Viewing the Results of the Simulation

Once the simulation is configured, the eG external agent performs the simulation every time it executes the Exchange Mail Sender and Exchange Mail Receiver tests. The real-time metrics collected during test execution are captured into the Exchange Mail Sender and Exchange Mail Receiver monitoring models respectively, and published to the eG monitoring console.

The sub-sections below will guide you to navigate the eG monitoring console, so you can assess the health of the mail sending and receiving activities in the Microsoft Exchange environment.

Viewing the Results of the Emulated Mail Transmission

To view the metrics related to the mail sending activity, you first need to login to the eG monitoring console, zoom into the Exchange Mail Sender component that is displayed in the Components At-A-Glance section of the Monitor Dashboard, and view the Exchange Mail Sender layer model.

Figure 7 : The Exchange Mail Sender layer model

Clicking on the Exchange Mail Sender layer in Figure 7 will reveal the Exchange Mail Sender test that is mapped to that layer (see Figure 8).

Figure 8 : The Exchange Mail Sender test that is mapped to the Exchange Mail Sender layer

As mentioned already, this test emulates an Exchange user, sending an email with a unique tag to a receiver. This unique tag is configured against the MAIL TAG parameter of the test, and is displayed as the descriptor of the test (see Figure 8). Using the metrics reported by this test, administrators can find quick and accurate answers to the following performance queries related to the mail sending operation:

• Did authentication to the email service fail?
• Was any latency noticed when connecting to the email service?
• Is the sender's mailbox accessible? Was the eG agent able to send the emulated email from the sender's mailbox successfully? If not, what could have caused the failure?
• Is email transmission slow? If so, what could be slowing down email transmission - is it because of a delay in connecting to the email service? or is it because Microsoft Exchange is processing outgoing email traffic slowly?

To view these metrics, click on the descriptor - i.e., the MAIL TAG - you see in Figure 8. Figure 9 then appears.

Figure 9 : Measures reported by the Exchange Mail Sender test

These measures have been discussed below:

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Authentication status	Indicates whether/not the email service authenticated the emulated email.		The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below: Measure value Numeric Value Success 1 Failure 0 Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate whether/not the emulated email was successfully authenticated. The graph of this measure however is represented using the numeric equivalents only - 0 or 1.
Time taken to connect	Indicates the time taken to connect to the email service.	Seconds	An unusually high value for this measure is indicative of slowness in connecting to the email service. A poor network link between the eG external agent the Exchange mail server could contribute to connectivity issues.
Send mail availability	Indicates whether/not the sender's mailbox is accessible over the network.	%	If the value of this measure is 100%, it implies that: The eG external agent has been able to successfully connect to the email service, and; The eG external agent has been able to successfully send emails with the configured MAIL TAG from the sender's mailbox; A value 0 is reported if: If the eG external agent is unable to connect to the email service; If the eG external agent successfully connected to the service, but failed to access the mailbox of the configured sender for sending the email. If this measure reports the value 0, then you can use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to ascertain the reason for why the email service/mailbox is unreachable.
Sent messages	Indicates the number of emulated emails- i.e., emails with the configured MAIL TAG - that were sent.	Number	If the value of this measure is 0 or lower than the value configured for the NUMBER OF MESSAGES parameter of the test, it is a cause for concern. This is because, it indicates that the test failed to send a few/all the mails it was expected to send during the measurement period.
Avg time to send messages	Indicates the average time taken to send messages.	Secs	A low value is desired for this measure. A consistent increase in the value of this measure can denote a problem when the email service is sending emails.

The detailed diagnosis of the Send mail availability measure traces the path of the email with the configured MAIL TAG, from the sender to receiver. A quick look at the detailed metrics reveal who sent the email, when it was sent, and when it was received. If an emulated email is not sent, the reason for the failure is also captured and reported as part of detailed statistics.

Figure 10 : The detailed diagnosis of the Send mail availability measure

Viewing the Results of the Emulated Mail Reception

To view the metrics related to the mail receiving activity, zoom into the Exchange Mail Receiver component that is displayed in the Components At-A-Glance section of the Monitor Dashboard, and view the Exchange Mail Receiver layer model.

Figure 11 : The Exchange Mail Receiver layer model

Clicking on the Exchange Mail Receiver layer in Figure 11 will reveal the Exchange Mail Receiver test that is mapped to that layer (see Figure 12).

Figure 12 : The Exchange Mail Receiver test that is mapped to the Exchange Mail Receiver layer

As mentioned already, this test emulatesan Exchange user, receiving an email with a unique tag. This unique tag is configured against the MAIL TAG parameter of the test, and is displayed as the descriptor of the test (see Figure 12). Using the metrics reported by this test, administrators can find quick and accurate answers to the following performance queries related to the mail receiving operation:

• Did authentication to the email service fail?
• Was any latency noticed when connecting to the email service?
• Is the receiver's mailbox accessible? Was it able to receive the emulated email successfully? If not, what could have caused the failure?
• Is email reception slow? If so, what could be slowing down email reception - is it because of a delay in connecting to the email service? or is it because the Exchange server is processing incoming email traffic slowly?

To view these metrics, click on the descriptor - i.e., the MAIL TAG - you see in Figure 12. Figure 13 then appears.

Figure 13 : Measures reported by the Exchange Mail Receiver test

These measures have been discussed below:

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Authentication status	Indicates whether/not the email service authenticated the emulated email.		The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below: Measure value Numeric Value Success 1 Failure 0 Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate whether/not the emulated email was successfully authenticated. The graph of this measure however is represented using the numeric equivalents only - 0 or 1.
Time taken to connect	Indicates the time taken to connect to the email service.	Seconds	An unusually high value for this measure is indicative of slowness in connecting to the email service. A poor network link between the eG external agent and the Exchange server could contribute to connectivity issues.
Receive mail availability	Indicates whether/not the receiver's mailbox is accessible over the network.	%	If the value of this measure is 100%, it implies that: The eG external agent has been able to successfully connect to the email servic, and; The eG external agent has been able to successfully check whether/not emails with the configured MAIL TAG have been received by the mailbox, and report the count of such emails; A value 0 is reported if: If the eG external agent is unable to connect to the email service; If the eG external agent successfully connected to the service, but failed to access the configured mailbox, check for the 'uniquely tagged' emails, and/or report the count of such emails. If this measure reports the value 0, then you can use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to ascertain the reason for why the email service/mailbox is unreachable.
Received messages	Indicates the number of emulated emails- i.e., emails with the configured MAIL TAG - that were received by the mailbox.	Number	The value 0 for this measure could be a cause for concern, as it indicates that the mailbox did not receive any emulated emails during the last measurement period. While this could hint at a problem in mail reception, it could also just mean that the Exchange Mail Sender test (mapped to the Exchange Mail Sender component) probably did not send any messages to the receiver during the period in question.
Avg round-trip time	Indicates the average time taken to connect to the service, access the configured mailbox, and check the mailbox for messages.	Secs	If the value of this measure is abnormally high, it is a clear indicator of slowness in mail reception. In such a situation, You may want to compare the value of the Time taken to connect measure with that of the Avg time to receive messages measure, to diagnose the source of the slowness - is it owing to a delay in connecting to the email service? or is it because the email service is slow in processing incoming mail traffic?
Max round-trip time	Indicates the high watermark of round-trip time.	Secs	An unusually high value for this measure could be indicative of a sudden/sporadic increase in the latency of the mail receiving activity.
Avg time to receive messages	Indicates the average time taken to receive messages.	Secs	A low value is desired for this measure. A consistent increase in the value of this measure can denote a problem when the email service is receiving emails.
Time since last mail received	Indicates the time that has elapsed since the last mail was received.	Secs	If the time between two emails is abnormally high, it could indicate a problem in the email service, which is either delaying email reception or causing mailboxes to not receive emails at all.

The detailed diagnosis of the Receive mail availability measure traces the path of the email with the configured MAIL TAG, from the sender to receiver. A quick look at the detailed metrics reveal who sent the email, when it was sent, and when it was received. If an emulated email fails to be delivered to a configured receiver, you can use these details to figure out whether the mail could not be sent at all, or whether it was sent but could not be received. The reason for the failure is also captured and reported as part of detailed statistics.

Figure 14 : The detailed diagnosis of the Receive mail availability measure