TriSys Exchange Synchronisation
Service
The Exchange Sync is a service
which synchronises data between the TriSys database and the exchange data
store.
In summary the application
essentially goes through the following life cycle:
1) Service is started, polling time is read from the
Config file.
2) Waits for X minutes as specified in the polling time.
3) For each mailbox specified
a.
Push Emails from the Exchange Data
Store into the TriSys database.
b.
Synchronise Contacts.
c.
Synchronise Calendars.
4) Sleep until the next poll is due.
The service comes with an
associated administration utility that provides a means to edit the list of
mailboxes to be synchronised and other settings.
In order to install this product
run the MSI and leave all of the options at default unless you need to install
to another location. However the size of the install is very small therefore I
can’t see this being an issue:
During the install you will be
prompted to enter the account credentials for the Windows account that the
service will run under. Note that this is not a true modal dialog for some
reason and therefore can get lost behind another window.
The account specified must
have full access to ALL of the mailboxes that are to be synchronised as well as
access to all of the TriSys shares (G drives) in order to save Emails to disk.
At the end of the install the
administration utility will automatically be opened so that you can enter the
Mailboxes to be synchronised and then start the service:
Once the install
has completed a new shortcut will be available on the desktop designed to
administer the service. This application is also started automatically when the
install completes.
This application
mirrors the prior versions of the exchange sync in most regards, but the key
difference is around the fact that the main process now runs as a service. The
bottom right of the UI now has controls related to administering the service:
In order to make
any changes to the settings etc the service must be stopped. The UI will
reflect this in that when the service is running all editing operations will be
disabled.
In other words you must stop the service to make any changes and start it again
afterwards. If you attempt to close the application without starting the
service you will be prompted to start it:
The settings
specified in this application are picked up by the service, so things like
polling frequency and number of threads are edited via this application by
clicking the settings button and then making the required changes:
Outside of this you
can also run synchronisation manually using this utility. In order to do this
the service must be stopped. This uses the exact same code as the service and
therefore should replicate any issues etc. So, follow these steps:
1)
Start the admin app.
2)
If the service is
running stop it.
3)
Select the mailbox you
would like to sync.
4)
Click “Sync Selected
Now”.
5)
Once you have finished START
THE SERVICE.
In order to remove
the service simply go to the “Add/Remove Programs” or “Programs and Features”
option under control panel, find the “Exchange Synchronisation” entry in the
list of programs and click “Remove”:
The exchange
synchronisation tool is relatively complex, coupled with the fact that it is
handling large volumes of data and relies upon users can make it troublesome.
When
troubleshooting a problem with this module there are a number of things
available to you. Firstly the service and admin tool both create log files
listing the actions carried out. These are both placed in the install directory
(by default: C:\Program Files\TriSys\Exchange Synchronisation):
These files will
list significant events during the related applications life cycle.
In addition to these log files a log is created for each mailbox in a sub
directory named logs (by default: C:\Program Files\TriSys\Exchange
Synchronisation\Logs). Each file is named after the respective mailbox and
contains detailed information on recent events related to that mailbox.
The service will
also log events to the Windows Event Log:
The next place to
look for relevant information is the TriSys database, in tables such as
“Email”, “ExchangeAppointment” and “ExchangeContact”.
The most common
issue raised by users is that an Email has gone missing. In order to track the
said Email down you should follow its path through the system, which involves
these steps:
1)
Get the subject of the
Email in question and approximate time the Email was received.
2)
Check the log file
related to this user and see if it contains entries related to that Email (You
should be able to search it for the subject). This will give you an immediate
confirmation of whether the Email has been processed or not. If the Email
cannot be found in here then check that the mailbox has been synchronising
correctly and that the Email is prior to the last sync.
3)
The next place to check
is the Email table in the database. You may find that the Email is in there but
it has been marked as deleted and is therefore not showing up for the user.
This may be due to a rule which can be checked using the v_IllegalEMailsIncludingDeletedAndProcessed
view.
4)
You can force the system
to re-process an Email and observe the output by executing the p_ProcessEmail
stored procedure and passing it the Email in question. The output from this should
give you some indication of why the Email ended up where it did.
