Special Edition Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5

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Maintaining Exchange



After you plan and lay out your Exchange organization, the next step will be to establish the maintenance strategy for your organization. No matter how solid your design and implementation of the Exchange architecture, some tasks must be performed daily to maintain optimum performance and smooth operation.

This section will assist you in performing the routine tasks that will prevent messaging errors, fine-tune performance, and recover lost data when the worst happens.

Relocating Server Recipients

During normal Exchange operation, there will be times when recipients created on one Exchange server need to be transferred to another. Some common circumstances for relocating recipients include:

Distribution lists and custom recipients are server-independent objects. They belong to a site as a whole, not to a specific Exchange server and therefore, they do not need to be transferred among servers in a site.

Mailboxes are the most common types of recipients. Moving a mailbox also transfers its entire private information store contents (including attachments) to the destination server.

Because the Exchange information store uses intelligent storage techniques for handling attachments addressed to multiple recipients on the same server, additional space is required to split these files. Consider the following example.

User A and User B on server GARLAND01 both receive a message with a 1MB file attachment. The total storage space used on GARLAND01 to hold this file is 1MB. Both users are referencing the same instance of the file.

Suppose you transfer User A to server GARLAND05. The user's entire mailbox and its message contents and attachments are moved to GARLAND05's private information store. This means the 1MB file now exists on both servers.

To move mailboxes to another server in the same site, follow these steps:

1. Using the Exchange Administrator program, select and expand the desired site and server. You can find the servers within a site by expanding the Configuration container and then the Servers container. Then highlight the Server Recipients container.

2. Select the mailboxes you want to relocate. To select a series of continuous items, press and hold Shift and click the first and last items; to select a series of discontinuous items, press and hold Ctrl and click each item.

3. When all desired mailboxes are highlighted, select Move Mailbox from the Administrator program's Tools menu. The dialog box shown in Figure 25.1 appears.

FIG. 25.1 Select the destination server in the Move Mailbox dialog box.

4. Select the destination server from the Move Mailbox To list. Click OK, and the mailboxes will be transferred immediately.

5. View the destination server's recipient container to confirm that the mailboxes now exist on the new server. Messages that are in transit to a mailbox when it is moved to another server will be delayed until the recipient's routing information is properly updated. Then the message will be sent to the new home server of the recipient.

To transfer a mailbox to a different site or recipient container, you must use the Import/Export utility provided in the Exchange Administrator program's Tools menu.


NOTE: There is currently no automated method for moving users from one site or recipient container to another. The user's mail could be moved to a personal folder on the user's local desktop or file server home directory while a new mail account is created in the new site or recipient container. The mail could then be placed back on the server in the new mailbox. If you want to use the same mailbox address, follow the steps just given for saving the user's mail, and then export the user using the Directory Export process. Then delete the mailbox in the existing site or recipient container and import the user to the new location. You will need to manually edit the exported data file to correctly import the user into the appropriate container and to allow auto-creation of the new e-mail addresses associated with the new Exchange site.

Replicating Public Folders

Normally you will accommodate a wide number of public folder users by creating replicas of folders across your organization. Then, according to the replication schedule, the folders will update each other with changes.

To create a public folder replica, use the following instructions:

1. Using the Exchange Administrator program, select the site where the public folders reside.

2. Select the Recipients container for that site.


NOTE: Select Hidden Recipients from the View menu if your public folders are hidden in the Administrator program display window.
3. Select the public folder you want to replicate and open its properties sheet to begin replication configuration.

For more information, see Chapter 15, "Information Store Configuration."

Public Folder Replicas

Chapter 16, "Creating and Configuring Recipients," goes into more detail about configuring all aspects of the public folder recipient type. The following steps show you how to make changes to the Replicas properties sheet for a public folder.

1. Select the Replicas tab of the public folder's properties sheet. The page shown in Figure 25.2 appears.

The Servers display lists all Exchange servers in the site that's selected in the Site pull-down menu found in the lower-left corner.

The Replicate Folders To display lists the Exchange servers currently selected as destinations for folder replicas.

FIG. 25.2 Select the destination server for this public folder.

2. In the Site pull-down menu located in the lower-left corner, select a site from your organization.

3. Select or type the name of the destination Exchange server within that site. Click Add.

4. To remove a destination server, select it from the list on the right and click Remove.

5. Click Apply to set these properties and continue changing properties. If you are satisfied with all settings, click OK to return to the Administrator program.


CAUTION: Do not replicate the Offline Address Book public folder to any other server in your site. There must be only one instance of that folder in each site. Use caution when replicating any Address Book views that have been customized as well.

Moving a Public Folder with the Exchange or Outlook Client Software

The Exchange or Outlook Client (on Windows or Windows NT) can be used to move public folders. If you decide that for browsing purposes or restructuring needs the current hierarchy of Public Folders needs to be redesigned, you can do that only from a capable client.

You must have sufficient permissions on a specific folder in order to move it to a new location. Assuming you have the necessary permissions, move a public folder with the client software by following these steps:

1. Expand the Public Folders object from the client display window. (Using the Outlook Client, you may need to activate the Folder View first to see Public Folders.)

2. Locate the public folder you want to move.

3. Click and drag it to its new location. You will see a progress box as the information store data is relocated.

Moving a public folder via the client in this manner is not the same as replicating. The contents of the folder are actually physically moved. If the target folder is on a server in a remote site, the contents will be copied via the client PC to the remote server. This could be very time-intensive, depending on the amount of content in the folder being moved.


NOTE: It is not possible to move Public Folders using the Exchange Administrator program. All moves of this manner can be made only from a capable Exchange client.

Creating Mailbox Templates

A principle part of Exchange maintenance will be adding and deleting mailbox users. When adding a large group of recipients, you can avoid having to enter similar information (such as department or address) by using a mailbox template. You create a template mailbox by creating a dummy mailbox account (one not intended to receive messages) whose detail content you can copy when creating new users.

To create a mailbox template, do the following:

1. Using the Exchange Administrator program, select a home site for this template mailbox in your organization.

2. Select New Mailbox from the Administrator program's File menu, and the New Mailbox properties sheet appears.

3. Give the new mailbox a Display name that will help you identify it as a template. (for example, Import Template 1).

4. Enter all additional mailbox attributes that you want to include in the new group of mailboxes, such as department name, city, state, fax numbers, and so on.

5. Do not assign the new account association a Windows NT account in order to prevent anyone from trying to use the account for mail purposes.


TIP: Check the Hide from Address Book option on the Advanced tab of the mailbox template's properties sheet to prevent it from receiving mail. Then you'll need to temporarily make it visible when you want to use it to import new users (unless you want all your newly created mailboxes to be hidden as well).

To use your template when creating a new user mailbox, follow this procedure:

1. Using the Exchange Administrator program, select the home server where you want the new mailbox to be created.

2. If the template mailbox is hidden, select Hidden Recipients from the Administrator program's View menu and deselect the Hide from Address Book option. Then select the Mailbox Template as previously defined.

3. Select Duplicate from the Exchange Administrator program's File menu.

4. Enter the relevant user information for the new mailbox, such as name, phone numbers, and so on.

By using the Directory Import option from the Tools menu, you can create a large number of mailboxes with basic information using a template just like the mailbox that was created in the previous steps.


TIP: If you need to create or modify many users at once, you can use the Directory Import feature of the Exchange Administrator program to import a list of users you have created or previously exported. To test this technique, export a list of your current users. Then, using the same file format, develop your new user list and import that user list. Pay careful attention to the format of the file and note the attributes of each user.
A tool for creating and modifying Import and Export "headers" is available in the Exchange Resource Kit, which you can download from the Exchange Web site.

Performing Information Store Maintenance

The information store is the central storage facility for all Exchange messaging data. The information store is made up of the private information store and the public information store. An information store can consume considerable disk space, depending on the size of your organization and the distribution of users per Exchange server. Of course with the massively increased database capacity of Exchange 5.5, these limits and sizes can be very large.

The following are important things to note when maintaining the information stores:

Exchange 5.0/5.5 offers a few new "shortcuts" over the original Exchange 4.0 in order to allow the user to quickly access these status screens from the left pane of the Administrator program without having to drill down through to the properties sheet as noted above. See the additional information that follows about these options.

Private Information Store Properties

The Private Information Store Properties dialog box allows you to view the physical resources used by each mailbox on a particular server. This lets you evaluate hard disk space usage and determine storage limits.

First, select the private information store from a server within your site, as outlined in these steps:

1. Navigate to your desired site with the Exchange Administrator program and expand its container.

2. Expand the Configuration container of the selected site. All the site configuration objects appear in right pane of the Administrator program window.

3. Open the Servers container. A list of Exchange servers in your site appears.

4. Click the server name for the private information store you want to configure. The list of server objects appears in the right pane of the Exchange Administrator program window (see Figure 25.3).

5. Click the Private Information Store object to open its properties sheet.

Viewing the Physical Resources Used by the Exchange Mailboxes   The Mailbox Resources page allows you to view the physical resources (such as hard disk storage space) used by the Exchange mailboxes on a server. It consists of one main display window that shows the mailboxes on the current server. The window is divided into columns of information. You can customize the columns both by the information shown and by their widths on the screen.


NOTE: A mailbox will be displayed in this window only after the first time a user logs on to it. If the mailbox has never been used, it will not appear on the Mailbox Resources properties sheet.

FIG. 25.3 Select the Private Information Store object from among all the other server objects.

There are two ways to view Mailbox Resources. These steps outline the first method:

1. Highlight the Private Information Store Container in the left pane of the Administrator window. Then choose Properties from the File menu. A new window appears on the screen.

2. Select the Mailbox Resources tab of the Private Information Store properties sheet. The page shown in Figure 25.4 appears. The display window shows all the mailboxes on this server that have been used at least once.

FIG. 25.4 Monitoring mailbox resources.



NOTE: The Exchange System Attendant and the Exchange service account are always listed in this window.
3. Click the Refresh button to update the display window with the latest information.

4. Click the Columns button to edit which columns are displayed and their widths in pixels. (See the list following these steps for a description of the column headings and what type of information each one can display.)

5. Click Apply to set these properties and continue changing properties. When you are satisfied with all settings, click OK to return to the Administrator program.

Columns define what type of information is displayed in the standard dialog box. Default columns are preconfigured to display the most commonly needed information. Optional columns provide more detailed information that may be useful for troubleshooting errors. The following is a list of default columns:

The following is a list of the optional columns you can display in the dialog box:

The second way to view Mailbox Resources is to view them from the Exchange hierarchy (see Figure 25.5).

To access the Mailbox Resources information from the Exchange hierarchy, follow the instruction below:

1. Navigate to your desired site with the Exchange Administrator program.

2. Click the small plus sign adjacent to the Configuration container of the selected site to further expand the hierarchy in the left pane.

3. Expand the Servers container in the left pane, and a list of Exchange servers in your site appears.

FIG. 25.5 Mailbox Resources information view.

4. Click to expand the server name on which the private information store you want to configure is located.

5. The displayed server objects now visible in the left pane of the Exchange Administrator program window are identical in name and function to similar objects displayed in the right pane. Selecting properties of either the private information store or public information store displays the same data.

6. Expand the Private Information Store item in the left pane. Then click the Mailbox Resources object, and the status information appears in the right pane. You can add to the default columns shown in the right pane by using the View menu and the Columns command.

Public Information Store Properties

The Public Information Store Properties dialog box enables you to view the physical resources (such as hard disk storage space) used by the folders held in an Exchange public information store. It consists of one main display window that shows the public folders on the current server. The window is subdivided into various columns of information. You can customize the columns both by the information shown and by their widths on the screen.

The Schedule+ Free/Busy Information and the Offline Address Book are, in essence, public folders as well and are listed in the Public Folder Resources properties sheet.

Viewing the Public Information Store Properties  From the Public Folder Resources page, you can monitor the amount of system resources that are exhausted by the use of public folders on your system.

There are two ways to view the properties of the public information store. The first is to select the public information store from a server within your site as outlined in these steps:

1. Navigate to your desired site with the Exchange Administrator program.

2. Click the Configuration container of the selected site. All the site configuration objects appear in the right pane of the Administrator program window.

3. Open the Servers container, and a list of Exchange servers in your site appears.

4. Click the server name on which the public information store you want to configure is stored. The list of server objects appears in the right pane of the Exchange Administrator program window.

5. Highlight the Public Information Store item and select Properties from the File menu. Select the Public Folder Resources tab of the Public Information Store properties sheet. The page shown in Figure 25.6 appears. The display window shows all the public folders on this server, including those replicated from other servers.

FIG. 25.6 View resources utilized by each public folder on this server.

6. Click the Refresh button to update the display window with the latest information.

7. Click the Columns button to edit which columns are displayed and their widths in pixels. See the list following these steps for a description of the column headings and what type of information each one can display.

8. Click Apply to set these properties and continue changing properties. If you are satisfied with all settings, click OK to return to the Administrator program.

Columns define what type of information is displayed in the standard dialog box. Default columns are preconfigured to display the most commonly needed information. Optional columns provide more detailed information that may be useful for troubleshooting errors. The following is a list of default columns:

The following is a list of optional columns that can be used to display additional information about server resources.

The second way to view public information store properties is to view them from the Exchange hierarchy (see Figure 25.7).

FIG. 25.7 Public Folder Resources information view.

To access the Public Folder Resources information using this new method, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your desired site with the Exchange Administrator program.

2. Click the small plus sign adjacent to the Configuration container of the selected site to further expand the hierarchy in the left pane.

3. Expand the Servers container in the left pane, and a list of Exchange servers in your site appears.

4. Click and expand the server name on which the public information store you want to configure is located.

5. The displayed server objects now visible in the left pane of the Exchange Administrator program window are identical in name and function to similar objects displayed in the right pane. Selecting properties of either the private information store or public information store displays the same data.

6. Expand the Public Information Store item in the left pane. Then click the Public Folder Resources object, and the status information appears in the right pane. You can add to the default columns shown in the right pane by using the View menu and the Columns command.

Defragmenting and Compacting Information Stores Offline

Exchange automatically addresses most defragmentation and compaction issues, but there are times when a manual execution is desired or required. This involves using the Exchange EDBUTIL utility to defragment and optimize disk space allocation for an information store. It is important that you schedule this procedure at a time when message traffic is low or even nonexistent, because it involves stopping the information store service entirely.


NOTE: Software Spectrum has noted that on Exchange servers with the Internet Mail Service installed handling SMTP mail (inbound or outbound), excessive amounts of "white space" in the PRIV.EDB are created as SMTP messages are processed. The automated database clean-up processes do not seem to adequately reduce this fragmented white space. Thus, you should perform a manual defragmentation periodically, depending on the amount and size of SMTP messages handled. The space recovery can be dramatic! One example decreased the size of a 1GB PRIV.EDB to less than 20MB using the EDBUTIL defrag option.

The following command-line entry will defragment and compact the PRIV.EDB file (Exchange Private Information Store) and automatically create a backup file. The EDBUTIL actually performs its work on the backup file, and once its work is satisfactorily completed, EDBUTIL renames the backup to replace the original. This method minimizes possible further corruption and introduction of errors into the current production file. Note, however, that you will need enough disk space to hold both your current EDB file and the backup. (It is possible to copy the file to an alternate location on the network.)

Here is an example command that includes a backup:

edbutil /d /ispriv

In this command, /ispriv indicates that the work is to be performed on the private information store.

The following steps outline the general procedure for compacting the information store:

1. Open the Windows NT services Control Panel and stop the Exchange Information Store service (MSEXCHANGEIS).

2. Open a Windows NT command prompt window (or use the Run command from the Program Manager's File menu).

3. Enter the EDBUTIL command using the following syntax:

EDBUTIL [/d] [/information store type]
The [/d] indicates that switch options are present. See Table 25.1 for a list of available switch options for the EDBUTIL command.

4. Press Enter (or click OK if you're using the File, Run command from Program Manager) to start compacting.


NOTE: Compacting a large information store could take a reasonably extended amount of time. So make sure to plan for downtime accordingly.
5. After the compacting process finishes, restart the information store service.

6. To test the information store for proper functioning, log in to it with an Exchange client and try to view messages or connect to a public folder.

7. If the information store is functional, you can remove the backup (.bak) file.


NOTE: While the information store service is stopped, all message transfer attempts to the store are refused. Also, server mailbox users will not be able to open the store through their client.

Table 25.1  EDBUTIL.EXE Switch Options

Option Description
/ds Directory.
/ispriv Private information store.
/ispub Public information store.
/b Backup. Makes a backup of the original file in the specified location.
/r Defragment and repair. Defragments the database as usual, but if errors occur, it attempts to correct the problem or removes the error. The end result is a problem-free database--but essential data may be missing.
/c Performs a read-only database consistency check without making a copy. It does not repair or affect the database; it simply creates a report.
/t filename Renames the newly compacted database with a specified filename.

Maintaining Message Transfer Agents

Each Message Transfer Agent (MTA) in a site uses the routing table to calculate delivery paths for each message. Whenever a change is made that affects routing (for example, modifying address spaces for a connector), it will not take effect until the site routing table has been rebuilt.

Normally, the routing table is rebuilt once per day unless the Routing Calculation Schedule has been modified. For more information on changing the Routing Calculation Schedule, see Chapter 3, "Exchange's Integrated Server Components." You can also choose to rebuild the table manually, this way:

1. Highlight the server to which you had made routing changes. In the right pane, highlight the Messaging Transfer Agent and select Properties from the File menu. Select the General property page of the Message Transfer Agent property pages. The property page in Figure 25.8 appears.

2. Click the Recalculate Routing button to begin rebuilding the routing table.

3. Click OK to return to the administrator program.

The MTA retrieves updated routing information from the routing table every 15 minutes. Therefore, it could take up to 15 minutes for routing updates to be used by the MTA. In some cases, it is advantageous to stop and then restart the MTA server to force a "re-read" of the routing table and thus a rerouting of messages in the MTA work queues.

FIG. 25.8 Use the General Message Transfer Agent Properties page to recalculate MTA routing.


MTA Message Queues

The Queues Property page lists messages awaiting delivery by the MTA. There are two primary windows in this property page. The Queue name window shows which queue you are currently viewing and the Message list box displays the messages in that queue. From this, you can view details about a specific message in the queue, change its priority for delivery, or delete it entirely.

Within the Message list window are three columns that contain information about a particular message:

To configure the Queues property page, perform the following steps:

1. Highlight the server that you want to monitor from the hierarchy in the left pane. In the right pane, highlight the Messaging Transfer Agent and select Properties from the File menu (or double click). Select the Queues Property page from the Message Transfer Agent property pages. The Queues Property page in Figure 25.9 appears.

2. Use the Queue name drop-down menu to select which message queue to display. There are queues for the private and public information stores and any installed gateways.

FIG. 25.9 The message queue. It is blank because all pending messages have been delivered.



NOTE: The Internet Mail connector and Microsoft Mail connector have additional queues that can also be accessed through their respective property pages.
3. Select a message and click Details to view additional information about it.

The additional message information includes message originator, submit time, message size, and priority. This button is dimmed if no messages are in the queue.

4. Click the Refresh button to update the message list window with the latest list of messages in the MTA queue.

5. Click Priority to display the message's priority.

Change the priority of a message if desired. It can be low, medium, or high. Messages are sent in order of this priority. A message's priority is set when a message is created, but can be adjusted for the purposes of this queue by changing values here.

6. Select a message and click Delete to remove a message from the MTA queue.

7. Click Apply to set these properties and continue with other properties. If you are done with all settings, click OK to return to the administrator program.

When dealing with MTA queue dialog boxes (or any other Exchange queue box), the messages you see on the list are a "snap shot" of all queued messages at one point in time. To get a more dynamic view or to "catch" a message as it passes through the queue, you must continually press the Refresh button to get the latest updates. In some cases, it might be easier to increase the level of diagnostic logging and monitor the Windows NT Event Logs.

MTA Diagnostic Logging

Logging falls mainly in the realm of troubleshooting and is discussed in Chapter 28, "Troubleshooting Exchange with Diagnostic Tools." MTA logs can perhaps be used for other purposes, such as billing and accounting for number of messages transferred by person or department if desired.


CAUTION: Increasing diagnostic logging levels on very active servers can result in huge log file sizes in a very short amount of time and dramatically reduce disk performance.

Maintaining Microsoft Mail Connector

The Microsoft Mail Connector has its own temporary message store called the Microsoft Mail Connector post office. This is sometimes referred to as the "Shadow Post Office." The Microsoft Mail Connector maintains its own message queue property page from which to monitor message queue status.

To open the Microsoft Mail Connector message queue window, do the following:

1. Navigate through the administrator program to the site desired, open the Configuration Container, then locate and open the Microsoft Mail Connector within the Connectors container to view its property pages.

2. Select the Connections tab (see Figure 25.10).

FIG. 25.10 View Connections.

3. Select from the Connections window the Microsoft Mail connection you wish to monitor.

4. Click the Queue button. The Microsoft Mail Connector message queue property page appears.

5. Select a sort order for the messages by clicking one of the categories on the top line of the Queued Messages window (see Figure 25.11).

Information displayed in the queue:

From The original message sender Subject The data on the message's subject line Message ID The message identifier Date/Time The time when the messaged entered the queue

FIG.25.11 Monitor messages in Queued Messages box.

6. To remove a message, select it and then click Delete.

If Send Non-Delivery Reports when messages deleted is checked, the original sender will be notified if his or her message was deleted from the queue. If it is clear, no notification will be sent when a message is deleted.

7. To return a message to its original sender, select it and then click Return.

8. Click Close to return to the Microsoft Mail Connector Connections property page. Then, click OK to return to the administrator program.


NOTE: As in the MTA queues property page, the view of queued messages is static. To update the display you must click the Refresh button.

Maintaining Directories

There are two components to each directory object saved in a server's information store: the object itself and a corresponding entry in the directory. Consistency adjustment corrects errors arising by mismatched directory information. This feature will either add or delete a directory entry to match the existence or absence of information store data.

The property page allows you to control at what point these inconsistencies are to be corrected. Figure 25.12 shows the Advanced tab of the Server Properties page where you configure directory inconsistency adjustment.

FIG. 25.12 This property page lets you adjust directory inconsistencies.

Select either All inconsistencies to correct them immediately or select Inconsistencies more than X number of days and enter the time an inconsistency can exist before it is automatically corrected.

Understanding Knowledge Consistency

Knowledge consistency for the local server is its awareness of other Exchange servers within a site and at other sites within your organization. The knowledge consistency operation is run automatically approximately every 15 minutes. If Exchange servers or sites were added and the local server's directory was not aware of those changes (for example, the local server was down during that time), then you may not want to wait for the automatic checking and do it manually.

Suppose Exchange server CHICAGO01 is brought down for two hours for a memory upgrade. During the time of the upgrade, a new server, CHICAGO08, is added to the site. When CHICAGO01 is restored to proper functioning, it will not be aware of the existence of the new server until the full knowledge consistency cycle is run at the end of the day. Knowing this, the administrator for CHICAGO01 runs the knowledge consistency cycle manually from the Directory Service property pages to make CHICAGO01 aware of the new server's existence. (See Chapter 3, "Exchange's Integrated Server Components," for additional detail on server properties.)

Resynchronizing Replicated Directory Information

If a directory inconsistency is detected when checking manually, it is a good idea to manually execute all processes related to correcting inconsistencies. Figure 25.13 shows the property page for the Directory Service. By using the following sequence, you can correct knowledge inconsistencies:

1. Check knowledge consistency from the directory service property pages and detect the error.

2. Manually update directory replication within the site by running Update Now also from the Directory Service property pages.

3. It might also be a good idea to open the Message Transfer Agent properties for this server and click Recalculate Routing from the General property page.

Although this sequence is optional and will be automatically executed within a 24-hour period, performing the tasks immediately will reduce the possibility of conflicts or errors.

FIG. 25.13 This property page lets you adjust knowledge inconsistencies


Defragmenting and Compacting Directory Information

Much like the information store, the Exchange directory can benefit greatly from offline defragmentation and compacting. The Exchange directory service continually performs online compacting during its normal operation, but a dedicated, periodic, offline compacting will provide a more significant increase in performance. Not only will directory access speed improve after compacting, but also hard disk space wasted through inefficient storage will be freed for use. Offline directory defragmentation and compacting requires stopping the Exchange Directory and Directory Synchronization services.

The following command-line entry will compact the DIR.EDB file (Exchange Directory database) and automatically back up the original to a file named DIR.BAK. As with the aforementioned use of EDBUITL with the PRIV.EDB and PUB.EDB, there must be sufficient disk space available to make a complete copy of the current DIR.EDB. Here is an example command:

EDBUTIL /d /ds

where /ds notes that the process is to run against the directory.

The procedure for compacting a directory is as follows:

1. Open the Windows NT services control panel and stop the Exchange Directory service (MSEXCHANGEDSA) and the Directory Synchronization service (MSEXCHANGEDXA).

2. Open a Windows NT command prompt window (or use the Run command from the Program Manager File menu).

3. Enter the EDBUTIL command using the following syntax

EDBUTIL [/d] [/information store type] where /d indicates that switch options are present. Please refer to Table 25.1 for the appropriate switch options.
4. Press Enter (or click OK if using the Run command from the Program Manager) to start compacting.


NOTE: Compacting a large directory file could take a large amount of time, so make sure to plan accordingly. For a thousand users, for example, this process will possibly take an hour.
5. After the compacting process finishes, restart the Exchange Directory and Directory Synchronization services.

6. Test the directory for proper functioning by accessing into the local address list with an Exchange client.

7. If the directory is functional, you may proceed to remove the backup (.bak) files.

Working with Directory Event Logs

Part of maintaining a healthy Exchange Organization is working with the Windows NT Event Log. It is important to keep track of Event Log sizes (to set upper size limits and expiration dates for log entries) so as to not let the Event Log become too large, but it should be allowed to grow large enough to hold many days worth of log entries. The two Directory Services to watch are these:

Logging levels for each service are set in the Diagnostic Logging property page. See Chapter 28, "Troubleshooting Exchange with Diagnostic Tools," for tips on using the Diagnostic Logging property pages for each service.

Backing Up Your Exchange Server

Probably the most important maintenance procedure for an Exchange organization is backup of information store and directory information. Few things on a user's computer are as important to him or her as their email. Implementing a good backup strategy is well worth the effort. This section will provide a general conceptual guide to Exchange backup. For more detail in using the Exchange Backup utility, refer to your Exchange server documentation or the documentation of your Exchange "aware" Windows NT backup solution.

Windows NT provides built-in tape backup and restore utilities that are supplemented by extensions installed with Exchange server. These utilities provide the basics for an adequate Exchange backup, but a full-featured backup software package would provide additional functionality and versatility. Note that the Windows NT Backup program has remained essentially unchanged in ability and features from early Windows NT 3.5 days, so usage of a newer tool is strongly recommended.

This section describes backup and restore procedures directly relevant to maintaining Exchange information. For full Windows NT server backups, refer to your Windows NT or third-party backup software documentation.

The version of Backup included with Exchange is aware of the servers in your Exchange Organization and allows you to do backups for a single server, server group, sites, or even an entire organization if necessary.

The main Exchange information you will want to back up is located in the following paths:

\EXCHSRVR\MDBDATA

and

\EXCHSRVR\DSADATA

Important Exchange files to be backed up are as follows:

When restoring lost data, the log files are played back to reconstitute the databases to the point of the last backup.

A proper Exchange aware backup sequence can be completed without any downtime of the server, but performance is affected for connected users. As backup is performed, the transaction logs associated with the main information databases of Exchange (DIR, PRIV, and PUB) are reset to reflect that a backup has been made.

If a "non-Exchange aware" backup tool is used, the Exchange services will need to be stopped in order to release file locks on open files and databases. Once backup is complete, the transaction log files will need to be manually reset.


NOTE: Microsoft has provided a very detailed "White Paper" on backup and disaster recovery giving detailed steps to recover a server or an individual's mailbox from backup. Search the Exchange Web site for a recent version.


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