NT Performance Counter Monitor

The NT Performance Counter Monitor tracks the values of any Window NT performance statistic. These are the same statistics that can be viewed using the "Performance Monitor" application under Windows NT. This monitor is only available on the Windows NT version of SiteScope.

Each time the NT Performance Counter Monitor runs, it returns a reading and a status message and writes them in the monitoring log file. The status is displayed in the group detail table for the monitor which represents the current value returned by this monitor. For example, 1.24 Interrupts/sec. The status is logged as either OK or warning. An error occurs if the counter could not be read.

Completing the NT Performance Counter Monitor Form

To display the NT Performance Counter Monitor form, either click the edit link of an existing NT Performance Counter Monitor in a monitor table, or click the Add a new Monitor to this group link on a group's detail page and click the Add NT Performance Counter Monitor link.

Complete the items on the NT Performance Counter Monitor form as follows. When the required items are complete, click the Add Monitor button". The easiest way to fill in the boxes for an NT Performance Counter Monitor is to open up the "Performance Monitor application, click "Add To Chart...", and browser to find the performance measurement that you want the monitor to make. Setting files (ending in .pmc or pmw) from the NT Performance Monitor can be used to specify which counters you want to monitor.

Server: Choose the server that you want to monitor. The default is to monitor a performance counter on this server. Click the choose server link to monitor a performance counter on another NT server. When using a setting file from the NT Performance Monitor, all counters will be measured on the server specified by this entry.

Perfmon Chart File

Select the NT Performance Monitor setting file you want to use for your settings. These files can be saved in the NT Performance Monitor (perfmon) and have either a .pmc or .pmw file extension. On Windows 2000 Platform these can be saved using the .htm file format. The following describes the steps you use to create a custom performance counter file for Windows 2000 platforms.

To create a custom performance counter setting file on Windows 2000

Create a custom performance monitor file using the following steps:
1. Click on Start > Administrative Tools > Performance to start the Performance application
2. Create a custom monitor chart by clicking on the Plus sign icon from the chart toolbar
3. Fill out the Add Counters page and then click the ADD button to start the performance monitor
Use the following steps to save the performance chart to a file.
1. After charting begins right click the mouse on the chart and click Save As
2. Enter a filename and make sure to select the Save As HTML option
Copy the HTML settings file that you saved into the SiteScope/templates.perfmon directory.
Note: The saved settings file will now appear in the Perfmon Chart File drop down menu without having to restart the SiteScope application.

The files listed in the drop-down menu are found in the <SiteScope install path>/SiteScope/templates.perfmon directory. There are a number of files included by default with the SiteScope product.

Note: If you make your own settings file, it must be copied into the <SiteScope install path>/SiteScope/templates.perfmon directory. You can optionally specify the settings directly for a single counter under the Advanced Options section.

Note: If you create your own .pmc file, any server specified in the .pmc file will be ignored by SiteScope. The server to be queried will be the one selected via the Server selection box on monitor setup page (see above). Therefore, you should not include identical counters directed at different servers in a single .pmc file. One .pmc file can be used by more than one NT Performance Monitor instance but any single instance of the NT Performance Monitor will only query one server regardless of the servers assigned in the .pmc.

If you have specified the settings directly below in the Advanced Options section, this list will display "(Custom Object)".

Update every

Select how often the monitor should read the performance counter. The default interval is to run or update the monitor once every 10 minutes. Use the drop-down list to the right of the text box to specify another update interval in increments of seconds, minutes, hours, or days. The update interval must be 15 seconds or longer.

Title

Enter a title text for this monitor. This text is displayed in the group detail page, in report titles, and other places in the SiteScope interface. If you do not enter a title text, SiteScope will create a title based on the host, server, or URL being monitored.

Advanced Options

The Advanced Options section presents a number of ways to customize monitor behavior and display. Use this section to customize error and warning thresholds, disable the monitor, set monitor-to-monitor dependencies, customize display options, and enter other monitor specific settings required for special infrastructure environments. The options for this monitor type are described below. Complete the entries as needed and click the Add or Update button to save the settings.

Disable

Check this box to temporarily disable this monitor and any associated alerts. To enable the monitor again, clear the box.

Object

The Object is the same as the "Object" in the Performance Monitor application - just type it in this box. The Object is the high level item that will be measured, such as Processor or Server. Note that the object name is case-sensitive. If you are using a Performance Monitor file for counter settings, leave This item blank.

Counter

The counter is the same as the "Counter" in the Performance Monitor application - just type it in this box. The Counter is the specific aspect of the Object that will measured, such as Interrupts/sec. Note that the counter name is case-sensitive. If you are using a Performance Monitor file for counter settings, leave This item blank.

Instance

Some counters can have multiple instances - for example, on machines with two CPUs, there are two instances of the Processor object. The instance is the same as the "Instance" in the Performance Monitor application - just type it in this box. Note that the instance name is case-sensitive. If you are using a Performance Monitor file for counter settings, leave This item blank.

Units

If you want units to be displayed with the counter's values to make them more readable, enter the units here.

Scale

If you want the raw performance counter value scaled to make it more readable, select the scale here. The raw value of the counter will be multiplied by the scale to determine the value of the monitor. The kilobytes option divides the raw value by 1,024 (the number of bytes in 1 K), and the megabytes option divides the raw value by 1,048,576 (the number of bytes in 1 MB). If there are multiple counters specified via a Performance Monitor file, this scaling applies to all counters.

Baseline Interval

Enter the number of monitor runs to be averaged for use as a Rolling Baseline. Rolling baselines are calculated for an interval equal to time to complete the number of monitor runs entered here. See more information.

Verify Error

Check this box to have SiteScope verify an error by immediately performing the check again.

Schedule

By default, SiteScope monitors are enabled every day of the week. You may, however, schedule your monitors to run only on certain days or on a fixed schedule. Click the Edit schedule link to create or edit a monitor schedule. For more information about working with monitor schedules, see the section on Schedule Preferences for Monitoring.

Monitor Description

Enter additional information about this monitor. The Monitor Description can include HTML tags such as the <BR> <HR>, and <B> tags to control display format and style. The description will appear on the Monitor Detail page.

Report Description

Enter an optional description for this monitor that will make it easier to understand what the monitor does. For example, network traffic or main server response time. This description will be displayed on with each bar chart and graph in Management Reports and appended to the tool-tip displayed when you pass the mouse cursor over the status icon for this monitor on the monitor detail page.

Depends On

To make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor or monitor group, use the drop-down list to select the monitor on which this monitor is dependent. Select None to remove any dependency.

Depends Condition

If you choose to make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor, select the status condition that the other monitor or monitor group should have in order for the current monitor to run normally. The current monitor will be run normally as long as the monitor on which it depends reports the condition selected in this option.

List Order

By default, new monitors are listed last on the Monitor Detail page. You may use this drop-down list to choose a different placement for this monitor.

Update Every (on error)

You use this option to set a new monitoring interval for monitors that have registered an error condition. For example, you may want SiteScope to monitor this item every 10 minutes normally, but as often as every 2 minutes if an error has been detected. Note that this increased scheduling will also affect the number of alerts generated by this monitor.

Error if

Set the level of the specific counter value that should trigger an error status. Choose [value] >= from the drop-down list and then, in the text box, enter the lowest value which should trigger an error condition.

Warning if

Set the level of the counter value that should trigger a warning status. This level should be lower than the error level you set. SiteScope will report a warning status when the counter value reaches or exceeds the warning level you set, but is still lower than the defined error level.

To set the warning level, choose value >= from the drop-down list and then, in the text box, enter the lowest value which should trigger a warning condition.

Good if

Enter the value that should indicate a good reading for this monitor. By default, SiteScope assumes that the monitor is in a good status if the error and warning conditions are not met.