Want to pull out statistics from Exchange such as :

· messages sent per mailbox per day

· messages received per mailbox per day

· average message size

… And more if you want ?

Use Powershell and Excel now !

I- If you want to pull data from Exchange 2003 to 2007 Exchange versions, then you can use Exchange Profile Analyzer (EPA):

This tool uses WebDAV to interrogate the mailboxes and generates user profile data.

II- If you want to pull data from Exchange 2007/2010 servers, then you have to use Powershell to pull out these data

You cannot use Exchange Profile Analyzer on Exchange 2010 (you still can on Exchange 2007) as in Exchange 2010 and after, we gave up the WebDav protocol.

But we now use Powershell to query and ask the Exchange 2010 (and 2007) message tracking logs to pull out the same data as we had on EPA.

You can use the following TechNet script:

Exchange 2007/2010 Email stats

http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/bb94b422-eb9e-4c53-a454-f7da6ddfb5d6

And here is how to interpret data using Excel functions. Quick and easy:

User Profile Analysis for Exchange Server 2010

http://blogs.technet.com/b/neiljohn/archive/2011/08/09/user-profile-analysis-for-exchange-server-2010.aspx

Thanks very much to mjolinor and Neil Johnson for their scripts and explanations !

Here is how to test it on a user first.

1> Using powershell, do a $objMailbox = Get-Mailbox Some_Test_User to get the user we will assign the Out Of Office to.

2> Now define your text (best is to do it in HTML) and store it on 2 variables $InternalMsg and $ExternalMsg like in the example below:

$InternalMsg = "-- Internal Message -- <BR><BR>Hi, <BR><BR>I am not available until next Monday.<BR><BR>For any emergency, please contact my backup John at 613-555-6789.<BR><BR>Jack Doe"

$ExternalMsg = "-- External Message -- <BR><BR>Hi, <BR><BR>I am not available until next Monday.<BR><BR>For any emergency, please contact my backup John at 613-555-6789.<BR><BR>Jack Doe"

3> Now, it’s time to witness the effect of the OOF application on the user’s mailbox.

Open either an Outlook or an Outlook Web App session and check the Out Of Office status, which should be deactivated, with no messages configured (greyed anyways) or some older messages configured :

4> Launch the commandlet against the test user by piping the $ObjMailbox variable we set above with the test user mailbox (UserTest1 in my example):

$objMailbox | Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -AutoReplyState enabled -ExternalAudience all -InternalMessage $InternalMsg -ExternalMessage $ExternalMsg

5> Check in Outlook or OWA that the message is now set to “Send automatic replies” and also that we have the correct message as defined in the script, for both internal and External OOF messages :

Once you verified it, to apply the OOF to the remainder of the mailboxes, or in my example to all mailboxes containing the string “User”, define your $objMailbox variable with a Get-Mailbox *User* for example, and reapply the powershell command:

$objMailbox | Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -AutoReplyState enabled -ExternalAudience all -InternalMessage $InternalMsg -ExternalMessage $ExternalMsg

Note: To deactivate the OOF using Powershell on one or more users (depending how many mailboxes you have on the $ObjMailbox variable above), user the following command:

$objMailbox | Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -AutoReplyState disabled

Remeber ISINGEG ? The Exchange tool to repair logical corruptions in databases ? Now this tool is over, replaced by a commandlet in Exchange 2010+ which does not need to dismount databases !

I- Default WMI memory quotas for Windows 2008 R2:

Memory Per Host:  536870912
Handles Per Host:  4096
Memory All Hosts:  1073741824
Process Limit All Hosts:  32
Threads Per Host:  256

To check what is the current ones on any Windows 2003 and up servers, you can use the following script, and pipe one or more servers on the function from the following script:

#Disclaimer : The below script takes a file with server names as pipeline input.

#You can write a better function with more time with parameters, error control, etc... 

 #    

#How to use :     

#1- run the script to load the function    

#2- create a text file with server names for which we want to check the WMI quotas    

#3- Launch Get-Content C:\temp\ServerNames.txt | Check-AllWMIQuotas    

Function Check-AllWMIQuotas {

      Begin {    

      Write-Host "Beginning to process servers from the pipeline"    

      }    

      Process {    

      #Load the __ProviderHostQuotaConfiguration class from the root namespace    

      $objWMI=get-wmiobject -ComputerName $_ -Namespace root –Class __ProviderHostQuotaConfiguration       

      Write-Host "----------- Checking Server $_ ------------"    

      Write-host "Memory Per Host: "$objWMI.MemoryPerHost            

      Write-Host "Handles Per Host: "$objWMI.HandlesPerHost    

      Write-Host "Memory All Hosts: "$objWMI.MemoryAllHosts    

      Write-Host "Process Limit All Hosts: "$objWMI.ProcessLimitAllHosts

      Write-Host "Threads Per Host: "$objWMI.ThreadsPerHost    

      }     

      End {    

      Write-Host Finished !    

      }     

}    

II- Either monitor WMIPrsve process using Perfmon (Process\Private Bytes of all WMI processes (WmiPrvSE*)) to see if memory is skyrocketting and/or take a dump of the WmiPrvSE process to see which application is using all WMI memory from the allocated quota.

See http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2010/06/09/wmi-leaks-memory-on-server-2008-r2-monitored-agents.aspx for some détails.

III- Or if it appears an application needs more WMI memory than allowed by the default quotas, raise the quotas.

Usually doubling the “Memory Per Host” property is enough. But I usually try first by doubling all properties.

You can either use WBEMTEST to change the WMI quota, or use Powershell along with GWMI (or Get-WMIObject) to change these on several servers if needed.

Here is a sample script :

#Disclaimer : The below script takes a file with server names as pipeline input.   

#You can do a better function with more time with parameters, error control, etc...

#How to use :

#1- run the script to load the function (copy/paste in a .PS1 file or copy/paste it directly on a Powershell window)

#2- create a text file with server names for which we want to change the WMI quotas   

#3- Launch Get-Content C:\temp\ServerNames.txt | Double-AllWMIQuotas

  Function Double-AllWMIQuotas {    

      Begin {    

      Write-Host "Beginning to process servers from the pipeline"    

      Write-Host "Storing Windows 2008 R2 default"    

      $defaultMemoryPerHost=536870912    

      $defaultHandlesPerHost=4096    

      $defaultMemoryAllHosts=1073741824    

      $defaultProcessLimitAllHosts=32    

      $defaultThreadsPerHost=256    

      } 

      Process {

      #Load the __ProviderHostQuotaConfiguration class from the root namespace    

      $objWMI=get-wmiobject -ComputerName $_ -Namespace root -Class __ProviderHostQuotaConfiguration    

     #Usually, the below line should be enough, but I recommend to double all values    

      $objWMI.MemoryPerHost=$defaultMemoryPerHost*2    

      #Again, usually the below lines are optional but best practices to be sure we won’t have any Out Of Memory error.    

      $objWMI.HandlesPerHost=$defaultHandlesPerHost*2    

      $objWMI.MemoryAllHosts=$defaultMemoryAllHosts*2    

      $objWMI.ProcessLimitAllHosts=$defaultProcessLimitAllHosts*2    

      $objWMI.ThreadsPerHost=$defaultThreadsPerHost*2 

      #In WMI programming, we have to push the above changes to be applied to the object    

      $objWMI.put()    

      } 

      End {

      Write-Host Finished !

      }  

}

Then, as instructed on the comments on the above scripts, either use a Get-content Servers_List.txt | Double-AllWMIQuotas or use “Server1”,”Server2”,”Server3” | Double-AllWMIQuotas

Since Exchange 2010 SP1, you can enable DAC mode (Datacenter Activation Coordination) even if you have a DAG on a single AD site. Lots of people are not aware that DAC mode not only helps preventing split brain scenario using a smart and simple mechanism (“hello I’m there and I’ve mounted databases” bit, and boot times), but also add 3 commandlets to make DR switchover / failover easier !

Note: This is also valid for Echange 2013

More info about DAC mode, check the differences, not so much different from Exchange 2010 SP1 to Exchange 2013 – YaY, less new things to learn !

DAC mode for Exchange 2013

DAC mode for Exchange 2010

Even if you have your CAS Array already established, double check the RPCClientAccessServer attribute on all your databases ! Experience show that on 80% cases, customers still have the wrong value for some databases…

Did you ever have users complaining that meetings didn’t show up for some attendees ? Or a boss scheduling a meeting, and the meeting disappears from his calendar ?

Note: if the Calendar Repair Assistant has to do too many repairs, there might be an application that is constantly corrupting the calendar(s).

This can be:

- An Outlook add-on

- a misconfigured BlackBerry Server

- file level antivirus scanning the OST and/or the TMP files on the Outlook working directory (on the users’s profile Appdata/Roaming directory)

- too many delegates on a single calendar, thus creating conflicts and resulting on meetings not being updated or created

…

When you install patches, RollUps, Update Intérims, Cumulative Updates, use the Powershell scripts that are available by default on all Exchange 2010/2013 installation folders !

Easy and safe !

Sam.

Hello all,

From now on, and before moving on to Exchange 2013, I will post a series of common day-to-day How-To procédures for Exchange 2007/2010.

Stay tuned,

Cheers,

Sam.