SiteScope User's Guide

MAPI Monitor

The SiteScope MAPI Monitor checks a Messaging Application Program Interface (MAPI) server to confirm that e-mail operations can be executed. The SiteScope MAPI Monitor is designed to test the operation of a Microsoft Exchange Server. The error and warning thresholds for the monitor are set based on the e-mail delivery time.

Usage Guidelines

The MAPI Monitor allows you to monitor the availability of Microsoft Exchange 5.5 and above. The monitor check for e-mail delivery time. This allows you to verify availability of the MAPI server by sending and receiving a test message in a Microsoft Exchange e-mail account. Create a separate MAPI monitor instance for each Microsoft Exchange server in your environment.

The following are several key requirements for using the MAPI Monitor:

A MAPI client of version 1.0 or greater must be installed on the SiteScope machine. The version of the MAPI client should be the one that is shipped with Microsoft Outlook XP. If using a version that is older than this one, only mailboxes that belong to the user who is actually running SiteScope will be available for monitoring.
If SiteScope is run as a process (and not as a service) it must be run by a desktop user (not through Terminal Services).
SiteScope must be running under an account with administrative privileges and that user account must be set to "Act as part of the operating system". This privilege is controlled via Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policy -> Local Policies -> User Rights Assignment dialog screen (or equivalent) from the Windows Start menu. .
Accounts of the monitored mailboxes on the MS Exchange server must also be defined as administrators on the machine where SiteScope is running. It is recommended to use Outlook XP where possible. If using Outlook 2000, SiteScope must run as the same user as the mailbox owner.
No MAPI application should be running on the SiteScope machine while the MAPI monitor is running. The MAPI monitor may fail if any MAPI module is currently loaded (for example, if MS Outlook is currently active on the same machine). Terminating the application that loaded the MAPI module may not be sufficient. It may be necessary to restart the machine to unload the MAPI modules.

The default run schedule for this monitor is every 10 minutes, but you can change it to run more or less often using the Update every setting.

Completing the MAPI Monitor Form

To display the MAPI Monitor Form, either click the Edit link for an existing MAPI Monitor in a monitor table, or click the add a Monitor link on a group's detail page and choose the "Add MAPI Monitor" link.

Complete the items on the MAPI Monitor form as follows. When the required items are complete, click the "Add Monitor" button.

Server: Enter the hostname or address of a Microsoft Exchange Server. The name can be an IP address or other name that can be resolved by the DNS server. It is recommended that you copy the server name as it appears in the Properties of the e-mail account you will be using with this monitor.
Mailbox: Enter the name (alias) of the mailbox to be used for this monitor. This is often the e-mail account name but it may be a different name. It is recommended that you copy the mailbox name as it appears in the E-Mail Account properties for the e-mail account you will be using with this monitor.
Domain: Enter the domain to which both the owner of the mailbox being used and the Microsoft Exchange server belong.
Note: The owner of the mailbox to be used by this monitor must also have administrative account privileges on the machine where SiteScope is running. SiteScope also needs user account access to the domain where the MS Exchange server is running.
User Name: Enter the NT account login name for the user associated with the above e-mail account.
User Password: Enter the NT account login password for the user name above.
Update every: Enter how frequently the monitor should read the logs and statistics. The drop-down list to the right of the text box lets you specify time increments of seconds, minutes, hours, or days. You must specify a time increment of at least 15 seconds.
Title (Optional): Enter a name for this monitor. This name appears in the Name text box on the monitor table when you open the group's detail page.

Advanced Options

The advanced options give you the ability to customize error and warning thresholds. If you choose not to set them, SiteScope will use preset defaults if available. If a default is not available, SiteScope will not be able to utilize the condition.

Disable

Check this box to temporarily disable this monitor and any associated alerts. To enable the monitor again, clear the box.

Transaction timeout

Enter the number of seconds for the monitor to wait for the message to arrive before the monitor should timeout. The monitor will report an error if timeout value is met before the e-mail message is delivered.

Verify Error

Check this box if you want SiteScope to automatically run this monitor again if it detects an error. When an error is detected, the monitor will immediately be scheduled to run again once.

Note: In order to change the run frequency of this monitor when an error is detected, use the Update every (on errors) option below.

Note: The status returned by the Verify Error run of the monitor will replace the status of the originally scheduled run that detected an error. This may cause the loss of important performance data if the data from the verify run is different than the initial error status.

Warning: Use of this option across many monitor instances may result in significant monitoring delays in the case that multiple monitors are rescheduled to verify errors at the same time.

Update Every (on error)

This options allows you to set a new monitoring interval for monitors that have registered an error condition. For example, you may want SiteScope to monitor this item every 10 minutes normally, but as often as every 2 minutes if an error has been detected. Note that this increased scheduling will also affect the number of alerts generated by this monitor.

Schedule (Optional)

By default, SiteScope's monitors are enabled every day of the week. You may, however, schedule your monitors to run only on certain days or on a fixed schedule. Choose the Edit schedule link to create or edit a monitor schedule. For information about creating schedules, read these instructions.

Monitor Description (Optional)

Enter additional information about this monitor. The Monitor Description can include HTML tags such as the <BR> <HR>, and <B> tags to control display format and style. The description will appear on the Monitor Detail page.

Report Description (Optional)

Enter a description for this monitor that will make it easier to understand what this monitor does. The description will appear on Management Reports and on the info pop-up for a monitor.

Depends On (Optional)

To make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor or monitor group, use the drop-down list to select the monitor or group on which this monitor is dependent. Select None to remove any dependency.

Depends Condition (Optional)

If you choose to make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor, choose the status condition that the other monitor or monitor group should have in order for the current monitor to run normally. The current monitor will be run normally as long as the monitor or group on which it depends reports the condition selected in this option.

List Order (Optional)

By default, new monitors are listed last on the Monitor Detail page. You may use this drop-down list to choose a different placement for this monitor.

Setting Monitor Status Thresholds

SiteScope Application Monitors allow you to set multiple threshold conditions to determine the status reported by each monitor. The individual conditions are combined as logical OR relationships so that when one or more of the conditions (for example any of the conditions for Error if) are met the monitor status is set to the applicable condition. If multiple conditions are met for more than one status condition (such as conditions for both error and for warning), the status for the monitor is set to the highest valued condition. Thus a match of an error condition and a warning condition would be reported as an error status, error being the highest value, warning the next highest and good the lowest value.

Error if: Use one or more of the selection boxes in this item to define one or more error conditions for this monitor. Use the drop-down lists in these items to change error threshold(s) relative to the counters you have selected to check with this monitor. After choosing a counter or parameter, use the comparison operator drop-down list to specify an error threshold such as: >= (greater than or equal to), != (not equal to), or < (less than) and enter a comparison value in the box provided. Comparison values should be entered as whole numbers.
Warning if: Use one or more of the selection boxes in this item to define one or more warning conditions for this monitor. Use the drop-down lists in these items to change warning threshold(s) relative to the counters you have selected to check with this monitor. Set these value relative to those you set for the error threshold in the Error if item.
Good if: You can set this monitor to return a good status for certain conditions. You may define those conditions here. Complete this item as you would for the Error if and Warning if items.