Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 8-5
System monitor graph view.
The primary tool in Windows operating systems is the Performance Moni-
tor, called System Monitor in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The Sys-
tem Monitor can provide you with real-time performance information and can
also collect and log performance data to give you a performance baseline and
for detailed analysis. A
performance baseline
is performance data you collect
to use for comparison later when performance problems are suspected. The Win-
dows XP System Monitor graph view is shown in Figure 8-5. The graph view is
the default view for observing real time performance data.
Performance data is collected through
performance counters,
which are
programs that monitor specific system activity. Performance counters are
organized into related groups, known as
performance objects.
Performance
counters are designed to let you collect detailed performance information. A
selection of counters available for the PhysicalDisk performance object are
shown in Figure 8-6. You can see the counters for monitoring the disk queue
length and read and write data transfers. Hardware-related performance
counters are installed with Windows by default. When you install SQL Server,
it also installs a large set of SQL Server-specific performance objects and
counters.
