1. Using Reliability Monitor
Reliability Monitor provides a System Stability Index that reflects whether unexpected
problems are reducing system reliability. A graph of the Stability
Index over time quickly identifies dates when problems began to occur.
The accompanying System Stability Report presents details to help you
locate and fix the root cause of reduced reliability. By looking at
changes to the system (operating system updates or adding and removing
software) along with failures (application, operating system, or
hardware failures), you can develop a method for dealing with the
problems.
To open Reliability Monitor, follow these steps:
Open Control Panel, and select Action Center.
Expand Maintenance and View Reliability History.
Click any item on the graph to view its details. Click events in
the Action column for more details. Select either Days or Weeks to
limit the report to specific time periods.
1.1. Viewing Reliability Monitor on a Remote Computer
Information about the location of Reliability Monitor files is stored in the registry.
Therefore, remote registry access is required to open data on a
remote computer. To enable the Remote Registry Service, complete the following
steps:
On the computer where you want to access Reliability
Monitor data, click Start, type services.msc in the Start Search box, and press Enter.
In the Services list, right-click Remote Registry and
select Start, as shown in Figure 1.
2. Managing Collected Data
Data collector sets create log files and optional report
files. Data Manager allows you to configure how log data,
reports, and compressed data are stored for each data collector
set.
To configure Data Manager for a data collector set, follow these
steps:
Open Performance Monitor, expand Data Collector Sets, and expand User Defined.
Right-click the name of the data collector set that you want
to configure and select Data Manager.
On the Data Manager tab, you can accept the default values
or make changes according to your data retention policy. Table 1 describes each option.
Select Minimum Free Disk or Maximum Folders, and
previous data will be deleted when the limit is reached
according to the Resource Policy you choose (either Delete
Largest or Delete Oldest).
Select Apply Policy Before The Data Collector Set
Starts, and previous data will be deleted before the data
collector set creates its next log file.
Select Maximum Root Path Size, and previous data will be
deleted when the root log folder size limit is reached.
Click the Actions tab. You can accept the default values or
make changes. To make changes, use the Add, Edit, or Remove
button. Table 2 describes each
option.
Table 1. Data Manager options
| OPTION | DEFINITION |
|---|
| Minimum Free Disk | Amount of free disk space that must be available
on the drive where log data is stored. When the limit is
reached, previous data will be deleted based on your Resource
Policy. |
| Maximum Folders | Number of subfolders allowed in the data
directory. When the limit is reached, previous data will be
deleted according to your Resource Policy. |
| Resource Policy | Specifies whether the largest or oldest log file
or directory will be deleted when limits are
reached. |
| Maximum Root Path Size | Maximum size of the data collector set data
directory, including all subfolders. When selected, this
maximum path size overrides the Minimum Free Disk and Maximum
Folders limits. When the limit of the Maximum Root Path Size
is reached, previous data will be deleted according to your
Resource Policy. |
Table 2. Actions properties
| OPTION | DEFINITION |
|---|
| Age/Units | The age of the data file in days or weeks. If the
value is set to zero, the age is not
considered. |
| Folder Size | The size, in megabytes, of the log data folder.
If the value is set to zero, the size is not
considered. |
| Save, Create Or Delete A Cab File | Cabinet files are archives that are created from
raw log data that can be extracted later. |
| Delete Data File | Raw data log created by the data collector set. To
save disk space, the data log can be deleted after a cab file
is created. |
| Delete Report File | Report file generated from the log data. Report
files can be retained even after the log data has been
deleted. Select this option to delete the report
file. |
2.1. Working with Data Log Files
When log files grow large, reports are generated more
slowly. If you review your logs frequently, setting limits will
automatically break up logs to make them easier to view. The
relog command can divide long log files into more
manageable segments, or you can use it to combine multiple log
files.
The relog command has the following syntax. The parameters are
detailed in the following sections:
Relog [filename [filename ...]] [-a] [-c Path [Path ...]] [-cf filename] [-f {bin
| csv | tsv | SQL}] [-t Value] [-o {outputfile | DSN!Counterlog}] [-b M/D/YYYY
[[HH:]MM:]SS] [-e M/D/YYYY [[HH:]MM:]SS] [-config {filename | i}] [-q]
<filename [filename ...]>
The <filename [filename ...]> parameter specifies the path name of an existing
performance counter log. You can specify multiple input files.
The -a parameter appends output file instead of overwriting. This option does not apply
to SQL format where the default is always to append.
The -c <Path [Path ...]> parameter specifies the performance counter path to log. To
specify multiple counter paths, separate them with a space and enclose the counter paths
in quotation marks (for example, "CounterPath1 CounterPath2").
The -cf <FileName> parameter specifies the path name of the text file that lists the
performance counters to be included in a relog file. Use this option to list counter
paths in an input file, one per line. The default setting is all counters in the
original log file are relogged.
The -f {bin| csv| tsv| SQL} parameter specifies the path name of the output file
format. The default format is bin. For a SQL database, the output file specifies the
DSN!CounterLog. You can specify the database location by using the ODBC manager to
configure the DSN (Database System Name).
The -t <value> parameter specifies sample intervals in "N" records. Includes every nth
data point in the relog file. The default is every data point.
The -o {OutputFile | DSN!CounterLog} parameter specifies the path name of the output
file or SQL database where the counters will be written.
The -b <M/D/YYYY HH:MM:SS[AM|PM]> parameter specifies begin time for copying first
record from the input file. Date and time must be in this exact format: M/D/YYYY
H:MM:SS.
The -e <M/D/YYYY HH:MM:SS[AM|PM]> parameter specifies end time for copying last record
from the input file. Date and time must be in this exact format: M/D/YYYY HH:MM:SS.
The -config {FileName | i} parameter specifies the path name of the settings file that
contains command-line parameters. Use -i in the configuration file as a placeholder for
a list of input files that can be placed on the command line. On the command line,
however, you do not need to use i. You can also use wildcards such as *.blg to specify
many input filenames.
The -q parameter displays the performance counters and time ranges of log files
specified in the input file.
The -y parameter bypasses prompting by answering "yes" to all questions.
The /? parameter displays help at the command prompt.
