Processes with Disk Activity
This section provides a list of processes that are currently running and showing disk resource usage:
• Name—Name of process
• PID—Process ID of
each associated process, which can be used to identify the process in
Task Manager, other tools, or even the command line
• Read (B/sec)—Average bytes/sec read by the process over the past 60 seconds
• Write (B/sec)—Average bytes/sec written by the process over the past 60 seconds
• Total (B/sec)—Read (B/sec) + Write (B/sec)
Why is this information useful? Look for
applications/processes that generate a lot of disk activity and ensure
that the activity is expected.
Disk Activity
This section provides a list of files, I/O priority, and response time per process:
• Name—Name of process
• PID—Process ID of
each associated process, which can be used to identify the process in
Task Manager, other tools, or even the command line
• File—Full path to file used by specified process
• I/O Priority—Priority of I/O for specified process
• Response Time (ms)—Disk response time in milliseconds
Why is this information useful? Look at the
response times and ensure that the numbers are below 15ms for good
responses; higher numbers mean degraded performance. I/O numbers may be
indicate a need for disk changes or might indicate an effect of other
issues such as CPU overutilization and request delays.
Tip
The following are expected response time examples (in milliseconds) based on disk type:
• 7200 RPM HD @ 13ms
• 10K RPM HD @ 8ms
• 15K RPM HD @ 7ms
• Solid state drive @ 0.2ms
Storage
This section displays the following information about each fixed disk:
• Logical Disk—The drive letter associated a given drive
• Physical Disk—The system number associated to a given drive
• Active Time (%)—Percentage of time that the disk is active
• Available Space (MB)—Available space for a given driven
• Total Space (MB)—Total size of given drive
• Disk Queue Length—Number of pending/waiting requests
Why is this information useful? High Active
Time (over 75%) and/or High Disk Queue Length (one to two times the
number of disks) may indicate a need for faster disk to support an I/O
activity-hungry application.
Graphs
The right pane provides quick access to disk specific graphs, including the following:
• Disk—Transfer speeds between system and disk
• Disk 0 (C:) Queue Length—A series of graphs presenting queue length on a per disk basis
Network Tab
The Network tab provides network-related
information about processes with Network Activity, Network Activity,
TCP Connections and Listening Ports sections. After taking a look at
this tab in Figure 9, let’s review the details behind each section and the information it provides.
Figure 9. Resource Monitor: Network tab.
Processes with Network Activity and Network Activity
These sections provide useful information for running processes:
• Image—Name of process
• PID—Process ID of
each associated process, which can be used to identify the process in
Task Manager, other tools, or even the command line
• Address (Network Activity section only)—Name or IP address to which the process is connected
• Send (B/sec)—Average bytes/sec sent over the network by the process over the past 60 seconds
• Receive (B/sec)—Average bytes/sec received over the network by the process over the past 60 seconds
• Total (B/sec)—Send (B/sec) + Receive (B/sec)
Tip
Note the little graphs in the Network
Activity section: Kbps Network I/O (Total I/O Activity on the Network)
and % Network Utilization (Total Percentage Utilized). The graphs are
extremely useful in that they provide the size of network activity and
the percentage of network utilization. Even if high usage is
anticipated, constant high utilization may indicate a bottleneck.
TCP Connections
This extremely useful section shows
information about all open TCP connections and the process that opened
the connection, information such as the following:
• Image—Name of process
• PID—Process ID of
each associated process, which can be used to identify the process in
Task Manager, other tools, or even the command line
• Local Address—Local address of the connection (one of the local NICs)
• Local Port—Local port of the connection (one of the local NICs)
• Remote Address—Remote address of the connection
• Remote Port—Remote port of the connection
• Packet Loss (%)—Percent of packets lost
• Latency (ms)—Round-trip latency measuring time it takes for a packet to travel
Why is this information useful? High packet
loss or latency indicates performance issues that should be looked
into, especially for live communication traffic such as VoIP.
Listening Ports
This section also has a very useful set of information, including the following:
• Image—Name of process
• PID—Process ID of
each associated process, which can be used to identify the process in
Task Manager, other tools, or even the command line
• Address—Listed here if an address is not specified for a given process
• Protocol—TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) or UDP (User Datagram Protocol)
• Firewall Status—Identifies whether traffic is not allowed or is restricted by Windows Firewall
