2. Performance Monitor
First, defining some terms used in
performance monitoring will help clarify the function of Performance
Monitor and how it ties in to software and system functionality. The
three components noted in Performance Monitor, data collector sets, and
reports are as follows:
• Object—Components
contained in a system are grouped into objects. Objects are grouped
according to system functionality or by association within the system.
Objects can represent logical entities such as memory or a physical
mechanism such as a hard disk drive. The number of objects available in
a system depends on the configuration. For example, if Microsoft
Exchange Server is installed on a server, some objects pertaining to
Exchange would be available.
• Counter—Counters are
subsets of objects. Counters typically provide more detailed
information for an object such as queue length or throughput for an
object. The System Monitor can collect data through the counters and
display it in either a graphical format or a text log format.
• Instances—If a
server has more than one similar object, each one is considered an
instance. For example, a server with multiple processors has individual
counters for each instance of the processor. Counters with multiple
instances also have an instance for the combined data collected for the
instances.
Performance Monitor provides an interface
that allows for the analysis of system data, research performance, and
bottlenecks. Performance Monitor displays performance counter output in
line graphs, histogram (bar chart), and report format.
The histogram and line graphs can be used to view multiple counters at the same time, as shown in Figure 2.
However, each data point displays only a single value that is
independent of its object. The Report view is better for displaying
multiple values.
Figure 2. The graph view of Performance Monitor.
Accessing Performance Monitor is accomplished
by selecting Performance Monitor from the Monitoring Tools folder in
the Performance Monitor MMC snap-in. When a new Performance Monitor
session is started, it loads a blank system monitor graph into the
console with % Processor Time as the only counter defined.
Adding Counters with Performance Monitor
Before counters can be displayed, they have
to be added. The counters can be added simply by using the menu bar.
The Counter button on the toolbar includes Add, Delete, and Highlight.
You can use the Add Counter button to display new counters. Use the
Delete Counter button to remove unwanted counters from the display. The
Highlight Counter button is helpful for highlighting a particular
counter of interest; a counter can be highlighted with either a white
or black color around the counter.
To add counters to Performance Monitor, follow these steps:
1. In the navigation tree of Performance Monitor, first expand Performance, Monitoring Tools, and then Performance Monitoring.
2. Either click the Add icon on the menu bar or right-click anywhere on the graph and select Add Counters.
Note
Typical baseline counters include Memory - Pages/Sec, PhysicalDisk - Avg. Disk Queue Length, and Processor - % Processor Time.
3. The Add Counters dialog box is invoked, as shown in Figure 3. In the Available Counters section, select the desired counters, and then click the Add button.
Figure 3. Adding counters to Performance Monitor.
Note
Windows Server 2012 includes a tremendous
number of counters to choose from when conducting performance
monitoring. It is challenging to fully explain what each counter offers
in this section. If you are interested in finding out more about a
counter, enable the Show Description option in the Add Counters dialog
box and highlight a specific counter to obtain a detailed explanation
of it.
4. Review the selected counters in the Added Counters section, and then click OK.
Note
When adding counters, it is possible to
conduct remote monitoring by selecting counters from another system. To
simplify things, it is also possible to search for instances of a
counter and add a group of counters.
Managing Performance Monitor Settings
While back on the Performance Monitor
display, update displays by clicking the Clear Display button. Clicking
the Freeze Display button or pressing Ctrl+F freezes displays, which
suspends data collection. Data collection can be resumed by pressing
Ctrl+F or clicking the Freeze Display button again. Click the Update
Data button to display an updated data analysis.
It is also possible to export and import a
display by using the Cut and Paste buttons. For example, a display can
be saved to the Clipboard and then imported into another instance of
Performance Monitor. This is commonly used to view or analyze system
information about a different system, such as information from a
production server.
The Properties page of Performance Monitor
has five additional tabs of configuration: General, Source, Data,
Graph, and Appearance. Generally, the Properties page provides access
to settings that control the graph grid, color, style of display data,
and so on. Data can be saved from the monitor in different ways. The
easiest way to retain the display features is to save the control as an
HTML file.
Performance Monitor enables you to
also save log files in HTML or tab-separated (.tsv) format, which you
can then analyze by using third-party tools. Alternatively, a
tab-separated file can be imported into a spreadsheet or database
application such as Excel or Microsoft Access. Windows Server 2012 also
enables you to collect data in SQL database format. This is useful for
performance analysis at an enterprise level rather than a per-server
basis. Reports displayed in Excel can help you better understand the
data and provide reports to management. As well
as saving log files, you can save the results from Performance Monitor
as an image. This is great when you need to obtain a point-in-time
depiction of a performance graph.
