Best Practices for Working with Synthetic Transactions

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Applies To: Exchange Server, Operations Manager 2007 R2

This section provides information about best practices for optimizing the use of Exchange 2007 synthetic transactions in your Exchange 2007 environment.

In most cases, use the provided templates to set up the Mail Flow and Client Access server synthetic transactions

In most cases, we recommend that you use the provided templates and wizard to set up the Mail Flow and Client Access server synthetic transactions. This is the easiest way to set up and begin using synthetic transactions. However, if your environment is very large and you would run the template wizard more than 100 times, we recommend that you use overrides to manually create the synthetic transactions. For more information about manually setting up synthetic transactions using overrides, see Appendix: Manually Configuring Synthetic Transactions.

In large environments, use overrides to set up the Mail Flow and Client Access server synthetic transactions

Each run of the template results in the creation of a class per test type. This impacts the memory usage of the Root Management server in very large environments where you run the template wizard more than 100 times. For very large environments, we recommend that you use overrides to create the synthetic transactions directly. For more information about manually setting up synthetic transactions using overrides, see Appendix: Manually Configuring Synthetic Transactions.

Ensure that you use the following guidelines to help select the appropriate destination management packs for template-based synthetic transactions

The output of the template is stored in a destination management pack that you choose. The following guidelines can help you plan your choice for the right destination management pack for the output of the template.

  • Plan logical groupings of synthetic transactions. Plan to group synthetic transactions in management packs so that it will be easy later for you to find a particular synthetic transaction.

  • Use descriptive names for the destination management packs. Name your destination management packs in ways that describe the synthetic transactions contained in the management pack.

  • Use caution if you store all synthetic transactions in one management pack. When you make a change to a synthetic transaction within a management pack, the whole management pack is redistributed to every server that has a transaction defined in the management pack. If you anticipate making frequent changes to synthetic transactions, it is better to group the transactions logically in management packs so that the management pack where you made the change is then redistributed only to the servers involved in the transactions.

  • Do not store each synthetic transaction in a separate management pack. While it is possible to do this, we recommend against the practice of storing each synthetic transaction in a separate management pack because the number of such management packs can grow into the hundreds, eventually having a negative impact on the Operations Manager 2007 environment.

Limit the frequency of synthetic transactions

Running synthetic transactions generates an extra load on the Exchange 2007 servers, so it is worth identifying smart limits for using synthetic transactions. You also want to ensure the accuracy of the data returned by the synthetic transaction. One way to do this is to avoid running more than one instance of the same transaction at the same time.

We recommend that you do not run synthetic transactions more frequently than once every five minutes.

If you used the template wizard to create Remote Mail Flow synthetic transactions, use the template wizard to change the Remote Mail Flow synthetic transactions timeout and frequency values. See How to Configure Mail Flow Synthetic Transactions Using the Exchange 2007 Intra-Organization Mail Flow Monitoring Template. If you used the manual process to create Remote Mail Flow synthetic transactions, use the same process to change the timeout and frequency values. See “Changing the Manually-created Mail Flow Synthetic Transactions Timeout and Frequency” in the topic Manually Configuring Intra-Site and Inter-Site Mail Flow Synthetic Transactions.

If you used the template wizard to create Client Access server synthetic transactions, use the template wizard to change the Client Access synthetic transactions timeout and frequency values. See How to Configure Client Access Server Synthetic Transactions Using the Exchange 2007 Client Access Server Monitoring Template. If you used the manual process to create Client Access server synthetic transactions, use the same process to change the timeout and frequency values. See “Changing the Manually-created Client Access Server Synthetic Transactions” in the topic Manually Configuring Client Access Server Synthetic Transactions.

If you change the timeout or frequency value for a synthetic transaction, avoid duplicate transactions by making the same change to the monitor that corresponds to the synthetic transaction you changed.