How to Find Local Disk % Read Time

Equally nearly SmarterMail administrators know, a server's hard disks are some of the almost heavily used resources when it comes to managing a secure mail server and ofttimes have the biggest affect on how that postal service server performs. Every bit such, it'due south important to keep a close heart on your deejay activity, ensuring there are no bottlenecks or latencies that tin cause SmarterMail's performance to suffer.

And when it comes to monitoring server performance on Windows, there'due south no amend tool than the one built-in: Windows Performance Monitor! PerfMon, as information technology's normally known, is a panel snap-in that provides tools for analyzing your system's performance. Information technology's great to use for recording a performance baseline, monitoring your daily action, troubleshooting server data or discovering potential disk bug before they occur.

Follow along to acquire how to configure PerfMon to capture information pertaining to your e-mail server's disk I/O utilization. There are 3 sections in this guide: (one) steps for configuring a monitor to view data in real-time, (2) steps for configuring a data collection set in which data can be captured over a period of time and (iii) an caption of the performance counters and their expected values.

Notation: While the interface may vary slightly, the steps for configuring PerfMon remain consequent beyond supported server versions. The screenshots provided here were taken from Windows Server 2008 R2.

Monitoring Disk I/O Activity in Existent-Time

Configuring PerfMon to Monitor Functioning Counters

To monitor your disk activity in existent-time and catch disk I/O bottlenecks earlier they occur, you lot'll need to configure certain operation monitors within PerfMon:

1. On the Windows server where SmarterMail is installed, open up Functioning Monitor. This can exist opened from the Kickoff bill of fare by clicking on Administrative Tools and selecting Performance Monitor OR past opening the Run control, entering "perfmon.exe" and clicking OK.
2. Once open, add together a new counter. This is done past expanding the Monitoring Tools folder in the navigation pane and clicking on Operation Monitor. In the toolbar of icons in a higher place the main window, click the green plus sign (+) icon. The counter settings volition load in a popup window.
3. In the popup window, find the 'Instances of selected object' section and select the physical disk(s) you want to monitor. Highlight <All instances> to monitor all disks on the server in the same study. To monitor one or multiple disks individually, select each individual book. Past default, _Total will be selected; still, this is the sum of all your disks and won't provide meaningful data for this configuration. (It'southward of import to do this step before selecting performance counters, as changing the selected instance could remove the highlighting from the chosen operation counters.)

   

4. Next, become to the 'Available counters' section and find PhysicalDisk. Expand its additional options and highlight the following counters:
   • % Disk Read Fourth dimension
   • % Deejay Fourth dimension
   • % Disk Write Time
   • % Idle Time
   • Current Disk Queue Length
   • Disk Reads/sec
   • Disk Writes/sec
   • Separate IO/sec
5. Click Add together >>. The highlighted counters will be shown in the 'Added counters' section on the right-hand side of the window.
6. Click OK to close the Add together Counters dialog window.

Monitoring Real-Time Disk Activity

Equally before long equally you shut the Add together Counters window, you'll be dropped back into the PerfMon section where y'all tin brainstorm monitoring your results!

There are three types of graphs that you can choose to view: Line, Histogram Bar or Report. To toggle through the options, use the Change graph blazon button to the left of the plus sign (+) or press Ctrl+M on your keyboard. We prefer reviewing the Report type equally this lays out your data in a neat table; however, when yous're monitoring quite a few disks, you may not exist able to view all disk data simultaneously.

And so, if you lot review your results using the Line or Histogram Bar graphs instead, here are some things to exist aware of: If you chose <All instances> or the individual disk(south) when calculation your operation counters, each counter will be listed one time for every disk you're monitoring. Apply the column's sorting options to group disks together by Instance for easier review.

You lot may as well find the Highlight toolbar button to exist extremely useful in these views. When enabled, the performance counter currently selected at the bottom of the window will have its corresponding line/bar highlighted in black within the graph.

Monitoring Deejay I/O Activity Over a Period of Time

Configuring PerfMon's Information Collector Set

Now that your real-time monitoring is squared away, we can move on to capturing data sets over a menstruation of time. This configuration is extremely useful for those incidents that are tough to catch in real-fourth dimension. For case, an issue that occurs once every hour, happens sporadically or i that pops up after-hours.

To capture disk information over a period of time, we'll configure a Data Collector Set within PerfMon that tin be started and stopped as needed:

1. On the Windows server where SmarterMail is installed, open up Performance Monitor. This can be opened from the Start card by clicking on Authoritative Tools and selecting Performance Monitor OR past opening the Run command, entering "perfmon.exe" and clicking OK.
2. Once open, add a new Data Collector Set. This can be done past expanding the Data Collector Sets folder in the navigation pane. Then right-click on User Defined, hover over New and select Data Collector Set. The collector set settings volition load in a popup window.
3. In the Create new Data Collector Set dialog window, enter a friendly name for your study, such as "IO Report." Select the bulleted option to Create manually (Advanced). Click Next.
4. On the next screen, select the bulleted option to Create data logs and checkmark Performance counter. Click Adjacent.
5. At present, click on Add.... A window for the performance counter settings will appear.
6. In the popup window, discover the 'Instances of selected object' section and select the concrete deejay(s) you want to monitor. Highlight <All instances> to monitor all disks on the server in the same report. To monitor 1 or multiple disks individually, select each individual volume. Past default, _Total will be selected; nonetheless, this is the sum of all your disks and won't provide meaningful data for this configuration. (Information technology's important to do this step earlier selecting performance counters, as irresolute the selected instance could remove the highlighting from the chosen performance counters.)
7. Side by side, become to the 'Available counters' section and find PhysicalDisk. Expand its boosted options and highlight the following counters:
   • % Deejay Read Time
   • % Disk Time
   • % Disk Write Time
   • % Idle Time
   • Current Disk Queue Length
   • Disk Reads/sec
   • Disk Writes/sec
   • Split IO/sec
8. Click Add >>. The highlighted counters volition be shown in the 'Added counters' section on the correct-paw side of the window.

   

9. Next, discover SmarterMail within the list of 'Bachelor counters.' Expand its additional options and highlight each one. (These counters will exist helpful by allowing yous to compare the values of normal disk activity versus loftier disk I/O. For instance, during an example of high disk I/O, you could potentially encounter an influx of IMAP connections, SMTP connections, file handles, threads, etc., allowing yous to understand the SmarterMail sections impacted so y'all tin can troubleshoot the root cause of the issue.)
10. In the 'Instances of selected object' department, select the mailservice instance. (If you click on mailservice immediately after highlighting all SmarterMail counters, all counters should nonetheless be highlighted.) Then click Add >>. The counters will be shown in the 'Added counters' section, indicated with an asterisk (*).
11. Click OK to shut the window and return to the Create new Information Collector Ready dialog window. The functioning counters just added will be displayed.
12. Adjust the Sample Interval as desired. In most cases, 15-xxx seconds is enough (and tin can exist adjusted in the hereafter if needed). Click Side by side.
13. Gear up the Root directory path. This is where the actual report data will be saved. It's recommended to save this to a volume that is not low on deejay infinite, as these reports can get fairly big if left running for a long period of time (days). Notate this location and then you can pull from this path, if needed. Click Next.
14. Leave the Run every bit: option at <Default>, unless special permissions are necessary for your environment. In the bulleted options below, select Salvage and close. Click Finish.

Collecting Data Over a Period of Time

When the wizard has finished, you'll exist dropped back into the PerfMon window where you tin begin collecting information for your study! Detect the "IO Report" (or whatever friendly name you used) past expanding the Information Collector Sets binder and clicking on User Defined. To begin capturing the Deejay I/O and SmarterMail data, correct-click on the report name at whatsoever fourth dimension and click Beginning. Once the information has been captured for the desired period, correct-click again and choose Terminate.

Reviewing the Data Collector Fix Report

To review the information you've collected, head over to the Reports folder and aggrandize User Defined. Here you lot'll see the name of your written report and, below it, each set of data that has been collected. Select the latest report to view its data.

There are five types of graphs that you lot tin choose to view: Line, Histogram Bar, Report, Area or Stacked Area. To toggle through the options, utilize the 'Change graph type' push button to the left of the plus sign (+) or press Ctrl+Thousand on your keyboard. Again, nosotros prefer the Written report blazon as this lays out your data in a nifty table; nevertheless, when y'all're monitoring quite a few disks, you may not be able to view all disk information simultaneously.

And then, if you review your results using the graphs instead, here are some things to be enlightened of: If you lot chose <All instances> or the individual deejay(s) when adding your performance counters, each counter will exist listed once for every deejay you're monitoring. Employ the cavalcade's sorting options to grouping disks together past Instance for easier review.

You lot may also notice the Highlight toolbar button to be extremely useful in these views. When enabled, the functioning counter currently selected at the bottom of the window volition have its respective line/bar highlighted in black inside the graph.

Finally, if the actual report information needs to exist pulled -- either for a back up ticket with the SmarterTools Back up Section or for yous to review on an external system -- this tin be obtained from the path specified in pace thirteen.

Understanding PerfMon Counters and their Results

So at present that we have all the steps in identify for monitoring your disk I/O action, it's important that yous empathise the data each performance counter provides, also the results that should be expected on a healthy installation that is capable of handling the I/O requirements:

Performance Counter	Information Provided	Expected Value
% Disk Read Time	Amount of fourth dimension your disks are being read	Less than 15-xx%
% Disk Time	Corporeality of time your disks are in apply	Less than 15-20%
% Disk Write Time	Amount of time your disks are being written to	Less than 15-20%
% Idle Time	Amount of time your disks are idle or not performing whatsoever action	Over 85%
Electric current Deejay Queue Length	Amount of fourth dimension the Operating System must wait to admission the disks	Less than 1**
Disk Reads/sec	Overall rate of read operations on the disk (Can be used to determine IOP's to evaluate hardware needs and as a benchmark for hardware upgrades.)	Less than 70-fourscore%*
Disk Writes/sec	Overall charge per unit of write operations on the deejay (Can be used to determine IOP'south to evaluate hardware needs and as a criterion for hardware upgrades.)	Less than 70-lxxx%*
Split IO/sec	Overall rate at which the operating system divides I/O requests to the disk into multiple requests.	On single disk volumes, a high Divide IO/sec value may indicate a badly fragmented drive. Defraying may increase performance.

*Though the percentages for Disk Read/sec and Disk Write/sec can influx up to 35-xl%, this isn't a firm indicator of true bottlenecking. Nevertheless, if you run across these values exceed 70-80%, this indicates the deejay activity is VERY high. Chances are, during this aforementioned menstruum, you volition notice % Disk Idle sitting around 0-ten%.
**In combination with high Disk Read\Write percentages, if the Current Disk Queue Length exceeds 1-2, noticeable slowness will occur within the SmarterMail web interface and many other aspects may be afflicted, including bulletin deliveries, IMAP\EWS\EAS synchronization and more. This is considering the OS would have to queue the Read\Write operations rather than committing said operations to the deejay in real fourth dimension.

There we accept it! Using the steps higher up, you've created real-fourth dimension and historical monitors to proceed a close center on your server'south disk action, and with your hard disks performing at their best, y'all're well on your way to a healthy, reliable and loftier-performing postal service server.

So what other tools practice yous utilise for maintaining your postal service server operation? Are in that location any additional operation counters yous recommend monitoring? Let us know in the comments!

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Source: https://www.smartertools.com/blog/2016/07/15-configure-perfmon-to-prevent-disk-issues

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