Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is one of the hidden
treasures of Microsoft's operating systems. Fortunately, Solarwinds
have created a WMI Monitor so that you can examine these gems of
performance information for free.
This WMI Monitor enables to you to measure the real-time
performance of Microsoft servers including Exchange 2007's mailboxes and mail flow.
Your FREE WMI
Monitor will deliver a desktop dashboard that monitors any Windows server and offers built-in
templates plus community customizable templates. Take the guess work out of which WMI counters to
use for applications like Microsoft® Active Directory™ or SharePoint™.
WMI Monitor Highlights:
Monitor real-time performance metrics on any Windows server or
application.
Leverage a large selection of pre-built and community generated
application templates.
Modify or design your own application templates with the
built-in WMI browser.
Use the application templates from WMI Monitor with Orion
Application Performance Monitor if you need to monitor multiple
applications or require more powerful monitoring.
Overall, the WMI monitor software was average in terms of ease of setup.
However, it does get the Guy seal of approval because you can install
the monitor and get started without reading the instructions.
The idea is that first you select your object, such as Memory,
Processor, BIOS or Message queue; then you choose which counters to
inspect. Alternatively, you can select a pre-defined template for
Exchange or SQL.
Where I was a bit
slow on the uptake was realizing how to make changes to my WMI selections.
The knack is to right-click the Solarwinds icon in the Navigation Area and select 'Edit
Configuration Settings'.
Guy's Recommendations for Solarwinds WMI Monitor
Develop a plan, what are the critical counters for your server?
Memory, Disk, Processor, Mail Store.
Seek out the filter which says: Formatted Performance Counters.
(See screenshot)
Take the trouble to register with the Thwack forum, not only
will it give you first class support, but also it will provide a
treasure of pre-defined settings called 'Monitors'.
To appreciate the beauty of a jewel, you should view the crystals from
different angles. The same applies to the diamond that is WMI, I recommend that to gain perspective and understanding, examine WMI from these angles.
Think of WMI as a database holding information about a computer's disk, services, processor and
objects.
View WMI as a pipe connecting magically to the inner secrets of the Microsoft operating system.
Get a good WMI monitor to probe, and to measure
the operating system's properties.
There is no escaping acronyms. Guy's 3rd law
of computing says, the more acronyms that you see on a page, the greater the degree of difficulty you are about to encounter.
Yet knowledge is power. Until you understand what an acronym means you feel intimidated, rather like an outsider to a clique. However, once you
get a feel of what the letters stand for, then you can join the club and
savour the power of those capital letters - WMI (Windows Management
Instrumentation.
To me, all acronyms have a personality, WMI is like a no-nonsense inspector
and in fact, WMI reminds me of an HMI.
In England, an HMI is better known as a school inspector. Imagine that I made a mistake and addressed WMI as Windows
Management Information, I half expect that it would sharply correct me and say, 'Actually, I'm Windows Management Instrumentation'.
Thus WMI is all about retrieving information about what is going on, all the way from the hardware to the operating system's services.
The Solarwinds WMI monitor will help you get started because it specializes in
displaying performance monitor counters, for example,
Memory: Available MB, or Processor: Interrupts PerSec. Remember
the Thwack community will help by answering your questions, and by
providing templates with pre-defined counters that other administrators
have found useful for their servers.
Whenever I think about WMI for any length of time, it hits me:
the operating system must know everything that's going on!
All we need is a microscope to view the same data. Well, with this WMI Monitor you can see real-time performance metrics on any Windows server. What makes this monitor above average is the large selection of pre-built and community generated
application templates. If you need even more power and
detail check out the Orion
Application Performance Monitor.
More Free and Trial Network Software
Here are Guy's reviews, recommendations and download links for handy
utilities.
Guy
Recommends: Orion's NPM - Network Performance Monitor
Orion's performance monitor is designed for detecting network outages.
A network-centric
view make it easy to see what's working, and what needs your attention.
This utility guides you through troubleshooting by indicating whether the
root cause is faulty equipment or resource overload.