How to Check the SMTP Performance Counters
If messages are accumulating in the pre-categorization queue (labeled "messages awaiting directory lookup" in Queue Viewer), check the SMTP performance counters, particularly the categorizer queue length counters. Use the following procedure to enable these performance counters.
Before you perform the procedure in this topic, read Troubleshooting Mail Flow and SMTP.
The following permissions are required to perform this procedure:
- Member of the local administrators group
Open System Monitor: Click Start, point to Run, and then type perfmon.
In System Monitor, right-click the System Monitor details pane, and then click Add Counters.
Select one of the following:
To monitor any computer on which the monitoring console is run, click Use local computer counters.
To monitor a specific computer, regardless of where the monitoring console is run, click Select counters from computer, and then specify a computer name (the name of the local computer is selected by default).
In Performance object, click SMTP Server.
Select one of the following:
To monitor all counters, click All counters.
To monitor only selected counters, click Select counters from list, and then select the counters that you want to monitor.
Click Add.
View the CAT: Categorizer queue length counter..
The following table lists additional performance counters that you can use to monitor categorization issues.
| Performance counter | Description |
|---|---|
Cat: Address lookup completions |
The number of address lookup completions that were processed. |
Cat: Address lookup completions/sec |
The number of address lookup completions processed per second. |
Cat: Address lookups |
The number of directory service lookups for individual addresses. |
Cat: Address lookups not found |
The number of address lookups that did not find any directory service object. |
Cat: Address lookups/sec |
The number of address lookups that were dispatched to the directory service per second. |
Cat: Categorizations completed |
The total number of messages submitted to message categorizer that have finished categorization. |
Cat: Categorizations completed successfully |
The number of categorizations that completed without any errors. |
Cat: Categorizations completed/sec |
The rate of categorizations that were completed per second. |
Cat: Categorizations failed (directory service connection failure) |
The number of categorizations that failed because of a directory service connection failure. |
Cat: Categorizations failed (directory service logon failure) |
The number of categorizations that failed because of a directory service logon failure. |
Cat: Categorizations failed (non-retryable error) |
The number of categorizations that failed with a hard error (not retryable). |
Cat: Categorizations failed (Out Of Memory) |
The number of categorizations that failed because of a lack of available memory. |
Cat: Categorizations failed (retryable error) |
The number of categorizations that failed with a retryable error. |
Cat: Categorizations failed (sink retryable error) |
The number of categorizations that failed with a generic retryable error. |
Cat: Categorizations in progress |
The number of categorizations in progress. |
Cat: LDAP bind failures |
The total number of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) bind failures. |
Cat: LDAP binds |
The number of successful LDAP binds that were performed. |
Cat: LDAP connection failures |
The number of connection failures to LDAP servers. |
Cat: LDAP connections |
The total number of LDAP connections that were opened. |
Cat: LDAP connections currently open |
The number of LDAP connections that are currently open. |
Cat: LDAP general completion failures |
The number of LDAP completions with a generic failure. |
Cat: LDAP paged search completion failures |
The number of LDAP paged searches that completed with a failure. |
Cat: LDAP paged search failures |
The number of failures to dispatch an asynchronous paged LDAP search. |
Cat: LDAP paged searches |
The number of LDAP paged searches that were successfully dispatched. |
Cat: LDAP paged searches completed |
The number of paged LDAP completions that were processed. |
Cat: LDAP search completion failures |
The number of LDAP searches that completed with a failure. |
Cat: LDAP search failures |
The number of failures to dispatch an asynchronous LDAP search. |
Cat: LDAP searches |
The number of LDAP searches that were successfully dispatched. |
Cat: LDAP searches abandoned |
The number of LDAP searches that were abandoned. |
Cat: LDAP searches completed |
The number of LDAP search completions that were processed. |
Cat: LDAP searches completed/sec |
The number of LDAP search completions that were processed per second. |
Cat: LDAP searches pending completion |
The number of LDAP searches pending asynchronous completion. |
Cat: LDAP searches/sec |
The number of LDAP searches that were successfully dispatched per second. |
Cat: mailmsg duplicate collisions |
The number of times that a duplicate recipient address was detected by mailmsg or message categorizer. |
Cat: Messages aborted |
The number of messages that were marked to be aborted by message categorizer. |
Cat: Messages bifurcated |
The number of new messages that were created by message categorizer (bifurcation). |
Cat: Messages categorized |
The number of messages that message categorizer submitted to queuing. |
Cat: Messages submitted |
The total number of messages that were submitted to message categorizer. |
Cat: Messages submitted/sec |
The rate at which messages are being submitted to message categorizer. |
Cat: Recipients after categorization |
The number of MAILMSG recipients that were submitted from message categorizer to queuing. |
Cat: Recipients before categorization |
The number of MAILMSG recipients that were submitted to message categorizer. |
Cat: Recipients in categorization |
The number of recipients that message categorizer is currently processing. |
Cat: Recipients NDRd (ambiguous address) |
The number of recipients with addresses that match multiple directory service objects. |
Cat: Recipients NDRd (forwarding loop) |
The number of recipients that message categorizer generates an NDR for because of a forwarding loop detection. |
Cat: Recipients NDRd (illegal address) |
The number of recipients with illegal addresses that were detected by message categorizer. |
Cat: Recipients NDRd (sink recip errors) |
The number of recipients that message categorizer generates an NDR for because of a generic recipient failure. |
Cat: Recipients NDRd (unresolved) |
The number of unresolved recipients (local addresses not found). |
Cat: Recipients NDRd by Categorizer |
The number of recipients for which message categorizer is set to generate an NDR. |
Cat: Senders unresolved |
The number of senders that were not found in the directory service. |
Cat: Senders with ambiguous addresses |
The number of senders with addresses that match multiple directory service objects. |
Categorizer Queue Length |
The number of messages in the message categorizer queue. |