Exchange Mail Service Test

This test monitors the availability and performance of a Microsoft Exchange 2007/2010 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 2007/2010 server.

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

Agent deploying the test : An external 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.
From User Name	Provide the name of the Exchange Administrator, using whose credentials the eG agent executing this test is running. Alternatively, you can provide the email ID of the Exchange Administrator as well.
From User Password	Specify the password of the Exchange Administrator.
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.