Process Monitor (Pmon.exe) and the Task Manager Process tab are both useful for monitoring CGI processes. Although these tools do not log process-specific data over time and cannot export data for other uses, they are particularly effective for monitoring short-lived processes. Both tools display a list of all processes running on the computer, along with different measures of processor and memory use.
Process Monitor is included on the Windows NT Workstation Resource Kit CD in the Performance Tools group (\Perftool\Meastool). Process Monitor is updated automatically every five seconds.
Task Manager is integrated into Windows NT. To start Task Manager, press ctrl+shift+esc. Click the Processes tab on Task Manager to see a list of processes running on the server, including the processes in which CGI requests run. You can set the rate at which Task Manager is updated by clicking Update Speed on the View menu.
The Task Manager Processes tab displays a table listing the running processes along with performance information about each process. By default, Task Manager displays the Process Identifier, CPU Usage, CPU Time, and Memory Usage of each process. You can change the type of performance information listed about each process. To add or remove a Task performance measure, from the View menu, click Select Columns, then click a performance measure.
Note
Please note that the Process Monitor and Task Manager CPU Time, Page Faults and Mem Usage counts are cumulative. These performance measures show how much of a resource the process has used since the process started. A high value might indicate that a process has been running for a long time, not that the process is using the resource at a high rate.
Warning
You should be careful when running any monitoring tool for an extended period of time at a very high refresh rate. The overhead of the tool is directly proportional to the frequency at which it is updated. When using Process Monitor and Task Manager, monitor the overhead of the processes in which the tools run and subtract the overhead from your test results.
Monitoring CGI and ISAPI processes provide another view of the performance of CGI and ISAPI applications. This additional information can help you plan your server capacity.