TABLE 1 System Monitor Objects and Counters for Baseline
Objects and Counters	Description
Memory—Pages/sec	The number of pages read or written to disk per second. This counter is a primary indicator of the types of faults that cause system-wide delays or performance problems.
Network Interface—Bytes total/sec	The number of bytes traveling over the network interface per second. When this counter drops or trends lower, it indicates that network problems may be interfering with your application.
PhysicalDisk—Disk Transfers/sec	The rate of disk read/write operations. Define a counter for each physical disk on the server.
Processor—% Processor Time	Percentage of time that the CPU is executing a non-idle thread. This counter acts as the primary indicator of processor activity. If all processors devoted to SQL Server show 100 percent usage, end-user requests are likely being ignored.
SQLServer:Access Methods—Full Scans/sec	The number of unrestricted full-table or index scans per second. The lower this counter is, the better because scans often cause bottlenecks and caching problems.
SQLServer:Buffer Manager—Buffer Cache Hit Ratio	The percentage of pages that didn't require a read from disk. The higher the number, the less disk I/O is being generated. In a well-tuned system, this value will be 80 or higher.
SQLServer:Databases—Log Growths	The number of times the transaction log has grown for a given database. In a well-tuned system, the value of this counter should be low—probably less than one every few days.
SQLServer:Databases Application Database—Percent Log Used	Percentage of space in the log that is in use. This counter will vary over time but shouldn't reach 100.
SQLServer:Databases Application Database—Transactions/sec	The number of transactions started for the database. This counter temporarily dips during checkpoints. Watch for when transactions start to queue, which indicates that disk I/O may be too slow.
SQLServer:Latches—Average Latch Wait Time	The average time latch requests had to wait before being filled. This counter may be high when the server is facing contention for resources, particularly memory or I/O.
SQLServer:Locks—Average Wait Time, Lock Waits/sec, Number of Deadlocks/sec	The time locks are held on SQL Server resources. Watch these lock-related counters for upward trending, indicating a possible developing performance issue.
SQLServer:General Statistics—User Connections	The number of user connections to the database server. Watch for and check any dramatic shifts in this counter's value. These can indicate network problems and tell when the busy and slow times are.
SQLServer:Memory Manager—Memory Grants Pending	The current number of processes waiting for a workspace memory grant. A high or rising value may indicate insufficient memory.
SQLServer:User Settable—Query (a tracer query)	An application-specific counter, also known as a tracer query. This counter is a user-written query that indicates the overall speed or efficiency of the system. To set this value, the application calls sp_user_counter1 and provides a numeric value.