Performance Monitor

Performance Monitor is a Windows NT administrative tool for monitoring the performance of computers running Windows NT. It uses a series of counters to track data, such as the number of processes waiting for disk time, the number of network packets transmitted per second, and the percentage of microprocessor utilization. You can watch this data in real time, log it for future study, use it in charts and reports, and set alerts to warn you when a threshold value is exceeded.

Performance Monitor lets you:

• View data from multiple computers simultaneously.
• See how changes you make effect the computer.
• Change charts of current activity while viewing them.
• Export Performance Monitor data to spreadsheets or database programs, or use it as raw input for C programs.
• Trigger a program or procedure, or send notices when a threshold is exceeded.
• Log data about various objects from different computers over time. You can use these log files to record typical resource use, monitor a problem, or help in capacity planning.
• Combine selected sections of several log files into a long-term archive.
• Report on current activity or trends over time.
• Save different combinations of counter and option settings for quick starts and changes.

Performance Monitor shows a broad view of the computer's performance. In some cases, you can use Performance Monitor to fully identify and fix a problem. In other cases, you may need to use a more specialized tool, such as a profiler, a working set monitor, or a network analyzer. The usage of those tools is beyond the scope of this chapter; for more information about specialized troubleshooting tools, contact the vendor of the tool.

The next sections provide some tips for using Performance Monitor. The sections assume you are using Windows NT Server 4.0 and SQL Server 6.5.

For more specific instructions about using Performance Monitor, see Performance Monitor Help, or see the detailed description in the Microsoft Windows NT Resource Kit.