Get a history of CPU/memory usage

Question

Is there someway to record Task Managers info about CPU and memory usage to examine later? Or an equivalent tool?

Now in 2020, win10 Task Manager got [App history] tab showing seeming actual CPU time/cycle usage (whereas procexp CPU time column seems more like time since process start) — was, Feb 07 '21 at 05:31

score 30 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 30 '09 at 13:08

30

Windows Performance Monitor (perfmon) should do the job for you; you can configure it to log to a file, so just enable the counters you need and it'll log as much as you want.

answered Jun 30 '09 at 13:08

RainyRat

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Any chance you want to write up a more complete answer? Some steps to follow? – Buh Buh Oct 28 '16 at 13:33
See answer below by @Matt (and upvote; he deserves it) – Mawg says reinstate Monica May 19 '19 at 06:49

score 16 · Answer 2 · edited May 03 '20 at 09:25

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Start > Run > perfmon
Hit the plus sign next to Performance Logs and Alerts
Right click System Log and select properties.
Adjust the sampling times to whatever you like
When you are done, hit OK then the plus sign at the top of the window.

This page gives a pretty good step-by-step with screenshots

edited May 03 '20 at 09:25

Stevoisiak

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answered Jun 30 '09 at 13:15

matt

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Your link was about MS SQL Performance Monitor? Oo – Bohne Apr 23 '15 at 19:24
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I don't see a "Performance Logs and Alerts" section on Windows 10. – Stevoisiak May 03 '20 at 00:35
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"Hit the plus sign next to Performance Logs and Alerts" Where is that? – endolith Jun 09 '21 at 23:33
To collect the required Perfmon log data in Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, Windows 2012 and Windows Vista: Click Start > Run, enter perfmon.exe, and click OK. Go to the User Defined folder. Click New > Data Collector Set. Enter a name for your Data Collector Set. https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2010970 – endolith Jun 09 '21 at 23:39

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 08 '09 at 18:37

I use PolyMon to monitor these kinds of things. You can define various "alert" conditions about which you'd like to receive notification, so I get notified if one of my servers is having a problem.

But it also stores all these results in a long term database, so I can look back at the memory usage of server "X" and see it's memory usage trends over the last N days/weeks/months/years.

http://polymon.codeplex.com/

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:14

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Opensource solution Nagios does this also:

How do I monitor CPU and Memory usage with Nagios?

http://www.kernelhardware.org/nagios-nsclient-to-monitor-remote-windows-server/

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:14

Community

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answered Jun 15 '10 at 08:42

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 30 '09 at 13:06

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You may consider using a monitoring solution like zabbix, zenoss to collect and analyse your perf counters.

answered Jun 30 '09 at 13:06

Maxwell

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score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 30 '09 at 13:16

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Cacti is a great webv based graphing programme. It can graph CPU, memory, disk space, etc, etc. It can also be extended with your own plugins.

answered Jun 30 '09 at 13:16

Amandasaurus

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score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 30 '09 at 13:17

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Process Explorer will also show CPU history.

answered Jun 30 '09 at 13:17

MathewC

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score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 30 '09 at 13:05

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Yes, perfmon ("Performance Monitor" in Control Panel)

answered Jun 30 '09 at 13:05

Rowland Shaw

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Get a history of CPU/memory usage

8 Answers8