Weekly Maintenance
Tasks
that do not require daily administrative input, but that still require
frequent attention, are categorized as weekly maintenance routines.
Recommended weekly maintenance routines are described in the following
sections.
Document Database File Sizes
In
an environment without mailbox storage limitations, the size of the
mailbox databases can quickly become overwhelmingly large. If the
volume housing the databases is not large enough to accommodate the
database growth beyond a certain capacity, services can stop, databases
can get corrupted, performance can get sluggish, or the system can halt.
Even
with mailbox size limitations implemented, administrators should be
aware of and document the size of databases so that they can determine
the estimated growth rate.
By documenting
the size of all mailbox databases on a weekly basis, administrators can
have a more thorough understanding of the system usage and capacity
requirements in their environments.
Verify Online Maintenance Tasks
Exchange
Server 2013 records information in the application log about scheduled
online maintenance processes. Check this event log to verify that all
the online maintenance tasks are being performed and that no problems
are occurring.
Using the filtering
capabilities of the Event Viewer (View, Filter), administrators can
apply a filter to search for specific events, and can specify a date
(and time) range to search for these events. For example, it is easy to
filter the events to view all events with an ID of 1206 that have
occurred in the past week.
Alternatively,
in the right pane of the Event Viewer, click the Event column to sort
events by their ID number; however, this view is more challenging to
read because you must then verify the dates of the events as well.
The following Event IDs should be regularly reviewed:
• Event ID 1206 and 1207—These IDs give information about the start and stop times for the cleanup of items past the retention date in Item Recovery.
• Event ID 700 and 701—These
IDs indicate the start and stop times of the online database
defragmentation process. Administrators should ensure that the process
does not conflict with Exchange Server database backups and make sure
that the process completed without interruptions.
• Event IDs 9531–9535—These IDs indicate the start and end times of the cleanup of deleted mailboxes that are past the retention date.
Analyze Resource Utilization
To
keep any environment healthy, overall system and network performance
should be regularly evaluated. An Exchange Server 2013 environment is
no exception.
At a minimum, administrators
should monitor system resources at least once a week. Primary areas to
focus on include the four common contributors to bottlenecks: memory,
processor, disk subsystem, and network subsystem.
Ideally,
utilizing a monitoring utility such as Microsoft System Center 2012
OpsMgr to gather performance data at regular intervals is recommended
because this data can be utilized to discover positive and negative
trends in the environment.
Check Offline Address Book Generation
An
Offline Address Book (OAB) is used by Outlook to provide offline access
to directory information from the Global Address List (GAL) when users
are working offline or in Cached Exchange mode. When a user starts
Outlook in Cached Exchange mode for the first time, the user’s Exchange
Server mailbox is synchronized to a local file (an .ost file) and the offline address list from the Exchange server is synchronized to a collection of files (.oab files) on the user’s computer.
An easy way to verify OAB generation and distribution is to look at the age of the OAB files on each Exchange server (in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Client Access\OAB\).
Note
If you are experiencing problems with OAB
generation, enable diagnostic logging and review the application log
for any OAB generator category events.
Monthly Maintenance
Recommended
monthly maintenance practices for Exchange Server 2013 do not require
the frequency of daily or weekly tasks, but they are, nonetheless,
important to maintaining the overall health of the environment. Some
general monthly maintenance tasks can be quickly summarized; others are
explained in more detail in the following sections.
General tasks include the following:
• Install approved and tested service packs and updates.
• Schedule and perform, as necessary, any major server configuration changes, including hardware upgrades.
Note
With Exchange Server 2013, a periodic reboot
or performing system patches and updates does not mean Exchange will
experience a mail system outage. With the proper setup of high
availability in Exchange Server 2013 (such as database availability
groups for replicated databases, or redundant Client Access server
roles), an organization can failover services to other servers, perform
maintenance, and bring the updated system back online without service
downtime.
Run the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer
Administrators
should run the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer (ExBPA) health,
permissions, and connectivity checks in their environments after making
any significant changes to systems or settings to determine if there
are any configurations or settings that are not in line with Microsoft
recommended best practices. This utility and its configuration files
are updated often with new and improved settings, and available updates
are installed every time the utility is run.
The
results of these scans can be saved and compared from month to month to
determine when particular issues might have occurred.
Test System Performance with Performance Monitor
Periodically
run Performance Monitor over a normal workday to monitor CPU, disk
performance, and key Exchange counters to determine whether the server
and storage are performing to standards. Compare the periodic results
over time to detect any trends.
Test Uninterruptible Power Supply
Uninterruptible
power supply (UPS) equipment is commonly used to protect the server
from sudden loss of power. Most UPS solutions include supporting
management software to ensure that the server is gracefully shut down
in the event of power failure, thus preserving the integrity of the
system. Each manufacturer has a specific recommendation for testing,
and the recommended procedures should be followed carefully. However,
it should occur no less than once per month, and it is advantageous to
schedule the test for the same time as any required server reboots.
Quarterly Maintenance
Although
quarterly maintenance tasks are infrequent, some might require downtime
and are more likely to cause serious problems with Exchange Server 2013
if not properly planned or implemented. Administrators should proceed
cautiously with these tasks.
General quarterly maintenance tasks include the following:
•
Check mailbox and shared folder stores to verify database size, system
performance, and overall operability of the servers in the environment.
•
Evaluate the current rate of growth on server hard drives to ensure
there is adequate space available on all volumes. This evaluation is
based on the information gathered during the weekly maintenance tasks.
Validate Information Store Backups
As
previously mentioned, the backing up of an environment’s data is one of
the most important steps an organization can take to ensure
recoverability in the event of a disaster.
However, simply backing up the data, and assuming the ability to recover it is inadequate.
Backups
should be regularly restored in a test environment or to a recovery
database to ensure the recoverability of systems. By performing regular
restores in a test environment, administrators are providing several
services:
• Confirmation that the data is truly being backed up successfully
• Verification of the actual restore procedures
•
Training for Exchange Server administrators, or practice for existing
ones, in the steps needed to recover an Exchange Server environment
Organizations
that do not implement regular testing of restore procedures often find
that, in the time of actual need, restorations take significantly
longer than necessary because of missing hardware, missing software,
inadequate or inaccurate procedures, administrators unfamiliar with the
process, or, worst of all, backup sources that had been reported good
but are unable to be restored.
Tip
Backup and recovery procedures are one of the
most critical documents in an Exchange Server organization. These
procedures should be thoroughly tested and updated whenever changes to
the process occur. And remember, it is not enough to store copies of
this documentation electronically on network shares or (worse) within
the messaging system. If these procedures can’t be quickly accessed
when they are most needed, they are practically useless.
Periodic Testing
For
sites with offsite disaster recovery infrastructure, it is an excellent
practice to periodically conduct a full test of the Exchange disaster
recovery procedure to ensure that you can quickly recover Exchange
service at the disaster recovery site. Testing of both planned site
switchover and unplanned site failover procedures is optimal.
