NS$instance_name: Distributors Object
The NS$instance_name: Distributors object provides counters for monitoring the distributor components of a Notification Services instance.
The distributor counters monitor one or all distributors on the local server. If the NS$instance_name service is installed on the local server but no distributors are enabled on that server, the counters are available but do not return data.
| Counter | Description | Purpose |
| Delivery Requests Failed | Total number of failed delivery requests since the distributor started.
Ideally this number should be zero. | Flags delivery problems. |
| Delivery Requests Succeeded | Total number of delivery requests successfully sent since the distributor started.
A delivery request can include multiple notifications if multicast is enabled. | Use to determine the delivery activity of a distributor, and to compare against the Format Requests Succeeded counter to determine whether notifications are being formatted but not delivered. |
| Format Requests Failed | Total number of format requests that failed since the distributor started.
Ideally this number should be zero. | Flags format request problems.
Check the event log for content formatter errors, and check whether the data being sent to the content formatter is valid and can be transformed. |
| Format Requests Rate | Number of format requests per second. | Use to determine the activity level of the distributor at different times. This can help with system planning, and can help plan resources for peak periods. |
| Format Requests Succeeded | Total number of successful format requests since the distributor started.
When using multicast or digest delivery, one format request can be for multiple notifications because notifications can be combined into a single message. | Use to determine the formatting activity level of a distributor.
Also monitor CPU activity, because formatting is CPU intensive. This information can help you determine when you need to scale up or scale out distribution. |
| Notification Bodies | Total number of notification bodies formatted since the distributor started.
When using multicast or digest delivery, the number of formatted notification bodies should be lower than the number of notifications to be delivered, and equal to the number of successful formatting requests. | Compare to the Notification Headers counter to determine the ratio of notification bodies to notification headers. |
| Notification Headers | Total number of notification headers since the distributor started.
When using multicast or digest delivery, the number of headers formatted should be equal to the number of notifications delivered and higher than the number of successful formatting requests. | Compare to the Notification Bodies counter to determine the ratio of notification headers to notification bodies. |
After selecting a counter, select an instance. You can select All instances, which returns values for all distributors on the local server, or you can select one of the distributor instances; distributor instance names are a combination of the application name and the distributor name, such as stock:stockdist1.
Important Performance counter instances are available only when the instance is running.
See Also
Notification Services Performance Objects