Exchange Mail Service Test

This test monitors the availability and performance of a Microsoft Exchange 2013/2016 mail server from an external perspective. The test mimics a mail client activity by using the Exchange Web Service for sending and receiving mails.

Note:

For this test to execute smoothly, the external agent executing the test should be in the same domain as the Exchange 2013/2016 server.
The external agent running this test should be installed on a Windows host that supports .Net 3.5 Framework.

Target of the test : A Microsoft Exchange 2013/2016 server

Agent deploying the test : An external agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the server being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
Test period - Indicates how often this test needs to be executed. Host - Indicates the IP address of the server being monitored. port- The port number of the configured host. from user name- Provide any valid email ID in this text box. It is recommended that you create a special mail box and email ID for monitoring purposes, and provide that email ID here. from user password– Specify the password that corresponds to the FROM USER NAME you specified. confirm password– Confirm the password by retyping it here. exchange domain name - Provide a valid domain in which the target server is running. web service url – To enable the test to connect to Exchange Web Services, you need to provide the External Web Service URL here. To know what URL to provide, run the following command from the Exchange server’s powershell command prompt: Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -server <servername> \| select name, url \| fl For instance, if your Exchange server’s name is Exchange, then your command will be: Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory -server Exchange \| select name, url \| fl Upon successful execution of the command, a list of URLs will be displayed. Note down the URL displayed against the label ExternalUrl , and enter it against web service url.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Send mail availability:	Indicates the availability of the mail server for receiving the mails sent by the test.	Percent	A value of 0 indicates that the test was not successful in sending a mail. Possible reasons for this could include the mail server being down, the network connection to the server not being available, or the test configuration information being incorrect.
Sent messages:	Indicates the number of messages sent to the mail server.	Number	A value of –1 indicates that the mail server may be down or the configuration information may be incorrect.
Avg time to send messages:	Indicates time taken to send a mail to the mail server.	Secs	A high value of this measure could indicate high network traffic or that the mail server is busy.
Receive mail availability:	Indicates the availability of the exchange server for sending mails to the mail client.	Percent	The value of 0 indicates that the test was not successful in receiving a mail message from the Exchange server. Possible reasons could be incorrect configuration information.
Received messages:	Indicates the number of messages received by the mail client from the mail server.	Number	The value of 0 indicates that the test was not successful in receiving mail messages from the Exchange server. The possible reasons could be: The sent messages could be in the message queue of the mail server but not routed to the mail box Configuration information may be incorrect Network failure The mail service may not be running in the user account
Mail received time:	Indicates the time taken by the mail client to receive a mail from the mail server.	Secs	A high value in this measure indicates that the mail server is busy or the network traffic is high.
Avg roundtrip time:	The average of the round trip time (the time lapse between transmission and reception of a message by the server) of all the messages received by the mail server during the last measurement period.	Mins	This is a key measure of quality of the mail service. An increase in roundtrip time may be indicative of a problem with the mail service. Possible reasons could include queuing failures, disk space being full, etc.
Max roundtrip time:	The high water mark of the round trip time (the time lapse between transmission and reception of a message by the server) of all messages received by the mail server during the last measurement period.	Mins	If the value of the Received messages measure is 1, then the value of this measure will be the same as the Avg roundtrip time measure.