Monitor the Connector for Lotus Notes

This blog is by Stephen Gilbert, a Microsoft Exchange Support Engineer in the Connectors specialty Thanks Stephen! -Lou Basically what I did to monitor the situation was to user performance monitor alert that when counter reaches a certain threshold it will then call up a batch file that drops a messages into the pickup folder on the Exchange server. The Exchange server will then deliver the message out. I have included below the steps to setup the alert message, batch file and the performance monitor alert. Step 1 Create Alert message 1. In Note pad create a text file called alert.txt. 2. In the text file type in the following To: user@SMTPaddress.com <Put in SMTP address or addresses with semi colon of users to receive alert message> From: LotusNotesconnector@domain.com Subject: Mail messages building up Ready-Out folder Messages building up in queues on the Notes connector. 3. Save the text file. 4. Create a folder called alerts on c drive and copy the alert.txt file into folder. Step 2 Create the batch file. (The batch file will be used to copy the message to the pickup folder on the Exchange server ) 1. In notepad create text file called Notesalert.txt 2. In the text file type in the following xcopy c:\"alert\alert.txt" c:\"Program Files\Exchsrvr\Mailroot\vsi 1\pickup" Note: "c:\alert\" folder can be any folder that has the alert message Note: You may need to check the patch for your pickup folder to make sure that is correct. 3. Save the file out. 4. Rename the file to notesalert.bat. 5. Create a folder called alerts on c drive and copy the notesalert.bat file into folder. Step 3 Setup performance monitor log. 1. In performance monitor under Performance Logs and Alert right click on Alerts and select New Alert Settings. 2. In the Name box type in Lotus Notes alert and click OK 3. On the General tab click on Add button. 4. In the Performance object click down arrow and select MsExchangeNMC. 5. In the Select counters from list select "Messages queued Outbound" and click Add and then Close. 6. In "Alert when the value is" click the down arrow and select over. In the limit box type in 10 or any number of messages that you want to counter to send alert. 7. In Sample data entry set the values to how often you want to sample the data. 8. Click on Action tab. Put the check in the box for "Run this program". 9. Click the Browse button and go to c:\alerts folder and select the notesalert.bat file. And then click on Open button. 10. Then click on Okay button. This will start the alert. If you wanted to monitor inbound mail from Notes to Exchange you can use the same steps listed above with the exception of instead of monitoring the counter "Messages queued Outbound" you can use the "Messages queued for Inbound". You may also want to change e-mail message in step 1 to reflect which way the mail messages are building up in.