When a server must support connectors, it affects server performance. The following tasks create additional work for a server:
The message transfer agent (MTA), for example, is involved when connectors are used. The MTA secures all messages to disk, so if there is a lot of traffic, disk input and output can become important. One option for improving performance when you are using connectors is to provide a separate disk for MTA files; another option is to maintain the MTA files in the stripe set with the information store database. The same is true for the Internet Mail Service because it also secures messages to disk.
Make sure that you have adequate network bandwidth to carry the traffic. Connector traffic is often carried over WAN links and, as mentioned earlier, the traffic patterns can vary widely from company to company. Use Network Monitor to verify that you have capacity available on the links.
Most connectors require the system to send and receive messages in a format that is different from the storage format. Mapping content from the storage format into another format or protocol is a CPU-intensive task; in this case, performance could benefit from the addition of more processors.
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