MCTS 70-680: Performance Monitor and Data Collector Sets in Windows 7

This video will look at how to use the Performance Monitor and Data Collector Sets to measure performance in Windows 7. The Performance Monitor can provide charts of current real time performance. Performance monitor can't be scheduled but Performance Monitor settings can be imported into a Data Collector Set and scheduled from in there. The Data Collector Set supports any Performance Monitor counters plus additional settings and measurements from other parts of the system.
Bottleneck
A bottleneck in computers is described as one component which can seriously reduce the performance of the rest of the computer. A slow or over worked hard disk could cause a bottleneck. For example, if the hard disk was too slow, the CPU may spend most of its time idle because it is waiting for data from the hard disk. The most common bottle neck is RAM. When there is not enough RAM in a system, the system will starting using the hard disk as virtual RAM. This causes poor performance for the whole system. When you upgrade a bottleneck in a system, the performance of the complete system should be dramatically increased. For the exam, remember that if performance is poor for short periods of time, e.g. the CPU spikes to 100% and drops just as quick, this is not an indication of a bottleneck. Bottlenecks are when the system is slowed down by one component regularly. A small CPU spike or heavy disk activity while a program loads does not normally mean that you need to upgrade your system.
Permissions
There are two groups which determine what you can access in Performance Monitor and Data Collector Sets as listed below.
Performance monitor group: Allows the user to see real time information in the performance monitor.
Performance log users groups: Same as above but also allows the user to make changes to Data Collector Sets.
Performance Monitor
Performance Monitor is found in administrative tools under the start menu or control panel. In order to track different parts of the system, you need to add a counter. There are counters for every different part of the system and a lot of counters can be sub divided. For example, if you have more than one hard disk or CPU, you can select what is called an instance. For each additional piece of hardware of the same type in the system, a new instance is created which can be tracked individually. If you want to track overall performance, instead of selecting an instance, you can select the option for total.
Data Collector Sets
A Data Collector Set will collect data from a number of different areas of the system over a set period of time. The results from this are put into a report. A Data Collector Set can be scheduled to run at certain times and each run will be put into a report. Data Collector Sets allow you to gather information over a period of time and create a history for the computer. Using this allows you to make future decisions about whether more RAM is required in the server.