Summary

The End-User Performance solutions gives insight in the performance from the perspective of an end-user. By collecting this kind of information a decreasing service performance can be measured and signaled before users really start complaining. This simulation package is designed to quickly start measuring the performance of sending and receiving e-mails using Outlook as an application.

Simulation flow

The Outlook Mail Performance simulation can be used to simulate an employee sending and receiving e-mail. After starting the simulation an Outlook instance will be started. Outlook will send a unique e-mail and the simulation waits for a reply. By using a remote mailbox with an auto-reply functionality, this simulation passes all relevant components (servers, firewall, internet- and network connectivity, anti-spam, etc.) of a working e-mail service.

The list below summarizes the steps performed during the simulation:

1. Stop running Outlook processes
2. Start Outlook
3. Construct new e-mail message with a unique subject
4. Send the e-mail to the configured destination e-mail address
5. Wait for the reply on the e-mail, the unique subject is used to find the reply message
6. Remove the e-mail from the inbox and the sent-items (optional)
7. Close Outlook

Prerequisites

Usage of this simulation package requires that:

• The End-User Performance Management Pack is imported in SCOM
• One or more Collectors are enabled using overrides
• One or more Watchers are available to run simulations
• Outlook version 2010, 2013 or 2016 installed on the Watcher node(s)
• A local mailbox is available to send e-mail, credentials must be known
• A remote mailbox is available and configured with an auto-reply function, the e-mail address must be known

Download packages

The simulation package can be found here.

The packages contains the following files:

• exe: Executable performing the simulation
• ini: Configuration file for the simulation
• xml: Example file which can be used to adjust the Collector configuration
• txt: File containing a link to this documentation

For more information about the version history, supported upgrade paths and known issues, see this knowledge base article.

Configuration

The simulation behavior can be adjusted by changing the configuration in the .ini file delivered in the package and the config.xml from the Collectors. Follow the steps below to start using the Outlook Mail Performance simulation:

1. Extract the contents of the simulation package to the desired path on the watcher node
2. Add the content of the file ‘config.xml’ to the configuration files on each of the used End-User Performance Collectors
3. Adjust the parameters (id, names, locations, etc.) in the copied content (step 2) to the desired values. See the installation and usage guide for additional information about the configuration file
4. Change the configuration of the Outlook Mail Performance Simulation by editing the file ‘EUP_OutlookMailPerf.ini’. Adjust the parameters below:

1. Create a task scheduler job to schedule the simulation script