POP3 Service Performance Test

The POP3 service is an e-mail service that retrieves e-mail. Administrators can use the POP3 service to store and manage e-mail accounts on the mail server. When the POP3 service is installed on the mail server, users can connect to the mail server and retrieve and download e-mail to their local computer using an e-mail client that supports the POP3 protocol (such as Microsoft Outlook). If the POP3 service responds to client requests slowly, it will take a long time for users to download messages from the server, leaving them frustrated. To avoid this, administrators have to continuously track the load on the POP3 service, measure how well the service handles the client requests it receives, proactively spot probable service slowdowns, isolate the source of the slowdown, and pre-emptively fix it. This is where the POP3 Service Performance test helps. This test monitors the user’s experience with the POP3 service and accurately pinpoints where and why the quality of the experience suffered – is it because the POP3 service was overloaded with requests? Is it because LDAP interactions took too long? or is it because RPC calls to the Mailbox server took a very long time? Precise identification of the problem source enables administrators to fix the problem in record time!

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

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

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

Configurable parameters for the test
  1. Test period - How often should the test be executed
  2. Host - The host for which the test is to be configured.
  3. port – The port at which the host listens.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Active SSL connections:

Indicates the number of SSL or TLS connections that are currently open on the POP3 service.

Number

This is a good indicator of the current load on the POP3 service. A steady, yet significant rise in this value could hint at a potential overload condition.

Average command processing rate:

Indicates the time taken by the service to process the last 1024 commands from the client.

Secs

A low value is desired for this measure. A high value is indicative of a processing bottleneck.

Average LDAP latency:

Indicates the average time it takes for an LDAP call to return results from a domain controller, averaged over LDAP calls in the last minute.

Secs

In the event of a slowdown in the POP3 service, administrators can compare the value of this measure with that of the Average RPC latency measure to know what could have caused the slowdown – poor responsiveness of the domain controller? or a slowdown in RPC calls to the Mailbox server?

Average RPC latency:

Indicates the average time it takes for a remote procedure call to return results from a Mailbox server, averaged over RPC calls in the last minute.

Secs

This value should be below .05 seconds at all times. A slowdown in RPC packet processing can adversely impact the user experience.

In the event of a slowdown in the POP3 service, administrators can compare the value of this measure with that of the Average LDAP latency measure to know what could have caused the slowdown – poor responsiveness of the domain controller? or a slowdown in RPC calls to the Mailbox server?

Currently opened POP3 connections:

Indicates the number of connections that are currently open on the POP3 service.

Number

This measure is a good indicator of the current workload of the POP3 service.

Connection rate:

Indicates the rate at which instant messages were received by the server.

Msgs/Sec

These measures are good indicators of the load on the IM service.