< Windows Server Administration

This lesson covers server performance. Activities include using Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and Performance Monitor to monitor server performance.

Objectives and Skills

Objectives and skills for the Understanding Server Performance Management portion of Windows Server Administration Fundamentals certification include:[1]

  • Identify major server hardware components: memory; disk; processor; network; 32 / 64 bits; removable drives; graphic cards; cooling; power usage; ports
  • Understand performance monitoring: methodology; procedures; effect of network, CPU, memory and disk; creating a baseline; perfmon; resmon; Task Manager; performance counters
  • Understand logs and alerts: purpose of performance logs and alerts

Readings

  1. Wikipedia: Computer performance
  2. Wikipedia: Windows Task Manager
  3. Wikipedia: Resource Monitor
  4. Wikipedia: System Monitor
  5. Wikipedia: Hardware performance counter
  6. Wikipedia: Performance tuning

Multimedia

  1. YouTube: Reliability and Performance Monitor
  2. YouTube: Windows 7 - Adjust the Vitual Memory Pagefile Setting - Increase Performance
  3. Microsoft: Windows Performance Analyzer
  4. YouTube: Windows Performance Analyzer - Tutorial

Activities

  1. Review Microsoft MSDN: Tools To Simulate CPU / Memory / Disk Load. Download one or more tools to simulate performance issues while completing the following activities.
  2. Review Show disk performance metrics on Windows Server 2016 Task Manager. Use Windows Task Manager to monitor disl performance.
  3. Review What's New in Performance and Reliability Monitoring. Use Resource Monitor to monitor server performance.
  4. Review Performance Monitoring Getting Started Guide. Use Performance Monitor to monitor server performance.
  5. Review Using Performance Monitor. Use Performance Monitor to monitor a remote server through the network.
  6. Review Creating Data Collector Sets. Use Performance Monitor to record a performance baseline.
  7. Review RAM, virtual memory, pagefile, and memory management in Windows. Use system properties to view current page file settings and adjust if necessary.
  8. Consider the impact on CPU and memory performance with performance monitoring.
  9. Consider the impact on disk performance with recording of performance logs.
  10. Consider the impact on network performance with remote performance monitoring.

Lesson Summary

  • Computer performance is characterized by the amount of useful work accomplished by a computer system compared to the time and resources used.[2]
  • Performance monitoring measures how quickly a computer completes specific tasks.[3]
  • Overall system performance should be determined before monitoring individual applications and processes.[4]
  • As an extension of performance monitoring, performance analysis may be used for capacity planning.[5]
  • Task Manager (also known as taskman) shows realtime applications, processes, services, performance (CPU and memory) and network utilization, as well as logged-in users.[6]
  • Resource Monitor (also known as resmon) shows realtime processor (CPU), memory, disk, and network utilization.[7]
  • Performance Monitor (also known as System Monitor and perfmon) may be customized to display any available performance counter and can record performance log files for later viewing.[8]
  • Hardware performance counters are a set of special-purpose registers built into modern microprocessors to store the counts of hardware-related activities within computer systems. Software performance counters work similarly based on values stored in RAM.[9]
  • Performance tuning requires identifying potential bottlenecks, measuring existing performance, modifying the system to improve performance, then measuring the system after modification to verify improvement.[10]
  • Performance Monitor can record performance logs and trigger alerts based on performance counter values. Performance logs may also be used to record a performance baseline.[11]
  • Performance monitoring may itself impact performance by using processor, memory, disk, and network resources.[12]

Key Terms

bandwidth
A measurement of bit-rate of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits per second or multiples of it (bit/s, kbit/s, Mbit/s, Gbit/s, etc.).[13]
baseline
A single work product or set of work products that can be used as a logical basis for comparison and subsequent activity selection.[14]
bottleneck
A phenomenon where the performance or capacity of an entire system is limited by a single or limited number of components or resources.[15]
paging
A memory-management scheme by which a computer can store and retrieve data from secondary storage for use in main memory.[16]
response time
The time a system or functional unit takes to react to a given input.[17]
throughput
The average rate of successful message delivery over a communication channel.[18]

Review Questions

Click on a question to see the answer.

  1. Computer performance is characterized by _____ accomplished by a computer system compared to _____.
    Computer performance is characterized by the amount of useful work accomplished by a computer system compared to the time and resources used.
  2. Performance monitoring measures _____.
    Performance monitoring measures how quickly a computer completes specific tasks.
  3. Overall system performance should be determined before _____.
    Overall system performance should be determined before monitoring individual applications and processes.
  4. As an extension of performance monitoring, _____ may be used for capacity planning.
    As an extension of performance monitoring, performance analysis may be used for capacity planning.
  5. Task Manager (also known as _____) shows _____.
    Task Manager (also known as taskman) shows realtime applications, processes, services, performance (CPU and memory) and network utilization, as well as logged-in users.
  6. Resource Monitor (also known as _____) shows _____.
    Resource Monitor (also known as resmon) shows realtime processor (CPU), memory, disk, and network utilization.
  7. Performance Monitor (also known as _____ and _____) may be customized to display _____ and can _____.
    Performance Monitor (also known as System Monitor and perfmon) may be customized to display any available performance counter and can record performance log files for later viewing.
  8. Hardware performance counters are _____ built into modern microprocessors to _____. Software performance counters work similarly based on _____.
    Hardware performance counters are a set of special-purpose registers built into modern microprocessors to store the counts of hardware-related activities within computer systems. Software performance counters work similarly based on values stored in RAM.
  9. Performance tuning requires _____, _____, _____, then _____.
    Performance tuning requires identifying potential bottlenecks, measuring existing performance, modifying the system to improve performance, then measuring the system after modification to verify improvement.
  10. Performance Monitor can record _____ and trigger _____ based on _____. Performance logs may also be used to _____.
    Performance Monitor can record performance logs and trigger alerts based on performance counter values. Performance logs may also be used to record a performance baseline.
  11. Performance monitoring may itself impact _____ by using _____.
    Performance monitoring may itself impact performance by using processor, memory, disk, and network resources.

Flashcards

See Also

References

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