4. Reports
The final folder in the Performance Monitor
snap-in is Reports. The Reports folder provides diagnostic reports to
support administrators in troubleshooting and diagnosing system
performance problems including reliability. Reports are viewed in the
central details pane of the Performance Monitor snap-in.
The reports are based on data collector sets
that were previously defined by users or preconfigured and included
with Windows Server 2012 Performance Monitor. The report console’s
features and functionality are very similar to those seen by means of
the reports introduced with Server Performance Advisor in Windows
Server 2003.
The Reports folder contains two subfolders:
User Defined reports and System reports. The default System reports
typically include reports relating to LAN diagnostics, system
diagnostics, and system performance. Additional system reports are
automatically generated depending on the server role installed on the
Windows Server 2012 system. For example, an Active Directory
Diagnostics system report is automatically included in the console when
the AD DS server role is installed on the Windows Server 2012 system.
Creating a User-Defined Report
The first step in creating a user-defined
report is creating a user-defined collector set and defining the
parameters for a collection. After the user-defined collector set is
created, data collection must be manually started or scheduled to run
at a specific date. At this time, a report folder is automatically
generated under the User Defined folder. After the report is created,
you can review the contents by selecting it. When viewing reports, it
is possible to expand specific items such as the report summary,
diagnostic results, or CPU for additional information. This is shown in
the System Performance Report in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Viewing the System Performance Report.
Viewing Predefined System Reports
Another option for assessing system health
and troubleshooting system anomalies is to leverage the predefined
system reports. To view these system reports, follow these steps:
1. In the Performance Monitor navigation tree, expand the Data Collector Sets folder and then System.
2. Right-click one of
the predefined data collector sets, such as System Diagnostics, and
then click Start. This starts the data collection process.
3. Now expand the Reports folder, System, and then System Diagnostics.
4. Highlight the newly created report and review the contents of the report in the central details pane.
Note
The report generates and appears
when the data collection process is complete. The report is
automatically tagged with the current date.
