Exchange Server Management and Monitoring Tools

Foglight 3.0 for Exchange
After acquiring MessageWise, Quest refined MessageWise's 2MA package by adding template support, HTML-based reporting features, and a new architecture. The result was Foglight 3.0, a dedicated Exchange Server management and monitoring tool.

Installing Foglight is easy; you simply run the setup program on the computer you designate as the Foglight server. The software executes the setup process in two phases. The first step installs the program, and the second stage installs and configures the service. After the system completes the first step and reboots, you must leave the CD-ROM in your CD-ROM drive for the software to complete the second step. The documentation was unclear about this requirement.

After installing Foglight, I launched the console, which isn't an MMC snap-in, and created a zone for my domain. In Foglight parlance, zones are a collection of servers that the software monitors as a group. You can use the Add Server Wizard to quickly add and configure the servers in your zone. If your network contains multiple Exchange Server systems that service different machines, you can create multiple zones and manage them from a central console. After using the wizard to configure the first server in the zone, I opted to manually install each additional server—a process that was almost as simple as running the wizard. To manually enter my Exchange Server system into a Foglight zone, I entered the server name and selected the appropriate check boxes to designate the Exchange Server services for the software to monitor.

I have a designated SQL Server system, so I decided to pass on the Jet database engine that Foglight uses by default and created a SQL database instead. The difference between the two database formats is size. If you plan to collect a large amount of data or store your collected information to create historical trend analysis charts, use SQL as the back end. Otherwise, the Jet engine is adequate. After I supplied Foglight with a SQL Server account, the software was ready to go.

Foglight uses what Quest calls a Touchless Architecture, which means that Foglight doesn't rely on agent software. Instead, the program runs on a central server and uses the remote procedure call (RPC) protocol to collect information from client machines. This design simplifies the deployment process because you don't have to install additional software on the client systems. In addition, this architecture doesn't impose the amount of overhead that agent programs do. Furthermore, this overhead reduction doesn't come at the expense of functionality. By using RPC to monitor services on remote systems, Foglight can collect data that the remote system's Performance Monitor counters provide. The drawback of this architecture is that if a system loses its network connection, Foglight stops collecting data, whereas an agent-based architecture will continue farming data to send to the central repository when the remote system reestablishes a network connection.

Template sets define Foglight's policies. Template sets are groups of rules that the software categorizes by service type and that you can apply locally or globally. Thus, you have all the power and customizability of rules without hand coding. You use the software's console, which Figure 3, page 68, shows, to configure templates by defining events and conditions. For example, to create a template that tracks traffic on my Exchange Server system, I selected the Average Time For Delivery parameter from the template list, set the threshold counter to trigger an alert when message delivery falls below a specified value, defined a sustained value that tells Foglight when to send a notification message, and saved the template. Then, I applied the template to my Exchange Server system's zone, and the software immediately began monitoring. Quest includes many templates, all of which correspond to the appropriate Performance Monitor counters, so you probably won't need to create templates.

After configuring the necessary templates, I tested Foglight's monitoring capabilities by simulating three events that frequently arise in a live environment. First, I created a large dummy file to fill up all the available disk space on my Exchange Server system. I had set Foglight to send me an email message after the software checked the server's disk space three times to confirm that the lack of disk space was permanent. So, the program sent me an email message. Second, I created a bottleneck between the Exchange Server machine and the network. Again, Foglight noticed the slow connection and sent me a notification message. Finally, I killed the Exchange Server services. The program perceived that it wasn't receiving information from the services and notified me of the downed server. Unfortunately, Foglight doesn't automatically restart failed services.

Foglight takes three approaches to reporting. The first approach is email reporting. When you select this option, Foglight emails text-based reports to you at regular intervals. The second option is in-console reporting, which lets you select a reporting period from within the Foglight console and output a chart-based report. The third option, Web reports, is the most fun. The Web reports approach lets you use HTML to create metric reports so that you can use any Web browser to view the reports.

At $1195 per Foglight server, deploying Foglight in your enterprise won't bust your budget. The cost is all-inclusive; thus, you don't pay additional fees for the console and per-user licensing agreements. You can even install Foglight on multiple machines without paying an additional licensing fee. The software is easy to use, so you won't have to learn confusing interfaces or scripting programming languages. If all you require is simple Exchange Server management and monitoring, I highly recommend Foglight.

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