I liked the article as it was concise and gave good tips for where to start.  Is anyone out there using the SQLH2 tool available from MIcrosoft.  I am using it and it is very helpful as it provides reports (SQL RS) that allow you to track usage over time.  It is not as user friendly as some other tools available from Idera and others, but it is free, which at my compnay makes it the only one I can use to monitor.

Good Job Steeve,

Will be nice for new comers, and a nice recap for old dummies.

I have more counters, but it includes all the counters you have listed.

Sincerely, I had to go through the hard route to come up with my list of counters. Where were you till now?

five smileys for you.

Jambu

A number of contributors have added some useful monitoring check list to supplement this good article. Great work everyone!

One thing I would be interested in finding out: what happens next? For example, if the monitoring shows up excessive disk queueing, how can this be fixed? Are there articles/books that discuss both monitoring and resolutions to the problem?

Hi Steve

Thanks for the article. Nice piece.

I did notice the following differences in the counter objects:

You wrote: System Object : Avg. Disk Queue Length
... I only found it in the Pyhsical Disk Object : Avg. Disk Queue Length

You wrote: SQL Server Databases Methods Object : Transactions/Sec
... was actualy SQL Server Databases Object : Transactions/Sec

and the last one: SQL Server Buffer Manager Object : Cache Hit Ratio
... was SQL Server Buffer Manager Object : Buffer Cache Hit Ratio

I liked Alain's three phase approach to monitoring. Gave me an idea what to do better.

Regards