Analyzing Capacity

Capacity analysis for an Exchange Server 2003 environment requires a well-established understanding of the business and messaging needs of the organization and a well-documented outline of the organization's expectations of its messaging environment. Business constantly undergoes change, and so do capacity requirements and measurements of an organization.

The first step in capacity analysis is to grasp an understanding of these changes and define performance expectations. This can be done by establishing policies and service-level agreements. It is in these policies and service-level agreements that an administrator can outline acceptable performance thresholds and more accurately gauge the capacity needs of Exchange Server 2003. These thresholds can also be used to accurately establish performance baselines from which to analyze the requirements against available resources.

To help develop the policies and service-level agreements, use questionnaires, interviews, business objectives and the like along with performance measurements.

Establishing Baselines

The importance of establishing meaningful baselines of the messaging environment cannot be underscored enough. Baselines are particularly important in the sense that they are the measurable tools that can be used to balance what is required of Exchange Server 2003 with what resources are needed to fulfill those requirements. Achieving this balance can be made simpler if an administrator consults performance metrics, such as industry-standard benchmarks.

In order to establish an accurate baseline of Exchange Server 2003, there are a number of tools that can help an administrator in this process. These tools are discussed in detail in the following sections. Some of these capacity analysis tools are built into Windows Server 2003, and others are built into Exchange Server 2003. Many third-party tools and utilities are also available for the careful measurement of Exchange Server 2003 capacity requirements and performance analysis.