Configuring a Win 2003-based server

This article describes how to configure a Windows Server 2003-based server to notify you when there is insufficient computer resources. Programs in Windows Server 2003 define the performance data they collect from three aspects: objects, counters, and instances. A performance object is any resource, program, or service that can be measured. You can use “System Monitor> and performance logs and alerts to select performance objects, counters, and instances to collect and display performance data for system components or installed software.

You can set an alert on the counter so that you can send a message, start a program, or start a log when the value of the selected counter is above or below the specified setting.

How to Add Counters to System Monitor

Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Performance. If you select an object on a remote computer, there may be a short delay when the <quo;system monitor" refreshes the list to reflect existing objects on the computer.

Right-click on the <quo;System Monitor>> Details” pane and click Add Counter.

To monitor any computer that is running the monitoring console, click “Use local computer counters”. If you want to monitor a particular computer regardless of where the monitoring console is running, click “Select counter from computer" and specify the computer name.

Under <;Performance Objects>, click the object you want to monitor. The processor object is selected by default.

Click All Counters, or click to select a counter from the list and then click on a list item.

Click Add.

How to define counters and alert thresholds

Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Performance.

Double-click “Performance Logs and Alerts  and click Alerts.

Right-click an alert, click New Alert Settings, type a name for the alert, and then click OK.

Click the General tab, type a descriptive comment for the alert, then click Add.

For each counter or counter group that you want to add to the log, perform the following steps:

To monitor counters from the computer running the "Performance Logs and Alerts" service, please Click "Use local computer counter".

Or, to monitor counters from a specific computer, regardless of where the service is running, click “Select counters from computer', and then specify the name of the computer you want to monitor.

Under "Performance Objects", select the objects you want to monitor.

Then select one or more counters to monitor.

To monitor all instances of the selected counter, click All Instances. Note that binary logs can contain instances that are not available when the log is started but then become available. Alternatively, to monitor a specific instance of the selected counter, click “select an instance from the list" and click one or more instances to monitor.

Click Add, then click Close.

After the alert will be sent, if the value is in the box, click Less than or greater than. In the Limit to box, specify the value that triggers the alert.

In the "Data Sampling Interval" box, specify the value and unit of measure for the update interval.

Click the Actions tab to determine what action is triggered when an alert is triggered.
To log an alert in the “Event Viewer" log, click the “mark item to the application event log” checkbox to select it.

To send an alert message to your computer, click the “Send network information to" check box to select it, then type the name of the computer you want to receive the alert message from.

Click the “Start Performance Data Log> checkbox to select it to start the log file.

If you want to start the program when the alert condition is reached, click “execute this program”. You can type the path of the program directly or click Browse to manually select the program you want to use.

Click the Schedule tab and configure the appropriate settings to start or stop logging manually or at scheduled times.

How to select the data to be monitored

Start monitoring the activities of the following components in the following order:

Memory

Processor

Disk

Network

The following list shows the minimum counters recommended for server monitoring. Note that when you check for a specific resource, you should include additional counters for the related performance objects.

Component: Disk

Performance Aspects Being Monitored: Usage

Counters to Monitor:

Physical Disk\\Disk Reads/sec (Disk Read Fetch /sec)

Physical Disk\\Disk Writes/sec(Disk Write/sec)

Logical Disk\\% Free Space

You must read it carefully Disk Time counter. Since the _Total instance of this counter may not accurately reflect usage on a multi-disk machine, it is important to use the % Idle Time counter at the same time. Note that these counters cannot display values ​​greater than 100%.

Component: Disk

Performance Aspects Being Monitored: Bottlenecks

Counters to Monitor: Physical Disk\\Avg.Disk Queue Length (All Example)

Component: Memory

Performance Aspects Being Monitored: Usage

Counters to Monitor:

Memory\\ Available Bytes (Available Bytes) )

Memory\\Cache Bytes

Component: Memory

Performance Aspects Being Monitored: Bottlenecks or Vulnerabilities

Counters to be monitored:

Memory\\ Pages/sec(pages/sec)

Memory\\ Page Reads/sec(Page Read/sec)

Memory\\ Transition Faults /sec (transfer error/sec)

Memory\\ Pool Paged Bytes

Memory\\ Pool Nonpaged Bytes

The following components, although not specialized memory object counters, are useful for memory analysis:

paging file \\ % Usage Object (all instances)

Cache\\ Data Map Hits%

Server\\ Pool Paged Bytes

Server\\ Pool Nonpaged Bytes

Component: Network

Performance Aspects Being Monitored: Throughput

Counters to Monitor:

Protocol transmission counter (varies by network protocol); for TCP/IP, including:

Network Interface\\Bytes total/sec (total bytes/second)

Network Interface\\Packets/sec(packets/sec)

Server\\Bytes Total/sec or Server\\Bytes Transmitted/sec

Server\\Bytes Received/sec (Bytes Received/sec)

You may need to monitor network and server throughput of other objects as described in the section "Monitoring Network Activity". >

Component: Processor

Performance aspects being monitored: Usage

Meter to monitor : Processor \\ % Processor Time (all instances)

Component: Processor

Performance aspects being monitored: Bottlenecks

To be monitored Counter:

System\\Processor Queue Length (all instances)

Processor\\Interrupts/sec(Interrupt/sec)

System\\ Context switches /sec (context switching /sec)