Missing Performance Counters  -  Windows 2003

Missing SQL Server performance counters seem to have been a feature from version 6.5 onwards, can’t remember  for version 6.0.

One of my test servers suddenly decided not to load the performance counters so I figured I really should document the steps to reload the counters as it’s one of those things I do so rarely that I always forget and have to spend ages looking through all my notes or google it of course!

So here’s the blanket approach, none of my counters, windows or sql server  were working correctly btw.

Windows 2003 Enterprise sp1

SQL Server 2005 sp2  3186

These are the errors from my application log.

Open a cmd box

cd \windows\system32

ENTER

lodctr /R                      

ENTER

Make sure the R is an uppercase R

It may take a while for the counters to load – you do not have to restart any services or reboot the server.