1.5. Constructing a Data Collector Set Manually
You can create a customized data collector set made up of
performance counters, configuration data, or data from trace providers. To make such a data collector
set, follow these steps:
Open Windows Performance Monitor.
In the navigation pane, expand Data Collector Sets, right-click User Defined,
point to New, and click Data Collector Set.
Type in a name for your data collector set. Select
Create Manually, and click Next.
Select Create Data Logs. Select the check boxes next to
the data collector types you want to use, which are described
in the following list, and click Next:
Performance Counter
Generates metric data about the system’s performance.
Event Trace Data Provides
information about activities and system events.
System Configuration
Information Records the state of—and changes
to—registry keys.
Depending on the data collector types you selected, you
will be presented with dialog boxes to add data collectors to
your data collector set:
Click Add to open the Add Counters dialog box. When
you are finished adding performance counters, click OK.
Then click Next to continue the configuration, or click
Finish to exit and save the current
configuration.
You can install event trace providers with the
operating system or as part of a non-Microsoft
application. Click Add to select from a list of available
event trace providers, as shown in Figure 2. You
can select multiple providers by holding down the Ctrl key
and highlighting the providers you want. When you are
finished adding event trace providers, Click OK and then
click Next to continue the configuration, or click Finish
to exit and save the current configuration.
To record system configuration data, type in the
registry keys you want to track. You must know the exact
key.
When you’ve finished adding registry keys, click Next to
continue the configuration or click Finish to exit and save
the current configuration.
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 type
in the user name and password for a user other than the
default listed.
1.6. Creating a Data Collector Set to Monitor Performance
Counters
Another type of data collector set that you can create
monitors performance counters and sends out alerts when the
counters exceed or fall below thresholds you set.
First create the data set, and then configure the alerts by
following these steps:
Open Performance Monitor. In the navigation pane, expand
Data Collector Sets, right-click User Defined,
point to New, and click Data Collector Set.
Type in a name for your data collector set. Select
Create Manually, and click Next.
Select the Performance Counter Alert option, and click
Next.
Click Add to open the Add Counters dialog box. When you are finished
adding counters, click OK.
Highlight the counter you’d like to monitor. From the
Alert When drop-down list, choose whether to alert when the
performance counter value is above or below the limit. In the
Limit box, enter the threshold value.
When you’ve finished defining alerts, click Next to
continue the configuration or click Finish to exit and save
the current configuration.
After clicking Next, you can configure the data
collector set to run as a specific user. Click Change to type
in a user name and password.
