NS$instance_name: Notifications Object
The NS$instance_name: Notifications object provides application-level counters. These counters monitor the notifications and notification batches of an application by querying the application database. These counters are available only on the server that runs the generator.
Counter
Description
Use
Batches
Number of notification batches generated since the application started.
Use to determine the activity level of the generator, and to compare against the Batches Successfully Delivered counter.
Batches Awaiting Distribution*
Number of notification batches waiting to be picked up by the distributor.
Use to determine whether there is a backlog of notification batches.
A backlog could indicate that the system should be scaled up or scaled out. A backlog could also exist during busy periods, and might not indicate a problem.
Batches Expired*
Number of notification batches containing expired notifications. The counter includes all expired batches since the application last started.
Use to determine whether notifications are not being sent because they have expired.
This can happen if the expiration time elapses before all retries are attempted, due to a small ExpirationAge value or a prolonged delivery problem.
Batches Failed Delivery*
Number of notification batches that contain one or more failed notifications. The counter includes all failed batches since the application last started.
Use to determine whether there is a distribution issue. For large numbers of failed notifications, check for errors from the distributor, delivery channel, and delivery service. For smaller problems, check the notification and subscriber data.
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Note:
"Failed" does not equal "expired." The application might retry failed batches, but will not retry expired batches. Use the RetrySchedule element to configure retries.
Batches In Generation*
Number of notification batches currently being created.
Use to determine the current generator workload.
Batches In Retry*
Number of notification batches currently in the delivery retry queue.
Use to determine whether notification delivery for the application is initially failing. This can help you troubleshoot general delivery channel or distributor issues.
Batches Successfully Delivered*
Number of notification batches successfully delivered since the application last started.
Use to compare against the Batches counter to determine whether batches generated are being delivered.
Vacuuming, which removes data from the database, affects the value of this counter.
Notifications
Number of notifications generated since the application started.
If using multicast or digest delivery, this number is the count of notifications before they are consolidated for delivery.
Use to determine the number of notifications the application is generating.
Notifications Awaiting Distribution*
Number of notifications waiting to be picked up by the distributor.
Use to determine whether there is a backlog of notifications.
This counter is similar to the Batches Awaiting Distribution counter, but provides the notification count.
Notifications Failed Delivery*
Number of notifications that have failed the delivery process since the application last started.
Use to determine how many notifications have failed in the batches marked as failed. Each batch marked as failed contains one or more failed notifications.
Note:
"Failed" does not equal "expired." The application might retry failed batches, but will not retry expired batches. Use the RetrySchedule element to configure retries.
Notifications Generated Per Second/Class
Number of notifications generated per second per notification class.
This value takes the total number of notifications generated during the System Monitor sampling interval, and determines the number per second for each notification class.
Use to analyze the activity of all notification classes.
Notifications Successfully Delivered*
Number of notifications successfully delivered since the application last started.
Use to determine the number of notifications the application has sent.
Vacuuming, which removes data from the database, affects the value of this counter.
* – The counter is updated on a periodic basis using a performance monitoring thread hosted by the generator. The update period is specified by the PerformanceQueryInterval Element in the application definition file (ADF).
After selecting a counter, select a counter instance. You can select All instances, which returns values for all notifications for all applications that are hosted by the instance, or you can select a specific notification instance; notification instance names are a combination of the application name and the notification class name, such as stock:stocknotifications.
Important
Performance counter instances are available only when the instance is running.
See Also
Concepts
Notification Services Performance Objects
Specifying Application Execution Settings