SharePoint Documents Test

Documents are stored within a document library in SharePoint. Documents add to the size of the sites, site collections, and web applications they are associated with. Significant and rapid spikes in the number and size of documents on the SharePoint server can hence cause sites, site collections, and ultimately, web applications to grow in size exponentially; in the long run, this may result in a severe space crunch in the content database. This is why, administrators need to keep a close watch on the number of documents handled by the SharePoint server and the space resources they use. To achieve this, administrators can use the SharePoint Documents test! This test periodically monitors the number and size of documents in the SharePoint server, reports abnormal document growth, and thus warns administrators of potential space contentions well before they actually occur!

Target of the test : A Microsoft SharePoint Server

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the SharePoint Server that is being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameters	Description
Test period	This indicates how often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
Port	The port at which the host server listens.
Fetch Farm Measures	Typically, farm-level metrics - eg., metrics on farm status, site collections, usage analytics - will not vary from one SharePoint server in the farm to another. If these metrics are collected and stored in the eG database for each monitored server in the SharePoint farm, it is bound to unnecessarily consume space in the database and increase processing overheads. To avoid this, farm-level metrics collection is by default switched off for the member servers in the SharePoint farm, and enabled only if the server being monitored is provisioned as the Central Administration site. Accordingly, this parameter is set to If Central Administration by default. This default setting ensures that farm-level metrics are collected from and stored in the database for only a single SharePoint server in the farm. If you want to completely switch-off farm-level metrics collection for a SharePoint farm, then set this parameter to No. Some high-security environments may not allow an eG agent to be deployed on the Central Administration site. Administrators of such environments may however require farm-level insights into status and performance. To provide these insights for such environments, you can optionally enable farm-level metrics collection from any monitored member server in the farm, even if that server is not provisioned as the Central Administration site. For this, set this parameter to Yes when configuring this test for that member server.
Domain, Domain User, Password, and Confirm Password	If the Fetch Farm Measures flag of these tests is set to No or to If Central Administration Site, then this test should be configured with the credentials of a user with the following privileges: The user should be part of the SharePoint Farm Administrators group. To know how to add a user to this group, refer to Adding a User to a Farm Administrators Group. The user should have shell admin access to all databases in SharePoint. To know how to grant such an access to a user, refer to Granting a User Shell Admin Access to All SharePoint Databases. The user should have full control access to each web application that needs to be monitored on the SharePoint server. To know how to grant such an access to a user, refer to Granting a User Full Control Access to Web Applications on Microsoft SharePoint. The user should have read and execute access to the eG agent install directory. To know how to grant this access to a user, refer to Granting a User Read and Execute Permissions to the eG Agent Install Directory. On the other hand, if the Fetch Farm Measures flag of these tests is set to Yes, then the user configured for the tests not only requires the four privileges discussed above, but should also be part of the following groups on the eG agent host: Administrators WSS_ADMIN_WPG IIS_USRS Performance Monitor Users WSS_WPG Users It is recommended that you create a special user for this purpose and assign the aforesaid privileges to him/her. Once such a user is created, specify the domain to which that user belongs in the Domain text box, and then, enter the credentials of the user in the Domain User and Password text boxes. To confirm the password, retype it in the Confirm Password text box.
Detailed Diagnosis	To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option. The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled: The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Number of documents in SharePoint	Indicates the total number of documents in the SharePoint server.	Number	A consistent increase in the value of this measure could indicate that new documents are created in SharePoint at regular intervals. You may want to check how much space these new documents are consuming to understand the true impact of this addition on storage resources.
Versions	Indicates the total number of document versions in SharePoint.	Number	A consistent increase in the value of this measure could indicate that newer versions of one/more existing documents are now available in SharePoint. This in turn implies that many outdated/obsolete documents may also exist in SharePoint. In the event of rapid growth in document count, you may want to delete the stale versions of documents so as to control the growth and make space for newer documents.
Size of all documents	Indicates the total size of all the documents n SharePoint.	MB	A consistent increase in the value of this measure could be attributed to the addition of new documents and/or large-sized documents.
Average size of a document	Indicates the average size of a document.	MB	With the help of the value of this measure, you can ascertain whether/not SharePoint is the container for documents of large sizes.
Documents growth rate	Indicates the percentage growth in the number of documents in SharePoint, since the last measurement period.	Percent	A consistent increase in the value of this measure could indicate there is a consistent addition of new documents to SharePoint. Compare the value of this measure with that of the Versions measure to understand whether the addition of newer ‘versions’ of existing documents is in any way contributing to the growth rate. If so, you may want to delete older versions of documents and unnecessary documents to curb the growth.
Number of file formats stored	Indicates the total number of file formats stored in SharePoint.	Number	Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to know which file formats are stored in SharePoint.
Dormant documents	Indicates the total number of dormant documents in SharePoint.	Number
Documents recently added	Indicates the number of files that are recently added to SharePoint.	Number
Documents recently update	Indicates the number of files that are recently updated.	Number