Maintenance Tasks on Exchange 2007

hmm...

Check the tools available in Toolbox (in Exchange management console)..you got everything you need

I am looking for preventative maintenance type tasks... Like utilities I may need to defrag a database for white space etc..

Is there any maintenance I can do a on regular basis to prevent database and Exchange server issues.

Thanks
Liam

This is taken from Microsoft Technet  (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb232187(EXCHG.80,printer).aspx)

Summary Checklist
Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Topic Last Modified: 2007-01-11
This checklist provides you with a summary of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 operations tasks on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. You can modify these checklists based on your organization's requirements.
Checklist: Summary
Prepared by:
Date:

Completed Daily
Check of physical environment.
Check backups.
Check CPU/memory use.
Check disk use.
Examine message queues.
Examine event logs.
Check backups.
Check Internet Information Service (IIS) performance.
Check Exchange Server database health.
Check MAPI client performance.
Check Queue Viewer.
Check message paths and mail flow.
Check non-Exchange Server connectors.
Check security logs.
Update virus definitions and scan for viruses.
Verify that Exchange Server and required Microsoft Windows services have started correctly.

Completed Weekly
Create reports.
Complete incident reports.
Meet to discuss status.
Check IIS logs.

Completed Monthly
Do capacity planning.
Perform hotfixes, service packs, update rollups, and security updates.
Perform disaster recovery test; test one backup a month to restore.



Daily Operations Checklist
Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Topic Last Modified: 2008-01-08
Use these checklists to record daily operations. You can modify these checklists based on your organization's requirements.
Checklist: Performing Physical Environmental Checks
Use this checklist to ensure that physical environment checks are completed.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Verify that environmental conditions are tracked and maintained.
Check temperature and humidity to ensure that environmental systems such as heating and air conditioning settings are within acceptable conditions, and that they function within the hardware manufacturer's specifications.
Verify that physical security measures such as locks, dongles, and access codes have not been breached and that they function correctly.
Ensure that your physical network and related hardware such as routers, switches, hubs, physical cables, and connectors are operational.



Checklist: Check Backups
Complete this checklist to check backups.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Make sure that the recommended minimum backup strategy of a daily online backup is completed.
Verify that the previous backup operation completed.
Analyze and respond to errors and warnings during the backup operation.
Follow the established procedure for tape rotation, labeling, and storage.
Verify that the transaction logs were successfully purged (if your backup type is purging logs).
Make sure that backups complete under service level agreements (SLA).



Checklist: Check CPU and Memory Use
Use this checklist to record the sampling time of each counter.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Examine % Processor Time performance counter.
Examine Available MBs performance counter.
Examine % Committed Bytes in Use performance counter.
Check against a performance baseline to determine the health of a server.

Counter Measured value Time when recorded
% Processor Time
Available MBs
% Committed Bytes in Use



Checklist: Check Disk Use
Follow the checklist and record the drive letter, designation, and available disk space.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Create a list of all drives and label them in three categories: drives with transaction logs, drives with queues, and other drives.
Check disks with transaction log files.
Check disks with SMTP queues.
Check other disks.
Use server monitors to check free disk space.
Check performance on disks.

Drive Letter Designation (drives with transaction logs, drives with queues, and other drives) Available space MB Available % free
Your data here
Your data here
Your data here



Checklist: Event Logs
Check event logs using the following checklist.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Filter application and system logs on the Exchange server to see all errors.
Note:
This process can be time-consuming.

Filter application and system logs on the Exchange server to see all warnings.
Note repetitive warning and error logs.
Respond to discovered failures and problems.



Checklist: Check IIS Logs and Performance
Complete this checklist to check IIS logs and performance. For more information about monitoring IIS logs and performance, see Event Logging Overview [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=36077 ] .
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Examine event log and filter. IIS logs give you information about your changes.
Note:
If you are a medium-size organization, examine your event logs weekly.

Examine System Monitor for IIS performance to examine the output of performance counters. Examine the following performance counters:
· Web Service counters to monitor the World Wide Web Publishing Service (WWW service).
· Web Service Cache counters to monitor the WWW service cache.



Checklist: Exchange Database Health
Use this checklist for to verify health of your Exchange database.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Check the number of transaction logs generated since the last check. Is the number increasing at the usual rate?
Verify that databases are mounted.
Make sure that public folder replication is up-to-date.
If full-text indexing is enabled, verify that indexes are up-to-date.
With test mailbox, verify the logon of each database and the send/receive capabilities.



Checklist: MAPI Client Performance
Complete the checklist to verify MAPI client performance and server availability.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Examine System Monitor counters.
Examine Event Viewer logs.
Verify that a test account can log on to the Exchange server and has send/receive capabilities.
Verify your Perfmon RPC counters against a baseline - RPC average latency/RPC requests/RPC operations.



Checklist: Check Queue Viewer
Follow the checklist and record the size of each queue.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Check queues for each server using the Queue Viewer tool in the Exchange Management Console.
Record queue size.

Queue type Queue size
Your data here
Your data here
Your data here



Checklist: Message Paths and Mail Flow
Use this checklist to examine the message paths and mail flow in your organization.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Send messages between internal servers using test accounts.
Check and verify that messages deliver successfully.
Send outgoing messages to non-local accounts.
Check and verify that outgoing messages deliver successfully. With the test account on the external host, verify that mail comes in.
Verify successful message transfer across connectors and routes.



Checklist: Security Logs
To effectively correct known and discovered security issues, complete the following checklist.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
View the security event log on Event Viewer and match security changes to known, authorized configuration changes.
Investigate unauthorized security changes discovered in security event log.
Check security news for latest virus, worm, and vulnerabilities.
Update and fix discovered security problems and vulnerabilities.
Verify that SMTP does not relay anonymously, or lock down to specific servers that require functionality.
Verify that SSL is functioning for configured secure channels.
Update virus signatures daily.


Weekly Operations Checklist
Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Topic Last Modified: 2007-01-11
Use these checklists to record weekly operations. You can modify these checklists based on your organization's requirements.
Checklist: Create Reports
Use this checklist to create status reports to help with capacity planning, service level agreement (SLA) reviews, and performance analysis.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Use daily data from event log and System Monitor to create reports.
Report on disk usage.
Create reports on memory and CPU usage.
Generate uptime and availability reports.
Generate database and mailbox sizes.
Create capacity reports from messages sent and client logons.
Create reports on queue use, size, and growth.



Checklist: Incident Reports
Use this checklist to create incident reports.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
List the top generated, resolved, and pending incidents.
Create solutions for unresolved incidents.
Update reports to include new trouble tickets.
Create a document depository for troubleshooting guides and post- mortems about outages.



Checklist: Antivirus Defense
Use this checklist to perform your antivirus defense.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Perform a virus scan on each computer; however, exclude drives that are specifically for Exchange (SMTP/Exchange Databases/Logs, and so on).



Checklist: Status Meeting
Use this checklist to conduct weekly status meetings during which the tasks are reviewed.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Server and network status for the overall organization and segments.
Organizational performance and availability.
Overview reports and incidents.
Risk analysis and evaluation including upcoming changes.
Capacity, availability, and performance reviews.
Service level agreement (SLA) performance, and review items that have not met target objectives.


Monthly Operations Checklist
Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Topic Last Modified: 2007-01-17
Use these checklists to record monthly operations. You can modify these checklists based on your organization's requirements.
Checklist: Capacity Planning
Use this checklist for capacity planning.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Check capacity and performance against service level agreement (SLA) requirements.
Review SLA requirements and capacity figures from previous month.
Produce and implement upgrade path based on projected growth from previous growth data.



Checklist: Hotfixes, Service Packs, Update Rollups, and Security Updates
Use this checklist to update your systems with hotfixes, service packs, update rollups, and security updates in your organization.
Prepared by:
Date:
Completed Task
Maintain a list of applied hotfixes, service packs, update rollups, and security updates.
See if there are new hotfixes for Microsoft Windows Server.
See if there are service packs for Windows Server.
See if there are updates to complementary services such as Internet Information Services (IIS), Active Directory directory service, and DNS server.
Apply updates uniformly across servers and workstations in the organization.
Perform critical security updates as soon as possible, based on company policy.

Hey Nyaema,

This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks for your help,

Liam

Thank you so much.