Monitoring Windows Server CPU performance

I didn’t realize how much I really didn’t know about CPU performance monitoring until I read this Microsoft Technet blog on Interpreting CPU Utilization for Performance Analysis. As the article says: If you rely on CPU utilization as a crucial performance metric, you could be making some big mistakes interpreting the data.

Take some time and review this recent (August 2009) posting on this issue. If you manage/monitor Windows servers and watch server performance, this article will give you a better understanding of the ins/outs of interpreting CPU utilization.

Here’s 4 of the top 9 takeaways that you will learn by reading this article:

Summary of Key Takeaways

Key takeaway #1: Processor of type A @ 100% utilization IS NOT EQUAL TO Processor of type B @ 100% utilization

Key takeaway #2: 2 HW threads on the same package @ 100% utilization IS NOT EQUAL TO 2 HW threads on different packages @ 100% utilization (for better or worse)

Key takeaway #3: 2 HW threads on the same logical core @ 100% utilization IS NOT EQUAL TO 2 HW threads on different logical cores @ 100% utilization (for better or worse)

Key takeaway #4: 2 HW threads on the same NUMA node @ 100% utilization IS NOT EQUAL TO 2 HW threads on different NUMA nodes @ 100% utilization (for better or worse)

Thanks for reading and let’s continue to be good network citizens!