Build a Perfmon data collector set from a PAL xml template

Howdy, simple walk-through post on how to build a Perfmon data collector set using the excellent templates available from Clint Huffman’s PAL utility.

Step 1: Export the appropriate template from PAL;

One just clicks Threshold File (1), then Export to Perfmon template file (2), and gives it a file name to save as.

Step 2: Open Perfmon. Expand Data Collector Sets, User Defined, right-click, new – Data Collector Set. Give it a friendly name and hit next.

Step 3: click Browse, pick your XML file created in step 1. Click finish.

Step 4: Right click the new data collector set, properties. click on Stop Condition. Make it as so (200 MB limited file creation, restart at limit). Then click OK.

Step 5: right click the PAL_System_Overview under your data collector set, properties, change sample interval to 5 seconds. Click File, set File name format to ddHHmmss and check Prefix file with computer name.

Click OK. right click and start the data collector set. Verify the files are being created in the Perflogs directory.