Exchange Active Sync Test

By default, when you install the Client Access server role on a computer that is running Microsoft Exchange server 2007/2010, you enable Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. Exchange ActiveSync lets you synchronize a mobile device with your Exchange 2007/2010 mailbox.

Exchange ActiveSync is an Microsoft Exchange synchronization protocol (HTTP and XML) that is optimized to work together with high-latency and low-bandwidth networks. Exchange ActiveSync enables mobile device users to access their e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks and to continue to be able to access this information while they are working offline.

The performance of Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync is affected by many factors. These include the number of users who are synchronizing with Exchange ActiveSync, the types of mobile devices that are synchronizing with it, and how much data each user synchronizes between the Microsoft Exchange server and the mobile device. By using monitoring, you can understand the factors that affect the performance of Exchange ActiveSync. 

This test measures the health of the ActiveSync engine.

Target of the test : A server configured with the Client Access Server role

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

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

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameters	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	Indicates the IP address of the Client Access server.
Port	The port number of the client access server. By default, this is 110.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
ActiveSync request processing time	Indicates the average time elapsed waiting for a request to complete.	Secs	This measure includes Ping Request Time, which can increase the general response time. Adding ping counters helps clarify where performance is being impacted.
Ping commands pending on the server	Indicates the number of ping commands that are currently pending on the server.	Number
Ping commands dropped	Indicates the number of Ping commands per second whose connection to the client was dropped before a response could be issued.	Dropped/sec
ActiveSync requests to the server	Indicates the number of HTTP requests that are received from the client via ASP.NET per second.	Reqs/Sec
ActiveSync requests queued for processing	Indicates the number of HTTP requests that are currently waiting to be assigned to a thread.	Number	A steady increase in this value over time is a cause for concern, as it is indicative of a processing bottleneck.
Sync commands processed	Indicates the number of sync commands that are currently processed by the server.	Number
Worker threads busy	Indicates the number of worker threads that are presently  busy processing requests.	Number
Worker threads idle	Indicates the number of worker threads that are currently idle.	Number	Ideally, this value should be low.