Exchange

Exchange powershell

Check here for other powershell commands for exchange:

https://piszczynski.com/ExchangePowershell

Exchange issues

Check the Database availability groups cmdlet - use to find out if exchange server is the Primary or Secondary

Get-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup

You can get all the details you need by using the following command:

Get-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup | fl

Get-DatabaseAvailabilityGroup -status

Sometimes the witness will fail, you can check the status of the witness by using the cluster resource cmdlet:

ipmo failoverclusters

Get-ClusterResource

This will tell you where the witness stores the file. If the DAG finds the resource unrelibale it might mark it as failed - you can restart this by using start-cluster resource:

Get-ClusterResource | Start-ClusterResource

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Issues with mail queue:

use Exchange toolbox to open queue viewer

This will let you know if there are issues with incoming or outgoing emails.

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Get info on server setup:

Get-TransportConfig

Get-TransportServer -Identity <servername> | fl

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Show Database copy status between the exchange servers in a DAG:

Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus <source lang="powershell"> | sort name | ft -autosize

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Get Server that may be experiencing backpressure

Get-MailboxServer | foreach {Get-EventLog -ComputerName $_.Name -Source MSExchangeTransport -LogName Application -After (Get-Date).AddDays(-1) | where {$_.EventID -eq "15004"}}

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Check for failed messages:

Get-MessageTrackingLog  -Start "9/27/2021 13:00:00" -ResultSize unlimited | ? {$_.EventID -eq "Fail"}

Exchange Log Drive filling

Enable circular logging to flush transaction logs. This will mean you will not have the logs to perform a database restore

Go to Exchange Management Console and then go into Organization configuration, then Mailbox. On the database management tab there will be the databases. Click on the database and select properties, then in the maintenance tab click to enable circular logging.

Then Dismount and remount the database, this will clear the transaction logs.

Once logs have been cleared by mounting the database with circular logging enabled you should then dismount, disable circular logging and mount again. Then get the backups sorted.

Exchange Configuration

When setting up exchange for imap or pop make sure that the certificate is bound to the service

check all settings are configured using get-imapsettings

example of external connection setup command:

Set-ImapSettings -ExternalConnectionSettings "mail.contoso.com:993:SSL","mail.contoso.com:143:TLS" -X509CertificateName mail.contoso.com

Exchange Connectors

If throttling is occurring on a specific connector we can increase the allowed connections:

To check the current limit (20 by default), run the following cmdlet and look for MaxInboundConnectionPerSource:

Get-ReceiveConnector | Select *MaxInbound*

To increase the limit, you have to use the Exchange Management Shell:

Set-ReceiveConnector -MaxInboundConnectionPerSource 500 -MaxInboundConnectionPercentagePerSource 100

Send and receive connectors can be either frontend or hub transport.

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SMTP Relay Connectors

For exchange 2016 relay connector will need to be frontend transport type connector

To allow for annomous relays you will need to add ad permissions to the relay connector:

Get-ReceiveConnector "EXSERVER\Anon Relay EXSERVER" | Add-ADPermission -User 'NT AUTHORITY\Anonymous Logon' -ExtendedRights MS-Exch-SMTP-Accept-Any-Recipient

Exchange Connector Certificate

When updating exchange certificate you may need to apply the new cert to the send connectors (Usually outbound to O365)

Get the exchange certificate and apply it to the connector:

$cert = Get-ExchangeCertificate -Thumbprint <new cert thumbprint>
$certname = "<i>$($cert.Issuer)<s>$($cert.Subject)"
Set-SendConnector -Identity <send connector identity> -TLSCertificateName $certname

Exchange search + Search Index

If search is not running in OWA or in exchange mailboxes check the search index on databases:

Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus -Server <exchangeserver> | ft -auto
Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus -Server <exchangeserver> | Where {$_.ContentIndexState -ne "Healthy"} | Select name,ContentIndexState,ContentIndexErrorMessage

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Check exchange search services

Test exchange search:

Test-ExchangeSearch -MailboxDatabase DB02

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Rebuild the Content Index if required, if server is in a DAG try to reseed from other database. if not: Stop exchange services:

Stop-Service MSExchangeFastSearch; Stop-Service HostControllerService

Delete the GUID-named folder that contains the content index files - this will be in the exchange databases folder and will be in a sub folder with a GUID for a name - you will need to delete the folder.

You can find the correct folder name using a script that is provided by Microsoft in the exchange program files scripts folder - getsearchindexfordatabase.ps1 eg:

Start the exchange services to rebuild the index:

Start-Service MSExchangeFastSearch; Start-Service HostControllerService

Doing the "Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus -Server <exchangeserver> | ft -auto" command again will show you the status of the indexing

Exchange Migration - Hybrid

Error when moving mailboxes and need to run mailbox as a different migration batch? Remove the mailbox from the batch:

• Get-MoveRequest -Identity 'tony@contoso.com'
• Remove-MoveRequest -Identity 'tony@contoso.com'

Migrate Exchange Database to new location(will dismount database and move files to new location):

• Move-databasepath -identity "Mailbox Database" -edbfilepath "I:\Mailbox Database\mailbox database.edb"