Transcript Raising Your Windows Availability

What’s in My Exchange DR tool Box
Exchange Disaster Recovery
Fundamentals – Kind of toolish
HA + Recovery Options
Dialtone Recover
Setup / Bla
Legacy Exchange mailbox servers
Failover Cluster
Exchange 2007 Mailbox role
Single Copy Cluster (SCC)
Clustered Continuous Replication (CCR)
Local Continuous Replication (LCR)
Standby Continuous Replication (SCR)
Exchange 2010 Mailbox role
Database Availability Group (DAG)
Dialtone Recovery
Purpose is to give you time to fix or repair a
database
How to
Move the active database and log files to a temp
location
Mount the databases and say yes when it asks you
if you want to create a new database
Restore or recover the database
Swap the recovered and dialtone databases
Play all of the dialtone database information into the
recovered database
Things to note
Users get new email but they cannot see old stuff in
Outlook at the same time.
Users can see new email in OWA, and old email in
Outlook at the same time
Setup / Bla
2000 and 2003 setup /disasterrecovery will restore all of
the settings from AD to a server
Most everything is in AD
2007 setup /recoverserver will restore all of the settings
from AD to a server
Not everything is in AD – it is different for each server role
The Databases – Email and Queues
IIS metabase on the CAS server
UM prompts on the UM server
Registry and XML customizations
Message Tracking logs
2007 clusters have setup /recoverCMS that will restore cluster settings
to a node
Asynchronous Continuous Replication
Primary Server
Standby Server
Mailbox Database
Mailbox Database
Transaction Log 01
Transaction Log 01
Transaction Log 02
Transaction Log 02
Transaction Log 03
Transaction Log 03
Transaction Log 04
Transaction Log 04
Transaction Log 05
Transaction Log 05
Exchange Tools - Fundamentals
Exchange Tools – that I go back too
Relatively harmless tools
Dsadiag – Test Exchange to AD connection
Dcdiag + NetDiag – Check AD functionality
Nltest – Old school Trust Checking
Mdbvu32 + Outlook Spy + MFCMapi – Look at the raw database
Winroute – Check active 2003 routing
Replmon – Public folder tool
ExTRA – Best Practice Analyzer Family of tools
MPS_Reports – Run a heap of tools
ExMerge – Ripe mailbox out of the Store
ExMon – Check Client usage
PFdavAdmin – Permissions and PF stuff
ADModify – Bulk Check and Change AD stuff
Escalation to the next level, and or a PSS call
Dangerous tools – Don’t touch these unless you must
Ntdsutil – Exeutil for AD
Isinteg – Application level EDB tool
ADSIEdt + LDP – Muck with Raw AD
Eseutil – Data level EDB tool
Exchange Maintenance Tools
Dsadiag
W2K Support Tools
tool
Used for diagnosing directory & binding problems
Where’d that GC go?
What GCs are actually up and answering queries?
See KB article Q279423 for details
Exchange Maintenance Tools
Dcdiag + Netdiag
Windows Support tools tools
Used for Active Directory, DNS &
Domain troubleshooting
Is DNS configured correctly for AD
Are all of the FSMO roles present and
reachable
Why can’t users log on?
Why am I seeing GC/DC errors in the
event log?
What DCs or GCs are visible?
As opposed to the ones you think are
visible
Check IP security policies
Check LDAP binding
Repair missing or busted Machine
account
Exchange Maintenance Tools
Nltest
W2K resource kit tool – Old
School but still useable
Used for Domain Trust
troubleshooting
What domains does this server Trust
Which DC is being used in the trusted
domain
Determine if a server set as a GC is
really a GC
Exchange Maintenance Tools
Mdbvu32 + Outlook Spy + MFCMapi
Non-invasive MAPI mailbox viewer
Browse MAPI hierarchy
Allows you to manage mailbox rules
and MTA queue messages
What’s all that crap in the system
attendant mailbox?
What rules are in effect on a mailbox?
Delete bad items from the inbox
Outlook Spy is Third Party geared for
the Developer
Kill Junk mail
Kill Rules
Exchange Maintenance Tools
Winroute + Remoitor
Product CD tool = Winroute
Call PSS = Remonitor
Link state routing diagnostic
tool
What routes are known to the
routing engine?
Which ones are up? Which ones
are down?
When was the last routing update?
Inject new routes, and or delete
routes with out a restart
Exchange Maintenance Tools
Replmon
W2K product CD tool
Replication monitor
When was the last
update this server
sent?
When was the last
update received?
Why the $X#@! isn’t
replication working?
AD was new in 2000 and 2003. Exchange was the first
App to really use AD. Exchange Admins had to be good
at trouble shooting AD
Exchange Maintenance Tools
ExTRA
Exchange Trouble Shooter Family
ExBPA – Best Practice Analyzer
ExDRA – Disaster Recovery Assistant
ExDTA – Database Trouble Shooter
ExMFT – Mail Flow Trouble Shooter
ExPTA - Performance Trouble Shooter
Think of these tools as PSS and the Product group in a
box
Exchange Maintenance Tools
MPS_Reports
PSS tool – download from Microsoft
MPS_Reports comes in flavors; Exchange, AD, SQL, and
so on. Each Flavor checks different things
Run this tool when you cannot access a server it dumps
a huge amount of information to a CAB file that someone
can send you
Event logs
Netdiag + Dcdiag
Dumps GPOs
Runs ExBPA
ExDump
And more
Exchange Maintenance Tools
ExMerge
Download from Microsoft
Requires a MAPI install, so it is best to run from a Client
Used to Extract or place data in a mounted database
Need Send as and Receive as rights for the mailbox
Can Extract a single item from all mailbox – Think virus or Accidental
carrier limiting email
Exchange Maintenance Tools
ExMon
Download from Microsoft
Determine which users are killing a server, why, and where they live
Exchange Maintenance Tools
PFdavAdmin
Download from Microsoft
Play with Permissions on Public
Folders
Export
View
Change
Bulk stuff
Push replication
Play with Permissions on
Forms Libraries
Recover Deleted Items in PF
Exchange Maintenance Tools
ADModify
Download from Microsoft or CodePlex
Play with AD on at a Bulk Level
Select via LDAP query
Change heaps of settings
Check the Inherit Permissions
Check Box for everyone
This was cool until PowerShell
Came out
There are different versions that
Have different Powers
Other Tools
Notepad / Txtpad – Read Files and see what's in them
WinDiff – Compare two files and see what is different
CSVDE – Import and Export from AD via CSV
LDIFDE – Import and Export from AD via LDIF
DNSLint – Check some DNS issues (Rangers love this)
https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/ - Test Outlook
JetStress – Test the Database, melt drives
DNSDiag – Like Netdiag, checks DNS
Telnet – Check if Ports are answering
PerfMon – Checkum big Perf Counters
Event Viewer – Start here please
Exchange Maintenance Tools
ntdsutil – This can ruin your career
Installed by Windows server
Management utility for AD
Which server is the schema master?
Which DCs are online?
Role passing & seizure
Defrag the AD database
Exchange Maintenance Tools
Isinteg – Please have PSS hold your hand
Exchange product CD tool
Verifies logical / application level structure
of database
Mailboxes, folders, message structures
Brief digression about logical vs. physical
Generally safe to run
Always safe unless you use the “-fix” switch
Requires significant processing time
~ 4GB/hr processing rate
May require multiple passes
Some errors have prerequisites that have to be
fixed first
It fixes more each time it is run up to a
point
Exchange Maintenance Tools
Isinteg cont’d
When to run it
When Microsoft tells you to
After an offline restore
When you suspect logical database
corruption
Opening a particular mailbox/message
makes Outlook crash or die
Messages or folders disappear
Item counts are off
When you’re curious
But only on a non-production machine
Exchange Maintenance Tools
ADSIedt + LDP
Windows Support tools
Use this When Microsoft or someone
who's knows what they are doing
tells you to, and holds your hand
There is no undo
Work with Raw object in AD
Delete – Could get you fired
Modify – Could get your fired
Read - Harmless
Write – Not safe
Verify – Harmless
Exchange Maintenance Tools
Eseutil
Exchange product CD tool
Verifies physical structure of database
Pages, pointers, long values, LV tables
Has multiple modes
Some are safe:
/g: integrity check
/m: dumps various
interesting bits
/k: page checksum
verification
/y: copy
Exchange Maintenance Tools
Eseutil cont’d
Some modes are semi-safe
/d does an offline defrag
Seldom necessary
Requires the DB to be dismounted
/r initiates recovery
Verifies DB for consistency
Plays back sequence of log files
Will either fail (DB untouched) or succeed (DB consistent)
Some are for emergency use only:
DATA LOSS
/createstm forces creation of a new, but matching,
STM file (2000 and 2003 only)
/p initiates a repair; missing or damaged pages may
be truncated
Exchange Maintenance Tools
Eseutil cont’d
When to run it depends on mode
When Microsoft tells you to
When you suspect physical database
corruption
Event ID -1018 or related
Database reported as inconsistent
Store crashes or refuses to mount a particular DB
Questions?