1. Introduction

This week we launched ISA BPA V7 and this is a great opportunity to continue the explanation on how ISABPA can be useful for proactive and reactive work. Last session I explained how you can use ISA BPA for proactive work with ISA Server. This session will explain the benefits of using ISABPA while troubleshooting an issue.

2. ISA Data Packager

Besides the ISABPA itself, when you install this tool a group of programs is created within Microsoft ISA Server group as you can see in Figure 1:

Figure 1 – Tools that are installed by ISA BPA.

ISA Data Packager is a data gathering tool that can assist you to collect a set of data in one single shot. Let’s use as an example a scenario where user can’t access certain web sites. You can launch the ISA Data Packager and the first screen will present you the templates that are available:

Figure 2 – ISA Templates.

The template that you will choose will depend on the scenario that you are dealing with; here are some examples of usability of the main templates:

Next step is to choose the template according to the scenario, for this example I’m going to chose Web Proxy and Web Publishing. After select and click Next you will see the following screen:

Figure 3 – Summary of the default selections

A set of options are selected by default when you choose the template, those options will vary according to the template that was previously selected. Notice that ISAInfo Report is not selected, which is something that is very useful since with this information you will be able to review all the details from this particular ISA box. In case you want to add that in your data collection you just need to click Modify Options and the following screen will appear:

Figure 4 – Changing default Options.

Here are some other guidelines about this screen:

·         If you are having issues such as prompt for authentication when browsing internet, or ISA Server losing the secure channel with the DC, make sure to enable the option Netlogon Logging.

·         If you are not dealing with Performance issue, disable the option Performance Monitor Snapshot.

·         If you are using MSDE Database for logging and you want to collect data from it, select MSDE Error Logs.

·         Change Tracking is NEW in ISABPA7.

After making the selection, click Start Data Collection and wait until the option press space bar to continue appears as shown in Figure 5:

Figure 5 – Starting capture.

At this point you should go to the workstation that is facing the problem and reproduce the issue that you are having. After reproduce the issue press space bar again in the collecting data window and wait until the CAB is generated.

3. Now What?

ISA Data Packager Creates a file called ISAPackage.CAB, by default located in the desktop. This file contains the following folder / files:

Note1: amount of files and folders will vary according to the template that you choose.

Note 2: file name will vary according to the date of the day.

4. Conclusion

With this set of data you have enough data to start troubleshooting the issue that you are facing with ISA Server. You have logs, network captures and capability to read ISA Server configuration. My recommendation is that you install this tool in your lab, and start to test simple scenarios so you get used to read those logs. Try to simulate simple issues in your lab and look the logs to see what you can do to fix the issue.