Re: Understanding Paging and Performance Monitor Counters

Tom

Who is we? Are they commercial or home computers?

McAfee ( and Norton ) are well known for creating performance issues. A
simple look at pagefile usage will tell you if the system is making
excessive use of pagefile.

How much RAM?

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

How long does the McAfee subscription have to run? An alternative would
be to add RAM memory.

You can get more accurate information on pagefile usage using
pagefilemon, a small freeware utility.

Use page file monitor to observe what is the peak usage. Start it to run
immediately after start-up and look at the log. Pagefilemon takes
snapshots. You need to run it at the beginning of the session at then
run it again at intervals throughout the sessions. The log is Pagefile
log.txt. If you right click on the file in Windows Explorer and select
Send to, Desktop (Create Shortcut). The same applies to
XP_PageFileMon.exe.

A small utility to monitor pagefile usage:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

Note that programs using undo features, particularly those associated
with graphics and photo editing, require large amounts of memory so if
you use this type of programme check these first observing how the page
usage increases when they start and whether the usage decreases when you
close the programme.

You can get clues as to what is generating peak memory demands but this
is not a precise science, more a matter of judgement.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TomM wrote:
I'm trying to pinpoint some performance issues we are a having
whereby PC's start running slowly and grinding to a halt, at
approximately the same time as the AV update window. I suspect that
memory usage is an issue and that the PC's may be heavily paging
leading to the slowdown. I am trying to find out why this is
happening.

I have created a Performance Monitor log to include the following
counters

"\Memory\Committed Bytes"
"\Memory\Pages Output/sec"
"\Memory\Pages/sec"
"\Process(FrameworkService)\Page File Bytes"
"\Process(FrameworkService Bytes Peak"
"\Processor{_Total}\%Processor Time"

The trouble is that having gathered the counters I'm having trouble
actually interpreting them.
The sample window is 2 hrs, to try and get a before and after
understanding of what is happening
I think, but am open to correction, that the 3 main counters which I
should be interested in are
\Memory\Committed Bytes
Memory\Pages/sec"
\Process(FrameworkService\Page File Bytes Peak

FrameworkService is a component of the McAfee ePo suite

I'd like to be able to show you the graphical representation, but in
summary this is what I'm seeing

\Memory\Committed Bytes is showing at maximum 100 on the scale for the
duration of the sample
\Memory\Pages/sec - peaking every few minutes to 80, 90, 95 on the
scale for the duration of the observation, with a sharp flurry of
high activity directly after the time when the FrameworkService shows
a rise \Process(FrameworkService\Page File Bytes Peak - trundles
along happily at around 20 on the graph, rises sharply to 100 on the
scale, drops back and rises almost immediately. It them flatlines
and stays at 100 on the scale until the end of the sample

I haven't mentioned installed RAM, or the actual figures from the
sample, as the pattern appears to be the same on PC's with 1 GB and
2GB. I can give figures if it helps, but I think pattern is relevant

From my limited explanation, is anyone able to help me interpret this
behaviour.
Why is Memory committed Bytes constant at 100 on the scale
Why is the FrameworkService flatlining ?, what does this mean, and
what would be the results of this on PC behaviour

Thanks


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Understanding Paging and Performance Monitor Counters
    ... before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. ... Any evidence of unexplained CPU usage. ... The Limit would be installed RAm + Pagefile size. ... Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Understanding Paging and Performance Monitor Counters
    ... before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. ... Any evidence of unexplained CPU usage. ... The Limit would be installed RAm + Pagefile size. ... Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Hardware Monitor found an error
    ... If I changed the pagefile size, ... Pagefile Physical Location: C:\pagefile.sys ... Current Pagefile Usage: 102 MB ... Session Peak Usage: 240 MB ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: Disabling the page file doesnt really disable it. A bug?
    ... Task Manager measures allocation of virtual memory to programs not ... You can do a better check on pagefile usage using pagefilemon. ... I look at the "VM usage" column of most processes on Task Manager. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: XP computer is slow
    ... Physical Mem: ... CPU usage is 95% system idol. ... The system starts using the pagefile over ... Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)
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