Exchange 2010 Management Pack Guide for Operations Manager 2007

Exchange 2010 Management Pack Guide for Operations Manager 2007

Microsoft Corporation

Published: December 2014

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Abstract

The MicrosoftExchangeServer2010 Management Pack includes a complete health model, extensive protocol synthetic transaction coverage, and a full complement of diagnostics-based alerts and service-oriented reporting, including mail flow statistics.

Alerts are classified by impact and recovery action, and are now processed by a new component called the Correlation Engine. The Correlation Engine suppresses duplicate alerts whenever possible to help front-line monitoring technicians monitor Exchange more efficiently.

Most of the diagnostic information used in the Exchange2010 Management Pack, including events and performance counters, is specifically engineered for monitoring. Very little tuning is required to monitor your Exchange organization. The Exchange2010 Management Pack will scale with your environment.

The Exchange2010 Management Pack is engineered for organizations that include servers running Exchange2010. It is not based on the Exchange2007 Management Pack. Therefore, you will notice some differences in the way you deploy and configure the Exchange2010 Management Pack if you have previously used the Exchange2007 Management Pack.

This guide was written based on version 14.02.0247.005 of the ExchangeServer2010 Management Pack.

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Contents

Exchange 2010 Management Pack Guide

Introduction to the Exchange 2010 Management Pack

Getting Started with the Exchange 2010 Management Pack

Before You Import the Exchange 2010 Management Pack

How to Import the Exchange 2010 Management Pack

Creating a New Management Pack for Customizations

Optional Configurations

Security Considerations

Understanding Management Pack Operations

Understanding Classes

Understanding Alert Correlation

Understanding the Exchange Management Pack Health State Model

Troubleshooting the Exchange 2010 Management Pack

Appendix: Reports

Appendix: Synthetic Transactions

Appendix: Scripts

Appendix: Objects the Exchange 2010 Management Pack Discovers

Appendix: Class Hierarchy

Client Access Class Hierarchy

Hub Transport Class Hierarchy

Edge Transport Class Hierarchy

Unified Messaging Class Hierarchy

Mailbox Class Hierarchy

Mailbox - High Availability and Mailbox Services Class Hierarchy

Common Classes Class Hierarchy

Roles Class Hierarchy

Groups Class Hierarchy

Appendix: Alert Correlation Relationships

Client Access - On Server Alert Correlation Relationships

Client Access - Server to Site Alert Correlation Relationships

Edge Transport Alert Correlation Relationships

Hub Transport Alert Correlation Relationships

Mailbox - High Availability Alert Correlation Relationships

Mailbox - Information Store Alert Correlation Relationships

Performance, Disks, and Public Folders Alert Correlation Relationships

Unified Messaging Alert Correlation Relationships

Exchange 2010 Management Pack Guide

Most diagnostic information used in the Exchange2010 Management Pack, includingevents and performance counters, is specifically engineered for monitoring. Very little tuning is required to monitor your Exchange organization. The Exchange2010Management Pack will scale with your environment.

The Exchange2010 Management Packis engineered for organizations that include servers running Exchange2010. It isn't based on the Exchange2007 Management Pack. Therefore, you'll notice some differences in the way you deploy and configure the Exchange2010 Management Pack if you used the Exchange2007 Management Pack in the past.

Important:

Running the Exchange2010 Management Pack installation program installs a new Windows service component named the Correlation Engine service. For more information, see Before You Import the Exchange 2010 Management Pack.

Document Version

This guide was written based on version 14.3.210.2/ 14.03.0038.004of the Exchange2010Management Pack.

Revision History

Release date / Changes
November 2009 / The initial release of this guide was published for version 14.0.650 of the Exchange2010Management Pack.
February 2011 / Updates were added throughout this guide to make it more comprehensive and to make it apply to the code changes in Exchange2010 Service Pack 1 and the latest version of the Exchange2010Management Pack.
Added a reference in the introduction to note that the Exchange2010Management Packinstallation package installs a service.
Added a section to summarize improvements in the latest version of the management pack.
Updated "Before You Import the Exchange2010 Management Pack" to note that the MicrosoftExchangeCorrelation Engine service is installed when you install the Exchange2010 Management Pack.
Updated "Supported Configurations" to reflect virtual environment support and cluster support.
Added "Create Test Mailboxes for Synthetic Transaction Tests" to explain how to create test mailboxes.
Added "Disable the Automatic Alert Resolution Feature in Correlation Engine" to explain how to disable automatic alert resolution.
Added "How Health Rolls Up" to explain how health rolls up in the Exchange2010 Management Pack health model.
Added "Troubleshooting the Exchange2010 Management Pack" to explain how to troubleshoot two issues that you may notice when deploying the management pack.
Updated "Appendix: Reports" to include added reports.
Updated "Appendix: Synthetic Transactions" to include added synthetic transactions.
Added "Appendix: Scripts" to include added troubleshooting scripts.
Updated "Appendix: Objects the Exchange2010Management Pack Discovers" to include added objects.
Updated the class hierarchy diagrams and the alert correlation relationship diagrams.
June 2012 /

Maintenance release to coincide with the release of Exchange2010 Service Pack 2.

December 2014 /

Added a new MSI(Exchange2010PowershellFix) that should be used if themanagement pack doesn’t work on an Exchange 2010 server that has Powershell 2.0/3.0+ installed side by side. Please refer to the “Changes included in 14.3.210.2 (PS 3.0+ Update)” section for more information.

Send suggestions and comments about this document to mailto:. Please include the title of this guide, "Exchange 2010 Management Pack Guide," with your feedback.

Introduction to the Exchange 2010 Management Pack

You can find the MicrosoftExchangeServer2010Management Pack in the System Center Management Pack Catalog (

What's New for Exchange 2010 Management Pack

The Exchange2010Management Pack includes features that weren'tincluded in the Exchange2007Management Pack. The following are some of the features that were added in the RTM version of the Exchange2010Management Pack:

Alert correlationBy maintaining the health model in memory, and processing state change events, the Exchange2010Management Pack determines when to raise an alert based on the state of the system.

Alert classificationThe Exchange2010Management Pack uses the following alert categories to classify alerts: Key Health Indicator (KHI), Non-Service Impacting (NSI), and Forensic.

Mail flow statistics reportingHourly and daily e-mail transaction statistics are collected by using message tracking log data.

Service-oriented reportingUptime is reported based on the uptime of the application, service, and feature uptime rather than on server uptime.

Exchange-aware availability modelingClient availability uptime is measured for each type of Exchangeclient, based on test user transactions.

Changes included in 14.3.210.2 (PS 3.0+ Update)

Exchange 2010 MP versions 14.03.0038.004 and earlier required ONLY Powershell 2.0 to be installed on the Exchange server for it to work. When Powershell 3.0 or higher is installed on Exchange 2010 servers that were working with only Powershell 2.0 installed, Exchange MP stops working.

The new MSI (Exchange2010PowershellFix.MSI) that has been included in this release enables Exchange 2010 MP to work on servers that have Powershell 2.0 installed side by side with Powershell 3.0+. This new MSI should be used only if your existing Exchange 2010 MP isn’t able to monitor your Exchange 2010 server that has Powershell 2.0 and Powershell 3.0+ installed side by side. This will NOT work if the server has only Powershell 3.0 or higher installed.

If you already have 14.03.0038.004 installed, please execute the 14.3.210.2 “Exchange2010PowershellFix” MSI and import the MP’s contained within it.

Note: You must install the 14.03.0038.004 package (Exchange2010ManagementPackForOpsMgr2007-x64.msi/ Exchange2010ManagementPackForOpsMgr2007-x86.msi) prior to applying the 14.3.210.2 update (Exchange2010PowershellFix) in order for the Exchange 2010 MP to function correctly.

Changes included in the Service Pack 2 Update

The Exchange2010SP2 version of theExchange2010 Management Pack includes many fixes intended to increase the scalability and address customer reported issues since the Service Pack 1 Update. The following list includes some of the new features and updates:

Resolved ObjectNotFoundExceptions in correlation engine The SP1 version of the Correlation Engine could encounter ObjectNotFoundExceptions on a regular basis. The number of exceptions of this type is significantly reduced in this update.

Reduced load on RMS/MS A number of improvements were made to reduce the load of the Management Pack on the RMS/MS. The following specific changes were made:

Reduced the number of read operations the Correlation Engine makes to the SDK to get entity and monitor states
Improved cache handling in Correlation Engine when Management Pack updates are applied
Increased correlation interval time from 1.5 minutes to 5 minutes

Reduced load due to discoveryThe discovery interval was increased from 4 hours to 24 hours and improved handling of Domain Controller objects to decrease churn

Improved Database Copy Health monitoringReplaced KHI: Database dismounted or service degraded with One Healthy Copy monitor to decrease load on RMS

Improved Performance monitoringNon reporting Perf Instances are now enabled by default and some write operations were removed to decrease unnecessary writes to the database

Changes included in the Service Pack 1 Update

The Exchange2010SP1 version of theExchange2010 Management Pack includes significant improvements beyond those included in the RTM version of the Exchange2010 Management Pack. The following list includes some of the new features and updates:

Capacity planning and performance reportsNew reports dig deep into the performance of individual servers and provide detailed information about how much capacity is used in each site.

SMTP and remote PowerShell availability reportThe management pack now includes two new availability reports for SMTP client connections and management end points.

New Test-SMTPConnectivity synthetic transactionIn addition to the inbound mail connectivity tasks for protocols such as OutlookWebApp, Outlook, IMAP,POP, andExchangeActiveSync,the Management Pack now includesSMTP-connectivity monitoring for outbound mail from IMAP and POP clients. For information about how to enable this feature, see Optional Configurations.

New Test-ECPConnectivity viewViews for the Exchange Control Panel test task are now included in the monitoring tree.

Cross-premises mail flow monitoring and reportingThe Management Pack includes new mail flow monitoring and reporting capabilities for customers who use our hosted service.

Improved Content Indexing and Mailbox Disk Space monitoringNew scripts have been created to better monitor context indexing and mailbox disk space. These new scripts enable automatic repair of indexes and more accurately report of disk space issues.

The ability to disable Automatic Alert Resolution in environments that include OpsMgr connectorsWhen you disable Automatic Alert Resolution, the Correlation Engine won't automatically resolve alerts. This lets you use your support ticketing system to manage your environment. For information about how to disable this feature, see Optional Configurations.

Several other updates and improvements were also added to this version of the Management Pack, including the following.

Suppression of alerts when the alerts only occur occasionally was added to many monitors.

Most of the event monitors in the Exchange2010Management Pack are automatically reset by the Correlation Engine. Automatic reset was added tothose event monitors so that issues aren't missed the next time they occur. For a list of the event monitors that are not reset automatically, see Understanding Alert Correlation.

Monitoring was added for processes that crash repeatedly.

Additional performance monitoring was added for OutlookWebApp.

Monitoring of ActiveDirectoryaccess was improved.

Monitoring of anonymous calendar sharing was added.

Reliability of database offline alerts was improved.

Monitoring for the database engine (ESE) was added.

Supported Configurations

The following table shows the supported configurations for the Exchange2010Management Pack and theCorrelation Engine component.

Configuration / Support
WindowsServer2003
WindowsServer2008
WindowsServer2008 R2 / Exchange2010 computers that the Exchange2010 Management Pack monitors must be running a 64-bit version ofWindowsServer2008. This is based on the minimum requirements for Exchange2010.
The Correlation Engine supports 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.
Agentless monitoring / Not supported.
Virtual environment / Environments supported by both System Center Operations Manager and Exchange2010 are supported.
System Center Operations Manager / System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 and System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 are supported.
Clustered Root Management Server/Correlation Engine / Adding the Correlation Engine service to a clustered installation is supported, provided it's configured so that only one instance of the service is running at a time.

Getting Started with the Exchange 2010 Management Pack

There are actions that you must take before you import the MicrosoftExchangeServer2010 Management Pack and steps that you must take to properly import the ExchangeServer2010 Management Pack. There is also information that you must consider when making management pack customizations.

Review the following topics to properly deploy the ExchangeServer2010 Management Pack in your environment.

Before You Import the Exchange 2010 Management Pack

How to Import the Exchange 2010 Management Pack

Creating a New Management Pack for Customizations

Before You Import the Exchange 2010 Management Pack

Before you import the MicrosoftExchangeServer2010 Management Pack, take the following actions:

Consider the supported configurations for the Exchange2010Management Pack. For more information about the supported configurations, see Introduction to the Exchange 2010 Management Pack.

Ensure that all Exchange2010 computers that are managed by the Operations Manager useLocalSystem as the Agent Action Account.

If you are monitoring Exchange2010database availability groups (DAGs), ensure that all DAG members are monitored by Operations Manager 2007.

Ensure that all agents on Exchange2010 computers have Agent Proxy enabled.

Install the update specified in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 971541, Description of System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 Update ( if you're running Operations Manager 2007 SP1. Install the update specified in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 974144, System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Cumulative Update 1 Release Notes ( if you're running Operations Manager 2007 R2. These updates resolve several critical issues that are more likely to occur when you're running the Exchange2010 Management Pack.

Important:

For the Exchange2010Management Packto function correctly, you must install the referenced Operations Manager updates. These updatesenable the monitors that the Exchange2010Management Pack uses to correctly set the health state and generate alerts. These updates also allow the Exchange2010Management Packto accurately monitor whether theExchange databases are mounted. Also, if you don't install the updates on your root management server and all agent computers,availability reporting will be inaccurate.

The Exchange2010Management Pack includes aWindowsservice called the Correlation Engine. The Correlation Engine is installed when you install the Exchange2010 Management Pack. It determines the best alert to raise by examining the Exchange2010 health model using the Operations Manager Software Development Kit (SDK) service.

To correctly install the Correlation Engine, consider the following when you install the Exchange2010 Management Pack:

Determine which server will host the Correlation Engine. While not strictly required, it's strongly recommended that the Correlation Engine be installed on the root management server.

Make sure that you download and install the Exchange2010 Management Pack that matches the operating system for the selected server. You can install the 32-bit or 64-bit version.

Make sure that you run the Microsoft Installer (.msi) package on the server where you want the Exchange2010 Management Pack and the Correlation Engineto be installed and complete the installation.

After the installation is complete, the Correlation Engine service will have been installed on the server, and the Management Pack files will have been copied to the System Center Management Packs folder. By default, the installation directory is C:\Program Files\System Center Management Pack.

For more information about the Correlation Engine, see Understanding Alert Correlation.

Files to Download

The Exchange2010 Management Pack installation package includes the following files:

Microsoft.Exchange.2010.mp

Microsoft.Exchange.2010.Reports.mp

The installation package also includes the files required by the Correlation Engine in addition to the Exchange2010 Management Pack license agreement.

Recommended Additional Management Packs

To provide complete monitoring coverage for Exchange2010 and the serviceson which Exchange2010depends, we recommend that you also install the following management packs:

ActiveDirectory

Internet Information Services (IIS)

Domain Name System (DNS)