Windows senagent network traffic

From Documentation

Technical Note

Please note that this article recreates Technical Note 214, originally posted May 10, 2006.

Senagent Network Traffic

After writing out the instructions for monitoring ntcpio.exe and COSserver.exe yesterday, I decided to monitor how much data senagent.exe pumps out and across the network. You have always been concerned on the impact senagent has on the network.

Well, now I know. My test environment involved a Linux host (for the host monitor and event manager) and a Windows 2000 host (running senagent.exe). As there were no other Windows hosts on the network, Windows chatter would be minimal or non-existent. I left the test running all last night.

Results:

   * Senagent.exe is recorded as consistently pumping out close to 400 bytes of data every 2nd poll - that is, a peak of 400 bytes every 3 minutes approx.  The intermediate poll shows zero or very close to zero bytes.  I don't actually understand why there is this behaviour, but that is what the recorded data per poll shows.

   * Data written from the Windows network card across the network shows a little different.  Over the test period, data written remained constant (flat line) at 0.1Kb/sec - no peaks and no troughs.  That is 100 bytes/sec - not much at all.

   * See attached graphs.

Since it is the network impact we are concerned about, the above results mean: We can have up to 100 000 Windows hosts on a single network segment before we saturate a 100M network - remember 100M network is capable of 10Mb/sec throughput. Or given a more realistic number of say 100 Windows hosts being monitored, it would account for only 10Kb/sec - or 0.1% of the capable network throughput on a 100M network.

In short any concerns regarding the impact on the network by senagent.exe are unfounded. The impact is neglegable.