Performance System Alarms

Available Memory (MB)

Monitors the amount of free physical memory, in megabytes. Free memory is the amount of physical memory available to processes running on the system. SysTrack raises the alarm when free memory falls below the limit.

On. Yellow 32 for 60 s, Red 16 for 120 s.

Cache Fault / sec

Monitors the number of times per second that the Cache Manager fails to find the page of a file in the immediate cache. When this occurs, the Cache Manager must ask the Memory Manager to locate the page elsewhere in memory or on the disk so that it can be loaded into the immediate cache. If the page must be brought in from disk, this results in disk activity and a delay to the process that needed the page (while the page is brought in).

Off. Yellow 300 for 120 s, Red 500 for 240 s.

% Committed

Monitors the size of virtual memory that has been committed (as opposed to simply reserved) as a percentage of the total virtual memory that can be committed without having to extend the paging file(s). Committed memory is physical memory for which space has been reserved on the disk paging files.

On. Yellow 80 for 60 s, Red 90 for 120 s.

No Connection To Master

Monitors the connection between the Child System and the Master System.

Off. Red after 7 days.

Server Connections

Monitors the number of server session connections. This is an instant count and not averaged over time.

On. Yellow 100 for 120 s, Red 150 for 240 s.

Context Switches / sec

Monitors the rate of switches from one thread to another. Thread switches can occur either inside of a single process or across processes.

Off. Yellow 3500 for 120 s, Red 4500 for 240 s.

DPCs / sec

Monitors the rate at which deferred procedure calls (DPCs) were added to the DPC queues of the processors between the timer ticks of the processor clock. DPCs are interrupts that run at a lower priority than standard interrupts.

On. Yellow 1250 for 120 s, Red 2000 for 240 s.

File Control Ops / sec

Monitors the aggregate rate (per second) of all file system operations that are neither a read nor a write. These operations usually include file system control requests or requests for information about device characteristics or status.

Off. Yellow 400 for 120 s, Red 600 for 240 s.

File Data Ops / sec

Monitors the rate that the system is issuing read and write operations to file system devices. It does not include File Control Operations.

Off. Yellow 500 for 120 s, Red 750 for 240 s.

Interrupts / sec

Monitors the number of hardware device interrupts that the system is experiencing per second. A device interrupts the microprocessor when it has completed a task or when it requires attention.

On. Yellow 2500 for 120 s, Red 4000 for 240 s.

Operational

Monitors whether the system is operational. SysTrack raises an alarm when the system is not operational for longer than the set time.

Off. Red after 300 s.

Page Faults / sec

Monitors the overall rate (per second) at which faulted pages are handled by the processor. A page fault occurs when a process requires code or data that is not in its working set (its space in physical memory) in main memory. The Page Fault rate includes both hard faults (those that require disk access) and soft faults (where the faulted page is found elsewhere in physical memory).

On. Yellow 750 for 120 s, Red 1125 for 240 s.

% Pagefile Used

Monitors the percentage of the page file(s) that is/are in use. Paging files are used to store pages of memory used by processes that are not contained in other files when they are swapped out to disk. Pages are swapped out to disk when they are not being used in order to make maximum use of physical memory.

On. Yellow 80 for 60 s, Red 90 for 120 s.

Pages Input / sec

Monitors the rate (per second) at which pages are read from the disk to resolve memory references to pages that were not in memory at the time of the reference.

On. Yellow 25 for 120 s, Red 45 for 240 s.

Pages Output / sec

Monitors the rate (per second) at which pages are written to disk to free up space in physical memory. Pages are written back to disk only if they are changed in physical memory. So they are likely to hold data (which is frequently modified by processes) and seldom hold code (which is usually not modified). A high Pages Output rate often indicates a memory shortage.

On. Yellow 15 for 120 s, Red 25 for 240 s.

Page Reads / sec

Monitors the rate (per second) at which read operations from disk are initiated to resolve hard page faults. Hard page faults occur when a process requires code or data that is not in its working set or elsewhere in physical memory, and the code or data must be retrieved from disk.

On. Yellow 20 for 120 s, Red 40 for 240 s.

Page Writes / sec

Monitors the rate (per second) at which write operations to the disk are initiated to free up space in physical memory. Pages are written to disk only if they are changed while in physical memory. So they are likely to hold data (which is frequently modified by processes) and seldom hold code (which is usually not modified).

On. Yellow 15 for 120 s, Red 25 for 240 s.

% DPC CPU

Monitors the percentage of elapsed time that all processors on the system spend servicing deferred procedure calls (DPCs). The Windows operating system interrupt architecture permits the bulk of the work normally done in an interrupt handler to be handled instead at the DPC level, between interrupt priority and normal application processing priority.

On. Yellow 10 for 120 s, Red 12 for 240 s.

% Interrupt CPU

Monitors the percentage of elapsed time that all processors on the system spent handling hardware interrupts. When a hardware device interrupts the microprocessor, the interrupt handler manages the condition, usually by stopping the device from interrupting and scheduling a deferred procedure call (DPC) to service the device. Time spent in DPCs is not counted as time in interrupts.

On. Yellow 10 for 120 s, Red 12 for 240 s.

% Total CPU

Monitors the percentage of elapsed time that all the processors on the system are busy running non-idle threads. On a multiprocessor system, if all processors are always busy, the % Total CPU Time is 100%. It can be viewed as the fraction of the total time spent doing useful work. This value is a good indicator of the demand for and efficiency of a microprocessor.

On. Yellow 90 for 120 s, Red 95 for 240 s.

Process Count

Monitors the number of processes in the system at the time of data collection. This is an instantaneous count, which is not averaged over a time interval. Each process represents the running of a program or a service.

On. Yellow 300 for 120 s, Red 400 for 240 s.

Processor Queue Length

Monitors the number of threads in the processor queue.

On. Yellow 4 for 120 s, Red 5 for 240 s.

Active Sessions

Monitors the number of active user sessions on the system, including the local console session and remote sessions. Disconnected sessions are not counted. This is an instantaneous count and not averaged over time. This counter is different from the number of licenses in use, unless you only have one terminal server. Licenses are based on seats.

On. Yellow 25 for 120 s, Red 35 for 240 s.

Thread Count

Monitors the number of threads on the system at the time of data collection. An instruction is the basic unit of execution in a processor, and a thread is the object that runs instructions. Every running process has at least one thread.

On. Yellow 1000 for 120 s, Red 1250 for 240 s.

% Transition Faults

Monitors the ratio of Transition Faults/sec to Page Faults/sec. The Transition Fault Rate is the rate at which page faults are resolved by recovering pages that were in transition.

On. Yellow 70 for 120 s, Red 75 for 240 s.