Maintenance and Troubleshooting	<<	>>

Microsoft Exchange Server Performance

Performance problems can occur if the server load is too heavy.

The hard disk is busy more than 90 percent of the time.

Reasons Actions

There is not enough RAM; Windows NT is using virtual memory. Use Performance Monitor to check pages/sec in the memory section. Increase RAM or decrease the load if necessary.

Public folders are busy. Use Performance Monitor to determine the rate of open message and open folder operations. If necessary, move the public information store to another hard drive, increase the speed of the drive, or move key public folders to a server that is not being fully used.

Private folders are busy. Check the rate of message submission and delivery. If necessary, move mailboxes to another hard drive, increase the speed of the drive, or move key users to other servers where recipients to whom they send or receive most of their mail reside.

The gateway or connector is constantly busy. Use Performance Monitor to determine the rate of inbound and outbound messages and their size. If necessary, increase the speed of the hard drive, create a second gateway or connector on a second server to balance the load, or increase scheduled connection times to spread the load more evenly.

Reasons	Actions
There is not enough RAM; Windows NT is using virtual memory.	Use Performance Monitor to check pages/sec in the memory section. Increase RAM or decrease the load if necessary.
Public folders are busy.	Use Performance Monitor to determine the rate of open message and open folder operations. If necessary, move the public information store to another hard drive, increase the speed of the drive, or move key public folders to a server that is not being fully used.
Private folders are busy.	Check the rate of message submission and delivery. If necessary, move mailboxes to another hard drive, increase the speed of the drive, or move key users to other servers where recipients to whom they send or receive most of their mail reside.
The gateway or connector is constantly busy.	Use Performance Monitor to determine the rate of inbound and outbound messages and their size. If necessary, increase the speed of the hard drive, create a second gateway or connector on a second server to balance the load, or increase scheduled connection times to spread the load more evenly.

There is a slow response to client and Administrator program actions.

Reasons Actions

There is not enough CPU power. Use Performance Monitor to check CPU usage.

The network card is overloaded. Use Performance Monitor to check the network interface for total bytes per second sent and received. Compare this with maximum tested throughput for the card.

The network is slow. Use a network analyzer to check for network collisions and usage. Compare the current trace with the trace measured prior to installation of Microsoft Exchange Server.

The hard drive is too busy. Add more hard drives to the RAID set, or add another drive and off-load some disk-intensive processes to it.

The Windows NT event log is large, adding time to every action that needs to be logged. Set the event log to no larger than 5 megabytes (MB), and configure it to overwrite as needed.

Reasons	Actions
There is not enough CPU power.	Use Performance Monitor to check CPU usage.
The network card is overloaded.	Use Performance Monitor to check the network interface for total bytes per second sent and received. Compare this with maximum tested throughput for the card.
The network is slow.	Use a network analyzer to check for network collisions and usage. Compare the current trace with the trace measured prior to installation of Microsoft Exchange Server.
The hard drive is too busy.	Add more hard drives to the RAID set, or add another drive and off-load some disk-intensive processes to it.
The Windows NT event log is large, adding time to every action that needs to be logged.	Set the event log to no larger than 5 megabytes (MB), and configure it to overwrite as needed.