Monitoring Microsoft NNTP Service with Performance Monitor

You can use the Performance Monitor application in Microsoft® Windows NT® Server Control Panel to monitor Microsoft NNTP Service. The performance counters included with Microsoft NNTP Service enable you to build charts and reports that show critical performance data:

• Service activity
  
• Security
  
• Overall performance
  
• Performance trends

Microsoft NNTP Service includes two objects in Performance Monitor: the NNTP Commands object, contains counters for client commands, and the NNTP Server object, contains counters for service performance. This section describes the performance counters that are used most frequently. For a description of all available performance counters, see Performance Counters for Microsoft NNTP Service.

In addition to charts and reports, you can define alerts to notify you when monitored values exceed thresholds that you specify. See Help in Performance Monitor for more information.

To start monitoring Microsoft NNTP Service:

1. From the Start menu, choose Programs and then Administrative Tools (Common) and Performance Monitor.
   
2. From the Edit menu, choose Add To Chart.
   
3. In the Object box, select either NNTP Commands or NNTP Server.
   
4. In the Counter box, select the performance counter. To see a description of the selected counter, choose Explain.
   
5. Choose Add.

Monitoring Service Activity

Monitor service activity to ensure that Microsoft NNTP Service is accepting new connections and servicing existing connections. The following performance counters provide a good indication of service activity:

• Bytes Total/Sec in the NNTP Server object; this value should be greater than zero when active users are connected.
  
• Current Connections in the NNTP Server object; this value should be greater than zero when users are connected.
  
• Logon Attempts and Logon Failures in the NNTP Commands object; the value of Logon Failures should be a small fraction of the value of Logon Attempts.
  
• Logon Failures/Sec in the NNTP Commands object; this value should be zero when users are successfully connecting.
  
• Maximum Connections in the NNTP Server object; this value should be significantly less than the Limited to value in the News Site property sheet.

Monitoring Security

If your news site is not available to the public, monitor the Logon Failures/Sec counter in the NNTP Commands object. A high number of logon failures might mean that unauthorized users are trying to gain access to your news site.

Monitoring Overall Performance

To monitor the overall performance of your news site, monitor processor and disk performance counters in addition to Microsoft NNTP Service performance counters. The following performance counters provide advance warning of performance problems:

• % Processor Time in the Processor object; this value should be less than 75.
  
• Available Bytes in the Memory object; this value should be more than 4,200,000.
  
• % Free Space in the LogicalDisk object; this value should always be greater than 0. Set an alert at 10 for advance warning that you are running out of disk space. If you have Microsoft NNTP Service files located on more than one drive letter, create an instance of this counter for each drive letter.
  
• Avg. Disk Queue Length in the LogicalDisk object; this value should be less than the number of disks in the computer's disk array. If you have newsgroup articles located on more than one drive letter, create an instance of this counter for each drive letter.

  Before adding counters in the LogicalDisk object, enable disk data collection by typing the following command and then restarting the computer:

  diskperf -y

  For disks configured as Microsoft® Windows NT® stripe sets, type the following command instead:

  diskperf -yE

  To prevent performance problems, disable disk data collection by typing the following command when you are not actively monitoring disk performance:

  diskperf -n

Monitoring Performance Trends

The chart display of Performance Monitor is best used for monitoring current performance data. To monitor performance trends, you should use the log function of Performance Monitor. The log function uses the same performance counters as the chart display, but it collects the data at specified intervals.

To create a Performance Monitor log to monitor trends:

1. From the View menu, choose Log.
   
2. From the Edit menu, choose Add to Log.
   
3. In the Objects box, select NNTP Commands and NNTP Server.
   
4. From the Options menu, choose Log.
   
5. In the Save in box, select the path.
   
6. In the File name box, type a file name for the log file, and then choose Periodic Update.
   
7. In the Interval box, enter the logging interval. An interval of 900 seconds (15 minutes) is good for monitoring trends.
   
8. Choose Start Log to begin collecting data.

You can view the log data by creating a chart or report with the log file as the data source. See Help in Performance Monitor for more information on how to create a chart or report.

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