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