Virus Scans Test

Messages received on an Exchange server and the attachments they contain are often scanned by anti-virus software prior to acceptance and delivery. This test monitors the performance of the mail scanning and virus processing sub system. Information about bottlenecks in the Virus scanning subsystem, or situations when excessive viruses are being delivered via mail messages or attachments can be detected by this test.

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.
IsPassive	If the value chosen is Yes, then the Exchange server under consideration is a passive server in an Exchange cluster. No alerts will be generated if the server is not running. Measures will be reported as "Not applicable" by the agent if the server is not up.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Virus scan queue length	The number of requests that are currently queued for virus scanning.	Number	An excessive value for this metric could result in slowdown of mail delivery.
Files cleaned by virus check	The percentage of all files scanned during the last measurement period that required to be cleaned.	Percent
Files quarantined by virus check	The percentage of all files scanned during the last measurement period that required to be quarantined.	Percent
Messages cleaned by virus check	The percentage of messages scanned during the last measurement period that required to be cleaned.	Percent
Messages quarantined	The percentage of all messages scanned during the last measurement period that required to be quarantined	Percent
File clean rate	The rate at which separate files were cleaned by virus scanner during the last measurement period	Files/Sec
File scan rate	The rate at which separate files are processed by virus scanner during the last measurement period.	Files/Sec	A very low scan rate could result in over-crowded scan queues, which would eventually slowdown mail delivery.
File quarantine rate	The rate at which separate files were marked to be quarantined by virus scanner during the last measurement period.	Files/Sec
Message clean rate	The rate at which top-level messages were cleaned by virus scanner during the last measurement period.	Msgs/Sec
Message process rate	The rate at which top-level messages were processed by virus scanner during the last measurement period.	Msgs/Sec	Ideally, messages should be quickly processed by the virus scanner. Any dip in this rate is a cause for concern, as it would lengthen scan queues and ultimately delay mail delivery.
Message quarantine rate	The rate at which top-level messages were put into quarantine by virus scanner during the last measurement period.	Msgs/Sec