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Managing Exchange Server 2013 with System Center 2012 R2

System Center

2012 R2

Hands-on lab

In this lab, you will learn how to leverage System Center

2012 R2 to manage and monitor Microsoft Exchange Server

2013. You will begin by using System Center 2012 R2 Data

Protection Manager to perform backup and restore

operations. You will then use System Center 2012 R2

Operations Manager to monitor your Microsoft Exchange

organization for issues, and then remediate those issues.

Finally, you will automate common tasks using System Center

2012 R2 Orchestrator.

Produced by HynesITe, Inc

Version 1.0

6/19/2014

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Lab created by HynesITe, Inc. For questions or comments, send an email message to [email protected] Page | 3

Introduction

Estimated time to complete this lab

60 minutes

Objectives

After completing this lab, you will be able to:

Perform backup and restore operations using System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager.

Review the health of your Microsoft Exchange organization using System Center 2012 R2

Operations Manager and System Center Advisor.

Create runbooks which automate a common Microsoft Exchange task using System Center


Prerequisites

Before working on this lab, you must have:

An understanding of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013.

Experience performing common Microsoft Exchange Server administrator tasks.

An understanding of general system management practices, tools, and technologies.

Overview of the lab

In this lab, you will learn how to leverage System Center 2012 R2 to manage and monitor Microsoft

Exchange Server 2013. You will begin by using System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager to

perform backup and restore operations. You will then use System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager to

monitor your Microsoft Exchange organization for issues, and then remediate those issues. Finally, you will

automate common tasks using System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator.

Scenario

You have a Microsoft Exchange Server providing e-mail and collaboration for your organization. You wish

to standardize on Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 for management of this organization. In doing so, you

wish to monitor health, ensure effective disaster recovery, and automate common tasks.

Virtual machine technology

This lab is completed using virtual machines that run on Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V technology. To

log on to the virtual machines, press CTRL+ALT+END and enter your logon credentials.

Computers in this lab

This lab uses computers as described in the following table. Before you begin the lab, you must ensure

that the virtual machines are started and then log on to the computers.

Virtual Machine Role

SCDC01 Domain controller

SCDPM01 Data Protection Manager server

SCOM01 Operations Manager server

mailto:[email protected]



Virtual Machine Role

SCO01 Orchestrator server

SCEX01 Exchange server

All user accounts in this lab use the password Passw0rd!

Note regarding pre-release software

Portions of this lab may include software that is not yet released, and as such may still contain active or

known issues. While every effort has been made to ensure this lab functions as written, unknown or

unanticipated results may be encountered as a result of using pre-release software.

Note regarding user account control

Some steps in this lab may be subject to user account control. User account control is a technology which

provides additional security to computers by requesting that users confirm actions that require

administrative rights. Tasks that generate a user account control confirmation are denoted using a shield

icon. If you encounter a shield icon, confirm your action by selecting the appropriate button in the dialog

box that is presented.

Note on activation

The virtual machines for these labs may have been built by using software that has not been activated.

This is by design in the lab to prevent the redistribution of activated software. The unactivated state of

software has been taken into account in the design of the lab. Consequently, the lab is in no way affected

by this state. For operating systems other than Windows 8.1, please click Cancel or Close if prompted by

an activation dialog box. If you are prompted by an Activate screen for Windows 8.1, press the Windows

key to display the Start screen.




Exercise 1: Protecting Microsoft Exchange using System

Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager

In this exercise, you will use System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager (DPM) to perform backup

and restore operations on your Microsoft Exchange server. You will first use DPM to configure backup of

mailbox databases. Next, you will perform both a full database recovery and a recovery of an individual

mailbox. Finally, you will review the health of your backup implementation using System Center 2012 R2

Operations Manager

Back up Exchange server using Data Protection Manager

In this task, you will configure an initial backup solution for your Exchange server.

Begin this task logged on to SCDPM01 as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd!

1. Ensure Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager Console is open. If not, click

the DPM icon on the taskbar.

2. Click Management.

3. In the contents pane, note that many computers are already listed as unprotected with a

protection agent.

Installing the protection agent is a simple process which can require a reboot. This step has been done

for you. To install the agent, you must be able to browse to the admin$ file share on the target

computer.

IMPORTANT: The agent status may show a status of Unavailable, Unknown or OK. A computer with a

status of Unknown simply means that the agent has not notified the DPM server that it is online. This is

common in a lab environment when computers are first brought online.

4. Click SCEX01, and then on the ribbon, click Refresh.

IMPORTANT: Wait for the agent to show an Agent Status of OK. This may take a few moments.

5. Click Disks, and then review the available DPM storage pools.

6. Click Protection, and then on the ribbon, click New.

7. Complete the Create Protection Group wizard using the values in the following table.

Page Settings to Configure Notes/Actions

Welcome None Click Next.

Select protection group

type

Servers Click Next.

Select group members Mailboxes database Expand SCEX01\Exchange 2013

Databases, and then check Mailboxes.

Click NextNext.

Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.05"





If you receive an error, click Clear

Cache, and then start this step

over.

Select data protection

method

Protection group name:

Exchange Protection Group

Method: Disk

Online and Tape are not configured on

this server, therefore are not available.

Click Next.

Specify exchange

protection options

None Note that enabling Eseutil to check data

integrity ensures that the database

written to backup is not corrupt.

Furthermore, for disk-based backups,

Eseutil does not run on the Exchange

server, reducing the load that is placed

on the Exchange server. Because the

Eseutil executable is not present on the

DPM server as part of the lab setup, you

will not make any changes on this page.

Click Next.

Specify Exchange DAG

protection

None Click Next.

Select short-term goals Synchronization frequency of 1

hour

Click Next.

Review disk allocation None Click Next.

Choose replica creation

method

None Click Next.

Choose consistency

check options

None Click Next.

Summary None Click Create Group.

8. When the process completes, click Close.

9. In the navigation pane, click Protection.

10. Under All Protection Groups, click Exchange Protection.

Your Exchange server’s mailbox database is now protected.

IMPORTANT: In this task, you did not protect the Exchange server’s operating system. Protection of

operating systems is outside the scope of this lab, but follows a similar process in Data Protection

Manager.

IMPORTANT: Wait for the Protection Status to read OK before proceeding. This will only take a minute.

Perform an Exchange Server full database restore

In this task, you will prepare SCEX01 to have the full mailbox database restored. Before you can complete

this task you must first set the database to allow recovery.

Begin this task logged on to SCEX01 as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd!

Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.05"




1. On the Start screen, click Exchange Management Shell.

Wait for the management shell to fully load before proceeding.

2. In Exchange Management Shell, type the following command, and then press ENTER. This will

take a few moments to complete.

↪ Get-MailboxDatabase Mailboxes | Set-MailboxDatabase –

AllowFileRestore $true

Before you can restore a mailbox database you must first set the recovery flag to allow the database to

be overwritten during the restore. This will make the database unavailable during a restore operation.

You would only do this if you wish to restore the mailbox database in its entirety in one step.

3. Leave the Exchange Management Shell open for subsequent steps.

4. Switch to SCDPM01, and ensure you are logged on as Contoso\Administrator and that you

have the Data Protection Manager Console open.

5. In the Data Protection Manager Console, click Recovery.

6. In Recoverable Data, drill down, and then select All Protected Exchange Data.

7. In the contents pane, under Recoverable Item, click Mailboxes.

8. On the ribbon, click Recover.

9. Complete the Recovery Wizard using the values in the following table.


Review recovery

selection

None Click Next.

Select recovery type Leave at default (Recovery to original

Exchange Server location)

Click Next.

Specify recovery options None Click Next.

Summary None Click Recover.

Status None Wait for recovery to complete, and

then click Close. This process will

take a few moments.

You have just completed a full recovery of the Exchange database. This database contains very little

mailbox data, so the process is very quick.

10. In the navigation pane, click Monitoring.

11. If you see an alert that indicates a replica is inconsistent, click the alert, and then in the bottom

pane, read the information, scroll down, and then click Run a synchronization job with

consistency check.

Wait for the alert to disappear.




By default, DPM will automatically run consistency checks. You are simply causing the consistency check

to occur sooner rather than later.

12. From the taskbar, open Windows PowerShell.

13. At the Windows PowerShell prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER.

↪ Restart-Service HealthService

You are restarting the Health Service to speed up reporting to Operations Manager, which you will look

at in subsequent steps.

Perform a single mailbox restore

In this task, you will perform a single mailbox restore. A single mailbox restore is a two-step process that

involves the use of a recovery database. You will first create a recovery database. You will then restore the

database backup to the recovery database before performing the individual mailbox restore. DPM is used

to restore the recovery database, and then Microsoft Exchange is used to perform the individual mailbox

restore.

Begin this task logged on to SCEX01 as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd!

1. Ensure you have the Exchange Management Shell open.

2. In the Exchange Management Shell, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each

one.

↪ MD c:\RestoreDB

↪ New-MailboxDatabase –Name RestoreDB –Recovery –LogFolderPath

c:\RestoreDB –edbFilePath c:\RestoreDB\Restore.edb –Server SCEX01

↪ Restart-Service MSExchangeIS

↪ Get-MailboxDatabase

You have now created a new mailbox database with the recovery flag set to true. This database can be

used as a temporary location to perform a full database restore, allowing you to subsequently recover

individual mailboxes or items.

3. Switch to SCDPM01.

4. In Data Protection Manager Console, click Recovery.

5. In Recoverable Data, drill down, and then select Mailboxes.

6. In the contents pane, under Recoverable Item, click Symon.

This is the mailbox for the user Symon. The mailbox is empty so there is no size listed.

You may have to scroll down in the center bottom pane to see the mailbox.

7. On the ribbon, click Recover.

8. In the warning prompt, click Close.




The warning listed indicates you must restore a previous point in time. You cannot perform a mailbox-

level restore on the latest backup.


Review recovery

selection

None Click Next.

Select recovery type Leave at default (Recovery to

original Exchange Server

database)

Click Next.

Specify destination Exchange server:

SCEX01.contoso.com

Database name: RestoreDB

Click Next.

Specify recovery options None Click Next.

Summary None Click Recover.

Status None Wait for recovery to complete, and then

click Close. Recovery will take about 3

minutes.

You have just completed a full recovery of the Exchange database to the recovery database. This

database contains very little mailbox data, so the process is very quick.

9. Switch to SCEX01.

10. In the Exchange Management Shell, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each

one.

↪ New-MailboxRestoreRequest –SourceDatabase RestoreDB

–SourceStoreMailbox Symon –TargetMailbox Symon

↪ Get-MailboxRestoreRequest

IMPORTANT: The job status will show that the request is Queued. It may take some time for the status

to change from Queued to In Progress. Please move on to the next task without waiting for the job to

complete.

Prepare for the next exercise

In this task, you will perform some steps that will create actionable entries in System Center 2012 R2

Operations Manager. Because these actions take a few minutes to take effect you will perform them now,

but leverage them in the following exercise.

Begin this task logged on to SCEX01 as Contoso\Administrator with the password Passw0rd!

1. Open Exchange Management Shell, if not already open

2. Type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each one, and confirming each action as

needed.




↪ Get-MailboxRestoreRequest | Remove-MailboxRestoreRequest

↪ Remove-MailboxDatabase RestoreDB

↪ Dismount-Database Mailboxes

↪ Restart-Service HealthService

These commands stop the MailboxRestoreRequest, remove the RestoreDB from Exchange Server, and

finally dismount the database that contains mailboxes. This penultimate command will cause actionable

alerts to appear in Operations Manager. The last command will help to speed up reporting of the health

status to Operations Manager.




Exercise 2: Monitoring Exchange Server 2013 with System

Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager

In this exercise, you will use System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager to review and verify the health of

your Exchange organization. You will begin by exploring the management pack for Exchange Server 2013

and how the management pack gathers data and information. You will then use the information provided

by Operations Manager to remediate some common Exchange Server 2013 issues.

IMPORTANT: Please be aware that the length of time it takes for an alert to change status based on a

change in Exchange Server is variable. The change in status can occur very quickly or may take longer

than the length of time allotted for this lab. Although it is desirable to see alert status changes that are

direct consequences of actions you take on the Exchange server, the outcome of this lab is not affected

if the expected changes in alert status do not appear during the lab time. It is sufficient for the purposes

of this lab that you be able to see at least one Exchange-based alert, regardless of whether the alert is a

direct consequence of previous actions you have taken.

Explore the monitoring agent configuration

In this task, you will explore the Exchange Server 2013 Management Pack. The management pack has

been previously deployed in your Operations Manager environment and has been given time to collect

inventory.

Begin this task logged on to SCOM01 as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd!

1. Ensure you have the Operations Manager console open.

2. Click Administration.

3. Under Device Management, click Agent Managed.

4. Click SCEX01.contoso.com, and then in the Action pane, click Properties.

5. Click the Security tab.

IMPORTANT: To correctly monitor Exchange 2013, the agent must be configured to be a proxy agent.

This is not the default setting. No information will be reported by the Exchange Management Pack until

this setting is enabled and one discovery cycle has completed.

6. Click Cancel.

Explore the Exchange Management Pack

In this task, you will review the information reported by the Exchange Management Pack. Microsoft

Exchange Server 2013 introduces managed availability which is a framework consisting of built-in

processes running on every Exchange server. These processes report the health and status of the overall




Exchange organization. The Exchange Server 2013 Management Pack uses this framework to roll up the

overall health of your Exchange organization to Operations Manager.

More information on managed availability can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-

us/library/dn482056(v=exchg.150).aspx.


1. In Operations Manager, click Monitoring.

2. In the navigation pane, expand Microsoft Exchange Server 2013.

3. Click Active Alerts.

You may see varied active alerts in this lab environment. These alerts do not indicate that the lab is

broken in any way and occur naturally in this lab configuration.

4. Click on one of the alerts in the Active Alerts pane. Review the Alert Details at the bottom of the

screen.

5. Click Organizational Health.

Organizational health shows the overall health of your organization.

6. Click Server Health.

Server health shows the overall health of your individual servers.

IMPORTANT: The actual health status (healthy, warning, or critical) is not important for this exercise.

7. In Server Health, right-click SCEX01.contoso.com, point to Open, and then click Health Explorer

for SCEX01.contoso.com.

8. In Health Explorer, click Filter Monitors to show all filters.

9. Expand Customer Touch Points and review the monitors are available with the Management

Pack.

10. Likewise, expand Key Dependencies and Service Components and review the available

monitors.

11. Click Recalculate Health, and then click Yes to ensure you have the most up-to-date view of the

health of key components.

This may take a few moments.

12. Expand Service Components, and then click SCEX01 – Store (Health Set).

IMPORTANT: You must select any monitor that is in an unhealthy state. If the Store (Health Set) is in a

healthy state, it may take 15 minutes or longer for its state to change. If you do not wish to wait for this

length of time, select any other unhealthy monitor. If no monitors are in an unhealthy state, wait a few

minutes, and then click Recalculate Health.


http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn482056(v=exchg.150).aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn482056(v=exchg.150).aspx



13. In the contents pane, click State Change Events, and then select an event. Scroll down and view

Event Data.

14. Scroll down iIn the Details pane, scroll down, and then . in the Event Data area, locate the text

starting with < Subject >.

TIP: The subject gives you the most human-understandable reason why this monitor is failing. You can

use this information as the basis of troubleshooting.

15. Click the Knowledge tab.

Note that you are provided with a link that takes you to the Microsoft Exchange Server TechCenter for

guidance. Because this lab does not have Internet connectivity, you will not be able to connect to the

TechCenter.

16. Switch to Health Explorer.

17. Within Service Components, and then click SCEX01 - Store (Health Set).

18. In the contents pane, click State Change Events.

The Event Data on the State Change Events tab indicates that the store health set is reporting problems.

In the next task you will troubleshoot and resolve these problems.

The < Subject > text indicates that the database Mailboxes is having issues.

IMPORTANT: It may take a while for the SCEX01 – Store (Health Set) to change critical status. If you like,

you can proceed to the next task without waiting for this change.

Resolving an unhealthy store health set

In this task, you will use the Exchange health framework which is leveraged by Operations Manager to

troubleshoot and resolve the issue reported in Operations Manager.


1. Switch to SCEX01, and then open Exchange Management Shell, if not already open

2. In Exchange Management Shell, type the following command, and then press ENTER. This

command will produce an overall server health report. This report is the basis for the information

presented by the Exchange Management Pack.

↪ Get-HealthReport –Server SCEX01.contoso.com | FT –Auto

The overall health of the Exchange server is reported, as well as the last time of evaluation and the total

count of monitors used to perform the evaluation. It only takes one monitor to report unhealthy for the

health set to report unhealthy.

3. In the Exchange Management Shell, type the following command, and then press ENTER. This

command will identify the exact monitor that is causing the Store monitor set to report unhealthy.




↪ Get-ServerHealth –Server SCEX01 –HealthSet Store | select Name,

TargetResource, HealthSetName, AlertValue | FT –Auto

The ActiveDatabaseAvailabilityMonitor monitor is reporting Unhealthy status. Next, you will run a probe

to get the exact reason for this.

4. In the Exchange Management Shell, type the following command, press ENTER, and then press

the Spacebar to advance through the output. This command will list the monitoring items

relevant to the Store health set. You are most interested in the Probe items which are used to

query for health.

↪ Get-MonitoringItemIdentity –Server SCEX01 –Identity Store | more

There is a probe item called Store\ActiveDatabaseAvailabilityProbe\Mailboxes which corresponds to the

unhealthy monitor ActiveDatabaseAvailability and that you will see toward the beginning of the output.

If there were multiple databases, there would be a probe for each database, created automatically when

the database was created.

5. After you have located the Store\ActiveDatabaseAvailabilityProbe\Mailboxes probe, press the

Spacebar a few more times to get a sense of the probes that are present, and then press CTRL-C.


command will invoke the probe and display the error text.

↪ Invoke-MonitoringProbe –Identity

Store\ActiveDatabaseAvailabilityProbe\Mailboxes –Server SCEX01 |

Select Result, Error | FL

The error text listed indicates that the probe is unable to access mailboxes in the database. The specific

reason is not given, but you are now able to begin troubleshooting the problem. In this case, you know

the database is offline, so you will mount the database to correct the problem.


command will mount the database.

↪ Mount-Database Mailboxes

8. In the Exchange Management Shell, use the up arrow key to locate and re-run the command you

ran in step 6. This time the command will return an empty error result.

9. Use the up arrow key to locate and re-run the command you entered in step 3. This time the store

health set will be healthy.

IMPORTANT: It may take a few minutes for the updated status to be reflected. If you do not see an

AlertStatus of Healthy on ActiveDatabaseAvailabilityMonitor, wait 10 seconds, and then run the

command again. Once you see a status of Healthy, proceed to the next step.




10. Use the up arrow key to locate and re-run the command you entered in step 2. Optionally, you

can add the parameter –HealthSet Store to reduce the output.

The Store health set should now be reporting healthy. If not, wait a few minutes, and then run the

command again.

11. On SCOM01, sSwitch to the Operations Manager Console on SCOM01..

12. In Health Explorer, click Filter Monitors.

13. In Health Explorer, click Recalculate health, and then click Yes. When the calculation is complete,

click Close.

The Store health set is now reporting Healthy, although this may not be visible immediately. Note that

many other health sets are also reporting healthy due to the Mailbox database being available. You can

wait for the status to change or move on to the next exercise and return to this window later. Keep in

mind that it may take a long time - relative to the allotted time for the lab - for the status to change to

Healthy in the Operations Manager console.

Because you have determined that the Store health is reporting healthy on the Exchange Server, you can

manually reset the health of the monitor in Operations Manager by right-clicking the alert, and then

clicking Reset Health.

Review the System Center Advisor Connector

System Center Advisor is an online service that collects data from your infrastructure, analyzes it, and then

provides alerts based on potential issues, such as missing updates or configurations that do not align with

best practices. System Center Advisor can provide both current and historical views of your infrastructure

configuration.

System Center Advisor consists of a web service hosted in Microsoft Azure and an on-premises

installation of a gateway and agent. The agent collects data from your environment and synchronizes it

with the web service. Administrators can log on to System Center Advisor to review information about the

environment and any alerts that require attention and remediation.

System Center Advisor can be attached to your infrastructure as a standalone service; however, it can also

be attached to Operations Manager. In this case, the agent communicates directly with the management

service, extending the value of Advisor to Operations Manager.

In this task, you will review the connector between Operations Manager and System Center Advisor.

Perform this task logged on to SCOM01 as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd!

1. In the Operations Manager Administration workspace, click System Center Advisor, and then

click Advisor Managed.

This provides a view of the computers that are registered with the Advisor service.




2. Click Advisor Connection.

The connection has already been set up and initial data collection performed against the environment

to collect data; however, because this lab instance has no Internet connection, no information is

currently being collected and sent from the instance to the online web service.

3. Click Monitoring, and then expand System Center Advisor.

4. Click Active Alerts to see the alerts.

You will see both critical and warning alerts. This is expected in this lab environment.

5. In the Look for box, type SCEX01, and then press ENTER.

You will see a days since last backup alert. Note that had SCEX01 been communicating with the service,

this warning would not be present, because you backed up the mailbox earlier in the lab exercise.

6. Click the Days since last back up warning to show the Alert Details in the bottom pane.

An Advisor alert contains information about the computer or instance where the alert was discovered,

and remediation information to address the issue.

7. In the Tasks pane, under Advisor Tasks, note that you have the option to click View Solution/KB

Article.

You may have to scroll down in the task pane to see the Advisor Tasks section.

In an environment where you had a connection to the Internet, clicking the link would cause Internet

Explorer to open and display the relevant knowledge base article.

8. In the Look for box, type SCOM01, and then press ENTER.

Note that the alerts are related to configuration best practices, for example, missing patches and lack of

backups, which would be helpful to an administrator to ensure that best practices were adhered to.




Exercise 4: Monitoring the Health of Exchange Backups

using System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager

In this task, you will use Operations Manager to ensure that the Data Protection Manager infrastructure

you configured earlier is healthy and that backups are happening as expected. By delaying this task until

the end, it will have allowed more data to populate within Operations Manager. In this task, the Data

Protection Manager server has already had the Operations Manager agent deployed, and is reporting

status to the Operations Manager infrastructure.

Begin this task logged on to SCOM01 as Contoso\Administrator with the password Passw0rd!

1. On the taskbar, click Operations Console.

2. In Operations Manager, under Monitoring, scroll down, and then expand System Center 2012 R2

Data Protection Manager\State Views.

3. Click DPM Servers, and then click SCDPM01. Notice the context-sensitive actions on the right

pane, under DPM Server Tasks.

4. Click Disks.

5. Click Protected Servers.

This lists all servers currently being protected by DPM.

6. Click Protection Groups.

This shows the health of any protection groups created by DPM.

7. Right-click the Exchange Protection Group, point to Open, and then click Health Explorer for

Exchange Protection Group.

Currently the scope is only to unhealthy monitors, of which there should not be any.

8. Click Filter Monitors.

9. Expand Configuration.

10. Browse through the different configuration monitors that are provided as part of the

management pack.

11. Close the Health Explorer, and then close Operations Manager.




Exercise 5: Automating Microsoft Exchange Server 2013

Management with System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator

In this exercise, you will use System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator to create a simple runbook to

demonstrate the process for creating automation solutions for Exchange Server 2013. You will begin by

configuring the environment to support runbook execution. You will then create a runbook to create a

new Active Directory user and mailbox.

Configure Exchange Integration Pack connections

In this task, you will configure the Orchestrator Exchange Admin Integration Pack connection. An

integration pack is an add-on for Orchestrator. The Integration Pack for Exchange Admin helps to

facilitate the automation of Exchange administration tasks, such as mailbox management, for on-

premises, remote, or cloud-based environments in Microsoft Exchange and Office 365.

Begin this task logged on to SCO01 as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd!

1. On the taskbar, click System Center Orchestrator Runbook Designer.

2. On the Options menu, click Exchange Admin.

3. Click Add.

4. In Name, type SCEX01.contoso.com.

5. Click the ellipsis (…) button next to Type, click Exchange Configuration, and then click OK.

6. Complete the Properties table using the values in the following table, and then click OK.

Property Value

Exchange Server Host SCEX01.contoso.com

Exchange Server Port 80

Exchange PowerShell Application PowerShell

Exchange User Name Contoso\Administrator

Exchange Password Passw0rd!

Use SSL False

Skip CA Check True

Skip CN Check True

Skip Revocation Check True

Exchange Environment On-Premise

7. Click Finish.




Configure Windows PowerShell and WinRM for the Exchange Admin

Integration Pack

In this task, you will configure WinRM and Windows PowerShell to run scripts generated by System Center



1. Click the Start button, and then type PowerShell to begin a search.

2. Click Windows PowerShell (X86).

IMPORTANT: Please ensure you select the x86 version of Windows PowerShell.

3. In Windows PowerShell (x86), type Get-ExecutionPolicy, and then press ENTER.

The current execution policy of RemoteSigned is the desired policy state.

4. Switch to SCEX01.

5. Click Start, and then type Internet to begin a search.

In the following steps, you will configure authentication in IIS to ensure you can connect using basic

authentication without using an SSL certificate. Note that this configuration is specific to the lab

environment and does not follow best practices. In a production environment, you would want to

protect the communications channel using an SSL certificate.

6. Click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, and then a. At the IIS Manager prompt, click

No.

7. Expand SCEX01\Sites\Default Web Site, and then click PowerShell.

8. In the Features View, click Authentication, and then in the Actions pane, click Open Feature.

9. Click Basic Authentication, and then click Enable.

Note the warning that authentication information might be sent in the clear. Using basic authentication

without SSL is not recommended.

10. Under Default Web Site, click PowerShell.

11. In the Features View, click SSL Settings, and then in the Actions pane, click Open Feature.

12. Ensure the Require SSL checkbox is not selected.

13. Switch to SCO01.

In the next steps, you will configure the WinRM client to use unencrypted traffic. This configuration is

specific to the lab environment. In a production environment, you would follow best practices and

encrypt the traffic.

14. Click Start, and then type GPEDIT.MSC to being a search.

15. Click GPEDIT to open Local Group Policy Editor.




16. Navigate to Local Computer Policy/Computer Configuration/Administrative

Templates/Windows Components/Windows Remote Management (WinRM)/WinRM Client.

17. Open Allow unencrypted traffic, click Enabled, and then click OK.

18. Open Trusted Hosts.

19. Click Enabled, and then in TrustedHostsList, type scex01.contoso.com, and then click OK.

20. Close Local Group Policy Editor.

Create a runbook to create an Active Directory user and mailbox

In this task, you will use the Create Mailbox activity, which relies on the New-Mailbox Windows PowerShell

cmdlet, to create an Active Directory user and subsequently, the new mailbox. You will verify the creation

of the mailbox in a subsequent task.


1. In Runbook Designer, navigate to SCO01/Runbooks/SC2012Solutions/7.0 Exchange

Management.

2. Right-click 7.0 Exchange Management, point to New, and then click Runbook.

3. In the designer pane, right-click New Runbook, and then click Rename.

4. Click Yes.

5. Type Create Mailbox, and then press ENTER.

6. In the Activities pane, scroll down to the bottom of the activities, locate the Runbook Control

group of activities, and then click Runbook Control.

The activities pane lists all the default and previously imported integration packs from both Microsoft

and third parties.

7. In the Runbook Control group, locate Initialize Data, and then drag it to the designer pane in the

upper left corner.

Initialize Data is used to provide data required for the runbook. As you will see, this will require you to

enter the data directly into the runbook; however, it would also be possible to use a monitor activity to

monitor an application or file for changes and then initialize the runbook when those changes are

detected. For example, a runbook could monitor rows in a SQL Server database that was used to store

employee data; new or modified rows could cause a runbook activity to run that would create a new

user in Active Directory and provision a mailbox.

8. In the Activity pane, locate and click Exchange Admin.

9. Locate the activity Create Mailbox, and then drag it next to the Initialize Data activity

IMPORTANT: Use the create mailbox activity with the icon matching the icon in the following graphic.




10. Connect the Initialize Data activity to the Create Mailbox activity such that the two activities are

similar to the graphic below.

To create the arrow, hover over an activity, and then click and drag the right arrow towards the activity

you wish to link it to

11. Double-click Initialize Data, and then click Add.

12. Click Parameter 1, type Alias, and then click OK.

13. Click Add, click Parameter 2, type First Name, and then click OK.

14. Click Add, click Parameter 3, type Last Name, and then click OK.

15. Click Add, click Parameter 4, type Name, and then click OK.

16. Click Add, click Parameter 5, type PWD, and then click OK.

17. Click Add, click Parameter 6, type UPN, and then click OK.

At a minimum, the password, name, alias, and UPN are all required to create a user mailbox.

18. Click Finish.

19. Double-click Create Mailbox.

20. Click the ellipsis (…) next to Name, click scex01.contoso.com, and then click OK.

21. Right-click the empty text box next to User Principal Name, point to Subscribe, and then click

Published Data.

22. Click UPN, and then click OK.

23. Right-click the empty text box next to Name, point to Subscribe, and then click Published Data.

24. Click Name, and then click OK.

25. Right-click the empty text box next to Alias, point to Subscribe, and then click Published Data.

26. Click Alias, and click OK.

27. Click Optional Properties.

28. In the Add/Remove Property dialog box, in the Available area, press and hold the CTRL key, and

then click to select First Name, Last Name, Password, and Password Confirm.

29. Click the add (>>) button to move these four properties to the Selected area, and then click OK.




30. Right-click the empty text box next to First Name, point to Subscribe, and then click Published

Data.

31. Click First Name, and then click OK.

32. Right-click the empty text box next to Last Name, point to Subscribe, and then click Published

Data.

33. Click Last Name, and then click OK.

34. Right-click the empty text box next to Password, point to Subscribe, and then click Published

Data.

35. Click PWD, and then click OK.

36. Repeat the previous two steps to subscribe Password Confirm to the PWD value form the

Published data.

37. Click Finish.

Test the create mailbox runbook

In this task, you will test the create mailbox runbook.


1. In Runbook Designer, click Check In.

This will save the runbook.

2. Click Orchestration Console to open the web-based orchestration console.

3. Expand SC2012 Solutions, and then click 7.0 Exchange Management.

4. In the Details pane, click Runbooks.

5. Click Create Mailbox, and then, in the Action panes, click Start Runbook.

6. In Value, next to First Name, type Ben.

7. Continue entering the values for the runbook parameters as shown in the following table.




Runbook Parameter Value

Last Name Smith

First Name Ben

UPN [email protected]

Alias BenSmith

PWD Passw0rd!

Name Ben Smith

8. In Available Runbook Servers, click SCO01, and then click the Add button (green right arrow).

9. Click Start.

10. Click the Jobs tab.

You will see an hour glass in the Status column.

11. Press F5 to refresh the page. It may take a few minutes for the job to complete.

The status should change to a green check mark.

12. Switch to Orchestrator Runbook Designer.

13. In the bottom pane, click the Log History tab.

14. Double-click the entry showing a status of success.

In the Runbook Details dialog box, you should see to activities that show a status of success.

15. In Internet Explorer, open a new tab, and then navigate to https://scex01/ecp.

You receive a warning about the website’s SSL certificate. This is expected in the lab environment.

16. Click Continue to this website (not recommended).

17. Log on to the Exchange Admin Center with the username Contoso\Administrator and the

password Passw0rd!

18. In the Exchange admin center, in the navigation pane, click recipients.

The mailbox for the user Ben Smith is present.

19. Double-click Ben Smith.

Note that the First Name, Last Name, and Display Name fields contain data.

20. Click Cancel.

21. Switch to SCDC01.

22. From the taskbar, open Active Directory Users and Computers.

The Ben Smith user account is present.

This is the end of the lab


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