Exchange Server Management and Monitoring Tools

bv-Control 1.5 for Microsoft Exchange
bv-Control is a useful Exchange Server management tool. This package includes two components: bv-Control, BindView's risk-assessment management tool, and the IntelliPACS console, a realtime network-monitoring facility.

Installing bv-Control is straightforward. After I specified in which directories I wanted the setup program to install bv-Control, the program configured the software and let me select the system components that I wanted bv-Control to monitor—Exchange Server, in my case. I provided the program's licensing information, and bv-Control was ready to run. To install IntelliPACS, I simply launched the setup program and the software automatically installed.

bv-Control uses a client/server architecture. In an ideal environment, the server component, BindView Information Server, runs on a system that contains bv-Control's data-collection facilities, and the client component, BindView Risk Management Solution (RMS) Console, runs on another machine from which you monitor the Exchange Server system. However, you can install both the client and the server components on the same system without affecting the system's performance. I installed both components on my Exchange Server system.

BindView designed bv-Control as an MMC snap-in, and you can access BindView RMS and IntelliPACS from the MMC framework. However, the software has a learning curve. Although the UI clearly labels the software's features, configuring the software can be unwieldy. Almost every operation requires multiple configuration steps, and I had to crack the manual on many occasions, even for tasks as simple as defining a policy.

To configure bv-Control policies, you use queries, which are a set of structured questions that interrogate your Exchange Server system to obtain the information you want. Creating new queries with bv-Control is a fairly simple process: You click the New Query icon on the toolbar and select the appropriate data source or operation type you want to query for. Then, the software prompts you to select the appropriate data fields to add to the query. After you select the data fields, you can set bv-Control to filter out specific events. In addition, you can narrow your query to a specific group of servers or mailboxes. The query builder's event-based approach comes in handy for administrators who don't relish the idea of writing code to create custom policies.

bv-Control also offers many predefined policies, which the software conveniently groups by policy type, as Figure 2 shows. BindView's predefined policies covered every task I wanted to automate (e.g., search message stores to find all email messages that contain a specific topic, create a list of orphaned email accounts), so I didn't need to create custom queries.

To test bv-Control's querying feature, I used the predefined Traffic Analysis queries to create a grid view of the amount of data my Exchange Server system was handling. To create an organized chart that showed the users on my Exchange Server system and the amount of disk space they consume, I ran the software's Mailbox Disk Space Utilization Report query. After I created both reports, I manually exported the data and saved the reports as HTML documents to publish on my IIS system.

The IntelliPACS component handles all system monitoring. At first launch, IntelliPACS prompted me to designate a computer on the domain as the Event Database Server (EDBS). IntelliPACS uses SQL Server to store information, so I designated my SQL Server system as the EDBS. In addition to this information, IntelliPACS prompted me for a system account and the default systems administrator account on the SQL Server machine.

IntelliPACS uses an agent-based design to monitor applications and services. You deploy an agent on each computer that the main IntelliPACS server will monitor. Each agent can run multiple scripts, which the software uses to monitor specific aspects of each system. By default, IntelliPACS includes many predefined scripts, and you can easily use VBScript to create custom scripts. Alternatively, you can use IntelliPACS's Script Wizard to create custom scripts. I chose to use the wizard to create a script to monitor the state of my Exchange Server system.

Before you use the wizard to develop custom scripts, you must define the alert types you want IntelliPACS to use in the event of a system error. I set up IntelliPACS to issue a Net Send command to my workstation and create an entry in the event logs when an error occurs. If you require more aggressive alert actions, you can set up IntelliPACS to send pager messages, email, and SNMP traps, or to launch an application.

After I set up an alert, I launched Script Wizard and created a script called Service Status. I selected Windows System as the script category and NT Services as the resource data. I set the script to poll my Exchange Server services every 2 minutes. I planned to use the information that the script gathered to create a historical trend chart that documented the frequency of my Exchange Server's crashes, so I enabled the software's data-logging feature. Finally, I selected the services that I wanted the script to monitor and set IntelliPACS to automatically restart the services if they failed. I then manually killed every Exchange Server process. Within 2 minutes, IntelliPACS sent a warning to my workstation and restarted the services.

For Exchange Server management, there's not much that bv-Control can't do. Although the UI can be clumsy, the program's well-written documentation simplifies finding the information you need. The combination of bv-Control and IntelliPACS makes server management and monitoring easy. However, at $1995 for the console, $995 per monitored server, and $12.95 per monitored mailbox, you'll be paying as much for an Exchange Server management utility as you would spend on a general-purpose management package for your whole system.

   Previous  1  [2]  3  4  5  6  Next