Module 14
Monitoring
and Maintaining Windows
Server® 2008 Servers
Module Overview
• Planning Monitoring Tasks
• Calculating a Server Baseline
• Measuring Performance Objects
• Selecting Appropriate Monitoring Tools
• Planning Notification Methods
• Overview of Windows Server 2008 Management Tasks
• Automating Windows Server 2008 Maintenance
Lesson 1: 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 logs
 Retained performance logs
• Real time:
 Performance monitoring
 Service-level agreements
• Tools:
 Event Viewer
 Reliability and Performance Monitor
 Windows System Resource Manager
 System Center Operations Manager
 Third-party
Planning for Event Monitoring
• Cost:

Money savings

Time savings
• Personnel:

Effort reductions

Efficiency increases
• Respond to events:

Reactive

Proactive
Lesson 2: 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
•
Process
•
Memory
•
Processor
•
Objects
•
Server
•
Paging file
•
System
•
Physical disk
•
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 3: Measuring Performance Objects
• Identifying Server Role Performance Metrics
• Identifying Key Performance Counters
• Primary CPU Performance Counters
• Primary Memory Performance Counters
• Primary Disk Performance Counters
• Primary Network Performance Counters
Identifying Server Role Performance Metrics
Server role
Performance objects
Active Directory
directory service
• NTDS
DNS server
• DNS
IIS
File server
• TCP
• IIS Global
• Memory
• 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
Primary CPU Performance Counters
Object\Counter
Preferred or Ideal Value
Processor\% Processor
Time
Less than 75 percent
Processor\Interrupts/sec
Depends on the processor,
and on network hardware and
drivers
Processor\System
Processor Queue Length
4 or less
Primary Memory Performance Counters
Object\Counter
Preferred or Ideal Value
Memory\Pages per sec
0–20. (Unhealthy if greater than
80; probably indicates not
enough RAM)
Memory\Available Bytes
10% of physical memory
Memory\Committed Bytes
No more than 75 percent of
physical memory
Memory\Pool Nonpaged
Bytes
A steady value
Primary Disk Performance Counters
Object\Counter
LogicalDisk\% Disk Time
PhysicalDisk\% Disk Time
LogicalDisk\Avg. Disk Queue Length
PhysicalDisk\Avg. Disk Queue Length
LogicalDisk\Avg. Disk Bytes/Transfer
PhysicalDisk\Avg. Disk Bytes/Transfer
Preferred or
Ideal Value
As low as possible
Less than 4
As high as possible
Primary Network Performance Counters
•
Bytes received per second
•
Bytes sent per second
•
Packets received per second
•
Packets sent per second
•
Output queue length
•
Packets received errors
•
Packets outgoing errors
Lab A: Identifying Windows Server 2008
Monitoring Requirements
• Exercise 1: Evaluating Performance Metrics
• Exercise 2: Monitoring Performance Metrics
Logon information
Virtual machine
NYC-DC1, NYC-SVR1
User name
Woodgrovebank\Administrator
Password
Pa$$w0rd
Estimated time: 90 minutes
Lab Scenario
• You are a server administrator for Woodgrove Bank. Some
of your users are reporting issues with some servers that
have been identified as running slowly. You must evaluate
data that is collected from performance logs and identify
where potential problems may exist.
Lab Review
• How can you view information about a performance
counter?
• Task Manager does not display CPU information for virtual
machines running on Hyper-V. How could you view CPU
usage information for these virtual machines?
Lesson 4: Selecting Appropriate Monitoring Tools
• Windows Server 2008 Monitoring Tools
• Reliability and Performance Monitor
• Reliability Monitor
• Third-Party Monitoring Tools
• What Are Subscriptions?
Windows Server 2008 Monitoring Tools
Built-in tools for monitoring systems:
•
Event Viewer
•
Task Manager
•
Scripting
•
Reliability and Performance Monitor
Reliability and Performance Monitor
Reliability Monitor
Demonstration: Overview of the Reliability and
Performance Monitor
In this demonstration, you will see an overview of the
Reliability and Performance monitor
Third-Party Monitoring Tools
Applications
Hardware
System Center Operations Manager
integration
What Are Subscriptions?
Subscriptions collect
events from multiple
computers, and store
them locally
Lesson 5: 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
Time to escalation
Allocation to group
or individual
Levels of escalation
• How much time should pass before
escalation to a higher level?
• Can issues progress to a higher level
immediately?
• Who receives an issue first?
• How are issues allocated?
• In-house
• External
Lesson 6: Overview of Windows Server 2008
Management Tasks
• Windows Server 2008 Maintenance Tasks
• Common Tasks for Different Server Roles
• Frequency of Management Tasks
Windows Server 2008 Maintenance Tasks

• Health and diagnostics monitoring

• Applying security updates

• Performance planning

• Tuning

• Investigative work

• Troubleshooting
Common Tasks for Different Server Roles
• Tasks for all servers:
 Review System and Application event logs
 Check free disk space
 Check that backups are successful
 Check service pack and update status
• Specific server roles:
 Check additional event logs
 Check protocol logs
 Check that additional backup
requirements are successful
Frequency of Management Tasks
Frequency
Always on
Tasks
• Monitoring
• Alerts
• Check antivirus software
Daily
• Check event logs on critical servers
• Check backup status
Weekly
Monthly
• Review event logs
• Review server disk capacities
• Updating
• Configuration changes
• Apply service packs
• Perform upgrades
Less frequent
• Performance monitoring and tuning
• Security review
• Disaster recovery test
Lesson 7: Automating Windows Server 2008
Maintenance
• Automation Requirements
• Task Automation Tools
• Tool Selection Process
Automation Requirements
• Simplify individual tasks:
 Save time and cost
 May support delegation
 Simplify repeated tasks:
 Apply configuration to multiple servers
 Be easy to implement:
 Time and cost savings outweigh initial
planning and configuration
• Specific skills:
 In-house or outsourced
Task Automation Tools
Windows-based tools
• Security Configuration Wizard
• Group Policy objects
• Scripting
Other tools
• System Center Operations Manager
• System Center Configuration Manager
• Third-party tools
Tool Selection Process
Before you invest in a management tool, you
must consider the following:
 Cost
 Whether it is fit for purpose
Authorization
to implement
 Time it will •take
Business
 Who will provide support
IT
 Training time and expense
Lab B: Configuring Windows Server 2008
Monitoring
• Exercise 1: Configuring Data Collector Sets
• Exercise 2: Monitoring Extension Exercise
• Exercise 3: Automating Maintenance Tasks
Logon information
Virtual machine
NYC-DC1, NYC-SVR1
User name
Woodgrovebank\Administrator
Password
Pa$$w0rd
Estimated time: 90 minutes
Lab Scenario
• You are a server administrator for Woodgrove Bank. Some
of your users are reporting issues with some servers that
have been identified as running slowly. You must evaluate
data that is collected from performance logs and identify
where potential problems may exist.
Lab Review
• Did you receive any warnings on the Performance Report?
If so, why did you receive this warning(s) and how would
you fix the warning(s)?
• What approach did you use to determine the performance
issues using Performance Monitor logs?
Module Review and Takeaways
• Review Questions
• Best Practices Related to Windows Server 2008
Performance Monitoring