Compare Multiple Log Files in Performance Monitor
Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista
You can view log files in separate Performance Monitor windows and then compare them with a transparent overlay.
Membership in the local Users group, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure.
To compare multiple log files in Performance Monitor
- Click Start, click in the Start Search box, type perfmon /sys, and press ENTER. Performance Monitor will open in stand-alone mode.
Note
You can only use overlay when Performance Monitor is running in stand-alone mode.
To create a view you will use as a base to compare against, open logs or a data source and add counters from the logs or data source to the Performance Monitor display.
When you have finished creating your base view, repeat step 1 to open another instance of Performance Monitor running in stand-alone mode.
To create a view you will use to compare to your base, open logs or a data source and add counters from the logs or data source to the Performance Monitor display.
In the Performance Monitor window that you want to compare to your base, on the Compare menu, point to Set Transparency and select either 70% Transparency or 40% Transparency.
In the Performance Monitor window you want to compare to your base, on the Compare menu, click Snap to Compare. The active Performance Monitor window will automatically align itself with the other Performance Monitor window.
Additional considerations
- Using the overlay feature to compare log files works best when viewing multiple logs based on the same Data Collector Set, since the Performance Monitor graph's proportions change to most efficiently display the range of data in the log file.