Configure Performance Counter Health Probe

The Performance counter health probe samples Windows performance counters. Due to the wide range of options the performance counter probe is both very flexible and challenging to configure correctly.

Typical scenarios will require multiple performance counter probes in a single health check.

To configure the probe you will need to obtain information both about the counter you intend to track, and what the expected value range is.

Information about available and recommended performance counters to monitor may be obtain through various online tech articles and in the One-Design configuration recommendations. Details regarding counter, category, and instance names are available through the Performance Monitoring MMC snap-in.

About Counters

Windows performance counters come in two basic flavors: instantaneous counters return a single number representing the value. All others represent a calculation, either of multiple numbers or over time.

Windows Performance Counter Types (MSDN)

The performance counter health probe will perform a single immediate sample of Number of Items counter types. For all other counter types it will make an initial sample, discard the value and wait one second, then perform a second sample.

This pattern of sampling allows meaningful values to be obtained for the plethora of average and percentage type counters. The caveat is that it takes a little longer to process a health check with a lot of this type of probe.

Settings

Counter Name – Required system name of the performance counter to track

Computer – Which server to monitor counters for. Default is localhost

Category Name – Required category the counter falls into

Instance Name – This is only need for counters that have multiple instances. If left blank or set to * the counter will return a Dictionary of values in the form Instance -> Number instead of a single value

Fail Rule – How to evaluate the result.

Samples