KBI 311753 Failed To Retrieve Performance Data For W2003 Machines With Message SKIPPED Query Perf Data…

Version

Argent Advanced Technology – All Versions

Date

Tuesday, 7 May 2019

Summary

When monitoring performance data on W2003 machines, if Relator uses option ‘Use Shared Monitoring Engine Process’, Engine might fail to retrieve performance data

Relator trace log shows lines as following:

SKIPPED query perf data of server ‘XXXX’. Reason: Could not connect to performance counter registry interface (…)

The issue is confirmed in all Argent AT versions

Technical Background

The issue is caused by outdated W2003 implementation of performance counter interfaces

It has not been found in newer Windows versions

When option ‘Use Shared Monitoring Engine Process’ is used, one Monitoring Engine process might have to monitor nodes of the mixed Windows versions

Internally, Argent AT Engine uses PDH library to retrieve performance data

The interference between different nodes could cause API calls for W2003 machines to fail

Resolution

The workaround can be implemented in following steps

  1. Copy original Relator to a new one with name ‘xxxxx_W2003’
  2. Include only W2003 Nodes in the new Relator
  3. Change Relator option to ‘Use New Monitoring Engine Process’
  4. Put new Relator into production
  5. Exclude W2003 nodes in original Relator
  6. Export Control Information if there are Daughter Engine installations