Sender Filters Test

The Sender Filter agent is an anti-spam filter that is enabled on computers that have the Microsoft Exchange server 2007/2010 Edge Transport server role installed. The Sender Filter agent relies on the MAIL FROM: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) header to determine what action, if any, to take on an inbound e-mail message.

The Sender Filter agent acts on messages from specific senders outside the organization. Administrators of Edge Transport servers maintain a list of senders who are blocked from sending messages to the organization. As an administrator, you can block single senders (kim@contoso.com), whole domains (*@.contoso.com), or domains and all subdomains (*@*.contoso.com). You can also configure what action the Sender Filter agent should take when a message that has a blocked sender is found.

Using this test, administrators can determine the overall health and effectiveness of the Sender Filter agent’s operations.

Target of the test : A server configured with the Hub Transport role

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Edge Transport 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 Hub Transport server.
Port	The port number of the Hub Transport server. By default, this is 691.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Messages evaluated by sender  filter	Indicates the number of messages evaluated by the Sender Filter agent per second.	Msgs/Sec	This is a good measure of the agent’s processing ability.
Messages filtered by sender filter	Indicates the number of messages filtered by the Sender Filter agent per second.	Msgs/Sec