Appendix C. Common Performance Monitor counters

 

There are literally hundreds of counters that could be captured. The capture purpose (for example, troubleshooting or baseline analysis) usually determines which ones are included. Provided here is a list of common counters by category. Each counter is preceded by the object, for example, Processor:%Processor Time indicates the %Processor Time counter in the Processor object. The descriptions for all of these counters can be found in the Performance Monitor tool itself.

C.1. CPU

  • Processor:%Processor Time
  • Processor:Interrups/Sec
  • System:Processor Queue Length
  • System:Context Switches/Sec

C.2. Memory

  • Memory:Pages/Sec
  • Memory:Page Faults/Sec
  • SQL Server Memory Manager:Memory Grants Pending
  • SQL Server Buffer Manager:Buffer Cache Hit Ratio
  • SQL Server Buffer Manager:Page Life Expectancy

C.3. Disk

  • Physical Disk:Current Disk Queue Length
  • Physical Disk:Avg. Disk Queue Length
  • Physical Disk:Avg. Disk Sec/Read
  • Physical Disk:Avg. Disk Sec/Write
  • SQL Server Databases:Log Flush Wait Time
  • SQL Server Databases:Log Flush Waits/Sec

C.4. Network

  • Network Interface:Bytes Received/Sec
  • Network Interface:Bytes Sent/Sec

C.5. SQL Server