Microsoft Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant 1.0

There's a new Microsoft tool to add to your Exchange Server administration arsenal: the Microsoft Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant, version 1.0.

The Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant works with both Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003, and also has forward-compatibility with Exchange 2007 for certain problems.

Exchange 2007 is still under wraps, but I'm betting that there will be a revision to the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant before Exchange 2007's official release so that it is fully compatible.

The Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant works by letting you select a number of common tasks, and then asking you detailed questions about the symptoms of the problems you're seeing.

For instance, if you elect to troubleshoot problems with mail flow, you'll be asked to describe the symptoms -- e.g., a message queue is backing up. The program will then produce a report of possible causes for you to examine.

The Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant program also attempts to perform many troubleshooting actions on its own whenever possible. If it encounters a problem that requires administrator intervention, it will alert you and provide contextual information about the issue.

Note that the program's "Updates and Customer Feedback" option is present, but doesn't actually work yet -- it's a cosmetic addition that hasn't been fully enabled.

That said, the tool's design team is always willing to accept feedback about its use in the USENET newsgroup microsoft.public.exchange.tools. It is, after all, a 1.0 release, and a great deal of expansion is promised.

About the author: Serdar Yegulalp is editor of the Windows Power Users Newsletter.

Thanks for this powerful tool. It seems that it will be a great help to us admins, but when I tried downloading the tool, i

Digg This!     StumbleUpon     Del.icio.us

RELATED CONTENT Exchange Server Administration Tips Fixing DPM 2007 inconsistent replica errors in Exchange Server Using Mobile Device Manager 2008 server roles in Exchange 2007 An introduction to the DSAccess service in Exchange Server 2007 Exchange Performance Monitor tracks domain controller communication Exchange Server 2007 SP2 reinstates built-in backup capabilities Three Performance Monitors counters to use in Exchange Server 2007 Scheduling multiple Performance Monitor alerts in Exchange Server 2007 Which ActiveSync authentication method is best for your mobile device? Configure Performance Monitor alerts for Exchange Server 2007 Disable ActiveSync in bulk with Exchange Management Shell commands Microsoft Exchange Server Administration Tools Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 performance tutorial How to custom-configure a Microsoft Outlook 2007 install using OCT Top Exchange Server performance monitoring and troubleshooting tools Search and index Microsoft Outlook 2007 public folders Executing an .MSP customization file in Microsoft Outlook 2007 Using the NTBackup tool for Exchange Server backup and recovery Tools to bulk modify Active Directory users in Exchange Server 2003 Free tools keep Microsoft Outlook visible in Windows Vista Setting up email disclaimers and signatures in Exchange Server Tool deploys customized Microsoft Outlook 2007 configurations Microsoft Exchange Server Administration Tools Research Microsoft Exchange Server Performance Exchange Performance Monitor tracks domain controller communication Three Performance Monitors counters to use in Exchange Server 2007 Scheduling multiple Performance Monitor alerts in Exchange Server 2007 Configure Performance Monitor alerts for Exchange Server 2007 Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 performance tutorial Top Exchange Server performance monitoring and troubleshooting tools Three hardware don'ts when optimizing Exchange Server performance Why too much memory can hurt Exchange Server 2007 performance Troubleshooting slow Outlook Web Access (OWA) performance Use Performance Monitor to detect Exchange 2003 message queue problems

RELATED GLOSSARY TERMS Terms from Whatis.com − the technology online dictionary Remote Installation Service  (SearchExchange.com) TCPMAN  (SearchExchange.com)

RELATED RESOURCES 2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary

t says that it only works with "Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows XP." However, the uninstall procedure includes the Windows 2000 server.

Is this is a typo of Microsoft? Thanks!
—Patrick G.

******************************************

Yes, I believe that's a generic variety of typo on their part, since the nomenclature for the uninstall process is a little different in some versions of Windows.

I'm fairly confident the program runs only on Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP (in XP, I believe this means it talks to an instance of an Exchange server remotely, since you can't install Exchange on Windows XP).
—Serdar Yegulalp, tip author

******************************************

How does this compare to what Zenprise is doing?
—Jon B.

******************************************

Zenprise's product appears to be a much broader for-pay tool, something that a very big company might buy and use to not only diagnose existing problems but keep new ones from developing. Microsoft's tool is a lot more modest in its scope and ambitions, but it's also free.
—Serdar Yegulalp, tip author

Related information from SearchExchange.com: