To accurately diagnose a problem, support engineers typically need a variety of information about Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server (FPE) and the Exchange server on which it is running. This information includes FPE version information, third-party scan engine versions, registry settings, and FPE databases. Gathering this configuration information is a major effort that can hinder the troubleshooting process.

To make it easier for you to collect this information, the Forefront diagnostic tool (FSCDiag) automates the process, assembling all the necessary data in one file that can then be uploaded to Microsoft. When you contact Microsoft Help and Support, you are told where to upload the file.

About the information collected

The Forefront diagnostic tool can collect any or all of the following information, based on your requests:

  • FPE file versions

  • Exchange file versions

  • FPE registry keys

  • FPE database files

  • FPE configuration files

  • FPE archive files

  • FPE program log file

  • Windows Event log files

  • Dr. Watson log file

  • User.dmp file

  • FPE installation log file

  • FPE hotfix installation log file

  • Exchange agents.config file

Running the Forefront diagnostic tool

You can run the Forefront diagnostic tool in no prompt mode (the default), gathering all possible information. You can also run the tool in interactive mode or console mode. When running in interactive mode, you are prompted for every option. When running in console mode, you can use command-line switches to specify which information you want gathered. After running the tool, the selected data is gathered and compressed into a single file to be uploaded to Microsoft.

To run the Forefront diagnostic tool

  1. To run the tool in no prompt mode, interactive mode, or console mode, do one of the following:

    • If you want to run the tool in no prompt mode, navigate to the FPE program folder. For information about the location of the default program folder on your operating system, see Default folders.

      Launch FSCDiag.exe by double-clicking the executable file. The tool runs in a command prompt window.

      You can also run the tool at a command prompt by navigating to the FPE installation directory and typing:

      FSCDiag

    • If you want to run the tool in interactive mode, at a command prompt, navigate to the FPE program folder. For information about the location of the default program folder on your operating system, see Default folders.

      Type the following:

      FSCDiag /i

      You are prompted for each item. Type Yes or No, pressing ENTER after each response.

    • If you want to run the tool in console mode, at a command prompt, navigate to the FPE program folder. For information about the location of the default program folder on your operating system, see Default folders.

      Type the following:

      FSCDiag /c /switch1 /switch2 /switch3

      You must specify /c, which signifies that you are running the tool in console mode. You can specify as many switches as needed. The following is an example of the syntax used to collect only the Forefront file versions and the Forefront registry keys:

      FSCDiag.exe /c /ver Forefront /reg Forefront

      To view the possible switch combinations that you can use, type FSCDiag /? before running the tool.

  2. After you run the tool, the tool gathers the requested information and compresses the results into a new file in the Log\Diagnostics folder (located in the FPE data folder; for the default data folder location, see Default folders). The file name, constructed from the name of the server, date, and time, has the following format:

    ForefrontDiag- server name - date - time .zip

    date has the format yyyymmdd

    time has the format hh.mm.ss (where hh represents a 24-hour clock)

    The following is an example of the location and file name:

    C:\Program Files\Microsoft Forefront Protection for Exchange Server\Data\Log\Diagnostics\ForefrontDiag-Server1-20051210-17.50.27.zip

  3. To find out where and how to upload the compressed file, contact Microsoft Help and Support.