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Let’s begin
The Exchange Server Performance Troubleshooting Analyzer v 1.0 collects Exchange configuration data, several performance counters and some other information from an Exchange server. ExPTA analyzes each Exchange and Server subsystem to determine bottlenecks, then aggregates this information to provide helpful information about these bottlenecks and shows some solutions to improve performance.
ExPTA requirements
Component
Requirement
Operating system
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server family, or Windows Server 2003 family required; Windows XP recommended
Computer and processor
Personal computer with 133-megahertz (MHz) or higher processor; 1.0-gigahertz (GHz) or higher processor recommended. Dual processors for topologies with more than 100 Exchange servers are recommended
Memory
256 megabytes (MB) of RAM required; 256 megabytes (MB) for every 50 Exchange servers in the topology recommended
Hard disk
10 MB of available hard disk space for tool installation; 2 MB of free space per server, per scan required for the data output
Display
VGA or higher-resolution monitor
Input device
Mouse or compatible input device
Messaging system
Mixed-mode or native-mode Exchange Server 2003, Exchange 2000 Server, and Exchange Server 5.5 system; Exchange Server 2003 recommended.
Note: Pure Exchange Server 5.5 topologies are not supportedDependencies
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1
IIS Common Files
Download and installation
You can download ExPTA from here. After downloading you must install the package. Installation is easy. Simply follow the installation instructions.
Figure 1: ExPTA Installation
Using ExPTA
After starting the Exchange Server Performance Troubleshooting Analyzer it will look for updates on the Microsoft Exchange Website. If a new configuration file has been found you can select Download the latest version or Continue without making any updates. If you want to let ExPTA check for updates at every startup, select Check for updates on startup.
Figure 2: ExPTA Update Check
Please note that ExPTA is version 1.0 and I think that the Exchange team will be expanding the number of symptoms over the time. You can select:
- The number of RPC operations per second is higher than expected
- Multiple users are complaining of delays while using Outlook, or are seeing the Outlook Cancellable RPC dialog frequently.
Figure 3: ExPTA select Symptoms
Before you can use ExPTA to analyze the RPC Activity you must collect RPC data with the Microsoft Tool Exmon. You can read more about Exmon here.
Figure 4: ExMon Trace files
ExPTA analyzes the Exmon RPC trace. You must select Collect Exchange Server User Monitor (ExMon) trace data for me.
Figure 5: ExPTA – Selcet RPC Trace from Exmon
After Exmon has collected RPC information, ExPTA shows the Exchange Server Performance Troubleshooting Analyzer results.
Figure 6: ExPTA select Symptoms
After reading the ExPTA information, you can start ExPTA to start a new Analysis for the second symptom that users are complaining of delays while using Outlook.
Figure 7: Select another symptom
Now we must select the name of the Exchange and Global Catalog Server.
Figure 8: Specify the Exchange and Global Catalog Server name
After some processing, ExPTA shows the results of the Connectivity test and will now check the RPC performance counters on the Exchange Server and the memory and processor counters for bottlenecks.
Figure 9: ExPTA scans the Server for the number of Mailboxes
ExPTA has no problems found with RPC latencies but will continue to investigate the configuration of the server.
Figure 10: ExPTA RPC Performance Data Results
Click Next. ExPTA has found the following logical disks A/C/D/E/Z and will now examine the performance of the disk subsystem.
Figure 11: ExPTA lists the logical disks and will do additional processing
Uups. This is not an Exchange machine in a production environment (it is a virtual machine), so it is not a problem that there are some red lines in the analysis results that states that there are potential performance issues.
Figure 12: ExPTA has found some potential performance issues
ExPTA has found that the disk subsystems is a potential performance bottleneck and displays some counter results.
Figure 13: ExPTA disk analysis and results
Click Next to see more information about RegTrace Checks.
Figure 14: Click next for more information about RegTrace Check
ExPTA has found that the processor and memory is a bottleneck for Exchange. ExPTA has found that the Exchange Server is running on a virtual machine, which is currently not supported.
Note:
Support for Exchange Server 2003 in Virtual machines begins with Exchange Server 2003 SP2 and Virtual Server 2005 R2.
Figure 15: ExPTA has found Processor and Memory bottlenecks
The next page shows the Summary of Performance Analysis and the server states is critical. The Server has several performance bottlenecks like CPU, Memory, disk subsystem, Pagefile and more.
Figure 16: ExPTA summary of Performance Analysis
ExPTA has found 14 critical issues and you can expand every Issue and click Tell me more about this issue and how to resolve it.
Figure 17: ExPTA reports
Conclusion
Before ExPTA it was hard for several Exchange Administrators to find the performance bottlenecks of their Exchange Server systems. Now it is much easier to find the performance bottlenecks and ExPTA will show you how to eliminate these bottlenecks and how to improve performance.
Related Links
Microsoft Exchange Server Performance Troubleshooting Analyzer Tool v1.0
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4BDC1D6B-DE34-4F1C-AEBA-FED1256CAF9A&displaylang=en
Microsoft Exchange Server Disaster Recovery Analyzer Tool v1.0
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C86FA454-416C-4751-BD0E-5D945B8C107B&displaylang=en
System Requirements for Microsoft Exchange Server Analyzer Tools
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/downloads/2003/analyzers/sysreqs.mspx
