Draft: How to take EWS/OWA/ETL trace to troubleshoot Exchange Web Services issues – EXCHANGE 2007 & 2010

THIS IS A DRAFT DOCUMENT AND MAY CHANGE WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE.

PURPOSE: Collect ETL trace from Exchange Server 2007 & 2010 to troubleshoot Exchange Web Services related issues.

Applies to: Microsoft® Exchange Server© 2007 & 2010

Steps

1) Go to CAS Server and fire up Extra.exe (%PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\ExTRA.exe)
2) This will bring the following window, click on ‘Select a task’

3) Click on “Trace Control”

4) Configure the trace options, file location, maximum file size (100-200mb should be enough for normal scenarios)
5) Select sequential logging, and run traces for a time period in which you should be able to reproduce the issue. Usually 300 seconds are good enough to switch over and reproduce the error.
6) Click “Set components and tags for the type of tracing selected”
7) Type of tracing will be “6. OWA Tracing”

8) Under trace types, select all of them to get a verbose log
9) Under components, OWA will be selected by default – you might want to uncheck that as it will add logs for OWA traffic as well
10) Choose trace components according to your problem, in basic scenarios and EWS issues MSExchangeWebServices should be sufficient.
11) These are the providers which looks good to get a detailed log and uncovering the hidden issues somewhere in the communication.
                    a. ADProvider
                    b. ADRecipientCache
                    c. ADExpansion
                    d. AuthenticationProvider
                    e. Common
                    f. Diagnostics
                    g. MSExchangeWebServices
                    h. NetworkingLayer
12) Once done, hit Start tracing

13) It will run the trace for the specified duration, keep it running and reproduce the problem

14) Once done it will generate a binary file (.ETL) which contains all the proprietary & confidential debugging information related to the product.

15) Take instructions from the Microsoft Support Professional on how to send the file back to him/her.

DISCLAIMER: THE STEPS BELOW CAN IMPACT THE PERFORMANCE OF THE EXCHANGE SERVER AND MUST BE PERFORMED IN GUADIANCE OF MICROSOFT SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL. IN NO EVENT SHALL MICROSOFT, ITS AUTHORS, OR ANYONE ELSE INVOLVED IN THE CREATION, PRODUCTION, OR DELIVERY OF THE DOCUMENT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, OR OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF MICROSOFT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.