStatistics -Database "Mailbox Database"     Get-MailboxStatistics | Where {$_.DisconnectDate -ne $null} RELATED LINKS 

Yes, that is a lot of text for examples of one cmdlet, but we hope that these examples will make it easier for you to quickly learn the capabilities of all cmdlets and how you can use them.

The EMS help system also gives you some options with respect to getting help on parameters. For example, here is an example if you want help on just the -Database parameter of the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet:

 Get-Help Get-MailboxStatistics -Parameter Database -Database <DatabaseIdParameter>     The Database parameter specifies the name of the mailbox database. When you specify a value for the Database parameter, the Exchange Management Shell returns statistics for all the mailboxes on the database specified.     You can use the following values:     * Server\StorageGroup\Database     * Server\Database     * Database     This parameter accepts pipeline input from the Get-MailboxDatabase    cmdlet.     Required?                    true     Position?                    Named     Default value     Accept pipeline input?       True     Accept wildcard characters?  false 

The parameters option also accepts the asterisk (*) wildcard. Here is an example where we want to see help on all of the parameters that contain SCLQuarantine:

 Get-Help Set-Mailbox -Parameter *SCLQuarantine* -SCLQuarantineEnabled <Nullable>     The SCLQuarantineEnabled parameter specifies whether messages that meet the spam confidence level threshold specified by the SCLQuarantineThreshold parameter will be quarantined. If a message is quarantined, it is sent to the quarantine mailbox where the messaging administrator can review it. You can use the following values:     * $true     * $false     * $null     Required?                    false     Position?                    Named     Default value Null     Accept pipeline input?       False     Accept wildcard characters?  false -SCLQuarantineThreshold <Nullable>     The SCLQuarantineThreshold parameter specifies the spam confidence level at which a message will be quarantined, if the SCLQuarantineEnabled parameteris set to $true.     You must specify an integer between 0 and 9 inclusive.     Required?                    false     Position?                    Named     Default value Null     Accept pipeline input?       False     Accept wildcard characters?  false