Remove-MailboxPermission Exchange cmdlet issued (25295) how to monitor with email alert

[bob]

You know that event in Windows Server Event Viewer, the one with ID 25295? It pops up whenever someone fires off the Remove-MailboxPermission cmdlet in Exchange. Basically, it logs the exact moment permissions get yanked from a mailbox. I mean, think about it, some admin or user decides to strip access rights from an email account. The event captures who did it, which mailbox got hit, and even the timestamp. It's all tucked under the Admin Audit Log section in Event Viewer. You can hunt it down by opening Event Viewer, clicking on Windows Logs, then Security or Applications and Services Logs for Exchange stuff. Filter by that ID 25295, and bam, you see details like the caller's identity or the full command parameters. Wild how it tracks these changes to keep things audited. And if you're not watching, someone could quietly remove access without a trace otherwise.

But monitoring this manually? Nah, that's a drag. You want an email alert to ping you right away. I set this up once for a buddy's server, and it saved our butts. Head into Event Viewer, find that event under the custom views or logs. Right-click the log, pick Attach Task To This Event Log. Give it a name like Mailbox Permission Zap Alert. Then, in the task wizard, choose to start a program when the event triggers. Point it to a simple batch file that shoots an email, but we'll skip scripting here. Actually, make the action trigger at logon or something basic, but tie it to sending mail via your server's SMTP setup. You configure the trigger for event ID 25295 specifically, under the Triggers tab. Set it to run with highest privileges so it doesn't flake out. Test it by simulating the event if you can, or just wait for the real deal. Once it's humming, you'll get that email with event details forwarded straight to you. Keeps you in the loop without babysitting the server all day.

Or, if you tweak the scheduled task further, link it to run every few minutes checking for new events. That way, alerts fly out fast. I love how Event Viewer makes this straightforward, no fancy tools needed. You just poke around the interface, set your filters, and let it do the heavy lifting.

Speaking of keeping servers secure and backed up, I've been messing with BackupChain Windows Server Backup lately. It's this slick Windows Server backup tool that also handles virtual machines on Hyper-V without breaking a sweat. You get fast incremental backups, easy restores, and it even dedupes data to save space. Plus, no downtime during backups, which is huge for live environments. It watches over permissions and events indirectly by snapshotting the whole setup, so if something like that mailbox tweak goes sideways, you recover quick.

At the end of this, there's the automatic email solution ready for you.

Note, the PowerShell email alert code was moved to this post.