For more information on SAM, visit: http://www.solarwinds.com/server-application-monitor/server-application-monitoring.aspx The key to solving any kind of problem is fault isolation. More time is spent on finding out what is causing the issue than actually fixing it. This is why application monitoring (of mission-critical applications like Email) is very important. Let’s take a look at what all affect the performance of an application. The three main pieces of the puzzle that contribute to application performance, or lack thereof, are the three usual suspects- network, server and the application itself. Slowdowns on the network and the server directly affect application performance.

1. Monitoring and Diagnosing
Email Issues

2. Agenda
Monitoring your email servers and applications, and having visibility
into their faults, failures, slowdowns will help in quicker issue resolution
and improved business productivity.
Here are some tips and tricks to help you understand what is needed to
effectively monitor email services..
We’ll discuss…
Fault Isolation for Application Monitoring
Microsoft Exchange Monitoring
Troubleshooting Common Email Monitoring Issues
How SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor can help you with
Email Monitoring
Monitoring & Diagnosing Email Issues - Slide 2 -

3. Fault Isolation for Application Monitoring
 An application’s performance is normally affected by one of the
three:
» Network
» Server
» Application
 It is important to find out the where the issue/fault/error has occurred
in order to perform the necessary troubleshooting action
 A slowdown in the network or server will have a direct impact on the
applications’ performance
 Visualize performance & availability of all components of the
application in one view for quick isolation.
Monitoring & Diagnosing Email Issues - Slide 3 -

4. Microsoft Exchange Monitoring
 Email Monitoring, in general, focusses on two areas
» Monitoring the health of the email servers
» Monitoring the health of the applications running on the email servers
 MS Exchange needs the following to function without issues:
» An Internet connection (to send and receive emails)
» A server with adequate resources (CPU, RAM, Disk I/O)
» Core services up and running and receiving adequate physical
resources like processor time and memory
» Email database up and running and in a non-corrupted state
 Slowdown or failure of any one or combination of the above can
cause MS Exchange to malfunction.
Monitoring & Diagnosing Email Issues - Slide 4 -

5. Troubleshooting Email Monitoring Issues
1. Email is slow
» Some network conditions that affect email delivery speed are:
• Latency
• Queuing delays
• Routing loops, etc.
» Physical constraints on the server that slowdown email are:
• Over utilized CPU
• Memory or high Disk I/O
» Some application issues that impact email speed are:
• Services hung/crashed
• Memory leaks
• Database corruptions
Monitoring & Diagnosing Email Issues - Slide 5 -

6. Troubleshooting Email Monitoring Issues (contd.)
2. Cannot send email
» Check if the network connection for the Exchange server is down
» Check the Exchange services. An important one to look for here is MS
Exchange Active Directory Topology service. Almost 80% of Exchange
services and functions are dependent on this one service.
» Simple things like Anti-Virus software installed on the Exchange server can
make registry changes that prevent this all-important service from starting
2. Cannot receive email
» In addition to the above, check your inbound SPAM rules and quarantined
messages in your SPAM appliance. This might be the reason for not
receiving emails.
Monitoring & Diagnosing Email Issues - Slide 6 -

7. How SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM)
can help
 SAM has built-in templates to monitor various useful attributes of the
email server, and core applications running on it.
 Monitors performance & user experience for virtually any application
» Microsoft Exchange, Active Directory, IIS, any ODBC database, &
more
 Drill down to various components and attributes within an email
server node to find the root cause of the issue
 Use SAM’s built-in IMAP4 and POP3 User Experience Monitors to
test email round trips from your SMTP mail server to your IMAP4
and POP3 mail servers and measure the time it takes to complete
the trip
Monitoring & Diagnosing Email Issues - Slide 7 -

8. SAM Dashboard
SAM dashboard showing the Exchange server
nodes that are being monitored
Monitoring & Diagnosing Email Issues - Slide 8 -

9. SAM Dashboard
Drill down to find the root cause of the email server or application issue
Monitoring & Diagnosing Email Issues - Slide 9 -

10. SAM Dashboard
Exchange 2010 Mailbox Role Counter Details View in SAM
Monitoring & Diagnosing Email Issues - Slide 10 -

11. Helpful Resources
For improved visibility into your email
environment, we invite you to learn more about
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
Watch Video Test Drive Live Demo
Ask Our Community Download 30-day Free Trial
Click any of the links above
- Slide 11 -

12. Author: Jennifer Kuvlesky
Thank You!