Documentation forServer & Application Monitor
Monitoring your applications and environment is a key capability of SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted (formerly Hybrid Cloud Observability) and is available in the Essentials edition. Server & Application Monitor (SAM) is also available in a standalone module.

MAPI User Experience Monitor

This predefined SAM component monitor sends an email from an SMTP mail server to a Microsoft Exchange Server Mailbox and measures the time it takes to complete the round trip, in milliseconds. You can use this monitor to track performance for MAPI-enabled email systems such as Microsoft Outlook.

By default, Exchange Servers use port 135 for client connections to the RPC endpoint mapper service. After a client connects to a socket, the Exchange Server allocates the client two random ports to use to communicate with the directory and the information store.

After a client connects to a socket, the Exchange Server allocates two random ports to communicate with the directory and the Microsoft Exchange Information Store. For details, see Network Ports Used by Key Microsoft Server Products (© 2020, Microsoft Corp., available at docs.microsoft.com, obtained on January 22, 2020).

Note the following details about this component monitor:

  • To use this monitor, assign the MAPI Round Trip Email application monitor template to target nodes that support SMTP polling.
  • MAPI profiles created manually or automatically are created in the context of the user whose credentials are defined in this component monitor. For example, if you configure the MAPI User Experience Monitor to use credentials for Jane Doe, then Jane Doe's account must be able to log in locally to the SolarWinds Platform server so a MAPI profile can be created.
  • Email must be sent between two separate servers.
  • This monitor is not supported in FIPS-enabled environments.
  • This monitor is not compatible with polling via SolarWinds Platform Remote Collectors.

Tip: Log in to the SolarWinds Platform Web Console locally with the account credentials configured in the MAPI User Experience Monitor. Next, use MFCMMAPI.exe (http://mfcmapi.codeplex.com/, obtained on February 2, 2021) to verify that the profile defined in the monitor actually exists. If it does not, you can either manually create the MAPI profile under this users context, or delete all existing MAPI profiles and MAPI UX monitors and recreate the monitor, which should then automatically create the profile.

Prerequisites

The Microsoft Exchange Server MAPI Client and Collaboration Data Objects package is installed on the SolarWinds Platform server.

As of August 2021, this package is no longer available in the Microsoft Download Center. SolarWinds is investigating workarounds; check back for updates.

The SolarWinds Platform server that has an Exchange account on the MAPI server that is linked to the mailbox to be monitored.

Target nodes support SNMP polling.

Credentials

Use Windows credentials that are valid on both the SolarWinds Platform server and the Microsoft Exchange server.

MAPI profiles are created in the context of the user whose credentials are defined as part of this monitor. For example, if you use credentials for Jane Doe, then Jane Doe's credentials must be able to log in locally to the SolarWinds Platform server so a MAPI profile can be created.

To monitor POP3-based Google Gmail accounts, use the POP3 Round Trip Email template instead.

Statistic

This component monitor does not compute a statistic. The response time is the difference between the time SAM sends the email and the time it is received by the client.

How this predefined component monitor works

The MAPI User Experience Monitor follows this workflow:

  1. The monitor sends an email to the user mailbox via SMTP. The email has a unique temporary subject name that starts with APM_prefix.
  2. The monitor connects to the user mailbox through MAPI, then searches the emails by Subject.
  3. If a matching email arrives, the SMTP call succeeds, and MAPI connects to the mailbox:
    1. The email is deleted from the user inbox.
    2. SAM collects the total round-trip time for the email, compares it with set thresholds, and reports status in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.
  4. If a matching email does not arrive, SAM waits and then searches again, repeating the process until the timeout or maximum number of attempts is reached.
  5. If a matching email arrives, the SMTP call succeeds, but MAPI cannot connect to the mailbox:
    1. The email remains in the user inbox.
    2. SAM reports the component monitor as Down in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.

To summarize, SAM reports the component monitor as Down if:

  • No email arrives within the time frame
  • The monitor retries the process but reaches the maximum number of allowed attempts, or
  • Either SMTP or MAPI reports an error.

Field descriptions

Description

A default description of the monitor. To override the default description, add to or replace existing text. Changes are automatically saved. The variable to access this field is ${UserDescription}.

Customize descriptions to specify what will be monitored so related alerts and notifications are more meaningful later.

Enable Component

Determines if the component is enabled. Disabling the component leaves it in the application in a deactivated state not influencing either SAM application availability or status.

Credential for Monitoring

Select a credential that:

  • Has rights to log in to the SolarWinds Platform server.
  • Has an Exchange account on the MAPI server.
  • Is the user for whom the mailbox will be monitored.

Click a credential in the list, or use the <Inherit credential from node> option. If the credential you need is not in the credentials list, add it in the SAM Credentials Library.

Send Email From

Specify the From address of the test email message.

Send Email To

Specify a recipient of the test email message that has a mailbox on the target MAPI server.

MAPI Profile Name

Specify the name of the MAPI profile

SMTP Server

Specify the SMTP server that sends the test email message.

SMTP Port

Specify the port number used for SMTP sessions. The default value is 25.

Use Credentials for SMTP

Select this check box to use the user name and password from the Credentials for Monitoring field to connect to SMTP servers that support or require authentication.

SMTP Encryption

Select an encryption protocol to connect to the SMTP server: SSL or TLS.

Response Time Threshold

Set the warning or critical threshold conditions based on the response time. The response time is the time in milliseconds it takes SAM to determine that a component is not Down and retrieve any statistical data. See Application Monitor Thresholds.

User Notes

Add notes for easy reference. You can access this field by using the variable, ${UserNotes}.