Memory Drilldown
Spotlight is a powerful diagnostic and problem-resolution tool for Windows operating systems. Its unique user interface provides you with an intuitive, visual representation of the activity on the host machine.
For information on Spotlight on Windows, see these sections
| Section |
Description |
|---|---|
| Background Information |
Introductory material to Spotlight on Windows. |
| Connect to a Windows System | Create / Modify / Delete connections to Windows systems. |
| Home Page | The Spotlight home page shows the flow of information and commands between various sub-components and the size and status of internal resources such as processes, disk files and memory structures. |
| Alarms |
Spotlight alerts you to problems with your system by issuing an alarm. You can configure Spotlight in the level of severity that constitutes an alarm, to disable an alarm, and the actions Spotlight takes on raising the alarm. |
| Drilldowns | When you have isolated a problem, you can display a drilldown page, whose charts and tables provide a detailed breakdown of the underlying statistics. |
| View | Options | Customize Spotlight. |
| Troubleshooting | Solve problems using Spotlight. |
For information on using Spotlight applications See
Summary Page
The Memory | Summary page summarizes recent memory usage.
To open the Summary page
- Select the Spotlight connection in the Spotlight Browser.
-
Click Memory | Summary.
Charts on the Summary page
Notes:
- Every chart has a legend (list of symbols) to its right that describes the various series (line graphs) on the chart.
- Click an item in the legend to highlight its series (line) in the chart. Click a second time to return the series to its normal appearance.
- Move the mouse pointer over an item in the legend to view the current value for that series within the chart.
| Chart | Description | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical Memory |
The Physical Memory chart shows how much physical memory (RAM) Windows is using. Physical memory usage will normally remain close to the total amount of physical memory installed on the system unless the amount of physical memory you have exceeds the amount of virtual memory that Windows is using. Windows normally keeps some physical memory available (free) for immediate reuse. | ||||||||||
| Virtual Memory | The total amount of memory in use by the program. This includes Physical Memory and space in the paging file. A steady increase in virtual memory usage can indicate that a process on the system has a memory leak. | ||||||||||
| Paging |
Shows the rate at which pages are being swapped in and out of memory. The chart displays two data series:
A sustained high rate of paging can cause problems with overall system degradation due to disk thrashing and CPU load. | ||||||||||
| Physical Memory Usage |
The Physical Memory Usage chart shows how Windows is using physical memory. It displays the following data series:
|
Paging Activity Page
The Memory | Paging Activity page shows details of Windows paging activity and page files.
To open the Paging Activity page
- Select the Spotlight connection in the Spotlight Browser.
-
Click Memory | Paging Activity.
Charts and Grid on the Paging Activity page
Notes:
- Every chart has a legend (list of symbols) to its right that describes the various series (line graphs) on the chart.
- Click an item in the legend to highlight its series (line) in the chart. Click a second time to return the series to its normal appearance.
- Move the mouse pointer over an item in the legend to view the current value for that series within the chart.
| Charts and Grid | Description | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Page File Transfers Chart |
The Page File Transfers chart shows recent Windows paging activity. It shows the number of pages read (in) and written (out) per second to and from the Page Files. Paging occurs when the Windows Virtual Memory Manager moves data or code between physical memory and disk. Sustained high paging rates can degrade system performance significantly. | ||||||||||||
| Page Faults Chart |
The Page Faults chart shows the rate at which Windows is processing page faults. It compares the two types of page fault (soft and hard) and makes it easy to see the ratio between them. A page fault occurs when a process references a page that is not in that processes working set (the set of pages visible to that process in physical memory). When this happens, the process has to wait while the Windows Virtual Memory Manager retrieves the page from virtual memory.
| ||||||||||||
| Page Files Grid |
The Page Files grid shows the page files in use by Windows. Page files are disk files that the Windows Virtual Memory Manager uses to back physical memory. Code and data is moved between physical memory and the page files as required, giving processes on the system the illusion that there is much more physical memory available than there really is. The process of moving data and code between memory and disk is called paging. The Page Files grid shows the following:
|
Cache Page
The Memory | Cache page shows detailed information about system cache.
To open the Cache page
- Select the Spotlight connection in the Spotlight Browser.
-
Click Memory | Cache.
Charts on the Cache page
Notes:
- Every chart has a legend (list of symbols) to its right that describes the various series (line graphs) on the chart.
- Click an item in the legend to highlight its series (line) in the chart. Click a second time to return the series to its normal appearance.
- Move the mouse pointer over an item in the legend to view the current value for that series within the chart.
| Chart | Description |
|---|---|
| Cache Hit Rate |
Shows a recent summary of the percentage of file requests that are satisfied by the file cache, and that do not require a disk read. |
| Cache Size |
Shows the recent history of memory allocated to the file cache. Memory allocated to the file cache is dynamic. This is controlled by the Disk Cache Manager, and will alter the level of memory based upon how much physical memory is being used by other applications and is available in the system. |
| Physical Cache I/O | Shows the rate of Reads and Writes being made to the file cache. |
| Cache Faults |
This chart displays the number of faults that occur when a requested page is not found in the file system cache, and must be retrieved from elsewhere. The chart displays the number of faults, NOT the number of pages faulted in each operation. |