Monitoring and Tuning Your Server

Counters and Settings for Monitoring File Transfers

Each successful request to IIS 5.0 results in the transfer of at least one file. Most static Web pages include multiple files, such as a file of text and one or more files of graphics. There are counters for each IIS 5.0 service, which display the number of files sent and received by the Web Service and the FTP service. The SMTP service is slightly more complex; its counters indicate messages sent and messages delivered, as well as messages received.

Table 5.11 lists and describes the file counters.

Table 5.11 Counters for Monitoring IIS 5.0 File Transfers

Counter	Indicates
Web Service\ Files Sent FTP Service\ Files Sent SMTP Service\ Messages Sent Total	The number of files or messages sent by the service since the service was started.
Web Service\ Files Received FTP Service\ Files Received SMTP Service\ Messages Received Total	The number of files or messages received by the service since the service was started.
Web Service\ Files Total FTP Service\ Files Total	The number of files sent and received by the service since the service was started. Files Total is the unweighted sum of Files Sent and Files Received. The SMTP service lacks this counter.

The file counters for a particular service can be used as indicators of the network activity of that service. They can also be associated with other performance measures to determine the effect of high and low rates of file activity on server components.

Note, however, that the file counters for an IIS 5.0 service display cumulative totals on all traffic since the service was started, regardless of when PerfMon was started. The counters do not display current values or the rate at which files are transmitted.

To calculate file transmission rates, you can use PerfLog to log the file counters. PerfLog automatically logs the time at which measurement is taken. After you have generated a log in PerfLog, you can enter the PerfLog output files into a spreadsheet that associates the time of the measurement and the file count, in order to derive the transmission rates.