Exchange Reporter Plus general usecases

Hybrid Exchange and Skype for Business reporting

Harry faces issues with the Exchange environment often. He finds it difficult to track the numerous aspects of Exchange, like mailboxes, client connectivity, databases, database availability groups (DAGs), protocols, policies, and more. To add to these challenges, his organization decided to migrate to Exchange Online, while retaining a few on-premises systems. The organization uses Skype for Business to conduct team meetings and calls. Harry is now looking for a solution to manage these three platforms simultaneously.

Solution:

ManageEngine Exchange Reporter Plus is a one-stop solution for managing various Exchange and Skype for Business servers, and Exchange Online tenants simultaneously. It offers more than 450 intuitive reports for these environments, and details on various aspects of Exchange, like mailboxes, Outlook on the web (OWA), ActiveSync, mail traffic, distribution lists, public folders, storage, connectors, mailbox permissions, compliance, and more. To generate Exchange reports using the tool,

Click on the Reports tab.
Choose from the Exchange Server, Exchange Online, or Skype Server tabs.
The categories of reports are displayed on the left side of the page. Choose your preferred category and report.
In the page that appears, enter the Organization for which you want to generate the report, and provide other inputs required, such as name of the server, or the mailbox.
Enter your preferred time span and generate the report.

You can schedule these reports to be automatically generated and emailed to the stakeholders in your organization in various formats, such as HTML, PDF, XLS and CSV. You reduce time wasted on fetching the logs and having to format them separately. To schedule these reports,

Click on the Reports tab.
Select Schedule Reports from the top-right corner.
Click Create New Schedule.
On the page that appears, choose the category of the report you want to schedule (i.e. Exchange Server, Exchange Online, Skype Server).
Enter a name for the scheduled report, the organization you want to generate the report for, and the report category.
Select a report from the list of available reports.
Set the frequency for report generation.
Select the default storage path and the format in which you want the report to be sent.
Under Email scheduled report, configure the email server where you want the emails to be sent.
Click Save.

Other advantages for using Exchange Reporter Plus reports

View reports in GMT or Local time zones.
Export reports to CSV, PDF, XLS, and HTML formats.
View how the print reports will look using the More → Printable View option.
Add a report as a favorite, and access it easily by clicking on the star icon in the top-right corner.
View reports for a selected date or period.
View traffic details on a Summary, Daily, or Hourly basis.
Leverage graphs and dashboards that highlight important aspects of the reports.
Search for a specific report using the Quick Search option.
Include or exclude report columns using the Add/Remove Columns option.
Select the number of records that will display on a single page.
Use the filter option to customize the reported entities.

Hybrid Exchange auditing

Rachel is new to Exchange administration. She joined a multinational firm recently, and her responsibilities include tracking user activities for audit and compliance purposes. Many internal security concerns have surfaced lately, adding to Rachel's responsibilities. The organization currently solely depends on a native tool and PowerShell codes to audit user activities. Rachel finds it time-consuming and tedious to keep track of individual activities and find anomalies using these tools. Retrieving crucial information is challenging, and Rachel finds documenting it in the desired format, as well as storing specific logs for compliance and security purposes, are monotonous tasks.

Solution:

Exchange Reporter Plus provides a perfect remedy in these cases. Its simple and easy-to-use UI streamlines the data refresh process, and enables users to audit multiple Exchange Servers and Exchange Online tenants simultaneously, as well as audit mailbox permission and property changes, databases, DAGs, and distribution lists. Additionally, you can audit all user (owner, non-owner, and delegate roles) and IT admin activities easily—without typing a single line of PowerShell code. Exchange Reporter Plus provides you with the server-based, mailbox-based, and object-level auditing status you require for your compliance and security needs.

To fetch the Exchange audit reports,

Go to the Audit tab on the top pane.
Navigate to the Audit or Advanced Audit drop-down menu on the left side.
Expand the categories and choose a suitable report.
Enter the period for report generation.
Select the type of view for the report (Summary, Default, or Custom View).

Exchange Reporter Plus allows you to make changes to the generated reports. It has advanced filtering options to scrutinize your search further. You can export these reports in four formats: HTML, CSV, PDF, and XLS. You can also schedule these audit reports to run automatically at set intervals, and receive a copy of the report via email. To add new audit schedules for Exchange,

Go to Report Configuration on the bottom-left corner.
Click on the Add New Report option.
Enter the Custom Report Name.
Select the Category of reports from the drop-down menu.
Choose one or more actions you want to audit under that category.
Choose the target mailboxes and users.
Click Save.

You can also configure the Business Hours of your organization, and use this along with the audit reports to track activities happening outside the usual business hours. Exchange Reporter Plus also provides the Action Configuration option that enables you to create new actions that you would like to audit.

Exchange Server monitoring

Monica needs a tool to monitor her organization's Exchange Servers 24/7, and raise alerts immediately in case of anomalies. Her organization is largely dependent on the native tool now. Since her mailbox is always flooded with messages and there are chances of missing important notifications, she requires a tool that sends alerts via SMS. The tool must monitor the services, and keep an eye on endpoints.

Solution

Exchange Reporter Plus monitors your Exchange services and endpoints 24/7, and sends email and SMS notifications when an anomaly is detected. This solution monitors Exchange Server as well as DAGs, databases, storage, and emails. The alert dashboard of Exchange Reporter Plus displays the health status of every individual object, and displays server and database alerts separately. To fetch monitoring reports in Exchange Reporter Plus,

Go to the Monitoring tab.
Navigate to Exchange Server and choose the category of monitoring reports.
Choose a suitable report from the list available.
Select the organization and time period for report generation.
Choose a suitable view for the report.

That's it! In four simple steps, you can easily monitor your Exchange environment. There is no need to use complex PowerShell codes in the native server to look for important performance or health related information. You can easily schedule these reports and export them in four formats: HTML, XLS, CSV and PDF.

Mailbox content search

Ronald is concerned about content being shared via his organization's Exchange mailboxes. With increasing cyber crimes and online security threats, he would like to keep track of the information going out and coming into the organization. However, searching all mailboxes for sensitive information like credit card details, bank account numbers, money transactions, and license details is tedious. He needs a solution that will keep track of these information on a day-to-day basis.

Solution: Exchange Reporter Plus provides Content Search using keyword, pattern or attribute-based search options to find important and confidential information such as bank account numbers or credit card details. You can also create custom search profiles to continually look for specific information in your organization's mailboxes on a daily basis. This soluiton enables you to scrutinize your search by using multiple condition filters. You can use various keywords and attributes in numerous combinations to obtain the desired results.

Click Content Search on the top pane.
Navigate to Exchange Server → Content Search Reports → Mail Content Profiles.
Choose a profile or Instant Search option to continue.
Select the required Exchange Server from the drop-down menu in the top-left corner.

To perform instant search operations,

In the Mailbox field, click the + icon to select the mailboxes that you need to search.
Choose a suitable folder from the Folder Name drop-down menu.
Set a search criteria by choosing an attribute from the drop-down menu, and setting a condition as given in the image below. Using the + icon, you can also set multiple conditions.
Click Search to generate the search results as a report.

The generated reports can be exported as CSV, PDF, HTML or XLS files using the Export As option in the top-right corner.

Note: You can click the Save as New Profile option to save the search operation you performed as a profile for future needs. Provide a Report Name and Gathering Interval. This saved search profile can be found in the left pane under the Content Search tab for future use.

To create content search profiles,

Go to Settings.
Navigate to Configuration → Exchange Server → Content Search Profiles.
Click on the Create New Profile option in the top-right corner.
Enter a suitable Name for the profile.
Select the Exchange organization from the Organization Name drop-down menu.
In the Mailbox field, click the + icon to select the mailboxes that you need to search.
Set the Keywords criteria. Add more than one criteria using the + icon .
Choose a specific folder if required, and set the Gathering Interval.
Click Create.

You can set the gathering interval based on how frequently you would like to perform the search. This schedule will run automatically and store the results under the corresponding profile. You can simply fetch these reports and keep an eye on suspicious activities.

Common issues faced by Exchange administrators and simple solutions provided by Exchange Reporter Plus


An Exchange administrator needs to plan Exchange Server storage depending on the performance and the sizing requirements of the environment. It is very difficult to determine the performance level and mailbox growth rate using the native tool. Solution: Exchange Reporter Plus offers Mailbox Storage and White Space reports which track the utilized and available space in individual mailboxes. The tool also offers the Mailbox Size Growth report that monitors the utilization rate of the storage space. With the information from these reports, the IT admin can plan accordingly. To fetch these reports, navigate to Reports → Exchange Server → Storage, and provide the necessary inputs like mailbox name and time period.
An Exchange administrator wants to get information about all mailbox folders and the size of selected mailboxes. Creating complex codes for a different set of folders and mailboxes every time is difficult. Solution: You can obtain all the information about mailbox folders under Reports → Exchange Server → Mailbox Reports → Mailbox Folder Statistics. Navigate to Reports → Exchange Server → Mailboxes → Size Reports. Choose the applicable report to learn the size of the selected mailboxes.
An Exchange administrator is worried about the internal security issues in the organization. There is a suspicion that important emails are being shared by a specific team with competitors. The IT admin wants to track if too many emails are being sent from a particular server, and then narrow the search to a specific user. Solution: Exchange Reporter Plus helps you narrow down the IP address of servers from which emails are sent. You must configure Advanced logging in the Exchange Server as well as in the product for this purpose. In Exchange Reporter Plus, navigate to Settings → Log/Database Path → OWA (IIS) Log Path → Advanced Logging. To learn how to configure the Exchange Server, click here. Once Advanced Logging is enabled, navigate to Reports > Exchange Server > OWA reports. To uncover the specific user who sends the most number of emails from the server, you can use the Email Traffic reports. You can also use the Reports → Exchange Server → Email Traffic → Mailbox Traffic → Number of Messages by Sender report to find the number of emails being sent by each user.
An Exchange administrator discovers that a few important mailboxes are missing. It is unclear whether these mailboxes were hidden, moved by someone, or accidently deleted. How can you learn if a mailbox was hidden, moved, or deleted? Solution: In Exchange Reporter Plus, you can get information about mailboxes moved and deleted from the Audit Tab → Exchange Server → Advanced Audit Reports → Mails Deleted or Moved report. To obtain the list of hidden mailboxes, navigate to Reports → Exchange Server → Mailboxes → General Reports → Hidden Mailboxes.
Is it possible to audit mailbox import and export changes using Exchange Reporter Plus? Although the native tool provides the necessary details, the process for fetching the data is tedious. Solution: To accomplish this within a few seconds, navigate to Audit → Exchange Server → Advanced Audit → Mailbox Import Export Changes. Choose any of the two audit reports available. Enter the Exchange organization and receive the complete list.
An Exchange administrator has collected information about undelivered email. But segregating them based on the "from" and "to" information, and whether it is from or sent to an external or internal domain is time-consuming. Can Exchange Reporter Plus help sort these emails and compare their numbers with delivered emails? Solution: Navigate to Reports → Exchange Server → Email Traffic Reports → Non-Delivery Reports. Choose the Undelivered Emails or Delivered vs Undelivered Emails report. Enter the organization and period for report generation.
Exchange does not offer proper analysis and reporting when it comes to room and equipment mailboxes. How do you uncover room mailbox usage stats and the user booking count for selected resource mailboxes? Solution: Navigate to Reports → Exchange Server → Custom Reports → Room Mailbox Reports in Exchange Reporter Plus. You can find the room mailbox usage and user booking count reports under this category. Enter the period for the report generation to obtain the complete information.
Mailbox features include many aspects, like the policies enabled and disabled, litigation hold, retention hold, and more. In the native tool, you will have to perform various operations to gather this information for just one mailbox. Fetching information for the mailbox features of thousands of mailboxes in your organization is very challenging. Is there a simpler method? Solution: In Exchange Reporter Plus, you can select from a comprehensive list of mailbox features using the Mailbox Features report and generate all information related to it. To fetch this report, navigate to Reports → Exchange Server → Mailboxes → General Reports → Mailbox Features.
In the native tool, to get a complete list of mailbox enabled users, you need to either check individual user profiles one by one, or write complex PowerShell codes. But what if the list is dynamic, designed to accommodate a constant flow of new hires in your organization? Does Exchange Reporter Plus offer a simple technique to fetch the complete list of mailbox enabled users on a daily basis? Solution: In Exchange Reporter Plus, you can get the complete list of mailbox enabled users by navigating to Reports → Exchange Server → Mailboxes → General Reports → Mailbox Enabled Users.
Most common issues occurring in an Exchange environment are DAG related. Checking the DAG status regularly is tedious using PowerShell. How else can the DAG health be monitored? Solution: You can find DAG monitoring reports under Monitoring → Exchange Server → DAG Monitoring. It features four categories: Replication Health, Database Copy Status, DAG Network Health, and Activation Preference Details. You can learn the DAG health status using these reports and the monitoring dashboard. With an alert profile configured for these reports, an Exchange administrator can obtain the reasons for DAG failure, if any, and determine what course of action to take.
Having thousands of mailboxes and databases in an Exchange organization causes a lot of issues. One major problem is wasted space due to junk content like advertising emails and spam. It is difficult to sort the databases that are unnecessarily taking up Exchange Server space using the native tool. Solution: Running the Inactive mailboxes with last logon will give the database name for the mailboxes that have been inactive for a long time. Removing these mailboxes will reduce the space occupied. Navigate to Reports → Exchange Server → Mailboxes. Choose any of the inactive mailboxes reports (based on last sent email, last received email, or last logon).
Exchange administrators find it difficult to use PowerShell codes to check the email queue health every time an issue arises when email is sent or received. This presents a problem when multiple emails sent are not delivered, and get stuck in the outbox or server pipeline. Is there a simple way to uncover the issues so actions can be taken to resolve the problem? Solution: By running the Email Queue Health report in Exchange Reporter Plus, we can find out if there is any issue. This report provides detailed information about the emails, like if they are stuck in poison, unreachable, or submission queues. This will help you find the proper reason behind the email failure. Navigate to Monitoring → Exchange Monitoring → Email Queue Health to fetch the report.
It is difficult to use PowerShell codes every time to check if the Exchange Online mailboxes are kept under litigation hold or not. How can I easily accomplish this? Solution: Navigate to Reports → Exchange Online → Security Reports → Admin Activities Reports → Litigation Hold Activity. Enter the Microsoft 365 tenant, business hours, and period for report generation. The generated report will list all the mailboxes placed on litigation hold, and the corresponding timestamps.
Using the native tool to track Skype for Business file transfers with the corresponding session time, or details about users that send files externally is a tough task. How can Exchange Reporter Plus help? Solution: This information can be fetched from the File Transfer Activities and Top Users Who Transfer Files Externally reports respectively. These reports can be found under Reports → Skype Server → File Transfer → Activity.
In the native environment, by the time you find out the server has reached its maximum storage limit, it is usually too late. Can you receive an alert earlier, such as whenever the server volume or drive reaches a specified threshold volume, and can you change the threshold values any time required? Solution: Yes. Create an alert profile by navigating to Monitoring → Alerts > New Alert Profile. Enter a suitable name for the profile. Choose a severity, and select the category and report required. The Server Volume and Drive Volume reports are found under the Storage Monitoring category. At any time, you can edit the threshold values. Exchange Reporter Plus sends you email and SMS notifications as soon as the set threshold is reached.
Organizations typically have more than one Exchange administrator. Since administrators have access to important objects in Exchange, it is vital to monitor their activities. In the native tool this requires complex PowerShell codes. Is there another way to achieve this? Solution: In Exchange Reporter Plus, navigate to Audit → Exchange Server → Advanced Audit → Admin Audit Log to generate logs related to the activities performed exclusively by the Exchange administrators in your organization.
An organization wants to gauge the performance of its Exchange administrators. One performance level criteria it has chosen to measure is the average response time taken by each Exchange administrator. How do you fetch this information using Exchange Reporter Plus? Solution: To receive the email response time report in Exchange Reporter Plus, go to Reports → Custom Reports → Email Response Time. Add the required ailboxes, and choose Summary or Detailed view to fetch the information.

Knowledge Base

General use cases