Module 11

Monitoring and Troubleshooting

Microsoft® Exchange Server 2013
Module Overview

Monitoring Exchange Server 2013

Maintaining Exchange Server 2013
• Troubleshooting Exchange Server 2013
Lesson 1: Monitoring Exchange Server 2013

Why Is Performance Monitoring Important?

What Is a Performance Baseline?
Establishing a Performance Baseline
Tools for Monitoring Exchange Server
Collecting Performance Data for the Exchange Server
Collecting Performance Data for the Mailbox Server
Collecting Performance Data for the Transport Components
Collecting Performance Data for the Client Access
Components
• Using the Collected Performance Data
Why Is Performance Monitoring Important?

• Performance monitoring can help you:

• Identify performance issues
• Identify growth trends to improve plans for upgrades
• Measure performance against service level agreements
• Identify security issues and denial-of-service attacks
What Is a Performance Baseline?

• Average server utilization over some relevant

timeframe

• Current performance data is compared to

performance baseline

• Troubleshooting is needed if current performance

data are much different than performance baseline

• Each server has its own performance baseline

• Performance baseline should be evaluated on a

regular basis
Establishing a Performance Baseline

• You can establish a performance baseline automatically with

monitoring solutions, such as Operations Manager

• When you establish a performance baseline manually,

consider the following:
• Establish a performance baseline during an appropriate time, such as
non-working hours and weekends

• Backup procedures should not affect establishing performance

baseline

• Server updates, hardware upgrades, or maintenance should not affect

establishing performance baseline

• Reevaluate your performance baseline regularly, especially after

hardware upgrades, configuration changes, or software updates
Tools for Monitoring Exchange Server

• The following tools can help you monitor system

health:
• Operations Manager (with Exchange Server 2013
Management Pack)
• Third-party monitoring products
• Performance Monitor
Collecting Performance Data for the Exchange
Server

• Suggested performance counters for all

Exchange Server roles:
Processor:
• _Total\% Processor Time
• _Total\% User Time
• _Total\% Privilege Time
MSExchange ADAccess
Domain Controllers:
• LDAP Read Time
• LDAP Search Time
• LDAP Searches time out
per minute
• Long running LDAP
operations/min
System:
• Processor Queue Length
Memory:
• Available Mbytes
• Pool Paged Bytes
• Transition Pages
Repurposed/sec
• Page Reads/sec
• Pages/sec
• Page Input/sec
• Pages Output/sec
Collecting Performance Data for the Mailbox
Server

• Suggested performance counters for all Mailbox

server roles:

LogicalDisk:
• Avg. Disk sec/Read
• Avg. Disk sec/Write
• Avg. Disk sec/Transfer
MSExchangeIS:
• RPC Requests
• RPC Averaged Latency
• RPC Operations/sec

MSExchange Database (Information Store):

• Log Threads Waiting
• Database Reads Average Latency
• Database Writes Average Latency
• Database Writes Average Latency
 Collecting Performance Data for the Transport
Components

• Suggested performance counters for the Transport

component are as follows:
Client Access Server
MSExchangeFrontEndTransport
Availability:
• Messages Failed to Route
• Messages Successfully Routed
Mailbox Server
MSExchangeTransport Queues:
• Messages Queued for Delivery
• Active Mailbox Delivery Queue Length
• Retry Mailbox Delivery Queue Length
• Unreachable Queue Length

MSExchangeFrontEndTransport MSExchange Database ==> Instances:

SmtpReceive: • Log Generation Checkpoint Depth
• InboundMessagesReceived/sec • Version buckets allocated
• Log Record Stalls/sec

MSExchangeFrontEndTransport
SmtpSend:
• MessagesSent/sec
 Collecting Performance Data for the Client
Access Components
Suggested performance counters for the Client Access server
components:

Mailbox Server role Client Access server role

ASP.NET:
• Application Restarts
• Worker Process Restarts
• Request Wait Time
• Requests in Application Queue
ASP.NET Applications:
• Requests in Application Queue
MSExchange OWA:
• Average Response Time
• Average Search Time
MSExchange ActiveSync:
• Average Request Time
MSExchange Availability
Service:
• Average Time to Process a
Free Busy Request
RPC/HTTP Proxy:
• Number of failed back-end
connection attempts per
second
Using the Collected Performance Data

• To use performance data:

1. Create a baseline:
• Monitor performance for a full business cycle
• Note any peaks or troughs in the data

2. Set warning and error level thresholds

3. Review growth trends regularly to:

• Adjust threshold
• Adjust server configuration
Lesson 2: Maintaining Exchange Server 2013

What Is Exchange Workload Management?

Configuring Exchange Workload Management
What Is Managed Availability?
Considerations for Change Management
Planning Deployment of Exchange Software
Updates
• Planning Exchange Hardware Upgrades
What Is Exchange Workload Management?

• Exchange workload management is a feature,

protocol, or service that is monitored

Managing Exchange workloads:

• Monitoring system resources and throttling
• Each workload is assigned a classification with appropriate priority
• Classifications: Urgent, Customer Expectation, Internal Maintenance,
and Discretionary
• System resource thresholds : Underloaded, Overloaded, and Critical

• Resources consumption by individual users

• Burst allowances
• Recharge rate
• Traffic shaping
• Maximum usage
Configuring Exchange Workload Management

• The following cmdlets are examples for

configuring Exchange workload management

• Resource policies:
New-ResourcePolicy

• Workload management policies:

New-WorkloadManagementPolicy

• Workload policies:
New-WorkloadPolicy

• Manage throttling policies:

New-ThrottlingPolicy
Set-ThrottlingPolicyAssociation
What Is Managed Availability?

Exchange
Server 2013
Escalate
Probe
Managed
Availability

Check
Monitor Recover
Operations
Manager

Notify
Considerations for Change Management

• The basic components for managing change are:

• Define a process and use it consistently
• Support the change-management process
• Use a process model such as Microsoft Operations
Framework to describe a system lifecycle
Planning Deployment of Exchange Software
Updates

• Exchange Server is updated with rollup packages

and service packs

• When updating Exchange Server, consider the

following:
• During the update, Exchange Server connects to CRLs
• The update process may update the customized
Logon.aspx file for Outlook Web App
• Apply updates to the Internet-facing Client Access servers
first
• Exchange Services are stopped during the update process
• DAG members should be updated by following a specific
procedure
Planning Exchange Hardware Upgrades

• When planning for hardware upgrades, consider

the following:
• Investigate causes of poor user experiences
• Monitor processor counters
• Monitor memory counters
• Monitor disk counters
• Monitor network counters
• Scale out instead of scaling up
Lesson 3: Troubleshooting Exchange Server 2013

Developing a Troubleshooting Methodology

Troubleshooting Database Failures
Troubleshooting Database Replication
Troubleshooting Performance Issues
Troubleshooting Connectivity Issues
Troubleshooting Tools
Discussion: Troubleshooting Mailbox Servers
Discussion: Troubleshooting Client Access Servers
• Discussion: Troubleshooting Transport
Components
Developing a Troubleshooting Methodology
1. Clearly define the problem
2. Define the problem scope
3. Gather information related to the problem
• Turn up logging
• Review logs
• Try to reproduce the problem
4. List the probable cause of the problem
5. Rank the cause by probability and define solutions
6. Rank solutions by ease of resolution and impact to
complete
7. Try the most probable and easily implemented resolution
until the problem is resolved
8. Reduce logging to normal
9. Document the resolution and root cause for future
reference
Troubleshooting Database Failures

• Analyze the event logs

• Troubleshoot storage-system health

• Check disk free space

• Analyze services dependencies

• Analyze which applications are installed on the

Exchange Server
Troubleshooting Database Replication

• Use database troubleshooting guidelines

• Check if Microsoft Exchange Replication service is

running

• Use Exchange Management Shell cmdlets

• Troubleshoot network infrastructure

Troubleshooting Performance Issues

• If performance issues occur, use the following

guidelines:
• Troubleshoot by using Operations Manager
• Troubleshoot by using Performance Monitor
• Compare the current performance counters with your
servers’ performance baselines
• Plan the appropriate upgrade steps
• If the issue is related to malware, disconnect the server
from the network and work with network and security
administrators to resolve the issue
Troubleshooting Connectivity Issues

• Use Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer

• Analyze internal network infrastructure

• Analyze Internet network infrastructure

• Analyze firewall configuration

• Analyze Exchange servers’ firewall configuration

• Analyze Client Access servers health

Troubleshooting Tools

• Troubleshooting tools include:

• Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer
• Delivery Reports
• Performance Monitor
• Test cmdlets
• Queue Viewer
• Event Viewer
• ADSI Edit
• LDP
• Telnet
Discussion: Troubleshooting Mailbox Servers

• A database has gone offline. What process can

you use to troubleshoot the problem?
Discussion: Troubleshooting Client Access
Servers

• Outlook users can no longer connect to the

system. What process can you use to
troubleshoot the problem?
Discussion: Troubleshooting Transport
Components

• Users are reporting undeliverable and slow-to-

deliver outbound email. What process can you
use to troubleshoot the problem?
Lab: Monitoring and Troubleshooting Exchange
Server 2013

Exercise 1: Monitoring Exchange Server

Exercise 2: Troubleshooting Database Availability
• Exercise 3: Troubleshooting Client Access Servers

Logon Information
Virtual machines: 20341B‑LON‑DC1
20341B‑LON‑CAS1
20341B‑LON‑MBX1
User name: Adatum\Administrator
Password: Pa$$w0rd

Estimated Time: 60 minutes

Lab Scenario

You are the Messaging Administrator at A. Datum

Corporation. You need to configure basic
monitoring by using the Performance Monitor.
You also need to troubleshoot mailbox database
and Client Access server issues.
Lab Review

Users are reporting issues with sending email to a

remote domain. You need to determine and resolve
the problem. What should you do?

• Because of recent organizational growth, you are

experiencing two issues. Several memory
thresholds have exceeded recommended limits,
and recommended limits have also been exceeded
for average read-latency threshold for the logical
disk that stores the page file. Which issue should
you address first?
Module Review and Takeaways

Review Question(s)
Real-world Issues and Scenarios
Tools
Best Practice
• Common Issues and Troubleshooting Tips
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