Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Start. Collectors with no stop condition coni gured will run until they are stopped manually. To
stop the collector, right-click on the collector name and choose Stop. Collectors can be started and
stopped as a whole, but performance logs or traces within a collector cannot be started indepen-
dently of the collector. Dei ne a new collector if this is required.
You can schedule collectors using the Schedule tab on the collector properties. When combined with
a stop condition, both starting and stopping a collector can be fully scheduled.
Confi guring Collector Properties
There are two points of interest in the properties dialog. One is the Directory tab, where you can
change the folder used to store the log i les. The other is the Stop Condition tab, which enables
administrators to coni gure the duration of the collector — in seconds, minutes, hours, days, or
weeks. Once the time coni gured in the stop condition has elapsed, the collector is automatically
stopped.
Other points of interest on the collector properties dialog include the Schedule tab, which as it sug-
gests enables administrators to schedule the start of the collector. There's also a Task tab, where you
can coni gure a task to run when the data collector stops, such as sending a MSG (new version of
NET SEND) on completion.
Confi guring Properties for Performance Counters
You may have noticed that there is no place in the collector properties to add or remove PerfMon
counters — that's because they are found in the Performance Counter properties. Because collectors
can contain multiple data sources (listed in the right-hand pane), these properties are specii c to each
log type. Locate the Performance Counter log (usually named DataCollector01) and double-click it
to show the properties.
Use the Performance Counter properties to modify log parameters, such as adding and remov-
ing counters, and changing log format and sample interval. The File tab contains further settings,
including a checkbox to prei x log i les with the computer name; this is particularly useful when
comparing logs from multiple servers because it saves time opening i les to identify the source server.
PerfMon Log Formats
There are four options for PerfMon log format: Comma Separated, Tab Separated, SQL, and
Binary. The Binary log (BLG) type is the default and is suitable for most situations. Choosing SQL
will require a data source name (DSN) to connect to SQL Server. There are some performance con-
siderations when using this method because you want to limit the impact of monitoring to genuine
users or server activity, and outputting trace data to the same instance being monitored is unlikely
to help. Performance log i les can be imported into a database post-capture for easier/better analysis,
so avoid logging directly to SQL Server, unless there's a good reason to do so and you're coni dent
you understand any impact on the monitored instance.
Using the Relog.exe tool it's possible to manipulate log i les, converting i les between types; and
if you're working with large log i les, you can narrow the time frame or extract some interesting
counters.
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