Lesson 11 Lab Key Lab Exercises Lab 1 Using Windows 7 Performance Monitoring Software The purpose of this lab is to familiarize students with performance monitoring software. When the student has finished this lab, he or she will know how to use performance monitoring software in general and Windows Performance Monitor specifically.

Materials

 A computer running Windows 7  Paper  Pen or pencil The Lab Open the Windows 7 Performance Monitor 1. Click on the Windows 7 Control Panel. (This is found under the Start Menu and over to the right.) 2. When the Control Panel comes up it may be in one of two configurations. It may be in Category view or Icon view. By default, it will be in Category view. Go ahead and put Control Panel into Large Icon view since that is what we will use from now on. Lesson 10 Lab 1 explains how to do this. 3. Double-click on the icon labeled Performance Information and Tools. When the dialog box shown in Figure 11-8 comes up, it shows something called the Windows Experience Index.

You can score a Windows Experience Index score anywhere between 1.0 to 7.9.

Write down the Windows Experience Index Score for the computer you are using.

4. On the left side of the screen shown in Figure 11-8, there is a list of additional options. Click on the Advanced Tools option (last on the list). When you do so, the Performance issues dialog box (shown in Figure 11-9) opens.

List all the options you see in displayed in this dialog box.

There are a lot of options here, and depending on which version of Windows is being used, these options will vary. This is true even between versions of Windows 7 or Windows Vista.

5. Click on the Open Performance Monitor option. When you do, The Performance Monitor utility screen shown in Figure 11-10 opens.

List the options shown in the left panel of the Performance Monitor Screen.

Monitoring Tools Data Collector Sets Reports

6. Click on the option in the left panel labeled Performance Monitor. You should see a dialog box like the one in Figure 11-11.

7. The tool that came up in the main right panel when you clicked on this is the actual Performance Monitor Tool. Write down the name of the Counter or Counters that came up by default in this screen. This information is on the bottom of the screen where the legend for the graph is located.

This answer may vary depending on which version of Windows is used and what students may have done in Performance Monitor in the past.

8. Across the top of the Performance Monitor you will see a set of icons that look like those in Figure 11-12. This is the Performance Monitor toolbar. Click on the plus sign.

9. Clicking on the plus sign brings up a dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 11-13.

This dialog box allows you to add or remove counters from the graph seen in the main portion of the screen. 10. Each entry in this dialog box is a category for counters related to the title of the category. If you click on the down arrow to the right of the category name, you will see a list of possible counters under that category. If you scroll down, more categories appear. As you can see, there are a number of potential counters to examine. Take Note If you are not sure what a counter does, click on the “Show description” check box in the lower left corner and a “Description” windowpane will open. When you click on a counter, a brief description of the counter will show in the Description windowpane. Some descriptions are better and more detailed than others. 11. Place a checkmark in the Counter description check box.

12. Choose three counters under three different Counter Categories and write down what you see in the Description pane in the space provided. Be sure to include the name of the Counter.

These answers will vary depending on what the students choose.

Counter 1:

Counter 2:

Counter 3:

13. To add a counter to the graph, click the counter you wish to add and then click on the Add button on the bottom left center of the Add Counters dialog box. When you do this, you will get a screen that looks like Figure 11-14.

14. Click the OK button on the bottom right of the Add Counters dialog box. How did the graph on the Performance Monitor Tool screen change?

This will vary depending on what the student chooses.

Why do you think that is?

This is a subjective question, and the reasoning the student used to arrive at their answer is the most important part of the answer.

15. The Windows 7 Professional version of Windows Performance Monitor does not allow you to create a baseline. However the Servers 2008 version does. All you can do with the Windows 7 version of Performance Monitor is save a subset of Counters and make it your default setting or to make customized Counter Sets. Lab 2 Using Windows Event Viewer The purpose of this lab is to make the student familiar with Event Viewer. This lab will help the student learn what Event Viewer is. This lab will also help the student learn what types of information can be found using Event Viewer. Checking the Event View and the various logs under the event viewer is one of the most important skills and most often used troubleshooting tool a student will use. The point of this lab is to make the student familiar with what the Event Viewer looks like and the types of information found there.

Materials  A computer running Windows 7  Paper  Pen or pencil The Lab Open Windows 7 Event Viewer 1. Go to Control Panel in Large Icon view. 2. Double-click the Administrative Tools icon. A dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 11-15 opens.

Write down five of the applets that can be found in this dialog box.

The students can write down any 5 applets in which they are interested.

3. Double-click on the applet labeled Event Viewer. It should be the fourth or fifth applet down the list. When you open the Event Viewer, you should see an application similar to the one shown in Figure 11-16.

What is shown in the middle panel? An overview and summary of the warnings and events that the Event Viewer is able to monitor.

Write down the name of each of the four panes in the middle panel.

Write down the panes as shown in the above screenshot.

Which one do you think is the most important? Why?

This is a subjective answer, and the students reasoning is the most important part of this question.

4. Write down the five categories found in the Summary of Administrative Events pane.

Critical, Error, Warning, Informational, Audit Success

5. How many of each categories of events were there in the last seven days? Write it down.

This will vary depending on the computer.

6. Expand one of the event types so that you can see the individual events recorded. 7. Double-click one of the events. What comes up?

This answer will vary from computer to computer.

8. Is this useful information? Why or why not?

This is a subjective answer, and the students reasoning is the most important part of this question.

9. Click the back arrow button in the upper left corner of the Event Viewer window to get back to the last location. 10. Double-click the Windows Logs folder in the left panel. These are the Event Viewer Logs discussed in Lesson 11. Write down the names of the different logs listed there.

Application, Security, Setup, System, Forwarding Event

11. Double-click the System Log. When you do, you will see a screen similar to the one shown in Figure 11-17.

12. There are three types of messages that can be displayed in the System Log. Figure 11-18 shows what an Informational Message looks like.

13. Notice the “i” symbol inside a circle to the left of the message. That symbol is used to designate that a Log Entry is informational in nature. This type of log entry gives you information about what is going on with the operating system but does not contain any information that needs to be acted on. The pane below the log entries contains more details about the message. Figure 11-19 shows what a Critical Message looks like.

14. Again notice the symbol to the left of the message. The exclamation mark inside a circle is the standard symbol to designate a critical error. This error message describes a real problem with the operating systems and needs to be acted on. When something does not work on a computer, going to the Event Log and reading the Critical Errors can help determine the nature of a the problem and give you good clues about how to resolve the problem. Figure 11-20 shows what a Warning Message looks like.

15. The exclamation point inside a triangle is the designated symbol for a warning message. Log entries of this type report any anomalies experienced by the operating system that do not have a direct impact on whether the operating system is working correctly or not. Messages of this type can be very useful for spotting potential problems that may come up down the road. Take Note Both the Applications Event Log and the Setup Event Log use the same symbols as the System Event Log. However the Security Event Log uses two different symbols. Figure 11-21 shows both the Audit Success (key) icon and the Audit Failure (lock) icon.