Error Message

There is no error. We get incorrect SMTP Message counts for SCOM report when SMTP service on the EV Server is restarted.

Microsoft SCOM generates tables like PerfDaily and PerfHourly, etc. in its database which contain columns like CounterName, DateTime, MinValue, and MaxValue which are used to generate EV SMTP SCOM report. EV fetches data from these tables to perform calculations and generate the SCOM Reports.

When the EV SMTP service is restarted, the PerfMon counters for SMTP counts get set to zero which is expected. This count is then used by SCOM to populate the various tables as mentioned above. SCOM performs calculations internally and populates these tables that are then further used by EV. While populating values in scenarios where the SMTP services are restarted, SCOM inserts wrong data in MinValue and MaxValue tables for that day.

As these values provided by SCOM have discrepancies, it leads to the discrepancies in the Enterprise vault SMTP SCOM reports. MaxValue and MinValue in the SCOM tables for the Daily Reports are built by SCOM's logic and are pertaining to their internals. EV does not have direct control over it. However, based on our analysis, we are seeing the following:

Scenario-01

• If SMTP Message Received Count Before Service Restart (For the day) in Hourly Table is greater than SMTP Message Received Count After Service Restart (For the day) in Hourly Table then the final value in the Daily table is on the basis of the highest Max Value Before Service Restart.

Scenario-02

• If SMTP Message Received Count Before Service Restart (For the day) in Hourly Table is lesser than SMTP Message Received Count After Service Restart (For the day) in Hourly Table then the final value in the Daily table is on the basis of the highest Max Value After Service Restart.

Final values are pulled from the Daily Table (and Hourly table only for SCOM’s own consumption) and they can be slightly misleading if Scenario 01 is happening in the environment. Ideally, if the Service Restarts are done in the early hours of the day, then we should expect a greater number of messages to come to EV as there is more time left within the day. If the service is restarted  towards the end of the day (like 11 PM) then Scenario-01 is going to occur.

Hence, if there is a requirement to restart the SMTP service manually, then it is recommended to do it at the end of the day, which will emulate Scenario-01.