Smarts IP: sm_monitor doesn't work for Windows. How to gather performance data in Windows? What is WinPS and how can I run it?

Products

• VMware Smart Assurance

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:


The sm_monitor tool is a great support tool that can gather various performance related data against a particular server. 

However, when you are trying to get similar data from Windows (see SR 65863926 for an example) an sm_monitor tool doesn't exist.

For monitoring performance in Windows we can utilize WinPS.

This tool can review the total memory usage on the server and the memory usage of the sm_server process on the server.  
WinPS Tool can be used on Windows OS server for high CPU utilization issues (memory utilization, etc ).

Environment

VMware Smart Assurance - SMARTS

Resolution

The binaries were given by the DMT team and the tool can be run along with sm_monitor data for analysis of the issue/crash. 
The attached "WinPS.zip" files consists of 3 files. "WinPS.bat" can be used to capture the overall system statistics and resources used by the smarts servers. "WinPST.bat" is used to capture per-process data on Windows servers. How to run:

• Extract all files into one directory (on the C drive)
• Go to that new directory, and open the WinPST file with a program like Notepad++.
  • The file will be opened and you ll be presented with the following:

 

• The only change you will need to make here would be to enter the PID of the domain you would want to track. If you run the ./brcontrol command from within the Smarts bin, it will show you a list of domains running along with their PID number. Then save the file
• If you open up either the WinPS or the WinPST file with Notepad++, you will see two numbers listed in brackets liked below:

• The first number (10 in the above image) is the timing of the WinPS process in seconds (i.e. it ll run every 10 seconds). The second number (5 in the above image) is the number of times the program will run (in this case, five times). Both of these numbers can be saved if you wanted to change them. You will want to change them if you want to gather WinPS data for a longer period of time

4. Open cmd.exe, run WinPS.bat

• This will output system statistics to a file called "WinPS.txt", updated every 10 seconds (per the timing in the above images). This file will show up in the C directory path you created earlier.

1. In the same command shell, run WinPST.bat <PID>, where PID is the Process ID of the sm_server process.
   • This will capture thread-level statistics to a file called WinPST.txt, updated every 10 seconds (remember you can adjust that length of time). This will show up as a  WinPST.txt  in the C directory you created earlier.

Additional Information

Final Notes:

• Also you can only run these two bat files once (you can start it manually like in the steps above or use Windows scheduler).
• WinPS does not like to run more than these two bat files on the same server concurrently (WinPS would collect memory utilization on the Windows box and WinPST for the IP domain).
  • What this means is it is best to run WinPS once, and let it continue its course until completion.
• Once WinPS runs its course, you ll be able to review the txt files and find the information you re looking for. You can look at the txt files before WinPS finishes, however you ll be prompted to refresh the file every time WinPS updates (at the interval you set it at).