Exchange Traffic Test

When monitoring an Exchange server, it is critical to understand the workload on the server. For example, how much mail traffic is the server handling? How many of these mails are intended for local (i.e., internal) recipients, and how many are intended for external recipients? Further, this information when provided over time can be used to determine what days or hours are the busiest periods. This test addresses these requirements. To enable this test, the message tracking log setting of the Exchange server needs to be turned on.

This test is disabled by default. To enable the test, go to the enable / disable tests page using the menu sequence : Agents -> Tests -> Enable/Disable, pick Exchange as the desired Component type, set Performance as the Test type, choose the test from the disabled tests list, and click on the < button to move the test to the ENABLED TESTS list. Finally, click the Update button.

Target of the test : An Exchange server 2000/2003

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 port number through which the Exchange server communicates.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Mails sent	Indicates the number of mails sent by the Exchange mail server during the last measurement period.	Number	Using the values reported for the 'Internal' and 'External' descriptors, you can determine the traffic generated by internal and external (i.e from the local domain to domains not included in the DOMAINNAME list) mails. The 'total' descriptor is the sum of internal and external mail traffic. A sudden increase in mail activity may require investigation - e.g. to determine whether any user is spamming other users/mailboxes.
Mails received	Indicates the number of mails received by the Exchange mail server in the last measurement period.	Number	If there is an unusual increase in the incoming mail traffic, you can use the values reported for the 'Internal' and 'External' descriptors, to identify the root-cause of the spike - is it due to internal (i.e., within the domains indicated by the DOMAINNAME list) mails or external (i.e from the local domain to domains not included in the DOMAINNAME list) mails? Once again, the 'total' descriptor is the sum of internal and external mail traffic.
Mail data sent	Indicates the mail traffic (in MB) sent by the Exchange server to internal and external users in the last measurement period.	MB	Both these measures indicate the workload and amount of data handled by the Exchange mail server. An abnormal data size might require deeper investigation to figure out whether any unusually large attachments were sent/received.
Mail data received	Indicates the mail traffic (in MB) received by the Exchange server from internal and external users in the last measurement period.	MB