Can E-mail Be Sent and Received?

Betrifft: Exchange Server, Operations Manager 2007

This scenario is often referred to as mail flow monitoring. In this scenario, test messages between sending and receiving servers are sent out periodically. This is one of the fastest ways to monitor availability of the messaging services.

If messages can be sent and received, the servers running Exchange and their components are functioning. If messages are not received, an alert is raised and you are able to quickly investigate the issue, potentially before your customers notice a change in their ability to send and receive e-mail messages.

Configuring the sending and receiving servers is done through the Exchange Server 2003 Management Pack Configuration Wizard. For more information about the Configuration Wizard, see the "Running the Exchange Server 2003 Management Pack Configuration Wizard" section of this guide.

Monitors for Mail Flow Monitoring

Exchange mail flow has three monitors:

  • Exchange Mail Flow Monitor (Sender Part)

  • Exchange Mail Flow Monitor (Receiver Part)

  • Performance Collection Rule for Mail flow receiver

The sender monitor generates and sends an e-mail message to the receiving servers, scheduled by default for every 15 minutes. The health state of mail flow changes to critical if the sender experiences an error. The sender monitor generates alerts only on configuration issues.

The receiver monitor verifies whether the test e-mail messages sent by the sender monitor are received within the specified time, referred to as the Schedule or Interval, and how long delivery took, referred to as the Allowed Latency or Latency. The Health State of mail flow changes to critical and alerts are generated if test e-mail messages are not received within the specified Schedule and the number of attempts has been exceeded, referred to as Max Missed Runs or Number of max missed runs. The default number of attempts is 4. The receiving monitor also generates an alert if it took longer to receive the e-mail message than the allowed latency, for which the default is 60 seconds.

Wichtig

The interval must be identical on the sending and receiving servers. The rule Performance Collection Rule for Mail flow receiver and the monitor Exchange Mail Flow Monitor (Receiver Part) must have the same override values for the parameters that they share

Rules for Mail Flow Monitoring

The following table describes the rules for mail flow monitoring.

Rule Name

Alert Properties

An incorrect parameter was sent to the Received Mail script

Not applicable: This rule collects performance data; it does not generate alerts.

EAS logon failure: Forbidden

Event-based

Priority: Medium

Severity: Warning

Configuration problem detected by the mail flow receiver script

Event-based

Priority: Medium

Severity: Warning

Configuration problem detected by the mail flow sender script

Event-based

Priority: Medium

Severity: Warning

General errors in the mail flow receiver script

Event-based

Priority: Medium

Severity: Warning

General errors in the mail flow sender script

Priority: Medium

Severity: Warning

Mail flow latency exceeded the specified threshold

Event-based

Priority: Medium

Severity: Warning

Mail flow message not received

Event-based

Priority: Medium

Severity: Warning

Mail flow script cannot resolve recipient's address

Event-based

Priority: Medium

Severity: Warning

Performance Collection Rule for mail flow receiver

Not applicable: This rule collects performance data; it does not generate alerts.

Timeout when calling the mail flow receiver

Event-based

Priority: Medium

Severity: Warning

Timeout when calling the mail flow sender

Event-based

Priority: Medium

Severity: Warning

Warning: Mail flow message not received

Event-based

Priority: Medium

Severity: Warning

Views for Mail Flow Monitoring

The views for mail flow monitoring are in the Operations Console Monitoring pane in the Microsoft Exchange Server\Exchange 2003\Mail Flow node. The views for mail flow monitoring are as follows:

  • Mail Flow Active Alerts

  • Mail Flow Performance Data

The Mail Flow Active Alerts view displays alerts generated by the mail flow monitors and rules.

The Mail Flow Performance Data view displays performance data in graphical format for mail flow latency. You do not need to wait for the time it takes test e-mail messages to be received by the receiver monitor to exceed the interval. If the time it takes for the e-mail messages to be received is increasing, you can investigate the issue and resolve it before an alert is ever raised.

Reports for Mail Flow Monitoring

There are two reports provided with Operations Manager 2007 that can help you analyze trends in Mail Flow for your Exchange Environment: Availability and Performance. These reports are located in the Operations Console Reporting pane in Reporting\Microsoft Generic Report Library.

Hinweis

Reporting is an optional component of Operations Manager 2007.