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Thursday, November 6, 2003

Exchange 2003 Tools Descriptions

For my Exchange friends out there. J

 

 

You should now already be aware that Microsoft provide Exchange 2003 tools all in one handy place on the main Exchange site. After all, it has been mentioned on this blog before, you know!

However, I'd like to share with you a nice description of each tool, along with a direct link to that tool. It's great to have this information all on one link!

Add Root Certificate

Use the Add Root Certificate tool to add your own root certificate onto your Pocket PC device. For security, organizations often wish to use secure connections (SSL) when syncing or accessing a server. A number of Pocket PC 2002 applications use root certificates and SSL. If your organization prefers to use its own root certificate, you must install a custom root certificate on to the device. This tool will help you do so. Please note that this tool is for Pocket PC 2002 devices only. Pocket PC 2003 devices do NOT require a tool to install certificates.

Address Rewrite

Use Address Rewrite to rewrite return e-mail addresses on outgoing messages sent from a third-party mail system to Exchange, and destined for external or Internet addresses. This feature is similar to the Exchange 5.5 tool, ReRouteViaStore. Address Rewrite enables address rewrite on each SMTP virtual server. The intent of this feature is to rewrite addresses only for mail coming from the partner/subsidiary company (externally SMTP submitted) coming into your company’s e-mail servers and then going out to the Internet. Address Rewrite is useful in merger or acquisition scenarios in which you want all e-mail addresses to reflect the parent company’s name.

ArchiveSink

Use Exchange 2003’s enhanced ArchiveSink to log all message and recipient details of an e-mail message for incoming and outgoing messages on an Exchange server. ArchiveSink, a diagnostic tool, is a custom script that enables message archiving. When message logging is enabled, ArchiveSink will create an additional XML file for each message that is archived.

Authoritative Restore

Use the Authoritative Restore tool to force a restored directory database to replicate to other servers after restoring from a backup. This tool allows you to restore one server (the server with the most recent pre-mistake backup) rather than all servers. With the Authoritative Restore tool, object versions and USNs can be advanced on all writable objects held by that directory so that the data held on the backup appears to be more recent than any copy held by other servers. You can receive assistance using this tool from Microsoft Product Support Services.

Importer for Lotus cc:Mail Archives

Use the Importer for Lotus cc:Mail Archives tool to import cc:Mail archive files to folders in an Exchange 2003 mailbox store or to one or more personal folder (.pst) files. After you install the archive importer, you can import all cc:Mail archives yourself or you can distribute the archive importer program (Ccmarch.exe) to users who need to import their own cc:Mail archive files. The archive importer imports cc:Mail archive files containing e-mail messages directly from users' desktops to Exchange folders.

Disable Certificate Verification

Use the Disable Certification Verification tool to allow users with Windows Mobile devices to connect to Exchange servers without verifying the root certificate authority against the certificate trust list on the device. The device still uses SSL to connect to Exchange, but the Exchange Certificate check allows certificates from un-trusted certificate authorities to be used without generating errors.

DNS Resolver

Use the DNS Resolver tool to simulate the SMTP service’s internal code-path and print diagnostic messages that indicate how DNS resolution is proceeding. The tool must be run on the computer where the DNS problems are occurring. DNS Resolver works only on Exchange servers running Windows Server 2003.

Error Code Look-up

Use the Error Code Lookup tool to determine error values from decimal and hexadecimal error codes in Microsoft Windows operating systems. The tool can look up one or more values at a time. All
values on the command line will be looked up in Exchange’s internal tables and presented to you. If available, informational data associated with the value or values will also be shown.

Exchange Server Stress and Performance 2003

Use Microsoft Exchange Server Stress and Performance (ESP) 2003, a highly scalable stress and performance tool for Exchange 2003, to simulate large numbers of client sessions by concurrently accessing one or more protocol servers. ESP includes multiple modules that you can use to simulate a wide variety of protocols and loads. You can run modules concurrently from multiple hosts, thereby more realistically simulating physically separate client machines. There is no limit to the number of computers on your network that can host ESP modules.

Inter-Organization Replication

Use the Inter-Organization Replication tool to replicate free and busy information and public folder content between Exchange organizations. The tool allows for the coordination of meeting, appointments, contacts, and public folder information between disjointed Exchange organizations. The tool consists of two programs: the Replication Configuration program (exscfg.exe), and the Replication service (exssrv.exe). The Replication Configuration program creates a configuration file for setting the replication frequency, logging options, folders to be replicated, and accounts to be used. The Replication service continuously updates information from one server (designated as the Publisher) to one or more Exchange servers (designated as Subscribers).

Exchange Deployment Tools

Use Exchange Server Deployment tools and documentation to lead you through the entire Exchange Server 2003 installation or upgrade process. To ensure that all of the required tools and services are installed and running properly, it is recommended that you run Exchange 2003 Setup through the Exchange Server Deployment Tools. When you use Exchange Server Deployment Tools, you can run specific tools and utilities to verify that your organization is ready for the Exchange 2003 installation.

Mailbox Merge Wizard (ExMerge)

Use the Mailbox Merge Program to extract data from mailboxes on a Microsoft Exchange Server and then merge this data into mailboxes on another Microsoft Exchange Server. The program copies data from the source server into Personal Folders (.PST files) and then merges the data, in the Personal Folders, into mailboxes on the destination server. The ability to merge data to and from an Exchange Server makes this program an invaluable tool with a variety of uses- especially during disaster recovery. The program can also replace existing data instead of merging new data if specified by the Administrator. Mailbox Merge has some limitations. Please read the tools documentation before using this program.

GUIDGen

Use the GUID Generator to generate globally unique identifiers, or GUIDs, that you can use to identify your ActiveX classes, objects, and interfaces. The GUID is copied to the Clipboard in one of four different formats for insertion into your application's source code.

Jetstress

Use Jetstress to verify the performance and stability of a disk subsystem prior to putting an Exchange server into production. Jetstress helps verify disk performance by simulating Exchange disk Input/Output (I/O) load. Specifically, Jetstress simulates the Exchange database and log file loads produced by a specific number of users. You use Performance Monitor, Event Viewer, and ESEUTIL in conjunction with Jetstress to verify that your disk subsystem meets or exceeds the performance criteria you establish. After a successful completion of the Jetstress Disk Performance and Stress Tests in a non-production environment, you will have ensured that your Exchange 2003 disk subsystem is adequately sized (in terms of performance criteria you establish) for the user count and user profiles you have established. It is highly recommended that the Jetstress user read through the tool documentation before using the tool.

Load Simulator 2003

Use Microsoft Exchange Server Load Simulator (LoadSim) 2003 as a benchmarking tool to simulate the performance load of MAPI clients. LoadSim allows you to test how a server running Exchange 2003 responds to e-mail loads. To simulate the delivery of these messaging requests, you run LoadSim tests on client computers. These tests send multiple messaging requests to the Exchange server, thereby causing a mail load. LoadSim is a useful tool for administrators who are sizing servers and validating a deployment plan. Specifically, LoadSim helps you determine if each of your servers can handle the load to which they are intended to carry. Another use for LoadSim is to help validate the overall solution.

Information Store Viewer (MDBVU32)

an style='font-size:12.0pt'>Use Information Store Viewer (also called MDBVu32) to view or set details about a user’s message storage files, which consist of the private information store, the personal folder file (.Pst), the public store and the offline folder file (.Ost). The Information Store Viewer shows the properties available for each message, how you can use them, and in what format they appear.

Management Pack

The Exchange 2003 Management Pack extends the capabilities of Microsoft Operations Manager by providing specialized monitoring for servers running Exchange 2003. This Management Pack includes a definition of health for an Exchange 2003 Server and will raise an alert to the administrator if it detects a state which requires intervention.

MTA Check

Use MTA Check, a command line tool, to check the MTA database consistency of Exchange message transfer agent (MTA) and to repair the MTA database if necessary. MTA Check will analyze and correct problems in the MTA. Run MTA Check if you suspect corruption in the MTA database or see errors written in the Event Log.

SMTP Internet Protocol Restriction and Accept/Deny List Configuration

Use the SMTP Internet Protocol Restriction and Accept/Deny List Configuration to programmatically set or view Internet Protocol (IP) restrictions on an SMTP virtual server and to add or remove IP addresses from your global accept or deny lists. Microsoft Exchange 2003 provides connection and relay control for its Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) virtual servers. Additionally, Exchange 2003 provides connection filtering that allows you to configure IP addresses from which you want to accept connections or from which you want to always deny connections. These settings are configured in global accept and deny lists in Connection Filtering. An administrator can use these controls to limit the computers that can connect to a virtual server or that can relay e-mail to outside the Exchange organization.

Up-To-Date Notifications Troubleshooting

Use the Up-to-Date Notifications troubleshooting tool to solve common notification issues. An administrator can input user and administration information (on the default page of this application). The information page shows the user’s device information (a list of devices the user has, what delivery method and address the device uses) to help an administrator narrow down notification issues that the user might be having. The tool also allows an administrator to send test e-mail to the specified devices.

WinRoute

Use WinRoute to determine the link state routing information as known to the routing master. The WinRoute tool connects to the link state port, TCP port 691, on Exchange 2000 or 2003 server and extracts the link state information for an organization. The information is a series of GUIDs that WinRoute matches to objects in Active Directory, connectors and bridgehead servers, and presents in human-readable format. This tool should be the first step in troubleshooting routing in an Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 mail-handling environment.


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