Microsoft Breaks PowerShell Command Logging in Exchange Online Admin Center

Valuable Learning Tool No Longer Functional

We all know that Office 365 is in a state of perpetual change, but you’d imagine that a component that has worked perfectly well since its introduction in the Exchange 2013 on-premises server would remain stable. Alas, that’s not true and someone has broken PowerShell command logging for the Exchange Admin Center (EAC).

Exchange 2007 was the first major Microsoft server to support PowerShell. Because PowerShell was so new, the developers were taking a risk with both their implementation as the basis for all Exchange management interfaces and in how customers took to the new shell. To bridge the knowledge gap, Microsoft introduced the command logging feature in the Exchange Management Center (EMC). Command logging reported the PowerShell commands executed by EMC options. The value in the command log was obvious: administrators could learn PowerShell by reviewing the command run by Exchange to get work done. Administrators could also copy and reuse the commands in their own scripts. Command logging proved to be a tremendously valuable learning tool to kickstart PowerShell for Exchange.

Upgrades to Exchange Online

Over the years, the Exchange administration centers evolved. The browser-based EAC (in the guise of the ECP) arrived in Exchange 2010 and became the prime administrative interface in Exchange 2013. Aside from a little hiccup in Exchange 2013 (fixed in SP1), EAC included command logging in both on-premises and cloud variants and the logging feature continued its popularity within the Exchange administrator community. In the context of Exchange Online, command logging helped administrators understand the differences in the set of PowerShell cmdlets available in the cloud and how these cmdlets are used.

Exchange Online Command Logging Broken

Something changed recently. I don’t know when because I seldom use command logging anymore: after 13 years or so working with PowerShell, I have now reached the “dangerous” stage. Some would say “dangerously inept,” but that’s not important right now. I only look at the command log when I need an example of syntax for a cmdlet that I am unfamiliar with.

In any case, the option to view the command log is still available in EAC. Gio to the ? (question mark) menu and you’ll see Show Command Logging (Figure 1).

Clicking the link displays the command log. A perfectly empty command log, bereft of any useful information (Figure 2). To add insult to injury, the Learn more link is perfectly useless too.

Update (July 11): Microsoft says that they have found and fixed the problem that caused command logging fail. The fix is now rolling out across Office 365.

Command Logging is Not Auditing

To be clear, the command logging in EAC is not the same as the audit records captured in the Office 365 Audit log for administrative operations performed against Exchange Online. EAC command logging shows you the exact PowerShell commands (syntax, parameters, and values) used by Exchange to get work done. That’s why the command log is so helpful to understand and learn PowerShell. Audit logging captures records of activities in a normalized format across all Office 365 workloads. You will know that a PowerShell cmdlet was run, but will find it hard to cut and paste the cmdlet and its parameters for reuse. Also, it’s much harder to associate what you see in the audit log with what you just did in EAC because records only show up in the audit log 15 minutes or so after an action is performed. EAC command logging shows you what you just did.

A Small But Important Bug

In the overall scheme of Office 365, this is a small bug. But it’s hard to understand how something that has worked so long has suddenly experienced a problem. Obviously one of the moving parts in the landscape of Exchange Online or Office 365 caused commands to fail to show up in the log. Let’s hope that Microsoft fixes the problem soon to restore this valuable learning tool.

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Need more information about Exchange Online and the rest of Office 365? Look no further than the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook. The command logging feature is so old that we don’t cover it in the book, but we do cover almost everything else.