PerfMon – Windows System Performance

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PerfMon is an in-built performance monitoring tool for Windows System. It is a powerful, and often underutilized, tool. PerfMon provides a wide range of performance statistics and graphs for the Windows System. So, let’s start

How to launch PerfMon?

  1. Login to ‘Windows’ server
  2. Click on ‘Search’ or the ‘Magnifying Glass Icon’.
  3. Type ‘PerfMon’
  4. Click ‘Open’
  5. PerfMon tool will launch with the following screen
PerfMon - Windows System Performance
Figure 01

You will see:

  • Performance: It provides an overview of the system performance with metrics like Memory, Network Interface, Physical Disk and Processor Information. Also, you can add other Windows machine stats by right-clicking on the ‘Performance’. It will be added as a new tab under the ‘System Summary’ section. Refer to the Figure 02.
    • Monitoring Tools: When you right-click on it you can see the ‘Resource Monitor’ and ‘View System Reliability’ options. The ‘Resource Monitor’ provides real-time resource utilization graphs for CPU, Memory, Disk and Network. Refer to the Figure 03. ‘View System Reliability’ provides a utility that allows one to see information about software updates and installations and it is more specific and useful to individual local Windows machines rather than servers.
      • Performance Monitor: Real-time statistics can be viewed primarily via the Performance Monitor. The %Processor Time counter is the default one. However, by clicking the green + sign, you can add more counters. You can use this to keep an eye on whatever counters you choose in real-time.
    • Data Collector Sets: Performance Counters, Event Traces and System Configuration Information are three types of Data Collector Sets.
      • User Defined: It contains the list of all the user-defined Data Collector Sets.
      • System
        • System Diagnostics
        • System Performance
      • Event Trace Sessions
      • Startup Event Trace Sessions
    • Reports: The Reports section of the Performance Monitor is its last component.
      • User Defined: The user-defined data of the Data Collector Sets are gathered here.
      • System
        • System Diagnostics
        • System Performance
PerfMon - Windows System Performance
Figure 02
PerfMon - Windows System Performance
Figure 03

Important Graphs:

Processor Graph:

How to add Processor Graph and related counters?

  1. Performance -> Monitoring Tools -> Performance Monitor -> Click ‘+’
  2. Select ‘Processor’ from the ‘Available Counters’ list -> Click ‘Add >>’ OR Expand the list under ‘Processor’ and select the required counters -> Click ‘Add >>’
Figure 04
PerfMon - Windows System Performance
Figure 05

Memory Graph:

How to add Memory Graph and related counters?

  1. Performance -> Monitoring Tools -> Performance Monitor -> Click ‘+’
  2. Select ‘Memory’ from the ‘Available Counters’ list -> Click ‘Add >>’ OR Expand the list under ‘Memory’ and select the required counters -> Click ‘Add >>’
PerfMon - Windows System Performance
Figure 06
Figure 07

Physical Disk Graph:

How to add a Physical Disk Graph and related counters?

  1. Performance -> Monitoring Tools -> Performance Monitor -> Click ‘+’
  2. Select ‘PhysicalDisk’ from the ‘Available Counters’ list -> Click ‘Add >>’ OR Expand the list under ‘PhysicalDisk’ and select the required counters -> Click ‘Add >>’
Figure 08
PerfMon - Windows System Performance
Figure 09

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