It’s the classic question faced by everyone in Information Services. I know how to do this and I could build software to do it, but I’m a lazy b_____d so I’d rather just pick up a piece of software that does it for me. I love working for large companies because I can usually get them to purchase stuff so that I can loll around stuffing my face all day instead of doing actual work. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to pick up Microsoft’s Operations Manager or Idera’s Diagnostic Manager. But you still need to monitor your servers. With buy eliminated, that leaves build.

Which, is where this excellent blog post by Laerte Junior comes in. He lays out how to build a wrapper around calls to get Performan Counter information using PowerShell. It’s a pretty slick and worth a read. Becuase the thing is, when you need to build your monitoring products, you want to use a language that you know. Since everyone is learning Powershell (right?) this provides a good foundation for beginning your monitoring project.