by Michael B. Smith, MCSE/Exchange MVP
I've often heard 'performance monitoring and management is an art'. I've even
heard some people refer to it as a 'black art'. There is no question that
applying the proper boundaries and conditions to performance monitoring requires
experience - and that experience may take a long time to acquire. However, even
the most novice system administrator can make excellent headway at determining
the major issues which may be associated with performance on any server.
In general, 'bad' or 'poor' performance can be attributed to one of four things:
- Processor overutilization
- Memory overutilization
- Disk overutilization
- Application issue
If you were a computer science major, you've definitely spent some time
discussing, if not studying, queuing theory. For the purposes of this
discussion, all you need to realize that if a particular value exceeds
((SQRT(2)/2)*n), which is basically (0.71*n), where 'n' is the scaling factor
for the value, then to access any resource, you have an even chance that that
resource is busy. Does that sound complicated? Well, it really isn't.
Consider a single-core processor. It can only do one thing at a time. If the
utilization of that processor is over 71% then when any individual task needs to
use that processor, there is a greater than 50% chance that the processor is
already busy. In other words, the task queue length for this processor will
average greater than one. So:you need to add more processors!
You can make a similar argument for memory - if your memory is more than 71%
utilized, then a request for a specific block or size of memory block has a
greater than 50% chance of failing - because it's already in use and there are
no options - to satisfy the request will require use of your page file.
You can also make a similar argument for disk queuing. If your average disk
queue exceeds 0.71, then your disk is too busy - you need to find some mechanism
to reduce its utilization.
Can this same concept apply to application utilization? Well:not directly. If
your processor utilization is less than 70%, and your memory utilization is less
than 70% and your average disk queue length is less than 0.70:if you are still
having performance issues, then your problem is probably application related!
So, how do you see this? You use the Perfmon tool. Perfmon has many names,
depending on whether you are Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows
XP, or Windows Vista. Regardless of the Windows version, click Start -> Run and
then enter 'Perfmon' and click OK. If you are in Vista or Windows 2008, you will
need to then click on 'Performance Monitor'.
Somewhere on the window that is displayed, you will find a '+'. Click on that
'+'. You need to 'add' Processor -> % Processor Time -> _Total, PhysicalDisk ->
Avg. Disk Queue Length -> C:, and three counters for memory: Memory -> %
Committed Bytes in Use and Memory -> Available Mbytes and Memory -> Pages/Sec.
If '% Processor Time' is over 71% - you need more processor. If 'Memory ->
%Committed Bytes in Use' is greater than 71% or 'Memory -> Available Mbytes' is
less than 50 or 'Memory -> Pages/Sec' is greater than 100 - you need more
memory. If 'PhysicalDisk -> Avg. Disk Queue Length' is greater than 0.71 - you
need to reduce the I/O load on your disks in some way. If all of these are OK,
then you have application issues!
Obviously, these recommendations are 'broad brush' - and they affect each other
in some ways. However, if you track these values - you will always have a place
to start when you are looking at performance.
The Find dialog in Outlook 2003 and earlier does not support Boolean searches,
multiple keywords are always searched using the "OR" operator. The Advanced find
dialog uses OR for multiple keywords in one field and AND for multiple fields.
However, you can do a Boolean search using Advanced find if you enable
QueryBuilder. This same method works with Views (for Filters and Automatic
formatting) and Search folders (Outlook 2003/2007).
- First you need to enable QueryBuilder by adding the QueryBuilder key to the
registry.
- Open the registry editor by typing regedit in the Start menu, Run command or
in Vista's Start menu Start Search field.
- Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\xx.0\Outlook\,
replacing xx with your version of Outlook.
- Right click on the Outlook key and choose New, Key.
- Name it QueryBuilder.
- Close regedit.
Now when you open Advanced Find, create filters or automatic formatting rules
for custom views, or create a Search folder, you'll see a tab called Query
Builder. Add fields, conditions and values like you would on the Advanced tab
and create logical groups by using AND or OR to tie the criteria together.
If you use Outlook 2003 on Vista you may have noticed some messages have the
header in the message body, often when you were BCC'd on the message. There is
now a hotfix for this (and other issues) available from Microsoft.
For more information see:
Description of the Outlook 2003 hotfix package: April 22, 2008
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951982
If you don't have a support contract, you may need to open a support incident to
get the hotfix, but you can try this method first: Call 1-800-936-4900 (press 3
for hotfixes) and tell them you're calling to obtain the hotfix described in KB
[number].
If you correspond with Mac users and have issues with attachments, see:
In Office Outlook 2003, you cannot open Macintosh binary attachments after you
install security update MS08-15
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=951679
Would you like to change the reminder time for a group of appointments or
events? Say, the default birthday reminder time from 15 minutes to 2 weeks, in
one move?
You'll need table view that groups the Remind beforehand field. Set one event to
use the desired reminder, then drag the others to that group. Ok, so it going to
take more than one move to set it up, but its makes it very easy to apply
changes and works for many editable Outlook fields.
You'll need to start with a table view. The By category works well, or you can
create a new custom group by view.
- Turn off the reading pane so you have a single line view.
- Right click on the row of field names and choose Field Chooser
- Find the remind beforehand field (look in Date fields)
- Drag it to the row of field names.
- Right click on it and choose group by this field
- Select the items that need changed and drag to the correct group.
This works on many Outlook fields, including (but not limited to) Private,
Company name, and Categories.
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