Tools to administer MS Exchange ...And they are free ! |
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Written by David Noel-Davies | |
Some free tools that can help
simplify Microsoft Exchange deployment, troubleshooting, and administration.
Some of the tools are simple—but still convenient—whereas others provide some
powerful functionality. There are some tools you can use during
deployment to ease the process and reduce issues in the future, tools you can
use for troubleshooting to reduce down-times, and tools you can use during
day-to-day administration to monitor server health and perform tasks. Microsoft Exchange Server
Deployment Assistant Microsoft’s Exchange Server Deployment Assistant is an online
tool that produces a custom step-by-step checklist you can utilize during a
server installation or upgrade. It first asks you questions about your current
and desired deployment environment, such as the deployment type (on premise,
cloud, or hybrid), migration questions, desired features/functionality, and
other miscellaneous caveats that impact the installation or upgrade. Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer Microsoft’s Remote Connectivity Analyzer
is a website with many tools to help test and troubleshoot connectively of
Exchange servers, Outlook, Lync, OCS, Office 365, and POP, IMAP, and STMP
email. Plus it offers downloadable Connectivity Analyzer
Tools for local testing and a message header analyzer. PFDAVAdmin and ExFolders These are tools that enable you to perform tasks on
Exchange public folders and mailboxes, such as checking or changing
permissions. It can also connect to mailboxes, check the contents, and generate
reports. PFDAVAdmin
is for Exchange 2000, 2003, and 2007 and ExFolders
is the updated version for Exchange 2007 and 2010 SP1 and later. Jetstress The Jetstress
tool simulates disk I/O load on your server, allowing you to specify the amount
of simulated Exchange users and profiles. This can help you verify the
performance and stability of your server before installing Exchange and putting
it into production-use. Exchange Server Role Requirements
Calculators These are calculator tools that give sizing
recommendations for your particular Exchange server roles for both client
access and mailbox. The 2010 version is focused on
mailbox calculations while the 2013 version includes
recommendations on sizing Client Access servers too. Exchange Environment Report This Exchange Environment Report tool
is from Steve Goodman and is a PowerShell script that generates an automatic
overview of your Exchange environment. It supports Exchange 2003, 2007, 2010
and 2013 servers and database availability groups. It reports the number of and
details about the servers, mailboxes, roles, and versions. It also gives you useful
status on the Database Availability Groups (DAG) and non-DAG databases. Exchange Reports Exchange Reports offers
reports on overall information about your Exchange Environment, supporting
Exchange 2010 & Exchange 2013. You can keep an eye on configuration changes
and status with Group Reports, Single Group Information, Mailbox Report, Single
Mailbox Information, Message Tracking, and Environment Report. The program doesn’t require any installation, but
requires .Net 4.0, Powershell 2.0, and Remote Powershell access to the Exchange Server. Reports can be
saved in history and also exported to Excel. Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI
Editor (MFCMAPI) Microsoft’s Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Editor
(MFCMAPI) tool provides access to MAPI stores, useful when
troubleshooting Exchange and Outlook issues, which can serve as a replacement
to the old Microsoft Exchange Server Information Store Viewer. You can open and
navigate through the message stores that are exposed through MAPI. Free Exchange Monitor The Free Exchange Monitor from SolarWinds supports Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 and
2003. It keeps tabs on the Exchange server stats, services, mail queue sizes,
and host server health. In addition to notifying you of outages it can be
useful in troubleshooting Exchange server problems and even help with
pro-active monitoring, for instance detecting growing mail queues that can
indicate bigger issues like transport failures, Internet connection failures,
and virus activity. Free Exchange Monitoring This is another monitoring application, but from ManageEngine
and supports Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010, and 2013. It gives stats on
server health and Exchange services. It also provides details on the client
access server, transport, Active Sync counters, and delivery aspects. You can
generate real-time performance reports to be downloaded or emailed in PDF
format. Exclaimer Outlook Photos Exclaimer Outlook Photos
can help you import staff photos into the Active Directory so they’ll show up
in the Outlook People Pane, SharePoint profile, and on Microsoft Lync. It can
auto-match pictures from a batch to names or other data in Active Directory,
and even automatically crop and center the photos as
well. Certificate Manager for Exchange
2007 Exchange 2007 enables SSL within IIS by default,
but creating and managing SSL certificates via PowerShell commands can be
confusing. However, the Certificate Manager for Exchange 2007
from U-BTech eases the process with a GUI. You can generate an Exchange 2007 Certificate
Signing Request and process the Certificate Authority and enable certificates
for Exchange 2007 Services (POP, IMAP, SMTP, IIS, UM). Plus you can include
additional subject names in a single certificate. It supports import and exporting
as well. Exchange PST Capture Exchange PST Capture from
Microsoft will search your network for PST files and then import those files to
mailboxes in your organization. It supports both on-premises Exchange Server
2010 and 2013 and Exchange Online. This tool can help, for instance, during the
initial deployment of an Exchange Server, to move local Outlook data files into
the Exchange Server. |
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