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VMWare. Delete Files from Data Storage

These can be one of the many options that exist.

From the Host:

From the Data Store:

by GoN | Published: December 21, 2016 | Last Updated:

Windows. Performance Counters. Processor

My top performances counters to messure Windows Processor performance.

These are some of the explanations that I have been able to extract from Microsoft and other web pages. The interpretations of the counters could vary according to parameters or configurations that each one can have.

[ ] Performance Counters

[ ] Processor

[ ] Processor Time

Counter:	Processor  - Processor Time
Description	% Processor Time is the percentage of elapsed time that the processor spends to execute a non-Idle thread. It is calculated by measuring the percentage of time that the processor spends executing the idle thread and then subtracting that value from 100%. (Each processor has an idle thread that consumes cycles when no other threads are ready to run). This counter is the primary indicator of processor activity, and displays the average percentage of busy time observed during the sample interval. It should be noted that the accounting calculation of whether the processor is idle is performed at an internal sampling interval of the system clock (10ms). On todays fast processors, % Processor Time can therefore underestimate the processor utilization as the processor may be spending a lot of time servicing threads between the system clock sampling interval. Workload based timer applications are one example  of applications  which are more likely to be measured inaccurately as timers are signaled just after the sample is taken. Is the percentage of time the processors spend to execute threads that are not idle. A consistent 80-90% is too high. Multiprocessor systems have a separate instance for each CPU.
Options	Total or processor
Threshold / Values	Good < 80%
Units
How to interpret the value	Amount of total CPU usage across all processors.   Is high in the Processor object, you might want to monitor it in the Process object for each individual process.

[ ] Privileged time

Counter:	Processor  - Privileged time
Description	% Privileged Time is the percentage of elapsed time that the process threads spent executing code in privileged mode.  When a Windows system service in called, the service will often run in privileged mode to gain access to system-private data. Such data is protected from access by threads executing in user mode. Calls to the system can be explicit or implicit, such as page faults or interrupts. Unlike some early operating systems, Windows uses process boundaries for subsystem protection in addition to the traditional protection of user and privileged modes. Some work done by Windows on behalf of the application might appear in other subsystem processes in addition to the privileged time in the process.
Options	Total or processor
Threshold / Values	Good < 30%
Units
How to interpret the value	Amount of total CPU usage in kernel mode across all processors.  Indicates the time spent on Windows kernel commands (SQL Server I/O requests). If both this and Physical Disk counters are high, there might be a need for a faster disk or lower load for this server. Let you monitor user mode and kernel mode activities independently. These counters can help you determine whether a bottleneck is occurring within an application or within the OS. However, it’s important to remember the architecture of the Windows OS. Most actions are performed in kernel mode, so it’s not uncommon to see 70 percent or more of the activity occurring within kernel or privileged mode.

[ ] user time

Counter:	Processor  -  user time
Description	% User Time is the percentage of elapsed time the processor spends in the user mode. User mode is a restricted processing mode designed for applications, environment subsystems, and integral subsystems.  The alternative, privileged mode, is designed for operating system components and allows direct access to hardware and all memory.  The operating system switches application threads to privileged mode to access operating system services. This counter displays the average busy time as a percentage of the sample time. Amount of total CPU usage in user mode across all processors.
Options	Total or processor
Threshold / Values	Good < 80%
Units
How to interpret the value	The percentage of time the CPU spends on user processes (SQL Server). It ss inclusive of both user mode and kernel mode OS functions. It’s technically a measurement of the time in which the System Idle Process isn’t running. The System Idle Process runs only when no other process is seeking processor time. I usually look for average % Processor Time values greater than 65 to 70 percent before I’m concerned about the processor

by GoN | Published: December 15, 2016 | Last Updated:

Windows. Performance Counters. Memory

My top performances counters to messure Windows Memory performance.

These are some of the explanations that I have been able to extract from Microsoft and other web pages. The interpretations of the counters could vary according to parameters or configurations that each one can have.

[ ] Performance Counters

 [ ] Memory

[ ] Available MBytes

Counter:	Memory - Available MBytes
Description	Available Bytes is the amount of physical memory, in bytes, immediately available for allocation to a process or for system use. It is equal to the sum of memory assigned to the standby (cached), free and zero page lists. Indicates how much memory is available for new processes. Measures values that sit between Available Bytes and Available Mbytes. The level of detail provided by tracking kilobytes is better than the limited detail of megabytes and the overwhelming detail of bytes.
Threshold / Values	Good -> big value
Units	Bytes / Mbytes
How to interpret the value	High value a lot of memory free to work else Possible memory congestion by processes. Solution: more memory

[ ] Pages/sec

Counter:	Memory - Pages/sec
Description	Pages/sec is the rate at which pages are read from or written to disk to resolve hard page faults. This counter is a primary indicator of the kinds of faults that cause system-wide delays.  It is the sum of Memory\\Pages Input/sec and Memory\\Pages Output/sec.  It is counted in numbers of pages, so it can be compared to other counts of pages, such as Memory\\Page Faults/sec, without conversion. It includes pages retrieved to satisfy faults in the file system cache (usually requested by applications) non-cached mapped memory files. This counter indicates how many times the virtual memory is getting accessed. A rule of thumb says that it should be lower than 20. Higher numbers might mean excessive paging. Using Memory: Page Faults/sec can further indicate whether SQL Server or some other process is causing it. Is used to track the number of virtual memory pages read or written per second. On most systems, a 4KB memory page is used, so you can multiply the Pages/sec value times 4 to calculate the kilobytes passing to or from the virtual memory file each second, which will give you a better understanding of just how much data is moved from RAM to the disk each second.
Threshold / Values	Good < 20
Units	Pages/sec
How to interpret the value	Access to disk (cache). Higher numbers might mean excessive paging.

[ ] Pages Output/sec

Counter:	Memory - Pages Output/sec
Description	Pages Output/sec is the rate at which pages are written to disk to free up space in physical memory. Pages are written back to disk only if they are changed in physical memory, so they are likely to hold data, not code. A high rate of pages output might indicate a memory shortage. Windows writes more pages back to disk to free up space when physical memory is in short supply.  This counter shows the number of pages, and can be compared to other counts of pages, without conversion.
Threshold / Values	Good low values
Units	Pages Output/sec
How to interpret the value	A high rate of pages output might indicate a memory shortage. Need more physical memory.

[ ] Pages Input/sec

Counter:	Memory - Pages Input/sec
Description	Pages Input/sec is the rate at which pages are read from disk to resolve hard page faults. Hard page faults occur when a process refers to a page in virtual memory that is not in its working set or elsewhere in physical memory, and must be retrieved from disk. When a page is faulted, the system tries to read multiple contiguous pages into memory to maximize the benefit of the read operation. Compare the value of Memory\\Pages Input/sec to the value of  Memory\\Page Reads/sec to determine the average number of pages read into memory during each read operation.
Threshold / Values	Good high values
Units	Pages Input/sec
How to interpret the value	Hard page faults occur when a process refers to a page in virtual memory that is not in its working set or elsewhere in physical memory, and must be retrieved from disk.

by GoN | Published: December 15, 2016 | Last Updated: - 

Windows. Performance Counters. LogicalDisk

My top performances counters to messure Windows Logical Disk performance.

These are some of the explanations that I have been able to extract from Microsoft and other web pages. The interpretations of the counters could vary according to parameters or configurations that each one can have.

[ ] Performance Counters

[ ] LogicalDisk

[ ] Avg. Disk sec/Read

Counter:	LogicalDisk - Avg. Disk sec/Read
Description	Avg. Disk sec/Read is the average time, in seconds, of a read of data from the disk. Measure latency directly at the layer just above where the storage device drivers hook into the operating system. These help to accurately measure how long the drivers and hardware took to service an I/O request no matter what kind of hardware you have.
Options	Total or Disk values
Threshold / Values	Measures read latency on the disks. ( < .005 excellent; .005 – .010 Good; .010 – .015 Fair; > .015 investigate)
Units	seconds
How to interpret the value

  

[ ] Avg. Disk sec/Write

Counter:	LogicalDisk - Avg. Disk sec/Write
Description	Avg. Disk sec/Write is the average time, in seconds, of a write of data to the disk. Measure latency directly at the layer just above where the storage device drivers hook into the operating system. These help to accurately measure how long the drivers and hardware took to service an I/O request no matter what kind of hardware you have.
Options	Total or Disk values
Threshold / Values	Measures write latency on the disks. ( < .005 excellent; .005 – .010 Good; .010 – .015 Fair; > .015 investigate)
Units	seconds
How to interpret the value

[ ] Disk Read/sec

Counter:	LogicalDisk - Disk Read/sec
Description	Disk Reads/sec is the rate of read operations on the disk. Number of read IOPs.
Options	Total or Disk values
Threshold / Values
Units	seconds
How to interpret the value

[ ] Disk Write/sec

Counter:	LogicalDisk - Disk Write/sec
Description	Disk Writes/sec is the rate of write operations on the disk. Number of write IOPs.
Options	Total or Disk values
Threshold / Values
Units	seconds
How to interpret the value

[ ] Average Disk Queue Length

Counter:	LogicalDisk - Average Disk Queue Length
Description	Avg. Disk Queue Length is the average number of both read and write requests that were queued for the selected disk during the sample interval. Avg. Disk Queue Length (Avg. Disks Read Queue Length, Avg. Disk Write Queue Length) Avg. Disk Queue Length is equal to the (Disk Transfers/sec) *( Disk sec/Transfer) , which is the average response of the device times the I/O rate. As you would expect, the Avg. Disk Read Queue Length is equal to the “(Disk Reads/sec) * (Disk sec/Read)” and Avg. Disk Write Queue Length is equal to the “(Disk Writes/sec) * (Disk sec/Write)”. Counter can reveal whether the drive is keeping up with the demand of running processes. The most frequently cited threshold is two items in the queue. If the average is greater than 2, a drive bottleneck might be occurring. This counter should also be compared with the baseline. If the baseline shows an average of 2.3 items in the disk queue and performance was perceived as acceptable, there’s no reason to suggest that performance is unacceptable—at a later time—if the average is the same or lower. Remember, performance is measurable with statistics, but whether performance is “good” or “bad” is a relative issue. The Avg. Disk Queue Length counter is derived from the product of Avg. Disk sec/Transfer multiplied by Disk Transfers/sec. For example, the Avg. Disk Queue Length counter reads 10.3, and the Current Disk Queue Length counter shows four requests in the disk queue at the end of the measurement interval. If the previous value of Current Disk Queue Length was 0, the equilibrium assumption necessary for Little's Law does not hold. Since the number of arrivals is evidently greater than the number of completions during the interval, there is no valid interpretation for the value in the Avg. Disk Queue Length counter, and you should ignore the counter value. However, if both the present measurement of the Current Disk Queue Length counter and the previous value are equal, then it is safe to interpret the Avg. Disk Queue Length counter as the average number of outstanding I/O requests to the disk over the interval, including both requests currently in service and requests queued for service.
Options	Total or Disk values
Threshold / Values	1 < Good /  3<=Fair (base on  baseline)
Units
How to interpret the value	Counter can reveal whether the drive is keeping up with the demand of running processes. The most frequently cited threshold is two items in the queue. If the average is greater than 2, a drive bottleneck might be occurring. This counter should also be compared with the baseline. If the baseline shows an average of 2.3 items in the disk queue and performance was perceived as acceptable, there’s no reason to suggest that performance is unacceptable—at a later time—if the average is the same or lower. Remember, performance is measurable with statistics, but whether performance is “good” or “bad” is a relative issue. Be careful when using old thresholds of 2 with SQL Server and SANs.  This value can be much higher than 2.  Do not rely solely on this counter to diagnose an IO problem. Possible HD problems.

[ ] Disk Bytes/sec

Counter:	LogicalDisk - Disk Bytes/sec
Description	Disk Bytes/sec is the rate bytes are transferred to or from the disk during write or read operations. Perfmon captures the total number of bytes sent to the disk (write) and retrieved from the disk (read) over a period of one second. If the Perfmon capture interval is set for anything greater than one second, the average of the values captured is presented. The Disk Read Bytes/sec and the Disk Write Bytes/sec counters break down the results displaying only read bytes or only write bytes, respectively.
Options	Total or Disk values
Threshold / Values	Good < 1. High values are Good if this value is low could have problems.
Units	Seconds
How to interpret the value	Can reveal whether the drive is living up to expectations. Many drives are rated at a certain speed, but they perform at lower speeds. This counter can reveal such behavior. In many cases, updating drive controller drivers might resolve such performance problems.

[ ] Disk Transfers/sec

Counter:	LogicalDisk - Disk Transfers/sec
Description	Disk Transfers/sec is the rate of read and write operations on the disk. Perfmon captures the total number of individual disk IO requests completed over a period of one second. If the Perfmon capture interval is set for anything greater than one second, the average of the values captured is presented. Disk Reads/sec and Disk Writes/sec are calculated in the same way, but break down the results in read requests only or write requests only, respectively.
Options	Total or Disk values
Threshold / Values	Good < 1. High values are Good if this value is low could have problems.
Units	Seconds
How to interpret the value	Number of read and write IOPs (used to compare against capacity of storage subsystem)

[ ] Split IO/Sec

Counter:	LogicalDisk - Split IO/Sec
Description	Split IO/Sec reports the rate at which I/Os to the disk were split into multiple I/Os. A split I/O may result from requesting data of a size that is too large to fit into a single I/O or that the disk is fragmented. Measures the rate of IO split due to file fragmentation. This happens if the IO request touches data on non-contiguous file segments.
Options	Total or Disk values
Threshold / Values	High values are Bad, there are a lot of fragmentation.
Units
How to interpret the value	Measures the rate of IO split due to file fragmentation. This happens if the IO request touches data on non-contiguous file segments.

[ ] Tools

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/DiskSpd-a-robust-storage-6cd2f223

[ ] More Information

https://www.smartertools.com/blog/2016/07/15-configure-perfmon-to-prevent-disk-issues

by GoN | Published: December 17, 2016 | Last Updated: Febrary 16, 2017