Database Object

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

The Database performance object consists of counters that describe the activity of the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE), a transacted database management system that stores all Microsoft Active Directory objects. The objects in the ESE database can access the Database performance object, which provides counters to measure the activity of the ESE. The Database object is not installed by default; use Lodctr.exe in the Microsoft Platform Software Development Kit (SDK) to install it. For more information about the Platform SDK, see the Software Development Kit (SDK) information in the MSDN Library link on the Web Resources page.

These counters provide performance statistics only for processes that use the ESE. This section does not describe counters that are for developer use only.

Counter Name Description Counter Type

Cache % Hit

Shows the percentage of database file page requests that were fulfilled by the database cache manager without causing a file operation. If this percentage is too low, the database cache size may be too small.

PERF_SAMPLE_FRACTION

Cache Page Fault Stalls/sec

Shows the number of page faults that cannot be serviced because there are no pages available for allocation from the database cache. If this counter is nonzero most of the time, the clean threshold may be too low.

PERF_COUNTER_COUNTER

Cache Page Faults/sec

Shows the number of database file page requests that require the database cache manager to allocate a new page from the database cache. If this rate is too high, the database cache size may be too small.

PERF_COUNTER_COUNTER

Cache Size

Shows the amount of system memory used by the database cache manager to hold commonly used information from the database file(s), in order to reduce the number of file operations the system must perform. If the database cache size seems to be too small for optimal performance and there is very little available memory on the system (see Memory\Available Bytes), adding more memory to the system may increase performance. If there is a lot of available memory on the system and the database cache size does not grow beyond a certain point, the database cache size may be too small. Increasing this limit may increase performance.

PERF_COUNTER_RAWCOUNT

File Bytes Read/sec

Shows the rate at which bytes are read from the database file(s) into the database cache. If this rate is too high, the database cache size may be too small.

PERF_COUNTER_COUNTER

File Bytes Written/sec

Shows the rate at which bytes are written to the database file(s) from the database cache. If this rate is too high, the database cache size may be too small.

PERF_COUNTER_COUNTER

File Operations Pending

Shows the number of reads and writes issued by the database cache manager to the database file(s) that are currently being processed by the operating system. A large number of pending file operations can increase system throughput but will increase response time for individual operations. Typically, a larger number means that file operations to the database file(s) may be a bottleneck.

PERF_COUNTER_RAWCOUNT

File Operations/sec

Shows the number of reads and writes issued by the database cache manager to the database file(s). If this rate is too high, the database cache size may be too small.

PERF_COUNTER_COUNTER

Log Record Stalls/sec

Shows the number of log records that cannot be added to the log buffers because the buffers are full. If this counter is nonzero most of the time, the log buffer size may be a bottleneck.

PERF_COUNTER_COUNTER

Log Threads Waiting

Shows the number of threads waiting for their data to be written to the log during a database update. If this number is too high, the log may be a bottleneck.

PERF_COUNTER_RAWCOUNT

Log Writes/sec

Shows the number of times that the contents of the log buffers are written to the log. If this number approaches the maximum write rate for the media holding the log, the log may be a bottleneck.

PERF_COUNTER_COUNTER

Table Open Cache % Hit

Shows the percentage of database tables opened by using cached schema information. If this percentage is too low, the table cache size may be too small.

PERF_SAMPLE_FRACTION

Table Open Cache Hits/sec

Shows the number of database tables opened by using cached schema information. If this rate is too low, the table cache size may be too small.

PERF_COUNTER_COUNTER

Table Open Cache Misses/sec

Shows the number of database tables opened without using cached schema information. If this rate is too high, the table cache size may be too small.

PERF_COUNTER_COUNTER

Table Opens/sec

Shows the number of database tables opened.

PERF_COUNTER_COUNTER