Viewing and Replaying Performance Logs

When you're troubleshooting problems, you'll often want to log performance data over an extended period of time and then replay the data to analyze the results. To do this, complete the following steps:

1. Configure automatic logging as described in the "Using Performance Logs" section of this chapter.

2. In Performance Monitor, select the System Monitor entry on the left pane and then right-click the System Monitor details pane. Finally, select Properties from the shortcut menu. This displays the System Monitor Properties dialog box.

3. Click the Source tab. Under Data Source, click Log Files and then click Add to open the Select Log File dialog box. You can now select the log file you want to analyze.

4. Specify the time window that you want to analyze. Click Time Range, and then drag the Total Range bar to specify the appropriate starting and ending times. Drag the left edge to the right to move up the start time. Drag the right edge to the left to move down the end time.

5. Select the Data tab. You can now select counters to view. Click the Add button. This displays the Add Counter dialog box, which you can use to select the counters that you want to analyze.

   Note

   Only counters that you selected for logging are available. If you don't see a counter that you want to work with, you'll need to modify the log properties, restart the logging process, and then check the logs at a later date.

   
   

6. Click OK. Then in System Monitor, use the View Graph, View Histogram, and View Report buttons on the toolbar to display information based on the counters selected.