Check Exchange 2007 using System Center Operations Manager 2007 - Part 1

Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack (MP) for Operations Manager 2007 also includes rules for checking some of the server's health indicators and giving warnings when problems are detected. , or exceed a certain threshold.

The following table provides an overview of the Exchange Server 2007 MP testing functions available in Operations Manager 2007:

Exchange component

Test function

Exchange Client Access

1. Check for ActiveSync connection and OWA for fake transactions.
2. Check performance and reports

Exchange Edge Transport

1. Check performance and reports

Exchange Hub Transport

1. Check performance and reports

Exchange Mailbox

1. Check the saved information
2. Check Mailflow connection and MAPI
3. Check performance and reports

Exchange Unified Messaging

1. Check for unified mail connections with fake transaction sessions
2. Check performance and reports

Configuration and Security

1. The best operation

Exchange Event Log monitoring

1. Comprehensive rules for Exchange
2. Detailed knowledge of events

Table 1: Exchange 2007 MP test functions

Figure solution

For the purpose of this article, we have set up an environment below in the lab:

As you can see, we will use x64 computers (virtualized Hyper-V), except only 32 bit OpsMgr server.

Name

Role

Architecture

Software

OPSMGR

Root Management Server

x86

Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2
System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1

E2K7-x64

Domain Controller
Mailbox Server
CAS Server
Transport Server HUB

x64

Windows Server 2008
Exchange Server 2007 SP1 + UR3

E2K7UM

Unified Messaging Server

x64

Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2
Exchange Server 2007 SP1 + UR3

E2K7EDGE

Edge Server

x64

Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2
Exchange Server 2007 SP1 + UR3

Table 2: List of servers

Conditions of the Exchange 2007 Management Pack

Before importing the Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007, you need to ensure that there are all the following factors:

Install the hotfix

The required hotfixes need to be installed before installing Exchange 2007 MP. Downloading the required files and then installing them is quite simple. The relevant articles will contain the link above (see Figure 1), which will direct you to the Hotfix request page.

Figure 1: Download Hotfix is ​​available

When you download the hotfix installation files, run them on the OpsMgr server. However, the Hotfix from KB 951979 is slightly different. It includes some updated Management Pack files that you will have to import.

After running Software Update (in Figure 2), open the OpsMgr 2007 Operations Console. Click the Administration tab, right-click the Management Packs button, and then click Import Management Packs. Browse to% ProgramFiles% System Center 2007 Hotfix UtilityQ951979, and select the necessary Management Pack then click the Import button (see Figure 3).

Figure 2: Hotfix Software Update

Figure 3: Import KB951979 updated MP files

Exchange Server 2007 MP installation

Download and install Exchange Server 2007 latest Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 (when we ran this test, this software is at version 6.0.6363.0). You can find the new Management Pack at System Center Operations Manager 2007 Catalog.

When downloading Exchange 2007 MP, double click on the .msi file to install this file. Installation will be very simple, it will extract some necessary files into the folder you choose (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Exchange 2007 MP installation process

If you look in the newly created directory, you will see that there are four files, an installation guide file, a file that gives registration messages and two required file management packs:

To import the Exchange 2007 MP, open the OPSMGR 2007 Operations Console. Click the Administration tab, right-click the Management Packs button, and then select Import Management Packs . Select the required Management Packs, and then click the Import button. When the import process completes, a dialog box will appear next to each Management Pack indicating that the import was successful (Figure 5), click the Close button.

Figure 5: Import Management Packs

As you can see from the image above, we have installed 2 other Management Pack packages:

Add Exchange servers

Figure 6: Computer and Device Management Wizard

Figure 7: Advanced detection

Figure 8: Discovery method

Figure 9: Administrator account

Figure 10: Select managed objects

Figure 11: Summary screen

Figure 12: Programs and features (Add / Remove Programs)

Figure 13: Properties of OpsMgr health service

All Exchange 2007 servers need to be added. If you are checking Exchange Server 2007 clusters, make sure that all physical nodes of the cluster are checked by Operations Manager 2007 and that Agent Proxy is enabled for each physical node in the cluster:

To enable Agent Proxy configuration on all managed Exchange servers, in the Administration panel, the Administration section, Device Management , Agent Managed , right-click on each Exchange server, select Properties , and then select the Security tab (Figure 4 ), and check the Allow this agent checkbox to act as a proxy and discover managed objects on other computers . This is a necessary step to make exchange cluster cases appear in Agentless Managed section.

Figure 14: Enable Agent Proxy

Conclude

This is the end of part 1 of a 4-part series. In Part 2, we will show you how to enable certificate-based authentication for the agent running on the Edge server.