Performance Monitor Flashcards
Performance Monitor
A Windows tool used to examine how programs running on the server affect the computer’s performance.
Performance Monitor can examine your server’s performance in real time and by collecting log data for later analysis. The following table lists several tools associated with Performance Monitor:
Task Manager
A Windows utility that displays information about system resource usage.
Task Manager is a Windows utility that displays information about the system’s resource use. The utilization statistics provided in Task Manager can help resolve system problems. For example:
When experiencing poor performance, look for a process that is using more CPU resources than it should.
Memory utilization can be useful when identifying a memory leak. When an application does not release memory that is no longer needed, more and more memory resources could be consumed until all available memory is used by that application.
The tabs displayed in Task Manager are described in the following table:
Resource Monitor
A Windows utility that displays real-time information about the way installed hardware and software uses resources.
Reliability Monitor
Part of the Performance Monitor tool that shows a historical record of system changes and events.
Baseline
A baseline is a measurement of how a system was running at the specific time the measurement was taken.
Processes
Displays currently running applications and background processes. Select the arrow to the left of a listed background process to expand the process tree and view a list of applications and/or services that are dependent on the process.
Statistics for CPU utilization, memory utilization, disk I/O, and network utilization are listed to the right of each application and process.
Stop an unresponsive application or process from this tab. Select the application or process, and then select End Task .
Performance
Provides an overall view of how well the system is performing. This tab graphs CPU, memory, disk, and network utilization. Select the small graph on the left to display a larger graph for that resource. Keep the following in mind regarding the Performance tab:
If the computer has more than one physical CPU or the CPUs have more than one core, you can display a graph of each CPU by right-clicking the CPU graph and selecting Change graph to \ Logical processors .
If the CPU Usage History graph shows a percentage above 80%, this can signify that a program may be unresponsive or over-utilizing CPU resources. Momentary spikes, however, do not indicate a problem.
If the Memory graph is consistently high, this could be caused by a memory leak or too many applications simultaneously open without enough memory installed in the system. Use information on the Details tab to identify the application or applications using large amounts of memory.
The Performance tab displays snapshots of CPU usage. To drill down and gather more detailed and granular CPU performance data, use Performance Monitor.
Users
Displays each user currently logged in to the computer. You can disconnect a user on this tab if necessary.
Details
Displays information for each process running on the system:
Process name
The process ID (PID)
Status
User who started the process
CPU utilization
Memory utilization
A process description
Use the Details tab to:
Kill, or end, a process or process tree (all processes and associated sub-processes).
Set the processor affinity. The affinity identifies which processors or processor cores the process can use. For example, a process can be configured to run on only one of the cores in a quad-core CPU. You cannot change the affinity of some Windows processes.
Configure the process priority. The priority controls how the system can delay or switch between processes. Priority settings are:
Realtime
High
Above normal
Normal
Below normal
Low
Setting a process to Realtime will dramatically decrease the performance of other processes on the system. Try using High or Above normal for a process to assign more CPU time.
By default, the system typically gives a higher priority to a process that has active user input or interaction.
Processes can continue to run in the background when the user is not actively interacting with the application. Virus scanners, video compression, and backups are examples of processes that run in the background while the user works in a different application.
Services
Shows a list of services that have run since the computer started. Use the Services tab to:
Start or stop a service
View the process associated with the service
Monitoring tools
Performance Monitor displays real-time visual graphs of a computer’s overall performance.
Track performance by using objects and counters:
An object is a statistic group that often corresponds to a specific type of hardware device or software process.
A counter is a specific statistic you can monitor. For example, for the PhysicalDisk object, you can monitor counters such as %Disk Read Time or %Idle Time.
Add or remove counters to customize the statistics displayed.
Display data in the following forms:
Line graph
Histogram
Report (text)
By itself, Performance Monitor does not save any data. To save statistics over time, use a data collector set (DCS).
Run perfmon.exe to load Performance Monitor from the command prompt. The following options are available with this command:
Run perfmon /sys to open Performance Monitor in stand-alone mode. This compares multiple logs by overlaying each log onto a base log. Compare statistics between logs using the Compare option.
Run perfmon /report to quickly generate and display a system diagnostic report.
Reports
Use the Reports tool to view the collected data or to create new reports from data collector set counters. Keep the following in mind about Performance Monitor reports:
If a collector set has not been defined and run, no reports will be available.
Membership in the local Performance Log Users group, Administrators group, or equivalent is required to view the reports.
The Reports tool displays a System Diagnostic report, or system health report, that includes the status of hardware resources, system response times, and processes on the local computer. The report includes suggestions of ways to maximize performance and streamline system operation. Membership in the local Administrators group or equivalent is required to generate a system diagnostic report. To generate a report:
Start the System Diagnostic data collector set in Performance Monitor.
In the advanced tools of the Performance Information and Tools console, select Generate a system health report.
logman.exe
Use this command with the following options to create and manage logs:
create counter creates a new performance counter data collector.
create trace creates a new event trace data collector.
create config creates a new configuration data collector.
start starts an existing collection and sets the begin time to manual.
stop stops an existing collection and sets the end time to manual.
