A familiar tool still exists in Windows 2000 for monitoring performance, although it now carries a new name. The Performance tool is actually a combination of two different MMC snap-ins: System Monitor, and Performance Logs and Alerts. Combined, they essentially form Performance Monitor from NT 4.
Performance Monitor Logs and Alerts allows you to configure both logs (which collect information on performance counters you specify) and alerts (which allow you to specify a course of action once the thresholds you define are reached). A log records data over a period of time, and is usually used for analysis purposes, such as tracking resource usage trends and creating baseline measurements. You can later import this logged data into a spreadsheet or the System Monitor program for analysis. Two types of logs exist: Counter logs and Trace logs. A Counter log measures object performance counters at defined intervals. A Trace log is mostly used for debugging or error tracking, and records data only when certain errors (such as a page fault) occur. Note that running logs appear with a green icon, and that stopped logs appear in red. Alerts can also be configured according to when a certain threshold is reached. For example, you could set an alert to be triggered when processor utilization exceeds 80 percent. Further to this, you can control what happens when the alert is triggered.
