Question

Troubleshoot/ monitor Exchange slowness and dropped connections!

Asked by: wtango


Hello,
Recently we have been experiencing major slowness in our Exchange server. Symptoms are slow Outlook operation, and dropped connections, while alerting of inaccessible Exchange server. Most connectivity problems are gone within 2-3 secs!

Hardare Spec:
Single P4 3.0 GHZ
1G RAM
4 SATA 80G disks (RAID5 on a 3ware card)
Approx. 30 users
1G Ethernet on 1G NICs

I was wondering, other then the performance monitor, is there a way for me to efficiently monitor the Exchange server?
What counters should I use to monitor the exchange server?
I am not using the Exchange caching mode in Outlook, should I?
I even replaced a Dell switch with a 3COM switch and disabled the previously configured Jumbo Frames feature, does it matter?

I know this is not the best hardware spec, and indeed we are one step away from buying a new Dell PowerEdge 2850 for that task. But I figured there has to be away to troubleshoot the system, or at least monitor it to pinpoint the problem.

Any information will be greatly appreciates,
WT.

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2005-10-04 at 12:47:54ID21583713
Tags

exchange

,

slowness

Topic

Exchange Email Server

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
10

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. upgrading P4 processor
    I currently have a dell pc with p4 2.6 GHz 875p chip set, and I would like to up-grade this. my question is that a) can I do this(knowing that the new chip would be an 875 chipset) b)if I can what all will need to do to accomplish this
  2. 3.2 GHz P4 Extreme CPU Fan Noise - Why? HELP!
    I have an HP 3 GHz P4 in my office running double lcd panels and can run a dozen ap's with almost no noise period. Now to the real problem - I have a 3.2 Intel P4 (it's not the extreme chip though-the question title meant extreme noise not chip) Thermaltake with Asus MB at h...
  3. P4 3 Ghz Randomly restarts
    Dear All, About a year ago I built a PC for my friend. In the last 6 months or so it has decided to randomly restart with out any warning etc. For the first 6 months of it's life it was fine with no problems. I feel it is a result of the hardware we have added to the system....
  4. 3.2 GHz Processor recognised as 1.99 GHz
    I have a AMD 64-bit 3.2 GHz processor on a WinXP machine however, it is only recognised in the hardware profile as being a 1.99GHz processor, although it is still listed as being a 3200+ model and is listed as such on the POST screen. Is this affecting the performance and how...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: SembeePosted on 2005-10-04 at 13:02:44ID: 15017219

You missed the vital information.

Windows / Exchange version?
On the clients - Windows / Outlook version. Using cached mode?

Simon.

 

by: wtangoPosted on 2005-10-04 at 13:28:56ID: 15017459

Heheheh thats true! Sorry about that.

Windows 2003 SP1 on Exchange 2003 w/ SP1. Workstations are Dell Precision 470 with Windows XP Pro SP2. Two DC with Win2k3 & SP1.

WT.

 

by: wtangoPosted on 2005-10-04 at 13:36:26ID: 15017524

AND Symantec Mail Security for Exchange latest version w/ BG scanning disabled. Only scan emails between 10pm-7am.

 

by: SembeePosted on 2005-10-04 at 13:43:22ID: 15017594

Are the clients in cached mode or live?

Is this server dedicated to Exchange or does it do anything else?

Simon.

 

by: wtangoPosted on 2005-10-04 at 13:46:22ID: 15017624

Clients are live no cache mode.

Its a dedicated Exchange server.

WT.

p.s. How are you doing? Long time no talk :)

 

by: SembeePosted on 2005-10-04 at 14:21:47ID: 15017873

Any clients using desktop search? Google desktop client for example?

It has been identified as a source of issues with performance of the Exchange server.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=905184

Simon.

 

by: wtangoPosted on 2005-10-04 at 14:39:21ID: 15018003

Hmm interesting! I got the Exmon.exe running - this is really useful. I am still confused though on how to classify desktop search clients running using the Exmon!?

Thanks for the info,
WT.

 

by: SembeePosted on 2005-10-05 at 06:05:25ID: 15021386

If the clients want to use desktop search tools, then they must be pretty static users. Just switch them over to cached mode.

The docs on EXMON aren't brilliant, so take a look at these articles instead:

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Microsoft-Exchange-Server-User-Monitor.html
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/Print.cfm?ArticleID=47215

You will need to run the tool for a little while to see the trends, but you are looking for heavy users of the Exchange resources.

 

by: marc_nivensPosted on 2005-10-05 at 06:30:22ID: 15021583

Here are some perfmon counters that can be useful when troubleshooting these types of issues:

MSExchangeIS\RPC Requests - If this counter reaches 100, connections will be dropped.  This is usually an indication that the store is behind on processing.  

PhysicalDisk\Avg Disk Sec/Read
PhysicalDisk\Avg Disk Sec/Write - this counter should stay between .001 and .020 on avg (1 and 20 milliseconds).  The spikes on this should never exceed 50 ms (.050).  If you are consistently above this then Disk I/O latency is probably the issue.

PhysicalDisk\%Idle Time - This should remain in the 95-100% range.  If its dropping near 0 then you need to analyze your disk subsystem performance.

CPU usage for store.exe - check this with task manager.  If it is spiking (90-100%) then you will probably have to get a process dump of store.exe to figure out whats happening (most likely if it comes to this you will need assistance from MS).

Database\Log Record Stalls - If this is consistently above 0 then the latency could be caused by a lack of log buffers.  See http://support.microsoft.com/?id=328466 for info on how to set this and what to set it to.

hope this helps...

 

by: wtangoPosted on 2005-10-05 at 11:21:36ID: 15024319

Awesome! Good stuff. Going to implement/ monitor. My bet is that the hardware is too weak for Exchange to run on it. And indeed I saw frequent 100% CPU and PhysicalDisk Idle time really low.

Stay tuned,
WT.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...