Prerequisites for the Microsoft Exchange adapter

This topic describes the prerequisites before you start using the adapter.

To use the rctrlx.exe utility

Microsoft Exchange is a native 64-bit application and is based on the rctrlx.exe utility. Hence, it has to be enabled on a peer that is on a different computer than the Microsoft Exchange server application. 

Notes

  • You must have administrative privileges to copy the rctrlx.exe utility and run it as a service on the remote computer.
  • You must have disabled the user account control (UAC) on the remote computer. Enabling UAC enables the administrator in the Admin Approval Mode, which restricts the utility to launch rctrlx.exe as a service on a remote computer.
  • This adapter works only on peers that are running on a Windows-based computer and the remote host must be a Windows-based computer.
  • To use the rctrlx.exe utility in 64-bit image mode, you must set the OSARCH flag as 64 in the adapter.

To use the rctrlx.exe utility:

  1. rctrlx.exe connects to the ADMIN$ share ( a preexisting share used by the Windows operating system) and the IPC$ share on the target computer.
  2. The utility copies an embedded service executable file to the directory mapped to the ADMIN$share.
  3. The utility then uses a Windows API to install the executable file mentioned in step 2 as a service and starts this service on the remote computer.
  4. The utility makes a connection to the service over a set of named pipes.
  5. The utility uses a custom network protocol to send a message to the service to execute the target command by routing the standard output and error streams over the named pipe connections.
  6. The utility stops the service, uninstalls it, and then deletes the file from the remote computer.

To connect to Microsoft Exchange Server

There are two possible ways to connect to Microsoft Exchange Server using the adapter. You can either directly connect to the Exchange server or use the Microsoft Exchange management tools. The Microsoft Exchange Server management tools can be installed on a 32-bit computer and the adapter can be used to connect to the server. 

The following table shows how the setup could be for both the scenarios:

Case 1

Case 2

  • Windows computer 1, 64-bit, TrueSight Orchestration peer
    installed with Microsoft Exchange adapter enabled on it.
    The adapter configuration should have
    target information for Windows computer 2, below.
  • Windows computer 2, 64-bit, Microsoft Exchange Server
    application installed on it.

Preq for exchange adapter-1.png

  • Windows computer 1, TrueSight Orchestration peer installed
    with Microsoft Exchange adapter enabled on it.
    The adapter configuration should have target information for
    Windows computer 2, below.
  • Windows computer 2, 32-bit Exchange Management tools (32-bit)
    installed to remotely administer the Microsoft Exchange
    Server on a computer 3, below.
  • Windows computer 3, 64-bit Microsoft Exchange Server installed on it.

Preq for exchange adapter-2.png

Note

To use the adapter as shown in Case 2, the target-os-bit-version adapter configuration parameter must be set to 32 because you connect to Exchange Management tools for commands execution. By default, the adapter works as shown in Case 1 and, if the parameter target-os-bit-version parameter is not specified, then it is assumed as 64.

 

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