Using System Monitor to Tune Exchange 2000 Server

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It would take an entire book to discuss in depth all of the counters in Exchange 2000 Server and how they can be combined to give you a particular type of report. Instead, we will focus here on the more important counters and offer a few suggestions as to how to use them. We will cover the POP3, IMAP4, Content Indexing, SMTP, and Outlook Web Access counters. If some of the discussion of the POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP protocols is unfamiliar to you, refer to Chapter 17, where these protocols are discussed in depth.

POP3 System Monitor Counters

As you'll recall from Chapter 17, the POP3 protocol allows users to retrieve mail for reading and to delete that mail on the server. The POP3 counters can be classified as to when they are used, in a user session: the user's initial connection to the POP3 service, the user's authentication, the transfer of messages between the server and the client, and the user's disconnection from the server. Table 26-6 outlines which counters are used at the various stages. Our focus in this table is on the MSExchangePOP3 object.

Table 26-6. POP3 counters for the MSExchangePOP3 object

Stage Counter Meaning
User connects to POP3 server Connection Total Total number of connections since the service started. An unusually high rate could indicate that user connections are being dropped unexpectedly, causing your users to reconnect multiple times to retrieve their mail.
Connections Current Current number of connected users. Be sure you have enough licenses for these connections.
Server authenticates user AUTH Total Total number of successful user authentications. This should be somewhat consistent with the value of the Connection Total counter.
AUTH Failures Total number of authentication failures. A high rate indicates user difficulty in authenticating to the domain.
Message transfer STAT Total Total number of STAT requests.
LIST Total Total number of LIST commands.
RETR Total Total number of messages retrieved.
DELE Total Total number of messages deleted.
User ends session with POP3 server QUIT Total Total number of QUIT commands issued. This should be somewhat consistent with the AUTH Total counter.

IMAP4 System Monitor Counters

The IMAP4 server allows users to retrieve messages from the server and manipulate the messages and folders once they have been retrieved. Like the POP3 counters, the IMAP4 counters are classified by the several stages of a user session, including a user's first connection to an IMAP4 server, folder activities, manipulation of files and folders, and disconnection from the server. Table 26-7 outlines these counters and their functions, focusing on the MSExchangeIMAP4 object.

Table 26-7. IMAP4 counters for the MSExchangeIMAP4 object

Stage Counter Meaning
Client connects to IMAP4 server Connections Total Total number of connections since the server started. As with the POP3 protocol, an unusually large number could indicate that your users are having to reconnect multiple times to retrieve their e-mail.
Connections Current Current number of users connected.
Folder activities1 LIST Total Total number of LIST commands.
RLIST Total Total number of RLIST commands.
FETCH Total Total number of messages fetched to be read by the client.
COPY Total Total number of messages copied to another folder by the client. High activity for this counter might indicate that the server is generally overused for e-mail purposes.
STORE Total Total number of messages whose data has been changed by a STORE command—\ for example, when the store flags a message for deletion.
EXPUNGE Total Total number of calls to expunge messages that have been marked for deletion.
CREATE Total Total number of folders created. This counter, along with the next counter, helps reveal overall user activities on your e-mail server.
DELETE Total Total number of folders deleted.
SELECT Total Total number of calls to select a particular folder.
User disconnects from server LOGOUT Total Total number of logouts from the server. This should be somewhat consistent with the total number of connections.

1 Note: If the mailbox is local to the server, the client must run a LIST command. If the mailbox is on a remote server, the client will need to run an RLIST command.

SMTP System Monitor Counters

The SMTP server receives messages, categorizes them, places them in queues created for the intended destination, and then delivers them to that destination. Messages can be received from port 25, from the Message Transfer Agent (MTA), or from a local store submission. Table 26-8 lists the counters that are important with the SMTP service. The main object we are looking at here is the SMTP Server object. Some counters originate in different objects; these are noted in the Counter column.

Table 26-8. SMTP counters for the SMTP Server object

Stage Counter Meaning
Messages received from port 25 Messages Received Total number of message received.
Inbound Connections Current Number of simultaneous inbound connections over port 25.
Pickup Directory Messages Retrieved/Sec Rate at which messages are being retrieved from the mail pickup directory. An unusually high number could indicate the use of a large distribution list with many mail-enabled contacts.
Messages received from the Exchange Store MSExchange Trans-port Store Driver: Store/MSExchange-MTA Submits Total number of messages received from the Store/MTA and submitted to the Transport Core.
Messages submitted for processing Total messages submitted Total number of messages submitted to queuing for delivery.
Messages categorized Categorizer Queue Length Number of messages that are currently being categorized or waiting to be categorized. An increasing number could indicate a problem with an event sink. A value of 0 could indicate that the SMTP service is stopped.
Categorizations Completed Successfully Total number of messages successfully categorized.
Categorized messages placed in destination queue Remote Queue Length Number of messages going to other servers that are waiting to be sent. An increasing number in this queue could indicate a problem with the physical connection to the Internet or between two Exchange 2000 servers. If one queue in particular has a steadily increasing number, you may want to see if the remote SMTP server is available.
Categorized messages placed in destination queue Remote Retry Queue Length Number of messages going to other servers that could not be sent in a former attempt and that will be retried later. A high number here indicates either a physical connection problem or that the remote SMTP server is unavailable.
Local Queue Length Number of messages going to local recipients, to the MTA, or to other gateways.
MSExchangeIS Transport Driver: Current Messages to MSExchangeMTA Number of messages going to the MTA or other gateways only. This value is included in the Local Queue Length counter.
Local Retry Queue Length Number of messages going to local recipients, to the MTA, or to other gateways that could not be delivered in a former attempt and that will be retried later.
Badmailed Messages Number of messages that are malformed, such as having a nonexistent destination domain. These messages are delivered to the badmail directory. A high number here could indicate that some addresses for mail-enabled contacts were entered incorrectly.

Content Indexing System Monitor Counters

Content Indexing (CI) in Exchange 2000 Server consists of two basic phases. First is the initial crawl, which can take from hours to days and needs to be done only once. Until this initial crawl is completed, the index cannot be used for searching. Second is the incremental crawl, which is done numerous times after the initial crawl and is used to keep the index up-to-date. An incremental crawl usually completes in less than an hour. Table 26-9 lists the most important counters and the circumstances under which those counters are significant. The object we are most concerned with is the Microsoft Gatherer Projects object. Table 26-10 shows counters for the Microsoft Search Indexer Catalogs object, which can provide important information about indexes.

Finally Table 26-11 lists two of the most used counters for obtaining information about the number and extent of queries against your indexes. The counters in this table are for the Microsoft Search Catalogs object.

Table 26-9. Content Indexing counters for the Microsoft Gatherer Projects object

Stage Counter Meaning
Crawl in progress Crawl in Progress flag 1 if a crawl is in progress, 0 if not.
Current Crawl Is Incremental 1 if the current crawl is an incremental crawl, 0 if not.
Document Additions Number of documents being added to the index since the last crawl.
URLs in History Total number of URLs (documents) that CI has detected. This value will climb during the crawl and, once it levels off, will represent the total number of documents to be indexed.
Waiting Documents Total number of URLs (documents) that CI has detected that have not yet been indexed. The difference in rate between this counter and the URLs in History counter is essential in determining how long a crawl might take.

Table 26-10. Counters for the Microsoft Search Indexer Catalogs object

Stage Counter Meaning
Index complete Index Size Size of the index.
Number of Documents Number of documents in the catalog. This value corresponds to the number shown in the Exchange System snap-in.
Merge in progress Merge Process Percentage of completeness for merges. While shadow merges can happen quickly, master merges can take up to an hour.

Table 26-11. Counters for the Microsoft Search Catalogs object

Stage Counter Meaning
Ongoing Queries Total number of queries that have been run against a catalog.
Results Total number of results from queries. Note that one query can return thousands of results, so expect this number to be significantly higher than the Queries value.

Outlook Web Access

Outlook Web Access (OWA) allows users to access their mailboxes over the Internet through a browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. Due to differences in code paths between IE4-level (Internet Explorer 4 and Netscape Navigator) and IE 5.x-level browsers, performance counters in the MSExchange Web Mail object exist in three forms: non-IE5, IE5 and above, and Total, which sums the former two counters. Table 26-12 shows the counters for the MSExchange Web Mail object.

Table 26-12. Counters for the MSExchange Web Mail object

Stage Counter Meaning
User connects over port 80 Web Service: Maximum Connections Total number of OWA connections initiated since the Web Service (W3Svc) was last started.
Web Service: Current Connections Number of OWA users currently connected.
Messages sent over OWA Message Sends (Total) Total number of message sends. After OWA submits a message, it is handled by SMTP, and the applicable SMTP counters are affected.
OWA requests flow to and from the store Epoxy: Client Out Que Len: DAV Number of requests in the queue from the client to the server.
Epoxy: Store Out Que Len: DAV Number of responses in the queue from the server to the client.
Epoxy: Blocks Allocated: DAV A secondary indication of outstanding OWA requests. High numbers in these three Epoxy counters may indicate the need for an additional OWA server.
Client disconnects Web Service: Current Connections Current number of connections to the Web service. OWA has no logout process. Whether or not the user closes out the browser session when finished, the OWA user context will time out after 60 minutes of inactivity and that user's cached authentication will expire, causing this counter to decrement.



Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Adminstrator's Companion
Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Adminstrator's Companion
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 1999
Pages: 193

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