HOW TO: Be Reminded When Your Computer Resources Are Running Low in Windows Server 2003 (324795)

SUMMARY

This step-by-step article describes how to configure your Windows Server 2003-based server to inform you when your computer resources are running low. Programs in Windows Server 2003 define the performance data it collects in terms of 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 data about the performance of system components or installed software.

You can set an alert on a counter so that a message is sent, a program starts, or a log starts when the selected counter's value is above or below a specified setting.

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How to Add Counters to System Monitor

1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Performance. If you select an object on a remote computer, you may experience a short delay as System Monitor refreshes the list to reflect objects that are present on that computer.
2. Right-click the System Monitor Details pane, and then click Add Counters.
3. To monitor any computer on which the monitoring console is run, click Use local computer counters. Or, to monitor a specific computer regardless of where the monitoring console is run, click Select counters from computer, and then specify a computer name.
4. Under Performance object, click an object to monitor. By default, the Processor object is selected.
5. Click All counters or click Select counters from the list, and then click one of the list items.
6. Click Add.

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How to Define Counters and Thresholds for an Alert

1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Performance.
2. Double-click Performance Logs and Alerts, and then click Alerts.
3. Right-click Alerts, click New Alert Settings, type a name for the alert, and then click OK.
4. Click the General tab, type a descriptive comment for the alert, and then click Add.
5. For each counter or group of counters that you want to add to the log, follow these steps:
   1. To monitor counters from the computer on which the Performance Logs and Alerts service will run, click Use local computer counters.
      
      Or, to monitor counters from a specific computer regardless of where the service is run, click Select counters from computer, and then specify the name of the computer you want to monitor.
   2. Under Performance object, select an object to monitor.
   3. Then select one or more counters to monitor.
   4. To monitor all instances of the selected counters, click All Instances. Note that binary logs can include instances that are not available at log startup but that subsequently become available. Or, to monitor particular instances of the selected counters, click Select instances from list, and then click one or more instances to monitor.
   5. Click Add, and then click Close.
6. In the Alert when the value is box, click Under or Over. In the Limit box, specify the value that triggers the alert.
7. In the Sample data every box, specify the amount and the unit of measure for the update interval.
8. Click the Action tab to determine which actions occur when an alert is triggered.
9. To record the alert in the Event Viewer logs, click to select the Log an entry in the application event log check box.
10. To send an alert message to a computer, click to select the Send a network message to check box, and then type the name of the computer you want to receive the alert message.
11. Click to select the Start performance data log check box to start a log file.
12. Click Run this program if you want a program to start when the alert criteria is reached. You can type the path to the program directly or click Browse to manually select the program you want to use.
13. Click the Schedule tab, and then configure the appropriate settings to start and stop logging either manually or at a scheduled time.

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How to Choose Which Data to Monitor

Start by monitoring the activity of the following components in the following order:

1. Memory
2. Processors
3. Disks
4. Network

The following list shows the minimum counters that are recommended for server monitoring. Note that when you examine specific resources, you should include other counters for the associated performance object.

• Component: Disk
  Performance aspect that is being monitored: Usage
  Counters to monitor:
  • Physical Disk\ Disk Reads/sec
  • Physical Disk\ Disk Writes/sec
  • LogicalDisk\ % Free Space
  You must interpret the % Disk Time counter carefully. Because the _Total instance of this counter may not accurately reflect utilization on multiple-disk computers, it is important to use the % Idle Time counter also. Note that these counters cannot display a value that exceeds 100 percent.
  
  
• Component: Disk
  Performance aspect that is being monitored: Bottlenecks
  Counters to monitor: Physical Disk\ Avg. Disk Queue Length (all instances)
• Component: Memory
  Performance aspect that is being monitored: Usage
  Counters to monitor:
  • Memory\ Available Bytes
  • Memory\ Cache Bytes
• Component: Memory
  Performance aspect that is being monitored: Bottlenecks or leaks
  Counters to monitor:
  • Memory\ Pages/sec
  • Memory\ Page Reads/sec
  • Memory\ Transition Faults/sec
  • Memory\ Pool Paged Bytes
  • Memory\ Pool Nonpaged Bytes
  Although the following components are not specifically Memory object counters, they can be 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 aspect that is being monitored: Throughput
  Counters to monitor:
  • Protocol transmission counters (varies with networking protocol); for TCP/IP:
  • Network Interface\ Bytes total/sec
  • Network Interface\ Packets/sec
  • Server\ Bytes Total/sec or Server\ Bytes Transmitted/sec
  • Server\ Bytes Received/sec
  You may want to monitor other objects for network and server throughput as described in monitoring network activity.
  
  
• Component: Processor
  Performance aspect that is being monitored: Usage
  Counters to monitor: Processor\ % Processor Time (all instances)
• Component: Processor
  Performance aspect that is being monitored: Bottlenecks
  Counters to monitor:
  • System\ Processor Queue Length (all instances)
  • Processor\ Interrupts/sec
  • System\Context switches/sec

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