The Select SQL Server System Counter window of the Add Custom Counter wizard allows you to manually enter counter information or select counters from a list populated from those currently available on an existing monitored SQL Server.
If you have the counter information available, you can enter the information quickly by simply pasting or typing the Object Name, Counter Name, and Instance name into their associated fields. The counter information entered must be exact or the counter does not work correctly.
To select a SQL Server system counter:
- Select the appropriate SQL Server instance from the drop-down list.
- Select the object name.
- Select the name of the specific counter you want to add.
- Select the instance, if applicable. The instance name is what distinguishes it from other similar objects.
If no counters appear in the drop-down list, either the counters are not installed or they are disabled, possibly by a recent Windows Service Pack.
Access the Add Custom Counter wizard
You can open the Add Custom Counter wizard by clicking Administration> Custom Counters and selecting Add in the Custom Counters view.
How to calculate this metric
For more information about the algorithm used to calculate a specific metric, see SQL Diagnostic Manager cannot load the performance counters needed for the statistics view pane - Solution #00000133 IDERA Solution available at the Customer Support Portal.
Understand why the SQL Server counter grows
Many SQL Server counter values start at zero when a server starts and then grow persistently from there, including most of the values in the sysperfinfo system table.
For example, the Buffer Manager Page Lookups/Sec counter in the value collected mode always shows the total number of page lookups since the server was first started, while when in the value per second mode, it shows the number of lookups per second during the monitored period.