Skip to main content

Sanitizing Get-LogonStatistics cmdlet data to view better Logon stats in Exchange 2007

If you have used the get-Logonstatistics cmdlet you will know that it’s a great tool for looking at who’s logged onto your Exchange server using Outlook but the results set that it returns can be a little awkward to use in a continuative way. This is way of saying there is a lot of noise in what is returned also because logons are happening at different times of the day if you are looking to log this information over a period of time so you can do statistical analysis of the data it can be a little difficult. So what this script does is first looks at sanitizing the data by only looking at the results from get-Logonstatistics that actually represent mailboxes and also reduces down each logon so it only shows one entry per IP/Client connection. To create files that can be used to look at logon statistics it records the results of each query in a daily file and uses some logic to find new logons and filter existing ones.

How it works

Like many of the scripts I post it uses a lot of different powershell functions to achieve different levels of functionality. It uses Import-csv and Export-csv to keep track of the history status as well as two hashtables are used with an aggregation key that filters down the result set of a Get-logonstatistic query down to a useable format. A get-mailbox query is also used to make sure that only logons that relate to actual mailboxes are included in the results.

Running the Script

When you run the script it takes one argument which is the name of the server you want to run it against. Eg.

.\ sanlog.ps1 yourservername

This is just a simple start but it gives a framework you can could use to create actual logon reports that record when users loged on and logged off and how long they where using resources on your server.

I’ve put a download of this script here the script itself looks like.

$ServerName = $args[0]

$ExcomCollection = @()
$MBHash = @{ }
$MBHistHash = @{ }

$HistoryDir = "c:\LogonHistory"

if (!(Test-Path -path $HistoryDir))
{
New-Item $HistoryDir -type directory
$frun = 1
}

$datetime = get-date
$fname = $script:HistoryDir + "\"
$fname = $fname + $datetime.ToString("yyyyMMdd") + $ServerName + "-LogonHist.csv"

Import-Csv ($fname) | %{
$idvalue = $_.identity.ToString()
$logonEvent = $_
$ltime = [datetime]::Parse($_.LogonTime)
if ($_.ClientIPAddress -eq $null){$agvalue = $_.identity.ToString() + $_.UserName + $ltime.ToString("hhmm").Substring(0,3)}
else{$agvalue = $_.identity.ToString() + $_.UserName + $_.ClientIPAddress}
if ($MBHistHash.Containskey($agvalue) -eq $false){
$MBHistHash.Add($agvalue,$_)
}

}


get-mailbox -server $ServerName -ResultSize Unlimited | foreach-object{
if ($MBHash.Containskey($_.LegacyExchangeDN.ToString()) -eq $false){
$MBHash.add($_.LegacyExchangeDN.ToString(),$_)
}
}
$LogonUnQ = @{ }

get-logonstatistics | foreach-object{
$idvalue = $_.identity.ToString()
$logonEvent = $_
$ltime = $_.LogonTime
if ($_.ClientIPAddress -eq $null){$agvalue = $_.identity.ToString() + $_.UserName + $ltime.ToString("hhmm").Substring(0,3)}
else{$agvalue = $_.identity.ToString() + $_.UserName + $_.ClientIPAddress}
if ($idvalue -ne $null){
if ($LogonUnQ.Containskey($agvalue) -eq $false){
if ($MBHash.Containskey($idvalue)){
$LogonUnQ.Add($agvalue,$logonEvent)
if ($MBHistHash.Containskey($agvalue) -eq $false){
$MBHistHash.Add($agvalue,$_)
}
else{
$ts = New-timeSpan $MBHistHash[$agvalue].LogonTime $ltime
if ($ts.minutes -gt 5){
$MBHistHash.Add($agvalue+$ltime,$_)

}
}
}

}
}
}
foreach ($row in $MBHistHash.Values){
$ExcomCollection += $row
}

$ExcomCollection | export-csv –encoding "unicode" -noTypeInformation $fname

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

The MailboxConcurrency limit and using Batching in the Microsoft Graph API

If your getting an error such as Application is over its MailboxConcurrency limit while using the Microsoft Graph API this post may help you understand why. Background   The Mailbox  concurrency limit when your using the Graph API is 4 as per https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/throttling#outlook-service-limits . This is evaluated for each app ID and mailbox combination so this means you can have different apps running under the same credentials and the poor behavior of one won't cause the other to be throttled. If you compared that to EWS you could have up to 27 concurrent connections but they are shared across all apps on a first come first served basis. Batching Batching in the Graph API is a way of combining multiple requests into a single HTTP request. Batching in the Exchange Mail API's EWS and MAPI has been around for a long time and its common, for email Apps to process large numbers of smaller items for a variety of reasons.  Batching in the Gr...
Read more

Sending a MimeMessage via the Microsoft Graph using the Graph SDK, MimeKit and MSAL

One of the new features added to the Microsoft Graph recently was the ability to create and send Mime Messages (you have been able to get Message as Mime for a while). This is useful in a number of different scenarios especially when trying to create a Message with inline Images which has historically been hard to do with both the Graph and EWS (if you don't use MIME). It also opens up using SMIME for encryption and a more easy migration path for sending using SMTP in some apps. MimeKit is a great open source library for parsing and creating MIME messages so it offers a really easy solution for tackling this issue. The current documentation on Send message via MIME lacks any real sample so I've put together a quick console app that use MSAL, MIME kit and the Graph SDK to send a Message via MIME. As the current Graph SDK also doesn't support sending via MIME either there is a workaround for this in the future my guess is this will be supported.
Read more

Export calendar Items to a CSV file using Microsoft Graph and Powershell

For the last couple of years the most constantly popular post by number of views on this blog has been  Export calendar Items to a CSV file using EWS and Powershell closely followed by the contact exports scripts. It goes to show this is just a perennial issue that exists around Mail servers, I think the first VBS script I wrote to do this type of thing was late 90's against Exchange 5.5 using cdo 1.2. Now it's 2020 and if your running Office365 you should really be using the Microsoft Graph API to do this. So what I've done is create a PowerShell Module (and I made it a one file script for those that are more comfortable with that format) that's a port of the EWS script above that is so popular. This script uses the ADAL library for Modern Authentication (which if you grab the library from the PowerShell gallery will come down with the module). Most EWS properties map one to one with the Graph and the Graph actually provides better information on recurrences then...
Read more
All sample scripts and source code is provided by for illustrative purposes only. All examples are untested in different environments and therefore, I cannot guarantee or imply reliability, serviceability, or function of these programs.

All code contained herein is provided to you "AS IS" without any warranties of any kind. The implied warranties of non-infringement, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are expressly disclaimed.