When you collect performance data from perfmon you have a choice to save the file as a certain format.  The most common format I run across  is .blg.  This format works great when you looking at the performance data through perfmon.  Sometimes though it would be nice to pull this data into excel or another program in order to manipulate the data.  This is were the program from Microsoft called Relog can be used.  It has to be run from the command prompt.  Below is the command that would need to be run in order to convert a .blg file to a .csv file.  The process is quick and easy.

relog filname.blg -f CSV -o newfile.csv

Today PAL 2.0 Alpha was released over on Codeplex.  With this release PAL 2.0 will use PowerShell instead of VB Script.  Another main thing that you will see in PAL 2.0 is the graphs that are included inside the reports that can are generated.   Clint uses the power of the .net 3.5 chart controls to generate the new graphs.   Not only did the charts get a face lift they also use all of the data points.  Another feature of the charts is that they include visual thresholds so you can quickly analyze the data.  So if you are familiar with PowerShell and command line usage go over and download the Alpha version of PAL 2.0.  Please report any errors you might encounter to the codeplex website to help improve future versions.

Pal Codeplex Site
http://pal.codeplex.com

Pal Codeplex Issue Tracker
http://pal.codeplex.com/WorkItem/List.aspx

IT pros have allot of great tools that we can use to troubleshoot situations.  Clint Huffman has a great blog that walks through how he troubleshoots some of the issues he sees in the field.  The latest post by Clint explains how he investigates high CPU usage on a BizTalk server.   He walks through the use of PAL, Process Monitor, Process Explorer, WINDBG, and a few others.  The great part about the post is how to use all of these tool to find the root issue.  I personally find these post very helpful as it helps me better understand how to troubleshoot issues in my own environment.  Also the post hints that PAL 2.0 will be released very soon.  If you have not kept up with PAL 2.0 the big change is that it is built on PowerShell.  I can’t wait to see what improvements have been made.

Clint Huffman’s Windows Troubleshooting – High CPU
http://blogs.technet.com/clinth/default.aspx