Re: Understanding Paging and Performance Monitor Counters

Tom

What exactly are these computers used for? Most computers with I gb of
RAM will cope with typical office use. Any kind of common graphics
programme for design or the like might require more RAM especially if it
has an Undo feature.


--



Hope this helps.

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

TomM wrote:
Thanks Gerry,

I have to collect info on servral PC's at multiple location, which is
why I opted for Perfmance moniotr, as I could save the output for
later analysis.

Seems like We've got a RAM/paging issue, I just need to prove it
before opening my big mouth

Tom

You should be able to gather more information from Task Manager. With
the Processes tab open select View, Select, Columns and check the
boxes before Peak Memory Usage and Virtual Memory size. What are the
figures for the 6 processes using the largest amounts?

Are computers left on 24/7?

What Add-Ons are being used with Internet Explorer? In Internet
Explorer select Tools, Manage Add Ons, Enable or Disable Add Ons.

Are there performance variations fom one computer to another?

Any evidence of unexplained CPU usage. You can never rule out
malware.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TomM wrote:
Gerry,

PC's on (clients) Corporaste Network. RAM would typically be 1 or
2GB.
I've used Taskmgr, and know there is a high commit, but am now
trying to narraow things down a bit. Task Manager would typically
show a commit of between 900MB to 1.2GB on a 1Gb PC.
The Limit would be installed RAm + Pagefile size.
My instinct would be to add RAM, but I need to justify it, as they
have a large PC estate (many thousands)

Again becuae it's a corporate environment, I've no Control over the
McAffe subsciption. It is the preferred product at the moment. The
ePO managment team are side stepping this one, and I'm left trying
to prove it either way.

I did take a look at Pagefilemon, but becuase of said constraints,
I won't get permission to run it on the network.

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


.

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