Figure 2: Exchange (2003) Tools Website
I think that Microsoft will update the Website or change the Link to the Exchange Tools in the Exchange 2007 toolbox after the first Exchange 2007 tools are available. Currently we can only use the tools for Exchange 200x. Some of the tools should also work with Exchange 2007 but I haven't tested every tool with Exchange 2007.
Exchange Best Practice Analyzer
The Microsoft Exchange Best Practice Analyzer is now tightly integrated within Exchange 2007, so it is no longer necessary to download and install the Exchange Server Best Practice Analyzer manually. The Update mechanisms will be the same. The Exchange Server Best Practice Analyzer can update itself at start up or at the time you specify in the ExBPA tool.
The Exchange Server Best Practice Analyzer in the Beta I release of Exchange 2007, is older than the Exchange Best Practice Analyzer on the Microsoft Exchange Website so it seems to me that this is not a special version for Exchange 2007.
The Version number of the Exchange Server Best Practice Analyzer on the Microsoft Website is 2.6.7812.0 at the time of writing this article.
The Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practice Analyzer Version that comes with Exchange 2007 Beta I is 2.5.462.19.
Figure 3: Exchange Server Best Practice Analyzer Version from Exchange 2007
But this is not a problem. Try to run the Exchange Server Best Practice Analyzer against Exchange 2007 and you will see some interesting points. There are some differences to Exchange 2007 that the ExBPA is not aware of, but most of ExBPA seems to be working. I’m sure that Microsoft will update the Exchange Server Best Practice Analyzer Tool for Exchange 2007 specific configuration as soon as possible.
Exchange Server Performance Monitor
The second tool in the Exchange Server 2007 System Manager Toolbox is the well-known Exchange Server Performance Monitor. Yes, we are talking about the Windows Performance Monitor. The Exchange Server Performance Monitor in Exchange 2007 comes with some predefined counters related to Exchange 2007.
Figure 4: Exchange 2007 Performance Monitor Counters
Explanation of some Exchange Performance counters
There are two counters that are related to the number of Messages Received and Sent per Second.
Four other counters are specific to the RPC traffic. As all of you might know, Exchange uses RPC for several components and the main E-Mail Client Outlook uses RPC to communicate with the Exchange Server.
On highly utilized Exchange Servers or Exchange Servers with moderate hardware, many of us have seen a high Rate of RPC traffic in Perfmon or the notice in Outlook that Messages are transferred to and from the Exchange Server and the connection is delayed. For this problem Microsoft has released the Exchange Server Best Practice Performance Troubleshooting Analyzer which you can download here. You can read here more about this helpful tool.
Exchange 2007 has been optimized to reduce the RPC workload but you should carefully monitor some of the RPC counters.
Exchange Queue Viewer
The Exchange 2007 Queue Viewer is not new but the component in the Toolbox that has the most changes and improvements.
The Exchange Queue Viewer opens in a separate Window and remains open when you close the Exchange System Manager.
The reason is that the Exchange 2007 Queue Viewer is now built into a Standalone MMC SnapIn.
Figure 5: Exchange 2007 Queue Viewer MMC SnapIn
Like in Exchange 2003 it is possible to show the Messages in the different Exchange message queues. It is possible to Freeze messages or to remove messages from the Queue with or without generating a NDR (Non Delivery Reports).
Figure 6: Overview of the Exchange 2007 Queue Viewer
You can filter messages by several variables and criteria. For example, with Exchange 2007 it is now possible to filter by extended criteria like SCL (Spam Confidence Level) from Microsoft Exchange IMF (Intelligent Message Filter). To create a Filter click Create Filter.
Figure 7: Exchange 2007 Filter selection
In the Actions pane on the right side it is possible to save the created filter as Default or to set the Limit of the number of items to display.
Conclusion
In this article I gave you an overview of the Exchange 2007 Toolbox and how to use each of the tools. All of you should be familiar with this tool. The Performance Monitor is not new to Exchange and Windows, and the Toolbox only links to the Windows Performance Monitor. Nothing new on the Exchange Server Best Practice Analyzer. The version that ships with Exchange 2007 Beta 1 is older than the Exchange Server Best Practice Analyzer on the web but I recommend using ExBPA to see what the tool reports about Exchange 2007. You should also spend some time on the Exchange 2007 Queue Viewer. This tool has some enhancements.
Related Links
Introducing Exchange 2007
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/preview/default.mspx
Exchange 2007 Overview
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4735035
Frequently Asked Questions about Exchange 2007
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=4735036
About Marc Grote
Marc Grote is an MCSA/MCSE Messaging & Security, an MCTS/MCITP and a Microsoft Certified Trainer and MCLC. He is a freelance IT Trainer and Consultant in the north of Germany near Hanover. He works with Invenate GmbH on special projects. You can find more information about Invenate at ttp://www.invenate.de. He specializes in ISA Server, Exchange, Security for Windows 2000/2003 and Windows Server 2008 designs, migrations and implementations, and Citrix Metaframe implementations. His efforts have earned him recognition as a Microsoft MVP for ISA Server since 2004. You can visit his homepage at http://www.it-training-grote.de.
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