I created an updated version of my little quick performance monitoring tool. It is now possible to add multiple performance counters based on counters and/or instances at the same time. This makes it useful if you need to select several counters plus some/all instances in one go.
Additionally, I made an improvement in the way the colors automatically gets assigned to new performance counters as you add them. This will help avoid duplicate (default) colors as you add them.
Sometimes keeping track of version numbers is a job all on its own. I released an update to QuickMon to include the syntax highlighting component I found on Code Project (‘Fast Colored TextBox’ from Pavel Torgashov) for the manual xml editing and SQLQuery collector editing. After some initial issues with the control due to a bug in the .Net framework (Regex classes with Compiled option on x64) it is now working nicely.
Happy monitoring
I came across a cool control for syntax high-lighting based on a language (programming languages like C#, TSql etc.) created by Pavel Torgashov. It provides a customizable way to configure syntax high-lighting based on configuration and you can even provide custom high-lighting based on a simple xml file.
I plan on using it in the QuickMon SQL Query collector’s editor so it is easier to edit tsql statements. Seeing your code (sql) in different colors make it easier to spot editing problems and also to get a picture of what/where you are doing stuff. Of course, this control is not a compiler so it doesn’t actually do syntax or error checking but it helps with spotting problems if there are simple ones.
I recently made a big update to QuickMon. Since the start of version 2 I added the the concept of registering ‘agents’ in a separate ‘Agent Registration List’ file. The idea was that this could be reusable and allow more flexibility. But like some good ideas it was just too much for what the whole tool was intended for.
So I decided to simplify the whole way ‘agents’ are used in the application. From version 2.5 a ‘Monitor Pack’ will simply have a property that stores the path (a single path) where all agent assemblies/dll’s are stored. When opening a monitor pack to edit the default path will simple be the installation directory for the whole tool – which also contains all the agents anyway. This still allows you to make a copy of only some or even different version agents to another directory it you like. The default scenario however will be the simplest so that most users won’t even have to worry about possible complex things around this issue.
Then I added another thing. When launching a detail view of an agent’s state the window title will also display the collector name. This helps to identify which window is which if you have multiple similar windows open.
One negative point of all this is that it breaks compatibility with any previous version assemblies – since the some core interface changes were required. The new version editor can happily open previous version monitor pack files and save them in the new version format. The opposite is not possible though…
Anyway, happy monitoring
I’ve done an update to my QPerfmon utility and converted it to VS2010 using the .Net 4.0 Client framework. Some of the other changes are:
* Line color customizations are now stored in the qpmset definition files
* A direct result of that is that the structure of the qpmset files have changed so version 1.7 files are not compatible with earlier versions of the tool.
* Ability to ‘not’ have an invalid performance counter be disabled. This is useful if you want the tool to continue trying to record values for the perf counter until it becomes available.
* The tool now comes with a proper MSI installer
Just a quick note to mention that I’ll be adding an Event Log collector soon to QuickMon. Although you can use EventScavenger combined with the SQL Query collector it might be a bit of an overkill for some people that just want to quickly add an alert based on some Event Log entries.
The focus for this collector in simplicity and it is not optimized to scan millions of Event Log entries each time it polls.
I’ve added new Installers for the 2 Windows services in EventScavenger – one for x86 and one for x64. These were just added to the latest recommended download on the site. This include the ‘self-installing’ functionality where you can register the services with Service manager using the “-install” or “-uninstall” parameters.
There has been some updates to my QuickMon tool (or set of tools). Since the last update I’ve added a new collector – the SQL Query collector, enhance the Windows Service to allow multiple monitor packs to be use at the same time and tried to simplify the management user interface.
With the latest changes it is becoming even more useful. Try it out!
I’ve finally decided to place the whole project on CodePlex (quickmon.codeplex.com)
Go and see it for yourself 🙂
In the past couple of weeks I’ve been busy part time working on this little project to build a simple monitoring system for myself. At the moment the basic ‘bits’ are all there working reasonably well I might add. On the one side I’ve been contemplating putting the project up on CodePlex like many of my other pet projects but this one has some potential to ‘grow’ into something that could generate some thing more (like income or so…) The trouble with that idea is it may be even more powerful if ‘others’ can extend it but then the main source is available to all. Also, this little tool is not in the same league as proper enterprise monitoring tools like Microsoft SCOM and so on.
Anyway, as far as progress goes, the ‘tool’ or set of tools now can do the following (all tested and working)
Development
I’m using the .Net 4 client profile framework so download footprint should be fairly small – and I’d like to keep it that way. It is developed using C# and is extendable because of the add-in type of architecture. To add an agent is as simple as implementing a provided interface.
Download example
Soon I’ll add a download link for (the current) test version. It is already fully working as is but I’m continuing to enhance and add things.
Download a first test version here.