eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by SPFIndexTest

The Microsoft Sharepoint Server Search feature is implemented using two Microsoft Sharepoint Server services:

  • Indexing: Responsible for crawling content sources and building index files.
  • Searching: Responsible for finding all information matching the search query by searching the index files.

All searching is performed against the index files; if these files do not contain what the user is looking for, there will not be a match. So, the index files are critical to the success of the search feature of Microsoft Sharepoint Server. The search functionality can be described in its simplest form as a Web page where the user defines his or her search query. The index service works together with the searching service to let you search Office SharePoint Server content.

This test monitors the search queries to every content index on the SharePoint server, promptly reports query failures, and thus reveals the overall efficiency of the Search feature offered by Microsoft Sharepoint Server.

The measures made by this test are as follows:

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
Active_connections Indicates the number of currently active connections to this indexer plugin. Number  
Index_size Indicates the current size of the content index that is being managed by this indexer plugin. Number  
Propagation_sender_tasks Indicates the number of tasks that were in queue of the propogation task sender. Number  
Index_receiver_tasks Indicates the number of tasks that were in queue of the index receiver. Number  
Index_propagator_tasks Indicates the number of tasks that were in queue of the index propogator. Number  
Index_propagation_errors Indicates the number of errors in index propagation during the last measurement period. Number Once the indexer builds the indexes, it propagates/pushes the index files from the index server to the query server. The indexer then waits for the query server to absorb the index, after which it acknowledges that the documents are successfully crawled.

Ideally, no errors should occur in this process - i.e., the value of this measure should be ideally 0. The incidence of one or more errors can adversely impact the user experience with Sharepoint's Search mechanism.
Index_reception_errors Indicates the number of errors in index reception during the last measurement period. Number Ideally, the value of this measure must be zero.
Index_receive_success Indicates the number of indexes that were received successfully by this indexer plugin during the last measurement period. Number A high value is desired for this measure. A sudden/gradual decrease in the value of this measure may indicate a performance bottleneck in the Microsoft Server Search Indexer plugin.
Index_propagate_success Indicates the number of indexes that were propogated successfully by this indexer plugin during the last measurement period. Number A high value is desired for this measure. A sudden/gradual decrease in the value of this measure may indicate a performance bottleneck in the Microsoft Server Search Indexer plugin.
Documents_filtered Indicates the number of documents that were filtered by this indexer plugin during the last measurement period. Number  
Documents_in_propagation Indicates the number of documents that are in indexes which are being propogated by this indexer plugin during the last measurement period. Number  
Queries Indicates the number of queries that were handled on the content index during the last measurement period. Number  
Successful_queries Indicates the number of queries that were processed successfully during the last measurement period. Number A high value is desired for this measure.
Failed_queries Indicates the number of queries that failed to process during the last measurement period. Number Ideally, the value of this emasure should be zero. A high value is an indication of performance bottleneck.
Avg_query_latency Indicates the average latency with which the queries were processed in the last minute. Secs  
Avg_create_time Indicates the average execution time to create a query restriction. Secs  
Query_resolve_time Indicates the average execution time to resolve a query. Secs  
GetRows_time Indicates the execution time to get row results of a query. Secs  
Other_time Indicates the execution time that is spent on other parts of a query. Secs The value indicated by this measure is exclusive of the time duration indicated by the measures Avg_create_time, Query_resolve_time and GetRows_time.
Create_CPU_time Indicates the average CPU time that is required to create a query restriction. Secs  
Resolve_CPU_time Indicates the average CPU time taken to resolve a query. Secs  
GetRows_CPU_time Indicates the average CPU time taken to get row results of a query. Secs  
Other_CPU_time Indicates the average CPU time that is spent on other parts of a query. Secs The value indicated by this measure is exclusive of the time duration indicated by the measures Create_CPU_time, Resolve_CPU_time and GetRows_CPU_time.