Windows Home Server 2011 : Monitoring Performance (part 3) - Monitoring Performance with Task Manager - Monitoring Network Performance

1.3 Monitoring Network Performance

If your network feels sluggish, it could be that the server or node you’re working with is sharing data slowly or that network traffic is exceptionally high. To see whether the latter situation is the cause of the problem, you can check out the current network utilization value, which is the percent of available bandwidth that your network adapter is currently using.

To check network utilization, open Task Manager, and then display the Networking tab, shown in Figure 4. If you have multiple adapters, click the one you want to check in the Adapter Name list. Now use the graph or the Network Utilization column to monitor the current network utilization value. Notice that this value is a percentage. This means that the utilization is a percentage of the bandwidth shown in the Link Speed column. So, for example, if the current network utilization is 10 percent and the Link Speed value is 1Gbps, the network is currently using about 100Mbps bandwidth.

Figure 4. Use Task Manager’s Networking tab to check the current network utilization percentage.

The Network Utilization value combines the data sent by the server and the data received by the server. If the utilization is high, it’s often useful to break down the data stream into the separate sent and received components. To do that, select View, Network Adapter History, and then select Bytes Sent (which displays as a red line on the graph) or Bytes Received (which displays as a yellow line on the graph).

As with the Processes tab, you can view much more information than what you see in the default Networking tab. Select the View, Select Columns command. As shown in Figure 5, the Select Columns dialog box offers a long list of networking measures that you can monitor. To add a value to the Networking tab, activate its check box and click OK.

Figure 5. Use the Select Columns dialog box to choose which values you want to monitor using the Networking tab.

Tip

By default, the Networking tab doesn’t collect data when you’re viewing some other Task Manager tab. If you prefer that the Networking tab always collects data, select Options, Tab Always Active.

Here’s a summary of the columns you can add:

• Adapter Description— This column shows the description of the network adapter.

• Network Utilization— This is the network utilization value.

• Link Speed— This value shows the network adapter’s connection speed.

• State— This column displays the general state of the adapter.

• Bytes Sent Throughput— This value shows the percentage of connection bandwidth used by traffic sent from Windows Home Server.

• Bytes Received Throughput— This value shows the percentage of connection bandwidth used by traffic received by Windows Home Server.

• Bytes Throughput— This value shows the percentage of connection bandwidth used by traffic both sent from and received by Windows Home Server.

• Bytes Sent— This column tells you the total number of bytes sent from Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the current session (that is, since the last boot).

• Bytes Received— This column tells you the total number of bytes received by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the current session.

• Bytes— This column tells you the total number of bytes sent from and received by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the current session.

• Bytes Sent Per Interval— This value shows the total number of bytes sent from Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the most recent update interval. (For example, if the Update Speed value is set to Low, the display updates every 4 seconds, so the Bytes Sent/Interval value is the number of bytes sent during the most recent 4-second interval.)

• Bytes Received Per Interval— This value shows the total number of bytes received by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the most recent update interval.

• Bytes Per Interval— This value shows the total number of bytes sent from and received by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the most recent update interval.

• Unicasts Sent— This column tells you the total number of unicasts sent from Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the current session (that is, since the last boot). A unicast is a packet exchanged between a single sender and a single receiver.

• Unicasts Received— This column tells you the total number of unicasts received by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the current session.

• Unicasts— This column tells you the total number of unicasts sent from and received by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the current session.

• Unicasts Sent Per Interval— This value shows the total number of unicasts sent from Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the most recent update interval.

• Unicasts Received Per Interval— This value shows the total number of unicasts received by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the most recent update interval.

• Unicasts Per Interval— This value shows the total number of unicasts sent from and received by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the most recent update interval.

• Nonunicasts Sent— This column tells you the total number of nonunicast packets sent from Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the current session (that is, since the last boot). A nonunicast is a packet exchanged between a single sender and multiple receivers.

• Nonunicasts Received— This column tells you the total number of nonunicasts received by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the current session.

• Nonunicasts— This column tells you the total number of nonunicasts sent from and received by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the current session.

• Nonunicast Sent Per Interval— This value shows the total number of nonunicasts sent from Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the most recent update interval.

• Nonunicast Received Per Interval— This value shows the total number of nonunicasts received by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the most recent update interval.

• Nonunicast/Interval— This value shows the total number of nonunicasts sent from and received by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the most recent update interval.