Selected Scenarios for Monitoring Performance with Windows Vista

Microsoft® Windows Vista® includes tools to help IT Professionals monitor and track the system performance and reliability of the computers they manage.

Performance Monitor is part of Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor, a snap-in for Microsoft Management Console (MMC). From this single console you can monitor system performance in real-time, customize the data you want to collect in logs, define thresholds for alerts and automatic actions, generate reports, and view past performance data in a variety of ways.

Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor combines the functionality of previous stand-alone tools including Performance Logs and Alerts (PLA), Server Performance Advisor (SPA), Performance Monitor, and System Monitor. It provides a graphical interface for the customization of Data Collector Sets and Event Trace Sessions.

These tools help IT Professionals monitor and track the system performance and reliability of the computers they manage.

For more information about performance in Windows Vista, see the "Windows Vista Performance Monitoring and Tuning Step by Step Guide" on the Microsoft Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=56504).

Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor comprises three main components: Resource Monitor, Performance Monitor, and Reliability Monitor.

The home page of Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor is the Resource View. When you run Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor as a user with administrator privileges, you can monitor the usage and performance of CPU, Disk, Network, and Memory in real time. More detail, including information about which processes are using which resources, is available by clicking CPU, Disk, Network, or Memory to expand the display.

Performance Monitor displays built-in Windows performance counters, either in real time or as historical data. You can add performance counters to Performance Monitor by dragging them from any Data Collector Set or Data Collector Set template and dropping them on the Performance Monitor icon. You can also create custom Data Collector Sets from a collection of counters already added to Performance Monitor. Performance Monitor features multiple graph views to allow you to visually review performance log data, and custom views created in Performance Monitor can be exported as Data Collector Sets for use with performance and logging features.

Windows Vista uses the built-in Reliability Analysis Component (RAC) to calculate a reliability index which provides an indication of your overall system stability over time. RAC also keeps track of any important changes to the system that are likely to have an impact on stability, such as Windows updates and application installations. You can use the Reliability Monitor snap-in for Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to see the trends in your system's reliability index correlated with these potentially destabilizing events, making it easy to trace a reliability change directly to a particular event.

For additional information about Reliability Monitor, see the "Windows Vista Performance Monitoring and Tuning Step by Step Guide" on the Microsoft Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=56504).

Other than the important account security prerequisites discussed below, you can use Performance Monitor and related tools essentially the same way you have before.

Reliability Analysis Component, which collects the data that is displayed by Reliability Monitor, runs as a pre-configured scheduled task. When you first install Windows Vista, your system may need to run for at least one day before RAC has collected enough data for Reliability Monitor to display in the Stability Chart.

This guide discusses the following scenarios:

You can create Data Collector Sets in a variety of ways, including using a template (such as the provided System Overview template). A particularly powerful and convenient method is to convert a collection of performance counters you are already using in Performance Monitor directly to a Data Collector Set. You can then save the Data Collector Set for use at any time and on any other computer.

To complete this task, ensure that you meet the following requirements:

Some Data Collectors display information from the Windows Kernel Trace provider session. In order to use this provider, you must be logged on as the local administrator, or have launched Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor with elevated privileges.

This scenario gives you the opportunity to explore just one of the new performance management features in Windows Vista. In this scenario, you will add counters to Performance Monitor and then create a Data Collector Set from those counters.

For detailed information about Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor, Performance Monitor, and related tools, see the "Windows Vista Performance Monitoring and Tuning Step by Step Guide" Microsoft Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=56504).

At this point you can view and manipulate the counters in various ways. For more information about new features related to viewing and using counters, see the "Windows Vista Performance Monitoring and Tuning Step by Step Guide" on the Microsoft Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=56504).

Do not close Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor. The counters you added to the Performance Monitor display will be used in the following procedure.

Follow the steps below to proceed with this evaluation example.

Reliability Monitor displays the data collected from RAC in a Stability Chart and correlates your computer's reliability index with important events that are likely to affect stability, such as driver failures and software installation.

To complete this task, ensure that you meet the following requirements:

The following known issues may affect your ability to complete this task:

This scenario gives you the opportunity to explore just one of the new performance management features in Windows Vista. For detailed information about Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor, Performance Monitor, Reliability Monitor, and related tools, see the "Windows Vista Performance Monitoring and Tuning Step by Step Guide" on the Microsoft Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=56504).

Below the Stability Chart, you may see specific events that correlate with changes in stability, such as software installations, application failures, hardware failures, or Windows failures. You can click any of the recorded events for detailed information. For example, clicking a recorded application failure displays details such as the version.