Exchange Server 2013 EASProbeDeviceType Mobile Devices

In an Exchange Server 2013 environment you may notice one or both of the following conditions.

1. A number of “EASProbeDeviceIDxxx” mobile devices in the results of Get-MobileDevice, which is one of the new mobile device management cmdlets in Exchange 2013.

[PS] C:\>Get-MobileDevice | select deviceid,devicetype,deviceuseragent,deviceaccessstate

DeviceId            DeviceType         DeviceUserAgent            DeviceAccessState
--------            ----------         ---------------            -----------------
EASProbeDeviceId121 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId141 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId140 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId120 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId120 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId140 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId121 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId141 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId121 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId120 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId141 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId140 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId120 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId140 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId141 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId121 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId140 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId120 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId141 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId121 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId140 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId120 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId120 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId141 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId121 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
EASProbeDeviceId140 EASProbeDeviceType TestActiveSyncConnectivity       Quarantined
ApplC39GQ8NNDTDL    iPhone             Apple-iPhone4C1/1002.329         Quarantined
androidc259148960   Android            Android/4.0.4-EAS-1.3            Quarantined

2. If you have configured a default access level for ActiveSync in your organization, a number of quarantine notification emails relating to those EASProbeDeviceIDxxx mobile devices.

These “probe” devices relate to Exchange 2013 Managed Availability health probes.

Managed Availability is still fairly unknown to many of us, though Microsoft has been publishing some good information regularly that helps clear up some of the inner workings.

So what do we do about these EAS probe devices?

Well, from my own testing it appears that the following is true:

1. You will get at least one EAS probe device per health mailbox that has ever existed in your organization.
2. You will receive only one quarantine notification per EAS probe device
3. The quarantine itself does not appear to cause a problem with the Managed Availability health sets that relate to ActiveSync.

So, given the points above, here are some actions that you can consider.

1. Ignore the quarantine emails.
2. Action the quarantine emails (ie, approve the EAS probe devices so that they are no longer quarantined)
3. Add a device access rule for the “EASProbeDeviceType” device type. I don’t really recommend this one unless the volume of quarantine emails is a serious burden for you.

Keep in mind that if you are not quarantining devices using the default access level setting, then it is unlikely you’ll ever receive a quarantine notification email for an EAS probe device.

That just leaves the “clutter” of the devices themselves appearing in the Get-MobileDevice results, and other places such as ActiveSync log exports. At the moment that appears to be a necessary trade-off for all the benefits that Managed Availability delivers for us.