Best Practice Ezine #69 Perfmon and Health Checks

Is your server running slowly?  Check with SolarWinds ipMonitor.

Get your free evaluation copy of ipMonitor here

IPAM will assist you in managing IP addresses.

To let you into a secret, this utilities is fun to use, even if you don't have a pressing need to calculate your IP address space.

Get a free evaluation copy of Orion IPAM

Performance Monitoring

Windows Performance Monitor (Perfmon) is a tool that everyone flirts with but few master.  My aim this week is to spur you to give this troubleshooting technique a fresh look or another chance.

There are four reasons to use performance monitor.

1) Troubleshooting a Bottleneck.
2) Routine Server Health Check
3) Capacity Planning.
4) Learning more about server components.  For example Memory and Disk.

The benefits of Perfmon are that you increase your network's efficiency while you learn more about what is going on under the surface.  Officially, the goals of performance monitoring are to detect bottlenecks and capacity planning.  Unofficially, performance monitoring is all about having fun while you learn more about computer memory, processor disk and network components.

If you are looking for handy network utilities, try some of the free downloads at Tools4Ever

The most likely finding of charting your servers performance is that at least one machine needs more RAM.  When I visit companies and carry out a network health check, I like to justify my modest fees by saving the company money.  My agenda is looking for cost nothing solutions such as moving services from servers with a high workload to those who are are just ticking over.  My speciality is finding servers that the computer department did not know existed, or had forgotten about.

Performance Monitoring is part science, part art, but mainly experience.  Beginners fixate on one idea, old hands keep an open mind.   Therefore beginners monitor one counter for half an hour.  Whereas old hands always monitor the big four objects Memory, Processor, Disk and Network.  Moreover experienced practitioners are likely to set Perfmon running go away for a few hours then return and analyse the traces.  The art of performance monitoring is a bit like playing quarterback, your first read is your number one speed receiver (Memory), then it's the guy in the slot (Processor), then the tight-end (Disk) finally if all receivers are covered check down to the running back (Network).

Keep Smiling - Free Computer Jokes

My friend Will had a letter the other day about Computer's and gender, see here if it should be Le Computer or La Computer.

Guy Thomas recommends Computer Training Software. 

Their topics and material are ideal for getting you started with VBScript.  The videos are easy to follow and you can control the pace.  Try their free demo material and then see if you want to buy the full package. See more about VB Script Training CD.

Home Copyright © 1999-2010 Computer Performance LTD All rights reserved

Please report a broken link, or an error.