System Monitor is a valuable tool included with Microsoft Windows 2000 and is available in the Administrative Tools folder on the Programs menu. It graphically charts the performance of hundreds of individual system parameters on a computer running Microsoft Windows 2000. When you install Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server on a Windows 2000 server, several Exchange-specific counters are installed into System Monitor that you can track as well.
This chapter describes how to use System Monitor to better understand your Exchange system. This is an overview chapter only. For a more thourough discussion of how the Exchange 2000 counters work together to provide various types of information on performance, consult the Exchange 2000 Server Resource Kit (Microsoft Press, forthcoming).