#ProjectServer 2010 and #SharePoint 2010 performance analysis using PAL #paltool #PowerShell #PS2010 #SP2010 #Windows

A really useful tool for analysing Performance Counter logs is PAL – Performance Analysis of Logs.

This is primarily a PowerShell tool with a GUI interference available to download from CodePlex:http://pal.codeplex.com/. The tool can be used to generate your Perfmon Templates, then to analyse the logs and create a nice HTML report output.

A quick overview of the tool and usage for monitoring Project Server can be found below.

From the Welcome tab switch to the Threshold tab as shown below:

There are preconfigured Threshold files including one specifically for Project Server. In this example I have created a custom threshold file that includes Project Server, IIS and SP2010:

Now export the threshold file out to a Perfmon template:

Now load the Performance Monitor and expand Data Collection Sets, right click on User Defined > New > Data Collection Set.

Give the data set a name and check the radio button “Create from template”

Click Next then Browse:

Navigate to the location of the new Template created earlier and open the template:

Click Finish. The new data collection set will appear under User defined.

Start the new data collection set when you are ready to monitor the performance counters:

Once the monitoring session has completed stop the data collection:

Now load PAL and click on the Counter Log tab and add the output file (blg file) from the counters data collection:

Now click on the Questions tab and answer the questions listed. Once answered, click on the Output Options tab and set the analysis interval, in this example I have left it to auto:

Now access the File Output tab to set the output directory and the chosen output format and file name:

Clicking on the Queue tab will display the variables used for the PowerShell script:

Click on the Execute tab and click Finish to Execute now:

The log will now be processed and generate the report:

Once completed the report will load in Internet Explorer:

Thanks to my colleague Chris Stretton who gave me a demo of this tool. For an excellent description of the options available on the GUI interface see Chris’s post here:

http://spchris.com/2012/03/20/analysing-performance-using-pal/