NYExUG 3/12 Meeting Follow-up - Troubleshooting Tips

We had an excellent Exchange User Group meeting this past Tuesday about Troubleshooting Tips. Even though we ran later than we had in a while, we could not cover everything. I've highlighted comments and feedback received during the meeting and after. Thank you to everyone for your feedback. This is what makes us a community.

NYExUG Exchange Troubleshooting and Tips Presentation

Correction: the Exchange Server User Monitor (ExMon) tool does not list ActiveSync versions, but other AS performance stats.

Dirt cheap $60 UCC/SAN (5 names) certificate I recommend is https://certificatesforexchange.com/ which is backended via GoDaddy.

RDP Manager I use is called RoyalTS ($35) which has a lot of flexibility, functionality, stability, and works on XP and above. http://www.code4ward.net/main/

Website tool highlights from my presentation

• Microsoft owned Remotely Testing Outlook (RPC), ActiveSync, Web Services, Email (smtp) and even Office 365 https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com
• Review DNS Records for Auto Discovery - http://centralops.net
• Review DNS Records for basic MX/A Records – http://tools.appriver.com
• Checking for RBLs – http://www.mxtoolbox.com
• [application] Stress testing application for generating email (Server Traffic Test) - http://www.icewarp.com/downloads/tools/ No reboot and stable application.

Attendees Feedback (thank you)

• The website designed to check your TLS configuration. http://www.checktls.com
• "Out of control transaction logs. On a number of occasions we have had the transaction logs grow significantly (one every second or so). This can be caused by a rogue application sending emails via your HT or a bad out of  office configuration. We have experienced both.  The last one was a user's out of office settings. They had used the rules section in the out of office. Viewing the transaction log showed the user forwarding the same email every second or so. Turning of the out of office resolved the issue."
• Exchange environment summary report based (# of Exchange Servers & mailboxes, DB sizes, DAG status, etc.  http://www.stevieg.org/2011/06/exchange-environment-report
• Post on troubleshooting ActiveSync issues from the Exchange Team Blog.  http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2012/01/31/a-script-to-troubleshoot-issues-with-exchange-activesync.aspx
• Tony Redmond wrote an excellent article about ActiveSync not working as a result of 2010 user being a member of the priv’ group on his blog site. If he’s truly 2003 user, then the only thing I can think of is setting up similar profile on a different iphone. If that stil doesn’t work then it’s the account & he may need to look into deleting the EAS association via adsiedit & redo the EAS profile on the device. An Exchange MVP (Michael B Smith) has commented several times in the past on the MSExchange forum re: the ills people have been experiencing with iphones – in our own environment we’ve seen disappearing emails/corrupted calendars/and all sorts of wackiness. I can forward forum posts if people are interested but my desktop team has been beaten into submission about what to do/not to do when it comes to syncing EAS devices with Exchange.  http://thoughtsofanidlemind.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/ex2010-insufficient-access/
• Free Microsoft RDP manager mentioned was Remote Desktop Connection Manager (I didn't like the last version, so I know nothing about this one -Ben)  http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=21101

Any comments, post them or email me. Thanks.
-Ben