Data collector sets are a method of monitoring and
reporting wherein you can collect only information that’s useful to
you, and you can create individual data collector sets that can be viewed alone or combined
with other data collector sets in Performance Monitor. Data collector
sets can be configured to generate alerts when thresholds are reached,
or you can associate them with scheduling rules to perform data
collection at specific times.
1. Building a Data Collector Set from a Template
1.1. Building a Data Collector Set from a Template
Performance Monitor includes several templates that
concentrate on general system diagnosis information or collect
performance data specific to server roles or applications. You can
import templates created on other computers and export data
collector sets that you create to use on other
computers.
To create a data collector set from a template, follow these steps:
Click Start, type perfmon
in the Start Search box, and then press Enter.
In the navigation pane, expand Data Collector Sets, right-click User Defined,
point to New, and click Data Collector Set. The Create New
Data Collector Set Wizard starts.
Enter a name for your data collector set. Select Create
From A Template, and click Next.
From the Template Data Collector Set menu, select the
template you want to use to create your data collector set. A
description of the data collected appears as you highlight
each template. (See Figure 1.)
The Root Directory contains data collected by the data
collector set. If you want to store your data collector set
data in a location other than the default, click Browse or
type in the directory name.
Click Next to choose a custom location for the data
collector set or to define more options. Click Finish to save
the current settings and exit.
Note:
If you type in a directory name, do not enter a
backslash (\) at the end of the directory name.
Click Next to define a user for the data collector set
to run as, or click Finish to save the current settings and
exit.
When you click Next, you can configure the data collector set to run as a specific user.
Click Change to enter the user name and password for a user
other than the default listed, or click Finish to save the
current settings and exit.
To start collecting data and storing it in the location
specified in step 6, right-click the data collector set in the
navigation pane and select Start.
To view the properties of the data collector set or make
changes, right-click the data collector set you created in steps 1
through 8 and select Properties.
1.2. Importing Templates
Data collector set templates are stored as XML files, and
you can import them directly from a local hard drive or from a
network drive. To import a data collector set template, run the
Create New Data Collector Set Wizard and click Browse when asked
which template you’d like to use. Browse to the location of the
XML file you want to use, select it, and click Open.
1.3. Exporting Templates
To export a data collector set for use on other computers,
open Performance Monitor, expand Data Collector Sets, right-click the data collector
set you want to export, and click Save Template. Select a
directory in which to store the XML file, and click
Save.
1.4. Creating a Data Collector Set from Performance
Monitor
To use the counters in a Performance Monitor display to
create a data collector set, follow these steps:
Start Performance Monitor, and add counters to create a custom view you want to save as a
data collector set.
Right-click Performance Monitor in the navigation pane,
point to New, and click Data Collector Set. The Create New
Data Collector Set Wizard starts. The data collector set you
create will contain all of the data collectors selected in the
current Performance Monitor view.
Type in a name for the data collector set, and click
Next.
The Root Directory will contain data collected by the
data collector set. If you want to store your data collector
set data in a location other than the default, click Browse to
navigate to the location or type in the directory name.
Note:
If you type in a directory name, do not enter a
backslash (\) at the end of the directory name.
After clicking Next, you can configure the data collector set to run as a specific user.
Click Change to enter a user name and password.
To start collecting data and storing it in the location
specified in step 4, right-click the data collector set in the
navigation pane and select Start.
