Hi Fred

Here is a starting point for the server performance log monitoring. I think you should monitor each server for one month with the performance log sent to me on a weekly basis (Monday – Sunday). Please indicate which server goes with which log. If you could have these logs stored in a “Text File CSV” text file mode that would be great. When you start the monitoring you may find that certain counter hit the top limits, but monitor for one week to make controlled changes to the server configuration which can be measured.


Monitoring point and reason
Memory:
Memory Pages input / sec – (when this counter remains at a low value ( 2 or less), it indicates that all operations are occurring within the physical
RAM. Meaning there is no performance degradation due to paging operations.)

Cache Faults / sec – Indicates how frequently the system is unable to locate data in cache and must search for the data on disk.

Page Faults / sec – Similar to cache faults, except that it also measures faults, When a requested memory page is in use by another Application. For low end systems if this counter is above 200 or for high end systems above 600, then excess paging is Occurring. We need to add RAM

Available bytes – Indicates the amount of free memory available for use. IF this number is less than 4MB, we need to add RAM

Paging File % usage Peak - Indicates the level of paging file usage. If this number nears 100% during normal operations, the maximum size of your
paging file is too small, and you need to add more RAM.


Physical Disk Average Disk Queue Length - Tracks the number of system request waiting for disk access. The number of queued request should not exceed double the number of spindles.

% Disk Time – represents the percentage of time that the disk activity handling read write request. Note sustained percentages of 90% or greater might indicate a storage device is to slow.

Average Disk sec/ Transfer – Indicates the average time in seconds of a disk
transfer (might have to run diskperf –y


Processor:
% Processor Time – Indicates the amount of time the cpu spends on non-idle
work.

% Total Processor Time – Applies only to multiprocessor systems.

Processor Queue Length – Indicates the number of threads waiting for processor time. A sustained value of 2 or higher indicates processor congestion.

Network Access:

1. Network Interface Bytes total / sec – indicates the rate at which data is sent to and received by NIC( including framing characters). Compare this value with the expected capacity of the device. If the highest observed average is less than 75% of the expected value, communication errors or slowdowns might be occurring that limit the NIC’s rated speed.


Network Interface Current Bandwidth – estimates a NIC’s current bandwidth,
measured in bits per second(bps)

Output Queue Length – Indicates the number of packets waiting to be transmitted by a NIC. If the average is above 2 you are experiencing delays

Packets / sec – indicates the number of packets handled by a NIC.

I hope this helps


Andy