FAQ: How can I create a Performance Monitor Log file?

FAQ: How can I create a Performance Monitor Log file?

Windows Performance Monitor can be used and configured to record in the background Windows processes' performance counters and Operating System resources usage on the long run.

Windows Performance Monitor logs are useful when troubleshooting system stability or performance issues (but also other type of issues), being those sporadic or (slow-)continuous events (e.g. gradual memory increase), as the output of this log allows users to find patterns or specific resource usage trend by Windows processes on the long term.

The configuration below will save a new record every 30 seconds of all active Windows processes for the performance counters and some hardware resources configured. Feel free to adapt the point#2 command to your needs as the syntax can be easily understand when performing an identical configuration using Performance Monitor user interface (Type "Perfmon" in Windows Start menu). For instance, it is possible to limit the log capture to a certain process by replacing the asterisk * by the process name, e.g., zenrt32.
  1. Open CMD prompt with Administrative rights.
  2. Copy the command below and execute.
    3. Logman create counter LOG_MONITOR -f bincirc -v mmddhhmm -max 500 -c "\Processor(_Total)\% Processor Time" "\Memory\Available MBytes" "\LogicalDisk(*)\% Free Space" "\PhysicalDisk(*)\Current Disk Queue Length" "\Network Interface(*)\Bytes Total/sec" "\TCPv4\Connections Established" "\TCPv6\Connections Established" "\Process(_Total)\Handle Count" "\Process(_Total)\Thread Count" "\Process(*)\% Processor Time" "\Process(*)\Handle Count" "\Process(*)\Thread Count" "\Process(*)\Private Bytes" "\Process(*)\ID Process" -si 00:00:30
  3. Execute: Logman start LOG_MONITOR
  4. Execute the command Logman stop LOG_MONITOR to stop the current data collection. You can find the LOG_MONTITOR blg files in the folder C:\PerfLogs\Admin (default).

If you have any question, doubt or suggestion about this FAQ please contact your local COPA-DATA Representative.