Background
Microsoft has kindly released along with the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer Tool 2.0 (ExBPA) a MOM 2005 management pack of the same tool. This management pack in its default mode scans selected Exchange servers on a daily basis and displays scan results in the MOM Operator Console. The ExBPA management pack is godsend for administrators or groups of administrators with more than a few Exchange servers.
The advantages to administrators with multiple Exchange servers include the following:
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Central intranet update of the ExBPA.Config.xml file, via a central share.
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Daily scans on selected Exchange servers, scan results then picked up by the MOM agent.
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Central Management of results
Central intranet update of ExBPA.Config.xml file
The ExBPA.Config.xml file is the file containing, ExBPA best practice scans. Over time when Exchange best practices evolve Microsoft will release new revisions of this file. If ExBPA is configured to use a central copy of the ExBPA.Config.xml file the administrator manually download the latest copy of the ExBPA Webupdate pack (which contains the most recent ExBPA.Config.xml file) from Microsoft then copies the config file to the central share. Now the next time the ExBPA scans are ran this file is retrived from the central share rather than the internet.
Downloading the config file from a central share has two advantages, first being network bandwidth, second is Exchange servers which don’t have internet connectivity still get updated with the latest best practices scans.
Scans by default are run on a daily basis against chosen Exchange servers
When you select to push the ExBPA tool onto Exchange server/s from the Operator Console, scans from then on are ran every day on every selected exchange server with the results picked up by the MOM Agent and displayed in the MOM Operator Console.
Central Management of results
Organizations with many administrators can review ExBPA results from the MOM Operator Console, updating the resolution state and making comments. These details can then be viewed by other administrators in the organization. This saves duplication of work and scans.
This also means administrators who don’t have local administrator permissions on the Exchange server, can still view ExBPA scan results; all they need is the appropriate permissions on the MOM server.
Installing and configuring ExBPA for MOM2005
What’s needed, before you begin?
A MOM 2005 Server with the MOM agent installed on any Exchange 2000/2003 servers you wish to monitor.
Ensure .NET Framework 1.1 installed on each Exchange server you wish to monitor
Download Exchange Best Practices Analyzer Tool 2.0 (ExBPA.msi)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=dbab201f-4bee-4943-ac22-e2ddbd258df3&DisplayLang=en
Download Exchange Best Practices Analyzer Management Pack for MOM 2005
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=583FA809-F151-4784-AFD4-44D0B7687E6A&displaylang=en
Download the current ExBPA WebUpdate Pack which contains the latest revision of the ExBPA.Config.xml file.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4f2f1339-cbcd-4d26-9174-f30c10d7ec4c&displaylang=en
Overview of install and configuration:
Import ExBPA Management Pack into MOM server
Install ExBPA tool on MOM 2005 Server
Create ExBPA central share, copy ExBPA.msi & ExBPA.Config.xml to share
Customize ExBPA Management Pack to obtain ExBPA.Config.xml file from central share.
Push ExBPA tool to Exchange servers from MOM Operator Console
Import ExBPA Management Pack into MOM server
Run the ExBPA Management Pack for MOM install which will extract the ExBPA.akm.
Open the MOM 2005 Administrator Console and select “Import Management Packs” and select the default “Import Management Packs and/or reports” then point the Import/Export wizard to the folder where you exported the management pack to in step 1
Select the ExBPA.akm file and click next, as shown in figure 1 below:
Figure 1 “selecting the ExBPA.akm management pack file for import”
The Exchange Best Practices Analyzer tool Management Pack should now be imported.
Install ExBPA tool on MOM 2005 Server
Run the ExBPA.msi installer on your MOM 2005 Server
This step was not outlined in the official documentation for the ExBPA Management Pack, but I found it was required or an error would occur later when MOM tries to run the daily Organization rule.
Create the ExBPA Central Share
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Create a folder on a file server or your MOM server and share it out, I have named my folder and shared it out as ExBPA-MOM
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Now copy the ExBPA.msi & ExBPA.Config.xml files into your newly created central share. The latest copy of the ExBPA.Config.xml file needs to be extracted from the Webupdate pack listed above.
Customize ExBPA Management Pack to obtain the config file from the central share
1. Open the MOM Administrator Console and navigate to the following item:Management Packs
Rule Groups
Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool
ExBPA Scheduling
Event Rules
2. In the right pane, right click on Daily ExBPA run (Server) and select properties.
3. Click the responses tab, and select ExBPA – Run Server then select edit.
4. In the Launch a script window select edit on the “ExBPA – run Server” item.
5. The Script Properties window will appear, select the Script tab and find the following line:
strCmd = strExe & " -p Events:Enable -dat " & strNewFile + " -r ""3,Server=" & strServer & """"
Now this is where you specify the details of the Central Share and config file. My server name is lcs and my share name is ExBPA-MOM, now I edit the line so that it looks like the following:
strCmd = strExe & " –cfg \\lcs\ExBPA-MOM\ExBPA.Config.xml -p Events:Enable -dat " & strNewFile + " -r ""3,Server=" & strServer & """"
Click Apply then Ok
Push ExBPA tool to Exchange servers
1. Open the MOM 2005 Operator Console, opening Computers and Groups, and selecting the Exchange servers you wish to push the ExBPA tool to.
2. In the Tasks Pane on the right expand Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool, and then click Install ExBPA.
3. The following window below shows the Script Task parameters window, here you need to click on the value item and specify your central share location (This is where the ExBPA.msi file is located). I have specified \\lcs\ExBPA-MOM as shown below figure 2.
Figure 2 "Script task parameters window"
4. Clicking next displays a list of targets for the ExBPA push, click next if the list is correct. Click Finish on the Completing the Launch Task Wizard. The Ex-BPA tool will be pushed out to the Exchange servers you selected earlier. (Note: a re-boot will NOT be necessary)
You have now Setup and configured the ExBPA Management pack for MOM.
To see scan results you can either wait until 11:10PM for the “Daily ExBPA Run (Organization)” and 11:20Pm for the “Daily ExBPA Run (Server)”, daily timed event to run. Or if you would like to see results results now select the Exchange Server/s you wish to scan then in the Task pane in MOM Operator Console, select Daily ExBPA (Organization) and Daily ExBPA (Server).
For more information regarding the Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyzer tool, and Microsoft Operations Manager have a look at the following Microsoft websites:
Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyzer tool:
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/downloads/2003/exbpa/default.mspx
Microsoft Operations Manager Website:
http://www.microsoft.com/mom/default.mspx