Formerly Known as Windows Performance Counters Widget & Computer Usage
The Computer Chart widget graphically shows Windows performance counters/Computer Usage from one or more selected computers.
WIndows Performance counters/Computer Usage are measurements of computers' states or activities. They're useful when you want to find out how computers are affected by what users do with them.
The widget can show any Windows performance counter/Computer Usage that your PerformanceGuard administrator has defined.
Windows Performance Counters
Select Counters
Use the Windows performance counters menu in the top part of the dashboard to select the counters that you want to view in the widget.
You can select:
- A group of counters
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Example: PhysicalDisk |
If you select a group, you automatically select all counters in that group as well as all instances of those counters.
- Specific counters from a group
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Example: The %DiskTime counter from the PhysicalDisk group |
If you select a counter, you automatically select all instances of that counter.
- Specific instances of a counter
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Example: The C: instance of the %DiskTime counter from the PhysicalDisk group |
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| When you use the Windows metrics menu, there's a search field that you can use to search for counters. You can also use the search field to search for computer names, in which case the search results will display all counters that exist for computers whose names match your search. |
When I search, matches are sometimes highlighted in blue, and sometimes not. Why? When your search matches a counter, PerformanceGuard highlights the match in blue letters in your search results. When you search for a computer name, PerformanceGuard lists matching counters in the search results, but it doesn't highlight anything, because there's no exact match between the computer name and the names of relevant counters.
Widgets with Many Counters
If your widget contains so many different counters that it's difficult to distinguish between individual counters, you can:
- View the values of individual counters if you place your pointer over the data points in the widget's graph area.
- Hide unwanted counters if you click their names in the legend area below the graph. When you want to view the counters again, simply click their names once more.
Set Up the Widget
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| You can only do this if you're a PerformanceGuard administrator. |
Before you set up the widget, you need to find out if you have set up custom counter templates that cover all the counters that you want to be able to view in the widget.
You also need to check that you've applied the custom counter templates to the required agent configuration groups.
Both processes are described in Custom Counter Templates: Collect Data from Any Windows Performance Counter.
It's your custom counter templates, and how you've applied them to agent configuration groups, that determine:
- Which counters that PerformanceGuard collects (and consequently which counters you can view in the widget)
- Which computers that PerformanceGuard collects the counters from
When you're ready to add the widget to a dashboard, you simply select the required counters in the widget setup dialog's Windows performance counters menu. That menu works just like the one described under Select Counters in the previous.
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| Many performance counters in the same widget can be confusing. It's better to use multiple widgets with a few counters in each. |
Computer Usage
The Computer Usage widget by default shows average values. To toggle minimum and maximum values on and off, click the widget's 
icon.
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| Display of minimum and maximum values works best if the widget only contains a few counters. If the widget contains many counters, you can hide some of them. See Widgets with Many Counters in the previous. |
When you view minimum and maximum values, you can reveal otherwise hidden peaks.
The difference can be dramatic. Look at this example: When we view average values, the highest average value is 18, but when we view the minimum and maximum values, the maximum value for the same period turns out to be 79.
graphically shows basic performance metrics like CPU, memory and disk usage from selected computers.
This is useful when you want to find out how computers are affected by what users do with them.
The widget can show information about:
- Computer metrics
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Example: CPU usage in % |
- Process metrics of specific processes
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| How can the maximum value be much higher than the average? PerformanceGuard has typically sampled data many times between the data points in the graph. The maximum value is the highest value that PerformanceGuard has recorded when it sampled data in the interval between the points on the graph, but the maximum value may not have occurred very often, and therefore it may not contribute very much to the average value. The same principle applies to minimum values. |
Zoom
To zoom in, click and drag across the required area of the timeline.
Connect All Samples
The samples in the graph will by default be Automatic 
. If you don't want this you can select Connect All 
or set them to Disconnect All 
.
Adjust Vertical Axis (Y-Axis)
To adjust the vertical axis of a graph, click the widget's 
icon. If the graph has multiple vertical axes, you can adjust each axis separately.
When you adjust an axis, bear in mind that you won't be able to see data points that are outside the range that you specify.
Resolution
To sort the large data-sets and view them more clearly in the graph, click the widget's resolution
icon. You can use resolution when you have a large number of individual graphic elements that you can not distinguish between them. It is very similar to the idea of putting data into categories / class as it divides the data values into a set of disjoint intervals called Bins. It will allow you to group individual data values into one instance of graphic element.
Example: How many % of a computer's memory is used by Outlook® |
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IP data process information is not collected on computers that run Windows XP. |
Compare Usage Across Computers
You can view metrics from multiple computers at the same time. This way you can see if some computers are more loaded than others, and what causes the load.
You can easily compare usage across computers. In the top part of the dashboard, simply select the computers that you require.
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If you use the Computer Usage widget on the Computer Overview dashboard, you may not be able to view multiple computers in the widget, because the Computer Overview dashboard is essentially about viewing information about one computer at a time. Ask your PerformanceGuard administrator if you're in doubt. |
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Your PerformanceGuard administrator may have configured widgets so that they only cover one or more specific computers. When that's the case, you can't change them. |
Set Up the Widget
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You can select from the lowest time interval such as (1 min) to the highest interval such as (1 week, 1 month). | ||
only do this if you're a PerformanceGuard administrator. |
When you set up the widget, decide whether it should display general computer-related information, specific process-related information, or both.
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Example: You can see a significant difference in display of data values from 04:00 to 08:00 when resolution is selected at the intervals of 30 min, 1 hour and 4 hours allowing you to visualize data in ways that are meaningful. Click thumbnail to view image in full size.    |
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The data values which fall in to those selected respective intervals, a bin, are replaced by a value representative of that interval. The data outside of the \[start, end\] range is discarded and thus will not be displayed on the graph. |
STATISTICS
When you view the graph, you can also see a Statistics table by switching to Statistics mode 
. Statistics icon will not be visible if there is no data available.
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| Note that the Statistics table shows the weighted average for the graph's samples. That means that each value to be averaged is assigned a weight based on the number of occurrences of that value Many performance counters in the same widget can be confusing. It's better to use multiple widgets with a few counters in each. |
- If you want computer-related information, select the Computer metrics that you want.
- If you want process-related information, first select the Process names that you want, and then select the Process metrics that you want.
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There's a search field at the top of the Process names list. |
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