Chapter11 Monitoring Server Performance

Managing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment

Chapter 11: Monitoring Server

Performance

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Objectives• Identify the importance of monitoring server

performance• Use Task Manager to monitor server performance

and resource usage• Use Event Viewer to identify and troubleshoot

problems• Use the Performance console to monitor server

performance using both System Monitor and Performance Logs and Alerts

• Optimize server performance through the configuration of service settings

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Introduction to Monitoring Server Performance

• Server performance can deteriorate over time• Monitoring helps alert you to problems before

they become serious• Normal behavior is called baseline performance• Built-in tools for monitoring:

• Task Manager

• Event Viewer

• Performance console

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Task Manager• Fastest way to obtain a system performance snapshot

• Provides high-level information• Can be accessed through Windows taskbar or

Ctrl+Alt+Delete key combination• Has five main tabs

• Applications• Processes• Performance• Networking• Users

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Monitoring and Managing Applications

• From Task Manager, the Applications tab displays a list of all foreground software applications

• To manage a particular application, select it from the list and choose a menu option: End Task, Switch To, New Tasks

• Or, right-click an application and choose from shortcut menu: Switch To, Bring to Front, Minimize, Maximize, End Task, Go To Process

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Monitoring and Managing Processes

• From Task Manager, the Processes tab displays a list of all processes in use by applications and services

• Displays information about each running process• Right-click a process to end it• Can change process priority from default of

Normal Priority

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Monitoring and Managing Processes (continued)

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Activity 11-1: Using Task Manager to Manage

Applications and Processes• Objective: To explore managing applications and

processes using Task Manager• Open Task Manager using Ctrl+Alt+Delete• Observe running applications• Start a new application and explore options using

Task Manager

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Monitoring Real-Time Performance

• From Task Manager, the Performance tab displays CPU and memory performance charts, graphs, and statistics

• Gives a snapshot of system performance at the moment

• Often used in conjunction with a more detailed tool as a first pass look at performance

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Monitoring Real-Time Performance (continued)

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Monitoring Real-Time Performance (continued)

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Activity 11-2: Using Task Manager to Monitor

Performance• Objective: To monitor server performance using

the Task Manager• Open Task Manager and click the Performance tab• Review information• Start an application and again review performance• Explore starting and stopping applications and the

effect on performance

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Monitoring Network Performance

• From Task Manager, the Networking tab displays network utilization information • Roughly the percentage of the network bandwidth in

use

• Also displays network performance data for each installed network card• Name of adapter, network utilization detected by the

adapter, speed of network link, and operational state of adapter

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Monitoring Network Performance (continued)

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Monitoring Users

• From Task Manager, the Users tab displays a listing of users currently logged on, including network clients

• Can log off or disconnect a user• Can send messages to connected users• Can connect to another user’s session

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Monitoring Users (continued)

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Event Viewer• Used to gather information and troubleshoot

software, hardware, and system problems• Events are recorded in logs• Event Viewer allows you to view contents of logs• Log entries denote warnings and errors

• Often include an event ID that helps to identify problem

• Three main logs:• Application log• Security log• System log

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Event Viewer (continued)

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Event Viewer (continued)

• Domain controller has two additional logs:• Directory service log

• File replication service log

• Any user can view contents of application and system log

• Administrators and those with special permission can view security log

• Event types include: information, warning, error

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Interpreting Events

• Click a log file within Event Viewer to get details• Details pane lists all events with information

including:• Type of event

• Data and time of event

• Source of event

• Category and event ID

• Computer on which event occurred

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Interpreting Events (continued)

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Activity 11-3: Viewing Event Viewer System and Application

Log Events• Objective: Use Event Viewer to view system and

application logs• Open Event Viewer and view the application log• View properties of events in the log• Open the system log• Review an error event

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Activity 11-3 (continued)

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Performance Console• Supports gathering more detailed information than

Task Manager• Consists of two different tools:

• System Monitor

• View data gathered from counter objects

• Performance Logs and Alerts

• Periodically logs samples to a data file to be imported into other applications

• Generates alerts when certain configured thresholds are met

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System Monitor • Particularly useful for collecting data on real-time

server performance• Tasks that can be performed using System

Monitor:• Understanding server performance

• Problem diagnosis

• Capacity planning

• Testing

• You can specify a type of data to monitor, the source or computer from which to capture data, and performance objects to monitor

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Using System Monitor

• Displays information when Performance tool is first opened

• Data display related to memory, processor, and physical disk objects on local computer

• Three possible views• Graphs• Histogram• Report

• System Monitor toolbar used to control various functions

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Using System Monitor (continued)

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Activity 11-4: Exploring System Monitor Settings

• Objective: To explore System Monitor settings for Windows Server 2003

• Open the Performance console to see System Monitor running

• Use the toolbar to change view types• Change the view to highlight a particular property• Explore freezing the display

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Activity 11-4 (continued)

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Activity 11-4 (continued)

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Performance Objects and Counters

• Performance monitoring is a regular maintenance task

• Performance counters:• % processor time

• % interrupt time

• Pages/second

• Page faults/second

• % disk time

• Avg. disk queue length

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Activity 11-5: Adding Counters to System Monitor

• Objective: To add object counters to the System Monitor tool

• Add several counters• Explore the Explain feature• Explore different views

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Activity 11-5 (continued)

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Using System Monitor (continued)

• Collecting data is easy, interpreting data is harder• Often there are causal relationships that aren’t

obvious• Several alternatives for saving and viewing

historical data• Html files

• Log files

• Databases

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Activity 11-6: Saving and Viewing System Monitor Data

• Objective: Explore options for saving System Monitor data

• Open System Monitor and collect data• Freeze the display• Save the data as an html file• Explore options that are available in the browser

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Activity 11-6 (continued)

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Performance Logs and Alerts• A second tool available within Performance

console• Allows you to automatically collect data (locally

or remotely) and view it using another program• Tasks: collect data in different formats, view data,

configure parameters, configure and manage logging sessions, set up alerts

• Three options available in tool: counter logs, trace logs, and alerts

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Configuring Alerts

• Logging increases overhead on a server• Set up a regular schedule for collecting and

reviewing data• Since logging should not run constantly, alerts can

notify you of a potential problem

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Configuring Alerts (continued)

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Activity 11-7: Configuring Performance Logs and Alerts

• Objective: To explore configuring performance logging and alerts

• Open Performance Logs and Alerts• View the System Overview log• Explore the Log Files and Schedules tab• Configure alerts and monitor performance

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Configuring and Managing Services

• Don’t want to run unnecessary services, adds overhead to a system

• Before disabling a service, check dependencies• Services MMC allows you to configure various

settings under the properties of a service with following tabs• General• Log On• Recovery• Dependencies

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Activity 11-8: Configuring Windows Server 2003 Services

• Open the Remote Desktop Help Session Manager and configure it to start automatically

• Objective: To configure the startup properties and settings of Windows Server 2003 services

• Open the Services MMC• Explore the General, Log On,Recovery and

Dependencies tabs• Open the Messenger service and disable it

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Activity 11-8 (continued)

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Activity 11-8 (continued)

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Summary

• Goal is to ensure servers meet performance expectations and to minimize server downtime

• Task Manager utility provides snapshots of CPU, memory, and network performance and utilization – Used as an initial point of reference

• Task Manager can also be used for management – to end, switch, start, etc. new applications and processes and to log off and disconnect users

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Summary (continued)

• Event Viewer utility used to view logged information about errors, cautions, and events in processes and applications – helps to identify issues before they become larger problems

• Performance console contains the System Monitor utility and the Performance Logs and Alerts utility

• System Monitor allows you to track many different performance measures locally and remotely and provides different views of the measures

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Summary

• Performance Logs and Alerts allows you to automatically log performance information based on start and stop times or on alert configurations• Information can be saved in different formats including

SQL database, comma-separated, tab-separated, etc.

• To optimize server performance, unnecessary services and applications should be disabled – some run by default when server is installed• Check Dependencies before disabling a service