70290: MCSE Guide to Managing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment Chapter 11: Monitoring Ser

1
70-290 MCSE Guide to Managing a Microsoft
Windows Server 2003 EnvironmentChapter 11
Monitoring Server Performance
2
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

3
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

4
Task Manager

• Fastest way to obtain a system performance
  snapshot
• Provides high-level information
• Can be accessed through Windows taskbar or
  CtrlAltDelete key combination
• Has five main tabs
• Applications
• Processes
• Performance
• Networking
• Users

5
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

6
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

7
Monitoring and Managing Processes (continued)
8
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 CtrlAltDelete
• Observe running applications
• Start a new application and explore options using
  Task Manager

9
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

10
Monitoring Real-Time Performance (continued)
11
Monitoring Real-Time Performance (continued)
12
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

13
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

14
Monitoring Network Performance (continued)
15
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 users session

16
Monitoring Users (continued)
17
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

18
Event Viewer (continued)
19
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

20
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

21
Interpreting Events (continued)
22
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

23
Activity 11-3 (continued)
24
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

25
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

26
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

27
Using System Monitor (continued)
28
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

29
Activity 11-4 (continued)
30
Activity 11-4 (continued)
31
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

32
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

33
Activity 11-5 (continued)
34
Using System Monitor (continued)

• Collecting data is easy, interpreting data is
  harder
• Often there are causal relationships that arent
  obvious
• Several alternatives for saving and viewing
  historical data
• Html files
• Log files
• Databases

35
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

36
Activity 11-6 (continued)
37
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

38
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

39
Configuring Alerts (continued)
40
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

41
Configuring and Managing Services

• Dont 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

42
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

43
Activity 11-8 (continued)
44
Activity 11-8 (continued)
45
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

46
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

47
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