Monitoring Exchange Functionality (OWA/ActiveSync) from Internet

Following is the way to test Exchange Health from Internet.  You will need the pc with Exchange Management Tools installed.

• 2 batch file to be run on the Task Scheduler every desired number of minutes - one batch (running Powershell Script) will be testing the Exchange Functionality; another (running vbs script) will be parsing the output file and send email to the phone of on-call person if the word "Failure" appears in the script.
• Note - credentials are supplied for the script in the secure way
• Powershell Script:

#Set-ExecutionPolicy

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy:Unrestricted

# specify acct used on Exchange 2010

$username = "TestAccount@yourdomain.com"

$password = cat C:\admin\securestring.txt | convertto-securestring

$cred = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist $username, $password

Test-OwaConnectivity -URL https://yourURL.yourdomain.com/owa -MailboxCredential $cred | Out-File c:\admin\emailtestresult.txt -Append -Encoding utf8

Test-ActiveSyncConnectivity -URL https://YourURL.yourdomain.com/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync -MailboxCredential $cred -LightMode | Out-File c:\admin\emailtestresult.txt -Append -Encoding utf8

• Note - there is a file  C:\admin\securestring.txt used as the encrypted password file; to generate it run the following:

read-host -assecurestring | convertfrom-securestring | out-file C:\admin\securestring.txt

and type the password of the account used.

• VBS Script:

Dim objFS

Dim objResult

Dim numEvent

Dim numAlert

numEvent = 0

numAlert = 0

Set objFS = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

strFileIn = "c:\admin\emailtestresult.txt"

'Set inFile = objFS.OpenTextFile(strFileIn, ForReading)

Set inFile = objFS.OpenTextFile(strFileIn, 1, TristateTrue)

Do Until inFile.AtEndOfStream

                strLine = lTrim(inFile.ReadLine)

  

'if the word 'Failure' found in the result file - numAlert == 1

                If InStr(strLine,"Failure") > 0 Then

                                numAlert = 1

                End If

Loop

                If numAlert > 0 Then

                                Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")    

'send alert using blat

                                objResult = objShell.Run("blat " & strFileIn & " -subject ""Your friendly alert message is here"" -to yourphone@phonedomain.com")

                                Set objShell = Nothing

               

                End If

inFile.Close

• Create .bat file to run on the Task Scheduler
• For Powershell:

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -command ". 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\bin\RemoteExchange.ps1'; Connect-ExchangeServer -auto; "PathToPSFile\PSFileName.ps1"

• For VBS Script:

cscript PathtoVBSFile\VBSFileName.vbs