uberAgent

Querying Windows Performance Counters

July 19, 2024

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In addition to its built-in metrics, uberAgent can collect data from Windows performance counters.

Configuration

As with all other uberAgent metrics, performance counters need to be associated with a timer that defines how often data is collected. Performance counter metrics can be added to an existing timer or placed in a new timer section. See the configuration docs and the performance counter metrics documentation for details.

Example

In the following example, we configured a new timer that collects data every 60 seconds. We added two performance counters to the timer that collect .NET information for the entire machine and for a specific process (PowerShell). We also added a performance counter that collects the system’s uptime. Finally, we added a performance counter that collects the handle count for every running process. The result looks like this:

[Timer]
Name           = Performance counter timer
Interval       = 60000
Perf counter   = \.NET CLR Memory(_Global_)\# Gen 0 Collections
Perf counter   = \.NET CLR Memory(powershell)\# Gen 0 Collections
Perf counter   = \System\System Up Time
Perf counter   = \Process(*)\Handle Count
<!--NeedCopy-->

Counter Paths

Most performance counter paths have one of the following two formats:

\object(instance)\counter
\object\counter
<!--NeedCopy-->

As you can see, some counter paths have instance names (powershell in one of the examples above) while others do not.

See Microsoft Docs for more information.

Wildcards

uberAgent can use the wildcard characters * and ? in the instance section of performance counter paths.

Finding Counter Paths

To find the paths for your counters you can use the following method.

Add the desired counters to Performance Monitor. Then right-click the graph section of Perfmon’s window, select Save settings as..., save as web page (*.html) and locate the counter path in the HTML code. Perfmon saves the counter path in language-neutral format, which is what is uberAgent needs.

Language-Neutral or Localized

Some tools require localized performance counter paths. This becomes a problem if you configure paths for machines with different language versions of Windows.

With uberAgent, you can configure localized or language-neutral performance counter paths. The performance counter path is always sent to the backend in English.

The official version of this content is in English. Some of the Cloud Software Group documentation content is machine translated for your convenience only. Cloud Software Group has no control over machine-translated content, which may contain errors, inaccuracies or unsuitable language. No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability, suitability, or correctness of any translations made from the English original into any other language, or that your Cloud Software Group product or service conforms to any machine translated content, and any warranty provided under the applicable end user license agreement or terms of service, or any other agreement with Cloud Software Group, that the product or service conforms with any documentation shall not apply to the extent that such documentation has been machine translated. Cloud Software Group will not be held responsible for any damage or issues that may arise from using machine-translated content.

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Querying Windows Performance Counters

July 19, 2024

Contributed by:

July 19, 2024

Contributed by:

Querying Windows Performance Counters

Configuration

Example

Counter Paths

Wildcards

Finding Counter Paths

Language-Neutral or Localized

In this article