New version of PAL

Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) Tool

Project Description
Ever have a performance problem, but don't know what performance counters to collect or how to analyze them? The PAL (Performance Analysis of Logs) tool is a new and powerful tool that reads in a performance monitor counter log (any known format) and analyzes it using complex, but known thresholds (provided). The tool generates an HTML based report which graphically charts important performance counters and throws alerts when thresholds are exceeded. The thresholds are originally based on thresholds defined by the Microsoft product teams and members of Microsoft support, but continue to be expanded by this ongoing project. This tool is not a replacement of traditional performance analysis, but it automates the analysis of performance counter logs enough to save you time. This is a VBScript and requires Microsoft LogParser (free download).

·         Thresholds files for most of the major Microsoft products such as IIS, MOSS, SQL Server, BizTalk, Exchange, and Active Directory.

·         An easy to use GUI interface which makes creating batch files for the PAL.vbs script.

·         A GUI editor for creating or editing your own threshold files.

·         Creates an HTML based report for ease of copy/pasting into other applications.

·         Analyzes performance counter logs for thresholds using thresholds that change their critieria based on the computer's role or hardware specs.

Monitoring SQL Server using Performance Monitor

Many customers asked me pretty much the same question: “I want to monitor the SQL Server 2005 using Performance Monitor. What are the most relevant counters?”

To answer this question I attached my list of counters. This is not an official list from Microsoft, just my recommended list.

Feel free to comment about my suggested list.

PSSDiag – configure pre-defined sets of Performance Monitor counters

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5564386A-28C2-4483-8293-76FFF67B9EB3&displaylang=en

PAL (Performance Analysis of Logs) - used to analyze the data collected by the Performance Monitor

http://www.codeplex.com/PAL

New version of SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer (January 2008)

The SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) gathers data from Microsoft Windows and SQL Server configuration settings. BPA uses a predefined list of SQL Server 2005 recommendations and best practices to determine if there are potential issues in the database environment.

A new version of the Best Practice Analyzer was recently released. I strongly recommend monitoring the configuration of the she SQL Servers using this great utility.

There are some major improvements regarding the Analysis Services cubes and dimensions design.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DA0531E4-E94C-4991-82FA-F0E3FBD05E63&displaylang=en