Performance Counters

Published : September 27, 2005

One method you can use to monitor DPM server performance is the Performance tool in Administrative Tools. You can configure the monitored data to be saved as a log. You can also configure Performance to generate alerts. For information on how to create and configure performance alerts, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 324752, “How to create and configure performance monitor alerts in Windows Server 2003,” (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=47881).

Note

You can use the DPM Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM) to centrally monitor the state, health, and performance of multiple DPM servers from a MOM Management Server. For information about downloading the DPM Management Pack, see the DPM Management Pack download site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=50208).

Table 3.2 lists counters that can be useful for monitoring DPM server performance. For more information on specific performance counters, see Performance Logs and Alerts Help. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Performance. On the Action menu, click Help.

Table 3.2   Performance Counters for Monitoring DPM

Performance Object and Counter	Description	Value that Might Indicate a Problem	Possible Causes
Memory: Avail/MBytes	Measures the memory that is available to processes running on the specified DPM server. The Avail/MBytes value is the sum of memory assigned to the standby (cached), free, and zero paged lists.	< 50 megabytes (MB). Indicates low memory on DPM server.	One or more applications are consuming large amounts of memory. Multiple DPM jobs are running simultaneously. The DPM server does not have sufficient memory to handle the current DPM workload.
Processor: % Processor Time	Measures the percentage of time the processor was busy during the sampling interval.	> 95% for more than 10 minutes. Indicates very high CPU usage on the DPM server.	Multiple DPM jobs are running simultaneously. Synchronization with consistency check jobs are particularly CPU-intensive. On-the-wire compression has been enabled on the DPM server. On-the-wire compression allows faster data throughput during replica creation and synchronization without negatively affecting network performance. However, it places a large processing load on both the file server and the DPM server. A runaway process is exhausting system resources. The DPM server does not have sufficient processing capacity to handle the DPM workload.
Physical Disk: Current Disk Queue Length (for all instances)	Measures the number of disk requests that are currently waiting and the requests currently being serviced	> 80 requests for more than 6 minutes. Indicates possibly excessive disk queue length.	Multiple DPM jobs that are running simultaneously are placing a high demand on disk resources. Disk performance needs tuning. Disk resources on the DPM server are not sufficient for the current DPM workload.