Monitoring features in SharePoint 2010

The monitoring features in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 help you to understand how the SharePoint Server 2010 system is running, analyze and repair problems, and view metrics for the sites. Monitoring the SharePoint Server 2010 environment includes the following tasks:

1. Configuring the various aspects of monitoring to suit business needs.
2. Monitoring the environment and resolving any problems that might stand up.
3. Viewing reports and logs of the environment activity.

Diagnostic logging captures data about the state of the system, whereas health and usage data collection uses specific timer jobs to perform monitoring tasks; this is collecting information about the following areas:

1. Performance Counter Fata
2. Event Log Data
3. Timer Service Data
4. Metrics For Site Collections and Sites
5. Search Usage Data

Health and usage data collection

The monitoring features in SharePoint Server 2010 use specific timer jobs to perform monitoring tasks and collect monitoring data. The health and usage data might consist of performance counter data, event log data, timer service data, metrics for site collections and sites, search usage data, or various performance aspects of the Web servers. The system uses this data to create health reports, Web Analysis reports, and administrative reports. The system writes usage and health data to the logging folder and to the logging database. A timer job is a trigger to start to run a specific Windows service for one of the SharePoint 2010 products. It contains a definition of the service to run and specifies how frequently the service should be started. Many features in SharePoint 2010 products rely on timer jobs to run services according to a schedule.

You might want to change the schedules that the timer jobs run on to collect data more frequently or less frequently. You might even want to disable jobs that collect data that you are not interested in. We can perform the following tasks on timer jobs:

1. Modify the schedule that the timer job runs on.
2. Run timer jobs immediately.
3. Enable or disable timer jobs.
4. View timer job status.

Monitoring the farm and resolving problems by using SharePoint Health Analyzer

SharePoint Server 2010 includes a new, integrated health analysis tool called SharePoint Health Analyzer that enables you to check for potential configuration, performance, and usage problems. SharePoint Health Analyzer runs predefined health rules against servers in the farm. A health rule runs a test and returns a status that tells you the outcome of the test. When any rule fails, the status is written to the Health Reports list in SharePoint Server 2010 and to the Windows Event log. The SharePoint Health Analyzer also creates an alert in the Health Analyzer Reports list on the Review problems and solutions page in Central Administration. You can click an alert to view more information about the problem and see steps to resolve the problem. You can also open the rule that raised the alert and change its settings. Like SharePoint Server 2010 lists, we can edit Health Analyzer Reports list items, create custom views, export the list items into Microsoft Excel, subscribe to the RSS feed for the list, and many other tasks. Each health rule falls in one of the following categories: Security, Performance, Configuration, or Availability. A health rule can be run on a defined schedule or on an impromptu basis. All health rules are available through Central Administration.

An Administrator can configure the following rules:

1. Enable or disable rules.
2. Configure rules to run on a predefined schedule.
3. Define the scope where the rules run.
4. Receive e-mail alerts when problems are found.
5. Run rules an impromptu basis.

 View and use reports

SharePoint Server 2010 can be configured to collect data and create reports about server status and site use. You perform the following using reporting:

1. View administrative reports, such as search reports.
2. Create and review Information Management Policy Usage reports.
3. View health reports that include slowest pages and top active pages.
4. View Web Analytics reports that include Web site traffic reports, search query reports, and customized reports.