Chapter 17: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Maintenance, Monitoring, and Queuing

With the exception of backup and recovery, no administration tasks are more important than maintenance, monitoring, and queue tracking. You must maintain Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 to ensure proper flow and recoverability of message data. You need to monitor Exchange Server to ensure that services and processes are functioning normally, and you need to track Exchange Server queues to ensure that messages are being processed.

Understanding Troubleshooting Basics

In the Exchange Management Console, you'll find several tools in the Toolbox to help you troubleshoot messaging problems. These tools include:

• Database Recovery Management/Database Troubleshooter Can help you identify problems with Exchange databases by checking the disks a server is using for messaging to ensure they are accessible, have free space, and are mounted. You can then troubleshoot database mount problems, analyze log drive space, review database-related event logs, repair a database, or create a recovery storage group.

• Mailflow Troubleshooter Can help you troubleshoot message delivery delays, unexpected nondelivery reports, and problems with Edge server synchronization. Can also help you find lost messages.

• Performance Troubleshooter Can help you troubleshoot performance issues related to delays while using Microsoft Outlook, frequent Remote Procedure Call (RPC) dialog box display in Outlook, and higher-than-expected RPC operations.

Using the troubleshooting tools is straightforward, and you can follow these steps to get started:

1. In Exchange Management Console, access the Toolbox node.

2. Double-click the troubleshooter with which you want to work to get started.

   Note 

   The first time you start the troubleshooter, you'll need to specify your update and error reporting options. You can configure the troubleshooter to either check for updates automatically on startup or to not check for updates. If you want to report errors to Microsoft, join the customer experience improvement program. Otherwise, specify that you don't want to join the program.

3. After the troubleshooter checks for updates or you manually check for updates by clicking Check For Updates Now, click Go To Welcome Screen.

4. Enter the required troubleshooting parameters, and then click Next.

5. Follow the prompts, and select the appropriate options to perform troubleshooting tasks.