Exchange Clients Test
Monitoring the RPC activity to an Exchange server and the responsiveness of the server to RPC requests can provide an indication of user satisfaction levels with the performance of the Exchange server. Foreground RPCs happen during interactions of Outlook clients with the Exchange server, and any slow down or failure of these RPCs will be directly visible to users of the Exchange server. Background RPCs are caused by “behind-the-scene” activities internal to the Exchange server.
The Exchange Clients Test monitors the performance of RPC activities on the Exchange server. Since RPC related metrics are available only from Exchange Server 2003 onwards, this test is only relevant for Exchange 2003 or higher versions.
Target of the test : An Exchange server 2003/2007
Agent deploying the test : An internal agent
Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Exchange server being monitored.
| Parameters | Description |
|---|---|
|
Test Period |
How often should the test be executed. |
|
Host |
The IP address of the machine where the Exchange Server is installed. |
|
Port |
The variable name of the port for which the test is to be configured. |
| Measurement | Description | Measurement Unit | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|
|
RPC attempts |
The rate at which RPC calls were attempted to the Exchange server during the last measurement period. |
Atttempts/sec |
This metric provides an indicator of the RPC workload on the server. |
|
RPC failures |
This metric is the rate of failed RPCs to the Exchange server during the last measurement period. |
Failures/Sec |
Typically, this value should be low |
|
RPC successes |
The rate of successful RPC requests handled by the Exchange server during the last measurement period. |
Successes/Sec |
|
|
Foreground RPC failures |
This metric is the client-reported rate of failed foreground RPCs during the last measurement period. |
Failures/sec |
Typically, this value should be low.
|
|
Foreground RPC successes |
Shows the client-reported rate of successful foreground RPCs handled by the Exchange server during the last measurement period. |
Successes/Sec |
|
|
RPC success ratio |
This metric is the ratio of the foreground RPC successes to the total number of foreground RPCs attempted during the last measurement period, expressed as a percentage. |
% |
This metric is one measure of client satisfaction levels with the Exchange server. The closer this value is to 100, the better the client satisfaction level. |
|
RPCs with latency > 2secs |
Shows the client-reported rate of successful RPCs during the last measurement period with latencies > 2 seconds. |
Rpcs/sec |
|
|
RPCs with latency > 5secs |
Shows the client-reported rate of successful RPCs during the last measurement period with latencies > 5 seconds. |
Rpcs/sec |
|
|
RPCs with latency > 10secs |
Shows the client-reported rate of successful RPCs during the last measurement period with latencies > 10 seconds |
Rpcs/sec |
|
|
Fast RPC ratio |
This metric indicates whether client RPCs are happening fast or not.
|
% |
This metric is another key measure of client performance. This metric is computed as the ratio of successful client RPCs with latency less than 2 seconds to the total number of successful RPCs, expressed as a percentage. Hence, the value of this metric indicates the percentage of client RPCs that are taking more than 2 seconds. A value closer to 100 indicates better RPC performance. |
