PROJECT HOMEWORK 1

Change Control Processes

Change control in an organization is a calculated method to manage all changes made to a product or system.
This is to ensure that no unnecessary changes are made and all changes are documented. To ensure that
services are not unnecessarily disrupted and that resources are used efficiently.

Review: change control processes following the ITIL methods

Define, document, and implement a process by which changes to the messaging system are assessed for their
impact on the entire infrastructure and prioritized accordingly. Consider:

Impact on SLA

Impact on capacity

Impact on security

Impact on disaster recovery procedures

Develop a standard set of change priorities, and ensure that only valid categories are assigned to RFCs

Using information relating to service hours, business critical times and processing times, ensure that changes are
implemented at a time of minimal impact and disruption to the business.

Implement a process that ensures that all changes are tested by an independent team.

Ensure that each change has an appropriate back-out plan.\

implement a post-implementation review process for changes

consider that if the change management process is being circumvented

when performing change management, use a tool to log all changes and to record the status of each change.

Provide: 2 examples of using a ticketing system to submit a change request and

the information needed to be included on a change request

Define: Back Pressure with Exchange servers

Back Pressure.

In Exchange environment, Backpressure can be described as a system resource

monitoring feature of the Microsoft Exchange Transport service that exists on Mailbox
servers and Edge Transport servers that detects when vital system resources such as

hard drive space and memory are over utilized and takes action to prevent the server from

becoming completely overwhelmed and unavailable.

How it works; when a system resource utilization level on the Exchange server is ascertained to
be too high, the server delays accepting new messages. If the resource utilization gets worse, the
server stops accepting new messages to work exclusively on processing all existing messages,
and might even stop processing outgoing messages. When the system resource utilization
returns to an acceptable level, the Exchange server resumes normal operation by accepting new
messages and processing outgoing messages.
BACKPRESSURE ACTIONS

System Memory Medium

Reject message submissions from the Pickup directory and the Replay directory.

Start message dehydration.

Flush caches.

SYSTEM MEMORY HIGH

All actions taken at the medium utilization level.

Reject message submissions from mailbox databases by the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox
Transport Submission service on Mailbox servers.

UsedDiskSpace MEDIUM

Reject incoming messages from non-Exchange servers.

Reject message submissions from the Pickup directory and the Replay directory.

Message resubmission is paused.

Shadow Redundancy rejects messages.

USEDDISKSPACE HIGH

All actions taken at the medium utilization level.

Reject incoming messages from other Exchange servers.

Reject message submissions from mailbox databases by the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox
Transport Submission service on Mailbox servers.

List: Issues caused by back pressure and how they can be resolved

Event ID: 15006; The Microsoft Exchange Transport service is rejecting message submissions
because the available disk space has dropped below the configured threshold.
Resource utilization of the following resources exceed the normal level:

Back pressure caused the following components to be disabled:

Inbound mail submission from Hub Transport servers
Inbound mail submission from the Internet
Mail submission from the Pickup directory
Mail submission from the Replay directory
Mail submission from Mailbox servers
Event ID: 15004; Resource pressure increased from Normal to Medium.
Resource utilization of the following resources exceed the normal level:
Back pressure caused the following components to be disabled:
Inbound mail submission from the Internet
Mail submission from the Pickup directory
Mail submission from the Replay directory
Mail delivery to remote domains
RESOLUTION OPTION1; To resolve this issue, you can choose to open up some space on the drive
that houses the queue or the queue database transaction logs.
OPTION2; In some cases, you cannot make the necessary disk space adjustments. Then we can
choose to change the location of the queue database to a disk drive with sufficient free space.
OPTION3; Find out the processes having high and abnormal memory usages from the task

manager and work on them. If all the processes are using optimum memory then try adding extra
physical memory to the server.

Transport Queues; Transport queue represents a logical set of messages that the Exchange server
processes in a specific order. In Exchange, queues hold messages before, during and after delivery.

The importance of the transport queues; The Transport Queues management role enables
administrators to manage message queues on an individual transport server.

Use in Mail Traversal;

useful to determine if the mail flow is fluent

To know how many messages are waiting to be processed
To know whether emails are not stuck in the queue

How to create and clear queues

You can use the Queue Viewer in the Exchange Toolbox or the Exchange Management Shell to
manage queues
To remove a message from more than one queue in a single operation, you need to use a filter
You can use viewer to remove messages from queues
Exchange management shell can be used to remove messages from queues using cmdlet ;

Remove-Message <-Identity MessageIdentity | -Filter {MessageFilter}> -WithNDR <$true

| $false>

-Mail Flow Traversal

Step by Step: How mail flows in Exchange 2010 internally and externally
The hub transport role replaces the old routing connectors
the Hub Server manages the delivery of all internal Exchange 2010 email
Hub Server has a categorizer, which analyzes each email and delivers it to the
appropriate mailbox
The categorizer has two helpers, 'Local Delivery' and 'SMTP Send

The Exchange Mail Submission service, contacts the Store driver which transfers the
email into the 'Submission queue' on the Hub Transport server. This queue leads to the
Categorizer, which is the heart of the Hub Transport server. Rather like the snail-mail
postal service, the Categorizer looks up the recipient's mailbox and resolves the best
route to that site. Unlike the snail-mail service, the Categorizer can also do other stuff
such as content conversion and applying any mail flow rules that are in operation.

Step by Step: How mail flows in Exchange 2013 internally and Externally
MAILBOX SERVER ROLE - Hub Transport Service
Handles all incoming and outgoing SMTP email messages
Message content inspection. Message Categorization
Acts as a middle man and routes messages between Mailbox. Transport service and the
Front End Transport service Is identical to the Hub Transport Server role in Exchange
2010.Never contacts the mailbox databases directly
Accepts external messages from the front end transport service
MAILBOX SERVER ROLE - Mailbox Transport Service
2 services treated like one Mailbox Transport Submission service and Mailbox
Transport Delivery service The Mailbox Transport Delivery service receives SMTP
messages from the Hub Transport service, and connects to the mailbox database using
an Exchange remote procedure call (RPC) to deliver the message
The Mailbox Transport Submission service connects to the mailbox database using RPC
to retrieve messages, and submits the messages over SMTP to the Hub Transport
service Mailbox Transport service doesnt queue any messages locally. Communicates
directly with mailbox databases
CAS SERVER ROLE Frontend Service
Runs on all Client Access servers. Acts like a proxy for all inbound and outbound
external SMTP traffic. Can filter messages based on connections, domains, senders,
and recipients . Cannot read the message content only communicates with the Hub
Transport service. Accepts external messages through a receive connector

Outline: the Activesync process for a mobile device connecting to Exchange

You can use exchange management console to manage ActiveSync
Exchange ActiveSync must be enabled for a particular mailbox to view settings
related to mailbox-level mobile messaging.
You can manage devices via Exchange Management console
When a user sync their mobile devices with their mailbox with ActiveSync it
creates partnership.
With Exchange Management Console, you can create an Exchange ActiveSync
Mailbox Policy and then associate types of mobile devices that policy with
various mailboxes
Exchange ActiveSync Mailbox Policy regulates the can be used.
List: the hops a message goes through within the transport pipeline in Exchange
2013 for inbound and outbound mail
List: Possible causes of mail messages failing to be delivered to internal
and external recipients and how this can be resolved (STAR METHOD)

Situation; INSUFFIENT SYSTEM RESOURCE

Action; an out of memory error occurred. A resource problem such as s full disk
can cause this problem
Resolution; Ensure that your Exchange server has enough storage
Stiuation; Connection timed out
Action; the destination server is not responding. The exchange server tries
automatically to connect to the server again and deliver the mail but generated
failure code
Resolution; transient network can cause the condition
Situation; mailbox cant be accessed
Action; the mailbox maybe offline, disabled, or the message has been
quarantined by a rule.
Reolution; check to see if the recipient mailbox is disabled or the message has
been quarantined