Scaling The Y Axis

To scale the Y axis, follow the steps presented in this section.

1.  Double-click the areas where the Y scale appears (100000000 to 700000000 in our example), and the Format Axis dialog box will appear.

2.  Select the Scale tab to display the Scale property sheet.

3.  Enable the Logarithmic scale checkbox.

4.  Click OK.

Your chart is now finished. It should look similar to the chart shown in Figure 5.11, with a completed legend and all data values visible. If you look at this chart, you should be able to see quite a bit of similarity with the Performance Monitor chart shown in Figure 5.2. Both charts have the same peaks and valleys, although those shown on the Performance Monitor are a bit easier to see. This is to be expected, because the Performance Monitor allows you to scale data on a per-item basis. But, the Performance Monitor cannot join two separate collections into a single collection, nor can the Performance Monitor create multiple charts for reports (Excel can perform both procedures). So, you trade a bit of visibility for better reporting, and I think that is a worthwhile trade-off. Don’t you?

Figure 5.11  The completed chart.

Now that you have seen the requirements for collecting and exporting data before you can use it in Microsoft Excel, you might be interested in an easier method. Fortunately, easier is possible if you have the Windows NT Server Resource Kit, as you will see in the next section.

Using The Windows NT Server Resource Kit Logging Utilities

The Windows NT Server Resource Kit includes two very useful utilities that you can use to collect performance-related data. The first utility is called the Data Logging Service. This service consists of three components: the service executable DATALOG.EXE, the service configuration tool MONITOR.EXE, and the Performance Monitor workspace (*.PMW) file that you create with the Performance Monitor. The second utility is called the Performance Data Log Service. This service also consists of multiple components, including the data collection service PDLSVC.EXE, the configuration program PDLCNIFG.EXE, the performance data interface library PDH.DLL, a help file PDLCNIFG.HLP, and a content file PDLCNIFG.CNT.

The primary difference between these programs is in how they determine the objects to collect and the output format for the collected data. The Data Logging Service uses the same workspace files as the Performance Monitor. This means you can use the Performance Monitor to create a workspace file that you use to test your requirements. You can create charts, logs, and alerts within the workspace file. Once you are satisfied, you can log data to a collection file automatically. Then, you can stop the service and use the Performance Monitor to view the collected data. You can use the same workspace file you created to display the information in chart view, as well as export the data (as you did in the previous section) and import it into Microsoft Excel.

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The Data Logging Service can support the alerts you specified in a workspace file. This means, you can use the Data Logging Service to monitor your server’s status without having to log on to the system and start the Performance Monitor manually. This automated process can be used to notify you when a problem occurs, so that you can take care of it. Or, it might be used to broadcast a warning message, such as a low disk space warning, to all connected users so that users can then take action to relieve the problem.

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The Performance Data Log Service, on the other hand, automatically collects the data in either a tab-separated value or comma-separated value file format. This saves you the time required to convert the data file for use in a database or spreadsheet application. You can also configure the service to automatically create a new file every hour, every day, or every month. If required, you can configure the service to create a new file based on the size of the output log. For these reasons, I find the Performance Data Log Service to be more useful for data collections. To install the Performance Data Log Service, follow the steps presented here:

1.  Copy PDLCNFIG.EXE, PDLCNFIG.HLP, PDLCNFIG.CNT, PDLSVC.EXE, and PDH.DLL from the ResKit/PerfTool/LogTools directory to your SystemRoot\System32 directory, in which ResKit is the root installation directory where you installed the resource kit.

2.  Run PDLCNFIG.EXE.
The first time you run PDLCNFIG.EXE, it will prompt you to install the service and configure the registry.

3.  Once the service has been installed, reboot your computer.

After your computer restarts, you can run PDLCNFIG.EXE again; select the object counters to capture, the output file name, and the location for the log file; and begin to collect data. The data you collect can be used to spot utilization trends. Or, to put it more simply, you can use the data you collect to identify peak load times and spot gradual deterioration in your equipment, as you will see in the next section.