Copyright: (c) 1995 Microsoft Corporation.
Citation: (c) 1995 Microsoft Corporation.


Welcome to the Microsoft Exchange Server Performance Optimizer

The Microsoft Exchange Server Performance Optimizer analyzes

How this Microsoft Exchange Server will be used.

Your hardware and memory resources.

Using the above information, the Performance Optimizer

Recommends and/or moves files to optimize disk access.

Recommends and/or changes system parameters for optimum performance of your Microsoft Exchange Server services.

To perform these tasks, the Performance Optimizer stops all Microsoft Exchange Server services.  No Windows NT Server services or other programs will be affected.  You can restart all services automatically at the end of this process.


How Will You Use Exchange?
How Will You Use Microsoft Exchange Server?

The information you enter on this screen is used to optimize the services and load expected for this server.

Note  If you change how you use this server, or if you change the hard drives or memory available, you should re-run the Performance Optimizer for the new configuration.

# of Server users

Select the number of users you expect to be logged onto the server concurrently.

Type of Server

Select all that apply.

Choose This Server Type	If you are using this Server to
Private Store	Store user mailboxes.
Public Store	Store public folders and/or replicas of public folders stored on other servers.
Connectors	Connect two servers together, as a backbone or bridgehead.
Multiserver	Connect to other servers and/or connectors.  Do not turn off this option unless this server will only be connected to clients.
# of Users in Organization

Select the number of users you expect to be serviced by any server in your organization, or, alternatively, select the number of users that will appear in the Global Address Book on the server if you are replicating among servers.

Limit Memory Usage

With the option set to the default (0 MB), Microsoft Exchange Server has access to all of the available RAM on the server.  If you want to limit the amount of memory that Microsoft Exchange Server can access, enter the amount of memory you want the server to use.  The value should be 24 MB or more; 32 MB or more is recommended.


Warning - Only One Suitable Drive Available

Microsoft Exchange Server performs optimally on a multi-drive computer, where services can be grouped according to their disk-access patterns and can run concurrently.  Microsoft Exchange Server will run on a single drive computer, but performance may be reduced.


Skip Disk Analysis

The Performance Optimizer analyzes your hard disk drives to determine the best locations for Microsoft Exchange Server files.  Note that the Performance Optimizer only recognizes logical drives, which may be a composition of physical drives.

Analyze Hard Disks Check Box

Clear the Analyze Hard Disks check box to skip disk analysis.  Skipping the disk analysis also prevents the Performance Optimizer from suggesting file moves that may improve Microsoft Exchange Server performance.  The Performance Optimizer can still set other parameters without analyzing the disks.

You can move files manually later in this procedure.

Drive List Box

This box lists the logical drives available on the server with the amount of free and total space on each drive.

Double-click or select and press the spacebar on a drive to toggle between excluding it from or including it in the disk analysis and file moving suggestions.

Note  Drives that don't have enough free space will be excluded by default.


Disk Analysis

The Performance Optimizer analyzes your hard disk drives to determine the best locations for Microsoft Exchange Server files.  This test analyzes disks simultaneously to determine which drives provide the best performance for different Microsoft Exchange Server service data files.  The analysis uses a test file in available space on the drive to test the speed of

Sequential access (write data sequentially)

Random access (write/read data randomly)

The Performance Optimizer takes the average access times, writing and reading large amounts of data, so the test may take some time.  This test does not affect your hard drive contents.


Disk Analysis Results

This window shows the performance results for the disk analysis.  The time is listed in milliseconds (ms), so smaller numbers mean better average access times, and numbers are only significant in relation to the other drives' access times.

RA	Average time for random disk access

Seq	Average time for sequential disk access

Note  If a drive is listed as "Not Analyzed," it was either excluded previously, or because an error occurred during analysis.


Suggested File Moves

The Performance Optimizer suggests file moves based on your hardware configuration and how you have indicated the server will be used.  The Microsoft Exchange Server files are listed with the Current Location and Suggested Location.

After choosing Next, you will be asked to verify that you want the moves to take place.

Note  If you disabled the disk analysis, the Current and Suggested locations are the same.  You can manually change the Suggested Location by entering a new path and following the considerations below.

Changing the Suggested Locations

To avoid errors during file transfer:

Make sure your destination directories are empty.

Specify separate directories for the Directory Service and Information Store Log.

Specify a unique directory for the MTA Log files.

Do not specify network or non-fixed (floppy) drives.


Verify File Moves

The Move files check box is checked by default.  Choose Next to move files and update their locations.

Clear the check box to leave files where they are.

Note  If you want to move files later, use the Performance Optimizer so the file locations are correctly registered with Microsoft Exchange Server services.

If this operation is interrupted, changes are not saved.

If a set of files cannot be moved because of insufficient disk space or other file errors, the Performance Optimizer continues to move the rest of the files.


System Parameters

This window displays the parameter values that the Performance Optimizer has determined will provide optimum performance.  Although you can change the values, doing so may adversely affect the performance of Microsoft Exchange Server.

If you change the values and want to reset them to the defaults, re-run the Performance Optimizer.


Restart Services

The Performance Optimizer has completed file transfers and registered their new locations with the Microsoft Exchange Server services.  You still can cancel to leave the remaining Microsoft Exchange Server parameters unchanged.

Restarting Services

The Restart Services box lists the services that were stopped when you started the Performance Optimizer.   Choose Finish to restart these services and save the Microsoft Exchange Server parameter settings.

Check the Do not restart these services check box if you want to restart the services manually later.  For information on manually starting and stopping Microsoft Exchange Server services, see the Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator's Guide.

Performance Optimizer Log

The Performance Optimizer Log file contains information that can be used to keep track of changes made to your server and to report problems.  Each time you run the Performance Optimizer, log entries are appended to this file.  The default location for this file is \WINNT35\SYSTEM32\PERFOPT.LOG.