Windows perfmon Recipe

  1. Run } perfmon or Performance Monitor
  2. Expand Performance } Data Collector Sets
  3. Right click on User Defined } New } Data Collector Set
    1. Provide a name and click Next
    2. Choose a directory to write the files (e.g. C:\PerfLogs\...)
    3. Continue through the steps until clicking Finish
  4. Right click the newly created data collector set and click Properties
    1. Click the Stop Condition tab
    2. Uncheck Overall duration
    3. Check Maximum Size and change the maximum size based on available disk space in megabytes, e.g. 1024 for one gigabyte
    4. Click OK
  5. Expand the User Defined folder and select the newly created data collector set
  6. Right click on Performance Counter } Properties
    1. Click on the File tab
    2. Check Circular
    3. Click OK
  7. Do the same steps for NT Kernel
  8. Under the User Defined folder, click on the the newly created data collector set
  9. Right click: Start
  10. Reproduce the issue
  11. Right click: Stop
  12. Wait about 30 seconds after clicking stop because some files are asynchronously generated.
  13. Gather and upload the entire directory (e.g. C:\PerfLogs\Admin\Test\myhost_20260101-000001) which should include:
    • Performance Counter.blg
    • NtKernel.etl
    • report.html
    • report.xsl
    • report.xml
    • rules.log

Notes:

  • This procedure has been tested on recent versions of Windows Server 2025, Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, and Windows 11.