To better understand what caused a period of low availability, follow these steps. If you are not starting from the Service Availability Summary Report, go to step 2.

1. If you are starting from the Service Availability Summary Report, determine which service availability you want to examine in-depth, and then select the relevant report from the list of Related Reports near the bottom of the Service Availability Summary Report.
   
   
2. From the service availability report that you want to examine, click the icon that resembles a downward double chevron in the upper-right corner of the report. This will enable you to see the report parameters.
   
   
3. Examine availability closely, by time. For example, if you see that availability was low on a particular day, set the Begin Date parameter of the report for the day before, and the End Date parameter to the day after the low availability. Repeat as frequently as required so the report is focused on the time from just before to just after the low availability period.
   
   
4. Look at the related events. Determine the computer or computers that have low availability by viewing the table under the availability chart. Then, click the computer name to see all the events that were collected by Operations Manager for that computer during the timeframe specified by the Begin Date and End Date parameters. Use the data in the events to help you understand what caused the low availability.
   
   

Each report has a set of parameters and the administrator can specify new default values for each report. However, we recommend that you modify only the SLA% parameter.

The SLA% parameter enables you to specify your own SLA value for each report. This parameter determines at what value the availability numbers in the report turn from black to red. For example, if the SLA% is set at 99.95 percent, any availability numbers greater than or equal to 99.95 percent will be black. Availability numbers less than 99.95 percent will appear red in the report. The SLA% also determines where the red SLA line appears in the chart.

The SLA% parameter can be set every time that the report is run. Or, the report can be configured to use a default SLA% parameter that you choose.

To configure the report by using a new default SLA% parameter, connect to the reporting server as an administrator and follow these steps:

1. Open the report to be configured.

2. Click the Properties tab.

3. Click Parameters from the Navigation Pane on the left.

4. In the Default Value check box, next to SLAPercent, enter your SLA, for example, 99.9.

5. Clear the check boxes under HasDefault for BeginDateStr and EndDateStr.

6. Click Apply.

The next time that you run the report, the default value for SLA% will be your own SLA.

The Service Availability Summary Report summarizes the availability of Exchange 2007 services such as Mailbox, Mail Flow, Microsoft Outlook Web Access, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, and Unified Messaging.

Note:

When you are working with this summary report and notice that there is a period of low availability, use the report to narrow the time when the availability was low. When you have identified the timeframe when the problem occurred, click the server name to return all the events that occurred on that server during the specified timeframe. This should provide some insight into the drop in availability for that particular timeframe.

The ActiveSync Internal Service Availability Report summarizes the internal service availability of Exchange ActiveSync as measured by a rule that periodically runs a cmdlet to test the responsiveness of the service. For this report, a message is issued that tells you what steps are required to set up the test mailbox. No data is shown in the test until the mailboxes are set up.

The Mailbox Service Availability Report summarizes the MAPI connectivity availability for Mailbox server. The service availability is measured by a rule that periodically runs a cmdlet to simulate a user logon.

The Mailflow Local Service Availability Report summarizes the availability of Mailflow Local service. Mail flow service availability is measured by a rule that periodically runs a cmdlet to test the responsiveness of the service.

The MailFlow Remote Service Availability Report summarizes the availability of the Mailflow Remote service. Mail flow service availability is measured by a rule that periodically runs a cmdlet to test the responsiveness of the service.

The Outlook Web Access External Service Availability Report summarizes the external service availability of Outlook Outlook Web Access. Outlook Web Access service availability is measured by a rule that periodically runs the Test-OWAConnectivity cmdlet to test the responsiveness of the service. This report will display, "No data available," if the external URL has not been set up on the Client Access servers and the test mailboxes have not been created. These two steps must be taken before the report can produce results.

Important:
Depending on the number of Client Access server mailboxes that have been created to test connectivity, the frequency of MOM queries may have to be reduced. This allows the .NET collection time to clean the memory before the next test is run. Not reducing the frequency of MOM queries may cause memory usage of Microsoft.exchange.monitoring.exe to increase.

The Outlook Web Access Internal Service Availability Report summarizes the internal service availability of Outlook Web Access. Outlook Web Access service availability is measured by a rule that periodically runs the Test-OWAConnectivity cmdlet to test the responsiveness of the service. For this report, a message is issued that tells you what steps are required to set up the test mailbox. No data is shown in the test until the mailboxes are set up.

Important:
Depending on the number of Client Access server mailboxes that have been created to test connectivity, the frequency of MOM queries may have to be reduced. This allows the .NET collection time to clean the memory before the next test is run. Not reducing the frequency of MOM queries may cause memory usage of Microsoft.exchange.monitoring.exe to increase.

The Unified Messaging Local Fax Service Availability Report summarizes the availability of the Local Fax service. Local Fax service availability is measured by a rule that periodically runs a cmdlet to test the responsiveness of the service.

The Unified Messaging Local Voice Service Availability Report summarizes the availability of the Local Voice service. Local Voice service availability is measured by a rule that periodically runs a cmdlet to test the responsiveness of the service.

The Unified Messaging Remote Voice Service Availability Report summarizes the availability of the Remote Voice service. Remote Voice service availability is measured by a rule that periodically runs a cmdlet to test the responsiveness of the service.

The reports in the Supplemental Reports folder are sub-reports of the reports that were discussed earlier. They should not be used individually. You can decide not to show these reports. If you decide to hide the Supplemental Reports folder, follow these steps:

1. Locate the Exchange 2007 Service Availability folder.

2. Click Show Details on the right side of the Contents tab.

3. Click the icon under the Edit column that is next to the Supplemental Reports folder.

4. Click Hide in list view, and then click Apply.

5. Go back to the Exchange Server 2007 Service Availability folder.

6. Click Hide Details on the right side of the Contents tab.

7. The Supplemental Reports folder will no longer be visible.

Expand the Dependencies or Configuration sections near the end of the report to find more information in the following circumstances:

• A report does not have any data.
  
  
• You want to better understand how the report works.
  
  
• You want to see how the availability numbers are calculated.
  
  

Before you run reports, make sure that the Client Access Server test mailboxes have been created, and the external Outlook Web Access URL on the Client Access servers has been set.