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.

Configurable parameters for the test
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.

Measurements made by the test
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.