Monitoring and Tuning Your Server

Baseline Logging

You can use the counters mentioned in Table 5.19 to generate a baseline log that shows the characteristics of your server under ordinary conditions. Such a log should cover at least one week of normal operation, so that it contains enough information to give you a good sense of your server’s behavior. Shorter logs that you create from time to time can help you decide when to upgrade.

Whenever you upgrade, you should generate another baseline log. You can compare this to previous logs, in order to discover the actual effects your upgrade is having on performance and capacity.

You can also log the counters of the Job Object to find out how much of your server’s capacity is in use for Web service. In PerfMon, these counters provide an overview; if you host multiple Web sites and want a detailed breakdown, the IIS 5.0 log is where you need to look.