Test ActiveSync Connectivity using Connectivity analyzer and PowerShell

Overview

Among several Client Access cmdlets present in Exchange Server, Test-ActiveSync Connectivity cmdlet is a command used to test Active Sync connectivity with a device or any user in your domain. It is mainly for testing connectivity to Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync virtual directories. The blog will be discussing on how we can perform Test ActiveSync Connectivity using Connectivity Analyzer and PowerShell.

Test ActiveSync Connectivity

The Test-ActiveSync Connectivity cmdlet allows you to simulate an Exchange ActiveSync Connection from a mobile device to a mailbox. This command tests connectivity by connecting to a specified Exchange ActiveSync virtual directory, to any Exchange ActiveSync virtual directories on a specified Exchange server, or to any Exchange ActiveSync virtual directories available in the local Active Directory. Before using this cmdlet for the first time, you need to create a test user using the following commands.

The cmdlet returns some information like CasServer (Exchange Server that client is connected to), LocalSite (name of local active directory site), Scenario (Operations that are tested), Result (type of values returned Success/Failure/Skipped), Latency (time to complete the test in milliseconds), Error (any error encountered).

Approaches to MS Exchange Test ActiveSync Connectivity

• Using Connectivity Analyzer
  
  We can test the ActiveSync Connectivity with the help of Microsoft’s free web based tool i.e. Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer that will help Exchange Administrators in testing multiple different connectivity types and configuration of their Exchange-Based services. 
  Following steps are given to use the Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer:
  
1. Go to testconnectivity.microsoft.com and select the desired test that user want to run.
2. There are two types of test available under Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync Connectivity Tests.
   1. Exchange ActiveSync
      It simulates all of the steps that a mobile device needs to connect to Exchange & synchronize mailbox items. This test can be performed by using manually configured server settings or Autodiscover.
      
   2. Exchange ActiveSync Autodiscover
      The Autodiscover process will be tested for automatically determining the server configuration settings.
      
3. Select Exchange ActiveSync under Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync Connectivity Tests options and click Next. 
   
4. Performing test requires user to fill the account details. Account information like username and password of the user will be entered. Select Use Autodiscover to detect settings to test autodiscover or either use Manually specify server settings. Click on Perform Test to proceed. 
   
5. Progress of test will be displayed as it tests Exchange ActiveSync. 
   
6. The tool will give the results of the test i.e. success or failure. It gives the test report that breaks down each of the steps giving details of the error or success details making user understand the issue, if there is any. 
   

Using PowerShell

Exchange Server 2013 comes with several PowerShell cmdlets, one of which is Test ActiveSync Connectivity for performing full synchronization between a mobile device and a specified mailbox to test the functionality of Exchange ActiveSync. The mailbox can be the test user mailbox created earlier, or any user in your domain.

Some of the PowerShell commands are as follows:

1. To Test the local server, run the following command on a Client Access Server 
   
2. To test a remote Client Access Server 
   
3. To test a specific URL 
   
4. Test multiple Client Access servers together using pipeline 
   
5. Credentials of the mailbox user will be passed 
   
6. Now, Test the mailbox using Test-ActiveSync Connectivity 
   

Conclusion

The blog has been aimed to help users in testing Exchange Active Sync Connectivity with a device or user in the domain. It further describes the way to perform the test operation either by using Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer or PowerShell cmdlet. It is an easy way to test Active Sync for an individual user within the domain using the command given.