Windows Media Unicast Service Object
Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2
The Windows Media Unicast Service performance object consists of counters that provide statistics about the Windows Media Unicast service, which provides unicasting functions for Advanced Systems Format (ASF) streams.
| Counter Name | Description | Counter Type |
|---|---|---|
Active Live Unicast Streams |
Shows the number of live unicast streams that are being streamed. |
|
Active Streams |
Shows the number of active files, or streams, currently being sent to the instances of Windows Media Player. This counter provides an overall indicator of system activity. A client is still connected once it has stopped playing a file, because the Windows Media Unicast service maintains the bandwidth allocation to that client for 60 seconds after the client stops playing (this is called the Client Inactivity Time-out period). After the Client Inactivity Time-out period has elapsed, the server actively checks the client's status by periodically sending a message to each client. The server keeps a client connection open as long as the client responds to a message within three minutes (this is called the Client Terminal Time-out). |
|
Active TCP Streams |
Shows the number of active Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) streams that are currently being sent to the instances of Windows Media Player. |
|
Active UDP Streams |
Shows the number of active User Datagram Protocol (UDP) streams currently being sent to the instances of Windows Media Player. |
|
Aggregate Read Rate |
Shows the sum, in bytes per second, of the read rates for all files being sent to the instances of Windows Media Player. This counter indicates the speed at which the server is reading data from the disk. The graph usually appears jagged because the block read time is shorter than the block sends. |
|
Aggregate Send Rate |
Shows the sum, in bytes per second, of the send rates for all files being sent to the instances of Windows Media Player. This counter indicates the speed at which the server is sending data to the players. The graph must appear relatively smooth; a jagged graph can indicate that streams are battling for bandwidth. |
|
Allocated Bandwidth |
Shows the amount of bandwidth that the server allocates, based on the number of instances of Windows Media Player that are currently connected. Generally, clients connected to Windows Media Services that are not receiving streams are still allocated bandwidth. If a Windows Media Player has had bandwidth allocated to it, but does not send a command during the Client Inactivity Time-out period, its bandwidth is deallocated. The Client Inactivity Time-out period is 60 seconds. |
|
Authentication Requests |
Shows the number of times an authentication plug-in is called to authenticate a client. Depending on the protocol in use — either HTTP or Microsoft Media Server (MMS) — a single client may be authenticated once or several times as it accesses each piece of unicast content. This is a general indicator of how often the server uses authentication plug-ins. |
|
Authentications Denied |
Shows the number of times that clients are denied access to unicast content by authentication plug-ins. Clients are denied access by an authentication plug-in when their IDs cannot be verified, no user accounts exist, or the authentication plug-in is not working. |
|
Authorization Requests |
Shows the number of times that an authorization plug-in is called to authorize a client. Each client action—such as opening or playing unicast content—is separately authorized, so the total number of authorization requests is greater than the number of connected clients. This is a general indicator of how often the server uses authorization plug-ins. |
|
Authorizations Refused |
Shows the number of times that clients are denied access to unicast content by authorization plug-ins. Plug-ins deny access to clients based on their function (for example, a billing plug-in may deny client access to unicast content if the user account contains insufficient funds). |
|
Connected Clients |
Shows the number of client programs that are currently connected. This indicates all instances of Windows Media Player that are connected to the system. This counter includes clients that are playing streamed content, clients in paused and connected states, and clients that the server has not yet detected as being disconnected. The latter can occur if a client has lost power, or has been disconnected from the network and has not been able to notify the server that it has been disconnected. |
|
Connection Rate |
Shows the rate at which clients are connecting to the server. This is used to determine the number of instantaneous connections being serviced by the server. The default is 10 connections per second. This counter is useful for correlating client connections with the utilization of system resources. |
|
HTTP Streams |
Shows the number of active HTTP streams that are currently being sent to instances of Windows Media Player. This counter reports the sum of the values of HTTP Streams Reading Body and HTTP Streams Reading Header. |
|
HTTP Streams Reading Body |
Shows the number of connected clients that have read the file header and are actively streaming unicast content via HTTP. |
|
HTTP Streams Reading Header |
Shows the number of clients that are connected to the server via HTTP and are reading a file header, but are not yet streaming the unicast content. |
|
Late Reads |
Shows the number of late read completions per second. A late read is a disk read operation that takes significantly longer than expected to complete. Typically, this counter is nonzero only when the server is under a very heavy load. If this counter is often nonzero, the system might not be properly configured (for example, you might need additional hard disk drives or a lower setting for the maximum number of clients), or other applications might be competing with Windows Media Services for use of the disk. |
|
Pending Connections |
Shows the number of clients that are attempting to connect to the server but are not yet connected. This number may be high if the server is running near maximum capacity and cannot process a large number of connection requests in a timely manner. |
|
Plugin Errors |
Shows the number of times that the plug-ins failed to perform their function (for example, a plug-in could not reach its user database, or the plug-in crashed). |
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Plugin Events |
Shows the number of events reported to plug-ins. This is an indicator of how often the server uses external plug-ins. |
|
Scheduling Rate |
Shows the rate, in seconds, at which requests are being made for tasks to be scheduled. Scheduled tasks include reading data from the disk and writing data to the network. The scheduling rate is roughly proportional to the rate at which packets are being sent by the server; it does not represent a one-to-one correspondence. |
|
Stream Errors |
Shows the number of errors that occur per second. Stream errors represent the number of stream data packets that are discarded by the server. They are introduced by the server when it cannot meet the demand for data and must throw packets away to avoid running behind schedule indefinitely. Stream errors show up most often after late reads occur. They indicate that the system is not configured properly, or other applications are competing for system resources. Heavy network traffic can also contribute to stream errors. |
|
Stream Terminations |
Shows the rate at which streams are terminated due to errors. Stream terminations indicate that the system is not configured properly, or the file being streamed is corrupted. The server unilaterally terminates a stream under certain circumstances — most commonly, when the server is running significantly behind schedule. If the server must throw away several packets in a row from a given stream to remain on schedule, it terminates the stream. Streams can also be terminated if invalid data is encountered during file streaming. |
|
UDP Resend Requests |
Shows the number of times clients ask the Windows Media Services server to re-send data packets that were not received. This value may be high when the server cannot reliably send packets via UDP. This is a good indicator of server or network overload. |
|
UDP Resends Sent |
Shows the number of UDP re-send requests that are processed by the Windows Media Services server. If the server is under a heavy load, not all UDP re-send requests are processed. |