View and Configure Performance, Event, and Service Data

Applies To: Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

This topic describes how to view and configure the event log entries, performance counters, and service alerts that are displayed for local and remote servers in Server Manager.

Event, service, and performance log data is displayed in two places in the Server Manager console in Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server® 2012.

• On the dashboard, you can click the Events, Performance, and Services rows of thumbnails to configure event, performance, and service log data that you want to see for roles, the entire Server Manager server pool, user-created groups of servers, and the local server. Clicking the hypertext rows opens Detail View dialog boxes that let you specify the data about which you want to be alerted in the dashboard. After you configure event, service, and performance log data that you want to be highlighted in the dashboard thumbnails, log entries that match the criteria you have specified are listed at the bottom of the Detail View dialog boxes.

• Events, Services, and Performance tiles are part of role and group home pages. Commands on the Tasks menu of these tiles let you specify the data that you want collected from managed servers. The tiles include filters and queries to further limit the log entries that are displayed in the tile, if desired.

This topic contains the following sections.

• What are thumbnails?

• View and configure events

• View and configure performance log data

• Manage services and configure service alerts

• View and copy event, service, or performance entries

What are thumbnails?

Thumbnails are displayed on the Server Manager dashboard for each role (a role’s thumbnail reflects data collected about all of the servers in the Server Manager pool that are running the role), for each server group, for the All Servers group (all of the servers in the Server Manager pool), and for the local server. After Server Manager gets data from managed servers, thumbnails are automatically created for roles that are running on servers in the server pool.

If the Server Manager console is running on a client computer as part of Remote Server Administration Tools, there is no Local Server thumbnail.

The thumbnail displays a quick view of the status and manageability of roles, servers, and server groups. The thumbnail heading row changes color—and highlighted numbers are displayed in the left margin—when events, performance counters, Best Practices Analyzer results, services, or general manageability issues meet criteria that you configure in the Detail View dialog boxes opened by clicking thumbnail rows. The following table describes the data displayed in thumbnails.

View and configure events

In this section, learn how to configure what event log data is collected from servers in the Server Manager server pool, and which events you want highlighted in thumbnails.

To configure the events collected from managed servers

1. In the Server Manager console, open any page except the dashboard. You can configure the events that you want collected from managed servers in the Events tile on role, server group, or local server pages.

2. On the Tasks menu of the Events tile, click Configure Event Data.

3. Select the event severity levels that you want to be collected from the servers in the selected group. By default, Critical, Error, and Warning severity levels are selected.

4. Specify a time period during which the events occur. The default age for events is 24 hours.

5. Select the event log files from which you want events to be collected. The defaults are Application, Setup, and System.

6. To save your changes, click OK to close the Configure Event Data dialog box. Event data automatically refreshes when your changes are saved.

To configure the events highlighted in thumbnails

1. If Server Manager is already open, go on to the next step. If Server Manager is not already open, open it by doing one of the following.

   • On the Windows desktop, start Server Manager by clicking Server Manager in the Windows taskbar.

   • On the Windows Start screen, click the Server Manager tile.

2. On the dashboard page, in a thumbnail in the Roles and Server Groups tile, click the Events row.

3. In the Events Detail View dialog box, add a severity level to the events that you want displayed. By default, thumbnails only display alert highlighting for critical events. Note that the number of events displayed in the Detail View dialog box increases when you add a severity level about which you want to be alerted.

4. In the Event sources field, select the event sources about which you want to be alerted. The default is All.

5. If this thumbnail is for a role that is installed on multiple servers, or a group of multiple servers, you can select the servers for which you want event alerts in the Servers drop-down list.

6. In the Time period field, specify a time period up to 1440 minutes, 24 hours, or 1 day.

7. In the Event IDs field, type the event ID numbers of specific events about which you want to be alerted. You can type a range of event IDs separated by a dash (-), and exclude event IDs from the range by typing the dash before the event ID or range of event IDs that you want to exclude. For example, the value 1,3,5-99,-76 means that alerts are raised for event IDs 1 and 3, and all events with IDs between 5 and 99 except for event ID 76.

8. As you change the criteria for which alerts are displayed, the number of event alerts that are displayed in the results pane at the bottom of the dialog box might change. Select entries in the list and click Hide Alerts to prevent them from affecting the alert count that is displayed in the source thumbnail. Press and hold Ctrl as you select alerts to select multiple alerts at one time. You can do this for alerts that match your event alerting criteria, but that you do not need to see.

9. Click Show All to return hidden alerts to the list.

10. Click OK to save your changes, close the Detail View dialog box, and view the event alert changes in the source thumbnail.

View and configure performance log data

In this section, learn how to configure what performance log data is collected from servers in the Server Manager server pool, and which performance counter alerts you want highlighted in thumbnails.

By default, performance counters are turned off. Managed servers that are running operating systems newer than Windows Server 2003, and for which performance counters have not been started, typically show manageability status errors of Online – Performance counters not started in the Servers tile of role or group pages. To turn performance counters on for managed servers, on the All Servers page, right-click entries in the Performance tile that show a Counter Status value of Off, and then click Start Performance Counters. You can also start performance counters by right-clicking entries for servers in the Servers tile of role or group pages, and then clicking Start Performance Counters.

To configure the performance log data collected from managed servers

1. In the Server Manager console, open any page except the dashboard. You can configure the performance data that you want collected from managed servers in the Performance tile on role, server group, or local server pages.

2. To collect performance log data from managed servers, performance counters must be turned on. If performance counters are turned off, right-click an entry in the Performance tile list, and then click Start Performance Counters. Performance counter data collection can require some time, depending on the number of servers from which data is collected, and available network bandwidth. View the status in the Counter Status column.

3. On the Tasks menu of the Performance tile, click Configure Performance Alerts.

4. For the servers in the selected group, or that are running the selected role, specify at what percent of CPU usage you want performance counter alerts collected by Server Manager. The default is 85%.

5. Specify the remaining available memory, in megabytes, that servers must have before you want performance counter alerts collected. The default is 2 MB.

6. Specify a time period that is displayed by the graphs for the resources CPU Usage and Available Memory in the Performance tile on the selected page. The default period is one day. Click Save.

   Note that the number of performance alerts in the Performance tile, and the mapping of the alerts over time as displayed by the graph, can change after you click Save.

   Note

   For virtual machines that have Dynamic Memory turned on, increasing the performance alerts threshold can result in false positive alerts.

7. To refresh the list of performance alerts that are collected from your servers, on the Tasks menu, click Refresh.

To configure the performance alerts highlighted in thumbnails

1. On the dashboard page, in a thumbnail in the Roles and Server Groups tile, click the Performance row.

2. In the Performance Detail View dialog box, select or clear check boxes for resource performance thresholds about which you want to be alerted in the Resource type field. Note that the number of performance alerts displayed in the Detail View dialog box can increase when you add a resource performance threshold about which you want to be alerted.

3. If this thumbnail is for a role that is installed on multiple servers, or a group of multiple servers, you can select the servers for which you want performance alerts in the Servers drop-down list.

4. In the Time period field, specify a time period up to 1440 minutes, 24 hours, or 1 day.

5. As you change the criteria for which alerts are displayed, the number of alerts that are displayed in the results pane at the bottom of the dialog box might change. Click Hide Alerts to hide all alerts older than the current time, and prevent them from affecting the alert count that is displayed in the source thumbnail.

6. Click Show All to return hidden alerts to the list.

7. Click OK to save your changes, close the Detail View dialog box, and view the performance alert changes in the source thumbnail.

To view the properties of performance alerts

1. Do one of the following.

   • On the dashboard page, in a thumbnail in the Roles and Server Groups tile, click the Performance row.

   • Open a role or group home page, and locate the Performance tile for the role or group.

2. Double-click a performance alert in the list to view its properties. Alternatively, you can right-click a performance alert, and then click View Properties.

3. In the Performance Alert Properties dialog box, select log entries to view information about the processes that are associated with the entry in the Processes area.

4. When you are finished viewing performance alert properties, close the dialog box.

Analyze performance data and solve problems

For more information about analyzing performance counter data that you view in Server Manager, and solving performance problems on managed servers, see the following resources.

• Analyzing performance data

• Solving performance problems

For more information about advanced performance monitoring and analysis tools that are available for Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012, including Server Performance Advisor 3.0, see Performance Tools for Windows 8.

Manage services and configure service alerts

In this section, learn how to start, stop, restart, pause, or resume services that are displayed in the Services tile on role and server group pages in Server Manager. You can also configure the services about which you are alerted in thumbnails on the Server Manager dashboard.

To start, stop, restart, pause, or resume a service

1. In the Server Manager console, open any page except the dashboard (in other words, any role or group home page).

2. In the Services tile for the role or group, right-click a service.

3. In the context menu, click the action that you want to perform on the service. If the service is stopped, the only action you can perform is to start the service. Similarly, if the service is paused, the only action you can perform is to resume the service.

4. Note that when you start, stop, restart, pause, or resume a service, the value of the Status column changes for the service in the Services tile.

To configure service alerts highlighted in thumbnails

1. On the dashboard page, in a thumbnail in the Roles and Server Groups tile, click the Services row.

2. In the Services Detail View dialog box, select the startup types for services about which you want to be alerted. By default, Automatic (Delayed Start) and Automatic are selected.

3. Select the service statuses about which you want to be alerted. By default, All is selected.

4. Select services about which you want to be alerted. By default, All is selected.

5. Select the servers associated with the role or group for which you want to receive alerts about services. By default, All is selected.

6. As you change the criteria for which alerts are displayed, the number of alerts that are displayed in the results pane at the bottom of the dialog box might change. Click Hide Alerts to hide all alerts older than the current time, and prevent them from affecting the alert count that is displayed in the source thumbnail.

7. Click Show All to return hidden alerts to the list.

8. Click OK to save your changes, close the Detail View dialog box, and view the service alert changes in the source thumbnail.

View and copy event, service, or performance entries

You can copy event, service, or performance entry properties in both the Detail View dialog boxes and the Events and Performance tiles for a role or group. Right-click an event or performance entry, and then click Copy.

The Events tile also lets you preview event properties in the bottom half of the tile by selecting an event in the list. To copy the properties shown in the preview, right click the preview pane, and then click Copy.

See Also

Manage Multiple, Remote Servers with Server Manager Filter, Sort, and Query Data in Server Manager Tiles