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There is, of course, the question about which performance counters to use in your attempt to collect data for later comparison. Chapter 6, “Tools And Techniques,” includes several workspace files with preconfigured charts, logs, alerts, and reports that you can use to grab the big picture view. For a lower-level look into how your server is performing or to check for potentially troublesome details, Table 5.1 includes a few of the more useful counters with a brief description to get you started. In addition, Appendix A includes a complete list of the performance counters included in the base product, with a more complete description. This list can be quite helpful in determining the counters to use for long=term analysis.

Table 5.1 Performance counters for low-level data collection and troubleshooting.
Performance
Object Object Counters Description
Browser Duplicate Master Announcements The number of times the master browser has detected another master browser on the network.
Browser Enumerations Domain/sec. The rate of Domain browse requests that have been processed by this workstation.
Browser Enumerations Other/sec. The rate of browse requests processed by this workstation that were not Domain or Server browse requests.
Browser Mailslot Allocations Failed The number of times the datagram receiver has failed to allocate a buffer to hold a user mailslot write.
Browser Mailslot Opens Failed/sec. The rate of mailslot messages received by this workstation that were to be delivered to mailslots that are not present on this workstation.
Browser Mailslot Receives Failed The number of mailslot messages that couldn’t be received due to transport failures.
Browser Mailslot Writes Failed The total number of mailslot messages that were successfully received but were unable to be written to the mailslot.
Browser Missed Mailslot Datagrams The number of Mailslot Datagrams discarded due to configuration or allocation limits.
Browser Missed Server List Requests The number of requests to retrieve a list of browser servers that were received by this workstation but could not be processed.
Browser Server Announce Allocations
Failed/sec. 		The rate of server (or domain) announcements that have failed due to the lack of memory.
Cache Copy Read Hits % The percentage of Cache Copy Read requests that hit the cache (i.e., did not require a disk read in order to provide access to the page in the cache).
Cache Data Map Hits % The percentage of Data Maps in the cache that could be resolved without having to retrieve a page from the disk (i.e., the page was already in physical memory).
Cache Fast Read Resource Misses/sec. The frequency of cache misses necessitated by the lack of available resources to satisfy the request.
Cache MDL Read Hits % The percentage of Cache Memory Descriptor List (MDL) Read requests that hit the cache (i.e., did not require disk accesses in order to provide memory access to the page(s) in the cache).
Cache Pin Read Hits % The percentage of Cache Pin Read requests that hit the cache (i.e., did not require a disk read in order to provide access to the page in the cache).
ICMP Messages Outbound Errors The number of ICMP messages that this entity did not send due to problems discovered within ICMP, such as a lack of buffers.
ICMP Messages Received Errors The number of ICMP messages that the entity received but determined as having errors (bad ICMP checksums, bad length, and so forth).
ICMP Messages Received/sec. The rate in which ICMP messages are received by the entity. The rate includes messages received in error.
ICMP Messages Sent/sec. The rate in which ICMP messages are attempted to be sent by the entity. The rate includes messages sent in error.
ICMP Received Destination Unreachable The number of ICMP destination unreachable messages received.
ICMP Received Parameter Problem The number of ICMP Parameter Problem messages received.
IP Datagrams Forwarded/sec. The rate of input datagrams for which this entity was not the final IP destination, and, as a result, an attempt was made to find a route to forward them to the final destination.
IP Datagrams Outbound Discarded The number of output IP datagrams for which no problems were encountered to prevent their transmission to their destination but were discarded (e.g., for lack of buffer space)
IP Datagrams Outbound No Route The number of IP datagrams discarded because no route could be found to transmit the datagrams to their destinations.
IP Datagrams Received Address Errors The number of input datagrams discarded because the IP address in the IP header’s destination field was not a valid address to be received at this entity.
IP Datagrams Received Discarded The number of input IP datagrams for which no problems were encountered to prevent their continued processing but were discarded (e.g., for lack of buffer space).
IP Datagrams Received Header Errors The number of input datagrams discarded due to errors in the IP headers, including bad checksums, version number mismatches, other format errors, time-to-live expirations, errors discovered in processing their IP options, and so forth.
IP Datagrams Received Unknown Protocol The number of locally addressed datagrams received successfully but discarded because of an unknown or unsupported protocol.
LogicalDisk % Disk Read Time The percentage of elapsed time that the selected disk drive is busy servicing read requests.
LogicalDisk % Disk Write Time The percentage of elapsed time that the selected disk drive is busy servicing write requests.
LogicalDisk % Free Space The ratio of the free space available on the logical disk unit to the total usable space provided by the selected logical disk drive.
LogicalDisk Avg. Disk Bytes/Read The average number of bytes transferred from the disk during read operations.
LogicalDisk Avg. Disk Bytes/Write The average number of bytes transferred to the disk during write operations.
LogicalDisk Avg. Disk sec./Read The average time in seconds of a read of data from the disk.
LogicalDisk Avg. Disk sec./Write The average time in seconds of a write of data to the disk.
LogicalDisk Disk Queue Length The number of requests outstanding on the disk at the time performance data is collected. It includes requests in service at the time of the snapshot.
LogicalDisk Disk Read Bytes/sec. The rate bytes are transferred from the disk during read operations.
LogicalDisk Disk Reads/sec. The rate of read operations on the disk.
LogicalDisk Disk Write Bytes/sec. The rate bytes are transferred to the disk during write operations.
LogicalDisk Disk Writes/sec. The rate of write operations on the disk.
LogicalDisk Free Megabytes The unallocated space on the disk drive in megabytes. One megabyte = 1,048,576 bytes.
Memory Available Bytes The size of the virtual memory currently on the Zeroed, Free, and Standby lists.
Memory Cache Bytes The number of bytes currently in use by the system cache.
Memory Committed Bytes The size of virtual memory (in bytes) that has been committed (as opposed to simply reserved).
Memory Page Reads/sec. The number of times the disk was read to retrieve pages of virtual memory necessary to resolve page faults.
Memory Page Writes/sec. The number of times pages have been written to the disk because they were changed since last retrieved.
Memory Pages/sec. The number of pages read from the disk or written to the disk to resolve memory references to pages that were not in memory at the time of the reference. This is the sum of Pages Input/sec. and Pages Output/sec. This counter includes paging traffic on behalf of the system cache to access file data for applications. This is the primary counter to observe if you are concerned about excessive memory pressure (that is, thrashing) and the excessive paging that can result.
Memory Pool Nonpaged Bytes The number of bytes in the Nonpaged Pool, a system memory area where space is acquired by operating system components as they accomplish their appointed tasks. Nonpaged Pool pages cannot be paged out to the paging file, but, instead, they remain in main memory as long as they are allocated.
Memory Pool Paged Bytes The number of bytes in the Paged Pool, a system memory area where space is acquired by operating system components as they accomplish their appointed tasks. Paged Pool pages can be paged out to the paging file when not accessed by the system for sustained periods of time.
Memory System Cache Resident Bytes The number of bytes currently resident in the global disk cache.
Network Interface Current Bandwidth An estimate of the interface’s current bandwidth in bits per second (bps). For interfaces that do not vary in bandwidth or for those where no accurate estimation can be made, this value is the nominal bandwidth.
Network Interface Output Queue Length The length of the output packet queue (in packets) If this is longer than two, delays are being experienced, and the bottleneck should\be found and eliminated, if possible.
Network Interface Packets Outbound Discarded The number of outbound packets that were chosen to be discarded, even though no errors had been detected to prevent their being transmitted.
Network Interface Packets Outbound
Errors 		The number of outbound packets that could not be transmitted because of errors.
Network Interface Packets Received Discarded The number of inbound packets that were chosen to be discarded, even though no errors had been detected to prevent their being deliverable to a higher-layer protocol.
Network Interface Packets Received Errors The number of inbound packets that contained errors, preventing them from being deliverable to a higher-layer protocol.
Network Segment % Broadcast Frames The percentage of network bandwidth that is made up of broadcast traffic on this network segment.
Network % Multicast Frames The percentage of network bandwidth that is made Segment up of multicast traffic on this network segment.
Network Segment % Network Utilization The percentage of network bandwidth in use on this network segment.
Paging File % Usage The percentage of the Page File instance in use.
Paging File % Usage Peak The peak usage of the Page File instance expressed as a percentage.
PhysicalDisk % Disk Read Time The percentage of elapsed time that the selected disk drive is busy servicing read requests.
PhysicalDisk % Disk Time The percentage of elapsed time that the selected disk drive is busy servicing read or write requests.
PhysicalDisk % Disk Write Time The percentage of elapsed time that the selected disk drive is busy servicing write requests.
PhysicalDisk Avg. Disk Bytes/Read The average number of bytes transferred from the disk during read operations.
PhysicalDisk Avg. Disk Bytes/Write The average number of bytes transferred to the disk during write operations.
PhysicalDisk Avg. Disk sec./Read The average time in seconds of a read of data from the disk.
PhysicalDisk Avg. Disk sec./Write The average time in seconds of a write of data to the disk.
PhysicalDisk Disk Queue Length The number of requests outstanding on the disk at the time the performance data is collected. It includes requests in service at the time of the snapshot.
PhysicalDisk Disk Reads/sec. The rate of read operations on the disk.
PhysicalDisk Disk Writes/sec. The rate of write operations on the disk.
Processor % Interrupt Time The percentage of elapsed time that the processor spent handling hardware interrupts.
Processor % Privileged Time The percentage of processor time spent in Privileged Mode in non-idle threads.
Processor % Processor Time The percentage of the elapsed time that a processor is busy executing a non-idle thread.
Processor % User Time The percentage of processor time spent in User Mode in non-idle threads.
Redirector Connects Windows NT The number of connections to Windows NT computers.
Redirector Current Commands The number of requests to the Redirector that are currently queued for service.
Redirector Network Errors/sec. The number of serious unexpected errors that generally indicate the Redirector and one or more servers are having serious communication difficulties.
Redirector Server Sessions Hung The number of active sessions that are timed out and unable to proceed due to a lack of response from the remote server.
Server Blocking Requests Rejected The number of times the server has rejected blocking SMBs due to an insufficient count of free work items.
Server Errors System The number of times an internal server error was detected.
Server Sessions Errored Out The number of sessions that have been closed due to unexpected error conditions.
Server Work Item Shortages The number of times a work item was available or could be allocated to service the incoming request.
System % Total Interrupt Time The sum of % Interrupt Time of all processors divided by the number of processors in the system.
System % Total Privileged Time The average percentage of time spent in Privileged Mode by all processors.
System % Total Processor Time The average percentage of time that all the processors on the system are busy executing non-idle threads.
System % Total User Time The average percentage of time spent in User Mode by all processors.
System Processor Queue Length The instantaneous length of the processor queue in units of threads.


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