The Exchange Management Shell
The
second utility for managing an Exchange Server 2013 environment is an
automation and scripting tool called the Exchange Management Shell
(EMS), shown in Figure 2.
This shell is a command-line management interface that can be used to
administer servers in an Exchange Server 2013 organization. It enables
administration of the Exchange Server 2013 environment without the
Exchange management tools such as the EMC, albeit via a command-line
interface. Built on Microsoft Windows PowerShell 3.0 technology, the
Exchange Management Shell can perform any task that can be accomplished
in the Exchange Management Console and a lot more. In fact, many
configuration settings in an Exchange Server 2013 environment can only
be accomplished using the Exchange Management Shell.
Figure 2. Exchange Server 2013 Exchange Management Shell.
Exchange
Server has the ability to access all the familiar Exchange Server
cmdlets remotely, leveraging the PowerShell 3.0 remote capabilities.
This enables cmdlets and scripts to run across multiple servers in a
single EMS instance. It also enables administrators to run the shell
from their workstations and connect remotely to the Exchange Server
2013 servers. EMS can run on either 32-bit or 64-bit client systems and
connect to 64-bit Exchange Server 2013 servers.
The EMS does not require Exchange Server binaries to be installed on the client, making deployment much easier.
Supported client OS platforms for the Exchange Management Shell are as follows:
• Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Windows 8 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)
• Windows Server 2012 (64-bit)
The Exchange Administration Center
The
Exchange Administration Center is an exciting new tool in Exchange
Server 2013. The EAC is a browser-based management client for end
users, administrators, and specialists. This provides a new way to
administer a subset of Exchange Server features and is completely
RBAC-integrated.
This new EAC web utility
provides a great self-provisioning portal for administrators and a
simplified user experience for common management tasks. It is
accessible directly via a uniform resource locator (URL) just like
email access is accessed by URL to Outlook Web App (OWA).
The
EAC is AJAX based, deployed as a part of the Client Access Server role,
and shares some code with OWA. However, the two are separate
applications and sites.
The Exchange
Administration Center can be used in a variety of scenarios.
Administrators can delegate permissions using roles to support a
variety of administrators, specialists, and users. These include the
following types of scenarios:
• Administrators
• Help desk specialists
• Auditors
• End users
• Customers in a hosted environment
The scenarios are configured in the RBAC interface, which is based in the Exchange Administration Center.
Administrators would launch the EAC tool directly from the ECP link (https://<servername>/ecp) where <servername> is an Exchange Server 2013 CAS. Although administrators can switch between their OWA mailbox web page (https://<servername>/owa) and the EAC administration web page (https://<servername>/ecp), the security is integrated and provides separation between the user and administration roles.
The browser support for the EAC is the same as for OWA premium. Supported browsers are as follows:
• Internet Explorer
• Firefox
• Safari
The Exchange Toolbox
All
that remains of the Exchange Server 2010 Management Console is the
tools, so the collection has been renamed the Exchange Toolbox and
shows up in the Start menu with the Exchange Management Shell. The
following sections describe the tools in the Toolbox.
Exchange Best Practices Analyzer
The Exchange Best Practices Analyzer (ExBPA) is included in Exchange Server 2013 and can be found in the Exchange Toolbox.
The
ExBPA can be used to run health checks on an Exchange Server
environment, and can also run performance checks, permissions checks,
and connectivity tests to assist when troubleshooting problems.
The
ExBPA should be run whenever a new server is added to an Exchange
Server 2013 environment, or whenever configuration changes are made.
Remote Connectivity Analyzer
The
Remote Connectivity Analyzer (RCA) is also found in the Exchange
Toolbox in Exchange Server 2013. The RCA allows administrators to test
services from outside their organizations. The tool essentially
launches a browser to the website https://www.testexchangeconnetivity.com/ (shorthand https://exrca.com), shown in Figure 3.
The website is maintained by Microsoft and is not technically a
component of Exchange Server 2013, although the console has a link to
it.
The tests that can be launched from the site include the following:
• Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync Connectivity Tests
• Microsoft Exchange Web Services Connectivity Tests
• Microsoft Office Outlook Connectivity Tests
• Internet E-Mail Tests
Figure 3. Remote Connectivity Analyzer website.
This
site performs a valuable service by testing actual client access from a
third party (that is, Microsoft). This simulates a client and exposes
configuration or connectivity problems. For example, the Internet
E-Mail Tests use SMTP to send email to a user, verifying the MX record,
name resolution, SMTP, and if the gateway is an open relay. Another
example is ActiveSync Provider AutoDiscover, which tests the
notoriously difficult to test ActiveSync autodiscover services. As
shown in Figure 4,
the site prompts for email address, domain credentials, and
verification. On clicking Perform Test, the site tests ActiveSync
autodiscover and presents the results.
Figure 4. Remote Connectivity Analyzer ActiveSync Autodiscover Test setup.
The
tool does require domain credentials to test the various services, so
security measures are built in to the product. The site uses the HTTPS
protocol, so the confidentiality of the transmissions is protected by
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption. The site prompts human
verification, reading, and entering distorted text to ensure that the
system is not hijacked by bots. And the site has a privacy statement
indicating that the information collected is not retained after the
tool is used. All that said, it is strongly recommended that dummy test
accounts and credentials be used to execute the tests—and that those
accounts be disabled or deleted following the tests.
