A usage profile defines how each computer interacts with other computers. There are two types of usage profiles, which are client profiles and server profiles. A client usage profile defines how client applications for a group of computers interact with one or more server components by a network connection in the capacity model. A server usage profile defines how resources on the server are affected by parameters you specify in the capacity model.
For Exchange Server, a server usage profile defines the amount of background load that is caused by factors that are not modeled directly by Capacity Planner. A client usage profile defines how much information is sent to and from a collection of Exchange clients.
Default profiles for clients and servers called templates are included in Capacity Planner. When you run the Model Wizard, you can choose a default template for both client and server computers. If you do not choose a usage profile template, Capacity Planner associates a default profile with each client group and server computer it creates.
In the Model Editor you can modify each default profile with the Edit Usage Profile action in the Model Editor. When you directly modify a default profile, all clients and servers in the capacity model that use the default profile are affected. However, you can copy a default profile template to create a new profile and then apply the profile to either a discrete group of client computers with the Edit Client Profile action in the Model Editor or to an individual server computer when you use the Edit server role action.
Usage profiles contain parameters for all services that can be modeled for an application, including services that are not being used in a capacity model. When a service is not being used, its usage profile parameters are ignored by Capacity Planner.