Have there been times where users have complained about Exchange/Outlook performance, but you where not quite sure which counters to use and what values are considered normal? If so then this newly released free tool from Microsoft will be just what you have been looking for. Even experienced administrators will find the Microsoft Exchange Server Performance Troubleshooting Analyzer (ExPTA) a handy tool in their arsenal.

As the name suggests this tool is used to help troubleshoot and analyze performance problems on Exchange Servers.

I am happy to note ExPTA can be run against servers running Exchange 2000 Servers as well as Exchange Server 2003. When you first run the tool you will find the user interface is very similar to the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer Tool (ExBPA), and like ExBPA it checks back with Microsoft for updates to its configuration file, so as Microsoft develop and refines techniques for troubleshooting and analyzing exchange performance, ExPTA will be updated to improve the tool. Figure 1 below shows that there is an update available for ExPTA.

Figure 1 “ExPTA New Configuration file ready for download”

After you have installed ExPTA and downloaded the latest configuration file, ExPTA will ask you the performance symptoms you are seeing, you have the choice of:

• 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 2 below shows ExPTA’s Symptoms window

Figure 2 “The ExPTA symptoms window”

Once you have selected a symptom and clicked next, ExPTA will ask you for a Exchange server name DC Name and user credentials. Just like ExBPA you do not need to run this tool directly on your Exchange Server/s, instead this tool can be ran on an admin console/desktop.

Figure 3 below shows the ExPTA Server Name and User Credentials window

Figure 3 “The ExPTA Server and User Credentials window”

After you click next ExPTA will run its relevant tests one after the other, in between each test, ExPTA give you a summary of the test that had just been completed.

Figure 4 below shows the results summary for the Memory and Processor Counter test.


Figure 4 “The Memory and Processor Counter test results”

Finally after you have ran thru all the tests ExPTA displays the final results window, where you get a chance like in ExBPA to find out more about the issues and how to resolve the issues.

Figure 5 below shows the ExPTA final results window.


Figure 5 “The ExPTA results window”

ExPTA is defiantly a tool every Exchange administrator should download to and have a look at what this tool can do, and then use when next performance problems are experienced on an Exchange server.

ExPTA Ver 1.0 can be downloaded from the following page:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4BDC1D6B-DE34-4F1C-AEBA-FED1256CAF9A&displaylang=en