Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 Administrator's Companion

Evaluating the Four Main Subsystems in Windows

Earlier the four subsystems that you should always monitor were mentioned: memory, processor, disk, and network. In this section, each element is briefly discussed, and some advice is offered on tuning these parts of Windows to optimize their work with Exchange Server 2007.

One point that applies to all four of these areas is this: current data is not that helpful unless you have a baseline against which to compare it. This argues in favor of setting up regular monitoring schedules for all your servers and then regularly compiling that data to form a baseline of how your servers operate at off-peak, normal, and peak periods of usage. As an example, if one server is averaging 53 pages per minute, that ...