Although Exchange Management tools are invaluable for managing, monitoring and administer networks, computers, services, and other system components it does not provide a graphical view of user mailbox details. Administrators have to sift through a tree view to view the members of the Distribution Group in an organizational unit and use embedded data to figure out the details.
Microsoft Management Console (MMC) hosts administrative tools that you can use to administer networks, computers, services, and other system components. Exchange Management Console and Exchange Management Shell are used to administer and configure specific settings for Mailbox servers and create and manage Mailbox objects.
The Mailbox server role hosts mailbox databases, which contain users' mailboxes. If you plan to host user mailboxes or public folders, or both, the Mailbox server role is required.
This Microsoft Visio Add-In makes it easy for Exchange administrators to visualize, explore, and communicate complex information. Instead of viewing single user data, administrators can create data-connected Visio diagrams that display data at a glance and dramatically increase productivity. You can diagram a Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010/2007 site topology, including sites, servers, and connections for an organization.
2.1 Permission for Installation
|
Permissions needed
|
Description
|
|
Local Administrator on the target machine
|
Required for
- Execute the MSI
- Read/write registry
|
Table 1: Permissions for Installation
2.2 Software Prerequisites
1. .NET Framework 3.5
2. Microsoft Visio 2010 Professional or Premium pro version
2.3 Installation of Prerequisites
1. .NET Framework 3.5
Download and install the .NET framework 3.5 from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=333325FD-AE52-4E35-B531-508D977D32A6&displaylang=en
2. Microsoft Visio 2010 Professional or Premium pro
version
The system should have the Microsoft Visio 2010 Professional
or Premium pro version installed.
2.4 Installation Flow
The Visio Add-In for Exchange Server.msi installs the Visio Add-In for Exchange Server as an Add-In on the machine.
1. Run the Visio Add-in for Exchange Server.msi
2. The Welcome Screen appears.
Figure 1: Welcome Screen
3. Click Next to continue.
4. The Select Installation Folder screen with the Setup
Installation Path and Disk Space Information appears..
Figure 2: Set Up Installation Path and Disk Space Information
1. Click Next, to install in the default folder path
or click Browse to select the destination folder path.
2. To check the Disk Space Required, click Disk Cost.
3. Click Next to continue.
Figure 3: Visio Add-in Disk Space
The Confirm Installation appears.
Figure 4: Confirm Installation
1. Click Next to begin installation.
2. If you want to make any changes to the installation
settings or go back to the previous page, click Back.
3. Click Cancel to exit the setup wizard.
The Installing Visio Add-In for Exchange Server screen appears.
Figure 5: Installing Visio Add-in for Exchange Server
1. Please wait while the setup wizard installs Visio Add-In for Exchange Server. This may take few minutes. (See Figure 5: Installing Visio Add-In for Exchange Server).
2. The installation bar is dispalyed.
3. To cancel the installation click Cancel
Once the installation is successful, the Installation Complete screen appears (see Figure 6).
Figure 6: Installation Complete
3. Getting Started
This section describes the basic flow of the reference implementation. The Visio Add-In for Exchange Server is a Visio Add-In that starts up automatically with Visio 2010.
3.1 Selecting/Opening the Exchange Server Add-In Template
The Add-in when installed adds a new template Exchange Map under Add-ins Templates Category.
Open Visio 2010.
1. Select Add-insfrom the Template Categories list.
2. Select
Exchange Map from the Choose a Template list.
3. Click on Create button or double click on Exchange Map from Choose a Template list.
Figure 7: Selecting the templates
A new ribbon tab Exchange Connector is added as the template opens a new document.
Figure 8: Exchange Map (Connector) Ribbon
Also Exchange Map wizard of the add-in will open along with the opened document as shown below.
Figure 9: Exchange Map Wizard Loaded on document open.
The Exchange Connector ribbon tab consists of the following ribbon items -
- .
Generate
Map – To generate the exchange sever map.
- .
Refresh–
Refresh the user and distribution list data from the exchange server after the
corresponding diagram is created.
- . Help for
Exchange Connector – User Guide for Visio Add-in for Exchange Connector.
- ·
About
Exchange Connector – Version and related details about Exchange Connector
Add-In.
3.2 Exchange Map Wizard
1. In the Exchange Map wizard, enter the LDAP server name in Domain Controller text box and exchange server name in the Exchange Server text box as shown below.
Figure 10: Exchange Map Wizard
2. If Server version needs to be displayed on the generated diagram of server, enable the option on the wizard as shown below.
Figure 11: Exchange Map Wizard - Servers Option
3. Enabling the option of Use Integrated Security on the wizard does not prompt user to add Domain and User details as shown in screen shot below.
Figure 12: Exchange Map Wizard - Security Option
4. If Use Integrated Security option on wizard is not
chosen, then Domain and User details
needs to be filled as shown below.
Figure 13: Exchange Map Wizard - Credentials Option
5. If Use Integrated Security option on wizard is not
selected, then enter credentials and set the password as shown below.
Figure 14: Exchange Map Wizard - Set password
6. Click Draw! button, this will draw exchange server, site and add-in diagram.
Figure 15: Diagram Generated
3.3 Select User Account
Figure 16: User Account option
1. It will draw user’s mailboxes as per organization list with a progress bar showing the progress.
Figure 17: User Account progress
Figure 18: User List details
3.4 Select Distribution list
Figure 19: Distribution List option
1. It will draw Distribution List as per organization list with a progress bar showing its progress.
Figure 20: User Account progress
Figure 21: Distribution List page
This Visio add-in generates a diagram that displays the members of a distribution group in a hierarchical view.
4. Finding a row linked to a shape
Right-click the shape, point to Data, and then click the Show Linked Raw. That row will be selected in the External Data window.
Figure 22: Show Linked Row
5. Legend Definition
Right-click the row, point to Linked Shapes, and then click the name of the shape that you want.
The particular shape is then selected in the drawing.
Figure 23: Show shape linked to a row
6. Toubleshooting
1. In order to get distribution list and user list follow the following instructions:
a) Open Active Directory User and Computers.
b) Select domain and then user under it.
c) Select administrator/user and right click it.
d) Select properties from the pop up.
e) Select member of tab.
f) Click Add to add Windows authorization access group.
2. In order to have mail items and mail sizes in Visio Diagram for each user follow the following instructions:
a) Open Active Directory Sites and Services.
b) Select Services->Microsoft Exchange->Domain->Administrator Groups.
c) Select Exchange Administrator group-> Servers-> Exchange Server.
d) Right click Exchange Server and select properties.
e) Select security tab.
f) In Group or user names, select Exchange view –Only Administrators.
g) Click it and click on full control.
7. Publishing Visio diagrams in SharePoint 2010
Visio diagrams can be published as a data refreshable diagram in SharePoint 2010. SharePoint 2010 recognizes only Visio diagrams published in Web drawing (*.vdw) format for data refreshing. SharePoint 2010 allows the publishing of Visio diagrams in other format also but data refreshing is not supported in other formats. This feature is available only in SharePoint 2010. This is a new feature which is being introduced only in SharePoint 2010 which was not available with the earlier SharePoint versions.
7.1 Step by step guide for publishing a data refreshable diagram in SharePoint 2010
1. Initially the diagrams are generated using the Add-In.
Figure 24: Diagram generated using Exchange Connector Add-In
2. Click on File à Save & Send à Save to SharePoint. Under File types select “Web drawing” to create a data refreshable diagram. Click on Save As to save the diagram.
Figure 25: Publish to SharePoint
3. Publish the generated diagram to the SharePoint site where Visio Services Data Provider for Exchange Add-in is installed.
Note: Visio Services Data Provider for Exchange Add-in should be installed at the SharePoint server end to refresh the data of the data refreshable diagram published from Visio using Exchange connector Add-In.
