Exchange Service Map
A service map is a methodology that Microsoft Services developed, in which a parent service, a dependent hardware or software service required by the parent service, and the service owners are identified and organized in a logical display. A service map thus displays relationships between services and service ownership.
It is helpful in essentially all areas of operations management as well as in the design of the service infrastructure. Relationships defined among services ease the risk identification aspect of risk management and help support the team in troubleshooting problems. The same relationship mapping can also proactively help in defining the dependencies essential to planning for and assessing risks associated with changes. The service ownership identified in the service map can help ensure proper problem escalation to responsible service owners who are capable of resolving escalated problems.
The first task in creating a service map for an Exchange Server 2003 messaging service is to identify all the elements required for the Exchange e-mail to function. These include services such as:
| • | Active Directory |
| • | Domain Name System (DNS) |
| • | Exchange server hardware |
| • | Storage |
| • | Backup and restore |
| • | A firewall |
| • | The data center infrastructure |
The second task is to add the service owner and the corresponding operating level agreement (OLA) information for all the supporting services. The combination of service relationships, service ownership, and OLA and service level agreement (SLA) information generates a snapshot of a service map for an Exchange messaging service, as shown in the following figure.
An Exchange messaging service map
Although an Exchange messaging service map is useful in and of itself, the process of creating the service map is equally beneficial. It helps identify services that do not have clear ownership or that lack properly defined OLAs and SLAs. For a complete mapping of all services for the enterprise, you will need to apply the same process for Active Directory, DNS, and all other services. An enterprise-wide service map shows the relationship between a single service in the enterprise to all other services. Furthermore, it enables the enterprise to easily identify how a simple change can cause a chain reaction affecting many other service areas and the business as a whole. To make the creation process effective requires going down at least as far as the hardware and application streams level.
