Outlook Add-ins - OS Test

Outlook add-ins are integrations built by third parties into Microsoft Outlook using the new web technologies based platform. Microsoft Outlook add-ins have three key aspects:

The same add-in and business logic works across desktop Microsoft Outlook for Windows and Mac, web (Office 365 and Outlook.com), and mobile.
Outlook add-ins consist of a manifest, which describes how the add-in integrates into Outlook (for example, a button or a task pane), and JavaScript/HTML code, which makes up the UI and business logic of the add-in.
Outlook add-ins can be acquired from the Office store or side-loaded by end-users or administrators.

The Outlook add-ins may be useful in connecting the business and social networks of the users. These add-ins when integrated with Microsoft Outlook simplifies the job of the users as they can stay up to date on the status and activities of their contacts by merely overlooking the Microsoft Outlook! When a user complains that it is taking too long to launch the add-ins of the Microsoft Outlook published on virtual desktops, administrators must be able to quickly identify the add-ins that were loaded while the Microsoft Outlook is opened by the user, know how much time each add-in took to load, and thus pinpoint the add-in that is the slowest in loading. The Outlook Add-ins - OS test provides these valuable insights to the administrators. This test auto-discovers all the add-ins integrated with the Microsoft Outlook published on the virtual desktops hosted by the virtual server, and for each discovered add-in, reports the number of times the add-in was loaded and the average and maximum time that add-in took to load. This way, the test points administrators to add-ins that are slow in loading.

This test is disabled by default. To enable the test, go to the enable / disable tests page using the menu sequence : Agents -> Tests -> Enable/Disable, pick the desired Component type, set Performance as the Test type, choose the test from the disabled tests list, and click on the < button to move the test to the ENABLED TESTS list. Finally, click the Update button.

Target of the test : A RHEV Hypervisor

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every outlook add-in integrated with the Microsoft Outlook published on the virtual desktops on the RHEV Hypervisor server being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter	Description
Test period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
RHEL MGR Host, RHEL MGR Port, RHEL MGR Domain, RHEL MGR User RHEL MGR Password	To auto-discover the VMs on a target RHEV hypervisor and obtain the outside view of the performance of each VM, the eG agent needs to connect to the RHEV Manager that manages the target RHEV hypervisor. To enable the eG agent to obtain the outside view, you need to configure the test with the following: RHEL MGR Host - The IP address/host name of the RHEV manager that the eG agent should connect to. RHEL MGR Port - The port number at which the said RHEV manager listens. RHEL MGR Domain - The domain to which the RHEV manager belongs. RHEL MGR User and RHEL MGR Password - The credentials of a user with read-only access to the Restful API on the RHEV manager. To know how to create a read-only role and assign it to a user, follow the steps detailed in Configuring the eG Agent to use the RESTful APIs on the RHEV Manager to Obtain the “Outside View”. If the RHEV hypervisor being monitored was discovered via an RHEV manager, then the IP address, port number, domain name, and user credentials of the RHEV manager used for discovery will be automatically displayed against the respective parameters. If the RHEV hypervisor being monitored was not discovered via an RHEV manager, but you still want to use an RHEV manager for obtaining the outside view, then, you can select any IP address of your choice from the RHEL MGR host list. By default, this list will be populated with the IP addresses/host names of all the RHEV managers that were configured for the purpose of discovering the RHEV hypervisors. If you select an RHEL MGR host from this list, then the corresponding port number, domain name, and user credentials will be automatically displayed against the respective parameters. On the other hand, if the RHEV manager that you want to use for metrics collection is not available in the RHEL MGR Host list, then, you can configure an RHEV manager on-the-fly by picking the Other option from the RHEL MGR Host list. An ADD THE RHEV MANAGER DETAILS window will then pop up. Refer to Configuring an RHEV Manager to Use for Monitoring the RHEV Hypervisor to know how to add an RHEV manager using this window. Once the RHEV manager is added, its IP address, port number, domain name and user credentials will be displayed against the corresponding parameters.
Confirm Password	Confirm the RHEL MGR Password by retyping it here.
SSL	If the RHEV manager to which the eG agent should connect is SSL-enabled, then set this flag to Yes. If not, set it to No.
Ignore VMs Inside View	Administrators of some high security RHEV environments might not have permissions to internally monitor one/more VMs. The eG agent can be configured to not obtain the 'inside view' of such ‘inaccessible’ VMs using the Ignore VMs Inside View parameter. Against this parameter, you can provide a comma-separated list of VM names, or VM name patterns, for which the inside view need not be obtained. For instance, your ignore VMs inside view specification can be: xp,lin,win,vista. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside view of all VMs on an RHEV host by default. Note: While performing VM discovery, the eG agent will not discover the operating system of the VMs configured in the Ignore VMs Inside View text box.
Exclude VMs	Administrators of some virtualized environments may not want to monitor some of their less-critical VMs - for instance, VM templates - both from 'outside' and from 'inside'. The eG agent in this case can be configured to completely exclude such VMs from its monitoring purview. To achieve this, provide a comma-separated list of VMs to be excluded from monitoring in the Exclude VMs text box. Instead of VMs, VM name patterns can also be provided here in a comma-separated list. For example, your Exclude VMs specification can be: xp,lin,win,vista. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside and outside views of all VMs on a virtual host by default. By providing a comma-separated list of VMs/VM name patterns in the Exclude VMs text box, you can make sure the eG agent stops collecting 'inside' and 'outside' view metrics for a configured set of VMs.
Ignore WINNT	By default, the eG agent does not support the inside view for VMs executing on Windows NT operating systems. Accordingly, the Ignore WINNT flag is set to Yes by default.
Inside View Using	By default, this test obtains the “inside view” of VMs using the eG VM Agent. Accordingly, the Inside view using flag is set to eG VM Agent by default. The eG VM Agent is a piece of software, which should be installed on every VM on a hypervisor. Every time the eG agent runs this test, it uses the eG VM Agent to pull relevant 'inside view' metrics from each VM. Once the metrics are collected, the eG agent then communicates with each VM agent and pulls these metrics, without requiring administrator privileges. Refer to Configuring the Remote Agent to Obtain the Inside View of VMs for more details on the eG VM Agent.
Domain, Admin User, and Admin Password, and Confirm Password	By default, these parameters are set to none. This is because, by default, the eG agent collects 'inside view' metrics using the eG VM agent on each VM. Domain administrator privileges need not be granted to the eG agent if it uses this default approach to obtain the 'inside view' of Windows VMs.
Report By User	While monitoring a RHEV Hypervisor, the Report By User flag is set to No by default, indicating that by default, the guest operating systems on the hypervisor are identified using the Hostname specified in the operating system. On the other hand, while monitoring a RHEV Hypervisor - VDI, this flag is set to Yes by default; this implies that in case of the VDI model, by default, the desktops will be identified using the login of the user who is accessing them. In other words, in VDI environments, this test will, by default, report measures for every username_on_virtualmachinename.
Report Powered OS	This flag becomes relevant only if the Report By User flag is set to ‘Yes’. If the Report Powered OS flag is set to Yes (which is the default setting), then this test will report measures for even those VMs that do not have any users logged in currently. Such guests will be identified by their virtualmachine name and not by the username_on_virtualmachinename. On the other hand, if the Report Powered OS flag is set to No, then this test will not report measures for those VMs to which no users are logged in currently.
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 times loaded in last measure period	Indicates the number of times this outlook add-in was loaded during the last measurement period.	Number	The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the time and duration for which the outlook add-in was loaded. Compare the value of this measure across the add-ins to figure out the most/least popular add-in.
Average load time	Indicates the average time taken by this outlook add-in to load.	Secs
Maximum load time	Indicates the maximum time taken by this outlook add-in to load.	Secs	Compare the value of this measure across the add-ins to figure out the add-in that is the slowest to load.