Quest® Spotlight on Exchange Enterprise Edition
version 5.8
Release Notes
July 2007
© 2007 Quest Software,
Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Contents
Welcome to Spotlight on Exchange
Enterprise Edition
What's New
Best Practices
Resolved
Issues and Enhancements
Known Issues
Contents
of the Release Package
System Requirements
Global Operations
For More
Information
Welcome to Spotlight on Exchange
|
From the Topology Viewer,
you can launch the Spotlight on Exchange Diagnostic Console which shows, in
real-time, the actual flow of data within individual Exchange servers at
increasingly granular levels of detail. This level of detail allows you to
pinpoint problems and take preventative action. Spotlight on Exchange 2007,
Spotlight on Exchange 2000/2003, and Spotlight on Exchange 5.5 are the three
components that make up the Spotlight on Exchange Diagnostic Console. |
|
Spotlight
on Exchange Enterprise Edition 5.8 includes the following new features: ·
New Diagnostic Console Plug-In for Exchange 2007 ·
Exchange 2007 support for existing Diagnostic Tests · Native Tool launch support in Exchange 2007 |
The following best
practices should be followed when installing Quest Spotlight on Exchange 5.8:
·
It
is recommended that you do not install Spotlight on Exchange on a
domain
controller.
·
You
must install version 6.6 of Spotlight on Active Directory and version 5.8 of
Spotlight on Exchange in order for them to work together.
·
The
Message Flow feature has the option to always collect message flow information.
In large Exchange deployments this could have a negative impact on network and
application performance. It is recommended that you weigh the impact on your
system performance before enabling this feature.
·
If
you run the Spotlight on Exchange Diagnostic Console for an extended period of
time (days), you should set the number of server connections to a minimum, the
history setting low, and the refresh rate low in order to avoid excessive
memory consumption.
To set the history option and
refresh rate
1.
Select
View
| Options | Spotlight Console.
2.
Click
Data
Collection in the
Options bar.
3.
Enter
the appropriate history collection time and refresh rates.
Resolved Issues and Enhancements
The following is
a list of issues addressed and enhancements implemented in this release of Quest
Spotlight on Exchange Enterprise Edition 5.8:
|
CR ID |
TITLE |
|
CR0196958 |
OWA
Availability Test fails because of https. |
|
CR0196960 |
Spotlight on
Exchange 5.3.0.49 Web Reports Server Filter list causes Request Time out
error. |
|
CR0196961 |
The tracking
logs on the Exchange server are not deleted when Message Flow is enabled in
the Topology Viewer. |
|
CR0196962 |
Excessive CPU
Usage (193%) is displayed when using Spotlight on Exchange with a Quad
processor. |
|
CR0200880 |
The rate of NDRs
contains the wrong value in the IIS Drilldown page. |
|
CR0201823 |
Need to have a
separate screen (Diagnostic Console) displayed for each Exchange server. |
|
CR0201855 |
An issue
exists when you try to edit the Notification Groups for the pager option by
entering letters instead of numbers. |
|
CR0202615 |
When changing
the SMTP server under the Notification Group component you have to restart
the DataManagerSOE service. |
|
CR0208042 |
Main Page Exchange
CPU usage information is inconsistent compared to other drilldowns. |
|
CR0211885 |
Individual
storage groups are grayed out when you first enter the Storage Group
drilldown. |
|
CR0213430 |
Request
timeline for Spotlight on Exchange and System Centre Operations Manager
(SCOM) 2007 integration. |
|
CR0214063 |
Want to be
able to configure Notification groups at the object\count level not just at
the server level. |
|
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|
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|
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The following issues are known to exist when installing
Spotlight on Exchange
You must manually remove
Spotlight on Exchange Enterprise Edition version 5.4 using Control Panel | Add and Remove Programs
before attempting installation.
Spotlight on SQL Server
5.7 must be installed first before installing Spotlight on Exchange. However,
if you remove Spotlight on Exchange, Spotlight on SQL Server must be
reinstalled to maintain full functionality. The following issues
and limitations are known to exist in SQL Server 2005 Express: By default, remote
connections are disabled for SQL 2005 Express. This needs to be enabled
in order to install Diagnostic Services on a different computer than the
Spotlight on Exchange Enterprise Edition database. To enable remote connections 1.
Open SQL Server Configuration Manager. 2.
Expand the Protocols for <InstanceName> node, where
<InstanceName> corresponds to the SQL 2005 instance to which you want
to install 3.
Right-click TCP/IP in the right-hand view and select Enable. 4.
Restart the SQL Server services. The following general issues
and limitations are known to exist in Spotlight on Exchange
If the source and target
Exchange servers used in a Message Delivery Test are not synchronized, the
test may return a message delivery time of -1. Ensure all Exchange servers in
your organization have their clocks synchronized.
Microsoft has released
hotfixes for Exchange 2000 Service Pack 3, and Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1
and Service Pack 2 which will cause diagnostic tests using the MAPI protocol
to fail with an Access Denied error message. The MAPI protocol is used in the
Message Delivery Test and the External Message Transfer Test (when MAPI is
used as the submission protocol). Please see the
following Microsoft Knowledge Base article for more details and how to work
around this issue: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=912918. Using alternate
credentials that reside in a parent Windows domain for diagnostic tests
running against an Exchange server in a child Windows domain may still have
issues despite the workaround described in the Microsoft Knowledge Base
article.
On Windows XP, the
Message Delivery, Mailbox Logon, and Round Trip Message Delivery tests may
fail and show a C++ runtime error dialog if the tests are running under
credentials that are different from the Spotlight on Exchange Diagnostic Test
Service (DiagnosticTestEngineSOE) credentials. The problem stems from a change
in a default Windows XP setting outlined in the Microsoft Knowledge Base
article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318825.To fix this problem, follow the steps outlined below: 1.
Close the Spotlight on Exchange Topology Viewer and stop the
DiagnosticTestEngineSOE service. 2.
Click Start, then
click Control Panel. 3.
In Control Panel, select Performance
and Maintenance. 4.
Click Administrative
Tools, and double-click Local
Security Policy. 5.
In the left pane of the Local Security Settings console, expand
Local Policies, then click Security
Options. 6.
In the right pane of the Local Security Settings console,
double-click System Objects: Default
owner for objects created by members of the Administrators group. 7.
If this setting is set to Object creator, choose Administrators group, and click OK to apply the change. 8.
Restart the DiagnosticTestEngineSOE service and the Spotlight on
Exchange Topology Viewer.
You should discover
your mixed Exchange server organization using an Exchange 2000 or 2003
server. Exchange 2000 and 2003 servers are not shown in the Spotlight on
Exchange Topology Viewer when you discover a mixed organization using an
Exchange 5.5 server, and Active Directory Connector (ADC) is not configured
to replicate an Exchange 2000/2003 configuration to the Exchange 5.5
directory.
Only routing group
connectors appear as the links between servers in the Spotlight on Exchange
Topology Viewer for an Exchange 2000/2003 organization or a mixed
organization that has Exchange 2000/2003 and Exchange 5.5 servers. Only site connectors
and directory replication connectors appear as the links between servers in
the Spotlight on Exchange Topology Viewer for a native Exchange 5.5
organization. All connectors appear
in the Topology Navigation View (treeview).
The Server Details tab
displays “Unknown Domain” in the domain field if the Topology
Viewer fails to retrieve the domain information from the selected server
during discovery. When you select the Domain option from the Current Grouping
list, all servers for which domain information is unknown appear in one group
labeled “Unknown Domain” in the Spotlight on Exchange Topology
Viewer.
The External Message
Transfer test, the Message Delivery test and the Message Flow feature require
collection of data from tracking logs. Disabling the tracking logs and
restarting some of the key Exchange services may cause these tests and
features to provide inaccurate results. This situation will continue until
12AM Universal Time. At this time these tests and features will again display
accurate results.
Connecting to
Diagnostic Services remotely will fail when Diagnostic Services is running on
a computer with Windows XP Service Pack 2 with the Windows firewall enabled.
You can resolve this problem by opening ports 9501and 9502. The following general issues and limitations are known to
exist in Spotlight on Exchange 2007: ·
SPOTLIGHT ON EXCHANGE
64-BIT SUPPORT Spotlight on Exchange
supports the installation and usage of the Diagnostic Console with Microsoft
Exchange 2007 Server only. Prior releases of Microsoft Exchange and the
associated Spotlight on Exchange functionality (including the Topology
Viewer), require Microsoft Exchange System Manager (ESM), which is not
supported on 64-bit platforms. ·
USE OF SPOTLIGHT ON
EXCHANGE 2007 PLUG-IN REQUIRES INSTALLATION IN SAME DOMAIN AS SERVER The Spotlight on
Exchange Diagnostic Console must be installed on a client computer in the
same Active Directory domain as the Exchange 2007 servers against which it is
used. This is the same requirement as the Exchange 2007 Management Console
(EMC). ·
SPOTLIGHT ON EXCHANGE
SUPPORT FOR EXCHANGE 2007 EDGE ROLE For both the Spotlight
on Exchange Diagnostic Console and Topology Viewer, the Exchange 2007 Edge
role must be reachable on the same network as the Spotlight on Exchange
installation. This typically is not the case when the Edge role is only
accessible through a firewall. In addition, the following permissions are
required: Diagnostic Console Topology Viewer ·
DATA COLLECTION FOR
EDGE ROLE FAILS FOR SERVICES AND PERFMON When there is an Edge
subscription in an Exchange organization, the Edge role appears in the
Topology Viewer when discovered. Data collection for Edge role fails
(services and perfmon) as the Domain Admin account does not have any access
to the Edge role server that resides in the DMZ (demilitarized zone). ·
TOPOLOGY DISCOVERY
ISSUE WITH EDGE ROLE IN A MIXED ORGANIZATION Topology discovery does
not work if Spotlight on Exchange is installed on the Edge role and the Edge
role server is specified in the Topology Viewer as a server in the pop-up
dialog. ·
DIAGNOSTIC CONSOLE
DISCONNECT LIVE CONNECTION Disconnect live
connection does not work, and the Spotlight on Exchange Diagnostic Console
hangs if connection to the Exchange server is lost. ·
EXCHANGE 2007
HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS DO NOT FUNCTION CORRECTLY FOR JAPANESE SERVERS A dialog box may be
displayed during live and historical connections when connecting to a Japanese
Exchange 2007 server. Some historical data may not be displayed correctly. ·
SPECIAL CHARACTERS USED
IN A DATABASE NAME Special characters that
are used in a Database name will not be displayed correctly on the
Information Store drilldown. ·
DIAGNOSTIC CONSOLE
HISTORY BECOMES UNAVAILABLE History becomes
unavailable when connection to an Exchange server is lost, or when the server
is down. ·
UPGRADE FROM SPOTLIGHT
ON EXCHANGE 5.3 OR SPOTLIGHT ON EXCHANGE 5.4 REQUIRES DISCOVERY TO BE RUN
AGAIN FOR EXCHANGE 2007 SUPPORT When upgrading from
Spotlight on Exchange 5.3 or Spotlight on Exchange 5.4 to Spotlight on
Exchange 5.8, you must run discovery again to fully support Exchange 2007
servers. The following general issues and limitations are known to
exist in Spotlight on Exchange 2000/2003: ·
OS SUBSYSTEM COUNTER
DIFFERENCES When you drill down
from the OS Subsystem panel, which is located at the bottom of the Spotlight
on Exchange 2000/2003 home pages, you may find that the statistics shown for
some components such as the System CPU and System Memory components can
differ from the statistics shown in the drill down that Spotlight on Windows
provides. This happens because the counter information is obtained at
different periods of time over the polling periods. ·
ALTERING A T ·
CLUSTER FAILOVER
DETECTION ·
PERFMON OBJECTS MAY BE
UNAVAILABLE WHEN CLUSTER FAILOVER OCCURS In data collection,
some perfmon counters such as MSExchangeIS may be unavailable when Exchange
cluster fails over to another node. The objects will resume when the cluster
fails back to the original node. You can reapply the applicable template to
fix this situation if the cluster fail back is prevented. ·
CONNECTING TO A
CLUSTERED EXCHANGE 2000/2003 SERVER You must use the
virtual server name when you connect to a clustered Exchange 2000/2003
server.
The following general issues and limitations are known to exist in Spotlight
on Exchange 5.5: ·
SELECT THE OUTLOOK
CORPORATE OR WORKGROUP OPTION TO USE SPOTLIGHT ON EXCHANGE 5.5 You must have Outlook
98, 2000, 2002 (XP), or 2003 installed with the Microsoft Exchange Server
Information Service to use Spotlight on Exchange 5.5. The Microsoft Exchange
Server Information Service is installed during the setup of Outlook by
selecting the Corporate or Workgroup option. ·
MTA QUEUES INCORRECTLY
DISPLAY -2 When you first connect
to a server, the Message Transfer Agent queues may incorrectly display -2
while all other counters display correctly. You can sometimes clear this
issue by switching between connected servers in Spotlight. If not, close
Spotlight on Exchange and use Task Manager to terminate Exchnetproxy.exe. To terminate Exchnetproxy.exe 1.
Open Task Manager and click the Processes tab. 2.
Verify that Exchnetproxy.exe is not running. 3.
If it is running, terminate it, and launch Spotlight on Exchange
again. ·
MAPI USER DRILLDOWN
INCORRECTLY DISPLAYS -2 If Microsoft Outlook
2002 (XP) is installed on a server, the MAPI User drilldown may incorrectly
display “-2”. This result is caused by an issue with pre-Service
Pack 1 Outlook 2002 (XP) clients, which is described in a support article
located at the following address: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q299/8/07.ASP. For more information,
contact Microsoft Product Support Services. ·
INSTALL OFFICE XP SP1
OR LATER TO USE MAPI USERS TAB If Microsoft Office XP
or Outlook 2002 (XP) is installed without Office XP Service Pack 1 or later
on the client computer running Spotlight on Exchange, you will experience a
problem in the MAPI Users tab of the Information Store drilldown. To resolve
this issue, install Office XP Service Pack 1. Microsoft Knowledge base
article (299807) explains the problem and the resolution. You can find this
article at the following address: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;299807. ·
THE SERVICES TAB ON THE
PROCESSES DRILLDOWN CONTAINS NO DATA If the Services tab on
the Processes drilldown contains “No Data” please connect to the
server using the Spotlight on Windows plug-in to view this data. ·
EXCHANGE 5.5
ADMINISTRATOR SP4 If you are running in
an Exchange 5.5 environment and you do not have Exchange System Manager (ESM)
installed, you must have Exchange 5.5 Administrator Service Pack 4 installed
in order to avoid receiving error messages when you run Mailbox Logon and
Message Delivery diagnostic tests.
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Contents
of the Release Package
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The Spotlight on
Exchange Enterprise Edition distribution CD contains the following products:
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Before
installing Spotlight on Exchange Enterprise Edition, ensure your system meets
the following minimum hardware and software requirements:
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This
section contains information about installing and operating this product in
non-English configurations, such as those needed by customers outside of This
release supports any single-byte character set. Double-byte or multi-byte
character sets are not supported. It supports simultaneous operation with
multilingual data. This release is targeted to support operations in the
following regions: North America, Western Europe and |
Other
Document Sources
The complete Spotlight
on Exchange Enterprise Edition documentation suite includes the following:
·
What’s
New, which provides an overview of new product features and enhancements.