HP Vectra VE 5/xx hp toptools for desktops agent, resource monitoring and perf - Page 7

LAN I/O Error Rate This measurement shows the percentage of network packets sent and received that contained errors. This is useful for spotting network errors and for isolating problem areas. For example, a very high error rate between a specific PC and a hub could point to a faulty network cable between these two devices. This measurement is available for PCs running either Windows NT or Windows 200 which have the Microsoft SNMP Service installed. However, in some cases, for Windows PCs without Microsoft SNMP, the Toptools Device Manager may be able to calculate an approximate value using the LAN card's DMI instrumentation. LAN Bandwidth Utilization This measurement shows the percentage of the LAN card's transfer capacity that is actually being used. This information can help to optimize a network configuration, or can indicate network undercapacity. If network bandwidth utilization is nearing saturation, this is a useful warning that network facilities must be upgraded or reconfigured to provided more capacity in the areas where it is needed. The calculation of LAN bandwidth use is available for PCs running either Windows NT or Windows 2000 and with the Microsoft SNMP Service installed. In some cases, for Windows PCs without Microsoft SNMP, the Toptools Device Manager may be able to calculate an approximate value using the LAN card's DMI instrumentation. Typical Uses of Resource Monitoring • You can set alerts to permanently monitor the hard disk drive space on all systems. In this way, you can ensure that there is sufficient disk space on all devices for future growth. A critical alert on a single PC may prompt you to tell the user that they must remove all unneeded files from their system. Alerts are also useful for receiving early warning of undercapacity, enabling you to plan for major disk upgrades. • Before the installation of a new software application, you can install it in several trial PCs and monitor the PCs' page swapping rates to determine if more physical memory is needed to successfully run that application. • If a PC user complains about a slow PC or disruptive system errors, you can monitor resources (such as memory and network usage) on that remote PC to help track down and resolve the problem. Overhead Used by Resource Monitoring Since resource monitoring is done by the remote PCs themselves, no network bandwidth is used for this task. Furthermore, less than 1% of the processor time is used on the remote PCs. Alert thresholds are also stored and managed by each remote PC. If alerts are generated, a small amount of network bandwidth is used to send the alert to the Device Manager. If you are using the Device Manager to display a remote PC's resource monitoring, requests are sent between these two devices on the network to keep the display up to date. However, even this task requires very little network bandwidth. There are two cases in which no monitoring is done by the remote PCs, and therefore zero system capacity is used. Firstly, if resource monitoring is disabled, and secondly, if the remote PC goes into standby or sleep mode. Toptools allows the PC to go into standby or sleep mode, rather than waking it up to continue monitoring its resources. If the remote PC goes into standby or sleep mode, it implies that the PC is not currently being used and there is no need to monitor resources. 6