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Enable Tracing for Unified Messaging

 

Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2

There are several tracing options available for troubleshooting issues related to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging (UM). Tracing lets you troubleshoot, debug, and isolate problems on a computer. You can enable tracing, configure tracing settings, and gathering the appropriate information about an Exchange 2010 Unified Messaging server to help you diagnose problems or evaluate system performance. Although there are many tracing tools offered by Microsoft and third-party vendors that may offer more complex tracing options, Microsoft Exchange Analyzers and Network Monitor are tools that you can download to help you enable tracing on a Unified Messaging server. This topic discusses tracing tools and tracing options available for troubleshooting and diagnosing Unified Messaging issues.

Looking for other management tasks related to UM servers? Check out Managing Unified Messaging Servers.

Prerequisites

You can install these tools on a client computer running Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1.

For more information about Exchange Analyzers, see Overview: Microsoft Exchange Analyzers.

Use the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant to create a network trace

To perform the following procedures, you must log on by using an account that's a member of the local Administrators group on that computer.

The Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant includes several tools that can be used to troubleshoot Unified Messaging issues and gather information about different Unified Messaging services and components.

The Trace Control tool that's included in the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant is a graphical user interface (GUI) that lets you enable and configure tracing on an Exchange 2010 Unified Messaging server. It can also be used to enable tracing on other Exchange 2010 servers in your organization. To enable tracing, select the trace type, component to trace, and any trace tags. When you're enabling tracing on a Unified Messaging server, you must enable the MSExchangeUM component listed under the Components to Trace section of the tool. Several features are available when you enable tracing using the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant, including the following:

  • Ability to display only enabled components and tags

  • Ability to search components and tags

  • Ability to display the current status of tracing on startup, including output file size, type, and location

The Microsoft Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant can be used to automatically determine what set of data is required to troubleshoot symptoms that you identify. It can also be used to collect configuration data, performance counters, event logs, and live tracing information from an Exchange 2010 Unified Messaging server in addition to Exchange 2010 servers in your organization running other Exchange 2010 server roles. The Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant analyzes each subsystem on a physical computer to determine individual bottlenecks and component failures. Then it aggregates the information to analyze the cause of the bottlenecks and failures. To download a copy of the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant, see Microsoft Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant v1.1.

For more information about Exchange Analyzers, see Microsoft Exchange Analyzers

Important

Tracing information and files can be very complex, depending on the operation and depth of tracing that has been completed. We recommend that after you enable tracing and collect the correct information, you contact Microsoft Enterprise Support.

Use Network Monitor to create a network trace

To perform the following procedures, you must log on by using an account that's a member of the local Administrators group on that computer.

You can use Network Monitor 3.3 to capture network traffic between a Unified Messaging server and an IP gateway or between Exchange 2010 servers running the Client Access, Mailbox, and Hub Transport server roles. A network monitor is a network protocol analyzer tool used to capture network data packets, which lets you analyze specific protocol information.

Network traffic to and from a Unified Messaging server may consist of the following protocols. However, there may be other protocols used, depending on the applications and devices. The following protocols can be used:

  • Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Used between an IP gateway, an IP Private Branch eXchange (PBX), or a Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 front-end server and a Unified Messaging server to establish a communication session. By default, when SIP packets are sent over a network, they are not encrypted. However, you can use mutual Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt the SIP packets.

  • Realtime Transport Protocol (RTP) Used between media endpoints that send and receive audio packets such as an IP gateway, an IP-based phone, or a Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 client and a Unified Messaging server. By default, when RTP packets are sent over a network, they are not encrypted. However, you can use mutual TLS to encrypt the SIP packets. If mutual TLS is used to protect the RTP packets, another protocol, Secure Realtime Transport Protocol (SRTP), will be used.

  • T.38 Used for the transmission of fax audio signals between a media endpoint and a Unified Messaging server.

  • SMTP Used between a Unified Messaging server and a Hub Transport server.

  • LDAP Used between a Unified Messaging server and an Active Directory domain controller.

  • MAPI RPC Used between a Unified Messaging server and a Mailbox server.

  • Mutual TLS Used between an IP gateway and a Unified Messaging server and between a Unified Messaging server and Hub Transport, Mailbox, and Client Access servers. Mutual TLS can be used with SIP, SMTP, or RTP to encrypt the protocol's content.

    Note

    If mutual TLS transport is used, the Network Monitor parser will be unable to decode the packets because they are encrypted.

By default, the following parsers are available in Network Monitor 3.3 for protocols used specifically by a Unified Messaging server:

  • RTP

  • Session Description Protocol (SDP)

  • SIP

  • SMTP

  • Interactive Connectivity Establishment

  • To download a copy of Network Monitor 3.3, see Microsoft Network Monitor 3.3.

Other Tasks

After you enable Unified Messaging on an Exchange 2010 server, you may also want to read one or more of the following topics:

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