Problems getting SQL specific perfmon counters from SQL 2008 cluster

  • Hi there!

    I've followed the practice of setting up perfmon and the collection of counters on another server, from than the one you're monitoring.

    In my scenario I have the following servers:

    Server name:SQLServer

    OS:Windows 2008 R2

    Services:Clustered SQL Server, runs SQL service on virtual instance name SQLServer\Instance1

    Perfmon function:Counters are collected FROM this server

    Server name:Monitor

    OS:Windows 2008 R2

    Services:Windows, runs Perfmon

    Perfmon function:Counters from are saved TO this server, in a local .blg file

    The problem is that sometimes the SQL counters are not collected and recorded. The feeling is that the "connection" to the SQL Server and its counters are lost.

    Counters are listed in the GUI when viewing the content in the .blg file, but they are empty. Nothing is logged and displayed.

    Is there a recommended way to list the counters from the remote server, and is there any difference when it includes a clustered SQL Server instance?

    This has been configured through perfmon and Data Collector Sets -> User Defined -> New -> Create manually (Advanced) -> Create data logs -> Performance Counter -> Add -> Select counters from computer: <Local computer>

    I've used \\Monitor as computer name to collect counters from, and they get listed, and everything first looks OK. But then they eventually ends up missing in the final counter log...

    Examples of SQL specific counters (that tend to disappear) in my data collector are:

    \\SQLServer\MSSQL$INSTANCE1:Memory Manager\Memory Grants Pending

    \\SQLServer\MSSQL$INSTANCE1:Buffer Manager\Page life expectancy

    \\SQLServer\MSSQL$INSTANCE1:SQL Statistics\Batch Requests/sec

    Other counters that gets collected at the same time (that doesn't disappear)

    \\SQLServer\Memory\Pages/sec

    \\SQLServer\PhysicalDisk(4 E:)\Disk Writes/sec

    \\SQLServer\Processor(*)\% User Time

    To summarize: Counter log gets collected, but SQL specific counters ends up being empty (not always, but like 8/10 times). Other counters always gets collected correctly.

    Does anyone have any idea of what could be causing this?

    I really need to get perfmon data collected for all our instances... To see how they are utilized and analyze the behavior of our servers and applications.

    Very very thankful for help on this!

    Sincerely,

    Gord

  • Following link may help you for troubleshooting this issue, even though you have counter in PM.

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlserverfaq/archive/2009/03/18/what-should-we-do-when-the-sql-server-performance-counters-are-missing.aspx

    Basically, you need to look at following things

    1, PM DMV in SQL

    2, Reg key

    3, Ini file

    4, OS version

    5, Permission

    always check log for message from application.

    Hope this help

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