MONITORING

SMTP and POP3 Workload test
The SMTP and POP3 test models an active user receiving and sending mail over SMTP and POP3. The script contains an average of 10 minutes of waiting, so an average user will run this test no more than six times an hour.

During each iteration, the script checks for and retrieves POP3 messages. When sending messages, each user sends a mail message to NumMessageRecipients not more than once every 20 minutes. Twenty percent of the users receive eighty percent of the send mail messages. The SMTP messages sent by each user are delivered to the mail databases of other users on the SUT.

The measurements obtained by this test are:


The resulting capacity metric for an SMTP/POP3 server is the maximum number of users that can be supported before the average user response time becomes unacceptable.

To read the code in the test script, see the topic SMTP and POP3 Workload Script.

Hardware considerations

The following hard disk requirements apply to the SUT and, during some tests, to the destination systems that receive mail from the SUT:
Initial disk requirementIn Domino 6, approximately 11.5MB on the SUT for each user ( mail database). In Domino 5, approximately 7.5 MB.
Subsequent disk requirementIncrease of 100KB per hour for the duration of the test. This figure is not dependent on the number of users.


Tips for running the SMTP/POP3 test

1. To minimize environment troubleshooting, put IP information -- for example, host information -- in the \etc\hosts file or its equivalent on the SUT and driver directories.

2. If authentication errors occur on the Domino server console, verify the password in the HTTP field of the respective user's Person document in the SUT's Domino Directory; edit the Domino Directory if necessary.

3. From the SUT console, enter this command to display additional routing information:


See Also