BizTalk Server provides adapters like the POP3 adapter and Mailbox Office 365 adapter to receive and process emails. These adapters enable integration between email systems and enterprise applications.
Lets say A retail company receives customer orders via email and utilizes BizTalk Server to automatically process these emails, extract order details, and update the Order Management System .
If the mailbox becomes unavailable, BizTalk is unable to retrieve emails, leading to several issues, including Message Delays, Message Loss, Mailbox Storage Limit Reached.
Monitoring mailbox availability ensures that BizTalk continuously retrieves and processes emails without disruption. It also, Sends alerts if the email server is down or authentication fails. Monitoring Additional Metrics such as mail count ,unread mail and mailbox size enhances system reliability and efficiency.
File Count: Monitors incoming message volume and detects unexpected spikes or drops.
Mailbox Size: Prevents storage overflow, ensuring new emails are received.
Unread Mail Count: Identifies potential processing failures if messages remain unread for extended periods.
Setting Up Mailbox Monitoring
Navigate to Monitoring->Manage Mapping->File Locations
Select the Alarm name (see Manage Alarms) from the drop-down, which you would like to associate the queue for monitoring.
Click the 'Mailbox' tab, which list out all the Send Ports/Receive Locations which are using the office365 adapter or the POP3 adapter. The list includes Port Name ,Mailbox Address , Adapter Type and Application Name.
Select the port which you want to monitor, which open the configuration blade. Below are the key configuration steps for setting up Mailbox Monitoring in BizTalk360.
POP3 Configuration
To monitor POP3 adapter, BizTalk360 requires specific configuration details to ensure a secure and reliable connection. The configuration mainly includes Mailbox configuration and Monitoring Rule Configuration.
Mail Server - The hostname or IP address of the mail server (e.g., pop.mailserver.com). Used by BizTalk to connect and retrieve mails.
Port - Define the network port to communicate with the mail server. Common Port 110 Standard POP3 (non-secure), 995 POP3 with SSL/TLS (secure).
Mailbox Address - The email address of the mailbox that BizTalk will monitor. This is retrieved directly from the port settings in BizTalk.
Password- The authentication password for the mailbox.
SSL- Determine if secure communication (SSL/TLS encryption) is required. SSL should be enabled if port 995 is used for security.
Availability Monitoring - By default Availability Monitoring is enabled . This checks the availability and connectivity of mailbox address. If its reachable , monitoring status will be set as healthy , if there is any connectivity issue or server is unavailable then monitoring status will be set as critical
Metrics Monitoring - Define rules to monitor specific mailbox parameters like file count and mailbox size.
Example you can set , If file count exceeds 2, trigger a warning (indicating potential backlog) , If mailbox size exceeds 10 MB, trigger a warning (preventing storage issues).BizTalk360 checks the mailbox at regular intervals. If the actual mailbox size or file count surpasses the set threshold, the monitoring status updates accordingly.
Metric monitoring is optional one. To monitor metrics the server should be reachable, else the monitoring status is set as critical.
Upon successful configuration , system will continue to monitor the availability of mailbox to ensure its reachable.
Office365 Configuration
Mailbox Address -The email address of the mailbox that BizTalk will monitor. This is retrieved directly from the port settings in BizTalk.
Folder Name - Specifies the mailbox folder from which emails should be retrieved. Example Inbox , Junk ,Custom Folders
Availability Monitoring - By default Availability Monitoring is enabled . This checks the availability and connectivity of mailbox address. If its reachable , monitoring status will be set as healthy , if there is any connectivity issue or server is unavailable then monitoring status will be set as critical .
Start Time - Defines when BizTalk should begin polling the Office 365 mailbox for new emails. This value is fetched from the configured port properties .
Metrics Monitoring -User can set rules to monitor mailbox attributes such as:
File Count: Number of emails in the folder.
Mailbox Size: Total size of the mailbox.
Unread Messages: Number of unread emails.
Example you can set ,if Unread Count > 2 or Mailbox Size > 10 MB, trigger a warning, ensuring all order emails are processed in real-time. If unread emails pile up, BizTalk360 flags the issue so the team can investigate potential processing delays.
Date Range - Defines the period for monitoring data retrieval. Example: Selecting Last 24 Hours means only emails received or processed within the last 24 hours will be considered for monitoring.
Monitoring Dashboard and Notifications
Once a Mailbox is mapped for monitoring, its health status will be displayed on the dashboard using a graphical tree view. If the Mailbox becomes unreachable or violates a defined threshold rule, it will appear under the Errors and Warnings section along with the associated alarms. You can click on any listed item to navigate directly to its corresponding mapping.
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To receive email notifications from BizTalk360 for threshold violations, ensure that SMTP settings are configured under BizTalk360 Settings. Follow the steps outlined in this article to complete the SMTP configuration. Once set up, you will receive email alerts containing detailed information about the Mailbox status.
Integrate Automated Tasks
By integrating Automated Tasks into mailbox monitoring , the system will automatically trigger the actions such as starting or stopping the artifacts, applications, host instances , NT Services etc.
For example, you can configure a monitoring rule to check the unread email count in the mailbox. If the unread count exceeds a defined threshold (e.g., more than 20), an error violation is triggered. In response, the system can automatically execute a task, such as restarting the associated host instance responsible for processing the mailbox's receive location .
