Collection Issues with Performance Counters.

Issues with Performance Counter Collection

We’ve learned from our experiences with the Windows operating system regarding performance monitoring that the performance counter system is highly vulnerable. It doesn’t take much to throw it off, and you won’t know what happened or when it happened most of the time.

In this circumstance, the first step is to see if the counters are present on the server that hosts the monitored instance. Windows Performance Monitor is an excellent place to start. Click Start-> Run on the server’s desktop and type “perfmon.exe.” Right-click on the perfmon window and select add counters when it opens. From here, you’ll want to add a counter that the problem is referencing.

If they aren’t there, you might be in luck. Because all the counter categories indicated are from SQL Server, restarting the SQL Server service is a strong bet for getting them back in line. If it doesn’t work, the counters may need to be rebuilt.

​​Please note that while this blog directs the default instance of SQL Server to use the performance counters in “sqlctr.ini,” we’ve noticed that, in some circumstances, the file does not load after making the appropriate changes. Instead, it displays a Windows error stating a registry issue. In this situation, look in the BINN folder for a file named “perf-MSSQLSERVERsqlctr.ini.” This file should already have all of the changes made to it and should load without issue to restore the counters.

If you need to rebuild the counters, keep in mind that neither SQL Sentry nor any other SQL Server performance counter monitoring solution will be able to assist you with the metrics associated with these counter categories.

If you can retrieve the counters locally, the next step is to see if you can get them from the SQL Sentry service’s hosting server.

To do so, open Windows Performance Monitor on the server that hosts the SQL Sentry Monitoring service. Once the server is available, enter the UNC path to the server in question (MACHINENAME). Then wait for perfmon to connect to the machine and refresh the counters list. Once the error notice has been restored, look for the counter categories specified in the error notice. You’ve demonstrated that communication is a problem if you can’t find them.

If the counters aren’t there, the next step is to restart the remote registry service on the monitored server. It is a basic procedure that should not cause any service disruptions. Retry the previous method to check for counters once the service has been restarted.

Start the SQL Sentry Client after the counters are available in Windows Performance Monitor and wait a few minutes for the error to disappear. If the issue persists, restart the SQL Sentry Monitoring Service and wait a few moments for it to disappear.

About Enteros

IT organizations routinely spend days and weeks troubleshooting production database performance issues across multitudes of critical business systems. Fast and reliable resolution of database performance problems by Enteros enables businesses to generate and save millions of direct revenue, minimize waste of employees’ productivity, reduce the number of licenses, servers, and cloud resources and maximize the productivity of the application, database, and IT operations teams.