Counter Configuration

The frequency interval determines how often the performance counter values will be obtained/refreshed from the OS. Use low frequencies (< 5 seconds) for volatile performance counters (such as "Processor(*)\% Processor Time", "PhysicalDisk(*)\Avg. Disk Queue Length", ...), or when accurate data is needed. Use larger values for performance counters which change slowly (e.g. "Memory\Available MBytes"). Performance data collection is very efficient, and changing the interval will have little impact on the CPU utilization of the EventSentry agent. Still, it is considered good practice to select intervals based on the performance counter.

A descriptive name of the counter, this name will be visible in alerts as well as the web-based reporting.

By default, performance counter values are interpreted as integer values, which is usually the best choice. Activate this option to force the performance counter values to be interpreted as floating point numbers (e.g. for performance counter values returning values smaller than 1).

This is the name of the actual performance counter, as exposed by the Operating System. You can either

•	enter the name a performance counter (e.g. Process(*)\% Processor Time) manually

Instances: If a performance counter contains the string (*) then this counter has instances. EventSentry will monitor all instances of a counter, unless excluded (see below).

If a performance counter has instances (e.g. Process(*)\% Processor Time) then you unneeded instances may be excluded. You can specify multiple instances by separating them with a comma.

For example, the Process(*)\% Processor Time performance counter also includes the Idle instance which is always near 100% (since it shows the unused CPU time) and the _Total instance which measures the total amount of CPU time from all applications. Data from these instances is not usually relevant, so they can both be excluded setting this field to Idle,_Total.

Clicking the "Instances" button will show all current instance of the selected performance counter, and any exclusions specified will be selected. If a specified exclusion is not present in the list of instances, clicking the "OK" button in the "Performance Counter Instances" dialog will reset the exclusions.

Some performance counters provide additional insight when their values are used in combination with another performance counter. You can divide the obtained values of a performance counter by the values by of a "secondary" performance counter.

EventSentry also provides a built-in performance counter [PhysicalMemory], which always returns the amount of physical memory installed.

By default, EventSentry includes a performance counter called "Memory Utilization", which takes advantage of the secondary counter capability. The primary performance counter (Available MBytes) is divided by the physical memory ([PhysicalMemory]) and then multiplied by 100 (example: 1522/4096 * 100 = 37.16%).

Shows the performance counter description, usually provided by the Operating System or software manufacturer providing the performance counter.