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MailSim User Guide

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William-Rohm edited this page Oct 22, 2015 · 17 revisions

Table of Contents

Overview

MailSim (Mail Simulator) is a Microsoft Windows command-line tool that automates email operations through Microsoft Outlook 2013, or for Outlook for Office 365. MailSim reads user-defined XML configuration files and creates Outlook traffic, such as test email or folder operations. This test traffic is designed to exercise an Outlook-compatible email server, or an intermediary, in a multi-client environment for extended periods. During execution, MailSim displays client-side process messages, and also stores those messages in log files, for monitoring and troubleshooting.

MailSim contacts an email server in one of two ways:

  • MailSim uses the Outlook Object Model (see Additional resources) to control a local Outlook 2013 client ("OOM" mode). This client in turn interacts with an Outlook-compatible server. In this case, the solution under test is the server - see Outlook 2013 OOM mode.
  • MailSim uses REST API calls to Office 365 ("REST" mode). In this case, the solution under test is the "man in the middle" component between MailSim and Office 365 - see Office 365 REST mode.

There are three types of MailSim XML input files:

  1. A single master configuration file Options.config that determines the MailSim mode and related information.

  2. One or more files that define individual test operations, such as sending a reply with an attachment.

  3. One or more files that define control sequences for calling those operations, such as repeating an operation a number of times.

The combination of an operation file and a sequence file is called a test profile. There can be many test profiles on one MailSim client, and test profiles can be different for each client. Each operation and sequence has configuration options for its name, type, duration, scale, order, format, and repetition – see Creating MailSim test profiles and MailSim operations.

MailSim operations are called in the order in which they are defined in the configuration files, and can be iterated with specified delays between iterations. All operations are repeatable, except those with randomly selected recipients or attachments.

Here is an example operation and its control sequence, in this case using OOM mode:

    (defined in Options.config)
<MailSimOptions>
  <ProviderType>OOM</ProviderType>
</MailSimOptions> 

    (defined in myOperationsFile.xml)
<MailSend OperationName="OpMailSendToBob" Sleep="5">
  <Recipients>Bob TestUser</Recipients>
</MailSend>

    (defined in mySequenceFile.xml)
<OperationGroup Name="SendBobMail5Times" 
    OperationFile="myOperationsFile.xml" 
    Iterations="5" 
    Sleep="120">
  <Task Name="OpMailSendToBob"/>
</OperationGroup>

The above example defines an operation OpMailSendToBob that sends one email to "Bob TestUser" and then waits 5 seconds for latency. In the operation group SendBobMail5Times, that operation is repeated 5 times, with two minutes’ delay in between repetitions.

Note: Operations and sequences are performed the same way for both OOM and REST modes. The only difference is in the initial connection.

Outlook 2013 OOM mode

In this mode, there are three conceptual components in a MailSim test environment:

  • The MailSim tool (MailSim.exe), which reads the input files and then controls

  • An Outlook client on the same machine as MailSim, configured with a default email profile, which then interacts with

  • An Outlook-compatible email server with a set of test user accounts and distribution lists.

The current release of MailSim is shown as Phase 1 in this diagram.

MailSim architecture diagram - OOM mode

MailSim itself (the "Outlook Control Process") runs on a client machine with an instance of Outlook 2013. Given the input configuration files, MailSim calls Outlook to perform the email message and folder operations, and stores the MailSim process messages in a console log file. As shown in the diagram, Phase 2 will extend this logging to include XML log-based verification tools and reports.

There can be many client machines for a single email server. The clients are independent and do not interact except through email – each Outlook client connects directly with the email server under test.

MailSim uses the Outlook Object Model (see Additional resources) to execute operations on an Outlook instance.

Office 365 REST mode

MailSim has implemented a Representational State Transfer (REST) interface for interacting with Office 365 servers. Rather than going through a local instance of Outlook using the Outlook Object Model (OOM), MailSim REST uses the new Outlook REST APIs to access an Office 365 user account. The “Man in the Middle” solution under test in such a scenario can be a network device such as a network accelerator, a virus scanner, or a compliance enforcer.

In this mode, the components in a MailSim test environment are different from those in the local OOM mode, as shown in the following diagrams.

  • The MailSim tool (MailSim.exe) still reads the input files, but then uses REST calls through
  • An intermediate component to
  • An Office 365 user account.

MailSim architecture diagram - area of differences between OOM and REST modes

Downward arrow

MailSim architecture diagram - REST mode

Note: The new REST interface has two providers, one using direct HTTP requests and responses, and one using the Office 365 SDK to generate and receive HTTP requests and responses – see REST prerequisites and Under the Hood.

Change History

July 31 2015 - Initial release
October 31 2015 - Added REST interface information

Prerequisites

To use MailSim, you will need the MailSim package, which includes the executable and sample files

OOM Prerequisites

For OOM mode, you'll also need:

  • To set the ProviderType in the Options.config file to OOM, and optionally set DisableOutlookPrompts.

  • A Microsoft Outlook 2013 client on the MailSim machine

  • An Outlook-compatible email server

    • You will need to create a separate email environment for running MailSim, including a set of test users in the global address list and some distribution groups – see Provisioning an Outlook-compatible email server.

    • Note: Do not run MailSim operations in your regular email environment, as the generated traffic can be substantial.

REST Prerequisites

For REST mode, you'll also need a Microsoft Office 365 account.

Setting up MailSim

Setting up MailSim for OOM mode

Each of the three components of the MailSim OOM test environment requires some setup, as described in the following sections:

Provisioning an Outlook-compatible email server

The email server will need a set of test user accounts, and a set of associated distribution groups with varying numbers of test users.

The number of test users and sizes of distribution groups should be configured to approximate the eventual real traffic expected in the production email environment.

Creating Outlook clients

To create an Outlook client on the MailSim machine, you can either use an existing Outlook 2013 instance, or install Outlook 2013 (32-bit).

Note: .NET 4.5 must also be installed on the client machine.

  1. Create a new email profile on the client.

  2. If the Outlook client has more than one profile, set the new email profile as the default profile:

  3. If Outlook is running, close it.

  4. Start Outlook.

  5. When the Choose Profile dialog appears, select the test email profile.

  6. Click Options, select Set as default profile, and then click OK.

Creating MailSim test profiles

If needed in your environment, create a set of test attachment files on the MailSim machine. The files can be of any type and any size needed for a realistic simulation.

Define the traffic you want to generate by creating test profiles. Each profile is a combination of an operations file and a sequence file. The structure of these files is defined by Operations.xsd and Sequence.xsd, which are provided in the MailSim package. In the Samples subdirectory there are two corresponding example files, Operations.xml and Sequence.xml.

Operations.xsd defines all MailSim operations that can be used in a sequence file.

  • All operations have three common attributes:

    • A unique OperationName.

    • A Count value specifying the number of times to repeat the operation.

    • An optional Sleep value specifying the number of seconds between repetitions.

    • Each operation also has its own elements and attributes for specifying email recipients, distribution lists, attachments, folder locations, and so forth – see MailSim operations.

Sequence.xsd defines groups of operations as sequential sets of tasks.

  • Each OperationGroup has four attributes:

    • A unique Name.

    • A source OperationFile name.

    • An optional Iterations value specifying the number of times to iterate the operation group.

    • An optional Sleep value specifying the number of seconds between operation group iterations.

  • Similarly, each Task has a Name, an optional Iterations value specifying the number of times to iterate this task, and an optional Sleep value specifying the number of seconds between task iterations.

  • In addition, Sequence.xsd specifies an optional LogFileLocation directory.

Note: Each Operation specifies its own optional Count value, and each Task and OperationGroup specifies its own optional Iterations value. For example, an Operation with a Count value of 2, a Task Iterations value of 3, and an OperationGroup Iterations value of 5 will be repeated 30 times in total, with any specified Sleep delays in between. If the Count and Iteration values are not specified, the default is 1.

Executing MailSim

To run a sequence of operations using MailSim:

  1. Open a Windows command window on the MailSim machine, by pressing the Windows button and entering cmd in the search box.

  2. Navigate to the MailSim configuration file directory on a local drive.

  3. Locate the desired sequence definition file, for example, TestSequence.xml.

  4. Enter the following command:

MailSim TestSequence.xml

The sequence’s process messages are displayed in the command window, and also saved to log files – see Debugging output.

MailSim operations

MailSim supports the following operations:

  • MailSend

  • MailDelete

  • MailReply

  • MailForward

  • MailMove

  • FolderCreate

  • FolderDelete

Note: Examples of each of these operations are shown in the Operations.xml file in the supplied Samples subdirectory.

MailSend

The MailSend operation sends email to one or more recipients. Individual recipients can be specified by email address, alias, or display name. Alternately, one or more recipients can be randomly selected by MailSim from the global address book, or from a given distribution list. Each sent email can optionally include attachment files, either specified or randomly chosen.

To directly specify recipients, use one or more Recipients elements:

  <MailSend OperationName="OpMailSend" Sleep="7"> 
    <Recipients>Bob TestUser</Recipients> 
    <Recipients>[email protected]</Recipients> 
    <Subject>Test subject</Subject> 
    <Body>Test body</Body> 
    <Attachment>C:\myAttachments\attach1.txt</Attachment>
    <Attachment>C:\myAttachments\attach2.txt</Attachment>
  </MailSend>

To choose random recipients instead, use the RandomRecipients element with a DistributionList:

  <MailSend OperationName="OpMailSendRandom" Sleep="7"> 
    <RandomRecipients DistributionList="MailSim Users">
      9
    </RandomRecipients>
    <Subject>Test subject</Subject> 
    <Body>Test body</Body> 
    <RandomAttachments Count="5">
      C:\myAttachments
    </RandomAttachments>
  </MailSend>

Similarly, attachments are specified or randomly chosen using either the Attachments or RandomAttachments elements, as shown in the examples above. When using RandomAttachments, the element value is the attachment folder pathname.

Note: If the RandomRecipients element value is zero, or the RandomAttachments element’s Count value is zero, a random number of recipients or attachments are chosen, respectively.

MailDelete

The MailDelete operation deletes emails from a given folder, up to a specified number (Count) of emails, and optionally only emails which have a specified string in the subject. If the Count value is zero, a random number of emails in the folder are deleted.

Note: At runtime, if there are fewer emails in the folder than the Count attribute value, MailSim reduces the Count value to the number of emails present in the folder and generates a warning message. For example, given the following operation definition, deleting 10 emails from the Inbox folder that have “Default Subject” in their subject lines:

<MailDelete OperationName="MailDeleteBySubjectOp" Count="10" Sleep="7">
    <Folder>olFolderInbox</Folder>
    <Subject>Default Subject</Subject>
</MailDelete>

In the above example, if there are only 3 emails currently in the Inbox folder, MailSim generates the following warning:

5/15/2016 3:55:24 PM Warning : MailDeleteBySubjectOp : Only 3 email(s) in the folder, adjusting the number of emails to delete from 10 to 3

MailReply

The MailReply operation sends replies to a specified number (Count) of emails located in a given folder, optionally just those which have a specified string in the subject. If the MailReply Count is zero, replies are sent to a random number of emails.

By default, each reply is sent only to the email originator; to change that behavior, set the optional ReplyAll attribute to true.

Like MailSend, the replies can include attachment files, either specified or randomly chosen.

<MailReply OperationName="OpMailReply" 
    ReplyAll="true" 
    Count="9"> 
  <Folder>olFolderInbox</Folder> 
  <MailSubjectToReply>Subject string to match</MailSubjectToReply> 
  <ReplyBody>Reply body text</ReplyBody> 
</MailReply>

MailForward

The MailForward operation forwards email messages located in a folder to one or more recipients, either specified or randomly chosen from the global address book or a distribution list. To forward only email containing a given string in the subject, set the optional MailSubjectToForward value to that string.

<MailForward OperationName="OpMailForward" Count="1" Sleep="1"> 
  <Folder>olFolderInbox</Folder> 
  <Recipients>Sally TestUser</Recipients> 
  <MailSubjectToForward>Subject string to match</MailSubjectToForward> 
  <ForwardBody>Forwarding body text</ForwardBody> 
</MailForward>

Like MailSend, recipients can be specified one by one or randomly, and the forwarded messages can include attachment files, also either specified or randomly chosen.

MailMove

The MailMove operation moves emails from one folder to another, either all emails in the source folder or optionally only those having a specified string in the subject. If the MailMove Count is zero, a random number of emails are moved.

<MailMove OperationName="OpMailMove" Count="1" Sleep="1"> 
    <SourceFolder>olFolderInbox</SourceFolder> 
    <DestinationFolder>olFolderJunk</DestinationFolder> 
    <Subject>Subject string to match</Subject> 
</MailMove>

FolderCreate

The FolderCreate operation creates a named subfolder under a pre-defined folder in Outlook. Each created subfolder name is prepended with the date and time of creation, for example, "2016-07-02 16-02-37 NewTestFolder".

<FolderCreate OperationName="OpFolderCreate" Count="10" Sleep="2"> 
    <FolderPath>olFolderInbox</FolderPath> 
    <FolderName>MyTestFolderName</FolderName> 
</FolderCreate>

The parent folder (FolderPath) must be one of the following:

  • olFolderInbox

  • olFolderDrafts

  • olFolderSentMail

  • olFolderDeletedItems

  • olFolderJunk

  • olFolderOutbox

Note: To allow for latency, specify a Sleep time between FolderCreate operations.

FolderDelete

The FolderDelete operation deletes subfolders, optionally with a specified string in their names, from under a pre-defined folder in Outlook. If Count is zero, a random number of subfolders are deleted.

<FolderDelete OperationName="OpFolderDelete" Count="10" Sleep="2"> 
    <FolderPath>olFolderInbox</FolderPath> 
    <FolderName>String to match</FolderName> 
</FolderDelete>

The parent folder (FolderPath) must be one of the following:

  • olFolderInbox

  • olFolderDrafts

  • olFolderSentMail

  • olFolderDeletedItems

  • olFolderJunk

  • olFolderOutbox

Note: Like MailDelete, if there are fewer subfolders at runtime than the Count attribute value, MailSim reduces the Count value to the number of subfolders present in the parent folder and generates a warning message.

Debugging output

While executing a sequence file, MailSim status messages are displayed in the Windows command window. In addition, each time a sequence runs, a log file is created to contain the same status messages in an XML wrapper – see Log file output example.

Command window output example

For example, using the supplied sample Sequence.xml configuration file:

<OperationGroup Name="Multiple Runs with 5 iterations" 
    OperationFile="Operations.xml" 
    Iterations="5" 
    Sleep="120">
  <Task Name="MailSendToMyself" Sleep="10"/>
. . .
</OperationGroup>

Where the task is defined in the sample Operations.xml as:

  <MailSend OperationName="MailSendToMyself" Sleep="5">
    <Recipients>Joe</Recipients>
  </MailSend>

Status messages are similar to the following listing. In this case, "Joe" is not recognized as a user name and so an error is generated (in red in the command window):

C:\MailSimTest> MailSim Sequence.xml

7/22/2016 10:05:05 AM Info      : Connection    : Connecting to an existing Outlook instance
7/22/2016 10:05:05 AM Info      : DefaultInboxMonitor   : Registered event to \\TestUser@TestServer \Inbox
7/22/2016 10:05:05 AM Info      : Multiple Runs with 5 iterations       : Starting group run 1
7/22/2016 10:05:05 AM Info      : MailSendToMyself      : Running task 1
7/22/2016 10:05:05 AM Info      : MailSendToMyself      : Subject: 7/22/2016 10:05:05 AM - Default Subject
7/22/2016 10:05:05 AM Info      : MailSendToMyself      : Body: 7/22/2016 10:05:05 AM - Default Body

7/22/2016 10:05:05 AM Info      : MailSendToMyself      : Recipient: Joe
7/22/2016 10:05:05 AM Error     : MailSendToMyself      : Exception encountered
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80004005): Outlook does not recog
nize one or more names.
   at Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook._MailItem.Send()
   at MailSim.OL.MailItem.Send()
   at MailSim.ExecuteSequence.MailSend(MailSimOperationsMailSend operation)
7/22/2016 10:05:05 AM Error     : MailSendToMyself      : Failed to run task
7/22/2016 10:05:05 AM Info      : MailSendToMyself      : Sleeping for 10 seconds

. . .

Log file output example

Log files describe the status of each operation and indicate whether the operation passed or failed. Log files are stored in the MailSim directory by default, or can be stored in a directory specified in the sequence file using the LogFileLocation attribute. File names for the log files follow the format YYYY-MM-DD HH-MM-SS <ComputerName> <SequenceFileName>.xml.

Using the example from above, the log messages will resemble these:

<MailSim>
  <Info Name="DefaultInboxMonitor" Time="7/2/2016 4:02:37 PM">
    <Detail>Registered event to \\TestUser@TestServer\Inbox</Detail>
  </Info>
  <Info Name="Multiple Runs with 5 iterations" Time="7/2/2016 4:02:37 PM">
    <Detail>Starting group run 1</Detail>
  </Info>
  <Info Name="MailSendToMyself" Time="7/2/2016 4:02:37 PM">
    <Detail>Running task 1</Detail>
  </Info>
  <Info Name="MailSendToMyself" Time="7/2/2016 4:02:37 PM">
    <Detail>Subject: 7/2/2016 4:02:37 PM - Default Subject</Detail>
  </Info>
  <Info Name="MailSendToMyself" Time="7/2/2016 4:02:37 PM">
    <Detail>Body: 7/2/2016 4:02:37 PM - Default Body</Detail>
  </Info>
  <Info Name="MailSendToMyself" Time="7/2/2016 4:02:37 PM">
    <Detail>Recipient: Joe</Detail>
  </Info>
  <Error Name="MailSendToMyself" Time="7/2/2016 4:02:37 PM">
    <Detail>Exception encountered
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80004005): Outlook does not recognize one or more names.
. . .
    </Detail>
  </Error>
  <Error Name="MailSendToMyself" Time="7/2/2016 4:02:37 PM">
    <Detail>Failed to run task</Detail>
  </Error>
  <Info Name="MailSendToMyself" Time="7/2/2016 4:02:37 PM">
    <Detail>Sleeping for 10 seconds</Detail>
  </Info>
. . .

Under the hood

There are significant code changes since the first release to implement the new interfaces:

  • There is now an API contract for all interfaces in MailSim/Common/Contracts.
  • We’ve added two new providers of the MailSim interface (HTTP and SDK). These new providers use the Office365 REST API – see the Outlook Mail REST API reference.
  • Since we are not currently using a discovery service, the example base URI is hardcoded to the following: https://outlook.office.com/api/v1.0/me
  • The HTTP provider does everything, including authentication, through raw HTTP requests and responses.
  • The SDK provider calls the Microsoft Office365 SDK library, which in turn sends HTTP requests and handles HTTP responses.
    • There are currently two exceptions to calling the SDK: getting the count of mail items and getting the count of subfolders, both of which are done via raw HTTP calls. In a future SDK implementation, these exceptions will not be needed.

Note: There are two features in the OOM provider that have not been yet implemented by the HTTP or SDK providers, but will be in a future implementation:

  • Attaching a mail item to an email. This feature is not currently used by any provider. File attachments are supported by all providers and can be used when generating traffic.
  • Notifications of events. This feature is currently only used internally by the OOM provider.

Note: The current REST implementation does not yet use the Office 365 unified API, as it is still in preview. When the unified API is released, conforming to it should be straightforward.

Questions and comments

We'd love to get your feedback on MailSim. You can send your questions and suggestions to us:

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