Monitoring with System Monitor

If you are running the Microsoft® Windows® 2000 operating system, use System Monitor (Performance Monitor in Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0) to measure the performance of Microsoft SQL Server™. You can view SQL Server objects and performance counters as well as the behavior of other objects, such as processors, memory, cache, threads, and processes. Each of these objects has an associated set of counters that measure device usage, queue lengths, delays, and other indicators of throughput and internal congestion.

System Monitor makes it possible to obtain up-to-the-second SQL Server activity and performance statistics. With this graphical tool, you can:

• View data simultaneously from any number of computers.
  
  
• View and change charts to reflect current activity, and show counter values that are updated at a user-defined frequency.
  
  
• Export data from charts, logs, alert logs, and reports to spreadsheet or database applications for further manipulation and printing.
  
  
• Add system alerts that list an event in the alert log and can notify you by reverting to the Alert view or issuing a network alert.
  
  
• Run a predefined application the first time or every time a counter value goes over or under a user-defined value.
  
  
• Create log files that contain data about various objects from different computers.
  
  
• Append to one file selected sections from other existing log files to form a long-term archive.
  
  
• View current-activity reports, or create reports from existing log files.
  
  
• Save individual chart, alert, log, or report settings, or the entire workspace setup for reuse when needed.

  Note  You can use either the System Monitor or Performance Monitor to do these tasks.

For information about Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 objects and counters, see the Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 documentation.