Windows Server/EQL: Using Windows Performance Monitor (Perfmon) to Gather I/O Data for a Dell EqualLogic (EQL) iSCSI Volume

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Note: The Dell EqualLogic SAN HeadQuarters (SAN HQ) array monitoring tool supersedes Windows Performance Monitor for diagnosing most SAN-related performance issues, but PerfMon can still be useful in identifying problems in some cases. The information presented here may also be of interest to anyone creating a collector set to gather data about other subsystems

1. Start the Performance Monitor utility: Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Performance Monitor.
2. In the left pane, expand Data Collector Sets.
3. Right-click User Defined and select New > Data Collector Set.
4. Enter a name for the collector set. This is not the filename of the log file but the descriptive name of the collector set that will appear in the console. PerfMon will use this name to construct the filename (which can be changed), so it should be short but descriptive.
5. Select Create from a template (Recommended) and click Next.
6. Select the System Performance template and click Next.
7. Note the filename and path of the log file and modify it if necessary. Click Next.
8. If necessary, click Change to specify alternate credentials for PerfMon to use with the collector set.
9. Select Open properties for this data collector set and click Finish.
10. In the collector set's properties window, select the Stop Condition tab. If you wish the collector set to run for a certain length of time, check Overall duration and enter the length of time in the given field. If the collector set should run until it is stopped manually, uncheck Overall duration.
11. Optionally, use the Schedule tab to configure one or more schedule for the collector set to follow. If no schedules are created, the collector set must be started manually. Starting the collector set is addressed below.
12. Click OK to close the properties window.
13. Select the new collector set in the left pane. In the right pane, right-click the NT Kernel trace log and select Delete. The trace log can become very large in a short time, and it is not needed for this collector set, so it is best to delete it.
14. In the right pane, right-click Performance Counter and select Properties.
15. Since we are interested in disk performance only, select all performance counters except PhysicalDisk(*)\* and click Remove.
16. Select a sample interval that is appropriate for the nature of the issue. The sample interval represents how often data is collected. An intermittent issue may require a smaller sample interval than a constant one, to ensure that data is collected while the issue is occurring. Click OK to close the properties window.
17. To start data collection, right-click the collector set in the left pane and select Start. Data will be collected until it is stopped manually or the collector set's stop condition is met.

Note: Data collection must be stopped before the log can be submitted for analysis.