performance object counters

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performance object counters

kris_chowdary

SSC Journeyman

Points: 84
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December 3, 2002 at 10:58 am

#159075

Hi ,
We are running sqlserver 7.0 on Windows NT OS.
Recently we set up performance monitor to capture some of the performance objects for every 5 minutes.
Couple of times( 3 or 4 times) in a day, all object counters values are zero and immediately(after 5 minutes) all object counters values are very high compared to values during the normal periods.
Any idea why it is happening?
Please let me know ASAP
Thanks,
Sree

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K. Brian Kelley SSC Guru Points: 114704 More actions · Answer 1

It could potentially be that the server has so much activity it's not able to take the snapshot. We saw this problem when we were trying to diagnose "freezes" on our Citrix servers. Those intervals... do you have jobs going on during that time or anything scheduled that's not running during the other periods of time?

Also, do they correspond to a period of time when a lot of people would be logging on or logging off?

K. Brian Kelley

http://www.truthsolutions.com/

Author: Start to Finish Guide to SQL Server Performance Monitoring

http://www.netimpress.com/shop/product.asp?ProductID=NI-SQL1

K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley

kris_chowdary SSC Journeyman Points: 84 More actions · Answer 2

Hi Brian,

These are happening mostly during the off peak hours. We have some batch jobs scheduled during the off peak hours.May be i have look at that.

They donot correspond to a period of time when a lot of people would be logging on or logging off except 2 or 3 times.

I am surprising this behaviour because during the other periods all counter values are under limit.

Thanks ,

Krishna

philcart SSC-Forever Points: 47797 More actions · Answer 3

Where are you running PerfMon, on the Server or remotely from another machine? I've encountered problems previously running PerfMon on the server itself. Although I was running to a log file, there where "flatspots" in the resulting graph. Running a lot of counters also seemed to cause hiccups.

Try running multiple instances of PerfMon with fewer counters in each instance. Maybe a logical grouping of say memory counters and disk counters. If you capture the data to a log file, it can be merged for comparission later.

Thanks

Phill Carter

Edited by - phillcart on 12/03/2002 3:02:54 PM

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kris_chowdary SSC Journeyman Points: 84 More actions · Answer 4

Hi Phill,

We are running the PerfMon remotely and capturing lot of objects .

May be i will try with multiple instances.

Thanks,

Krishna

K. Brian Kelley SSC Guru Points: 114704 More actions · Answer 5

The more objects you are capturing, the greater the overall load. Also, since you are capturing remotely, remember that your server is having to transmit that information to the client. Again, more counters, more network load. You might try reducing the counters to the specific aspects you are troubleshooting.

BTW, the preferred approach, as Win2K is an example of, is to monitor on the server. Of course, with NT 4.0, this means a lot of extra overhead, which is why we tend to monitor remotely. However, if you get the system upgraded to Win2K, look to do the counter logs running on the srver.

K. Brian Kelley

http://www.truthsolutions.com/

Author: Start to Finish Guide to SQL Server Performance Monitoring

http://www.netimpress.com/shop/product.asp?ProductID=NI-SQL1

K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley

Antares686 SSC Guru Points: 125444 More actions · Answer 6

Always limit counters to only what ytou need. Also if the server is not under extreme load run from there, otherwise closets box you can get to it reduce overall network traffic. Lastly, consider catching info to a log file if running on the local machine instead (this cuts down on the resources being used by the GUI).