How to do it…

In this example, Microsoft Windows perfmon is used to collect disk I/O metrics, with the following steps:

1. Open Performance Monitor and use the Data Collector Set wizard to create a user-defined data collector, as displayed in the following screenshot:

Creating a user-defined data collector in Performance Monitor

2. Once the Data Collector Set application has been created, add New | Data Collector to the Data Collector Set, as shown in the following screenshot:

Adding a new Data Collector in Performance Manager

3. Name the new Data Collector and select the Performance counter data collector radio button, as shown in the following screenshot:

Creating a Data Collector in Performance Manager

4. Add the following counters for the object _Total instance to the data collector:

Adding counters in Performance Monitor

5. We will add performance counters as shown in the following screenshot: 

Adding performance counters in Performance Monitor

6. Right-click on the new data collector set, select the Stop Condition tab, and change the stop condition to the period of time for which you want to monitor the Input/Output operations Per Second (IOPS), as shown in the following screenshot:

Setting stop conditions in Performance Monitor

7. Data collection for the Data Collector Set can be configured to start manually or can be scheduled to start at a future date or time. The following screenshot displays setting a Schedule for the Data Collector Set:

Configuring the monitoring schedule in Performance Monitor

8. Once the collection process has been completed, you can view the report using the Reports section of Performance Monitor.
9. A template of the Data Collector Set application can be created in order to easily import the Data Collector Set on other servers/workstations. This is shown in the following screenshot:

Saving the Data Collector set for use later