Set up Performance Monitor counters

Article
11/29/2021

Important

This content is archived and is not being updated. For the latest documentation, see Microsoft Dynamics 365 product documentation. For the latest release plans, see Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans.

Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

You can use Performance Monitor objects and counters to collect information about the performance of each component of the architecture: Application Object Server (AOS), the database server, and Internet Information Services (IIS). We recommend that you run monitor performance primarily in a test environment. The recommended collection interval is 30 seconds.

You can use the Performance Monitor counters that are included with Microsoft Dynamics AX to help monitor the usage of system resources. By using counters, you can collect and view real-time performance data about server resources, such as processor and memory use, and about Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft SQL Server resources, such as locks and transactions.

Types of performance counters to monitor

AOS counters

The following table describes the counters for the Microsoft Dynamics AX Object Server object.

Counter	Description
Active Sessions	The number of currently active server sessions.
Number of Bytes Received by Server	The number of bytes received by the AOS instance since it started.
Number of Bytes Sent by Server	The number of bytes that the AOS instance has sent since it started.
Number of Client Requests	The number of client-to-server requests since the AOS instance started.
Number of Client Requests per Second	The number of client-to-server requests that the AOS instance processes per second.
Number of Server Requests	The number of server-to-client requests that have been processed since the AOS instance started.
Total Sessions	The total number of active sessions since the AOS instance started.
Total Number of Clears	The total number of times the cache was cleared of all contents.
Total Number of Clears Triggered by AOS	The total number of times the cache was cleared because of AOS synchronization.
Total Number of Deletes from Data Cache	The total number of times records were deleted from the data cache.
Total Number of Hits	The total number of times a record was found successfully in the cache.
Total Number of Misses	The total number of time record was not found in the cache.
Total Number of Remove Oldest	The total number of times the cache was flushed due to size.
Total Number of Selects on Cached Tables	The total number of selects on tables that are cached.

Client counters

The following table describes the counters for the Microsoft Dynamics AX client.

AOD Cache Cleanups #	The number of times the AOD cache cleaned up older items.
AOD Cache Count #	The number of AOD items currently cached.
Remote Calls #	The number of remote calls made.
X++ Cache Cleanups #	The number of times the X++ cache cleaned up older items.
X++ Cache Count #	The number of X++ methods currently cached.

Service counters

You can use standard service and endpoint performance counters to monitor the performance of the Microsoft Dynamics AX services. For more information, see Service Performance Counters and Endpoint Performance Counters.

Enterprise Portal counters

The following table describes the counters available for the Microsoft Dynamics AX: Enterprise Portal object. All Enterprise Portal counters are .NET Business Connector counters. If you call .NET Business Connector through another application, the same counters can be used.

Counter	Description
Number of Sessions	The number of .NET Business Connector sessions that are currently active.
Web Part Execution Time	The time, in seconds, that is required to execute and display a Web Part.
Fatal Session Exceptions	The number of fatal .NET Business Connector session exceptions. For Enterprise Portal, a fatal session exception indicates that the page was not displayed. Instead, a Windows SharePoint Services error page was displayed to the user.
Nonfatal Session Exceptions	The number of nonfatal .NET Business Connector session exceptions. For Enterprise Portal, a nonfatal session exception indicates that the page was displayed, but some Web Parts on the page were not displayed.
Xpp Session Exceptions	The number of X++ .NET session exceptions.
Sessions Allocated	The total number of .NET Business Connector sessions that have been allocated since AOS started.
Sessions Disposed	The total number of .NET Business Connector sessions that have been disposed of since AOS started.
Session Allocation Rate	The number of .NET Business Connector sessions that are allocated per second.

Server counters

The following table lists the counters that are typically monitored for the AOS process (Ax32Serv), database servers, IIS servers, and Terminal Services servers.

Object	Counter	Database server	AOS	IIS	Terminal Services
Memory	Available Mbytes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Paging File	%Usage	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Process (sqlservr, Ax32Serv, w3wp)	%Processor Time,%User Time,%Privileged Time	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Processor	%Processor Time,%User Time,%Privileged Time	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Network		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
PhysicalDisk	Avg. Disk sec/Read (All instances)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
PhysicalDisk	Avg. Disk sec/Write (All instances)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

SQL Server counters

The following table lists the counters that are typically monitored for SQL Server.

Object	Counter
SQLServer:Access Methods	Forwarded Records/sec
SQLServer:Access Methods	FreeSpace Scans/sec
SQLServer:Access Methods	Full Scans/sec
SQLServer:Access Methods	Workfiles Created/sec
SQLServer:Access Methods	Worktables Created/sec
SQL Server:Buffer Manager	Buffer Cache hit ratio
SQL Server:Buffer Manager	Free list stalls/sec
SQL Server:Buffer Manager	Lazy Writes/sec
SQL Server:Buffer Manager	Page Life Expectancy
SQLServer:Buffer Manager	Page lookups/sec
SQL Server:Locks	Lock Requests/sec
SQLServer:SQL Statistics	SQL Compilations/sec
SQLServer:SQL Statistics	SQL Re-Compilations/sec
SQLServer:SQL Statistics	Batch Requests/sec

Add counters

Open the Performance window. Click Start > Administrative Tools > Performance.
Click Add or press CTRL+I.
In the Add Counters dialog box, verify that the correct server name appears.
Select Select Counters from Computer.
In the Performance Object list, select an object to add counters for, such as Microsoft Dynamics AX Object Server.
Select all counters for the object, or select individual counters.
Click Add, and then click Close.

Set up an alert on a Performance Monitor counter

In the navigation tree of the Performance window, expand Performance Logs and Alerts.
Right-click Alerts, and then click New Alert Settings.
In the New Alert Settings dialog box, type a name for the new alert, and then click OK.
On the General tab of the dialog box for the new alert, add a comment, and then click Add to add a counter to the alert.

All alerts must have at least one counter.
In the Add Counters dialog box, in the Performance Object list, select a Microsoft Dynamics AX object. Then, in the Select counters from list, select a counter.
To add the counter to the alert, click Add.
Repeat steps 5 and 6 to add more counters to the alert. When you have finished adding counters, click Close to return to the dialog box for the new alert.
In the dialog box for the new alert, in the Alert when the value is list, select either Over or Under. Then, in the Limit box, enter a threshold value.
Click Apply.

The alert is generated when the value for the counter is more than or less than the threshold value, depending on whether you selected Over or Under.
In the Sample data every boxes, set the sampling frequency.
On the Action tab, set the actions that occur every time that the alert is triggered.
On the Schedule tab, set the start and stop schedule for the alert scan.