The performance level of a server running Windows SBS 2011
changes as it performs various combinations of tasks. Monitoring the
performance of the computer’s various components over a period of time
is the only way to get a true picture of the system’s capabilities. The
Windows SBS Console can provide you with a snapshot of the server’s
condition at a specific moment in time, but the Performance Monitor snap-in enables you to view much of the same information on a continuous, real-time basis.
Like Event Viewer, Performance Monitor is an MMC snap-in that you can launch in a variety of ways, including these:
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Click Start. Then click Administrative Tools > Performance Monitor.
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Click Start; then click Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools and double-click Performance monitor.
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Open a blank MMC console and add the Performance Monitor snap-in.
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Click Start and type Perfmon.msc in the search box.
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Open the Computer Management Console and expand the Performance monitor node.
Performance Monitor is a tool that can display information for hundreds of different statistics (called performance counters)
in a variety of ways. You can use Performance Monitor to create a
customized graph or report containing any statistics you choose.
When you open the Performance Monitor snap-in, expand the Monitoring tools node, and select Performance monitor, the Detail pane of the snap-in contains a line graph, updated in real time, showing the current level for the % Processor Time performance counter, as shown in Figure 1.
The % Processor Time performance counter that appears in the default Performance
Monitor configuration is a useful gauge of the computer’s performance,
but the snap-in also includes hundreds of other counters that you can
add to the display. To add counters to the Performance Monitor display,
click the Add button in the toolbar or press Ctrl+I to display the Add Counters dialog box, as shown in Figure 2.
Note
Unlike most MMC snap-ins, Performance
Monitor does not insert its most commonly used functions into the MMC
Console’s Action menu. The only methods for accessing Performance
Monitor functions are the toolbar buttons, hotkey combinations, and the
context menu that appears when you right-click the display.
In this dialog box, you have to specify the following four pieces of information to add a counter to the display:
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Computer The name of the computer you want to monitor using the specified performance counter.
Note
Unlike most MMC snap-ins, you cannot redirect the entire focus of
Performance Monitor to another computer on the network. Instead, you
specify a computer name for each counter you add to the display. This
enables you to create a display showing counters for various computers
on the network, such as a single graph showing the processor activity
for all of your workstations.
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Performance object
A category of performance objects that represents a specific hardware
or software component in the computer. Clicking the plus sign for a
performance object displays the performance counters related to that component.
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Performance counter A statistic representing a specific aspect of the selected performance object’s activities.
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Instance An
element representing a specific occurrence of the selected performance
counter. For example, on a computer with two network interface adapters,
each counter in the Network Interface performance object has two
instances, one for each adapter, enabling you to track the performance
of each adapter individually. Some counters also have instances such as
Total or Average, enabling you to track the performance of all the
instances combined or the median value of all instances.
Once you have selected all of the required elements defining a performance counter instance, click Add to copy it to the Added counters list. The dialog box remains open so you can add more counters as needed. Click OK when you are finished to update the graph with your selected counters. When you add new counters to the Performance
Monitor snap-in, they appear in the legend at the bottom of the screen,
and lines representing their values are added to the display, as shown
in Figure 3.
The performance objects, performance counters, and instances that are available for selection in the Add
Counters dialog box depend on the computer’s hardware configuration,
the software installed on the computer, and the computer’s role on the
network. For example, the Performance
Monitor snap-in on your Windows SBS 2011 primary server includes
hundreds of additional counters for Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, and
SharePoint Foundation that would not appear on a computer running
Windows Server 2008 R2 without those products installed.
The legend beneath the Performance Monitor graph specifies the line
color for each counter, the scale of values for the counter, and other
identifying information. When you select a counter in the legend, its
current values appear in numerical form at the bottom of the graph.
Click the Highlight button in the toolbar (or press Ctrl+H) to change
the selected counter to a broad line that is easier to distinguish from
the other lines in the graph.
On a computer that is otherwise idle, the line in the default graph
tends to hover near the bottom of the scale, making it difficult to see
its value. You can address this problem—or that of any graph that is
difficult to see—by modifying the scale of the graph’s Y (vertical)
axis. Click the Properties button in the toolbar (or press Ctrl+Q) to
display the Performance Monitor Properties sheet and click the Graph tab, as shown in Figure 4. In the Vertical scale box, you can reduce the maximum value for the Y axis, thereby using more of the graph to display the counter data.
On the General tab of the Performance Monitor Properties sheet, you can modify the sample rate of the graph. By default, Performance
Monitor samples each performance counter value every one second, but
you can increase this value to display data for a longer time period on a
single page of the graph. This makes it easier to use Performance
Monitor to display long-term trends in counter values.
In addition to the line graph, Performance Monitor can display its captured data using two other views: a histogram view and a report view. You change the display to one of these views by clicking the Change Graph Type toolbar button. The histogram view is a bar graph with a separate vertical bar for each counter, as shown in Figure 5. In this view, it is easier to monitor large numbers of counters, because the lines do not overlap.
The report view, as shown in Figure 6, displays the numerical value for each of the performance counters.
The primary drawback of the histogram
and report views is that they do not display a history of the counter
values, only the current value. Each new sampling overwrites the
previous one in the display, unlike the line graph, which displays the
previous values as well.
Creating an Effective Display
In many cases, when users first discover the Performance
Monitor tool, they see the hundreds of available performance objects
and proceed to create a line graph containing dozens of different
counters. In most cases, the result is an incoherent muddle of a
display. The number of counters that you can display effectively depends
on the size and resolution of your monitor.
Consider a few tips when selecting counters:
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Limit the number of counters
Too many counters make the graph difficult to comprehend. To display a
large number of statistics, you can open multiple windows in the console
and select different counters in each window, or use the histogram or report view to display a large number of counters in a more compact form.
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Modify the counter display properties Depending on the size and capabilities of your monitor, the default colors and line widths that Performance Monitor uses in its graph might make it difficult to distinguish counters from each other. On the Data tab in the Performance Monitor Properties sheet, you can modify the color, style, and width of each counter’s line in the graph to make it easier to see.
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Choose counters with comparable values Performance
Monitor imposes no limitations on the combinations of counters you can
select for a single graph, but some statistics are not practical to
display together because of their disparate values. When a graph
contains one counter with a typical value under 20 and another counter
with a value in the hundreds, it is difficult to arrange the display so
that both counters are readable. Choose counters with values that are
reasonably comparable so that you can display them legibly. If you must
display counters with different value ranges, the report view is often
preferable to the graphs.
Creating Data Collector Sets
Over a period of time, server performance levels can degrade.
Usually, a single component becomes overworked or insufficient; forming a
bottleneck that can affect the entire computer. It is difficult to
detect a bottleneck by examining a server’s performance levels at a
specific point in time.
This is why it is a good idea to use a tool like Performance Monitor to establish the operational baseline levels for your Windows SBS 2008 server. A baseline
is simply a set of readings, captured under normal operating
conditions, that you can save and compare to readings taken at a later
time. By comparing the baseline statistics
to server readings taken at regular intervals, you might be able to
detect trends that eventually affect the computer’s performance.
To capture counter statistics in the Performance Monitor Console for later review, you must create a data collector set, using the following procedure:
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Log on to your Windows SBS 2011 primary server, using an account with
network Administrator privileges. The Windows SBS Console appears.
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Click Start. Then click Administrative Tools > Performance Monitor. The Performance Monitor Console appears.
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Expand the Data collector sets folder. Then right-click the User defined folder and, from the context menu, select New > Data Collector Set. The Create New Data Collector Set Wizard appears, displaying the How Would You Like To Create This New Data Collector Set? page.
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In the Name text box, type a name for the data collector set. Then, select the Create manually (advanced) option and click Next. The What Type Of Data Do You Want To Include? page appears.
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Select the Performance counter check box and click Next. The Which Performance Counters Would You Like To Log? page appears.
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Click Add. The standard Add Counters dialog box appears. Select the counters you want to log in the standard manner and click OK. The counters appear in the Performance counters box.
Tip
You can also use the Create New Data Collector Set Wizard to create performance counter alerts, which monitor
the values of specific counters and perform a task, such as sending an
email to an administrator, when the counters reach a specific value.
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Select a value for the Sample interval spin box, indicating how often you want the system to collect samples and click Next. The Where Would You Like The Data To Be Saved? page appears.
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Type the name of or browse to the folder where you want to store the data collector set and click Next. The Create The Data Collector Set? page appears.
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If the account you are currently using does not have the privileges needed to gather the log information, click Change to display a Performance Monitor dialog box in which you can supply alternative credentials.
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Select one of the following options:
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Open properties for this data collector set
Saves the data collector set to the specified location and opens its Properties sheet for further modifications
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Start this data collector set now Saves the data collector set to the specified location and starts collecting data immediately
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Save and close Saves the data collector set to the specified location and closes the wizard
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Click Finish. The new data collector set appears in the User defined folder.
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Select the new data collector set and click Start in the toolbar. The console begins collecting data until you click Stop.
Once you have captured data using the collector set, you can display the data by double-clicking the Performance monitor file in the folder you specified during its creation. This opens a Performance Monitor window containing a graph of the collected data, instead of real-time activity, as shown in Figure 7.
By repeating this process at a later time and comparing the information in the two data collector sets, you can often detect performance trends that indicate the presence of bottlenecks.
