Most of the Network Administrator might be aware of Microsoft Network Monitor tool. Now Microsoft has released a successor of this tool called “Microsoft Message Analyzer” For now Microsoft has made this tool public and they have a Connect site. You need to join the Message Analyzer Program to be able to download the tool.
According to TechNet:
Microsoft Message Analyzer is a new tool for capturing, displaying, and analyzing protocol messaging traffic. It is the successor to NetMon 3.x and is a key component in the Protocol Engineering Framework (PEF) that was created by Microsoft for the improvement of protocol design, development, documentation, testing, and support. With Message Analyzer, you can capture live data or retrieve archived message collections from saved files such as traces and logs. Message Analyzer also enables you to display data in a default tree grid view and in selectable graphical views that employ grids, charts, and timeline visualizer components that provide high-level data summaries and other statistics.
According to release blog the main feature of Microsoft Message Analyzer are :
- Integrated “live” event and message capture at various system levels and endpoints
- Parsing and validationof protocol messages and sequences
- Automatic parsing of event messages described by ETW manifests
- Summarized grid display – top level is “operations”, (requests matched with responses)
- User controlled “on the fly” grouping by message attributes
- Ability to browse for logs of different types (.cap, .etl, .txt) and import them together
- Automatic re-assembly and ability to render payloads
- Ability to import text logs, parsing them into key element/value pairs
- Support for “Trace Scenarios” (one or more message providers, filters, and views)
Screenshot:
For now this tool is in beta stage and will be so until mid 2013. I would say it’s a must have tool for Network administrator since there is so much you can do. There is a new TechNet blog dedicated for Microsoft Message Analyzer and you can participate in public beta at Connect. You need to login and join the program in order to be able to download the beta builds and Parsers.
Do test it and let us know your feedback.
