Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is one of the hidden
treasures of Microsoft's operating systems. Fortunately, Solarwinds
have created a free WMI Monitor so that you can examine disk, memory and
CPU performance information about your Windows servers.
This freeware tool enables to you to measure the real-time performance
of Microsoft servers including Exchange mailboxes and mail flow.
There are two distinct strategies with this performance analysis
tool, you could select an off-the-shelf Solarwinds monitor, or
alternatively you could build an applet by choosing the WMI counters
from the menus. Actually, there is a third way, visit the
Thwack
forum and download free templates that other enthusiasts have created.
Your resulting WMI
Monitor will deliver a desktop dashboard that monitors both local and
networked Windows servers. See screenshot to the right. If
you have ever flirted with performance monitoring, then you will find
that Solarwinds WMI monitor takes the guess work out of counters to
use for applications like Microsoft Active Directory or SharePoint.
WMI Performance Monitor Highlights:
Check 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.
In my assessment, 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'. See more about
WMI in the Thwack forum.
Guy's Recommendations for Solarwinds WMI Monitor
Develop a plan, what are the critical counters for your server?
Memory, Disk, Processor or 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'.
No appraisal of Solarwinds WMI monitor would be complete without a few
words about WMI itself. To appreciate the beauty of a jewel, you should view the crystals from
different angles. The same applies to the diamond that is Windows
Management Instrumentation, 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.
I found the hardest part of installing this gadget was remembering where I
downloaded the zip file! Once I found the executable it was all downhill the rest of the way.
I extracted the .msi file, clicked on the
licence agreement, and then let the install wizard complete the setup.
After the install completes, the WMI tool launches, and you are ready to
begin filling in your server information. Should you need re-find the
program later look on the
start menu, or if all else fails navigate to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\WMIMonitor
Should you need to uninstall, then go to the Control Panel, Programs,
scroll down to 'S' for Solarwinds Wake-on-Lan. It's a sign of a good
freeware program that it uninstalls easily and completely. To
review more ideas for WMI monitoring visit the
Thwack forum.
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 Windows 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.
See more on WMI Performance Monitors.
Summary of Guy's WMI Monitor Review
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 freeware monitor above average is the large
selection of pre-built and community generated application
templates.
Here are tried and tested programs to monitor your network. Most of these
utilities are free, while other downloads
are the full program, but time restricted.
Solarwinds are a great source of free specialist tools. A constant
theme is a free gadget for testing, backed-up with a comprehensive suite for
programs for larger organizations. I like the way that big companies
subsidise their smaller brethren... until they become large companies!
Guy Recommends: Orion's NPM - Network Performance Monitor
Orion's performance monitor is designed for detecting network outages. NPM makes it easy to see what's working, and what needs your attention.
This utility guides you through creating network maps. It also helps troubleshooting by indicating whether the root cause is faulty equipment, or resource overload.
