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This help page is for version 7.1. The latest available help is for version 9.4.

How to Monitor Microsoft Exchange

Below are some recommendations for monitoring a Microsoft Exchange installation. These steps generally refer to Exchange 2010, but most of the details also apply to other versions as well.

PA Server Monitor's Smart Config procedure will create default monitors to check the overall health of the server that Exchange is installed on.

To automatically create monitors that watch for Exchange-specific details, download the Exchange Monitoring Template and import it to each server that is running an Exchange role. The template will automatically get tailored to the specific roles running on a server.

Note: We are always trying to improve. If you have suggestions for this template, please contact us.

Exchange Roles

Exchange 2010 is split up into a variety of roles. These roles consist of different software, services and performance counters. The roles can be installed on the same server or separate servers. Shown below are services and counters to be monitored regardless of where it is installed.

Service Note: Services marked with a * are optional or not automatically started. If the service isn't set to Automatic start when the template is imported, it will not be monitored.

Performance Counter Note: Counters that are marked with (c) are increasing counters (usually error counters). Any time they change value should be looked into. Also, many of the performance counter thresholds depend on the size of the Exchange installation (ie how many mail boxes, servers, etc). The imported template monitors will be in Automatic Training mode for a few days so the thresholds can be monitored and automatically adjusted to fit the specific servers being monitored.

Mailbox Role

Services
Service NameShort Name
Microsoft Exchange Active Directory TopologyMSExchangeADTopology
Microsoft Exchange Information StoreMSExchangeIS
Microsoft Exchange Mail SubmissionMSExchangeMailSubmission
Microsoft Exchange Mailbox AssistantsMSExchangeMailboxAssistants
Microsoft Exchange Monitoring*MSExchangeMonitoring
Microsoft Exchange Replication Service*MSExchangeRepl
Microsoft Exchange RPC Client Access*MSExchangeRPC
Microsoft Exchange Search IndexerMSExchangeSearch
Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer*MSExchangeSearch
Microsoft Exchange Server Extension for Windows Server BackupWSBExchange
Microsoft Exchange Service HostMSExchangeServiceHost
Microsoft Exchange System AttendantMSExchangeSA
Microsoft Exchange ThrottlingMSExchangeThrottling
Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search*MSExchangeTransportLogSearch
Microsoft Search (Exchange Server)*msftesql-Exchange

Performance Counters
Counter PathDefault Threshold
Database\Database Page Fault Stalls/sec=0
Database\Log Record Stalls/sec<100
Database\Log Threads Waiting<10
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Read Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Search Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Searches timed out per minute<10
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\Long running LDAP operations/Min<50
MSExchange ADAccess Processes(*)\LDAP Read Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Processes(*)\LDAP Search Time<100
MSExchange Assistants - Per Assistant(*)\Average Event Processing Time in Seconds<2
MSExchange Calendar Attendant\Requests Failed=0 (c)
MSExchange Database ==> Instances(*)\Log Generation Checkpoint Depth<500
MSExchange Database Instances(*)\I/O Database Reads Average Latency<50
MSExchange Database Instances(*)\I/O Database Writes Average Latency<50
MSExchange Database(Information Store)\Database Cache % Hit >= 90
MSExchange Database(Information Store)\Log Record Stalls/sec<100
MSExchange Database(Information Store)\Log Threads Waiting<10
MSExchange Database(Information Store)\Version buckets allocated<12000
MSExchange Database\I/O Database Reads (Attached) Average Latency<1000
MSExchange Database\IO Log Read Average Latency<1000
MSExchange Database\IO Log Writes Average Latency<10
MSExchange Database\Log Bytes Write/sec<10000000
MSExchange Replication(*)\CopyQueueLength=0
MSExchange Resource Booking\Requests Failed=0 (c)
MSExchange Search Indices(*)\ Average Document Indexing Time<30000
MSExchange Store Interface(*)\RPC Requests failed (%)=0
MSExchange Store Interface(*)\RPC Slow Requests (%)=0
MSExchange Store Interface(_Total)\RPC Latency average (msec)<100
MSExchange Store Interface(_Total)\RPC Requests outstanding=0
MSExchangeIS Client (*)\RPC Average Latency<50
MSExchangeIS Mailbox(*)\Search Task Rate<10
MSExchangeIS Mailbox(*)\Slow Findrow Rate<10
MSExchangeIS Mailbox(_Total)\Messages Queued for Submission<50
MSExchangeIS Mailbox\RPC Averaged Latency<11
MSExchangeIS Public(_Total)\Messages Queued for Submission<20
MSExchangeIS Public(_Total)\Replication Receive Queue Size<100
MSExchangeIS\Client: RPCs Failed:Server Too Busy/sec=0
MSExchangeIS\RPC Averaged Latency<11
MSExchangeIS\RPC Requests<70
MSExchangeIS\Slow QP Threads<10
MSExchangeIS\Slow Search Threads<10
MSExchangeMailSubmission(*)\Failed Submissions Per Second=0
MSExchangeMailSubmission(*)\Hub Servers In Retry=0
MSExchangeMailSubmission(*)\Temporary Submission Failures/sec=0
Process(Microsoft.Exchange.Search.ExSearch)\% Processor time<5
Process(MSExchangeMailboxAssistants)\% Processor Time<5

Client Access Role

Services
Service NameShort Name
Internet Information Services Admin ServiceIISAdmin
Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology ServiceMSExchangeADTopology
Microsoft Exchange Address BookMSExchangeAB
Microsoft Exchange File Distribution ServiceMSExchangeFDS
Microsoft Exchange Forms-Based AuthenticationMSExchangeFBA
Microsoft Exchange IMAP4*MSExchangeIMAP4
Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication Service*MSExchangeMailboxReplication
Microsoft Exchange Monitoring*MSExchangeMonitoring
Microsoft Exchange POP3*MSExchangePOP3
Microsoft Exchange Protected Service HostMSExchangeProtectedServiceHost
Microsoft Exchange RPC Client AccessMSExchangeRPC
Microsoft Exchange Service HostMSExchangeServiceHost
World Wide Web Publishing ServiceW3SVC

Performance Counters
Counter PathDefault Threshold
ASP.NET Applications(*)\Requests In Application Queue>0
ASP.NET\Application Restarts=0 (c)
ASP.NET\Request Wait Time=0
ASP.NET\Worker Process Restarts=0 (c)
MSExchange ActiveSync\Requests Queued<100
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Read Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Search Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Searches timed out per minute<10
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\Long running LDAP operations/Min<50
MSExchange ADAccess Processes(*)\LDAP Read Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Processes(*)\LDAP Search Time<100
MSExchange Availability Service\Average Time to Process a Free Busy Request<5
MSExchange Control Panel\Outbound Proxy Requests - Average Response Time<6000
MSExchange Control Panel\Requests - Average Response Time<6000
MSExchange OWA\Average Search Time<5000
MSExchange RpcClientAccess\RPC Averaged Latency<250
MSExchange RpcClientAccess\RPC Requests<40
MSExchangeAB\NSPI RPC Browse Requests Average Latency<1000
MSExchangeAB\NSPI RPC Requests Average Latency<1000
MSExchangeAB\Referral RPC Requests Average Latency<1000
MSExchangeFDS:OAB(*)\Download Task Queued=0 (c)
RPC/HTTP Proxy\Number of Failed Back-End Connection attempts per Second=0

Hub Transport Role

Services
Service NameShort Name
Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology ServiceMSExchangeADTopology
Microsoft Exchange Anti-spam Update*MSExchangeAntispamUpdate
Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync*MSExchangeEdgeSync
Microsoft Exchange Monitoring*MSExchangeMonitoring
Microsoft Exchange Protected Service HostMSExchangeProtectedServiceHost
Microsoft Exchange Service HostMSExchangeServiceHost
Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search*MSExchangeTransportLogSearch
Microsoft Exchange TransportMSExchangeTransport
Microsoft Search (Exchange Server)*msftesql-Exchange

Performance Counters
Counter PathDefault Threshold
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Active Mailbox Delivery Queue Length<250
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Active Non-Smtp Delivery Queue Length<250
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Active Remote Delivery Queue Length<250
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Aggregate Delivery Queue Length (All Queues)<5000
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Largest Delivery Queue Length<200
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Poison Queue Length=0
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Retry Mailbox Delivery Queue Length<100
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Retry Non-Smtp Delivery Queue Length<100
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Retry Remote Delivery Queue Length<100
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Submission Queue Length<100
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Unreachable Queue Length<100
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Read Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Search Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Searches timed out per minute<10
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\Long running LDAP operations/Min<50
MSExchange ADAccess Processes(*)\LDAP Read Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Processes(*)\LDAP Search Time<100
MSExchange Database ==> Instances(edgetransport/Transport Mail Database)\Version buckets allocated<200
MSExchange Database ==> Instances(edgetransport/Transport Mail Database)\Log Record Stalls/sec<10
MSExchange Database ==> Instances(edgetransport/Transport Mail Database)\Log Threads Waiting<10
MSExchange Extensibility Agents(*)\Average Agent Processing Time (sec)<20

Edge Transport Role

Services
Service NameShort Name
Microsoft Exchange ADAMADAM_MSExchange
Microsoft Exchange Anti-spam Update*MSExchangeAntispamUpdate
Microsoft Exchange Credential ServiceMSExchangeEdgeCredential
Microsoft Exchange Monitoring*MSExchangeMonitoring
Microsoft Exchange Service HostMSExchangeServiceHost
Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search*MSExchangeTransportLogSearch
Microsoft Exchange TransportMSExchangeTransport

Performance Counters
Counter PathDefault Threshold
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Active Mailbox Delivery Queue Length<250
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Active Non-Smtp Delivery Queue Length<250
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Active Remote Delivery Queue Length<250
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Aggregate Delivery Queue Length (All Queues)<5000
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Largest Delivery Queue Length<200
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Poison Queue Length=0
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Retry Mailbox Delivery Queue Length<100
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Retry Non-Smtp Delivery Queue Length<100
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Retry Remote Delivery Queue Length<100
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Submission Queue Length<100
\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Unreachable Queue Length<100
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Read Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Search Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Searches timed out per minute<10
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\Long running LDAP operations/Min<50
MSExchange ADAccess Processes(*)\LDAP Read Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Processes(*)\LDAP Search Time<100
MSExchange Database ==> Instances(edgetransport/Transport Mail Database)\Version buckets allocated<200
MSExchange Database ==> Instances(edgetransport/Transport Mail Database)\Log Record Stalls/sec<10
MSExchange Database ==> Instances(edgetransport/Transport Mail Database)\Log Threads Waiting<10
MSExchange Extensibility Agents(*)\Average Agent Processing Time (sec)<20

Unified Messaging Role (Optional)

Services
Service NameShort Name
Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology ServiceMSExchangeADTopology
Microsoft Exchange File DistributionMSExchangeFDS
Microsoft Exchange Monitoring*MSExchangeMonitoring
Microsoft Exchange Service HostMSExchangeServiceHost
Microsoft Exchange Speech EngineMSSpeechService
Microsoft Exchange Unified MessagingMSExchangeUM

Performance Counters
Counter PathDefault Threshold
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Read Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Search Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\LDAP Searches timed out per minute<10
MSExchange ADAccess Domain Controllers(*)\Long running LDAP operations/Min<50
MSExchange ADAccess Processes(*)\LDAP Read Time<100
MSExchange ADAccess Processes(*)\LDAP Search Time<100
MSExchangeUMAvailability\% of Failed Mailbox Connection Attempts Over the Last Hour<5
MSExchangeUMAvailability\% of Inbound Calls Rejected by the UM Service Over the Last Hour<5
MSExchangeUMAvailability\% of Inbound Calls Rejected by the UM Worker Process Over the Last Hour<5
MSExchangeUMAvailability\% of Messages Successfully Processed Over the Last Hour >= 95
MSExchangeUMAvailability\% of Partner Voice Message Transcription Failures Over the Last Hour<5
MSExchangeUMAvailability\Calls Disconnected on Irrecoverable Internal Error=0 (c)
MSExchangeUMAvailability\Directory Access Failures=0 (c)
MSExchangeUMAvailability\Total Inbound Calls Rejected by the UM Service=0 (c)
MSExchangeUMAvailability\Total Inbound Calls Rejected by the UM Worker Process=0 (c)
MSExchangeUMCallAnswer\\Calls Disconnected by Callers During UM Audio Hourglass=0 (c)
MSExchangeUMPerformance\Operations over Six Seconds=0 (c)




References

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd335215.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff367923.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee423542.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124699.aspx#SA
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb331967.aspx

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