Daily Operations Checklist

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007 SP3, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server
2007

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 Designation (drives with transaction logs, drives Available Available %

Letter with queues, and other drives) space MB 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.

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.