Q152513: Troubleshooting Performance Monitor Counter Problems
Article: Q152513
Product(s): Microsoft Windows NT
Version(s): 2000,3.1,3.5,3.51,4.0
Operating System(s):
Keyword(s): kbtshoot
Last Modified: 06-AUG-2002
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The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.1, 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
- Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.1, 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
- Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
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IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you
modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore
the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the
registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry
SUMMARY
=======
The Performance Monitor utility Perfmon.exe may not display valid counter
objects. Below are some troubleshooting methods that can be used to resolve the
issue.
MORE INFORMATION
================
WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems
that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot
guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor
incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.
You could check the strings in the 009 key under the key described below and look
for any garbled entries, entries that have two numbers, or entries that have two
strings in succession (you should see ### string ### string, and so on in the
multi-sz editor). This may not explain the different behavior between the local
and remote cases because they both access the same registry values.
Perfmon does the following with the registry:
- Reads the perfmon configuration from the following registry subkey. Entries
not found will revert to the default values:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Perfmon
- Opens the performance registry key, which does the following (on the computer
that you are trying to connect to):
- Opens the following registry subkey to read the name strings and explain
text strings. If this fails, the computer connection fails:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Perflib\009
(009 assumes English)
- Opens the following registry subkey to read any configuration information.
If this fails, the default settings are used:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Perflib
- Enumerates the following registry subkey to find services that have
registered extensible performance counter DLLs. If this fails, or any of
the DLLs found fail, then the failed DLLs will not be loaded and the
extensible counters provided by the DLLs will be returned. The connection
to the computer (local or remote) will succeed with at least the standard
counters:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services
The biggest difference between monitoring a local computer and a remote computer
is that the performance counters are queried within the context of the Perfmon
process when monitoring local computer counters, while remote performance
counters are monitored within a thread of the Winlogon process on the remote
computer.
Usually this type of failure is the result of one of the network related
extensible counter DLLs. Another possibility could be the permissions enabled on
the local machine are insufficient to allow the remote account access to the
performance counter registry keys. The minimum permissions needed for each
instance of the following registry subtree
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\<service
name>\Performance
is:
Everyone - Read (Query Value, Enumerate Subkeys, Notify, Read Control).
System - Full Control
Administrators - Full Control
As always check the security, application or system event logs for any
"interesting" entries. To try and narrow it down you could try to disable the
extensible counter DLLs to prevent them from being loaded. If this solves the
problem, enable the extensible counter DLLs one at a time to see when it breaks
again.
To disable one or more extensible counter DLL(s):
1. Start the Registry Editor (RegEdt32.exe).
2. Navigate to the following registry subtree:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services
3. Click Find Key on the View menu.
4. Type "Performance" (without the quotation marks) as the search string, then
search down from there.
5. At each Performance entry you find, select the Library value and modify the
library name by prefixing it with two x's: for example, change OrigLib.dll to
xxOrigLib.dll
6. When you have done each Performance entry under the
CurrentControlSet\Services key, restart Perfmon to see whether it works. If
it does, then repeat the above two steps, only restoring the original library
name and trying Perfmon after each change to see which library causes the
fault.
For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in
the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q164018 Controlling Remote Performance Monitor Access to Windows NT Servers
Additional query words: troubleshoot
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Keywords : kbtshoot
Technology : kbWinNTsearch kbWinNTWsearch kbWinNTW400 kbWinNTW400search kbWinNT351search kbWinNT350search kbWinNT400search kbWinNTW350 kbWinNTW350search kbWinNTW351search kbWinNTW351 kbwin2000AdvServ kbwin2000AdvServSearch kbwin2000Serv kbWinNTW310 kbWinNTSsearch kbWinNTS400search kbWinNTS400 kbWinNTS351 kbWinNTS350 kbWinNTS310 kbWinNTAdvSerSearch kbwin2000ServSearch kbwin2000Search kbwin2000ProSearch kbwin2000Pro kbWinNTS351search kbWinNTS350search kbWinNTS310search kbWinNT310Search kbWinNTW310Search kbWinAdvServSearch
Version : :2000,3.1,3.5,3.51,4.0
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