Windows Performance Counter and the Error Retrieving Performance Counter Alarm

This topic describes the problems that can occur with the Windows Performance Counter in a mixed language server configuration.

The server Alarmer component uses Windows operating system performance counters to raise and acknowledge alarms.

You can view these performance counter names by running the perfmon.exe utility (available at <root>:\Windows\SysWOW64\). In the perfmon.exe utility, select Data Collector Sets > System > System Performance and then select Performance Counters

For the performance counter to operate successfully with the Alarmer component, the performance counter names displayed in the perfmon.exe utility must match the Alarmer component configuration.

A mixed language server configuration causes performance counter names to display in two different languages: some in the language of the operating system and others in the language of the language pack or third-party software.

Assume that the Alarmer component is asked to query a Windows performance counter, and the counter name is not in the language expected by the Alarmer configuration. In this scenario, the Alarmer assumes that the counter does not exist, and raises the "Error Retrieving Performance Counter" alarm.