Attention:
Whether you have a Windows Cloud Server or a Windows Dedicated Server, having it run at optimal capacity is critical for the success of your business. You need to know about any performance issues before your customers or visitors are impacted. When your server is protected by Orcsweb’s Complete Care Managed Services we ensure your server is performing at its best.
One of the ways we analyze a server’s performance is with Performance Monitor and a User Defined Data Collector. Identifying and analyzing potential performance problems on a server has never been easier. Once the data collector finishes running it will provide a detailed report about many aspects of the server’s performance including RAM, CPU, Disk IO, and Network utilization. The report summary is easy to read and uses red, yellow, and green icons to immediately call your attention to any problems. The report also features collapsible sections so you can conveniently see more detailed data on a particular area of your server’s operation.
You can create a User Defined Data Collector by opening Performance Monitor then right-clicking on User Defined and then choosing Data Collector Set. This will launch a wizard to guide you through the process of creating the data collector. Once the report has been saved it will be available to run again as frequently as you need.
Pick a name for your report. I typically choose “Performance” since that is the type of data collector I want to be run. To make things easier on yourself just pick the default option of Create from a template and click Next.
On the next screen you can choose the type of Data Collector you want. We want the System Performance template so select that and then click Next.
On the next screen you’ll be prompted for the path to save the report. If your server has 2 volumes then it would be better to save the report to the larger data drive to conserve space on your C: drive. Click Next and then open the properties of the Data Collector before running it.
With the properties open, click on the Stop Condition tab so that you can enter a period of time for the Data Collector to run. It is important to set a Stop Condition before running otherwise it will continue to run until you stop it manually.
Depending on your needs I typically specify a duration 15-20 minutes. If you are testing a specific issue on your server then you may need to set a longer duration such as 2-3 hours. It is important to note that your user session may be disconnected before the report has completed running. If you need the Data Collector to run for more than 24 hours then you should assign a user name and password on the General tab for it to use so that you can log out of the server without having to worry about the report stopping prematurely. Click OK to close the properties and then right-click on the Data Collector to run it.
You will find the report that is generated in the User Defined Reports section of Performance Monitor. If you try to open it before the data collection period has stopped you’ll see a notice that it is still running.
Once the Data Collector has completed its analysis you can open the report. The top of the report will provide you a summary of the server’s overall performance during the period of time that the Data Collector was running. This offers a great snapshot of the server’s performance without having to dig through technical information.
You can expand the different sections in the report to get more detailed information than what is displayed in the summary. Looking at the Resource Overview we can see that CPU, Network, and Disk resources are all green and performing well. However by looking at the Diagnostic Results in my example above we can see there is a performance warning. The warning message reads “The total physical memory on the system is not capable of handling the load”. It is clear that this server needs some RAM.
Performance Monitor is just one of the many tools that we use to analyze a server’s performance for our Complete Care Managed Services customers. If you are concerned about your server’s performance do not hesitate to contact the Orcsweb Webteam. We will gladly look into it for you.
To learn more, give us a call at 1-888-313-9421, or email us at Sales@OrcsWeb.com.
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