Processor Performance Counters

The Processor object is focused primarily on the CPU of the system. Note that some system have multiple processors, which will display as independent instances for each of these counters.

The counters listed in this section are all used to determine processor performance or influence other components are enforcing over the processor.

• Processor : % Processor Time. This counter provides a measure of how much time the processor actually spends working on productive threads and how often it was busy servicing requests. This counter actually provides a measurement of how often the system is doing nothing subtracted from 100%. This is a simpler calculation for the processor to make. The processor can never be sitting idle waiting to the next task, unlike our cashier. The CPU must always have something to do. It's like when you turn on the computer, the CPU is a piece of wire that electric current is always running through, thus it must always be doing something. NT give the CPU something to do when there is nothing else waiting in the queue. This is called the idle thread. The system can easily measure how often the idle thread is running as opposed to having to tally the run time of each of the other process threads. Then , the counter simply subtracts the percentage from 100%.
• Processor : Interrupts /sec. The numbers of interrupts the processor was asked to respond to. Interrupts are generated from hardware components like hard disk controller adapters and network interface cards. A sustained value over 1000 is usually an indication of a problem. Problems would include a poorly configured drivers, errors in drivers, excessive utilization of a device (like a NIC on an IIS server), or hardware failure. Compare this value with the System : Systems Calls/sec. If the Interrupts/sec is much larger over a sustained period, you probably have a hardware issue.
• Processor : % Interrupt Time. This is the percentage of time that the processor is spending on handling Interrupts. Generally, if this value exceeds 50% of the processor time you may have a hardware issue. Some components on the computer can force this issue and not really be a problem. For example a programmable I/O card like an old disk controller card, can take up to 40% of the CPU time. A NIC on a busy IIS server can likewise generate a large percentage of processor activity.
• Processor : % User Time. The value of this counter helps to determine the kind of processing that is affecting the system. Of course the resulting value is the total amount of non-idle time that was spent on User mode operations. This generally means application code.
• Processor : %Privilege Time. This is the amount of time the processor was busy with Kernel mode operations. If the processor is very busy and this mode is high, it is usually an indication of some type of NT service having difficulty, although user mode programs can make calls to the Kernel mode NT components to occasionally cause this type of performance issue.
• Processor: %DPC Time. Much like the other values, this counter shows the amount of time that the processor spends servicing DPC requests. DPC requests are more often than not associated with the network interface.
• Process : % Processor Time. This counter is a natural choice that will give use the amount of time that this particular process spends using the processor resource. There are also % Privilege Time and % User Time counters for this object that will help to identify what the program is spending most of its time doing.
• System : Processor Queue Length. Oddly enough, this processor counter shows up under the System object, but not without good reason. There is only 1 queue for tasks that need to go to the processor, even if there is more than one CPU. Thus, counter provides a measure of the instantaneous size of the queue for all processors at the moment that the measurement was taken. The resulting value is a measure of how many threads are in the Ready state waiting to be processed. When dealing with queues, if the value exceeds 2 for a sustained period, you are definitely having a problem with the resource in question.
• System : System Calls/sec. This counter is a measure of the number of calls made to the system components, Kernel mode services. This is a measure of how busy the system is taking care of applications and services—software stuff. When compared to the Interrupts/Sec it will give you an indication of whether processor issues are hardware or software related. See Processor : Interrupts/Sec for more information.
• System : % Total Processor Time. This counter groups the activity of all the processors together to report the total performance of the entire system. On a single processor machine, this value will equal the %Processor Time value of the processor object.
• System : % Total User Time. This is the total user time of all the processors on the system. See Processor : % User Time for more details.
• System : % Total Privledge Time. This is the total privledge time for all processors on the system collectively. See Processor : % Privledge Time for more details.
• System : % Total Interrupt Time. This is the collective amount of time that all of the processors are spending on handling interrupts. See Processor : % Interrupt Time for more details.
• Thread Object : % Processor Time. This counter takes the analysis to the next level. Typically, this counter would be for programmers, but occasionally there is a more global use for it. For example, if you are trying to examine the actions of a 16-bit process. The 16-bit application will actually be running as a thread in the NTVDM process. If you wish to see the processor usage by the 16-bit without obscuring it with the processing of the NTVDM and WOWEXEC.exe, you will want to examine the individual thread. BackOffice applications tend to have very distinct multiple threads that sometimes are worth examining individually as opposed to in a group. Often the threads of more sophisticated applications can be configured independently from the entire process.
• Thread Object : ID Thread. When a process creates a thread, the system assigns a Thread ID so that it may distinguish the thread among the other threads on the system. Thread IDs are reassigned upon creation and deletion of the threads. You can not expect a thread to have the same ID each time it is created. It is important to use the Thread ID whenever you are looking at any other counters that are specific to the thread. If the thread is deleted, the performance monitor will spike indicating the thread has in fact expired.
• Thread Object : Priority Base. The thread gets a base priority from the Process that created it. The priority of the thread can be adjusted by the system or through a program. This priority is used to judge when the thread is going to have access to the process and how many other threads it may jump ahead of in the processor queue of ready threads.
• Process : Process ID. Each process on Windows NT gets a Process ID that identifies it as a unique process on the system. You can reference the Process ID counter to gain information about the process through API calls. The Process ID is guaranteed to remain unique to the particular process during the entire time that it is running. But, the process is not guaranteed to have the same process ID each time that it is run.
• Process : % Processor Time. Each process will show up as an instance when selecting this counter. This counter will break down how much processor time each process is taking on the CPU. Don't forget to exclude the Idle and the Total counts when looking at all of the instances.
• Process : % User Time. This will break down the amount of user time that each process is taking out of the total amount of processor time that the processes is using.