Hi everyone We are running Exchange 2003, 2007 and 2010 (quite segmented environment due to different business units). We are investigating a new mobile messaging solution, similar to Blackberry, and want to measure the effect of this application on Exchange. Our servers are a mixture of Windows 2003 and 2008. I hear that Blackberry added some IOPS to Exchange, so I want to make sure we know what we're getting ourselves into :) We're only testing with a limited numbers of users per Exchange server to reduce impact, but was wondering if anyone could recommend any counters (Exchange and OS) on the Exchange servers we should be measuring, how to measure them, and what impact they would have on Exchange if they reached above a certain level? Also, the users who have this application would also be carrying out GAL lookups from their mobile devices, should we be measuring anything on the DC's? Thanks much in advance.

Here are some counters for Disk for 2003. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997558(EXCHG.65).aspx I believe Blackberries add about 3.7 IOPS about. What do you use to measure Exchange performance now? Mark Morowczynski|MCT| MCSE 2003:Messaging, Security|MCITP:EMA 2K7,EDA Win 7,ES,SA,EA|MCTS:Windows Mobile Admin|Security+|http://almostdailytech.com

There are a lot of factors involved in measuring the performance affect of remote clients like ActiveSync and BlackBerry. As Mark pointed out, a BB client can signifantly increase the disk I/O (IOPS) load on an Exchange server, but a lot of that load depends on the profile of the user (mailbox size, messages sent/day, messages received per day, message size). Each BB user places an IOPS load of about 3.7 times the load of an equivilent Outlook client on to the server. The actual number of IOPS would depend on whether the server was an E2K3, E2K7, or E2K10 client. If you want some brutally honest advice, do NOT plan any additional infrastructure changes such as new mobile solutions (or storage, backup, or other 3rd party enhancements) until you have a plan to move to E2K10. The admin load of management and interoperability will weigh more heavily on your resources than you realize. If your department does not have the political clout to make this happen, find out how you can make it happen.Jim McBee - Blog - http://mostlyexchange.blogspot.com