Monitoring Benefit
The MAPI Connectivity check verifies Exchange server functionality by logging on to a mailbox — the operation every Outlook client performs, exercised end to end.
It is a more meaningful test than a service check because it touches the whole path: the Information Store, the database, Active Directory, and the authentication in between. If this succeeds, a client can almost certainly connect. If it fails while everything else reports healthy, the fault is in one of those layers rather than in Exchange as a whole.
How do we verify the monitoring test results?
1. Run the same test Exchange runs. From the Exchange Management Shell on the affected server:
Test-MAPIConnectivityRun without parameters it tests the system mailbox on each database on the server, which is what makes it a per-database rather than per-server result.
2. Read which database failed. A single database failing points at that database — dismounted, or its system mailbox missing or damaged. Every database failing points at the server: the Information Store service, Active Directory access, or authentication.
3. Check the arbitration mailboxes if the failure is server-wide. As with the Mail Flow test, missing System Mailboxes will cause failures that look alarming while ordinary user mail continues working:
Set-ADServerSettings -ViewEntireForest $true
Get-Mailbox -Arbitration | Format-Table Name, ServerName, Database, AdminDisplayVersionSupported versions of Exchange 2016 and 2019 should return seven arbitration mailboxes, five of them System Mailboxes.
Common warning or error results, and potential solutions
| Result | Potential solution |
| One database failing, others fine | Check whether that database is mounted, and whether its system mailbox exists and is healthy. The fault is local to that database. |
| Every database on the server failing | A server-level cause. Check the Information Store service, then the server's access to Active Directory and a domain controller. |
| Failed status, users unaffected | Check the arbitration mailboxes. Missing System Mailboxes produce this pattern without affecting real users. |
| Failure coincides with a failover | Expected briefly while a database mounts on another server. If it persists after the failover completes, check the copy that is now active. |
| Intermittent failures under load | Frequently latency rather than failure — the logon is completing but too slowly. Check database and disk latency on the affected server. |
| Results are stale rather than failing | If several unrelated checks stopped updating at the same moment, look at the ENow SQL database connection rather than at Exchange. |
Monitoring page. The detail behind this indicator is served by the ENow web server at:
http://localhost:20080/MailscapeWeb/MAPI.aspx?server=<SERVER>Replace localhost with the web server's host name if you are browsing from elsewhere, 20080 with your own port if it was changed at installation, and <SERVER> with the monitored server you are investigating.
Reference. Test-MAPIConnectivity.
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