eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by XChgMailTest

This test monitors the availability and performance of a Microsoft Exchange mail server from an external perspective. The test mimics the mail client activity by using the MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface) for sending and receiving mails. Note that Microsoft Mail account needs to be configured in the Exchange server in order to run this test.

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
Send_avail Indicates the availability of the mail server for receiving the mails sent by the test Percent A value of 0 indicates that the test was not successful in sending a mail. Possible reasons for this could include the mail server being down, the network connection to the server not being available, or the  test configuration information being incorrect.
Sent_msgs Indicates the number of messages sent to the mail server. Number A value of –1 indicates that the mail server may be down or the configuration information may be incorrect.
Sent_time Indicates time taken to send a mail from to the mail server Secs A high value of this measure could indicate high network traffic or that the mail server is busy.        
Rcvd_avail Indicates the availability of the exchange server for sending mails to the mail client Percent The value of 0 indicates that the test was not successful in receiving a mail message from the Exchange server. Possible reasons could be incorrect configuration information. 
Rcvd_msgs Indicates the number of messages received by the mail client from the mail server Number The value of 0 indicates that the test was not successful in receiving mail messages from the Exchange server. The possible reasons could be:

  • The sent messages could be in the message queue of the mail server but not routed to the mail box 

  • Configuration information may be incorrect

  • Network failure 

  • The mail service may not be running in the user account
Rcvd_time Indicates the time taken by the mail client to receive a mail from the mail server Secs A high value in this measure indicates that the mail server is busy or the network traffic is high.
Avg_roundtrip_time The average of the round trip time (the time lapse  between transmission and reception of a message by the server) of all the messages received by the mail server during the last measurement period   Mins This is a key measure of quality of the mail service. An increase in Roundtrip_time may be indicative of a problem with the mail service. Possible reasons could include queuing failures, disk space being full, etc.
Max_roundtrip_time The high water mark of the round trip time (the time lapse  between transmission and reception of a message by the server) of all messages received by the mail server during the last measurement period Mins If the value of the Rcvd_msgs measure is 1, then the the value of the Max_roundtrip_time measure will be the same as the Avg_roundtrip_time.