Spend time performing capacity analysis to save time troubleshooting and fire-fighting.
Use capacity analysis processes to help weed out the unknowns.
Establish systemwide policies and procedures to begin to proactively manage your system.
After establishing systemwide policies and procedures, start characterizing system workloads.
Use performance metrics and other variables such as workload characterization, vendor requirements or recommendations, industry-recognized benchmarks, and the data that you collect to establish a baseline.
Use the benchmark results only as a guideline or starting point.
Use Task Manager to quickly view performance.
Use performance logs and alerts to capture performance data on a regular basis.
Consider using Microsoft Operations Manager or third-party products to assist with performance monitoring, capacity and data analysis, and reporting.
Carefully choose what to monitor so that the information doesn't become unwieldy.
At a minimum, monitor the most common contributors to performance bottlenecks: memory, processor, disk subsystem, and network subsystem.
Identify and monitor server functions and roles along with the common set of resources.
Examine network-related error counters.
Automate patch management processes and procedures using Software Update Services, Systems Management Server, or a third-party product.
