Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed (274 page)

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CHAPTER 33

Logging and Debugging

have been put in place to accomplish a specific action but are no longer needed or

will never be repeated. Note that a trigger must contain an expiration task.

.
If the Task Is Already Running: Do Not Start a New Instance—
The task will

not start a new instance if an instance of the task is already running.

.
If the Task Is Already Running: Run a New Instance in Parallel—
A new task

will run in parallel if one instance is running and the triggers and conditions cause

the task to be triggered again.

.
If the Task Is Already Running: Queue a New Instance—
A new task will queue,

but it will not start until the first instance is complete and will not stop the instance

that is already running.

.
If the Task Is Already Running: Stop the Existing Instance—
A new task is trig-

gered and conditions specified in the task will first stop the current instance and

then start a new instance of the task.

Understanding Task History

The History tab on the properties page for a task contains events filtered from the

Operational events for the Task Scheduler in the Event Viewer and enables an administra-

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tor to see success and failures for any given task without having to review all task-related

event information for a system or collection of systems.

NOTE

Although the Task Scheduler enables an administrator to create folders for organizing

tasks and new tasks can be given meaningful names, after a folder or task is created,

it cannot be renamed. Further, tasks cannot be moved from one folder to another.

However, tasks can be exported and then imported into a new folder or another system.

Summary

Logging and debugging tools help administrators monitor, manage, and problem solve

errors on a Windows Server 2008 R2 system and infrastructure. Many of the tools used to

identify system problems in a Windows Server 2008 R2 environment have been improved

from previous versions of the applications in earlier releases of the Windows operating

system. In addition, new tools have been introduced to enhance the administration

logging and debugging experience. Key to problem solving is enabling logging and moni-

toring the logs to identify errors, research the errors, and perform system recovery based

on problem resolution.

In addition to the tools and utilities that come with the Windows Server 2008 R2 environ-

ment are resources such as the Microsoft TechNet database (www.microsoft.com/technet/).

Best Practices

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Between utility and tool improvements as well as online technical research databases,

problem solving can be simplified in a Windows Server 2008 R2 infrastructure.

Best Practices

The following are best practices from this chapter:

. Use the Task Manager to provide an instant view of system resources, such as proces-

sor activity, process activity, memory usage, and resource consumption.

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. Use Event Viewer to check whether Windows Server 2008 R2 is experiencing problems.

. To mitigate configuration issues, server roles should be scanned with the Best

Practices Analyzer tool on a regular basis.

. Use filters, grouping, and sorting to help isolate and identify key events.

. Create custom filters to expedite problem identification and improve monitoring

processes.

. Create alerts using triggers and actions to identify issues quickly.

. Archive security logs to a central location on your network and then review them

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periodically against local security logs.

. Use subscriptions to consolidate logs from multiple systems to ensure that problems

are identified quickly.

. Set an auditing policy to shut down the server immediately when the security log is

full. This prevents generated logs from being overwritten or old logs from being erased.

. Establish a process for monitoring and analyzing system performance to promote

maximum uptime and to meet service-level agreements.

. Run System Monitor from a remote computer to monitor servers.

. Use logging when monitoring a larger number of servers.

. Establish performance baselines.

. Create logging jobs based on established baselines to ensure performance data is

captured during times when the system is having resource issues and to facilitate

altering for proactive system management.

. Create new baselines as applications or new services are added to a server.

. Consider reducing the frequency of data collection to reduce the amount of data

that must be collected and analyzed.

. Use logs to capture performance data.

. Use the Reliability Monitor to identify a timeline of system degradation to facilitate

expeditious investigation of root issue causes.

. Use the Memory Diagnostics Tool to facilitate hardware troubleshooting.

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CHAPTER 34

IN THIS CHAPTER

Capacity Analysis
. Defining Capacity Analysis

. Using Capacity-Analysis Tools

and Performance
. Monitoring System Performance

Optimization
. Optimizing Performance by

Server Roles

Capacity analysis and performance optimization is a criti-

cal part of deploying or migrating to Windows Server 2008

R2. Capacity analysis and performance optimization ensures

that resources and applications are available, uptime is

maximized, and systems scale well to meet the growing

demands of business. The release of Windows Server 2008

R2 includes some new and some refreshed tools to assist IT

administrators and staff with properly assessing server

capacity and performance—before and after Windows

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Server 2008 R2 is deployed on the network. If you invest

time in these processes, you will spend less time trou-

bleshooting or putting out fires, thus making your life less

stressful and also reducing business costs.

Defining Capacity Analysis

The majority of capacity analysis is working to minimize

unknown or immeasurable variables, such as the number of

gigabytes or terabytes of storage the system will need in the

next few months or years, to adequately size a system. The

high number of unknown variables is largely because

network environments, business policy, and people are

constantly changing. As a result, capacity analysis is an art

as much as it involves experience and insight.

If you’ve ever found yourself having to specify configura-

tion requirements for a new server or having to estimate

whether your configuration will have enough power to

sustain various workloads now and in the foreseeable

future, proper capacity analysis can help in the design and

configuration. These capacity-analysis processes help weed

out the unknowns and assist you while making decisions as

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CHAPTER 34

Capacity Analysis and Performance Optimization

accurately as possible. They do so by giving you a greater understanding of your Windows

Server 2008 R2 environment. This knowledge and understanding can then be used to

reduce time and costs associated with supporting and designing an infrastructure. The

result is that you gain more control over the environment, reduce maintenance and

support costs, minimize firefighting, and make more efficient use of your time.

Business depends on network systems for a variety of different operations, such as

performing transactions or providing security, so that the business functions as efficiently

as possible. Systems that are underutilized are probably wasting money and are of little

value. On the other hand, systems that are overworked or can’t handle workloads prevent

the business from completing tasks or transactions in a timely manner, might cause a loss

of opportunity, or keep the users from being productive. Either way, these systems are

typically not much benefit to operating a business. To keep network systems well tuned

for the given workloads, capacity analysis seeks a balance between the resources available

and the workload required of the resources. The balance provides just the right amount of

computing power for given and anticipated workloads.

This concept of balancing resources extends beyond the technical details of server configu-

ration to include issues such as gauging the number of administrators that might be

needed to maintain various systems in your environment. Many of these questions relate

to capacity analysis, and the answers aren’t readily known because they can’t be predicted

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with complete accuracy.

To lessen the burden and dispel some of the mysteries of estimating resource require-

ments, capacity analysis provides the processes to guide you. These processes include

vendor guidelines, industry benchmarks, analysis of present system resource utilization,

and more. Through these processes, you’ll gain as much understanding as possible of the

network environment and step away from the compartmentalized or limited understand-

ing of the systems. In turn, you’ll also gain more control over the systems and increase

your chances of successfully maintaining the reliability, serviceability, and availability of

your system.

There is no set or formal way to start your capacity-analysis processes. However, a proven

and effective means to begin to proactively manage your system is to first establish

systemwide policies and procedures. Policies and procedures, discussed shortly, help shape

service levels and users’ expectations. After these policies and procedures are classified and

defined, you can more easily start characterizing system workloads, which will help gauge

acceptable baseline performance values.

The Benefits of Capacity Analysis and Performance Optimization

The benefits of capacity analysis and performance optimization are almost inconceivable.

Capacity analysis helps define and gauge overall system health by establishing baseline

performance values, and then the analysis provides valuable insight into where the system

is heading. Continuous performance monitoring and optimization will ensure systems are

stable and perform well, reducing support calls from end users, which, in turn, reduces

costs to the organization and helps employees be more productive. It can be used to

Defining Capacity Analysis

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uncover both current and potential bottlenecks and can also reveal how changing

management activities can affect performance today and tomorrow.

Another benefit of capacity analysis is that it can be applied to small environments and

scale well into enterprise-level systems. The level of effort needed to initially drive the

capacity-analysis processes will vary depending on the size of your environment, geogra-

phy, and political divisions. With a little up-front effort, you’ll save time, expense, and

gain a wealth of knowledge and control over the network environment.

Establishing Policy and Metric Baselines

As mentioned earlier, it is recommended that you first begin defining policies and proce-

dures regarding service levels and objectives. Because each environment varies in design,

you can’t create cookie-cutter policies—you need to tailor them to your particular business

practices and to the environment. In addition, you should strive to set policies that set

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user expectations and, more important, help winnow out empirical data.

Essentially, policies and procedures define how the system is supposed to be used—estab-

lishing guidelines to help users understand that the system can’t be used in any way they

see fit. Many benefits are derived from these policies and procedures. For example, in an

environment where policies and procedures are working successfully and where network

performance becomes sluggish, it would be safe to assume that groups of people weren’t

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playing a multiuser network game, that several individuals weren’t sending enormous

email attachments to everyone in the Global Address List, or that a rogue web or FTP

server wasn’t placed on the network.

The network environment is shaped by the business more so than the IT department.

Therefore, it’s equally important to gain an understanding of users’ expectations and

requirements through interviews, questionnaires, surveys, and more. Some examples of

policies and procedures that you can implement in your environment pertaining to end

users could be the following:

. Email message size, including attachments can’t exceed 10MB.

. SQL Server databases settings will be enforced with Policy Based Management.

. Beta software, freeware, and shareware can be installed only on test equipment (that

is, not on client machines or servers in the production environment).

. Specify what software is allowed to run on a user’s PC through centrally managed

but flexible group policies.

. All computing resources are for business use only (in other words, no gaming or

personal use of computers is allowed).

. Only business-related and approved applications will be supported and allowed on

the network.