Monitoring Performance
The
Performance tab enables you to view the CPU and physical memory usage
in graphical form. This information is especially useful when you need a
quick view of a CPU or memory performance bottleneck.
The Performance tab
makes it possible to graph a percentage of processor time in Kernel
mode. To show this, select View, Show Kernel Times. The kernel time is
represented by the red line in the graph. The kernel time is the measure
of time that applications are using operating system services. The
other processor time is known as User mode. User mode processor time is
spent in threads that are spawned by applications on the system.
If your server has
multiple CPU processors installed, you can view multiple CPU graphs at a
time by selecting View, CPU History and choosing either One Graph Per
CPU or One Graph, All CPUs.
Also on the Performance
tab, you will find a button labeled Resource Monitor. You can invoke
Resource Monitor for additional analysis of the system.
Monitoring Network Performance
The Networking tab
provides a measurement of the network traffic for each adapter on the
local server in graphical form, as shown in Figure 2.
For multiple network
adapters—whether they are dial-up, a local area network (LAN)
connection, a wide area network (WAN) connection, a virtual private
network (VPN) connection,
or the like—the Networking tab displays a graphical comparison of the
traffic for each connection. It provides a quick overview of the
adapter, network utilization, link speed, and state of your connection.
To show a visible line on
the graph for network traffic on any interface, the view automatically
scales to magnify the view of traffic versus available bandwidth. The
graph scales from 0% to 100% if the Auto Scale option is not enabled.
The greater the percentage shown on the graph, the less is the magnified
view of the current traffic. To auto scale and capture network traffic,
select Options, Auto Scale.
It is possible to break down
traffic on the graph into Bytes Sent, Received, and Total Bytes by
selecting View, Network Adapter History and checking the selections you
want graphed. This can be useful if you determine the overall throughput
is high and you need to quickly determine if inbound or outbound
traffic is an issue. In this situation, the default setting is displayed
in Total Bytes.
You can also add more
column headings by selecting View, Select Columns. Various network
measures can be added or removed; they include Bytes Throughput, Bytes
Sent/Interval, Unicast Sent and Received, and so on.
Tip
If you suspect a possible
network server problem, launch the Task Manager and quickly glance at
the CPU utilization, memory available, process utilization, and network
utilization information. When the utilization of any or all of these
items exceeds 60% to 70%, there might be a bottleneck or overutilization
of a resource, causing pressure. However, if all the utilization
information shows demand being less than 5%, the problem is probably not
related to server operations.
Monitoring User Activity
The final tab on the Task
Manager is the Users tab, which displays a list of the users who are
connected to or logged on to the server, session status, and names. The
following five columns are available on the Users tab:
User—
Shows the users logged on the server. As long as the user is not
connected via a console session, it is possible to remote control the
session or send a message. Remote control can be initiated by
right-clicking the user and selecting Remote Control. The level of
control is dictated by the security settings configured in Remote
Desktop.
ID— Displays the numeric ID that identifies the session on the server.
Status— Displays the current status of a session. Sessions can be either Active or Disconnected.
Client Name— Specifies the name of the client computer using the session, if applicable.
Session— Displays which session the user is logged on with.
