Planning and Administering

Windows Server® 2008

Servers
Module 12: Monitoring Windows Server 2008
Servers
• Planning Monitoring Tasks

• Calculating a Server Baseline

• Measuring Performance Objects

• Selecting Appropriate Monitoring Tools

• Planning Notification Methods

Lesson: Planning Monitoring Tasks
• Reasons for Monitoring

• Monitoring Methods

• Planning for Event Monitoring

Reasons for Monitoring

• Health of the IT infrastructure:

 Normal activity

 Abnormal activity

• Service-level agreement
monitoring
• Planning for future requirements:
 Capacity

 Reallocation

• Identifying issues:
 Reactive

 Proactive
Monitoring Methods
• Historical:
 Event Viewer
 Retained performance logs

• Real time:
 Performance monitoring
 Service-level agreements

• Tools:
 Reliability and Performance Monitor
 Windows System Resource Manager
 System Center Operations Manager
 Third-party
Planning for Event Monitoring

• Cost:
 Money
 Time

• Personnel:
 Reduction
 Efficient

• Respond to events:
 Reactive
 Proactive
Lesson: Calculating a Server Baseline
• Key Hardware Components to Monitor

• Common Performance Metrics

• Analyzing Performance Trends

• Planning for Future Capacity Requirements

Key Hardware Components to Monitor

Processor

Disk

Memory

Network
Common Performance Metrics

• Cache
• Memory
• Objects
• Paging file
• Physical disk
• Process
• Processor
• Server
• System
• Thread
Analyzing Performance Trends

Historical analysis

Future business requirements

IT consolidation planning
Planning for Future Capacity Requirements

New services

• Upgrades

• Operating system updates

Number of users
Lesson: Measuring Performance Objects
• Identifying Server Role Performance Metrics

• Identifying Key Performance Counters

Identifying Server Role Performance Metrics

Server role Performance objects

Active Directory
• NTDS
directory service

DNS server • DNS

• TCP
IIS
• IIS Global

• Memory
File server
• Logical Disk
Identifying Key Performance Counters

• Time value counters:

 Real-time values
 Average over last second
 Number per second

• Maximum
• Minimum
• Average value
• Total since last restart
Lesson: Selecting Appropriate Monitoring Tools
• Windows Server 2008 Monitoring Tools

• Reliability and Performance Monitor

• Windows Performance Monitor

• Third-Party Monitoring Tools

Windows Server 2008 Monitoring Tools

Built-in tools for monitoring systems:

• Event Viewer
• Task Manager
• Collecting and analyzing log files
• Scripting

Additional tool for monitoring systems:

• System Center Operations Manager
Reliability and Performance Monitor
Windows Performance Monitor
Third-Party Monitoring Tools

Applications

Hardware

System Center Operations Manager

integration
Lesson: Planning Notification Methods
• Identifying Business Requirements

• Suitable Notification Methods

• Establishing an Escalation Path

Identifying Business Requirements

Economic cost of service failure

Service-level agreement response

times

Staff availability
Suitable Notification Methods

Notify support staff by using:

• E-mail
• Pager
• SMS text message
• Telephone
• Scripted notification
Establishing an Escalation Path

Role Purpose
• Identify people
Audit trail • Traceable history
• Maintained for an agreed amount of time

• How much time should pass before

escalation to a higher level?
Time to escalation
• Can issues progress to a higher level
immediately?
Allocation to group • Who receives an issue first?
or individual • How are issues allocated?
• In-house
Levels of escalation
• External
Lab: Identifying Windows Server 2008 Monitoring
Requirements
• Exercise 1: Evaluating Performance Metrics

• Exercise 2: Monitoring Performance Metrics

• Exercise 3: Configuring Data Collector Sets

• Exercise 4: Evaluating Trends

• Exercise 5: Monitoring Extension Exercise

Logon information
6430A-NYC-DC1-12
Virtual machine
6430A-NYC-SVR1-12
User name Woodgrovebank\Administrator
Password Pa$$w0rd
Estimated time: 90 minutes
Module Review and Takeaways
• Review Questions

• Real-World Issues and Scenarios

• Best Practices Related to Windows Server 2008

Performance Monitoring